As soon as Fancy Tiger Crafts debuted their newest pattern, Fen, I knew that I wanted to give it a try. I really like simple, woven shirts that I can pull over my head without any closures (Scout tee, I'm looking at you.). And the fact that it has a dress option? That sold me.

I bought the paper version of the pattern on the day it was released. I prefer paper over pdf for many reasons, some of which are: 1. I HATE taping computer paper together. All that trimming! I'd rather spend my time sewing; 2. There are three women in this house with adult sized bodies and we are all different sizes so it makes sense to invest in paper patterns that are easy to trace; 3. I have yet to find a good storage solution for taped together pdf's. With a paper pattern, I can fold it all up in its little envelope before I tuck it away. Win!

The pattern is wonderful. Beyond choosing whether to make a dress or a top, there are two neckline options (round and v-neck), two hem options and two sleeve lengths. The versatility is top notch. The instructions are well-written and very easy to follow. Especially clever is the way the neck binding is top-stitched into place using a double needle which, in turn, finishes the raw edges on the inside at the same time!

For my version, I chose to make a top out of this lovely Loominous Big Love plaid that I picked up at Craft South in June. I really thought I would save this fabric for a dress, but I am glad I used it for this top. It's a great transitional piece that I will wear a lot more this fall and through the winter into spring. It does wrinkle - I wore this all day before the photos were taken - but I can live with a little ironing in my life. I went with a rounded neck and the shirttail hem, both of which are just more "me" than the other choices. I lengthened the front and the back by 1" and it looks good. I do think another 1/2" would be even better - duly noted for the next one. I chose to add the optional sleeve and debated on how to make it look right with the scale of this plaid. I had a wild idea to cut it on the bias so that it would look deliberate when the plaid didn't match and I am happy with that choice. I love how it looks! Still, had it not worked out, I still had an extra 1/2 yard of fabric to cut the sleeve again. Got to love a good insurance policy!

Once I had all the pieces cut out, the sewing went smoothly and extremely FAST. I had the whole thing sewn up in about two hours and that was with changing to the double needle and back to the single and some fiddling to get the hem right. And, truthfully, the hem could be better, but I'm not pointing out what I think the issues are because I am probably the only one who sees them.

I made a size 12 and the fit is good. I could probably have graded out to a 14 at the hip and I might try that on another top. I don't think that would be necessary on the dress as the waistline is high enough that the 12 will be the correct size for my torso and the gathered skirt would be full enough in the hips. Someone on Instagram asked if I did a full bust adjustment and I didn't have to. I'm a full C, small D and I think there is just the right amount of ease. Much bigger and it would be very baggy under the arms.

I think that about covers it all. Questions? Hit me and I'll answer them in the comments for everyone's benefit. Also, has anyone else made the Fen? Let me know so I can take a look-see.

Autumn decorating is a little tricky for me. It is my favorite time of year, but the traditional warm fall colors like gold, burgundy, forest green, brown are really not my thing. I like crisp, clean colors and love it when my fall decorations can past Halloween until Thanksgiving. Inspired to make something that fit the bill, I whipped up this cute fall-inspired pillow in a matter of an hour and a half. The key? My AccuQuilt Go! cutter. This is one tool that I am so glad to have in my studio. It takes cutting to a whole new level - fast and entirely accurate! Who doesn't love that?

Over the next few months, I will be contributing and sharing various projects I make using it over on the AccuQuilt blog. This sweet pillow is today's project. Click here for the full tutorial for this pillow. If you make one, please let me know! I'd love to see it.

I think it is important to tell you that, yes, AccuQuilt did provide me with a cutter a couple of years ago and that they will continue to provide me with dies for the projects I design for them. The remainder of the materials and all opinions and project ideas are mine alone. I truly love my cutter and would not be doing this if I felt any differently.

I am extremely lucky to have a large space in our home to use as a studio. It's great to be able to spread out and work on projects and leave them in progress if I need to. The problem with a large space? It's very easy to spread out and leave projects in progress if I need to. Also known as: I make big messes. Or: I rarely clean up completely before I move on to the next thing.

I have spent a good chunk of my available sewing/creative time in the last week going through the studio and just organizing my fabric. The main push for this was the color theory/color palette class by Anna Maria Horner on Creativebug. After watching that, I just knew I had to get my stash organized by color if I really wanted it to work for me in the best possible way.

I started slowly, one shelf at a time, sorting and arranging the fabrics where they were. Because some of my stash was organized by designer, it seemed easiest to just arrange each designer's fabric into color order instead of overwhelming myself with pulling everything off the shelves. So, that is what I did. First, Anna Maria. Then Heather Ross. Then Carolyn Friedlander and Lizzy House. Finally, Denyse Schmidt. After many hours, all these designers' lines that I have, in part or in whole, are all mixed up with each other, but still separated by designer. The end goal is to get all the designers mixed up, too, but I am really getting tired of organizing fabric. For now, this is where it sits and I am good with it. It is so much better than it was before. Eventually, I will take the final step and mingle it all together.

