It's a wrap

I've had the Marin pattern on my to-do-list on Ravelry for ages, and I even have some lovely grey/purple Skein set aside for it, but just before I went on holiday, my sister mentioned that she would like a grey shawl or wrap for her birthday. I needed something to do on a rainy day, and after going through the patterns on my ipad I went ahead and found some yarn and got down to work.

The yarn I ended up with was slightly thinner than the recommended yarn, so this is more of a wrap around your neck than around your shoulders thingy, but it is soft and lovely (a 50/50 silk/baby alpaca blend) to the touch and should keep sis snug and warm on a chilly day.

The pattern is rather elegant, I think, with just that swag-like pattern along the edge, but it took a while and a bit of unraveling before I got my head round the pattern as it was divided into a main pattern, and separate patterns for beginning, edge and finish that had to be worked simultaneously with the main pattern. But once I got my head around it all (reading through it all before you begin helps...), it proved to be a quick and easy knit, and I'm actually looking forward to making one for myself as well. Details on Ravelry.

Pretty polaroid pillow present

Strictly speaking this is more of a cushion than a pillow, meant as decoration more than for sleeping on, but who can resist using a bit of alliteration... I am as ever late to the party - never got round to making polaroid blocks when everyone else seemed to be doing so, and a quilt using these tiny blocks seemed a bit overwhelming. A cushion though, that I could do. And as I needed a present for my sister's birthday I had just the right excuse.

There are some fun references to things we have talked about this summer among the fussy cut motifs - I can't count the number of shops I have visited with her to find the perfect parasol for her balcony. We never had any luck - they all seem to be dark blue or white this year - but at least she has this to remind her of our quest. The scooter is a reference to our niece who got her two-wheeled dream last spring and had us doting aunties all worried about how she'd fare in traffic. The moon refers to all our late-night phone calls, and so on. I had fun choosing fabrics that had some special meaning. I followed the instructions for cutting and piecing I found in one of the swap groups on Flickr, and didn't really stop to think. Had I done so, I might have stopped after the white borders of the blocks and used grey lattice strips between them, thus avoiding the seams down the middle in the gray areas. But with only six blocks to join, that doesn't really matter, it wasn't as if that extra work was too taxing...

I used a strip of one of the fabrics from the front to hide the zipper on the back, and added a little surprise underneath it.

Just lucky, I guess

I'm just amazed by my luck recently. No sooner had I shared my lucky win the other day than I got a message from Kristin that I had also won a giveaway on her blog. And I usually don't win anything. This time I hadn't even realized that there was a giveaway, I had just commented on how great it was to see pictures from the yearly outdoor quilt show in Sisters, Oregon, and not noticed the giveaway information. And look at this lovely prize I received!

There are lots of lovely cards with pictures from some of Kristin's quilts, handcoloured yarn and fabric and a cute hand-stitched tag/ornament.

The fabric is just wonderful. Pieces of lots of different fabrics in three colourways: "leaf", "sky" and "blossom"

Look at all the different textures: cotton, silk, chiffon, and more. I've just been sitting here sorting through them and stroking them for a while now thinking of all the possibilities. Combining them all in one piece? adding bits here and there in different projects?

I don't know yet, but I think they deserve some loving hand-stitching, maybe some ruching and folding here and there? Yes, I need to let the ideas marinate for a bit, but these lovelies will be put to good use, I'm sure.

And this ornament is for now hanging from a shelf on my desk so I can admire all the different coloured stitches while I'm on the phone.

Thank you so much, Kristin!

There be monsters

My littlest nephew is not so little anymore - 13 today! How is that possible? Being a big boy also means that he will transfer to a new school and new school supplies are called for. His modest wish was for a compass and set of rulers, but if you ask a quilty aunty for that sort of thing, she's bound to make something to keep it in as well, right?

So of course I had to make something, and of course I left it until the last minute, as one does. Ahem.
I had seen a picture of a "monster pouch", but there were no details about how it was made, so I had to wing it. The front with the zipper was easy enough - I just stitched front and lining pieces to either side of the zipper, and top-stitched close to the zipper. The challenge was working out how to attach the back pieces.  After a few attempts where the seam ripper also got plenty of use, I ended up stitching the outer backing piece to the outer front pieces from the zipper, down the side, along the bottom and up to the zipper. I did the same on the top piece and then on the lining pieces, leaving an opening for turning the pouch inside out. This meant a bit of handstitching along the sides where the zipper is, both inside and out. There might be an easier way of constructing it, but this was what my tired mind came up with last night, and at least it worked.

