All posts in category Sewing

My Sister the Thrifter

One bright spot during my bad crafting day last week was a package from my sister, Jenny Goldsmith. In it was an old Waverly fabric sample pack, like you see at decorating stores. What fun!

Each fabric in the pack has a label on it. The price in the day? $2.45 per yard.

The colorways are great, too. There are 10 colorways all together, but here are a few of my favorites. And I was happy to see the brown colorway had the most pieces snipped off.

The excitement of that package got me thinking about some of the other treasures I’ve received from Jenny. As I’ve mentioned before, she’s a gifted thrifter. The kind of person who can go into the worst-looking thrift store or yard sale and come away with amazing finds. Honestly, I don’t know how she does it.

One of my favorite gifts from her is this fall tablecloth. I love the bright teal in the center, and it fits my small square table perfectly. It was meant to be!

For a while, there was a distinct rooster theme to the items I got from Jenny. This plate was one of my favorites—I like that the pattern around the edge looks almost like charcoal pencil, but the image in the center is so crisp and graphic.

Another theme in recent years? Don Ho drinking glasses. Apparently a lot of people in Central Wisconsin, where Jenny does most of her hunting, visited the Polynesian Palace. We have 5 glasses in our set so far. And they were part of the inspiration for the song Greg and I chose to dance to at your wedding: Sweet Someone by Don Ho. (The other inspiration for that was the Brady Bunch, of course.)

I don’t even know how long this dresser tray has been on my dresser. The colors are amazing.

A few years ago, Jenny came into a treasure trove of aprons. Handmade aprons. Amazing. This one is made from a border fabric. It’s a little hard to see here, but the orange part is actually orange with white polka dots.

I love the treatment at the bottom of this one.

And this one I’d wear as a dress if I could (the back is a bit revealing). The green fabric, the yards of rickrack trim—I love it!

Speaking of dresses, Jenny has found several of those for me, too. Some are for my gown collection (I may need to save that for another post), but this one I love to wear in the summer. It’s linen and fits perfectly. Did I mention I don’t know how she does it?

Jenny does sell some of her finds, too. She has an Etsy shop called The Fancy Tail, where she always has some fun clothes (the stuff for kids is adorable) and household items, too. I am currently loving these buttons. And this corduroy Space Commander jacket. And now I really, really want a plaid skirt.

I’m still thinking about what I’ll do with the Waverly fabric. I think I’ll probably use it in project when the right one comes along. For now, though, it’s a fun gift to just look at. Thanks, Jenny!

Name Tag and Block for Boston

The Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild meeting is tonight, so that means this past weekend was spent finishing up challenges.

First up is our name tag challenge. Each member was challenged to create a name tag for themselves in the colors of the CMQG logo.

When I started the name tag, I decided to step away from my usual color palette and try something different—my plan was pinks, purples and blues. So I started embroidering my really long name. Then I remembered the part about matching the logo…

So I ended up interpreting the red hues in the logo rather loosely and added teals and greens, as usual.

I knew I wanted the name tag to hang around my neck, and I saw some great lanyard tutorials online. But because I didn’t have the necessary hardware on hand, I simply sewed the ends of the strap to the name tag. Pretty easy.

Finally, because I’m not a nerd at all, I added a pen loop to the back of the name tag. Handy, huh?

If you’re looking for name tag inspiration, here’s a name tag post from the CMQG blog and here’s a name tag post from the Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild blog.

The second challenge I worked on was a block for Quilts for Boston. The Boston Modern Quilt Guild put out a call for 12 1/2″ blocks in the colors of the Boston Marathon; they’ll use the blocks they receive to make quilts for the victims of the recent bombings. There’s still time for you to participate in this call—they’ve asked that all blocks be received by May 24. Click here for the details. They’ve even included a photo of fabrics in the color palette to help inspire you.

I chose to make a pinwheel block from the book Modern Blocks by Susanne Woods. The block in the book was 12 1/2″ square, but I liked the yellow so much that I left a little more on the sides (the Boston MQG has asked that all blocks be 12 1/2″ tall, but they can be as wide or narrow as you like). And the book had a circle appliqued in the center of the pinwheel, but I didn’t think it needed it (especially since my points actually matched up!).

