Orion Star

Hey y'all! First off I just want to say a big thank you to all of the people who have already purchased a copy of my Orion quilt pattern - you guys totally rock my world! On the first day alone, you guys managed to get it trending at #3 on Craftsy. I can not thank you guys enough and really can't wait to start seeing versions of the quilt popping up!

In the pattern, in the extras section, I mention enlarging one star portion and turning it into a baby quilt. Well, I decided to do just that on Friday and this little quilt was born.

Orion Star measures approximately 40" square and features prints from Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Oliver + S' City Weekend, and Laurie Wisbrun's Tufted Tweets. I just love the colours so much!

The backing features Kona Ash, a repeat of the print from Chicopee, and a print from Tula Pink's Parisville. The binding is from Lizzy House's Outfoxed and is the same print that I used for the interior of my Art Student Tote (I also have it in the yellow colourway) - just love those little triangles!

I love those little birdies in Tufted Tweets - they are way too cute! I quilted this one using a light grey cotton (almost an exact match to Kona Ash) using straight lines that form different sized rectangles. I finished this quilt in one day, other than hand sewing the back of the binding, and am super-happy with the way this turned out!

Since there are no little girls in my life right now or being born anytime soon (at least that I know of), I've decided to put this little quilt up in my Etsy shop - I really hope that it finds a good home!

Once again a thank you to everyone who has purchased the Orion pattern, and to those too who have left me some many wonderful comments here, on Flickr, on Facebook, and on Instagram - you guys are awesome!

The only gift is a portion of thyself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well now, I'm finally getting around to sharing some of the things I made my mum for Christmas! I made most of the Hanukkah and Christmas presents this year, which was fun, but also a bit stressful and time consuming!

I started this Ship Shape Tote in Alexia's class at Sewing Summit - I love it! Originally I was going to go for a more neutral colour theme, but my mum likes colour so I decided to go a bit bolder. I included prints from Tula's Prince Charming, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Paula Prass' Woodland Delight, and a few other collections. The handles are Kona Medium Grey and the inside is a grey leaf print from Ikea. The pattern is well-written and came together really easily. It is super roomy and I would recommend adding a pocket or two to the inside so that you won't lose smaller items in the bottom since it is so big.

I also made her this manicure kit following Rashida's Nice and Neat Manicure Kit tutorial featured on the Art Gallery Fabrics blog. The outside is a print from Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley collection (I always seem to use a lot of Joel Dewberry when making things for my mum).

And the inside and binding are all Tula (again! One thing that has always struck me about Free Spirit is how well they match collections together over a season or two... anyway...). I picked up a couple of manicure items and slipped them into their little slots, unfortunately I was having no luck finding one of the shorter nail files but hopefully my mum can find one - there is lots of space left over for her to add whatever she wants. This tutorial was really well written and I pretty much always love any pattern that Rashida comes up with!

These little oven mitts were made using fabrics from the Blush collection by Basic Grey and they are lined with both quilt batting and Insul-Brite. These are a little bit bigger than your standard finger mitts because my mumma has big hands! She was pretty happy that I made them bigger and I hope she uses them a lot.

Now onto the knitting!!

These are the Camp Out Fingerless Mitts (a free pattern on Ravelry) made using di.Ve Autunno - the yarn is so hard to photograph but is really pretty. It's a mix of green and black but the green variagates throughout from light to dark. Again, I made these bigger because of mum's big hands (went up to 6mm DPNs) and I added a garter cuff to keep them from rolling.

Using the same yarn, I made Calorimetry to match (a free pattern from Knitty). It is shaped using short rows and the construction is so cool! Check out the Knitty pattern to see it being worn - it's really neat! I thought my mum would like it because it's less likely to mess up her hair than a hat or standard headband, ha!

And last, but not least, I also knit her a set of leaf-shaped washcloths (again, a free pattern). My mum has been crocheting dishcloths for years but I thought she might appreciate someone else making her a set for a change - and they're shaped like leaves so I couldn't resist! These went into her stocking with a few other bits and bobs.

