Often, after working on a quilt with a lot of math and small pieces, I feel like I need a good, easy, but still interesting project to work on. A palette cleanser of sorts. I've been in the mood to sew some clothes, but I am not ready to undertake my big clothing project of 2016 just yet. (Spoiler alert: The big project is JEANS! You all, I'm saying it here: I am going to make my own jeans!) While scrolling through Instagram, I saw something that lead me to the Ryan Top by Whitney Deal. It's a sweet, cute, simple top and I knew it was just the kind of project I needed.

I purchased, download and assembled the pattern Wednesday morning in a spare hour at home while washing the fabric at the same time. Skills, I tell you! I cut it out early in the afternoon and set it aside for after school sewing. And by four o'clock, I was stitching away. With a small hiatus to cook and eat dinner, I had the entire thing finished by bedtime. Man, did it ever feel good to start and finish something in one day!

I pulled the fabric out my stash - it's a lightweight cotton yarn dye that I picked up in Nashville last summer. It is lightweight with a nice drape and beautiful hand. I love it. The pattern contains five pieces - a front yoke, back yoke, front facing, back facing and the bodice (you cut two of this one piece). The pattern is well-written and is geared towards beginners. My only issue was that some of the seam allowances were 1/4" and some were 1/2" so I really had to pay attention to exactly what each step called for. Not a big deal - just something to note.

Instead of using the front and back facings on the neckline, I decided to finish it with a bias binding. This all personal preference. I don't care for the way facings feel on my neck while I am wearing a blouse. First I cut a 1 1/2" bias strip from some Liberty scraps. (This was a little too big - I could have done it with a 1" strip). Before sewing the shoulder seams, I stay-stitched both necklines at 1/8". After the shoulder seams were completed, I sewed the bias tape on with the 1/4" seam called for when attaching the facings. There's a good tutorial for this method over on Grainline if you don't know what I am talking about. I followed the pattern as written for everything else.

My bust measurement put me right in the middle of a size L so I felt confident making this without a muslin. I do think the pattern runs a little small - I feel like I could use a tiny bit more easy under the arms. I'm a C/D cup for what that is worth. I think if you are much bustier than that, you would have to make some adjustments. If you are on the high side of the measurement range for your size, I'd say go ahead and make that muslin. I know. Boring, but better safe than sorry. Even though I feel I could use a tad bit more room, I will still wear this a lot as it is. It's comfortable and cute - a perfect summer shirt.

Note: this top is long! Almost tunic length, I think, although Jane told me that it is too short to be a tunic. What do I know? Regardless, I like the extra length as I am long in the torso and normally have to add a couple of inches to compensate. Not this time. It's perfect as is for wearing with skinny jeans or leggings. I could make a darling dress if you lengthened the bodice piece or be a super cute top with even five or six inches less length. I can envision many different iterations of this pattern in my closet. I'm thinking about a shorter one in a sweet Liberty floral to wear with shorts this summer or even a two-fabric version, one for the yoke and one for the body. I could go on and on - you get the drift. Bottom line: I recommend this pattern.

Unrelated: something prompted me to go back and read some of my archives last night. What a trip down memory lane! It's hard to believe that I have been writing in this space for almost 10 years (RIGHT?!?). It made me realize just how much I miss sharing some of my process and daily thoughts. I am on Instagram daily, but I don't think that is the same. I feel there is just not the space to write about some of the things swirling in my mind on that platform. I'm not promising anything, but I am wondering if you may just see more of me around here with small bits to share instead of just finished projects.

Happy Friday, friends! Enjoy the weekend.

I whipped up this sweet little lap/baby quilt a couple of weeks ago. I used my GO! Cutter and I'm sharing the tutorial over on the Accuquilt blog. It's a very fast make with two different blocks finishing at 6". I made this quilt specifically for donation to a local hospice organization. They ask for quilts that are between 36" and 48" and this design is perfect for that. It also would make a sweet play mat for baby and can be easily sized up into a throw or bed quilt. While I chose decidedly feminine fabrics from my stash (Amy Butler's Gypsy Caravan), I think this would be stunning in solids or as a scrappy quilt.

