Category Archives: Fabric

January 6, 2014 · 9:13 pm

Woodlands in Winter Quilt and Tutorial

Here is a quilt I made for my mother for Christmas! I call it Woodlands in Winter. They live in the forest and run the Woodlands Sawmill.

tree-1

Improv trees on a sea of mixed neutrals. I was inspired by Lovely Design’s Lovely Little Forest quilt from the Purl Bee.

Walking foot quilting in flowing lines, inspired by Debbie’s Joy of Simplicity pillow seen here.

I bought a white-on-white bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics and used a lot of Kona Bone for the background. It measures something like 80″ x 75″.

One tree fell down. Time to harvest its lumber!

Read on for a tutorial on how to make these wonky trees and plan for the final layout…

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under Fabric, Holiday, Pattern, Quilting, Tutorial

Tagged as quilt, quilting, tree

December 24, 2013 · 1:45 pm

Reindeer Fabric Palooza

One night last spring I was drunk and bought 4 yards of holiday Fair Isle printed jersey fabric.

The first time I’ve ever gotten a rib-knit neck right on the first try!

That’s a lot of fabric for not having any projects in mind.

Drafted a t-shirt pattern for my husband!
Jorna tank for me.

I decided to spread it as far as I could into as many holiday outfits as possible for several of my favorite people:

flashback tees for my boys.

My niece and nephew!

Jorna Junior!

Jorna Juniors!

Fancy Pants Leggings by Titchy Threads

happy holidays.

2 Comments

Filed under Clothes, Fabric, Holiday, Kids, Pattern

November 17, 2013 · 2:02 pm

Infinity Sweater

Karen from One Girl Circus has a great new pattern out called the Infinity Sweater.

I love the look of an Infinity Sweater in Jersey, which can be worn in countless ways, but for the cold end of fall, I longed for something super warm.

So I made a version of the Infinity out of flannel! And not just any flannel! Made by Rae’s flannel Fanfare Foxes!

Sorry for the grainy photos here. Terrible fall lighting + dead camera + blogging with kids = my excuses.

The first time I saw Rae’s little foxes, I just wanted to drape myself in them. Screw kid’s clothes – it was time to ensconce myself in flannel. I am a modern-day George Costanza.

George ensconced in velvet

But I didn’t stop at the foxes! I made another version for a friend out of some really fun woven fabric.

Blankets as fashion – this is me:

These “tribal” sweaters (ugh – there’s a better word I’m sure, but that’s the one getting used) are so hot right now. Check out this one from Anthropologie:

And I made one more. This one I made from just cheap JoAnns flannel, as it was my first experiment with a flannel Infinity. A wearable muslin, if you want.

So cozy! I love it. I love all three of them and they are WARM. If you’re looking for a socially acceptable way to wear your slanket out in public this is it.

A couple tips if you want to try this look yourself.

Get the pattern – it’s awesome and can be made as-is, or given slight alterations to take on INFINITE design ideas.
Go a size-up – the Infinity is designed for stretch fabric, and if your fabric doesn’t stretch you should account for that for a better fit.
Play with the front-flap lengths. If you’re making this from a thin fabric (like most t-shirt jerseys) then you could keep them full-length so you can wear the cardigan in multiple ways (as a wrap! tied behind your back! over your neck!). But if you’re making this from a thicker fabric and know you’ll ONLY wear it open, you may want to shorten the flaps.
For the foxes Infinity, I shortened the flaps so it’s all the same length around when worn, and I actually hand-tacked a fold to keep a certain look in place. Let’s call the a couture hand-sewing element, rather than a weird cheat ; )

2 Comments

Filed under Clothes, Fabric, Pattern

November 8, 2013 · 7:10 pm

Vroom Vroom! Another car quilt

A simple, fun commissioned quilt for a newborn boy!

The pattern is inspired by a design from this book HERE.

Cars are from Riley Blake’s Peak Hour and were appliqued using my sew and turn method.I’ve made two of these quilts before and they are blogged here.

1 Comment

Filed under Fabric, Kids, Quilting

November 7, 2013 · 7:10 pm

Felix Quilt

Here’s a take on a Positive Space quilt in perky yellows, oranges, and blues. It’s for a new darling boy who was born a couple of weeks ago.

I love these Lizzy House fabrics and also, if you look at the picture above, I like the chevron prints that I cut on angles. Sort of fun, huh?

I used yellow thread for the quilting; a zig-zag stitch done with my walking foot.

I love this binding with the plaid, and the backing is shirting fabric. It is so incredibly soft!

2 Comments

Filed under Fabric, Pattern, Quilting

October 3, 2013 · 7:07 pm

Echino Kimono

After seeing the awesome, simple tutorial on Elle Apparel, I knew I had to make a “kimono.”

