Happy fall! I have a tutorial over on the AccuQuilt blog that tells you how to make this cute pumpkin mini quilt. It comes together quickly and easily and I love that it is holiday decor I can can leave up into November if I so desire. It is also a great way to use up scraps. I was amazed at how many oranges were in my scrap bucket. I must use it more than I think!

While I do enjoy the accuracy and speed of my GO! Cutter, this project is easily achieved using a rotary cutter and ruler, too. The individual squares finish at 2 1/4'' and the pumpkin is 11 1/4'' x 18''. I added a 1'' finished border before quilting it.

And...after I made this mini and submitted the content to AccuQuilt, I became aware of a similar looking quilt over on Cluck Cluck Sew. Great minds think alike! While my tutorial shows just this one pumpkin, Allison's pattern has many pumpkin variations of different sizes and is completely adorable. Please, go check it out. It's a quilt that I might want to make myself! It's tricky when similar ideas come to different people, but it does happen and I want to be transparent about it.

While I am being transparent, I will add that AccuQuilt provided me with the dies for this project, but the idea and opinions about their products are 100% mine.

I have a new tutorial over on the Accuquilt blog for this eight-pointed star. It is a fun one without any y-seams! Yay! The block finishes at 18" so a handful of blocks would make a sweet baby quilt. Or make a bunch for a larger throw or bed sized quilt. I added some borders to my block to make it into a pillow. It would make a cute mini quilt, too.

I had a lot of fun quilting this one. I practiced doing some free-motion ribbons in the star points and, while far from perfect, I like them! The rest was done with my walking foot. I didn't mark the lines on the block, but rather used the seams and the edge of the foot as my guides. I love making small projects like this to experiment with quilting. It's much easier to commit to trying something new on a pillow or a mini instead of a full-sized quilt.

I enjoy using my GO! Cutter and it certainly saves me loads of time. But it is also important to me to point out that almost all of the projects I design with the cutting system in mind, can be achieved using a rotary cutter and ruler. If you make something using one of my tutorials, please let me know. I would love to see your work!

As always, Accuquilt provided the dies for this project. The design and any opinions are mine.

One of my finishes this summer was this throw quilt. The pattern is XOXO by Green Bee Patterns and the fabric (Tokyo Train Ride by Sarah Watts for Cotton and Steel along with a few other prints from my stash) was purchased as a kit sometime in 2015 from Craftsy. It's a fun pattern with a variety of sizes and very fat quarter friendly. I love the color palette of the fabrics. I don't think it is something that I would have put together on my own as I tend towards bright, saturated prints. But, man, those peachy pinks, greens and golds are so pretty together! I love the background fabric - it is a great low-volume print on unbleached cotton. It gives the quilt some interest without being overpowering.

The piecing is all squares and half square triangles. I chose to make my triangle blocks larger than called for so I could trim them down to the exact measurement. I highly recommend doing that - it just gives you more precise pieces. I also highly recommend the Bloc Loc ruler for doing this. I'm not one to buy expensive extra gadgets and tools, but this is worth it. Total game changer!

I rented time on the long arm at Quilted Joy to quilt this one. Having the option to long arm my quilts without owning a long arm has allowed me to get so many more quilts finished this year. Yippee! I chose to do a free-motion orange peel that I think suits the quilt well. It is far from perfect, but the overall feel is there and because I had the blocks to guide me, it was a fast finish. Also...perfection is over-rated. Am I right?!?

The back and the binding are from the same fabric line as the majority of the prints. I chose to machine bind this quilt as it was slated for donation and I always think in situations like that, durability is called for. Plus, it is just plain faster. The finished size was 64" square before washing. I used 100% cotton batting so I am certain it shrunk although I did not measure it after it came out of the dryer. Gotta love that crinkle! I donated it to the quilt booth at our church carnival in July. It was a hard one to let go, but I cannot keep them all. Plus, the pattern is so fun, I can make it again!

Hello!

