Window Treatments and Baby Sewing!

Just a quick post to assure you I have been sewing, maybe not quilts, but still sewing! You might (?!) remember that my first grandchild is about to arrive.  In an attempt to be a little helpful, I made a couple of faux roman shades for the nursery.

 They really do look great in the lovely nursery that the parents are preparing for their baby.

And then I had to make a few burp clothes and found a nice pattern for a perfect shape.

I tried three different backings...minky, cotton and fleece.  We'll find out what works best!

And we dog-sat this cutie for a few days so the future mom and dad could do some final home renovation before baby.

I've also been working on hemming a pile of panels for a kids' camp! I'm happy to help but looking forward to some quilt sewing!!

Wishing you a great weekend!
Kathy

Finished - Shimmer Quilt!

In my slow progress to add quilts to my home decor, I finished a quilt for the family room!  The quilt is intended to accompany a bunch of pillows I made last year.

The fabrics are from a collection of dark blues, aqua, turquoise, mustard yellow fat quarters that I have been collecting. The room is wall to wall greige so some pops of color are needed.

After piecing the quilt top I was so fortunate to attend a class at QuiltCon with Angela Walters experimenting with different patterns. Coming home, I stared at this quilt top considering my normal course of an all-over quilting pattern and decided to take a different approach to FMQ'ing this one.

Circular feathers in the middle, diamond outlines, pebbles, orange peels and loops combined to make quilting this top so much fun.  A little slower than an all-over pattern but a lot more fun!

I quilted the colored sections in a soft minty green Aurifil  2845 and the pebbles in the white space with my go-to Aurifil 2021.

I love, love this backing fabric.  I had originally purchased it as the backing for my Tula Pink City Sampler quilt but found that it wasn't really the white background I wanted.  For the family room this greige color background will be perfect!!

The backing fabric is Story News Print by Carrie Bloomston.

The pattern is Shimmer by Cluck Cluck Sew and I loved making it!

A New Tote Bag for QuiltCon 2017

Of course I needed to make a new bag for this event!  As it turned out, when QuiltCon came around I still needed one crutch for getting around and a bag with a long strap for cross body wear was essential.

 The pattern is Anna Graham of Noodlehead's Gingham Tote Bag from her amazing book Handmade Style.

The fabric is an Essex linen and Yoga is For Everyone by Willow Creek.  I couldn't resist the subtle humor of this print!

Like all of Anna's patterns (and I have made many!), her instructions are clear and the finish is very polished looking.  I used iron on fleece for the body of the bag for stability as well as in the straps for extra padding.  In the future, I will not put the fleece in the handle as it made the straps a bit too thick for my sewing machine and four needles were sacrificed in the process!

I love the look of the leather straps and the metal zippers.

The tote bag worked just as I had hoped at QuiltCon, allowing me to carry a bag large enough for shopping (!) and navigate with the crutch!

Have a great weekend!
Kathy

State #34 and QuiltCon!

We crossed off State #34 - Georgia! This is what our 50 State Challenge puzzle looks like now.

My husband and I just returned from QuiltCon in Savannah, Georgia.  We had a wonderful time touring this beautiful city (and tasting the food!) between visits to the Convention Center.

By now you've seen pictures of many of the impressive quilts on social media.  I arrived at the show first thing on the opening day and was admiring the Best in Show quilt Bling when someone came up to me and asked if I would take pictures of her with the quilt.  It was the maker, Katherine Jones, just minutes after finding she had won Best in Show.  I took several pictures with her camera (and a few with mine) and listened to her story of how she made it.  Just one of the special moments for me at QuiltCon.
I took my time strolling amongst the impressive quilts, absorbing the talent and inspired by the stories.  Meeting some wonderful quilting friends was great fun.  This lovely pouch was given to me by the incredibly sweet Michelle of From Bolt to Beauty. Look at those teeny, tiny squares of gorgeous fabric!

I attended some great lectures and one class and even managed to squeeze in a little shopping.  This is what I dumped out of my suitcase back at home.

I demonstrated great restraint in my shopping, particularly fabric.  A few gems had to come home with me.  Gee, what do all these Japanese fabrics have in common?  On the left is from Studio Choco and the other pups are Trefle from Kokka Fabric in two color ways of course.  More fabric that will be "too special" to use.  Oops.

The city maps from Les Fleurs was long overdue to come home with me.

This prolonged recovery from surgery has reignited my interest in handwork including cross stitch, embroidery, even another attempt at knitting. I picked up these embroidery items from the French General booth.

I really love to free motion quilt and am continuing to improve my skills. In several of the FMQ'ing classes I have taken over the years, the use of stencils and pounce chalk has been suggested.  I'm not sure how good I am going to be at following the lines, but I did give in and purchase a starter package with some fun and more complex patterns to try.  I'll let you know how this goes!

I've heard so many wonderful things about these rulers, I brought one home!  This is the newest version that is not as wide as the original Stripology ruler but includes marking for squaring up blocks.

I'll end with one more quilt picture.  I laugh every time I see "My Cat is a Jerk"by Monica Solorio-Snow.

I've got a few more QuiltCon stories but this post is too long already!