Week ending October 24, 2021 in my Sewing Room

I didn't do much this week.  I was so busy with work and didn't have much free time when I got off. 

On Monday I got mail from Minerva. They sent me fabric and a pattern to sew up.  I'm making view A of this new look pattern. The fabric is a cotton voile. 

I started a quilt pattern test for Frannie B Quilt Co. It took me forever to decide on fabric and this is what I settled on.  I decided to use some vintage ditsy floral prints and my scrappy background is 5 or 6 low volume light colored prints. 

I had a tumble Wednesday on my lunchtime walk and really bruised up my right hand. It hurt and was swollen,  so I took two days off from sewing to let it heal. 

I got out my Sew Easy ruler/cutter since my hand was tender and couldn't handle using the rotary cutter. I bought this at a garage sale about 5 years ago and this was my first time using it. I love it! I'll definitely be using all the time now. 

Friday evening I got my star block made for the Stargazing Quilt Pattern that I'm testing for Frannie B Quilt Co. I signed up for the block test, but I'm hoping to make the throw size quilt. 

Saturday I went through a few bins in the garage. We are planning on moving some shelves around and switching everything to smaller storage containers.  Before we do, we are going through everything to see what needs to go, and what we need to keep. I was excited to get to the storage bin with my grandmother's quilts. This is the quilt she made and gave to me for my graduation and wedding. 

Here's the note she wrote on the back. She left her signature and date on all her quilts and often left a little note about the quilt. 

I also have this Indian girl quilt that she made. I'm not sure why or how I ended up with this quilt. 

I also have this patriotic quilt top she made and hemmed to use as a table cloth. She gave it to me when she came to my house one year for a fourth of July cookout. We have used it a few times. I am thinking of turning it into a quilt. Or I might back it with something so the fabric doesn't continue to fray with use. 

I took my Deltille Quilt (Pattern by Running Stitch Quilts out for a photoshoot now that it's completely finished! Here she is in all her glory. I have a short blog post about it and the backing on Minerva.com 

I ended the weekend getting ally pieces cut out for my Stargazing Quilt.  

This week I'm hoping to do some work on a t-shirt quilt and on my Stargazing Quilt. I have plans for the Halloween weekend that will keep me busy and not much time for sewing. I'm already counting down the days to the next Holiday - Veteran's Day - and having some time off then. 

Week Ending October 17, 2021

I was off from work 4 days this week. My washing machine broke on Sunday, and it required me to change my plans a bit. Thankfully, I was able to get a few projects done that were long over due.

Since Fall is here and I've lost weight, I really needed some new joggers to wear. These are what I wear daily in the cooler weather with a t-shirt as I work from home and continue my daily lunch time walks. All summer I wore a lightweight pair of Fortuna joggers from the Sew Beautiful book by Kennis Wong and decided to make more of them. I git everything cut out, then cut out joggers and shorts for my husband. 

I was gifted a large amount if fabric by a sewist in my local DFW Sewing Facebook group. I went through and took items I wanted and invited some friends over to look. I saved these vintage linens for a friend  I thought they were really cool.   

The North Winds Quilt pattern by Frannie B Quilt Co. Released. I was a tester for a block and turned my test blocks into t-shirts . I have a separate blog post for this quilt pattern. 

I finally finished the quilt fir my mom.  All it needed was the binding. 

I used a leaf design to sew the binding on. 

I bought fabric! Super Textiles on Etsy posted on Instagram a post with photos of vintage fabric they had for sale and I HAD to have this Pac-man fabric for my child. 

I looked in a bin for something and got distracted by a ziploc bag holding the pieces and pattern for the Sew Liberated Mariposa Tee that I cut out eons ago. I had to finish it THEN. 

 I finished it! This was definitely a challenging pattern and the pieces were very finicky- especially that front bottom center piece. I'll admit the top stitching on it isn't really holding anything in place. I ended up using no Sew heat and bond to hold it together. But, now that I've made it, I know how to perfect the next one. 

I finished a black pair of joggers and shorts for my husband and didn't get a photo. I also made my husband a stonewashed denim French terry pair. I used the Greenstyle Iron Joggers with an 11" inseam. I used the same French terry to make my Fortuna joggers. I used a coordinating chambray for the pocket pieces. 

I also made my husband a grey French terry pair of shorts. 

I also made myself an indigo denim French terry pair of Fortuna joggers. These also have a coordinating chambray pocket detail. 

I then finished the Lakeview Quilt (pattern is free from the Brown Eyed Quilter).  Once I orderedthe Pac-Man fabric, I knew I needed to finish this. I think the Pac-Man fabric will look good with this and think I'll make a throw sized quilt with a minky back to go with it. 

I even finished the pillows! 

They all close with a zipper.

Here's a really bad phone photo of it all on the day bed in my son's game room. I've tried repeatedly to convince him to get rid of this bed, but he insists on keeping it.  At least it looks nice now. 

I then finished my week by making more reusable toilet tissues. Nothing fancy, but I was needing a few more.

I'm back to a regular work week tomorrow and will have a working washing machine Monday night. I plan to start a new quilt pattern test for Frannie B Quilt Co and get started on a t-shirt quilt for a friend. 

North Winds Quilt Pattern by Frannie B Quilt Co.