And because projects like this tend to snowball, I am also going through the shelves that hold larger cuts of quilting cotton and garment fabrics. I have no need to shop for quilt backs! I also like to wear blue - so many of the garment fabrics are navy or a close cousin. I had no idea how many possibilities there were in my own stash. Sad, but true. Also, exciting! It's like shopping for new fabric with the stuff I already own and I'm excited to think about making quilts and clothes based on what I already have on hand. I also stacked all the quilt tops that need quilting with their backings in one area. I hope that this will get me to finish a few before I start more.

I have found many blocks, piece of patchwork and quilts in progress! I'm excited to revisit some of these ideas and see where they go. Hopefully, into some finished quilts! But also inevitable in a huge clear out like this, I have found a lot of things that I don't want or need any longer. I am slowly going through the pile and have been offering up a few things a day on Instagram. Some of these are items I would just like to go to a welcoming home so they are free. Other things, mostly fabric and patterns, have some kind of value so I am selling those. My goal is to finish this week so I can get back to sewing. There is nothing like a clean space and a fresh palette to get the ideas churning! In the meantime, I will be back this week with a tutorial or two that I finished up before I made the mess even messier. See you soon!

Welcome to my stop of the pincushion party! My friend, Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts, designed her first fabric line and asked if I wanted to play with it. Yes, yes, yes! The line is called Good Neighbors and is exactly the kind of look I would expect to get from Amanda Jean: cute, bright, fun prints that will work in a wide range of patchwork with a wide range of other fabrics. Good Neighbors indeed! The fabrics are high quality quilting cotton available exclusively through Connecting Threads. In addition to yardage, there are pre-cuts, kits and even one print that is available as 104" wide backing. Lots to choose from!

I was sent a charm pack to use to make my pin cushion and spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do before I jumped in. If you have been reading my blog for a long time, you know that it is no secret that I love green and blue so I decided that I would play with the cool colors first. I took a quick look around the studio and grabbed my Dresden ruler and started to play.

Of course, I couldn't leave the warm colors alone so I made a second pin cushion with some of those prints. At the moment pink and orange together are speaking to me so it was fun to see those together. And, because this is Amanda Jean's fabric, I HAD to use the red polka dot. In addition to the cute prints and bright colors, one of the things I like about these fabrics is that they work well in small pieces. The scale is wonderful - not too busy when small, not too plain when large. I think that is Amanda Jean's love of scraps coming through!

Connecting Threads is offering up a charm pack to one of my readers (U.S. and Canada only). To enter the giveaway, comment on this post and let me know if you have ever made a pin cushion and what you filled it with. (Inquiring minds want to know - I filled one of mine with fiber fill and the other with crushed walnut shells and I definitely have thoughts. Let me know yours!) I will leave the giveaway open until Wednesday evening around 6 pm EST. Good luck!

Be sure to pop by the other stops on the pin cushion party to see what everyone else has been making!

9/1/2015  Amanda Jean  http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/
9/2/2015  Anna  http://www.noodle-head.com/
9/3/2015  Mary  http://maryonlakepulaski.blogspot.com/
9/4/2015  Svetlana  http://sotakhandmade.blogspot.com/
9/5/2015 Debbie  http://www.eschhousequilts.com/
9/6/2015 Holly  http://www.bijoulovelydesigns.com/
9/7/2015  Carla  http://carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com/
9/8/2015  Faith  http://www.FreshLemonsQuilts.com
9/9/2015  Vanessa  http://www.vanessachristenson.com/
9/10/2015  Anna  http://www.thimbleanna.com/
9/11/2015  Krista  http://poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com/
9/12/2015  Erin  http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/
9/13/2015  Lee  http://www.maychappell.com/
9/14/2015  Alex  http://teaginnydesigns.blogspot.com/
9/15/2015  Cheryl  http://naptimequilter.blogspot.com/
9/16/2015  Penny  http://sewtakeahike.typepad.com/
9/17/2015  Amy  http://duringquiettime.com/
9/18/2015  Debbie  http://aquilterstable.blogspot.com/
9/19/2015  Anne  http://www.springleafstudios.com/
9/20/2015  Melissa Corry  http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/
9/21/2015  Amber  http://www.oneshabbychick.typepad.com/
9/22/2015  Nettie  http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/
9/23/2015  Adrianne  http://www.littlebluebell.com/
9/24/2015  Cindy  http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/
9/25/2015  Amy  http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
9/26/2015  Chase  http://quarterinchmark.blogspot.com/
9/27/2015  Rene  http://www.renecreates.com/
9/28/2015  Erin  - you're here!
9/29/2015  Nicole  http://modernhandcraft.com/
9/30/2015  Teri  http://blog.connectingthreads.com/

Hope you have a great day and that it includes some sewing!

