Modified Wiggly Whimsy = Linked Chain

quilting, sewing,
A few weeks ago, I was looking at my latest precuts purchase, a jelly roll (set of 2 1/2 inch strips) and a charm pack (set of 5 inch blocks), wondering what to do with them.  I came across the Wiggly Whimsy pattern and figured I would invert the pattern.  Where it called for white, I would use the prints I had, and where it called for prints, I would use white.  
From Moda Bake Shop.
In my mind, the result would be a quit that looked like it had a scattering of white blocks instead of a scattering of colors.  As I was finishing the quilt top, I decided to keep the white sashing between columns.  The result was a linked chain effect.  (Sidenote: I didn’t see the linked chain pattern until showing this quilt top to family.  I had the original pattern of scattered small blocks still stuck in my mind.)

Finished quilt top.

Closer view of the finished quilt top.

In person, the green fabric doesn’t seem to be as strong as it does in the photos.  It seemed a little stronger than the other fabrics when I was piecing the quilt, but the photos make it stand out a lot more.  

I’m excited to quilt this!  I have no idea what design I’ll use, but I’m thinking I might do flowers in the sashing to echo the floral prints.  I hope to have this quilted in a few days!

Wiggly Whimsy

quilting, sewing, , ,
I bought a jelly roll and a charm pack, and had no idea what to do with them.  A search for quilt patterns using those two items brought this:  the Wiggly Whimsy Quilt.  I love the pattern, but I’m doing it in reverse…so where you see white, there will be colors.  I’m REALLY excited for a quilt that looks like there are white blocks tossed about.
 
Below is the progress so far – lots of cutting and, today, 98 block pairs.  I’m excited!
 

A Bag-load of Bags!

sewing, , ,

Awhile back, I made a set of reusable grocery bags from outdoor fabric and outdoor canvas. We use those bags for everything – library books, groceries, packing snacks and small items for road trips…you get the idea. The only problem is there are only five. We have other reusable bags, but they haven’t held up as well.

During my spring cleaning, I found more fabric, so I set about making more bags! There are six in the photo, but I made two or three earlier that are already in use.

So…what do you call a stack of 13 reusable bags?

Tri-Cities Quilt Show

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My mother-in-law invited me along to the Tri-Cities Quilt Show this year.  I’ve been to a quilt show once before, but I wasn’t sewing then nearly as much as I am now.  My appreciation for design, piecing, and quilting is far, FAR higher than it was when I went to the quilt show a few years ago.  

After spending the past year learning more about piecing quilts, reading blogs like Simplify, Sew4Home, Stitched in Color, and Film in the Fridge, my take on quilts and quilting is immensely changed.  My mother-in-law is a long-arm quilter, as well, and so visits to family now usually involve me working on a quilt machine myself.  And with quilters like Angela Walters on the scene, I think piecing and quilting is starting to regain traction among a younger crowd.  
Anyway, before I get all philosophical on differences between generations of quilters, here are some photos of quilts that really caught my eye at the show.

Aaaand we’re back (part 2)!

quilting, sewing
The last few pictures of some of the sewing projects in the past few months:
Crib-sized quilt using a charm pack of Berenstein Bears by Moda.
This is where those half-square triangles were used!

Spring cleaning – time to sort through the fabric!  6 big bins of fabric now.
…plus 5 shoebox sized boxes with  my upcoming projects!

Mother’s Day 2013 gifts for myself.  LOVE the Michael Miller fabric used for the skirt!

Aaaand we’re back (part 1)!

quilting, sewing
Using photos, some of what I’ve been up to since late January:

Quilting!!

pajama pants for Lil G

Fitted sheet for Lil G’s crib

Another fitted sheet (guess what the theme of his room is?)  Pillow case, too.

Another fun view of the fitted sheet and pillow case.

Super random throw pillow using fun dice them fabric!
Fermenting my own sauerkraut!

Trying out the quick trick for half-square triangles!

All my triangles cut – talk about a time saver!

Make-shift “design wall” using batting pinned to the wall!

Super Comfy Pajama Pants

sewing

You know that super ridiculously soft fleece that seems to be reserved for baby blankets and throws to use on the couch while napping or watching a movie?

I made myself a pair of pajama pants out of it.

They are thick, ridiculously soft, warm (but not roasting), ridiculously comfortable, and I actually asked my husband to do a special load of wash so I wouldn’t have to go a night without them. (And my spectacular husband did, giving me the pants warm out of the dryer. 200 points to Gryffindor for that one!)