For more details, check out the tutorial over at Accuquilt.

I started this sweet Mustang quilt last spring while I was working my way through quilt kits and going through the motions of making to keep myself engaged in something creative. I was excited to see this one come together. I love the fabrics and the piecing was varied enough to keep me interested through every stage. It should have finished around 42" x 55", but I had trouble with the half-square triangle border.

To this day, I do not know where the mistake was. I followed the pattern directions, but the borders did not fit as they should have. I went ahead and sewed them on anyhow - always a bad idea - and then shoved the entire thing to the side until this past January. In an effort to #finishiterin, I decided the best course of action would be to take the borders off and see if I could fix them. I spent some q.t. with my seam ripper and removed the four borders. Then as I looked at them, I really couldn't remember what the original issue was. Were the HST units too big? Too small? It just seemed easier and more efficient to plow ahead without the borders.

And you know what? It's still a sweet quilt, albeit slightly smaller than the original one, about 38" x 51". It is missing the interest that the border adds, but if I didn't tell you, you would know. And it made the perfect gift for a baby girl whose mother loves horses.

The details: All of the fabric is by Cotton + Steel and, as of this posting, the kit is still available (and on sale!) at the Fat Quarter Shop. The pattern is available for free on the Cotton + Steel website. The backing fabric is I Heart Bees in Denim and the binding is a random pink solid from my stash. I used a cotton batting and quilted it with straight lines on either sides of some of the seams. I chose to quilt it rather lightly so it would have some drape after washing. I add the entire binding by machine and it came together well.

Did I mention that this is the year I perfect my machine binding? It is! If you have a favorite machine binding method or tip/trick, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

I've been sewing like a little bit of a mad woman this winter and I have a bit of a backlog of finished quilts to share on the blog. If you follow me on Instagram, you have most likely seen snippets of all of these quilts in various stages - in progress, in top form, quilted, finished, bound, etc. For some reason (um, WINTER), I have not been motivated to get it together long enough to pull out the DSLR and really give these quilts their due. Now that Spring has finally sprung, I am trying to use the nice weather and longer sunlight hours to get them properly photographed and documented here. And, by them, I mean just this one. I have two more that are washed and ready for some time in front of the lens. For now, though, I give you the Super-sized Ohio Star. Yellow glow provided by the late-in-the-day, setting sun. ;)

In January, I watched the first of the Creativebug Block of the Month videos which features Heather Jones and the Ohio Star block. I had never made an Ohio Star quilt so I decided to give it a go. Thirty 12" blocks later, that quilt was finished (and is still waiting to be photographed. Ahem). Around that time, my guild did an exercise about enlarging blocks to different sizes, and since I was really into the Ohio Star, I chose it as my candidate for super-sizing.

I could go into the math for this, but really all you need to know is that the Ohio Star is a nine-patch block made of 5 squares and 4 quarter triangle squares. To make it bigger, I knew I needed a number divisible by 3. I limited myself to fabrics from my stash and, based on yardage I had on hand, settled on a nine block quilt (a nine-patch of nine-patches!) with finished block sizes of 21". Each square in the nine-patch block finishes at 7" (7 1/2'' unfinished), giving a final measurement of 63" square. It's a good throw size, perfect for a cat nap or picnic for two. I like the quilts I make to be usable and I find that anything smaller than around 60" square just isn't as useful as I'd like.

The background fabric is Essex Linen in Ivory and I love, love, love how it feels in a quilt. LOVE IT. The prints are one colorway of Anna Maria Horner's Fibs and Fables line which I paired with bright, cheery solids in hot pink, chartreuse and aqua. I used Labyrinth in aqua for the backing and bound it by machine with Helios in incense. I quilted it with rows of loops in off-white thread and 100% cotton batting on the long arm at Quilted Joy. Between the linen and the cotton batting, it came out of the wash with the best crinkle. Cozy!

