Category: making stuff is good

Stash building

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 10/01/2012

I got some delicious fabric in the mail today that I thought I’d share. Like most quilters, new and beautiful fabrics are very hard to resist for me. Pink Chalk was (and still is?) having a big sale and I picked up a couple pieces.

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Hmm, so the one at the bottom, it is navy blue with green twiddles on it, that is by Amy Butler from her latest line, Lark. Ditto the red wavy fabric, top right. The two pink pieces are Heather Bailey, Nicey Jane. The green and the aqua swirly fabrics are by Khristian Howard. The light purple with chairs and chandeliers is a Lecien print.

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I’m pretty happy with how nicely these two go together. Funny, I only ordered the purple because it was so cheap-$2.74/yd-and it turns out I like it best.

Now I have to find a purpose for them. I’m not yet 100% on board with the Farmer’s Wife quilt along, and I have already made quilts for everyone I love most (barring those who can make their own quilts, Libs). Suggestions?

Scrapping

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 18/11/2011

I’ve started yet another quilting project: the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt. It’s a pretty amazing book full of stories and 111 different 6 inch quilt blocks. Yes, 111. I’m not as ambitious as you may think and at the moment my goal is to make 80 of them which I plan to put together in a similar fashion to this beautiful quilt. Karyn, of The Workroom fame, proposed that we all do a quilt along starting in January but seeing as I am such a keener I’ve already finished 10 blocks, 8 you can see below.

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One I might re do. My issue with this book is that there are separate PDF files for each little square and I have very little interest in printing them one by one. None of them have measurements on them either so for now I am winging everything. Winging like mad and avoiding HST math. Then I have to figure out what colour sashing and who will be recipient. Oh, decisions, decisions. This and I have to finish 3 quilts for Ashley. And my vintage sheet quilt. And the tshirt quilt for Shannon. That can’t be it, surely?

In other news: still no heat here. Seeing as it was snowing in Toronto last night, it is pretty freaking cold inside. My feet were like ice and I had to give up sewing for the day. Boo.

I’m craving roti. Or a giant burrito. Hot, spicy, goopy comfort food.

Crosses

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 18/10/2011

Back from our romantic getaway for two, I’ve got the itch to get to work on projects that have been set aside. I find flickr to be a great source for inspiration and that is where I found this tutorial on a simple quilt pattern. My squares are bigger than the instructions but it seems to have come out evenly.

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I don’t know if it really is the right arrangement for this project. Eh, I will leave it on the floor for a couple days and think over…it seems a bit busy.

Next up…

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 30/07/2011

I know, starting a new project when so many others are on hold is generally a bad idea, but I scored some amazing vintage pillow cases the other day and I’m just too excited. There are 8 different prints cut into 5.5″ squares to be sewn into a diagonal pattern in a 16 x 16 grid. Luckily I didn’t use all the pillow cases so there will be a few left over to put on the pillows. I’ll back it with one of my full size vintage sheets and I’m thinking I might tie quilt it rather than machine. We will see.

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I’m so glad to finally have a purpose for all this amazing fabric!

Quilteration

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 26/07/2011

I have actually had it back in my hot little hands for a while now but haven’t had the inclination to drag it outside in the blazing heat to take pictures. Today was a beautiful day, ideal weather if you ask me, and here we are.

As you can imagine, I am thrilled beyond belief with this quilt. It’s so awesome, every square of fabric, every strip, the back, the binding and the actual quilting? It’s SO good. Really, I was worried, I’ve seen long-armed quilts that I wasn’t ga ga over before but this is absolutely perfect.

The quilting pattern I picked was called clouds, I think, and works really well with the overall design. It’s open and flows nicely. It’s more obvious on the back:

Cool, huh? I might be forced to send my yellow quilt to Jennifer too.

I’m cranking up the AC tonight so I have an excuse to sleep under it. Thanks a million times over to Jen who did the quilting, she’s wonderful!

Gym bag

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 03/07/2011

My old gym bag was starting to look rough and I was finding it cumbersome on the subway so I made myself a new one. All I knew was that I wanted it to be like a duffle bag, long and narrow, but flat. So with minimal designing, I came up with this:

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I used a heavy fabric from ikea for the exterior and a large scale black and white gingham (yeah, yeah, you know I love gingham) and a solid black fabric for an interior zipper pocket. I basically just figured out the width with my runners and then stacked my water bottle, gym clothes and wallet on top to figure out length. The opening does have a zipper, similar to my zipper pouches, but I folded it over and sewed it down to hide it. The strap I cannibalized from an old bag I haven’t used in years. Sometimes being a pack rat is handy!

Test run on Tuesday, we will see how it goes!