I know I disappeared. What can I say? Oh yes, SUMMER. That is it. I feel like I could go on about what we have been doing (a whole lot of just living) and where we have been (Vancouver! Alaska! New York City!), but I am just going to jump in with a finished project with plans of more finished projects to come. Sound good?

Back in June, my sister-in-law, Georgia, sent me the link to Purl Soho's Puffy Tote in Nani Iro Quilted Double Gauze with a little hinting about maybe making one of those. I am pretty certain that she wasn't looking for that exact fabric, but just a puffy tote. Knowing how dreamy, light and soft the double gauze is, I decided to try Purl's version first. And by try it it, I mean that I ordered the fabric in 7 different prints. Ha!

When the fabric arrived, I read the tutorial and knew that if I was going to make this bag happen, the bias tape it calls for would not. That seemed like too much fussiness for me. I cut the fabric in the size as indicated EXCEPT I made sure that the quilting lines were evenly spaced at the top and bottom so that the quilting would match up on the side seams. I am particular this way - if I can match a pattern, I do. Next, I ran top and bottom edges of the fabric through my serger and then sewed the side seams using the serger. This finished all the raw edges and made the need for the bias tape obsolete. (You could do this with a zig zag or overlock stitch on your regular sewing machine if you don't have a serger!) I followed Purl's tutorial for making the gusset, just sewing those with my regular sewing machine. For the top edge, I folded the fabric along the top quilting line towards the inside and pinned in place. Then, on the outside of the bag, I sewed in the ditch of the next quilting line. (You can see this in the photo of the pocket below). Finally, I sewed some 25" leather handles on and called it good.

The first bag (yellow and gray above) made didn't have a pocket. The next one does! This one I made in the same way, except that before I sewed down the top edge, I slid a zippered pocket under it and then sewed it all down together. The pocket is one piece of fabric with a zipper inserted in it so it becomes a tube. I then pressed it flat so the zipper was towards the top of the pocket and finished the sides with some binding. Fairly easy, all done by machine, including the binding. I think it makes for a much more functional bag.

The pocketed one was gifted to my friend Marcia for her birthday. It just screams summer to me! I still have to put the finishing touches on the remaining five, but I hope to finish those up in the next week or so. Or maybe after the Olympics...I love a good excuse to watch TV and knit or do some hand work.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I needed to sew some clothing right away. This happens to me when I have been dealing with fiddly quilt blocks or need a palette refresher. It seems so satisfying in those moments to cut up large pieces of fabric and sew them back together. Anyhow, I had purchased the Willow Tank Dress pattern by Grainline Studios in the hopes that it would help fill a tank top sized hole in my summer wardrobe. Spoiler alert: it did.

The pattern consists of four pieces - a front, a back and bias strips for the neck and armholes. The sewing is very easy - the directions are clear and concise, plus if you are in any doubt of what to do, there is a sew-along for the pattern that includes bust adjustments and lengthening/shortening instructions. I jumped in without making a muslin because I felt comfortable that I would be a size 12 with the only modification being adding length (2" to be exact).

This worked and then it didn't. My first version (on the left above) was made out of a piece of Nani Iro double gauze that I purchased while in Minneapolis/St. Paul years ago. (The print has been reissued - you can snag it at Miss Matatabi!) I've had it in my stash, waiting for the right pattern as it wasn't big enough to make a skirt or something with sleeves. It's really a miracle that I hadn't cut it up and made a quilt. But back to business...that willow tank fits me pretty well. I didn't make a bust adjustment and I am a C or D cup depending on the bra. The added 2" of length put the hem at the perfect spot and it just skims my hips. The double gauze is soft and floaty and has a little bit of give to it. The second version was sewn the same way - size 12, 2" added for length - but it is a little tight in the bust. I think the difference in fit is down to the fabric choice. The blue floral is a Robert Kaufman lawn and it was a dream to sew up. I love the drape and the weight, but it is a tightly woven fabric that doesn't have the give that double gauze does. I could have gone up a size or done a bust adjustment and had a better fit, but oh well. I will still wear it with the one bra in my drawer that makes it passable.