A couple of weeks ago, I put the finishing touches on this mini quilt made from Gardenvale fabrics by Jen Kingwell. It was a satisfying, small project and I had a lot of fun making it for my partner Jenny.

This one is easy to do, too. It's just 5" charm squares in pairs to make half square triangle blocks that finish at 4". Once the heart was sewn up, I added some extra white borders to make the mini a little bigger. I outline quilted the heart with my walking foot and then free-motion quilted the inside of the heart with a paisley-ish design. It was my first time doing this free-motion pattern and I completely admit that I winged it. I think it came out just fine and it was good to know that if I really messed up, I wouldn't have a large area to rip out.

I continue to believe that the mini quilt is a great way to try new techniques, experiment and just have fun. It's doesn't require any kind of huge commitment supply-wise or time-wise. It works well with scraps or small, precious pieces of fabric that you don't know what to do with. Also, it's great for using up all those batting scraps!

Tell me...have you made a mini quilt? What is your favorite thing about them? I'd love to hear about any patterns or techniques that you find to make a beautiful mini. Dish! I'm all ears!

My final donation quilt for our school and church carnival is this Canyon Path quilt done up in some gorgeous Cotton + Steel. The pattern is by Alexia Abegg and is available on the Cotton + Steel website. I bought the kit for this quilt on Craftsy a few months back. It has enough extra fabric included to piece a backing, or if you are ambitious, you could make a few extra blocks!

I chose to keep the quilt at nine blocks as written. The cutting and piecing is very straightforward if you are comfortable with half square triangles. The only change I made was to cut the squares for the half square triangles 1/8" bigger than called for and then trim my blocks down to size. I feel I get a more accurate block this way. Otherwise, I followed the pattern exactly. I chained pieced everything I possible could, laying out the pieces on my sewing table and then working on them when I had a spare 15 or 20 minutes.

Most of the block components have been pieced for over a month, but I didn't have the top assembled until this weekend. For the backing, I used another fabric from Alexia's Mesa line (also purchased at Craftsy). The quilt finishes at 54" square and because it is smallish, I went ahead and spray basted it. I quilted it with a set of two straight lines through vertical and horizontal centers of each block first. When those were done, I quilted lines diagonally through the center of each block, from corner to corner. The quilting is minimal which makes for an incredibly soft quilt and I think the final pattern suits the design well.

Again, a machine binding! I'm getting good at these with all the practice I've had in the last week. I've been sewing them to the back side of the quilt and then flipping them to the front to stitch in place with a zig zag. My biggest trick? Glue baste the corners and hold them in place with some wonder clips. I'm sure I'm late to that party, but, man, what a difference!

I finally got around to basting my Four Winds quilt top on Friday afternoon. Our school and church carnival is coming up this weekend and I had always intended to donate this one to the quilt booth for that event. Nothing like a deadline to get me moving!

Originally, I thought that I wanted to free motion quilt this one, but in my heart, I knew that straight lines in the direction of the geese was what this quilt wanted. It took a long time - about 6 hours total - but it was very easy, straightforward sewing. I started by stitching in the ditch through the middle seams on the top. After that, I chose one quarter section to quilt and stitched in the ditch of the seam between the columns of geese in that quarter. From there, I lined up the edge of my presser foot with the previous sewn line and started quilting. The lines are approximately 1/2" apart. I love the end result, but I don't wonder if the effect would have been just as good if I had sewn less lines. It sure would have been faster!

The unknown blue solid that I had first chosen for the front ended up being great on the back with some more of the lime green. I cut some larger pieces of the six geese prints and used them to separate the two solids. The binding is another print from the Up Parasol line. The small scale looks great in this application. And, yes, this is another machine-bound quilt. I get better with practice and talk about fast! I still love hand sewing a binding, but when time is short, this is a good alternative.

I've got one more quilt for the carnival booth to share and then it's back to Kate's quilts and some more secret sewing. Back here soon.

(Details on the quilt pattern and fabric can be found in this post.)

I've had my eyes on this dress by Tif, aka Dottie Angel, ever since she announced that it would be available as a pattern. It's just so dang cute! And truly, everything that lady puts her hands to is adorable, but this is the one thing I just had to make. I am so glad I did because the dress is adorable and flattering and super easy to wear! Well done, Tif!

Once the release date was announced, I started popping by my JoAnn's every few days to see if they had added the new patterns to those huge metal drawers. On the fourth try, it was there - Simplicity 1080! I decided to use a lightweight navy and white remnant that I picked up at Imogene and Willie while in Nashville a couple of weekends ago. At first I thought it was cotton, but now I am convinced it is linen or a cotton-linen blend. Regardless, at $25 for 5 yards, I figured I could jump in and skip the muslin. (Foreshadowing!)

