Half-way done

This quilt is close to being half done. I should say that half the blocks are done and they are all attached to one another, so to me that counts as about half done. I'm liking it a bit better. My taste certainly still runs more towards greens, blues and brights, but this is starting to work for me.

I do need to note, and this may be adjusted when I finish the quilt, but the fabric requirements are not correct on the MBS pattern. If you want to cut 9 strips of binding and one strip of the center blocks you will need 2/3 of a yard, not 1/2 however, maybe 9 was a typo and you might only need the 7 that I was able to cut from a 1/2 yard, we will see when it is done. But if you are ordering for this quilt I would play it safe and get 2/3 yard if you don't want to wait for me to finish to find out if you will need it.

Also - this quilt calls for 3 charm packs. By definition a charm pack contains 42 squares (so three makes a total of 126), and this has 16 blocks made up of 8 squares each which means you need 128, which leaves you 2 squares short, assuming that you use every single square in the pack, which I do not intend to do because two in each pack are the same fabric that I am using for the center stars.  So at the end I should be short a few squares. I am still unsure what I will do about this.

I have been using and loving for this quilt these new pins which I bought on amazon:

They are called fork pins and they allow you to do this:

With just one pin and they are so easy to pull out as you sew. I think they were worth the couple dollars I spend to get nice matched up seams so easily!

Also, in big news this week, the new Oliver + S book is out, and wouldn't you know I came home from a long exhausting shift Friday night and there were two packages sitting on my coffee table. One was the copy I bought myself the second I found out it was ready to ship, and the other was the copy my husband had bought me way back at Christmas before it was released! So now I have two copies. Yay me!

Since I was already gushing about Liesl Gibson's patterns after making the hopscotch skirt I won't say all that stuff again, but I think this book would also make a very good "learn to sew" book for someone looking to branch out from quilting, or just to practice some pattern following and apparel sewing. Like me :)

Hopscotch Skirt

Pattern: Hopscotch Skirt by Oliver + S

Fabric: City Weekend by Oliver + S for Moda in Bistro Red Roundabout Dots

Sometime last year or so in my blog reading I came across Oliver + S, a company that makes beautiful patterns for children's clothes in classic but modern styles. If you really want to learn how to sew you must buy some Oliver + S patterns because the instructions are so easy to understand and the techniques are often more advanced, but they are explained so simply that you can learn new ways of making clothes. The designs seem very professional and the end project feels like a very well-made high quality garment.

I love love love this skirt. I am so proud of myself. 

I love the pockets.

I love the buttons and the buttonholes that I sewed on my new machine. 

 

I love that it is a size 2T and it actually looks like it would fit a 2 year old. That is actually the best part. 

New Ideas

This month I have been following the Moda pillow talk blog hop and have discovered some new designers (new to me) and some awesome new fabric lines! I also check Moda Bake shop blog daily and find tons of patterns I love. Today's pattern is a modifided hexagon, that is machine sewn (something I had been looking for) made with Sherbert Pips by Aneela Hoey, who blogs at Comfortstiching.  The pattern is by Lynn of Lilly's Quilts. She is giving away a layer cake of Sherbert Pips, you can go over and look at it but don't leave three comments like I did, because you will lessen my chances of winning!!! Just kidding..... maybe.....

Smock Top

My first adventure in smocking. I didn't pull it out five times so I guess I will call it success. This pattern is again from Making Children's Clothes. Now that I have made two tops I am wondering.... are the proportions a little off in some of these patterns? Does she just like them to be very roomy for kids? Or (and this is the most likely scenario) am I not really remembering right the chubby shortness of children?   In the first top it may have been because I made the smallest size, but here it was really just one size option. It would be good if I had an actual child to try it on. Especially when it came to the straps. The pattern said to try it on the child and place them accordingly. Hm.... Normally I just eyeball-it but it occurred to me today that I can just safety-pin them on and attach them later. Ta-Da!

So smocking... I like this method involving stretching out the elastic and zig-zag stitching it down, but I think maybe she used better quality elastic, because mine did not scrunch up as much as hers did. I was a little disappointed, it still kind of looked straight instead of very gathered at the top. So if I made this again, I would use only 20 in of elastic instead of the 24 or something like that.

I do however, love my fabric choices. I have learned from quilting a lot about how the individual fabrics have to carry their own weight as well as complimenting each other. I thought the fabrics in the book's example were a little weak (Sorry, Ms. Hardy) but these Joann finds look great I think.

So February's projects are done.... and it is the 8th. Hm.... I'm not sure whether I should continue to drag this out, in order to get other things done at the same time, or do them all at once and move on. As you can see, each project takes about one afternoon. But I have some Oliver & S projects calling to me from my pattern stash so maybe that will be my weekend project, along with the shortbread cookies I promised everyone at work for Valentine's Day. On which I am working.... boo.

It is finally February!

If you read this post you will remember that I am in the middle of a project that involves sewing every pattern in one book in a year. I whipped through January, and I am happy to say it is now 2 days into February and I have completed one of my two patterns for this month.
The Petal Top is complete:

The colors in this top are brighter in real life.
I made the size 2-3 because I am instinctively attracted to small cute things... but I think the proportions might be a little better in a larger size. This feels like it might be a little too puffy on a busy little two-year-old.
I modified the details slightly by just adding a small pink bow instead of a large fabric flower-thing. At this point in time, it is just tacked on with a tiny safety pin, but I think I might leave it that way so it can come off to go in the wash. Or in case she hates bows. Some girls are like that.
I did learn a new technique which happens to be featured on my wonderful new sewing machine - the overlocking stitch. It is used to keep edges from fraying much like a serger does, or similar to what you might do with a zig-zag stitch, but it's fancier.
So that is the Petal Top. On to the smocked top, which intimidates me with it's elastic smocking....