There was plenty of room for compass and rulers and a bit of birthday money and although the birthday boy  became a teenager today, he is still young enough to pronounce it "cool", and that's the best reaction a doting auntie can hope for, isn't it?

Open wide

Ever late to the party I finally got round to making the Open Wide Pouch from Noodlehead's tutorial for the first time, but it won't be the last! I decided that I needed something to contain all those bits and bobs that end up lurking in the bottom of my handbag and never come to light when I need them, and this one came to mind. Seriously, I don't know what took me so long. It was so much fun to sew, and so easy! I have become more proficient about adding zippers to things lately, and that of course helps. And once that bit was done, the rest was plain sailing!

And it really is useful. With the wide opening you get a quick overview of everything that's in there and can grab whatever it is you need, whether it is your lipstick, bus token or whatever. I'm definitely making more of these, and in the larger sizes as well. I know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year ;-)

Lucky!

Will you look at this gorgeousness I picked up from the post office on Saturday! 24 fat quarters of lovely fabric in a rainbow of colours. And the most wonderful thing of all is that I won it! Yes! I entered a giveaway and to my shock and delight I actually won! Wonderful!
The giveaway was hosted by Katy @ I'm a Ginger Monkey and the fabric bundle was given by Pink Castle Fabrics. Thank you both!
The fabric line is Just Colors by Studio E and has soft tone on tone swirly lines. A very versatile fabric that I can definitely find good use for. If I can bear to remove the ribbon and separate this lovely bunch, that is ;-)

Sew Together Bag

I seem to have instagrammed every step of the process while making this bag, so it's about time I share the finished object here, isn't it? I first came across this Sew Together bag on Pinterest and followed the link to Craftsy and purchased the downloadable pattern, but it remained on file for quite some time. I was fiddling about with some scraps one day, and started playing with the idea of stitching them together in a Kantha-quilting kind of way, but to what purpose? Then it dawned on me that I could use the result for the outside of a bag, and the Sew Together Bag came to mind. I cut a piece of home-dec weight fabric as a foundation and started layering. The scraps were basted down before I started stitching lines with big stitches, using perle cotton in different weights. After a few evenings of random stitching the resulting fabric had enough stitches to make it lie reasonably flat so I cut it to size and started stitching the bag.

I won't lie to you - making the bag was a lot of work, but not too difficult, so I persevered. I also realized halfway through the process that I was supposed to use a lightweight fusible stabilizer on all pieces. Without thinking I had grabbed the first stabilizer I found, a thin fusible batting. The result is a very compact, sturdy bag, but still very usable. It has three zippered compartments with extra compartments between and on either side - seven compartments in all. With a little pincushion on one side and a needle rest on the other, it will be very handy for all sorts of sewing projects. The bound zipper on top extends beyond the sides and fastens to the sides, forming handles.

The gardener's purse

For my sister's birthday I made a purse. I bought a bunch of these snap frames with big chunky balls on top a while back as I think they are rather sweet, giving the purses a kind of Minnie Mouse look. They were slightly bigger than the pattern I had and the curve was different, so I have been doing a bit of experimenting and I think I have come up with proportions that I like now. It seems that there are a lot of different frames out there, so it isn't easy to find a ready made pattern that will fit. Drawing the outside shape of the frame, adding seam allowance and combining this with my pattern made it all work, though. At least it all came together a lot easier than the previous one.

My sis is a keen gardener, so what better than using Sweetwater Sunkissed with words like "plant" and "grow" inside. Money for buying new plants and seeds can be stowed away here - or the seeds themselves, even. Or whatever she likes... I use the one I made for myself for my phone charger and earplugs, so who am I to say...
At least now I have a master pattern so I can go on and make more purses - they are quite addictive, you know!

Finish-A-Long Q2 report

 

I rather optimistically entered six quilts this time around, and that just didn't happen. I feel I have been working on a lot of stuff these past few months, but not so much on finishing stuff, it seems...

