These are all from the National Quilt and Sewing Expo. I always take a million pictures, but there’s so many cool quilts! These were all Art Deco style!
Wordless Wednesday- Art Deco Quilts
Tag: quilting
Accuquilt Fun
(I swear this isn’t a sponsored post!) I’ve had my Accuquilt machine for a while and it’s been super useful and fun, so I wanted to share some things about it. The Accuquilt is a die cut machine for fabric. Here’s the machine when it’s ready to go:
I was introduced to it through my MIL when we used to cut our jellyroll strip pieces for our Jellyroll Quilt class. (She’s fond of getting me hooked on “sewing game changers” that happen to be expensive. Not that I mind, obviously!) I finally got one of my own after a really bad tendinitis flare made it impossible to quilt or sew. I just can’t cut fabric for that long without hurting myself. Cutting fabric is my least favorite part of sewing, only shortly after ironing in levels of “eww.” Since it’s more accurate than rotary cutting as well, it makes my quilts look much more professional. Sadly, it does not iron my quilt squares for me, so it’s not quite perfect, but you can’t expect everything I guess.
On to how it works! It has dies that are plastic on the bottom and foam on the top with some mysterious heavy thing, probably metal or wood, I would guess, in the middle. It has blades hiding deep in the foam that form the pattern you are trying to cut. Here’s a picture of what the die looks like. This particular die is a Block on Board one, which means you can make a whole block with just these pieces. They are turned to make sure your fabric is cut on grain, as a lot of quilt fabric can be slightly off grain.
This particular block is a Bear’s Paw block. Isn’t it cute? I’m going to make a Scandinavian Christmas gnome quilt with it.
To use it, you make a sandwich with the die on the bottom, up to 6 layers of fabric, and then a special cutting mat. Then you put it on the flat part of the machine and gently guide it through. The machine compresses the sandwich/foam and allows the blades to come out and cut the fabric. It comes out the other side, as you can see. but you have some time to get around the machine and support it on the other side.
After it comes out of the machine, you can pull off the extra fabric and you’re left with the cut out pieces for the quilt square. Then you can do the fun part and actually sew!
This quilt will be a Scandinavian Christmas Tomte quilt. I have this fabric in a bunch of different color ways and I think it will be super cute!
I’ve been enjoying collecting all my die cutters for it and have used it to make a bunch of quilts without hurting my hand. This was the first one I made, although I used my MIL’s Accuquilt. We took a jellyroll quilt class together and decided to make our own rolls instead of buying one. The borders weren’t cut with it, but the strips for the blocks were. I have this quilt in my office currently for naps and times when people might need a comforting blanket.
This quilt is one I made for my boss for her wedding. It’s the same pattern, I just had forgotten the sashing in my office quilt. I really liked how sunshiny it is!
This is probably my favorite quilt I have made and I gave it to a friend of mine because I thought it belonged to her after I made it. It uses two Accuquilt dies- the Gnomies and the Snail’s Trail die. The Snail’s Trail is one of the block patterns that I really wanted to make, but I was intimidated by the smaller pieces. I didn’t think I could get the pieces cut accurately enough, so I was super pleased with how it turned out.
The latest quilt I’ve finished is this one for my friend above’s mom. It did get a little wonky. I think I forgot to flip the rows as I was sewing them together.
I can’t find the picture of this quilt finished, but it had another row of hexagons and then also another big black border on the top. I made it for my Secret Garak swap in one of my craft groups. I was pretty pleased with it.
I have three more quilts cut out so far: one hexagon with gnomes, one similar to the quilt above with really pretty florals, and one made of strips to be a bookshelf quilt! Won’t these two be super pretty?
I hope you enjoyed seeing what’s been helping me with doing more quilting lately. I’m excited to start using more of my die cuts once my sewing area is more set up. Wish me good, quilty luck, smooth thread, and never empty bobbins!