I’m looking forward to seeing the name tags and blocks everyone else brings tonight. Within a few days of each meeting, we post photos from the meeting on the CMQG site—check it out for yourself!

2 Comments

by Christine Doyle on May 8, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Sewing

Tagged Boston Modern Quilt Guild, Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild, name tag, Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild, Quilts for Boston, sewn name tag

Posted by Christine Doyle on May 8, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/name-tag-and-block-for-boston/

Pincushion Swap: Conclusion

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a birdie pincushion I made for a swap that was to take place at QuiltCon. Well QuiltCon has come and gone now, and all the swapped pincushions have found a home.

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Elizabeth from the Oklahoma City Modern Quilt Guild that my birdie is now in her sewing room. You can check out Elizabeths’ blog here.

Then at the Wednesday Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild meeting, a new pincushion came to live with me. It was made by Amanda, also of the OKCMQG.

The heart on the front of the pincushion had several of us at the meeting stumped, and we finally decided it was probably needle punched. Since the cute tag attached to the pincushion listed Amanda’s blog, I went to check it out. And there I learned that the heart is made up of French knots. Hundreds and hundreds of French knots. Can you believe it?!

I e-mailed Amanda to let her know how much I loved the pincushion and the variegated embroidery floss she used—and how impressed I am by it. She said she made the knots while watching Downton Abbey—perfect!. To read about this pincushion and to check out Amanda’s blog, click here.

Thanks to the organizers of the QuiltCon pincushion swap and to Teresa, who organized it for the CMQG. I hope we can do something like this again!

2 Comments

by Christine Doyle on March 15, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Sewing

Tagged Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild, French knots, Oklahoma City Modern Quilt Guild, pincushion, pincushion swap, QuiltCon, The Cozy Pumpkin

Posted by Christine Doyle on March 15, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/pincushion-swap-conclusion/

Baby Bibs for Charity

Craft Hope, the group for which I made the aprons for Haiti last year, has a new project up! Titled Hope for China, this project is asking crafters of all sorts to make baby bibs for orphaned children in China. One of the members of the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild has adopted two daughters from China, and she is encouraging everyone in the guild to participate. So last weekend, I started sewing baby bibs!

For projects like this, I have found it very useful to have at least one book of baby projects in my library. Again I pulled out my copy of Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones, this time to find a bib pattern. The book contains one bib pattern with two variations; I chose the variation that allowed me to use some animal fabric from my stash that I had gotten for my next children’s charity project (whatever that was going to be).

This particular pattern has a bound edge, which requires attaching binding on both concave and convex curves. This would be my challenge.

I decided to make two bibs. After I had the pieces for both bibs cut out and layered, it came time to attach the binding. I cut the binding on the bias, as directed, and then I pinned like crazy.

On the first bib, I didn’t trust the give of the bias-cut binding enough, so I left it way too loose, which resulted in lots of puckers around the neck.

On the second bib, I stretched the binding a bit more as I pinned, and the result was fewer puckers (although I still have some work to do to eliminate the puckers all together).

While the fronts of each bib are the same, I switched it up a bit on the back. The white and gray fabric is actually a flannel, making that one a bit more cozy.

Now I just need to add the Velcro closure to each to finish them off.

If you’re interested in participating in the Craft Hope project, there’s still time. The bibs are due on April 1, in time for an adopting mother to bring them to China with her. The bibs may be constructed in any way you like; they’re collecting knit, crocheted, sewn and even no-sew aprons. Check out the Craft Hope Facebook page for the details and links to tutorials.

3 Comments

by Christine Doyle on March 7, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Sewing

Tagged Amy Bulter's Little Stitches for Little Ones, baby bib, baby bib for charity, bias binding, binding on curves, charity bib, charity project, Craft Hope, Hope for China, Little Stitches for Little Ones

Posted by Christine Doyle on March 7, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/baby-bibs-for-charity/

Put a Bird (and Heart) On It

For two years now “put a bird on it” has been a catch phrase in the craft community. It comes from the sketch comedy television show Portlandia. In the skit, two decorator types go into a gift shop and put birds on things to “spruce it up, make it pretty.” A stenciled bird on a teapot, a vinyl bird on a greeting card, even a bird etched on toast. The phrase came to mind recently when my sister Jenny was giving me birthday gift ideas for little Stella. “She likes clothes with hearts on them.”