Phew, just posting all of those brings back frantic memories of trying to get everything finished in time! I'll be back on Thursday with the debut of my new quilt pattern, just have to put a few finishing touches on the write-up and it will be finished, hurray!

The Geese Have Landed!

So you remember those snaps I shared a couple of weeks ago of a new quilt I was working on? You know, before my machine decided to conk out on me? Well, now that I have my machine back, the quilt is done - woot! Wanna see?

"The Geese Have Landed" features a variety of prints from Tula Pink's Prince Charming and one from Plume, a variety of prints from Joel Dewberry including Modern Meadow and Aviary, two Patty Young prints (one from Flora & Fauna and one from Sanctuary), and four solids. Actually technically six solids if you count the background and binding fabric which is Kona Coal and the backing (which I'll get to in a sec).

This quilt was relatively simple as it features alternating lines of geese blocks (made using the no-waste method I outlined in my Geesey-McNinePatch tutorial but on a larger scale) but I think the colours and placement of the geese blocks really adds visual interest and keeps the eye moving.

Y'all know how much I adore my Tula Pink-girl and her Prince Charming collection was really the jumping off point for the selection of the fabrics for this quilt; I also love pairing her fabrics with greys (especially Coal as you've seen in Get Stacked!) as it seems to make the colours pop even more and creates a dramatic and modern effect.

The backing solid is Kona Medium Grey and I used the Champion Ribbon print from Lizzy House's Red Letter Day (which is out-of-print - so sad) to break it up and add some colour! My little label is down there too surrounded by a scrap from Prince Charming. The quilts finishes at approximately 40x40" and the batting is 100% unbleached cotton.

I used Gutermann cotton thread in a variegated green that shifts from emerald to turquoise to a mint green/white for the quilting - very pretty! I don't usually use variegated threads but I fell in love with this one at the shop and could not stop staring at it so I got it! I believe the colour is called Bahama Ocean. I did somewhat straight lines for the quilting - sort of let my walking foot do it's own thing without going crazy.

I've decided to put this little quilt up for sale in my Etsy shop! You can find the listing here: The Geese Have Landed!

The Holiday Sewing Finishes!

Hey y'all! How are you guys doing? I am back as promised with some more of my holiday finishes - unfortunately, this year I wasn't able to get as many sewing projects done as I would have liked. I had grand plans for all the little things I was going to make people but in the end that just did not happen this year. However, I was able to finish one project for my Mum for Christmas - which was very important because I know how much she enjoys receiving handmade from me - and since I had Alex covered with the hat I knit him, I was able to give handmade to the two very-most-important people on my list!

Alex and I hoarded our pennies together to buy my Mum the Kobo Vox for Christmas - the Vox is a tablet and e-reader that runs on the Android platform. I think (for my non-Canadian readers out there) that the Vox would be most comparable to the Kindle Fire in terms of what it can do. It is full-colour, has a built in web browser, and since it's Android you can download apps from the store for free (I totally got my Mum hooked on Angry Birds)!

The handmade gift for my Mum was a case for her new Vox! I used this tutorial from Amber over at One Shabby Chick but resized it to fit the Vox - the original tutorial was written for the iPad but the Vox is shorter in both length and width (7" screen versus 9.7" on the iPad) and is a little thicker. I figured out the measurements and am very happy with the fit!

  

For the outer fabric I used this Books print from the David Textiles collection The Grand Tour by Victoria and Albert (most people refer to this collection as "Venice") which was done in conjunction with the V&A museum, and for the lining I used Kona Medium Grey. My Mum adores both the Vox and the case, and carries both with her every day - this makes me very happy!

I also completed this custom order for a lady that my Mum works with. She saw the coffee sleeve that I made for my Mum last year and requested five to use as stocking stuffers. The coffee sleeves are based on my own template, as I like mine to be wider and I've found that all of the templates I've looked at have been for narrower sleeves. Some of the fabrics were chosen based on things I was told about the people receiving them, but for two of them I was told to just go with what I like.

I found a couple of really great crafty books yesterday at my local store and I will be sharing them with you soon! If you live in Toronto head to the BMV on Bloor soon - the craft section is totally stacked right now!