My Year Of Sewing- 2020
How has it been a year already? I sometimes feel like I’m still stuck in March when the world shut down and then all of a sudden, it’s 2021! I have had my blog for four years! There’s been a lot of changes. (My auto correct tried to change that the chocolate, btw. It’s not wrong.) Some of them were not my favorite, but a lot of them were for the better.
Looking over my completed projects this year, I was very pleased to see that I had completed around 110 projects. That’s not counting the tea wallets, masks, doll clothes, and bowl cozies separately! Little thing like that are much too annoying to count individually, since I tend to make them in batches.
I’m very proud that I was able to make so many things, especially with all the current stressors going on in the world. A lot of my clothes projects this year were very practical too. I filled some wardrobe gaps, faced a couple fears, and made some pretty cool things. Of course, there were things that didn’t go so well and some that have ended up in the naughty bin or even got tossed in the scrap pile. I’ll start with the positive projects.
My most used patterns for the year were the RAD Patterns Solar Flares, the Itch to Stitch Lago tank, the Panel Undies. Here’s a collage of most of my Solar Flares.
I think there are a couple other pairs around that I don’t have pictures of.
Here’s the Lagos- again, not all, I’ve lost track of how many I actually made.
Runners up were the Be Creative Hoodie (A very recent pattern!) and the Shenanigans Skort. Here’s my three Be Creatives- two work appropriate cowl, one casual hoodie.
The Shenanigans Skorts were lovely, but I’m going to have to take two of them apart and add some other shorts in a different material. They tend to slip down a bit. My first one was by far the best. I wore it every chance I got in the summer.
The Solar Flares, the Shenanigans and the Be Creative were three of the new patterns I tried this year. Overall, I tried 30 new patterns! That’s quite a lot for me. A lot of them were intimidating at first, but when I finished them, most of them turned to be easy!
I completed all the weeks for the 52 Week Sewing Challenge and will be participating again this year. It was a very good motivator to keep sewing. I didn’t follow all the challenges, but did choose some new patterns because of the challenge. I found a few new pattern and fabric companies too. I plan to try to get bonus entries when I can bynusing a sponsor’s pattern. Here are my quarterly collages for 2020. Mostly clothes, but there are some other things scattered in there.
The things I’ve learned this year are:
-To keep my pattern cutting table clean
– Getting my patterns printed in large format is definitely worth the money
– Wardrobe basics don’t have to be boring or uncomfortable.
– Elastic isn’t scary
– Sewing for other people can be fun too!
– Tendinitis hurts and is super annoying. If I wear my brace when cutting fabric, like I’m supposed to, it doesn’t hurt as much.
The skills I want to work on this year are learning how to do flat locked stitches on my serger, button holes on my sewing machine, using the Accuquilt (this is a pretty darn cool quilting machine, so there’s going to be a post on it once I can play a bit,) darts, and grading patterns.
Patterns I want to make this year are the SOS pants and the Penelope Dress from Patterns for Pirates, the Valley Skater Dress and Lotte hoodie from Sinclair Patterns, a couple of tshirt patterns to compare, boxers for the Husband, tshirts for the Husband, and the Mix It Up by George and Ginger. There are more, of course, but I’ll start with those.
I’d also like to restart my monthly reviews. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of everything if I do that. It also might help keep me motivated to continue to try new things. I really do think my sewing confidence has grown and I’m proud of myself for being able to continue to blog and sew during what has been a really rough year, both physically and mentally. Hopefully this year will bring more determination and drive, as well as a positive outlook.
I hope this year you’re inspired by whatever makes you feel brave and creative! I’m looking forward to finding new projects and favorites!
Wordless Wednesday- Bird Quilts
Cheerful birds from the National Quilt and Sewing Expo last November
Thready Tuesday
I had a wonderful, relaxing day last Tuesday! I took the day off work to go to a Jellyroll Serger Quilt class with my MIL.
