Quality crafting time

It has been a good few days, with lots of crafty goodness!

I spent some time catching up on my Sea Breeze Quilts "Chocolate Marshmallow Sampler" quilt along blocks:

Blocks 7-10 are now complete, and I am all caught up! Only two blocks to go in this one, I believe.

I also got all of the pillowcases washed, ironed and packaged for donation.

And I received a fabric order from Gorgeous Fabrics. Yum!!! Remember how I said I wanted to do more garment sewing? My plan at this point: tops from the b/w stripe and the purple, a skirt from the coral stripe, and not sure about the brown. They were actually sold out of the one I originally ordered and I chose this as a replacement, but I'm not sure I like it for the cardigan I had in mind... so it might turn into a skirt. Not sure yet. The next step though is to get them pre-washed, which with long swaths of fabric that need to be air dried, is kind of a process. Hopefully I'll fit them into the laundry cycle here soon.

In addition, I've been working on some party prep for Big Bear's upcoming birthday. He's turning 8! Crazy!

Pillowcase frenzy!

Woo!

This week I cut and sewed up 19 pillowcases for donation to ConKerr Cancer. I'm feeling good! It is a great cause, there was some solid stash reduction (20+ yards!), and I feel like I accomplished something. All that is left to do is wash, iron and package them up in quart-size ziploc bags so they're good to go before I take them to the next quilt guild meeting for donation.

I also got that baby quilt all done excepting the label which I can't do until baby's name is announced. But it is prettily folded up and ready to go-- so I'll be ready when baby arrives.

Now to decide what to work on next...

Last week in the quilt mines...

Since my last post, I have made progress on my latest project:

One baby quilt pieced and basted! The recipient is due at the beginning of February, so hopefully there will be a finished quilt to share soon.

Lately, I have found myself exploring the world of podcasts as I craft. One of my favorites is the Hip to Be a Square Podcast. I like it because I feel as if she is a kindred spirit-- I just dig the same kind of stuff she does. In her most recent entry (Episode 210), she talks about busting some stash by making pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer, and I came away inspired. I totally need to do some of that! So I've started gathering fabrics out of the stash and matching them together. Maybe I'll even get some assembled. Woo!

Small sewing

I just pin basted a big quilt and am not ready to dive in on quilting it at the moment, so I've been working on some smaller projects lately. Like these pillowcases:

One for me, and a couple for my boys. I actually bought the pink fabrics to make this pillowcase 3 years ago. It has taken me this long to get it done. But at least I finally got there! I'm planning on giving the Hot Wheels ones to the boys as a Christmas gift. Another Christmas gift made not-at-the-last-minute-- woo hoo!

After toting around my new Mail Sack around and about, I determined I needed something smaller in which to put my phone/keys/cards. The bag is so huge, I was finding that those smaller things became very difficult to access. Essentially, it was the perfect excuse to make a Noodlehead Gathered Clutch for me!

I used the same fabrics for the clutch as I did in my bag. This is my fourth make of this design, and it just doesn't get old. Love it!

Happy little shark!

After carrying this for a couple of days, I have to say, that divider pocket feature is a winner. I am finding it very useful because I can put my phone on one side and my keys on the other, preventing any scratches.

Small projects for the win!

Little Bear is TWO!

Last week Little Bear turned two. Crazy! How does it go by so fast? My goodness. We celebrated his special day with a family party. And there was, of course, some crafty goodness involved.

Cupcakes!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting to be specific (recipe from How Sweet it Is) decorated with dark chocolate M&Ms (because LB is a budding chocoholic). They tasted amazing! I especially LOVED the frosting. The cupcake itself was a little on the dry side, but had great flavor. Little Bear definitely enjoyed them!

Like mama, he did seem partial to the frosting.

The festivities also included opening lots of presents, including a few made by mama.

First up was a quilted playmat.

I found this canvas panel when I was on shop hop a few weeks ago. As both Big Bear and Little Bear are fanatics of things that go (particularly cars and trains), I had to pick it up. The panel is a Clothworks design by Richard Neuman called "Choo Choo You."

I spent about four hours quilting it-- lots of stippling and outline stitching. This is the back, so you can maybe get a better idea of the amount of quilting on there. It was a simple project, but not quick. I am really happy with how it turned out, as were the Bears.

They spend part of every day playing on it-- building lego houses, racing cars and trains, and creating elaborate adventure stories. It is so much fun to watch them play!

I also made a flannel pillowcase and a pair of comfy pajama bottoms.

The pajama pants are Kwik Sew 3126 (which I have made before for Big Bear). I shortened them by 1-3/4" and also cut them to allow me to do a contrasting band at the bottom of the legs (I didn't have enough of either fabric to do a full pair, so I adapted it to allow me to use what I had left of each).

Little Bear loves his new comfy pants and they fit perfectly (yay!). Unfortunately, he is not a fan of the pillowcase. Every night when we put him in the crib, the first thing he does is pull the edge of the flannel back to expose the pillow inside. Then he sleeps on the bare pillow. Doh! So, a non-flannel pillowcase for him has been added to the queue. But not to worry, Big Bear is perfectly happy with the flannel one-- so it is definitely getting used!