I used a very simple pattern using a pair of flannel pajama pants I had made and that had become a little frayed. I unstitched them to get the pattern I needed and created a reusable pattern using special pattern fabric so I can make more comfy pants in the future.

I did learn a few things about working with snuggle fleece in the process of making these. My feed dogs on my machine had a bit of a hard time feeding the fabric through as I sewed. And because I was using a matching thread, with such a high mat to the fabric (in other words, like a high mat carpet that you love to sink your feet into), it was a bit difficult to see the stitches. Basically, you just end up with a thin indentation at the line of stitching. And even using a regular 2.5 stitch length, the stitches ended up smaller simply because the feed dogs couldn’t move the fabric as far with each stitch.

My only issue with the pants is that I made the legs about an inch too long. I love having a little extra length in the legs for lounge pants, but I may have a little too much with these and might end up increasing the hem.

Until then, I’ll be waiting for JoAnns to have another super sale on their snuggle fleece so I can snag another cute print for another pair!

Super Geeky (Not Sci-Fi) Quilt Idea

quilting,

A friend of mine commented that when he read the title to my last tutorial on hemming napkins, he thought it actually read, “Hilbert Napkins,” referring to the Hilbert curve.

 This is a Hilbert Curve:

Attribution (also cool use for Presidential Candidate travel map)
I laughed when I saw the pattern because it reminded me of a free-arm quilting pattern known as a stipple.  Stipple can be large or small, depending on the scale to fit the item being quilted.  The Hilbert Curve is known as a filler curve; so appropriate for quilting, don’t you think?
Talking this over with my husband, he then mentioned the Sierpinski Triangle.  Here’s the logic to the Sierpinski Triangle in quilting terms:
Start with a 9-patch comprised of only two fabrics, white and a patterned fabric.  That is the base to work from.  Now, consider a 9-block wall-hanging.  Using the same pattern as used in the single, 9-patch block, wherever you used the patterned fabric, in the 9-block wall hanging, you would use that 9-patch block.  Let’s say your original block had this:
White – White – Pattern
White – Pattern – White
Pattern – White – White
The blocks would be laid out like this:
White – White – 9-patch
White – 9-patch – White
9-patch – White – White
Get it?
Expand that to a larger quilt, comprised of 9 wall hangings, and you’d see:
White – White – Wall-hanging
White – Wall-hanging – White
Wall-hanging – White – White
That makes for a LOT of white, right?
Here’s the thing:  you could really use ANY 9-patch pattern, just repeat it per the Sierpinski Triangle logic and you’d have a HUGE variety of quilts that would be very cool (not to mention very simple to put together).  In the example, I used white, but you really could use ANY fabric setup, as long as you chose one of the original 9-patch fabrics to represent the location in the grid where that pattern would repeat.  
Below is an illustration I found on Wikipedia that immediately made me think quilt.  Not only did it make me think quilt, it made me think quilt using different values of the same color wherever you see red, so that it would start with a strong color in the upper right corner and fade into the white, so to speak.
Quilt it using a stipple in the form of a Hilbert Curve, and, my friends, geek your heart out over that.

From Wikipedia article on Sierpinski Triangles

Another mosaic

quilting, sewing

Since people could enter the Emerald mosaic contest twice, I decided to take another gander at putting fabrics together.  I was too late to submit this particular mosaic, but I thought I’d post it on my blog anyway, because I enjoyed having a different approach and drastically different result.

Instead of starting with a solid green, I started with the three greens you see.  I had originally been working on a complete collection of kind of airy green fabrics that had green in them, but were mostly grounded in white or cream.  I wasn’t liking how they were fitting together, so I started over.

This time, though, I started with VisiBone Webmaster’s ColorLab.  It’s a great tool for those doing web design to get an idea of how colors will mesh together.  I chose colors opposite from each other on the color wheel first (green and purple), then another color close to purple, then another close to green.  The result was a green-purple-orange-yellow combination that I really liked!

Above is the resulting set of fabrics I chose in those colors.  My only qualm is the top purple fabric.  It seems too heavy for the rest of the fabrics I included, but I had a surprisingly difficult time finding a good purple!  It seems there are plenty of browns, greens, blues, reds, PINKS, and oranges, but not too many yellows or purples — at least not in the theme of simple patterns that I was looking for.  What do you think?  I’ve really enjoyed working with color combinations and then trying to hunt for fabrics that matched.