This one came together FAST! I know I say that often, but, in this case, big blocks make for less piecing over a greater square footage. I mention this as a reminder to myself. Not everything has to be difficult or tedious to be satisfying to make and to look at. The large squares pack a good punch and have me itching to super-size all the things.

Today on the AccuQuilt blog, you can find the final two borders of my medallion quilt. It was a fun one to put together and I am particularly happy that I was able to source all of the fabrics in my stash. I used the navy background with the confetti dots as the color palette inspiration. I don't think this is a palette that I would have intentionally chosen, but I love how cheerful it is and that it was not my usual m.o.

I chose to echo the straight lines by quilting about 1/4" on each side of them. The backing was pieced with more of the navy print and little bit of a purple and white check. I machine bound the quilt by stitching the binding to the back, flipping it to the front and sewing it in place with a small zig zag stitch. Very fast and it looks great. The quilt finishes at 57" square and will most likely be donated to our school/church.

You can read more about the exact cutting dies I used over at AccuQuilt. The enterprising among you can probably figure our how to do it without the dies as well. It's just math. ;)

As many people do, I chose a guiding word for 2016. I have done this in the past with varying degrees of success and really was unsure if I wanted to go down that path again this year. Then I figured, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I set about choosing a word. Or, maybe more precisely, a word chose me. It popped in my head and would not get out. It reappeared again and again. Every time I thought about a guiding word for the year ahead, this was the word that came to mind. It was not the word I wanted, but it was a persistent little bugger. I stopped fighting it and embraced that word. That word? WORK.

I tried and tried to come up with something different. Really, I did. Work has a negative connotation for so many people. It can sound like soul-sucking drudgery and the exact opposite of fun and relaxation. There are certainly many examples of that kind of work - cleaning toilets and doing taxes come to my mind. BUT! There is a positive side to work, especially fulfilling, creative work. And that is the work that I am talking about.

It's no secret that I like to make things. Obviously. This blog is a testament to my making. I sew. I knit. I cook. I bake. I crochet. I paint. I garden. I even sometimes write. I make, plain and simple. And I love making. I do. My day is better for it. My heart is happier when my hands are busy and my mind is working and I am creating.

Yet, I have never approached my making with an attitude of work, where the making itself becomes more job-like with specific studio hours or long-term goals. Rather, my making has always been born from my heart. If I want to make it, I generally do. If I don't, I don't. I can go weeks without picking up a pair of scissors and cutting into fabric. My sewing machine has sat idle for long periods of time. There is a benefit of making in this way. It is almost always satisfying and filled with excitement. Each project is fresh and new and full of possibilities. It is free of time constraints and deadlines. If it becomes boring or no longer fun, I can choose to let it sit, or maybe even to let it go. And all of this is fine and good. It is creative and it is making and it fulfills me.

Until, it doesn't.

I find it very easy to let life and living get in the way of making. I'm talking about the every day demands on time and energy that we all face. Most of these things are good things - family! friends! cooking! exercising! traveling! - and I certainly don't want to come off as not appreciating the wonderful life that I am blessed with. I enjoy spending time with my loved ones and taking care of them and the things (groceries, pets, gardens, even paying the bills) that need attending to. But, I also really enjoy making. It fills my soul and gives me a happy heart. I have just come to the realization that when faced to choose between the two, I am more apt to wait until everything else and everyone else is taken care of before I tend to myself and my creativity. As a result, I suffer and everyone around me suffers. Happy wife, happy life? No one is happy unless Mom is happy? Yeah, that.