I looked through the little girl clothes at Target for something with hearts, and I almost bought this dress, until I realized it was really more me than Stella. But why was I looking for clothes with hearts? I can sew! I can add hearts to clothes!

So I bought a simple T-shirt instead (and a Ladybug Girl book), and headed to my fabric stash to see what would work. The colors in this bird fabric matched perfectly, and it meant I could put a bird and a heart on it!

I Googled “heart templates” and found a size and shape I liked. I printed it out, and then cut out the shape. Next, I traced the shape onto one side of Lite Steam-A-Seam2, a double-stick fusible web. This is an applique paper that came highly recommended in a machine embroidery book I was recently editing, because it’s so lightweight and easy to use.

I then removed the paper on one side of the Steam-A-Seam and positioned the heart on the back of the bird fabric. The Steam-A-Seam is thin enough that I could easily see where on the bird I was placing the heart.

Then I cut the heart shape out of the fabric (and the paper).

Next, I removed the paper from the heart and positioned it on the shirt. The stickiness isn’t permanent until its ironed, so I could move the heart around to find just the right spot. Once I did find the right spot, I ironed it down, and then zigzagged around the shape to finish it up. The Steam-A-Seam added barely any weight or stiffness to the shirt—which make it perfect for kids’ clothing.

It seriously doesn’t get easier than that. Now I can put hearts and/or birds on anything!

Pillow Block Quilt in Progress

A few months ago, I wrote a post about a type of quilt my Grandma Horvath used to make. I’m not sure what she called it, so I decided to call it a pillow block quilt. Inspired by her handiwork, I decided to make one of my own.

I have to admit, I didn’t do as much research on her quilt as I should have before diving into my own. First, I probably should have measured the blocks. In my first attempt, I cut the blocks to 4.5 inches, which would have given me a 4-inch block. It seemed really big—and it was; Grandma’s blocks came in at a little less than 3 inches. For the stuffing, I bought some high-loft polyester batting, but after stuffing a few of my blocks with that, it just didn’t seem right. Upon further inspection, Grandma must have used fiberfill (or cut up nylons).

So, with all that figured out, I started in on the blocks I’ll actually use for the quilt. To get those 3-inch squares, I’ve been cutting my front and back fabric pieces to 3.5 x 3.75 inches.

I sew the two long sides and one short side by machine and clip the corners. I turn the pocket right-side out and use my handy crochet hook to help me with the corners. (Both my mom and I remember getting poked by the corners on Grandma’s quilts.) I do iron at this point for a nice, crisp pocket.

While my iron is out, I fold the open edges into the pocket to make the pocket 3 inches square, and press the folded edges. I was finding I was having a hard time folding over just 1/4 inch of fabric, so I added another little bit to that end to make the folding easier.

I’m still working on figuring out the exact amount of fiberfill to put in each pocket. Some of my earlier ones are much puffier than recent ones, but I think I like them a little less full. I do make sure to break apart the fiberfill a bit, so I can push it into the corners of the pocket.

Next comes the hand-sewing part of the process. I whipstitch the pocket closed.

And then whipstitch this pocket to its adjoining pocket on the quilt. In looking at Grandma’s quilt, she may have been able to combine the sewing-closed step with this one, but I haven’t gotten that down yet, so I do it in two steps.

Grandma made of all her pillow block quilts as trips around the world, so that’s what I’m doing as well.

I honestly don’t have any idea how much fabric I’ll need. Right now, I’m using stash fabrics, but as the “trips” get longer, I may have to purchase some yardage.

Grandma seemed to always use plain white or off-white fabrics for the back. It shows some of the non-prettiness of my handstitching, but so it goes.

I have to say, Grandma either had a lot more patience than I do, or she found a way to simplify the process better than I have. Because this quilt is going to take a while. I do like that handwork part of it, though. It’s really perfect for winding down before bed and keeping my hands busy while watching TV. I’ll keep you posted on the progress!

8 Comments

by Christine Doyle on February 20, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Quilting, Sewing

Tagged Agnes Horvath, pillow block quilt, pillow block quilt tutorial, quilt tutorial

Posted by Christine Doyle on February 20, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/pillow-block-quilt-in-progress/

Bird Pincushion

The modern quilt world is gearing up for the first ever QuiltCon presented by The Modern Quilt Guild. It’s being held in Austin, Texas, February 21-24. And while I’m not going, several members of the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild will be there, including Heather Jones, CMQG founder, who will be lecturing on Everyday Inspiration in Modern Quilts.

