Last we saw this quilt was in February of 2009 when it was just blocks on my floor. I pieced the blocks and decided that it looked like a gypsy’s tablecloth and thus needed a lace edging. I put the top away until I could find something appropriate. Two and a half years later, not having found lace I liked, but in a fit of wanting to finish things, I pulled out the top and sewed it to a backing. I planned on hand crocheting a lace edge later.

But then I went to New York, and I found a crocheted lace I liked. So, I spent some time un-sewing and then re-sewed the top and back with the lace in the seam. But the corners (and there are many) looked like crap. I contemplated just letting it be, but then I knew I’d never use the quilt. I considered cutting all the points off and making the thing a plain rectangle. I considered filling in the spaces between the points and making a larger rectangle.

I bit the bullet and un-sewed the seams with the lace, bought new backing and sewed it on, and then stitched the lace on top. They say the third time is the charm, and in this case it was. It was absolutely worth all the tedium of un-sewing and re-doing. Now it looks right. I am happy with my gypsy’s tablecloth, and even happier that I can finally call it finished!

In Germany we loved steak or schnitzel “Zigeuner Art,” or Gypsy Style, made with red peppers and a bit of a bite.

Slowly but surely I am making progress on the Service Flag quilt. It is an older, traditional, project which I hope to give new life to and incorporate into my Army Wife series.

Part of the plan is to add a large shadow over the quilt — the looming presence of Uncle Sam. While it is relatively easy to find opalescent and even sparkly organza and other sheers, finding something matte is not so simple.

I looked at the fabric stores here on Oahu and found nothing. I checked JoAnne’s and a large fabric store in Reno, NV while on vacation earlier this summer and found brown tulle and a taupe synthetic sheer. They weren’t exactly what I had in mind, but the price was right and I bought a few yards just in case.

In New York last month we went to several fabric stores (including Mood — made famous by Project Runway) and found a wonderful taupe silk.

However, when I got home, the organza-type sheers were both too opaque. The silk definitely had the better hand and aesthetic, but the overall look was not right. I had been convinced that the tulle would be too subtle and not play well with my hand quilted and appliqued quilt. But, you never know until you see it in person, and one layer of tulle was just what the project needed. Good thing I had bought enough. And, the taupe sheers I don’t use for this will undoubtedly find homes in some other projects down the line.

I enjoy making baby quilts. They can be anything I want, and they’re not too big — so they go relatively quickly. I enjoy using fun, cheery fabrics I don’t usually use in my artwork, or in decor for our house.

When I found out that a high school friend’s daughter was having a baby, I knew I wanted to make a quilt. Something “fresh and modern.” Here was my excuse to go buy hip fabric! Then I remembered the mushroom fabric I had bought because it was too cute to pass up, and the polka dots I envisioned for an ongoing paper piecing project but that didn’t work as well as I had hoped. Perfect!

I decided that liberated stars would work well with my two fabrics, show off the mushroom print well, sew together easily, and look appropriately happy and youthful. I used the last of the wool batting (that I have a love/hate relationship with) and paid special attention to smoothing, but not pulling, using lots of pins, and keeping my fingers crossed. I removed a lot of quilting, but still ended up with some tucks on the back. Puff and I are just not meant to be. But…. who doesn’t love a light, squishy, baby quilt?! I quilted it in a simple grid to begin with, but then decided it needed some sparkle with silver holographic thread on some diagonals. Then the stars needed outlining. Then more outlining! Now I had too much white grid, so I picked some out.

In Goldilock’s words, it’s just right. Definitely worth the extra time and effort. I think I make nice mitered corners too.

It’s the end of the school year for us, and I’m thinking of a few teacher gifts. I am a big fan of cookie mix in a jar. As long as the teacher actually makes the cookies, it’s not going to clutter up a desk, and it’s easy for the kids to assemble themselves. We may be known by now at our elementary school as the cookies-in-a-jar family.