Why make the distinction? "Work" and "make" are both words that imply action, but they are different. Making is about creating something. Work is creating something, too, but, for me, it means showing up and putting in the time even when I may not feel like it. It's about taking my creativity and prioritizing it just as I would any paying job. It's about exerting effort and holding myself accountable to allow time to make. It's about taking the inspiration and running with it and going through the motions when inspiration doesn't show up.  It's about practicing, maybe failing, picking up the pieces and coming out on the other side. It's about being available to myself so that when the light bulb goes off and inspiration calls, I am in the practice of working. If I can do that, then when inspiration asserts itself, I can respond to it and make, make, make. If I am lucky, at the end, I will have made something beautiful and I will be creatively fulfilled. I really can't ask more than that.

I have more thoughts on this, but I think I will save them for another post. I leave you with this needle turned applique pillow that I made over the course of the weekend. The pattern is from Carolyn Friedlander's new class, Hand-Stitched Applique Quilts, on Creativebug and all of the fabrics are Cotton and Steel. Cut out on Friday night, I basted it and started the applique on Saturday. I finished up the hand sewing just as the Oscars started Sunday night. Monday I sandwiched and quilted the front, cut the back pieces and inserted a zipper before assembling and hand binding the whole thing. Tuesday it went in the mail to someone I have never met, but needed an angel in a pillow swap on Instagram. I loved sewing this! It really didn't feel like work even though that is exactly what it was.

Scraps, Inc. Vol. 2 is hitting the shelves soon and I am thrilled to have a quilt in it. Published by Lucky Spool Media, this follow-up book to the widely popular and beautifully done, Scraps, Inc. Vol. 1, is much like the first. It is chock full of great quilt projects, all of which are designed with using scraps in mind. There are patterns for 15 different quilts made by 15 different designers. It's also a visual feast with gorgeous photography by Nydia Kehnle.

I made my quilt, Argyle Medallion, last summer over the course of a few days. At the time, the hydrangeas in my yard and down my street were awash in pink, purple and blue blooms and that directly inspired the color palette. I think it would be striking in a monochromatic palette or using a true, anything goes scrappy vibe. The quilt uses a few different piecing techniques, a variety of shapes and is very fun to put together. I'm a fan of negative space and I think that this quilt has that in spades. Natalia Bonner quilted it and she did the most amazing job with zero direction from me. She made it sing!

There are so many wonderful quilts in this book that I am anxious to make. Each quilt specifies what kind of scraps it uses - squares or strips. I love this little bit - it makes digging through and sorting scraps for projects that much easier.

Scraps, Inc. Vol 2 is available to order in the Tauton Store. To make it even sweeter, save 30% through February 16th by entering the code Scraps30. I am also giving away a copy of the book here on the blog. To enter, leave me a comment and let me know what quilters inspire you with their use of scraps. I'll leave the giveaway open until Sunday, February 14 at 6:00 pm EST.

Want to see more? Be sure to check out the blog tour stops!

Monday, February 8

Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter

Nydia Kehnle, Nydia Kehnle Design + Photography

Tuesday, February 9

Amy Friend, During Quiet Time

Alexandra Ledgerwood, Teaginny Designs

Wednesday, February 10

April Rosenthal, April Rosenthal - The {Studio} Blog

Dorie Schwarz, Tumbling Blocks

Thursday, February 11

Erin Harris, House on Hill Road

Janice Ryan, Better Off Thread

Friday, February 12

John Adams, Quilt Dad

Kari Vojtechovsky, Craft Happy

Saturday, February 13

Katie Blakesley, Swim Bike Quilt

Kati Spencer, From the Blue Chair

Sunday, February 14

Melissa Lunden, Lunden Designs

Allison Harris, Cluck Cluck Sew

Sherri McConnell, A Quilting Life  

For my Accuquilt project last month, I started a medallion quilt. This month, I made it bigger by adding two more borders. I really like where this is heading. I have limited myself to fabrics that I have in my stash and I am always amazed at how creative I can be when I shop my studio instead of the fabric store!

If you are interested in making this project, you can read the specifics, along with the tutorial(s), over on the Accuquilt blog. I do love my GO! cutter, but if you don't have one, you can still make this quilt with a little math and figuring.