For the pockets, it had to be Liberty. I am a card carrying member (ok, there is no card, but there should be!) of the Westwood Acres Liberty of London club and receive 10 (!) fat eighths of Liberty of London Tana Lawn in my mailbox each and every month. A quick consult of the pocket pattern pieces and my suspicions were confirmed: I could get two pockets out of one fat eighth. (NOTE: These are larger than quilting cotton fat eighths as Liberty is 55" wide. If you use quilting cotton, you will need more yardage.) To determine my size, I used the finished measurements listed on the pattern envelope, in particular the bust measurement. With my body measurements, I am just between M and L. With all the ease in the pattern, I knew a M would fit. I cut 2 1/2 yards + 4 inches (for shrinkage) off of my remnant and washed it. After everything was cut, there was 4" left. If you are buying fabric, I'd recommend an extra quarter yard for good measure.

The cutting was straightforward. I used my rotary cutter and ruler for the pocket tops and ties instead of the pattern pieces. For me, this is just a more accurate method. Do what works for you! Take time to transfer all the marking accurately. So, so important! I had to go back and mark a few things I missed on the first go.

The sewing starts with stay-stitching the neck edges 1/2" from the raw edge. Ok...standard operating procedure except that 1/2" sounded like a lot to me. Still I did it. Fast forward many steps to when the neckline is finished with bias that you stitch 3/8" from the edge and then press an additional 1/8" towards the wrong side. While I am a pretty decent seamstress, this just proved to be a problem for me. I have never stay-stitched outside a seam allowance before even on the ones finished with bias tape! I had to take out small amounts (1/2" or so) of visible stitching from the right side of the dress when all was said and done. Next time, I will stay-stitch at 1/4" from the raw edge so the stay stitching is covered by the bias.

The pocket construction went without a hitch. It is super important to press the bias in the shape of the pocket as instructed. I went even further and pressed it with the pockets' raw edges in the bias before basting. It made the actually application of the pockets seamless.

The tucks were easy to sew once I wrapped my head around exactly what I was supposed to do and exactly how the ties worked into them! The illustrations are not that comprehensive so it took some instagram searching to see what the actual finished dressed looks like. Once I had that figured out, they came together easily. BUT! BUT! This is the part where I wish I would have made a MUSLIN. I am long in the torso and almost always have to lengthen dresses. There are no notes in the pattern instructions or lengthening/shortening lines on the pattern pieces so I just went with the pintucks as marked. MISTAKE!!! While I think that the final dress fits fine, I KNOW it would fit a whole lot better if those tucks were about 1" lower on my torso. In retrospect, it would have been good to baste the side seams at this point to check the tuck placement. Live and learn.

The shoulder seams are sewn at 3/8", then trimmed to 1/8" and covered with bias tape. Actually, all the interior raw edges, neck line, armholes, hem, etc. are all covered with bias or have French seams. I am sure that this makes a beautiful garment. Seems like a lot of extra steps to me for something only I will see. Just my preference, though. Next time, I'm going to sew the shoulders at 3/8" and then serge or overlock the seams and call it a day.

The way the sleeves are sewn is just weird. There, I said it. I wish the pattern pieces were cut so you could line up the bias and the raw edge OR that the pattern pieces were marked with a sewing line and a folding line. Alas, they are not. It just seems overly difficult for something that should be straightforward. Oh well. It could be me - I did make my own bias instead of buying it. Regardless, I fully admit to winging it a bit and I think it worked ok. I do wish the sleeves didn't wing out so much at the tips of the shoulders, but then I looked at the pattern envelope and some of the samples do that a little, too.

The side seams are French seams so straightforward, or at least they should be... There is no consistent seam allowance in the pattern. I sewed the 1/4" as indicated, pressed the seam open (not indicated), flipped the garment, pressed the seam flat, and sewed to enclose the seam. I sewed a scant 3/8" to make sure I got everything enclosed and this was a total GUESS on my part as the pattern instructions do not tell you an exact measurement. When I do it again, I would trim the 1/4" seam to 1/8" and then sew the second seam at 1/4" for a very pretty French seam.

The hem.... By this point, I'd just about had it with bias tape. It's a lovely finish, but I just folded and pressed 1/2" and then folded again by 3/4" and sewed the hem down. Done and so so happy with the finished product!

Final thoughts: I think it is a great dress, one that I will wear again and again. I just wish that it was more straightforward in the sewing department. There is just too much bias tape for my taste. I came away knowing that I can make some subtle changes in the construction without taking anything away from the style of the dress. And this is my experience - I am not an expert by any means. I'm sharing my thoughts in the event that they may be helpful to someone else. I'll answer questions in the comments, so if you have any, fire away!