But, this year my daughter wanted to do something different for her triathlon running, cult movie watching, kinda geeky, teacher. We browsed the crafty websites for teacher gifts and decided on a binder cover — so he could organize the clutter on his desk (isn’t she nice to notice this need?).

I liked this tutorial from Lola…Again, but wanted to simplify it a bit. Here’s what we did:

I measured all around the binder (in the open position) and added 1/2″ seam allowance. Our binder is 2″ deep one:

Main fabric: 24″ x 12 3/4″. Cut one piece of fabric and one piece of iron on interfacing.

Inside sleeves (contrasting fabric?): 11″ x 12 3/4″.  Cut two pieces of fabric and two pieces of iron on interfacing.

Horizontal pocket: 11″ x 4 1/2″. Cut two pieces of fabric.

Vertical sleeve: 6″ x 12 3/4″. Cut two pieces of fabric.

Spine facing: 2″ x 6″. Cut two pieces of fabric and two pieces of interfacing.

Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of the main piece, inside sleeve pieces, and spine facing pieces.

With right sides facing, sew together one long side on the horizontal pocket and on the vertical sleeve. Press with right sides out and then topstitch. Pin pocket on one inside sleeve piece, and the vertical sleeve on the other interior sleeve piece, aligning raw edges.

Fold over 1/4″ and then 1/4″ again on the right side of the inside front sleeve, and on the left side of the inside back sleeve. Press and then topstitch. Go slow when sewing over the right side of the horizontal pocket as there’s lots of layers there.

Mark vertical lines for pencil pockets on the horizontal pocket. Top stitch. Back stitch for strength at the top of each pencil pocket. Pull the threads to the back and knot for a clean look on the front.

Fold over 1/4″, press, and topstitch one long edge on each spine facing piece.
Place the main fabric face up. Place the interior sleeves (with the horizontal pocket and vertical sleeve) face down on the right and left ends of the main fabric. Center the spine facings over the space between the sleeves with the long raw edges aligned with the top and bottom of the main fabric piece. Pin everything in place.

Sew all the way around the perimeter using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Grade the seam allowance (trim one layer to 1/4″), and cut excess from the corners.

Turn the binder cover right side out. Fold the binder backwards and slip into the cover.

Looks pretty good! I was impressed with how easy this came together and how good it looks. Pocket options are infinitely customizable as proven by the myriad tutorials out there.

I hope the teacher likes it too.

OK, maybe not COMPLETELY different. But, I’m taking a break from my “Be Strong” apron while I wrap my head around what I want to do with it’s ties, and wait for an opportunity to go to Fiddlesticks which is full of good stichy supplies (I have problems with making single trips for anything — I finally returned overdue library books today because, after several weeks, I had two other reasons to be on post where the library is).

I’m also procrastinating working on my next 12×12 piece, and about a bajillion household related things. Much time is spent staring at the computer waiting for something exciting to happen — like the computer entering all the recipes from my old computer and outdated program to the new(ish) shiny ones all by itself. Or giving my website a facelift automatically too. That would be awesome. I’d settle for it filling out quilt show forms or entering data into my checkbook.

My cure for procrastination? The scrap bin. Anything I do with it is an improvement, and little brain power is required. My grand plan is to grab bits from my bins (already color-sorted), sew them together, and cut the “new” fabric into rectangles so I can make a scrappy version of my mom’s blue and white brick quilt. I’ve tackled the blues, the purples (lots of those!) and the blacks and whites.

I had enough just from the blacks and whites to make a whole quilt, when paired with a fun white fabric I had set aside for the alternating bricks. I have about the same amount of purples too, so I’m thinking I’ll pair scrappy cools with scrappy warms instead of scraps and solids, to make a second, related quilt. Chromatic and Achromatic. And look, less than a trashcan of teensy-weensy scraps left over.