However, lets focus on the good stuff, right? I did finish two of them, almost finish the third and three tops are also ready, one even layered and basted and that all counts as progress, so I'm happy with what I have done. What I haven't done is blog about it all- in fact I just realized that I never blogged about my Numbers quilt at all - I'm such a bad blogger! This is a whole cloth quilt - part of a duvet cover from Ikea quilted with white echo(ish) quilting in the white areas. I must admit that I stole the idea from Malka Dubrawski at Stitch in Dye, only her quilting is much better than mine, so no competition there. But it can still warm a baby at some stage, no doubt.

 

Next is the one that I'm really proud of: my x and + quilt which is heavily quilted with parallel lines - I love the texture this gives, so definitely one for my own wall, this one.

Then there is the garden quilt, top right here - it's quilted and bound, but still needs some embroidery around the stitcheries. Not much left, though. The Italy quilt on the right was basted today, so any day now, I can start quilting there. I also got the backing and batting sorted for the other two, so I have enough quilting to do - enough entries for the next round, it seems!

 

Seeing friends off

There are a lot of goodbyes at work at the moment. Several people are retiring or moving on to other jobs and that is nothing new, but some are more special to me than others, and sometimes it's nice to send them off with a little personal memento. I made the mug rug above for a friend who has worked in teaching and school admin. She got it at her leaving party last friday and was quite moved by it, so it made me feel good having made the effort even though the idea only came to me on Thursday evening.  

 I am a bit better prepared with this one as it is finished a week in advance. It is for an ever optimistic guy who has been like a whirlwind through the office this past year, full of ideas and enthusiasm. I just know he will do well wherever he goes.

 The mug rug is inspired by this story.

And if you look closely you might just see the outline of the pony here.

Knitted

Looking back I seem to keep claiming that I'm no knitter, yet I have knitted various scarves, shawls, socks and hats these last few years. The truth is that I do knit, but not very fast. My shoulders complain if I knit for too long and my mind complains if I there is little variation in whatever I'm knitting. So I always have several projects going at the same time, so I can switch between them when I get bored. After I discovered Ravelry and the world of beautiful yarn that is out there, I have been tempted to start several projects. The KnitCompanion app has made it possible for me to carry the patterns around with me, making it a lot easier to grab a piece of knitting when I go somewhere and just pick up where I left off. And so I have actually finished something! Meet Cladonia.

I have seen several versions of this on Ravelry, and fell really in love with it when I saw this version (and I totally agree with Rita about the yarn!). Blues and greens are my go to colours, so that combination really caught my attention. I tried to find the same colours of Madelinetosh Merino Light yarn online, but no luck, so I chose Betty Draper's Blues and Olivia instead. I wasn't too happy about Olivia when the yarn arrived, as it seemed too dark. But it has grown on me, and now I really like the combination. But I am tempted to make a lighter version as well.

 

It knitted up quite fast once I really got started, and the stripes helped both in counting the rows between increases and to keep my interest because you could really see it growing. And I love that lace border with knitted picot edging. It looks very complicated, but was quite easy, really. Can you tell that I'm thrilled with this? At the moment it is draped over the back of my sofa and I just can't stop gazing at it. Typically it was finished in time for summer, but the way things are going here weatherwise it seems it might get lots of wear.

Xs and pluses

I finally finished my xplusquilt and decided to do without borders. This was part of the x and + along on Flickr. When I first came across it in January I was intrigued, but hesitant about joining (I was in the middle of finishing a pile of UFOs after all...). Being able to use all those fabulous text fabrics I had been stashing was what won me over in the end, but I decided to keep it small - 25 blocks  at 7 1/2" makes a nice little wall quilt that I could hope to finish in a not too distant future.

I chose text fabric for the pluses and I finally managed to cut into a stack of Kaffe Fassett polka dot squares. The rest of the fabric is from my scrap pile. I planned the colour combinations and prepared all the fabric before I started sewing assembly line style, as that is the system that works best for me. If I were to do the blocks one by one from start to finish this would have taken forever!

I know I have said before that I would stay away from straight line quilting, as I can't sew I straight line to save my life, but after a lot of mulling over this quilt I decided that straight lines was just what the doctor ordered. I followed the seam lines in the blocks and added lines inbetween later, making a pattern of three lines close together, a sligthly wider gap and then another group of three. At a distance this isn't so noticeable, you just get an impression of lines all over and they even look kind of straight...

