May HST BOM

Here's my block for May! This is from the HST BOM done by In Color Order. 

lunch bag

I have been experimenting with iron-on vinyl. It's great because you get something like oil cloth- a wipeable vinylized fabric. Unlike oil cloth, it's not as thick and is more supple. Which makes it a little easier to sew with. My first project is this lunch bag. 

wip update

I actually found some time to work on my wip that I posted about earlier. I'm really pleased with how it's come so far, but now I'm stuck! What to do? This seems too stark and plain. Perhaps some hand stitching is in order?

wip

No new finishes yet this month, but I hope to complete a small something I'm making for my son, L. He's 16 months old now and is on the go! He likes to carry something while running around so this will be small... just big enough that he can drag it around without tripping on it. vroom vroom.

Q is for Quail

One of our guild members, Cyn of xoxo quilts, was expecting a baby boy and we of East Bay MQG decided to put together an alphabet book for her little one. Well, he is finally here and they received their gift at our last meeting. He is so cute! Although- aren't all babies? And, the book was really cute too! Everyone did such a great job!

I was so inspired by this project that I did several pages. I think because my son was turning one around the time I was making these. He was the perfect person to test my work on- I definitely have plans to make him a book now. This is the first page I will show you: Q is for Quail

I love quail. We see them all the time around here. They are so funny looking too. You would think that the black feathers on top would bob around, but I swear they run so smoothly. Nothing seems to move except their little legs as they glide forward.  

The Q stitching is something I came up with. It's easy. You find a font you like on your computer and blow it up to something like size 48. Then trace it very lightly on the fabric. I backstitched on the line so the original marks are well hidden. 

The quail is a pattern I purchased from Penguin and Fish. I love all their designs! Seriously. Cute. Stuff. 

I originally wanted to do: Q is for ?, but I realized that's a little too abstract for little ones. Instead I put it on the back. My only regret is that I didn't pick a more contrasting fabric so that you can see it better. Oh well, live and learn. Overall I'm really pleased with what I did. And you know what pleased me more? Seeing it all put together as one book! A big thank you to Stacy of Peppermint Pinwheels for putting it together! You can see everyone's work here.

Q is for Quail
8.5 x 11 inches

The design wall

 Oh how I love my design wall. I made it last weekend. Even though it's not quite finished yet, I just couldn't wait to put this project on it.

I was so happy to discover that I can edit a picture right in my camera to black and white. It's so helpful to see quickly where I might want to change things.

I hope to get this done real soon! 

Testing the waters

It's been so long (a month?) since I've had a chance to sew that I feel almost lost. What I needed was to find my quilting rhythm again. But, where to start? Thankfully I'm participating in the HST BOM with In Color Order. This was a great place to test the waters. Get my fingers wet so to speak. Just one block. I can do this! 

I was so pleased with this block that I decided I really needed to finish some old (I mean like 3 years in the making old) UFO's. Specifically ones that just needed binding... there's something wrong when you have 5 quilts that need to be bound. Five!! Seriously?! 

Well... this happens because I have not found a machine quilting method that I like. I still do my binding primarily by hand. Tedious, but not so bad. Then I found Red Pepper Quilts tutorial on binding, here. I have to say this is my favorite so far. I didn't make too many mistakes and I finally got something done! Woohoo!

Autumn Trees

37 x 27 inches