LMP+QG august challenge: kelly's pincushions

Each month, my friend Kait and I are making a project from the book, Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts ("LMP+QG" for short). You can see previous projects here. 

 

Last weekend, Kait and I spent the afternoon together and did this month's project---an adorable scrappy pincushion---in just a few hours. For me, the hardest part was figuring out what color scheme to go with, and in the end, I opted for navy and aqua.

Kait was super industrious and wound up making two pincushions in the time it took me to make one, using colorful scraps (pictured above and below).

The project was simple and quick and I loved the results---it'll be a great project for Christmas gifts!

You can see Kait's post about our sewing afternoon together here.

Coming up next month: Color Wheel Quilt

blue baby quilt

One of my good friends is due with her third little boy in October, so for her baby shower a few weeks ago, I made her a quilt.

I started with two cute jungle animal prints by Eleanor Grosch, which I picked up from Spool during a trip to Philadelphia last year, and then pulled two coordinating dots and a solid blue to go along with them. I wanted to keep things simple, and show off the adorable prints, so I stuck with large squares for the top.

For the back, I pieced together the top leftovers, and as is usually the case, I love the back even more than the front. To personalize it, I added a hand-embroidered label---my first in awhile.

I did the entire quilt in a weekend (yay for small baby quilts!) and was so excited to make it with fabric and batting I had on hand. It always feels like such an accomplishment to work exclusively from my stash!

jelly roll quilt

For my sister-in-law's birthday back in June (can you tell I'm just now catching up on things since our July move?), I made her a quilt. I knew I wanted to do something simple, yet try out a new technique, so when I saw Deborah's quilt made from the Jelly Roll 1600 quilt tutorial, I knew it would be the perfect project.

For the quilt top, I used an all-solids jelly roll from Moda that I'd been hoarding for over a year.

For the back, I used a Nani Iro double gauze (so soft and pretty and perfect for the back of a quilt, though a bit fussy to work with!) and paired it with two simple prints, including one by Denyse Schmidt. Thanks to the double gauze, the quilt turned out super cuddly.

I love how the quilt turned out---as did my sister-in-law!---and how quickly it came together. It's definitely a pattern I'll be using again.

handprinted: a fabric swap II

Lately, I've been wanting to try my hand at printing my own fabric, so when I heard about the hand-printed fabric swap organized by Leslie over at Maze and Vale back in June, I immediately knew I wanted to participate.

After a bit of brainstorming, research, and experimenting, I settled on a simple triangle design.

I created a stamp using adhesive-backed foam and a plastic cap for the base and stamped away using black, aqua, and coral fabric paint. I made four fat quarters for my four swap partners.

I was super happy with the results of this experiment in fabric stamping---and only wish I'd made a fifth to keep for myself!

You can see the beautiful fabric I received in return here, here, and here.

LMP+QG july challenge: little bits pillow

Each month, my friend Kait and I are making a project from the book, Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts ("LMP+QG" for short). You can see previous projects here. 

For July, Kait and I had another quilt on the to-do list. Wanting to try something a bit different and not wanting to add to my growing WIP pile, I decided to make a big pillow instead.

I opted for a yellow and gray color theme (noticing a trend?) so that I could use the pillow in our guest room, which has officially become the yellow and gray room. I followed the book's instructions for cutting and piecing the small scraps to create blocks---the technique was quite similar to the one used for the pieced pillows Kait and I made in March.

I did random straight-line quilting on the pillow top, which is something that I've wanted to try for ages, but was always intimidated by the prospect of quilting an entire quilt that way. This pillow was the perfect introduction. It's big---over 20"+ square---and squishy and will be perfect in our new guest room.

See the pretty quilt Kait made here.

Coming up next month: Kelly's pincushions

new york food

While in New York City for work this week, I managed to eat some delicious food:

Vanilla latte from Stumptown Coffee, located in the lobby of my hotel. 

Huge sesame bagel from Brooklyn Bagel, devoured on a bench on The High Line, the perfect place to eat breakfast. 

Pork tacos from Choza. 

The most delicious zucchini and mozzarella sandwich from 'wichcraft. 

A much-needed vanilla custard cone from Shake Shack, eaten on a shaded bench in Madison Square Park just before leaving for the airport.

do. Good Stitches: July Blocks

For this month's do. Good Stitches blocks, my circle, the Wish Circle, made postage stamp blocks for Alyssa using Rita's tutorial over on Red Pepper Quilts.

I pulled a bunch of scraps from my bin and pieced these together (the first project I've tackled in my new sewing space!) while watching Gossip Girl (it's so addicting and so good!). I'm pleased with how the blocks turned out and am excited, as always, to see the finished quilt.

You can see my past do. Good Stitches blocks here.