Surfer Dude Quilt
Katie over at Katie’s Corner made this super cool Super Hero Quilt. So I started making my plan based on her photo.
Here are my initial sketches and measurements. I decided that I wanted the quilt to be about 60″x80″, and worked in from there.
I knew I wanted to make one for each of my nephews with a surfer theme. Then, for the backs, I used their favorite team colors (FSU and UF). Here are the fabrics I picked out for the surfer side. I’ve been collecting surf-themed fabrics for a while, so I had everything I needed. I have some awesome hula girl fabric too, but I left that out because they’re still a little young.
I pieced all the top and bottom strips, and next it was time to do the name applique. So I printed BIG letters in ‘mirror-image’ format on my printer.
Then I traced them onto the paper side of Heat-n-Bond Lite. Then I cut each letter out and ironed the glue side to the back of my fabric. Then I cut them out from the fabric and peeled the paper backs off and glued them down to my kona khaki piece that would go into the quilt. I just kind of eye-balled the spacing.
Then I just did a straight stitch around them about 1/4″ inside the edge. I tried a couple different stitches - zig zag, satin, but they didn’t look that great. The straight stitch looked great and was fast.
And here’s the completed top!
The backs are all done and Nathaniel’s is sandwiched. I’ll post some pics of the completed quilts soon. These were supposed to be Christmas gifts, but now they’re early January gifts :)
Crafts quilting sewing: applique baby quilt baby shower gift fabric karin pierce long beach international quilt show quilts red owls sewing strip quilt
by Blabby
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Quilt Show and Baby Shower
Fun time at the Long Beach International Quilt Show today. So much treasure seen, just a little purchased. There were some truly awesome quilts on display, but sadly, I forgot my camera. Well, I didn’t forget so much as I forgot to charge the battery beforehand. Anyway, I did take one blurry picture of my most favorite quilt of the day, Red Owls by Karin Pierce.
And here’s an even blurrier picture of the whole quilt.
I’m not sure where my love of owls comes from. It may stem from my lifelong need for glasses. Or my total acceptance of my own nerdiness. HOO knows :)
I also finished a sweet little baby quilt for some good friends of ours. They had the most kick-ass baby shower this weekend. There must have been 100 people there - and that was only the wife’s family. They’re having another shower with the husband’s family in a few weeks. I can’t imagine that they need ANYTHING else for that baby. I’m so happy for them that they got so much loot.
So here was my contribution. A little quilty, based on these by Ashley over at Filminthefridge.com.
Here’s the back:
I also made a couple “everything” cloths - cloth diapers with cute dino fabric down the middle…
And wrapped it all up in cute drawstring bag.
I was pretty happy with how it all came out. But I always feel wierd giving my cornball homemade gifts. Doesn’t make the making part any less fun, though.
blabbery Crafts featured flickr sewing: applique aranzi aronzo craft books fabric heather ross hiking trails material obsession piece o' cake santa rosa plateau sewing weekend sewing
by Blabby
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toddler sports and sewing
We’ve been a whirlwind of activity around here. From 3-year old sports classes every day, to a possible impending move, there’s hardly been time to sew! That’s not to say I haven’t been preparing to sew. Which means buying stuff - fabric and books! Here are my newest books…all of which I’m dying to dig into. There are at least 3 projects in all of them that I love.
The third book is a new Aranzi Aronzo book called Cute Stuff for Babies. There are the cutest little appliques in there. My favorite pattern is a bottle holder pouch in the shape of a little quilted bottle. Oh, and the little diaper covers with a bear and bunny face on the baby’s booty. Awesome.
I did finish a couple bow tucks bags. Well, I finished one and one is almost done.
And did I post this already? I’ve just been working on hand sewing all the bit down since I really haven’t had time to sew.