A jellyroll, in quilter terms, is not a cake, but a roll of 40-42 pre-cut strips of fabric, typically measuring 42 inches long by 2 1/2 inches wide. I would show you a picture, but I made my own! My MIL has a die cut machine that chops all your strips to the correct width. (I’m pretty sure it’s actually tiny gnomes because it’s so magical.) We were both determined to use what we had at home, at least for the blocks. I think we both ended up getting additional border fabric and she got some additional sashing fabric.
Here’s one of her blocks in a very pretty blue colorway. Her quilt turned out much more scrappy than mine, as she had more variety of strips. Mine is more planned, which is weird for me, but I like where it is going.
My blocks were based of a stack of fabrics I got a few months ago at the same place we took the class. You can see all three of the original fabrics in this stack- the dotted pink at the far left, the watercolor looking birds three in from the left, and the leaves next to it.
Here is one of my finished blocks.
I’m super excited to see what it looks like all put together. I’m using a light grey for the frames around the squares. I have a different colorway of the birds for possible borders, but I have to see if they look okay or not. It’s more green than blue. If not, I’ll find something else lovely to use, I’m sure. All of the block fabrics are from my stash!
The quilt pattern looks super complicated, but it’s actually really easy. Just a lot of sewing strips, cutting, and turning them. For the record, I was using my travel iron, so it’s not as powerful as a big iron and didn’t get all the wrinkles. I still have to buy a new regular iron after the tragic demise of my current one. 🙁
It was actually a big sewing weekend for me, as I vended at Detroit Raqs- a local bellydance fundraiser. I made my table extra fancy this time.
I did sell a few things, but sadly, none of the leggings I made specifically for this show sold. Here’s a close up of most of them in the baskets. Those polka dotted ones may end up in my drawer. They are sooooo pretty! They are all the Patterns for Pirates Peg Leg pattern.
The leggings fulfilled two weeks of the 52 Week Sewing Challenge for me. I made the olive and rust ones last week, along with a pair for my friend. I don’t have a picture of her leggings up, but they are a black background with white grid lines and hot pink roses. They are really fun! I didn’t follow the challenge of doing something for the kitchen last week. This week, I made stripes match on a pair of leggings, which is one of my sewing fears, so accidentally fulfilled the theme.
It looks like they don’t because the net is see through in between the stripes. They are super fun though. Since I now have a serger, I’m more confident in making things for other people. There’s much less of a chance that these will split along the seams!
I have finished a couple of projects that I had in my UFO bin. These two shirts just needed a couple of extra touches to be done. The purple one needed sleeves, so I added this mesh type fabric and I think it looks cute. I can wear it as a work out shirt or as a regular shirt. It is the Fall In Love Sweater pattern from Ellie and Mac, with modified sleeves.
This one is a Sweet Tee from Patterns for Pirates. I have a long sleeved shirt in this fabric as well and like it so much that I used the remnants for a short sleeved one as well. It’s triblend, I think, so soft and cozy. It’s a mix of rayon, cotton, and spandex.
I just serged the bottom hem and it looks good. I did grade out at the hips for both of these shirts. I’m shorter and hippier than the models/pattern blocks for this pattern.
I also dove into sewing my own underwear! I know! I was shocked at how easy it is and how much I like them. Every time I try to wear store bought underwear now, I just have to take them off. They are so uncomfortable.
I used a whole bunch of different patterns to find ones that I liked. Here’s the links, in order of how much I liked them. Fair warning, there’s butts ahead. Not mine, but butts in the pattern links. 🙂 Feel free to skip ahead if you’d like!
1. Ellie and Mac Feeling Frisky Panties https://www.ellieandmac.com/products/feel-frisky-panties-pattern?_pos=1&_sid=f15442949&_ss=r
1A. RAD Panel Undies https://www.radpatterns.com/product/panel-undies/
These two were my favorite patterns. They are pretty true to size, although they look alarmingly big when you make them, but trust me and try them on first. The panel undies allow you to use smaller pieces of fabric, but are a little confusing to put together at first. I also changed how I added the liner because I hate extra steps and don’t care if my edges are exposed. Honestly, if someone is examining my underwear that closely, they will shortly have some other, potentially lead coated things to worry about coming their way. Or a barky thing with teeth, depending on who’s home.