The day after his birthday, we went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

I love this picture of us. Happy birthday, Little Bear!

More pillowcases!

Before Christmas I had a pillowcase cutting spree. I finally managed to get them all sewn this week.


I put together 15 pillowcases: 13 for ConKerr Cancer, and 2 for me, using a total of 14.75 yards of fabric.

ConKerr Cancer requests that all pillowcases be washed, pressed and individually packaged in a ziploc bag. Here are mine, all packed up and ready to go:


Woo hoo!

On fabric and memories

Pillowcases are so quick and easy. I actually got all of my pile done in just 3 days. Love it! Now I just need to get them packaged and ready to deliver in time for my next quilt guild meeting (ConKerr Cancer is one of the charities we support, so I can just drop them off there).


Final count: 27!

As I was making these, it really struck me that I have memories associated with a lot of these fabrics. One of them has even been in my stash for nigh on two decades (eep!). Working with these fabrics just brought to mind so many things-- places, interests, projects unfinished (or never started), people, random things. Indulge me as I wax nostalgic for a bit...


I've had this fabric in my stash since 1992-- long before I even started quilting! I used this fabric to make a shirt for my mom, a bridge fanatic, for mother's day. I know there are no dice in bridge, but it was the only playing card fabric I could find! It was my freshman year at Pacific Lutheran University. I remember laying it out on my dorm-room floor and cutting out the pieces. She wore that shirt to shreds. Apparently I bought way too much, because I had nearly 3 yards left still!


In addition to bridge, my mom loves frogs. Or maybe I should say, LOVES frogs. She has a massive collection of frog paraphernalia-- figurines, posters, jewelry, collectibles, stuffed toys, and more. Every so often, she would mail frog fabric to me, just because she liked it. And then I found myself buying more frog fabric, always thinking that I'd use it to make her a shirt or a quilt or something. Indeed, I did make quilts and other things for her using frog fabrics-- but somehow, I still have a ton of them. It's nice to finally use them for such a good cause!


More frogs! And I still have way more frog fabric than any one person needs. So I'm sure there will be more frog pillowcases in my future. And that rainbow swirly print? That was the 2002 Hoffman Challenge fabric. There was a stretch of years where every year, I'd say to myself, "I'm going to do the Hoffman Challenge this year!" And every year, I'd buy two yards of the official fabric. Of course, I have yet to enter one of their challenges. But it's nice to see one of the fabrics going to good use.


A few years ago, I went through a Pokémon phase. My then boyfriend (who is now my husband) and I played the original Pokémon Red/Blue Gameboy games, played the card game, and even watched the cartoon (and I even have two of the soundtrack albums from the movies!). I was obsessed. So it only made sense to have fabric too.


And then there are those other fabrics... ones that I only had bits of, leftover from other projects and those fun prints that I bought because I loved them. I just finished reading Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove (great book, by the way!), and that Alexander Henry "Desert Friends" print just makes me think of that... I think the only animal depicted on that fabric not mentioned in the book is the roadrunner. Anyway, it feels good to finally use these fun prints!

Making these pillowcases has been a fun trip down memory lane for me. Do you ever find yourself picking up a piece of fabric and just remembering?

Stashbusting

Recently, my friend Evelyn realized that she was never going to be able to create quilts out of all of the fabrics she had. So she decided to cut into a bunch of her stash and make pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer. She has already made more than 100!

Inspired by her, I decided it was time to let go of some of the fabrics in my stash and actually use them. So the other day, I picked out fabrics and then started cutting.


After cutting through about 25 yards of fabric, here's my pile of future pillowcases.

April guild projects (and a little bit of nostalgia)

Tonight I finished up my guild projects for tomorrow's meeting. Yay!

This month's block lotto had a theme of "spring." The yellow paisley Hoffman floral was provided.


Creating a block just did not go well for me. I started out with a hairbrained idea to do a little mini Lone Star block. I swear, every time I made a measurement, took a cut, or even did a stitch, I messed it up! After more than seven hours of work, this is the best I could do. Doesn't look very Lone Star-ish, does it? But at least I got something done. And I do kind of like the center of it. It is a Jane Stickle design (block E-1).

One bright note with this block: I used silk thread for applique for the first time! Whoa. It's pretty amazing how well it just sinks into the fabric. The stitches really are nearly invisible (especially impressive since I didn't even use matching thread... it was an off-white). At the same time though, it's a little scary because silk thread is super-duper fine. I really wonder how well it will hold up over time. Does anyone have any experience with silk thread? How durable is it?

After the boy went to bed, I also was able to whip out some pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.


ConKerr Cancer is one of the charitable organizations that my guild supports. It is a great charity that distributes bright, cheery pillowcases to sick children in hospitals throughout North America.

Last month I picked up three kits to bring home and complete (the ones on the left). I also managed to do three more from my own stash (the ones on the right). The Bugs Bunny print and the gold stars on red are left over from my second quilt:


I made the quilt for my friend Brad-- he was a basketball fanatic. We lost track of each other after his graduation. I often wonder whatever happened to him. (And his quilt!) Anyway, I'm not sure how I ended up with an extra two yards of the Bugs Bunny fabric, but it's been languishing in my closet since 1996. It's nice to finally have a chance to put it to good use.