Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Keeping with the Retro Theme...

I made a purse today using a retro-y canvas upholstery fabric and the Fat Quarter Handbag pattern at Sew Mama Sew. I added a magnetic snap in, which I was excited about. The package came sans directions, weird, so I found this quick tutorial for reference. It was a smooth, easy process, and I really like the purse, I do think that in hindsight, a rectangular handle would have probably been a better fit, but it's cute and surprisingly error-free for my first try at the pattern - guess that's a kudos to a well-written tutorial!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Cute Top

I found an adorable tutorial by Sew Mama Sew. Just had to give it a try. Don't know if I followed it exactly, I was a bit confused at points, but I finally understand how to do pleating, it seems to have turned out okay. After finishing the first top and knowing what my mistakes were, I decided to try a second one. This time I got adventurous and added ruffles after referencing this tutorial which cleared up my confusion from the other tutorial's directions.
The ruffles really added to the top, and the cuts to allow armpit space were really necessary. I love the second try! Sorry for the myspace-style self portrait, but it was the easiest way to show the shirt. Isn't it cute?!

Friday, December 11, 2009

All I Want for Christmas...

Is a long-arm machine. haha, machine quilting on my regular sewing machine is a bitch. I love machine quilting, but I have to imagine a long arm would make it soooo much smoother and easier... someday.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Machine Quilting on Vermont Leaves Quilt Started

As the title suggests, I got the machine quilting started on my fall leaves quilt. It's far from perfect, in fact there are some spots, especially the free-motion areas, that are downright ugly... but I'm happy to be doing it myself and getting the practice down. So far there are no fatal flaws like giant bunches in the backing or anything. I did all the bordering stitch in the ditch lines and did the border and outer edge so there are no more safety pins in it. Tomorrow I will add some more free-motion in the outer blocks, and I'll have to think about whether or not I want to do anything in the border. I kinda like how it looks pillowy without anything in it...

First Snow Storm!

Well it's my first snow storm in Vermont. Luckily I bought backing fabric for the quilt top I finished, so I have plenty to do. I made biscotti yesterday, so at the moment I'm enjoying some hot cocoa and homemade vanilla biscotti and watching the snow fall!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Vermont Scrappy Leaves

Finally finished the "Vermont-y" quilt top I started in when I moved here. Tried to take a decent photo, but for some reason the lighting was just terrible. Maybe during the day I can take it outside for a better shot. It's clearly super scrappy. For the center I used the leftovers from the strips that were used in the leaf blocks.
And with borders added to tie it together:

Beautiful Stars

My cousin is the quilter who inspired me to start my own quilting. Here's a gorgeous quilt she made while using my apartment as a temporary studio during my time in England. My mother is very into rustic colors, and stars - here's just a hint of what they came up with.
The quilting was done by Madeleine Vail, who also did the machine quilting on my very first quilt =) The combination of their work together is simply stunning, as always.