I like the idea of a secondary shape or pattern showing up, so I used a different fabric for one quarter of the solids. It’s way too dark though. Yet, it matches the pattern on the white fabric, and, since this is a scrap quilt, I’m not going shopping for new fabric.

I toyed with painting white designs on the taupe fabric, but just moving the lightest bricks to that quadrant made a heap of difference. This is why it’s so important to move things around and look at their relationships. I had actually set out to make the bricks in a zig-zag pattern, but I didn’t like the way it was looking and so moved on to the Trip Around The World layout. Upon reflection though, I think I’ve figured out the zig-zag and will apply it to the next brick quilt.

It probably needs some sort of a border and maybe triangles or spikey shapes top and bottom, but I’m going to let that wait until I get to the Chromatic brick quilt so they can be the same size. Now, it’s back to the stuff I’ve been procrastinating.

Yes, there was more of the wacky Japanese/Anime/Tokidoki style fabric!

Daughter liked the more cutesy one with pink; son likes black, white, and red, natch; but I couldn’t pass up red-heads with peace signs and punky checkerboards.

I had no idea what I was going to make with it since neither kid would lay claim to the fabric, and I couldn’t handle a whole blouse made of it. But then my new focus mitts for kickboxing arrived and the fabric grocery bag I had been toting all my gear in was now too small.

So, last Tuesday morning, I whipped up this extra long tote, big enough for my gloves, paddles, and mitts, plus a pocket at each end for hand wraps and my water bottle. I lined the bag for extra stability too. Best part is, it used up nearly all the fabric, so with the total of four and a half yards of crazy fabrics, I only have about a yard and a half of my son’s left, minus the lining fabric and coordinating bits for the kids’ bags — which means my stash remains pretty much stable!

Not long after we got to Hawaii I bought this tie dye skirt — it was cute AND on super sale! But, I had nothing to wear with it. I envisioned a mostly white blouse with a big Hawaiian print in the browns and yellows of the skirt. But yellow is hard to match. It’s very sensitive to warm and cool and purity and tones.

The closest fabric I found was too beige, but I made a cute top anyway that I wear with other bottoms. Then I found a nice big print, and I had hoped the brown and white would force the blue to coordinate better, but it doesn’t.

Then I saw yellow fabric with flying birds on it and thought that would be pretty. But when it arrived, it was far too yellow.

So, inspired by the modern aesthetic, I turned to Amy Butler and bought “Martini” in yellow. The yellow was acceptable, but the pink looked out in left field.

Tia had a blog giveaway, which I surprisingly won, and one of the Kaffe Fasset fabrics from her had potential with a rich brown to match the skirt.

With piles of other fabrics and a variety of patterns, I started organizing what I’d make with what. Digging around in my stash for fabric I had set aside for a skirt a few years ago  – what did I find? A big floral in browns and yellows, with white! The perfect fabric was in my house the whole time!

I’ve since tired of the first two blouses. The bird fabric did get used — as a skirt for my daughter. And I don’t remember what I did with the Kaffe Fasset fabric, though I made pajama pants with another fabric in the bundle.

And finally, two years later, I got around to finishing the yellow blouse! It’s based on a cowboy style blouse and I added the ruffles. I had JUST enough fabric, so I know it was meant to be.

Sometimes a fabric jumps up and says “buy me!” This one wanted to be a bag of some sort. The only thing was, I liked the leaves and flying birds but not the fantasy birds in the center. My design would have to work around that.

This was pretty simple to put together with simple patchwork to replace the birds and a pair of patch pockets on the inside (lined, of course). I made it rectangular because it was easy, but now that it’s finished and I can see the effect of the slouchy handles, I’d make it a more triangular or trapezoidal shape. Figuring that out is part of the process though. More often than not I don’t make things exactly how I imagine them first time out. Things required tweaking, and sometimes starting over, or another try. Refinement. In fact, looking at this photo, I think I’ll turn the casing for the handles to the inside instead of having the lining show like it does now. I’d rather see more blue birds.