Besides on all the usual classes and lectures going on, there will be lots of getting-to-know-you types of events, too. One of those is a pincushion swap, where members of one modern quilt guild make pincushions to swap with another guild. Teresa, a CMQG member going to the conference, is heading up the effort for the Cincinnati MQG. The great thing about this swap is it’s open to all MQG members, whether they’re attending the conference or not. It sounded like fun to me!

After a bit of thought, I decided to make a cute little bird pincushion from a pattern in Joel Dewberry’s Sewn Spaces book. I’d been wanting to make one ever since the book came out, and now was the perfect opportunity.

The pattern has you start with the wings. First you cut out the wing pieces, embroider the feather swoop on the two outside pieces, and then sew the inside and outside wing pieces together. A blanket stitch around the wing finishes them off (and closes up the opening where you turned the wings right-side out).

Next, I moved on to the body. I sewed the wings to each body piece, and sewed the eyes in place (although I ended up moving these once the guy was put together—they didn’t line up at all). Once that was done, it was time to pin the breast piece to the bodies. I think it’s always a little tricky to pin pieces that are dimensional, but the key is just to use a lot of pins.

After that, I sewed on the second body piece, leaving a hole to turn and stuff. I’m always amazed by how much stuffing, in this case fiberfill, needs to go into something this small. It seemed like I was stuffing forever. But I did want him to be nice and firm. I started with little pieces of fiberfill for the beak, shaping each piece a bit before inserting it in place. Then I moved onto a head-size piece and lots and lots of neck pieces. I used smaller pieces for the tail, and then stuffed the body.

Closing him up was a bit of chore because he was stuffed so full. And after looking at some of these pictures, I apparently need to go and remove some random fibers from the opening before he goes to his new home.

Fly away, little bird friend! I hope you’ll get to liven up someone’s sewing room!

For those of you who don’t have access to Joel Dewberry’s Sewn Spaces, I did find the pattern for this bird online at The DIY Dish. Have fun making one of your own!

9 Comments

by Christine Doyle on February 13, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Sewing

Tagged bird pincushion, Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild, Heather Jones, Joel Dewberry's Sewn Spaces, pincushion, QuiltCon, Sewn Spaces by Joel Dewberry, The DIY Dish

Posted by Christine Doyle on February 13, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/bird-pincushion/

I-Spy Fabrics from Spoonflower

I learn about the coolest things from my crafty friends. A little while back, one of my crafty Facebook friends, Rachael from Imagine Gnats, was helping to organize an online auction called Handmade for Newtown through From The Heart Auctions. She and her co-organizers solicited auction items from their crafty contacts, and they received some really, really cool stuff—some handmade items and some supplies.

One of the many items to catch my eye—and the one that I ended up winning—was an awesome pack of I-Spy fabric squares using fabrics from Spoonflower. If you’re not familiar with Spoonflower, they’re a web site that allows people to design and print their own fabric (and wall decals and wallpaper). All you need to do is upload your design and select the type of fabric on which you want the design printed. Once the fabric is on the site, you can decide whether you want others to be able to buy your fabric or not.

For this auction item, CrafterHours selected 56 Spoonflower fabrics that would be perfect in an I-Spy quilt and cut them into I-Spy-friendly 5-inch squares. In addition to the set I got (titled Eden), they have two more I-Spy Spoonflower packs as well.

There are so many cute designs. And I can’t tell you how much fun it was to open the pack and go through the fabrics, naming each one as I came to it. “Sheep and fox… knots… rainbow bicycles…” I can’t wait to get going on my I-Spy quilt!

4 Comments

by Christine Doyle on February 6, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Sewing

Tagged CrafterHours, From The Heart Auctions, I-Spy fabrics, I-Spy quilt, Imagine Gnats, Spoonflower

Posted by Christine Doyle on February 6, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/i-spy-fabrics-from-spoonflower/

When 1/8-Inch Really Matters

I’ve admitted here before that maybe, just maybe, I’m not the most careful sewer. There have been times when I’m cutting that my ruler slips a bit, and I just shrug. And I can sometimes be loose with my seam allowance. Consistent, mind you, but loose. I don’t think my quilting projects have suffered from my less-than-precise practices. Until now.