I recently joined the Frannie B Quilt Co pattern testing team. I love that they have testing positions that do not require you to make an entire quilt! For the first test, I signed up to just make a block and check the instructions. This is the block for the North Winds Quilt. 

I really enjoyed making my first block, that I went ahead and made another.

The North Winds Quilt pattern includes instructions to make the individual blocks. I LOVE that! Not only does it make it so easy to make a scrappy quilt, but you can also then make blocks for other projects - like pillows. 

After I made my first block, I made a trip to Walmart to find some inexpensive t-shirts. I wanted to put my blocks onto a tee to wear. I ended up buying some shirts that would fit various female family member and will make each a quilt block tee for Christmas. 

I made one for myself  as well. I used some of the patchwork stitched on my Bernina to do some faux quilting on the block and really love how it turned out.

Here is the other top that I made. 

When I have some spare time, I do think I will sit down and make a scrappy throw version of the North Winds Quilt. I was blown away by some of the beautiful versions made by the testers and they have inspired me. But I have a few projects to finish before the end of the year. 

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Week Ending October 10, 2021

I had a lot of work stuff to try to get done this past week because I'm off this week (except for Tuesday). 

I finally sat at my machine and sewed my binding and ironed it in half for three quilts. 

I mailed off my two log cabin in squares to Ruthlessly Handmade for a Charity Quilt. I'll make a post about it soon. 

I got a few patterns in the mail from Plains and Pine.  I keep seeing the Big Sky Star in my feed on Instagram and am itching to make one. Is ordered matching stickers to put on my pattern cabinet. 

Speaking of stickers - I finally took the ones I received from Ruthlessly Handmade and put them on my pattern cabinet. 

The Needle Down Chin Up Retrogradient Quilt Pattern released. See my blog post for all the details. 

I finally have all my half square triangles sewn and ironed for my 2020 Quilt. I'll be working on it soon and think I know how I want to arrange the pieces. 

Sew Liberated released the Nest Sweatshirt which features a quilt block on the front. I had to immediately buy it and get started on one. 

My Deltille Quilt came back from the longarmer and looks amazing. Now to bind it. 

But first I had to finish my Nest Sweatshirt. I still want to hand sew around the block pieces.  

I snapped a photo of my settings for sewing the binding on my quilt. I don't bind my quilts like a normal quilter. I do them more like an apparel sewist. I sew them to the back first and wrap them around to the front. Then stitch then down, usually with a decorative stitch. 

In progress binding photo.  I did get it completed on Sunday. 

While I'm off, I have a few things planned around the house. I'm finally getting a new refrigerator. I plan to do some deep cleaning and organizing. But I'm also planning to get some sewing done. I want to make my husband and myself a few pairs of joggers. I need to bind my mom's quilt. And a friend dropped off t-shirts this past week for me to make a t-shirt Quilt for one of her kids. She forgot one shirt and is mailing it to me. I'll probably get started measuring and playing with the layout soon. 

Needle Down Chin Up Retrogradient Quilt

 I recently tested the Retrogradient Quilt Pattern from Hollie of Needle Down Chin Up. This is Hollie's first quilt pattern and it is so good. First off - if you are a geologist, you might recognize the name. Hollie is a geologist and finds her inspiration from geology and nature. Being a third geologist myself, I really appreciated that and have a fondness for Hollie. She's my kind of people.

I told myself to slow down on tests as we get into fall. But I really loved this design and told myself - it's just half square triangles and some rectangles. I'm good. I'll be done in no time if I just make the baby size. Let me say - it is a quick sew! I spent way more time picking out what fabrics to use than I did actually sewing. 

I show the quilt with it being wider than taller because this is the order the design is shown in the pattern. If you see the pattern listing you will see a larger quilt and see the full beauty of the pattern when it is repeated multiple times. Not that the baby quilt size isn't striking, it's just when you see it in a larger scale your jaw will drop. 

Photography is my first love and I have been hoarding camera prints forever. I have so many in my stash and almost used a colorful version first, but felt like the scale was too large. I went with this vintage monochrome design as it was the smallest scale I had in my stash. I also had this sool photo film print that looked really good with it. These fabrics were from two different manufacturers. I recall one being from Moda, but don't remember which one now or who the other one was from. 

A week or two after taking these photos on my phone, my phone suffered a severe injury that left part of the screen inoperable most of the time. It was too early for me to upgrade so I limped along not being able to do much on my phone. Thankfully I had already backed up my photos to a private album on Facebook and on Flickr. I am paranoid about losing images and have auto-backups run in the background of my phone. 

I collect all sorts of things and have my collections interspersed throughout my home. One of my favorite collections is my collection of vintage cameras. Some once belonged to family members which makes them very special to me. I took two down from the shelves where I have some on display in my sewing/craft room to use as props. 

I also had my husband hold the quilt up for me so it was more vertical in its presentation for a photo. Since I made the baby sized, my thought was to use it as a lap quilt. One tested added a border to hers to make it slightly larger and I am tempted to do the same. But I also don't like something to big to use as a lap quilt while I am working from home because it never fails that I run over it with my chair as I move about. I did get a solid black for the backing and I bought a wool blend batting that I think will make it extra cozy. I've never used a wool blend batting before and might need to read up on them a bit before I decide to use it or not.