A duvet cover

I know, long time no write!




I started this duvet cover a year ago. I had actually intended to finish it for last winter but it took much longer than I had expected and I lost some motivation.

The fabric: I used 2 fat quarter packs of the Spring Harvest Sweet as Honey collection from Bonnie Christine for the squares. The border is from the same Sweet as Honey collection but the Fall coloring. The white fabric is Kona Snow. I bought a bolt and I may just have to keep myself stocked with bolts of it and use it as my default white.

The pattern: The square block called Garden Fence and I first saw it on pinterest. The duvet cover is 7 blocks by 7 blocks. I was able to cut fabric for 3 blocks per fat quarter for a total of 60 blocks. I was thinking of making matching pillow cases with the extra blocks but decided to do something with them for the back.




Since it is a duvet cover and not actually quilted down, I did have to finish off the edges so they didn't unravel. Rather than just sewing the seams to piece, for each seam, I then went back to do a zig zag stitch along the edge to finish it off and then I ironed the seam down and top stitched it so the seams are actually sewn down and can't flop around.

From the right side, it does look quilted, but really, it's just the top stitching. It's a good thing I love sewing straight lines!

Quilted things

It's been a while. I was away in Australia and Taiwan for a bit. Then I came back and immediately jumped into Quilter's Quest where I got some nice kits and fabrics. So, I now share with you some finished things.

I have a couple of baby quilts. I took the leftover fabric from the quilt I made for my cousin and made a couple of small practice pieces. I quilted one on a long arm machine at my local quilt shop and quilted the other at home on my machine. I also played around with doing a machine sewn binding and found that if I cut the binding a tiny bit wider, I don't have a problem with sewing down the binding on the machine.



Both were quilted with a general meander line. I'm just trying to get used to the motion here.





And the backs - cute little animal prints and science prints!



The next quilt is a kit I picked up on the Quilter's Quest. I had seen that border print at the local quilt shop and LOVED it. The rest of the fabrics are all in the same line and the rest is history. I did buy the binding print separately since the kit used that same border print for the binding but it seemed a little too blue. The binding I did use makes for a nice contrast and it goes really well with the backing fabric that I have.



For the quilting, I used some curly ques to simulate waves. In between, I had some standalone star shapes for starfish. It all fits into the nautical theme.



You can see it better on the back. See the starfish in the middle?



Finally, the borders.



This is going to make for a nice snuggle under the couch throw!

PA National Quilt Extravaganza

On Thursday, I took the Quilter's Unlimited bus up to the King of Prussia area to check out a quilt show. It was pretty awesome, aside from having to get up before 5am which does not leave me feeling right all day. At least I didn't have to drive since we did hit some rush hour traffic on the way back.

I came back with some fabric and some patterns and I was really happy to find some novelty print hockey fabric! I was so excited about this one that I came home and immediately made a knitting project bag with it.

Aside from vendors, they also had many quilts on display. As a newbie quilter, it was very inspiring to see them all. I have the full flicker set here but here are a few of my favorites:

WIP Wednesday - quilting a queen sized quilt

I know that normally, one quilts the layers before trimming and sewing on the binding but I changed the order around slightly. I basted my layers together and stitched in the ditch around each square. Then I quilted the lines in the border and sewed on the binding. I had a friend coming to visit and I wanted to make sure there was a lighter blanket available should he need it. I also wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt the blanket but I didn't think I wanted to stitch in the ditch around all the pieces. I was inspired by the lines in the border and decided to go with a free form line stitch. It's my first time using the darning foot on an actual piece I expect to finish and not just a test swatch.

WIP Wednesday - another quilt top!

Yup, right as I finish one, I've already got another one going! It all started when I had seen the Dizzy Spell over at the Lella Boutique blog. It's a simple enough concept of strips into squares and all I really needed were the fabric requirements. The yardage for the yellow fabric that is the binding theme through the entire quilt was one I had calculated out ahead of time. I made a good guess for yardage for the rest of the fabric and after I was through cutting and sewing, I barely have any scraps left.

Today, I'm off to the quilt shop to see about border, backing, and a binding fabric for this. I think I'm going to actually try to quilt this at home, so that should be an interesting adventure!

Finished! - Charming Stars Quilt

I finished my quilt! This is the Charming Stars Quilt, instructions from Moda Bake Shop. The original instructions called for 4 x 4 squares of the star blocks. I recalculated everything for a 5x5 block queen sized quilt. Maths, I can do it!

I pieced the top together and sent it out to be quilted by a local long arm quilter. You saw in my last post when it came back and then I started working on binding the quilt with some beads.


I'm also very happy with how that turned out. You don't notice the beads as you sleep under under the quilt though I do wonder if the beads help to stiffen up the edge. We'll see when I get the next quilt put together.