I also add the leg elastics with the pieces laid flat. It’s so much easier than trying to stretch them with everything sewn together already. I have used picot/lingerie elastic, fold over elastic (which I left flat, not folded,) stretch lace, and made fabric bands for waistband and leg bands. I may have ordered enough fold over elastic to last until doomsday, so I have been mainly using that. I found elastic with all sorts of fun prints including planets, pitbulls, narwals, piano keys, printed lace, and a ridiculous amount of other cute things. Several Etsy sellers are super happy with me right now. 😉 Mary Supplies, Once Upon a Stitch, and Fluerisy are all the sellers I used. I have been quite pleased with the quality and pricing. My underwear drawer will never be boring again!
2. Made for Mermaids Mama Vicki Hipsters https://www.madeformermaids.com/product/mamavicki/
The Vicki was a surprise hit and is self lined, so is sometimes easier. It does require a longer length of fabric.
The ones I really didn’t like, which I was sure that I would like, were the Stitch Upon A Time Bunzies. They fit all wrong and I was not happy with them at all. I might try going up a size, but in all honesty, I will probably just stick to the patterns I actually like. I have a couple more to try too. It has been super fun to pair up fabrics and elastics into new combinations. I used a bunch of the legging scraps too, so I have a whole drawer of silly and pretty undies.
Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t post pictures of my underwear, but I never said I wouldn’t post detail pictures for the ladies. 🙂 So here goes!
Thanks for sticking with me this far! I haven’t really been sewing much outside of vending and underwear, but am hoping to branch out again soon. Have a great week!
Wordless Wednesday- Modern Quilts
I love these because they are all so vivid and have such great contrasts. The shapes and layouts are giving me all sorts of ideas!
Sew What’s Up?
Having an injury that prevents me from sewing is really showing me how much I actually need to sew to keep myself on an even keel. I have other hobbies, like reading, marathoning Star Trek episodes, dancing, or finding all the book sales, but sewing is still one of my top three stress relievers. And believe me, I needed the stress relief!
Also, look, the book sale wasn’t my fault. It was to support a Catholic School! Don’t you want those kids to have a good education?! The Husband graciously drove me and found some good books as well.
I found a couple of psychology books, including a Brene Brown book. She’s fantastic and I still haven’t read most of her books, so I was excited to find it.
This book jumped into my bag when I wasn’t looking! Sneaky book!
Amazingly, I have put the books away already! I know, it’s super weird for me too, but we had a game night and needed the table space. Pictures for proof!
Here are a couple of quilts from one of the books. It has only a few blocks, but gives you at least two options for putting them together. The basic block and then a secondary setting option. It’s pretty cool.
We also went to a quilt show and although I was too shy to ask to take pictures of the quilts, there were lots of fabulous ones. It was one of those weird situations where it was all much older ladies and they seemed very confused by why us young whippersnappers were interested. There was a really cool music quilt that someone had made in high school to take to band camp, a really detailed landscape type quilt, fairy houses, and an amazing sewing themed quilt. That one had tons of appliqué and the Husband pointed out that several of the machines pictured on the quilt were “plugged in” across the quilt! It was so cool! I hope that one won first place. I did see a couple of scraps of fabrics that I have in my stash too, so that was fun.
I found a cool book too and some fun fabrics. They had a scrap table where you could stuff a bag for $5! Here’s my scrap haul and the book.
While we were there, I finally found the weighted rotary cutter that I have been looking for. I thought it would be easier on my thumb and wrist for cutting. You barely have to push at all because of the weight of the blade. Now I just have to get better at cutting clothes patterns out with a rotary cutter and I should be all set.
Speaking of which, I have used it already. I made a comment to a friend about working through my mending pile, since most of those things need less cutting and she replied with something a long the lines of “mending your clothes while mending your body.” I really liked that image and am trying to remind myself of it when I get frustrated with the slow pace.