As I tend to do when I find a pattern I like, I have visions of more, more, more Willow Tanks in my closet. There is even a dress version that I am anxious to try. You can probably guess where this is going...I have ordered more of that delightful Nani Iro double gauze and am hoping to whip a few more of these up as soon as I have two hours to spare.

Also, props to Jane for the photo. I am finally getting the hand of these modeled shots - she gives good direction. ;)

I have a new tutorial over on the Accuquilt blog for making a super-sized churn dash block. I really love making large-scale blocks. They pack a huge visual punch. You can have a quilt top in no time. This block finishes at 18" - these four make a nice baby quilt at 36" square! Big blocks also work great with large or small scale prints. The blue and white floral I used here was leftover from another project I made last week. I am always happy to use what is on hand and using scraps is a bonus! Pop on over to the Accuquilt blog for complete instructions. If you don't have a GO! Cutter, you can make this happen with just a little math. It's easy. I promise.

And for the fine print: I was given the cutter and the dies by Accuquilt, but the fabric, the project idea and opinions are all my own.

I have a new tutorial on the Accuquilt blog showing how to make this adorable spring bunting. It's super easy and uses just two dies and very little fabric. Everything I used was taken from the scrap pile! There are just so many options of how to customize this to suit any occasion. Graduation parties, baby and bridal showers, birthdays, holidays...you get the drift. You can also customize it to make it longer or by using different size and shaped flags for variety. So many options! For the complete how-to, hop on over to Accuquilt and check it out.

I knew it wouldn't be long before I made a second Ryan Top. Four days since I finished the final hem stitches on my first version, I was wearing my second.

I followed the same process for making this one as I did the first. It's a size L and I omitted the neck facings and used a bias tape instead. I did cut my bias strips at 1 1/4" instead of 1 1/2" and I think this was a better choice. It's a much better and proportionate fit. The fabric I used was two separate pieces of Liberty Tana Lawn that I bought back in 2010 when we took a family trip to London. The pattern pieces *just* fit. One of my fabric pieces was slightly longer than the other so I used that for the bodice pieces, but it was still too short for the pattern as designed. To make it work, I shortened the torso by 3 1/2" at the bottom edge and folded the selvedges in towards the center of the fabric to give me 2 folded edges. For the front and back yokes, I folded the fabric in the same manner. It took some serious arranging and the fabric pattern on the back yoke may be upside down (who's looking?), but I made it work. Take that, Tim Gunn.

It's still a little snug under the arms and if I had had a more generous cut of fabric, I would have tried adding a smidge of width - maybe a 1/2" or so? Alas, it was not to be and the resulting top is still totally wearable. I love the length on this shorter version just as much as I like the long length on the original one - it's just a different look. This one worked great with my boyfriend jeans and will be equally as cute with shorts. Yay!

This week is a busy one and I wasn't holding out high hope to get much sewing accomplished. This top is so damn quick to come together - I think my total time cutting and sewing was just at 2 hours - that I couldn't resist jumping in. I do love a fast sew! I also managed to work a tiny bit on one of the quilts I have under construction in a spare hour on Monday and am wishing for a small chunk of time to put the finishing touches on the last blocks. Sometimes I get so discouraged when my time is limited. To that end, I have spent hours and hours each week at physical therapy for two minor, yet painful and annoying injuries over the last two months. It has really eaten into my creative time and that is has started to wear on me. I miss the making. I realize that I just need to change my lens when it comes to how I approach making at the moment. There ARE more minutes available to me than I think. I just have to find them. Have you read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert? (I LOVED it! And I would highly recommend it and, yes, that is an affiliate link.) There's this part when she suggests having an affair with your creative work. Get sneaky. Steal the time to create. Revel in the process. Do the work. Don't tell anyone what you are doing. Just keep it a secret. That is the notion fueling me right now.