Catch Ya Later!

I'm taking a month (or two) off!  I'll be working on hand quilting this:

And hand sewing some more of these:

 
And doing a whole lot of camping and exploring with my family!  Later, skaters!

My Sewing Space

Hello friends!  Today I decided to link up with Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts and her Studio Spotlight Link Up!  Here is my little sewing corner in my whole house studio!  This is in my dining room.  That is the dining table in the foreground which is not only where we eat 3 times a day, do our schoolwork (we homeschool), but it is also where I cut fabric, baste small quilts, lay out blocks and quilt large quilts.  A busy, busy table, I tell you!

Here we are looking a little to the left.  That built in cabinet houses my dinnerware and serving dishes on the top, a toaster, "phone centre" and fish tank on the countertop, and my fabrics are stuffed in the bottom cupboards!

When I turn around, I see my graphic designer sons at work in our computer/school room. (And you can just see my living room off to the right, and my bedroom door to the left).  So we all "craft" in pretty much the same space (Minecraft, quilt craft, design craft, and arts and crafts...). 

Looking closer, we see my handy dandy Ikea table with the wide shallow drawers, just perfect for thread and scissors and what have you right at hand.

And one of my favourite bits of my "studio"... my lovely window looking out at the trees!

Thanks for taking a little tour of my little space.  It takes effort to all 7 of us (myself and my boys) to live *and* work in the same space (my husband doesn't work at home, but he does live at home, haha).  I have to shush my machine when my sons are trying to record a Youtube video, and my sewing needs to get cleaned up to make space for eating several times a day (boys!).  I do have a space across the driveway from my house I can haul my sewing machine to when I need some space and quiet, but that doesn't happen *too* often, usually only when my hubby is around.  And then who wants to be apart from him? (He's pretty great).   

It won't always be like this...someday all those boys will have homes of their own, and guess who is going to commandeer all that counter space and shelf space in the school room with fabric?  Haha!!  Enjoy all the studios!

Rainbow Scrappy String Quilt is Done!

I'm so delighted to have finally completed this happy, happy quilt!

I finished the top way back in April but I was waiting and waiting for the perfect quilt back to come floating down from heaven and lay on my floor. It turned out to be a simple turquoise sheet from Ikea. I'm in love with it, and I think it lets the front really shine.

I chose to channel one of my favourite online quilters, Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, and her penchant for bold, stripe-y bindings. There were a couple of naysayers amoung my closest quilt critics (my boys) but Instagram was there to help with a chorus of yes-sayers! The print is called Itty Bitty RicRac and it is from Lakehouse Designs.

She finished at 59" by 71".  Also trying to follow Red Pepper Quilts' style, I put a grid on it, quilting a nice diamond crosshatch all over. I have no clue how Rita's quilts are so incredibly flat and smooth, but we're all wrinkly and crinkly over here anyways, so this quilt fits right into the family. The top thread in the quilting is Aurifil 50 wt in a light gray and I continued the rainbow motif on the back, using Aurifil 3817 (a variegated) in 50 wt in the bobbin.

 

Still Swooning

I'm just about finished my gigantic Swoon top! You may remember a few posts ago that I joined up with Fairy Face Designs and her Swoon 2013 Quilt-a-Long!

Here is what has resulted so far:

I've run out of Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Flax, AGAIN, so will have to postpone adding my final sashing strips around the outside of this beauty. And yes, I had to enlist at least 4 boys to hold up this quilt top for photographing!

Field Study Scout Quilt

Since the recipients of this quilt are about to receive it this afternoon, and they are getting married right before that, I doubt they are happening upon my blog right now and it is safe to share this!

The groom is a long time friend of hubby's and the bride...we just met her last night! So I had little to no information to go on as far as the particular aesthetic preferences of this special lady! A bit scary when trying to dream up a quilt! The couple did not have a registry so I couldn't lurk that either to look for colour and design clues. So I used the wedding invitation as my sole inspiration:

Naturally, I immediately thought of Anna Maria Horner's line Field Study, and put in an order at Warp & Weft. I bought this Field Study bundle and then rounded it out with some Field Study from Hawthorne Threads as well. See the peacock feathers? Perfect, right??

(I was so excited yesterday when I saw the peacock feathers also in the centrepieces she was creating, and the turquoise in my husband's tuxedo tie!) Anyways, back to the quilt. I chose Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew's Scout pattern. I varied the pattern slightly, alternating the direction of the "feathers". I used Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Flax for the fabrics between the feathers and Kona Navy for the centres. I also decided to back it with voile and wow, am I glad I did. It is SOOO soft and light!

  

Then I decided to hand quilt it! Actually I was only going to add a couple of lines of hand stitching and machine quilt the rest... but when I tried adding the machine quilting, it just made those areas ever so slightly stiff. The combination of hand quilting and voile on the back made the whole thing so delightfully "squishy" and I didn't want to lose that. So hand quilted it had to be!!

It actually went quite quickly ~ I finished the whole quilt in 10 days! I used big stitches and Aurifil in a heavy 12 wt. so that made a difference. (I have since purchased little stickers to protect my thimble hating fingers. I'm not going to do that again without a little something!) I embroidered a label and will be heading to the wedding this afternoon. I just sent off my handsome hubby in his tuxedo:

 

Squeee! Doesn't he look great? (And doesn't the tie match the quilt perfectly?! Squeee!) And now forgive my overenthusiasm with the photos:

Quilt Stats: 

Pattern: Scout by Allison Harris
Fabric: Field Study by Anna Maria Horner, Essex Yarn Dyed in Flax, Kona Navy
Backing: Cocoon Voile by Valori Wells
Thread: Pieced in Aurifil 50 wt colour 2325, hand quilted in Aurifil 12 wt in various colours Dimensions: 61" by 71"
Batting: Warm and Natural
Completed August 2013