In sad crafting news, the Fabricland at Yonge and Bloor under The Bay is closing it’s doors forever at the end of July. All fabric is on sale, all notions, patterns, hardware, everything is 50% off at the very least. I’ve been twice already and will probably go again to stock up on more gingham and batting.

Yellow, yellow, hello

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 24/06/2011

All 25 blocks are done. Thankfully, I got all my ordered fabric before the ever delightful Canada Post went on strike. Here they are laid out on a queen size bed:

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Picture quality not so great, I’m aware. I do what I can with the tools I have.

Super happy with the way this is shaping up, especially about the size. This won’t look weird on a king bed, I think. And because my green quilt has come out of the long arm quilters so beautifully, I will do the same for this baby. Hopefully I can find one in this city, much easier that way.

Finally!

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 18/06/2011

Funny, when you keep a secret for SO long and then the pressure comes down and everything seems to happen so quickly after grinding along for so long.

I made my sister a quilt. I told a lot of people, friends and co-quilters (and I think I posted progress on twitter, which it turns out she subscribes to, eeek!) but couldn’t blog about it until now. And because she visited last week I had a lot of work to do. The grunt work.  Making the back, putting the sandwich together, doing all the quilting and finally the binding. And I got some printer fabric so I made a nice label that had to be sewn on too.

Needless to say, she loved it, thank goodness. I was pretty sure, when Jana gave me a collection of fat quarters, that I’d be using them for a sister project. And I’d wanted to do a full quilt of half-square-triangles (not daunting at all!) so I got coordinating solids (Kona) from the workroom and a couple extra fat quarters as matchy as possible and got to work. The back is thrifted gingham and a pieces from the front. I quilted the front with glow in the dark thread!

It’s not huge, only about 56″ square, but big enough to snuggle under. The best part of quilting is saying goodbye to the project!

 

 

K is for Kiran

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 07/06/2011

It was Kiran‘s first birthday last week and her party was on Sunday. Shannon and I had a couple gifts but had no wrapping paper so I got to work. I was just going to use fabric tied with ribbon but then I thought I could make something double useful and came up with this:

It should work well for diapers and wipes. I know nothing about babies so I honestly have no idea what kind of clobber they require, I imagine it’s a lot? Anyway, it was nice coming up with a dual purpose gift.

Sewerella

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 02/06/2011

First, the bad news. Or wait, first the good news!

I went to my first Toronto Modern Quilt Guild meeting last Sunday and I had fun! It was so nice to meet other quilters of all different ages and backgrounds-all women though. I know male quilters exist, I’ve just never had the pleasure of meeting one. Anyway, the meeting went like this: we all introduced ourselves and the woman that heads it, Kaye, told us all about the Spring Quilt situation in Utah and showed us her show schwag of which I was pretty jealous. I’d LOVE to go to that show but it’s not open to the public, wah! Then everyone showed off their latest projects and we all oohed and aahed and it was very cool to see all kinds of talent and technique.

Then the challenge. We have all been given a Kona charm pack and we have to make a quilt (whatever size/shape) using it and ONE metre of any other fabric (but only one type of fabric, not a bunch of fqs) for the front and whatever binding and backing. Sounds good, right? Well…The charm pack has it’s charm, I guess, but it’s certainly not any colour scheme that I’d chose. It’s dull and earthy and I felt pretty nervous looking at it. SO much beige has never been in my possession. Eek. Ok, so I chose a fabric, it’s a book print by Victoria and Albert (on sale for $7 at the workroom!) and got to designing. I wanted the fabrics to go as far as possible, to make the biggest quilt I could and I also wanted to keep with the book shelf look-AND I like a simple pattern and here is my finished top:

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So far so good. The problems have come with the actual quilting portion of the show. I pin basted and started sewing straight lines across (as the picture is, left to right) not in the ditch but above and below each ditch but something weird was happening: the top was getting all bunched and puckery at the end of each row, getting worse and worse and after 4 double rows (ACK!) I gave up and tore out the stitches and pins and blamed the backing fabric (which I got at Value Village and is kind of cheap feeling but pretty). Ok. So I picked a different backing fabric (green from Ikea, fabric I’ve used for quilting lots of times with no trouble) and the same thing is happening. And I promise I’ve used a lot more pins and I also hand basted with thread, all around the edge.

So what the hey? Why is this happening? Is the top not ironed properly? Should I try super steaming it and using spray starch to keep it orderly? Gah. I’m feeling so very frustrated.

Ok. That was the good news rudely interrupted by the bad news. Now in the other news, I’m plotting a purse using plank print fabric from Ikea. I just need to figure out the lining and get me some rope for the handles. I love this print!

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Can’t hardly wait to have me a new summer handbag that doesn’t rip my dang hair out all the time!