Rather than silk, however, I was dying to use the Echino Rhino print. It’s a 85% cotton/15% linen blend, but I like the way it hangs, especially after a wash. The design is so awesome, I literally felt the need to drape myself in the fabric.

This has been a great way to add a touch of fashion to my tees and jeans wardrobe.

1 Comment

Filed under Clothes, Fabric, Tutorial

September 30, 2013 · 12:17 pm

City Stripes – A King Sized Quilt

My sister in law recently acquired a piece by YURI MASNYJ and decided she wants to hang it in her bedroom – where she will be sure to see it everyday.

This lead to her desire to have a new quilt for her king-sized bed that would coordinate with the print and the variety of other beautiful artworks she has in her room. (She runs an art gallery and her whole house features AMAZING art.)

I was super honored that she commissioned me to come up with a quilt! We worked together on the design, and after seeing THIS quilt and THIS quilt I came up with this sketch:

And then it was off to the races! I drew a grid over my sketch to help me keep track of the proportions:

Each row was developed and built out, then framed with grey. The rows were then joined and the final border was fleshed out until I had my desired width.

My Bernina people said that they would never try to quilt a King on their machine. I have a 550 QE and I just didn’t want to give up and send it to a quilter without giving it a try – especially since I knew I really wanted a version of straight line quilting! I used a thin cotton batting and am happy to report that with my walking foot and ziggy zaggy stitch 16, as well as a large table with chairs around helping support the blanket, AND some clean gardening gloves to aid in my guiding of the fabric, I really had ZERO problems quilting this blanket. Zig Zag stitches every 1.5 – 3.5 inches throughout the entire blanket. I did it in two sittings.

The backing is three panels: stripes, white and grey. The binding is stripe fabric (an homage to Red Pepper Quilts): some skinny stripes, some wider.

I am looking forward to making this quilt a little sister someday! I’d love to play with this design again on a smaller scale.

4 Comments

Filed under Fabric, Inspiration, Quilting

September 20, 2013 · 12:46 pm

Everett’s Plus Quilt

My dear friend is having a baby boy in just a couple of weeks! Her decorating style has always really impressed me. Her home has lots of dark wood, rich colors, gold filigreed wallpaper. They are big on Americana and she finds all sorts of amazing items at estate sales. In fact she is one of the bloggers for the popular thrifting blog Dig This Treasure.

I decided to do a repeating plus block quilt similar to THIS ONE, but in nutty browns, tans, black, white, and some splashes of orange and yellow. This whole quilt came to fruition when I scored some vintagey looking Star Spangled Banner music fabric from a swap at the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. It’s quilted with a large zig-zag embroidery stitch (#16 on my Bernina).

The backing fabric is mostly this AMAZING Field Notes fabric by Moda and some left over strips (origin unknown) that I used to back THIS quilt from the Positive Space Quilt-A-Long

Embroidered label : )

Anyway the quilt goes best with my friend’s living room, but take a look at their amazing mint nursery! And yes – that’s a taxidermied boar’s head. And that’s a real dog, not a toy.

1 Comment

Filed under Fabric, Quilting

September 18, 2013 · 3:41 am

Make a Jorna with me!

I’m teaching a class at Pink Castle Fabrics all about sewing with stretch knit fabric. AND WHAT BETTER WHAT TO LEARN ABOUT SEWING KNITS THAN BY SEWING A JORNA! ::fist pumps::

Make a jumper! Wear it with jeans!

In this class participants will be given the complete pattern for the Jorna dress, the Jorna junior, and the maternity-style Jorna. Throughout the class you’ll learn tips and techniques for working with jersey knit, how to do an all-in-one bodice lining, and you’ll leave with a finished garment!

The Jorna dress comes in sizes XS-XL for women, 2T-5T for toddler aged girls. The “Knocked-Up Jorna” is for pregnant women sizes XS-XL (pre-pregnancy sizes). The patterns come with length options, making this a garment you can make again and again, achieving different results that are always flattering.

Make a dress!

Prerequisites: Students should be comfortable sewing a straight stitch on their machine.

Price per student: $60

Length of class: Meets once for 3 hours

This class will be taught on: Saturday, September 28, 2013 // 10:30am – 1:30pm

BOOK YOUR SPOT!

Make a sexy and comfortable tank!

Make a Jorna Jr.! 2T – 5T!

Cover that bump! Luxe Knocked-Up Jorna is super awesome.

Maxi Skirt

A little late, yet again, but here’s my week three project for the Summer of No Pants series!

So comfortable and easy, but it adds a bit of style and a nice alternative to jeans! I love items you can throw on effortlessly and still carry a sense of fashion.

I used this tutorial!