Today, I cut off the elastic waistbands of two pairs of leggings to cut them down a little, and to replace the elastic with a yoga style band instead. They both hit at a weird place and would gradually be up around my ribs throughout the day. Since they are navy blue and grey, I didn’t want to just replace them. I need plain leggings, as well as plain dresses and shirts. So I added navy blue dpb to both for the new waistbands. I didn’t have any grey and it should be covered anyway.
These tea wallets were in my “to be finished” pile, so I sewed and turned them at least, but will have to figure out how much I can hand sew before I can do the buttons. I think I can probably do them one at a time.
Aren’t they adorable? I think I might try to sell them as a teacher set or something. They look so cute together.
I have also made blanket! It’s a very special sewing blanket and it’s surprisingly heavy. The Husband said I accidentally made a weighted blanket after I dropped it folded up on his arm. The pieces were 2 yards each, so it ends up being about a 100 inch square?
It is made with blue background dpb for the sewing machines and a strawberry red french terry on the back. I serged the edges together and am very happy with it. I was originally going to make something to wear, but the pattern is really big comparatively and a couple of other people made blankets with it on the sewing boards. It’s a little too warm still to use it now, but I think I will love it in the winter, as I am always cold.
I made these dog themed pictures for the September celebration of Fancy’s “Gotcha Day” and still need to put paw prints on one and a picture of Fancy on the other. I think they look cute even without the finishing touches though too. The Husband likes them as well.
So there is my recent sewing update! I’m relearning how to work around things and have also been reorganizing the basement, so it’s been a process. A good process that I will be glad to be done with at some point! I have to get back to that part though. There’s fabric in the wash I just remembered that I forgot about!
Serging Forward!
No, that’s not a typo! I bought a serger a little bit ago and I have been having a lot of fun learning how to make it do all sorts of things. It is a “previously loved” Babylock Enlighten.
My mother-in- law is partially to blame, when I asked her about pricing, she said she would just come with me to the sale. 🙂 My sewing friend K was also there, so we both picked her brain about sergers and what features to buy. This model automatically adjusts tension and threads itself when you push a button. It solves the worst problems with sergers in general. 🥰
A serger, by the way, is the machine that makes fancy hems on t-shirts and other items. The stitches look like this:
They are more flexible and secure than a zig zag stitch on knits and make everything look a little more professional. My MIL said it would be “a game changer” for me and it seems to be that way. I have sewist guilt though, about not using my machine. I don’t know that I will use the serger on quilt seams, as that feels a bit weird.
So far I have made some pants, leggings, tank tops, and a woven skirt with the serger. I haven’t had problems with seams, except with the neck and armbands, which are generally tiny and obnoxious to get the spacing just right.
Here are the tanks I have made:
The red one was the first one I made.
I noodled around on scrap fabric for a while and then just jumped right in. It was very exciting! I haven’t worn it yet, mostly because I need to trim the end threads.
This one was made as a subtle Shark Week outfit. It’s a thinner tshirt knit with low recovery from Seweird Fabrics. I had just enough to make it work.
I had three intakes at work during Shark Week and while I think most of them probably wouldn’t have even registered that I was wearing sharks, I figured I should attempt to be professional. Hence the subtle shark tooth motif. I wore a red cardigan (because, hello! Shark Teeth!) red and black jewelry, and my black jean leggings. I definitely giggled to myself all day, but have worn the tank a couple more times after. I still haven’t figured out hemming where it won’t be seen on the shirt. Excuse the thread. I was using up what I had.
I also made a casual or workout tank out of teal cotton lycra. This was out of a remnant from my friend’s leggings, so I was excited to see I had enough. I’m really working on using up scrap pieces to test patterns and be more conscious of my fabric collecting (hoarding) habits. It is currently in the wash, but imagine a teal version of the red tank.
The tanks are all the Lago tank pattern, as it is my favorite.
I also made this shark skirt out of woven fabric, but it didn’t quite hold up as well as I had hoped. I hemmed it using a special stitch called the “wave stitch” that was one of the primary reasons for buying this particular serger. You can sort of see the black/grey waves on the edge.