We’ve also been spending time at this lovely place:
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by Blabby
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my mini quilt swap group
I’m in a swap group on flickr for mini quilts. August was the first month I participated, and I made a pretty traditional pattern. By flickr standards, it was a dud. Only one or two comments. This month, with the theme of mushrooms and/or owls, I endeavored to have a much more successful flickr showing. So I decided to try my hand at an art quilt. I drew a little sketch, enlarged it on my scanner, and then cut out templates for raw edge applique. I have a ton of awesome fabrics that I don’t have a plan for, and I decided to cut into my gorgeous collection of Heather Bailey’s Bijoux and Pop Garden…it was actually kind of hard to cut into those pieces. Especially for little things like the snail’s head or the mushroom’s underbelly…it felt very wasteful. But I’m glad I did it! So here’s the result:
Here’s my sketch and and the back of my quilty - which are both pretty boring:
Next post - the awesome quilty I received!
blabbery blogging Crafts denyse schmidt embroidery featured quilting quilting patterns sewing: applique aunt millie's garden craft blogs Crafts denyse schmidt embroidery flea market fancy free embroidery patterns hand-stitched joe biden katie jump rope olympics piece o' cake designs sewing
by Blabby
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Aunt Millie’s Garden
I just finished glue-basting this first block from Aunt Millie’s Garden by Piece O’ Cake Designs. I’m super excited about it, and instead of being exhausted, I can’t wait to start the next one! I’ve been collecting Denyse Schmidt fabrics for about six months in preparation for this project.
I also found a few new gems on the web - these are some super awesome embroidery sites:
First I found PimpStitch (don’t miss their blog), thanks to a photo on Flickr. From there, I found Stitchy Stitcherson’s blog (I really love that name), which lead me to AnnieOakLeaves (awesome - free patterns!) which lead me back to Floresita, whose blog I already love (and is chocked full of free patterns), which lead me to Stitchy Britches (another great name), where I ended up at Exceedingly Curious’ scans of an 1886 pattern book! What a cool find! Thanks to John Governale for all that hard work!
So that’s it for the black hole of productivity (a.k.a., the internet) for today.
I’m stoked about Joe Biden. Excellent choice. I sad the Olympics are over, but glad I may actually get some sleep this week. I’m excited that my husband has a job interview this week and things may be changing soon.
Now, it’s 7 am, so it’s time to head to the park before it’s 100 degrees outside!
blabbery books featured fox quilting sewing so you think you can dance TV vacation: 4real.com applique burn notice Comfort flashpoint fox I V Real IV Real john grisham Kat Deeley lady killer lisa scottoline quilting robyn carr Saving Grace sewing sewing bee so you think you can dance the appeal The Closer TV Twitch USA Will
by Blabby
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Whew, what a week!
Hooray - it’s Friday! I can’t tell you people (person :)) just how excited I am. First of all, I finally finished all my work for the week. Of course, I got two new projects today, but I don’t have the start them today. Well, I’m not going to start them today. Next, tomorrow is my sewing group. That’s exciting - we’re putting together our apron quilt, I think it’s going to look phenomenal. Finally, I don’t have any work (except those two new projects - but they’re small) next week because we’re going to VEGAS! Woo hoo!!!
Now for a TV update:
What’s up with the IV Real shirts on SYTYCD? I scoured the web today and the best I could come up with is a site called 4real.com…looks like celebrities and real people working for change all over the world. But here’s my question - and cut me some slack because I’m not cool, and I’m a marketeer by trade - if you’re promoting something, why not just promote it? Let’s not make it cryptic - the shirts should just say 4real.com, right? Then people would rush to the site and sign up and start changing the world because Will, Twitch and Comfort think it’s cool, 4 real.
Next, Burn Notice started yesterday. My husband and I are about to eat nestle toll house cookies and watch it. I can’t wait. Also looking forward to Flashpoint, which starts tonight I think. Then Monday is The Closer and Saving Grace!!! Woo hoo! Awesome start to my vacation.
Book update:
I read Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline and I LOVED it. How is it that I’ve never read her books before. I was missing out! Also finished Blue Skies and Runaway Mistress by Robyn Carr - loved them both. She’s excellent. Both of those ladies write the best characters - they never have the characters saying dumb stuff or stuff that doesn’t fit. You’re never wrenched out of the story by bad writing. I sent Robyn an email, and she sent the nicest reply. She’s definitely a new fav.