I used part of a duvet cover from Ikea for the back as you can't get enough letters on a quilt ;-) It works fairly well for a wall quilt, but as a duvet cover or backing for a lap quilt it seems rather loosely woven, I think. The binding is a Dear Stella stripe with little blocks of black inbetween the stripes here and there. It helps bring the whole thing together nicely, I think.

Pencil case tutorial

My cousin's two boys will be twelve next week and I decided that homemade gifts were called for. It's nice to get parcels in the post sometimes, isn't it? A friend of mine showed me how to make these pencil cases years ago. I like the fact that you don't have to make boxed corners (I always struggle with getting them even), and also the added feature of those folded triangles on the outside makes a nice difference.

I did a search online, but couldn't find a tutorial, but I had a fair idea of how they were made so I set to making them from memory. To have a reference for later use I took pictures along the way, and realized later that I had the makings of a tutorial here, so let's give it a try, shall we? Now if I had thought about making this into a tutorial earlier I would have removed all the clutter on my table, but you'll just have to bear with me - it adds a touch of realism, really...

I won't go into all the details here, as I assume you are familiar with skills like quilting and binding. If not, there are plenty of tutorials for that kind of thing online. So here goes: You need a 11 x 12" piece of quilted fabric - you can either use a whole piece or a piece of patchwork like I have done. Layer with batting and backing fabric and quilt as desired. I usually start with a somewhat larger piece and cut it down to size after I have quilted it, as the quilting will make it slightly smaller. Add binding along the 12" sides. I used 1 1/2" strips attached to the front, turned them over and fastened with pins and stitch a line about 1/8" from the seam to catch the fold on the back. You could also stitch them down by hand on the back if you prefer.

Now it's time to add the zipper. Use a zipper foot and stitch the outer edge of the binding down close to the teeth of the zipper, but not so close that it will get snagged when you use the zipper. I find it helpful to use the needle down position on my sewing machine, so you can easily adjust the zipper along the way without any shifting. If the zipper is 12" you will have to move the pull past the machine foot when you get to it to keep the seam straight. If you use a longer zipper, you can keep it out of the way all along (just remember to move it in before you sew across and snip the ends off later!). Now you need to add an extra seam just inside the seam you used to attach the back of the binding so that you the edge of the zipper ribbon is attached neatly.

Attach the other side of the zipper in the same way. It's easiest to do this with the zipper fully open, so you can move the resulting tube around a bit when you get to the end. Again - keep the needle in the "down"-position while adjusting, so things don't shift.

You will end up with three seams on the binding and two that will show on the zipper ribbon inside.

So far, so good - there are many different pouches that are similar to this, but now we get to the interesting bit - the folded edges.Turn the tube inside out and start with placing a pin right opposite the zipper (purple pin above) and then a pin halfway there on both sides (the green pins).

Now you need to prepare the little triangles that will be used to hold onto to zip and unzip the case. You need two 3" squares, folded inhalf and in half again, like prairie points.

Press so the shape holds well. I used the same colour triangles on both ends, but since I made two pencil cases, you see two different colours here. But that's up to you of course, if you want to use different colours, feel free!

Now pin one triangle with raw edges along the edge where the zipper is and with the point on the middle of the zipper. Now to the folding bit. Bring the sides together so the two green pins meet. Pin them together. The opening should now be like a figure 8 with the purple pin in one circle and the zipper on the other circle. Bring the purple pin in to meet her green friends in the middle, folding the circle flat and pinning down. Do the same on the other side by bringing the zipper in towards the middle and flattening that circle.

Clear as mud? I hope this sketch helps. It's like folding milk cartons for recycling, really.  The top and bottom will be flat and the sides folded in to the middle.

Add a 1 1/2" binding strip, folding in  a piece at each end before stitching a seam across the end, through all the layers. Go slowly, especially as you cross the zipper, so your needle don't break. (Note: if you have used an extra long zipper and left the zipper pull outside, make sure you pull it in before stitching this seam!) Cut off the excess zipper.

Fold the binding strip over and stitch it to by hand. Do the same on the other end, making sure your zipper is open, so you can turn your pencil case inside out when you're done.

That's it! Once you turn it inside out you will see that the creative folding stage made those soft triangular shapes on the outside. Looks nice, doesn't it? Now you can use this to make all sorts of differnet pouches, experiment with the length and with and the size of those triangles and you can make make up pouches, sewing pouches, wash bags (you could also add handles). A nice little technique to keep in your arsenal, don't you think? Have fun!