I am very happy with this AND it's a much lighter blanket than the one I had on my bed so it keeps me cold and from having nightmares when I start to over heat.

Charm Stars Quilt on the Home Stretch

Yesterday, I got my Charm Stars Quilt back from the long armer and I am SO EXCITED!



The quilting pattern is one of dragonflies. It's not a very dense quilting pattern since I didn't want it to detract from the piece fabric on the front side. You can see the dragonflies better on the back side.



In preparation for its homecoming, I sewed the strips of fabric I needed for the binding. When I got it home, I got ride to work in attaching the binding to the edge. My huge bead stash came in handy and I was able to find the beads I wanted to use on the edging. In binding off the baby quilt, I found the needle motion very similar to that of the back stitch in bead embroidery. I knew that on this one, I wanted to attach a row of beads to the edge. I wanted hot pink beads to bring out the few pieces of pink in the fabric.



So far, the beads don't stick out so I'm hoping that when all is said and done and I'm under this blanket every night that the beads don't make this blanket uncomfortable.

FO Friday - A quilt!

This is not my first quilt but it is the one I'm happiest with. The quilts I'd made in the past were for full/queen sized beds and they weren't very manageable on the sewing machine and I only partially knew what I was doing. I only knew what I could read from books. I didn't know any quilters and there weren't things like Craftsy to give you some lessons and hints and tips.

I started out with the Bungle Jungle and Kona Snow layer cakes and made a bunch of half square triangles. I wanted to keep the piecing simple. The order of the squares were randomly arranged with an eye out to avoid having the same pattern next to each other and keeping all of the colors evenly spaced around.



I'm also very happy with the hand sewn binding. I think all of the bead embroidery work has helped to improve my skill with needle and thread!

WIP Wednesday - Snowquester!

Most of the DC region is trapped indoors because it's March and we're expecting a large snow storm. They're telling us 4-8 inches of snow but all I'm seeing is large wet clumps of snow that aren't sticking to the ground. Of course, I'm in the middle of the city so the ground probably isn't cold enough for it to stick.

This week, I've got a few things going on. I'm very close to finishing up the baby quilt. I'm sewing in the binding on the fourth side of the blanket and then it's wash and block!


The Honey Cowl was coming along until I started binding off and found it to be way too long! So, this is what it did look like. Now, it's been ripped out.


I also picked back up the Maple Leaf Shawl. I know it has been at least 2 years since I last worked on it, probably at least 3 since I've been living in my current place for 2 years and was madly cleaning and sorting through things the year prior. Turns out, I'm a lot farther along than I had thought so, I'm hoping to finish it off!

WIP Wednesday - sewing the quilt

I have a few projects in the works, as usual.

I'm finding spinning to be quite soothing. I'm spinning on another Bullseye Bump. The colorway is called "Moody Valentine" and started with a dark purple and moved to the grey and the white that you can see in the picture. After the white is pink and then blank. I plan on Navajo plying  the single when I'm done and aiming for a sport or DK weight.

On the needles is Ishbel, but that is paused because I ran out of yarn. I'm waiting for the yarn to get here and will hopefully finish knitting this before the end of the month.

I also have my Icelandic souvenir sweater. It's knit bottom up and I think I'm only a couple of inches away from the under arm. I had to do some major recalculations on the pattern since their largest size was for a 36 inch chest and the hip to underarm measurement was 6.5 inches making for a really short torso!

Finally, the baby blanket. It has been pieced and a border added on. I finally bit the bullet and pinned it to the minky I'm using the back it and started sewing. I sit down for a few minutes and sew a little bit on the machine. I also hope to be done with this by the end of the month and get it off in the mail.

WIP Wednesday - 2/6/2013

I know, I haven't posted in a few weeks!

I had been in and out for a bit. I was down in Orlando for the Disney Marathon weekend where I ran the half marathon and the first 10k of the full marathon for a weekend total of almost 20 miles. Yes, I was trying to do the Goofy Challenge which was to run both the half and full but technically, I shouldn't have been running any of it due to a strained glute/IT band so I'm happy with what I was able to do.

Then there was Vogue Knitting Live and I showed you the dress I had made.

Well, now, we're back the day to day so here is what I've got going on for projects.

I'm working on the Rock Island Shawl by Jared Flood. You start knitting the outer borders, then pick up along the edge of the border and knit in. The number of stitches is decreasing every couple of rows. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. This should be done before the month is through.


I also got some old fiber off the wheels (I'll show it to you on Friday) and moved onto the next Bullseye Bump from Loop!.


Finally, I've pulled out the sewing machine. You can see my sewing area here.


I'm currently working my way through the Charming Stars Quilt from the Moda Bake Shop. This is going to be the light blanket on my bed. The current blanket is way too warm for this weather and even though it's at or above freezing at night outside, I still need to have the ceiling fan on to keep me cool.