All these crafty items I’ve been posting are things that have been waiting around in little piles of fabric. Their specific projects kept getting put off for “more pressing matters” until I felt like I was going to drown in things I really wanted to do. My goal for January has been to finally make all these small projects my priority and clear my mental slate for some big stuff. To date: cute tags for my kids’ storage bins so they can better put away their toys, a skort for my daughter, book bags from fun fabric for both kids, this purse for the fun of it, and annual doctors appointments for everyone — including the cat. Still to be done: a blouse for me, another bag I’m curious about, a logo for hubby’s IBOL site, fabric design for a friend, and minor car maintenance. I may get all that done by the end of the month, but if not, I’m still feeling good about the dent in the list and the weight lifted.

My son is rarely as excited about me making him things as my daughter is. Maybe it’s just that he doesn’t have the desire for stuff like she does. She loves to have bags and containers for all her little things, and enjoys choosing her clothes (not blogged, the skort I made with purple Hello Kitty knit fabric). He wears whatever is on the top of his pile and tosses all his legos into one big box.

I suggested a bowling shirt out of his fabric (imagining a big, pieced rising sun on the back) but he wasn’t interested. He does appreciate a fun fabric though, and once the conversation started around messenger/book bags, he decided that he wanted one too.

Excellent. I did a few things different on this one. On Katja’s I made the lining separate and essentially inserted one complete bag into another, top stitching the edges for structure. On Zavi’s, I constructed each panel and then connected them with bias binding. I like this look better and it may have been easier to make. Certainly, it allows for more options, like quilting the panels (which I did not do on this one)! I used extra wide double fold tape because it’s what I had on hand. Regular width would be better.

When we got to talking about Lunch Money Cuff, the boy got very excited and requested that his be sized to fit his Pokemon cards. Well, that wasn’t exactly practical, so I made him a wristlet instead (note my favorite motifs of that fabric — the surfing ninja and horned ghost with what I’m calling shave ice in a coconut shell, but is probably some Japanese specialty). Like the pyramid purse for my daughter, my son’s wristlet can be snapped onto a strap sewn into the book bag. It also has a wrist strap for when he’s carrying it around separately. I looked at a few wristlet patterns, but the one I had and a few others were all too big for the small cards the boy wanted to carry, and I wasn’t wild about the raw edges in the lining, so I just made something up. The zipper is sewn like in the Pyramid Purse and the main wristlet body is sewn more like the Money Cuff. I don’t know if you can really see it in the photos, but the side panels of this bag are in the white background fabric for a little contrast and excitement.

Speaking of Lunch Money Cuffs, I made one for each of the kids. They seem quite practical. It was also a quick and easy project made with scraps from the book bags.

I don’t know if this fabric is as big in the Mainland US fabric shops as it is in Hawai’i, or if it’s even made it there, but I couldn’t pass it up. It seems like new variations of fighting sushi, space geishas, happy stars, angry Ninjas and all their wacky cohorts are popping up monthly!

I bought a yard each of several different fabrics and brought them home to the kids to see what they’d like made out of these silly fabrics. Katja wanted a messenger bag like her BFF and it needed to be the size of her math textbook. She had also talked me in to buying her a dragon patch on a separate outing and really wanted it on her bag.

I looked around at tutorials on the web and a pattern I already owned but, while close, nothing matched my vision and the construction on all seemed pretty easy, so I figured I’d just wing it and do what I wanted.

I thought a kid might appreciate a zippered pocket inside so things don’t fall out. There’s a (pink) patch pocket on the back of the bag’s outside too.

The cute little pyramid coin purse is a free download from Nicole Mallalieu. I made it clip onto a strap sewn into the book bag so it can be used separately if needed, but can also be attached for security.

My boy decided that he’d like one of these too. I’ll tweak the construction a bit, mostly because I can and I’m curious. We talked about field trip money today too, so I’ll be making Lunch Money Cuffs for both kids with the scraps.