Owly Baby: sewing travel case

February 14, 2012

Rainbow Barf

I feel like I have a dirty secret. The secret is this quilt I've been working on for ME! I have made quite a few quilts now, but never a quilt for myself. This quilt has been affectionately dubbed "Rainbow Barf" around our home - mostly for the obnoxious use of color and the arcs shapes.

When I decided I wanted to make a quilt for myself, I planned and schemed and researched and finally decided to do a pickle dish/double wedding ring quilt. I can't tell the difference between those two patterns. I was inspired by the awesome quilt in the book Material Obsession 2.


Can you see it, on the left and draped on the chair? (photo from "http://www.flickr.com/photos/theworkroom/)

I'm far too cheap to purchase a pattern, so I drafted up the pattern on the computer and set to work cutting and piecing. It hasn't taken too long, I've been working on the quilt for about 1 month at various intervals between LOTS of other sewing.

These are some of my favorite combos. I have no idea why! They can be a bit in-your-face color-wise.

The quilt has a scrap of *almost* every fabric I own! It's been very fun to match the arc fabrics based on value (light/dark) instead of by color. To match them I used my camera in black and white mode and took photos of the fabrics. This ensures that there is a good amount of contrast in the arcs. Sometimes if you just squint really hard at the fabrics - you can get a good test of value. If the colors both mesh together (like the light purple and green in the photo below), then there isn't much value difference. If one color stands out (like the woodgrain and pink tiles below) there is a high contrast/difference in value.

I'm using polyester batting *gasp* because I don't like heavy quilts. This baby is BIG! It's about 82" x 82". I've just started the hand quilting and it's been very relaxing! The backing is a large 1" check gingham in a mint color - you can see it at the bottom left and right on the photo below.

This last photo shows how I've been quilting it. I'm skipping every other "ray" and quilting with perle cotton in size 10.

I feel much better now that I've shared my "secret" (and selfish?) quilt.

January 17, 2011

Extreme nesting

I'm now a few days overdue and I'm quite impatiently for baby to come. The house has been kept clean, the dishes done, laundry folded, meals have been made and frozen....

There is nothing left to do but sew! Keeping my hands busy has been a blessing and has kept my mind off of the sleepless nights to come...

Here is what I have been up to in the last few days.

Completed Projects

Stacked Strip Quilt Pillow

I just got a walking foot and thought I should try my hand at quilting....so here is my attempt at a stacked strip pillow with cording.

The colors make me happy.

I had fun playing with my scrap pile - and rearranging the colors over and over...

It was also my first time making cording.

I think the red and white stripes make the pillow quite playful.

Burp Cloths

I made a few new burp cloths for the baby (and a few for the shop)

Nursing Cover

I embroidered the bottom corner of my new nursing cover to give it some pizazz. It's also fitting for Valentine's day coming up!

I stumbled upon some beautiful quilts while looking for inspiration for my stacked strip quilt pillow. A few of the quilts were made of hexagons that had been hand pieced. I thought I would give the hexagons a try and now I'm hooked!

The hand sewing involved in paper piecing is very therapeutic and almost addictive. I know it will be a work in progress for quite a while - but piecing hexagons is great for using up scraps AND it's a great on-the-go projects (think car rides, waiting rooms, etc..).

Travel Sewing Case

So I HAD to make a little travel sewing case for my hexagon sewing supplies. I'm so proud of this little zipper case I spent about 10 minutes just opening and closing it last night for my husband. He was still trying to be impressed after the 15th time...so nice of him!