I’m almost done with The Appeal by John Grisham. It’s pretty good. His writing now doesn’t even seem like the same guy that wrote The Firm, Pelican Brief and Time to Kill. But I still read them as they come out. They’re mind candy. This one seems particularly disturbing because it’s kind of inside the world of PACs and fixed judicial elections - things that already scare me.
That’s it - more tomorrow. Time for Burn Notice and cookies!
Crafts fabric featured music quilting sewing: applique applique patterns compai concert t-shirt Crafts craftster deconstruction diy Indigo Girls inspiration sewing susan prioleau tshirt surgery tutorial
by Blabby
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Applique and t-shirt surgery
BettyNinja left me a nice comment saying I should write a tutorial for my appliqué aprons. Betty, I’m afraid the only tutorial I’m qualified to write is to say that I think everyone should take an appliqué class at a local quilt shop. I took one class, and the teacher (Susan Prioleau) taught a great technique and answered all my questions. Now I feel like I can follow any pattern, and I’m even working on my own designs. I seem to see appliqué everywhere.
I was in a used book store the other day, and I saw this great book of stories with all these fun medieval illustrations. Here’s one - I think it would be a very cool appliqué design.
My other current love is t-shirt surgery. Indigo Girls are headed to Humphrey’s in San Diego next week, and I really wanted to wear one of my old concert t-shirts, but they’re all awful. They’re huge men’s shirts that look terrible. So, I took my favorite one (sorry for the inappropriate picture on the front), resized it, added better sleeves and a hood! It’s not perfect, but it fits great, and it’s much better than it was before. I read a lot of tutorials on craftster and on other blogs before I got started, but it was pretty straight forward.
(Pictures after the jump)
Step one: lay a shirt that fits you on top of one that doesn’t. Trace around it. Pin the shirt and cut away the excess.
Step two: cut out your pieces - sleeves, hood, extra pockets, whatever you’re adding.
Step three: sew your extra pieces (close up the sleeves, hem the hood).
Step four: attach new pieces to your old shirt.
Step five: sew up sides of your old shirt.
There was a lot of debate about the best stitch to use on stretchy fabric if you don’t have a serger. I just used a straight stitch to join things, and then topstitched the seams open with a straight stitch using a twin needle. It worked great, and allowed me to add in some contrasting thread. Let me know if you have questions.
for pictures, click here… more »
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by Blabby
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applique complete!
My friendship group is making an applique apron quilt for the auction at our annual quilt show. We all made two blocks. I finally finished the embellishments on mine - I kept them pretty simple, but I’m happy with the results. The apron patterns are from Lori Holt’s Apron Club pattern. I don’t think she has a website, but I’ve seen her patterns in a few online shops. The cup and cupcake were embroidery patterns in Sublime Stitching. I decided to applique them first, then embroider over them. I had a few problems because I doubled the white fabric so my print fabric wouldn’t show through - made it hard to stitch, but I think it’s alright. Once the whole thing is assembled and it’s been washed, I know they’ll be great.
Crafts quilting: applique calico cottage mary ellen's best press quiltygirl.blogspot.com susan prioleau
by Blabby
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Jay saves the day!
I took my messy hexagon flowers over to QuiltyGirl’s yesterday, and she gave me the perfect solution to flatten those crazy seams…Mary Ellen’s Best Press!!! A few squirts and a hot iron, and my hexagon flowers were perfectly flat! I’ve pinned them to the foundation, and am appliqueing them down today. Easy-peasy.
Thanks, Jay!!!
I’m taking a beginning appliqué class on Sunday at Calico Cottage in Murietta. I’m excited - it’s with Susan Prioleau, who doesn’t seem to have a website, but teaches classes all over Southern California. I have a beautiful Baltimore Album pattern of hers, and I’m looking forward to her class. I think I have the basics of appliqué down, but I think it helps to learn other techniques also - then I can figure out the best way for me.