Now I am working on a project that is kicking my butt.

I decided back in October to make a “plus” quilt using my stash of yellow and gold fabrics. I found a tutorial that had much smaller plus signs, so I did the math to enlarge the pieces to the size I wanted. In that tutorial, the crossbar of each plus sign was one piece, rather than three squares, making the cutting and piecing much quicker.

So I cut my fabric and started piecing. I had to lay the quilt pieces on the floor several times to get the rows right, but after that they sewed up quickly. Next, I went to sew the rows together. And none of the seams matched. I tried easing and got huge puckers. Something was definitely amiss.

It was my seam allowance. I had used a very consistent seam allowance. It was consistently 5/8-inch. I thought the line I was using as a guide was a 1/4-inch. Turns out it wasn’t. And normally, it wouldn’t matter too much. But this time, I took that crossbar shortcut (saving myself from having to piece together three squares), and the length of that crossbar was figured with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. So I really had to use a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Rats.

I decided to sew the new seams first in each row, then go back and unsew the old seams.

There are a lot of seams in each row.

With the rows, finally set, I went again to sew the rows together. The seams matched up this time (hooray!), and I sewed the rows in sets of two. For more than half of my sets of two, however, I sewed the wrong edges together. Ugh. This I’m blaming on my lack of visual-spatial intelligence.

Here you can see that the next row should be the row that’s at the bottom, not the row that is sewn to it. And flipping the row around won’t work. More unsewing.

Finally, I’ve decided I need to just sew one row on at a time. It’s taking a lot longer, but at least I’m sewing and not unsewing.

I do like the way it’s coming together, and I’m not going to give up on it. But maybe, just maybe, it’s time I get a bit more serious about seam allowances.

6 Comments

by Christine Doyle on January 16, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Quilting, Sewing

Tagged plus sign quilt, seam allowance, seam allowances, visual-spatial intelligence

Posted by Christine Doyle on January 16, 2013

http://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/when-18-inch-really-matters/

The Last of the Christmas Gifts

Growing up, I remember receiving gifts of gifts to come. The gift was fabric and a pattern. The gift to come was the skirt my mom would make for me. I pulled pretty close to that same thing on my niece Emma this Christmas.

Way back in November, I asked Emma if she would like me to make her a skirt for her Christmas gift. Being the sweet, crafty girl she is, she was all for it. So she and I went to the store, and she picked out a pattern and the fabric. Although Emma is 11 and quite petite, she really liked the adult patterns best.

As with nearly everything I sew, this ended up being a learning experience. Did I learn that there was no way the skirt was going to take just the 1 hour advertised on the pattern? No, I knew that as soon as I bought it. What I learned was clothes really do need to be adjusted for petite people.

The version of this skirt that Emma received on Christmas Eve was the adult version in a size that was close to her size. I had planned on taking it back when I gave it to her, but I needed to see just how off it was. The waistband and bow were huge compared to her tiny frame. I ended up nearly halving the width of the bow and waistband. Yeah, she’s pretty petite.

She tried it on once more after Christmas to make sure the proportions were closer before I finished the sewing. Then, finally, last weekend, Emma got her finished skirt! She wanted to keep it long, and she’s got a bit of room to grow in the waist as well.

Emma picked out the fabric herself. As we were getting it cut, I told her Grandma Rose was going to be pretty proud because Emma had picked out fabric covered with Grandma’s all-time favorite design motif: paisleys!

Finally, the last of my Christmas gifts was one I didn’t get a chance to photograph before I gave it. I made this paper-pieced mug rug as a hostess gift for my sister Brenda, Emma’s mom. I used the Quatrastar pattern from Sew Happy Geek, and it came together really quickly.

So, that’s the end of my Christmas sewing! Next, onto new projects for 2013!

Christine Doyle

All posts in category Sewing

My Sister the Thrifter

Name Tag and Block for Boston

Pincushion Swap: Conclusion

Baby Bibs for Charity

Put a Bird (and Heart) On It

Pillow Block Quilt in Progress

Bird Pincushion

I-Spy Fabrics from Spoonflower

When 1/8-Inch Really Matters

The Last of the Christmas Gifts

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