There’s a hilarious story involving a luckily no show appointment, binder clips, and the absence of a TJ Maxx to explain what happened, but I might not have blog space for it. You’ll be happy to know that Rite Aid carries sewing supplies and I made it through the rest of the night with a hastily sewn shut skirt. The intern was very amused and pretty impressed that I fixed it as quickly as I did. I’m still debating if I need to just make another version of it, or just assume it wouldn’t be good for a skirt. It’s a very thin cotton batik.
I almost forgot that I made these little yoga shorts too. They are a little see through to wear to actual yoga. (Knowing me, I would forget that and wear the most wildly printed underwear I had…) They work really well for sleep shorts or under skirts or dresses though.
They are double brushed poly, so super soft and comfy.
I made these shark leggings ankle length so that I could wear them all year. Sharks need love year round, after all. I used the Patterns for Pirates Peg Legs patterns for both the yoga shorts and the leggings. They are cotton lycra for both fabrics. I quite enjoy them.
I did try to make this shirt for Shark Week too, but it went horribly wrong and has been put in the naughty bin for now.
It sticks out weird at the lower back portion. I think I need a sway back adjustment to help control extra fabric. The lighter blue is also a very thin knit and I think I need one that is a little thicker to help control the pull. The water fabric is a quilting cotton and as much as I want to wear it, I think it might not be destined to be.
I did also make a tank out of a remnant from a fabric that K found before me at the discount store. It’s super soft and I used black cotton lycra for the bands, as the fabric wasn’t quite stretchy enough.
In other sewing news, I had a bit of an unexpected trip to the UP for our family friend’s funeral and although that was a sad part of the trip, I did remember to take pictures of the quilts that are at my parents’ house that I made, but forgot to document. Two of the three of them are my Dad’s and despite him actually receiving three total (one shredded from too many bias cut strips,) he still strongly hints that he should receive another one. I think maybe he should be grateful and let Mom have a turn. 😉
These are several years old, but they look like they are holding up well.
This is the second one he received after a year or so of hiding the old one so I wouldn’t take it to throw away when it started ripping. I believe it is from Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville. I think it is the Maverick Star quilt.
https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/maverick-stars.html
It’s backed with flannel, with no batting. I’d forgotten how much fun it was and now am itching to make another one. I just can’t stay away from the scrap quilts!
This one is a 9 patch from one of my books, I think. It’s a fairly common pattern. 9 patch with a plain alternating block. I used this cool gun fabric for it after seeing it in a quilt shop and needing to get it for him. This one is backed in cotton, no batting, after the flannel one was said to be too hot.
I’m pretty proud of the color scheme. I used up a lot of oddball fabrics for this one and I believe it uses pre-cut 2.5 inch squares for the 9 patch, so it’s pretty easy.
This one I did make for my Mom, wonky hand-stitching and all!
It’s composer fabric and hangs in her studio, doing double duty, protecting the harpsichord from drafts and being decorative. Yes, my Mom is the cool Mom with the unusual instruments. 🙂
I have sewn a few more things, but some of them I cannot show you yet. I have to learn to alternate things I can show, with those I can’t. It makes posting a little difficulty occasionally. I have also been doing some organizing. I now have enough bins to put everything away and as my Mom gleefully reminded me this past weekend, should probably be on another fabric buying ban until I sew some more of them down.
I should really go plan out some more projects, or maybe clean off the table. We’re having our Big Summer Blowout this weekend and the table is currently covered with tracing paper, fabrics, and serger accoutrements. Wish me luck and maybe call the Husband if you haven’t heard from me in a few days. 😉
Wordless Wednesday- Fabric Frenzy
Simple Sunday- Dragon Hoard #3
“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” – Roald Dahl
“The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.” – Benjamin Franklin
“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” – Lisa Kleypas
“Read. Read anything. Read the things they say are good for you, and the things they claim are junk. You’ll find what you need to find. Just read.” – Neil Gaiman