Zakka style sew along- pencil case

I am working my way through Zakka Style in a very picky way, and this pencil case was perfect for this week, since I wanted to make a gift for my second cousin who just moved to town and started kindergarten, sort of a welcome to school gift. What better match than a pencil case made with Little Apples scraps?

The linen I used is actually cut up from an old pair of pants that my husband wanted to give away, and I grabbed them for this sew along! Yes, upcycling is very Portlandia. I am happy with the scrap details even if they are not perfect- that linen is hard to work with. Doesn't hold its shape very well.

 As a consequence I ended up using the interfacing on the exterior rather than the interior as the directions read. I also seemed to have less room than necessary on the scrap band to hold the top in- did anyone else have this issue? I fell like instead is trimming it to 3" I should have left it a bit longer and pinned with room to spare. My top gets a little cramped in there (maybe you can see in the top photo).

Fun stuff, and easy to whip up, yet again. Just took an hour and a bit one night.

Lucky duck! And great news for my ego.

I'll start with the lucky duck part, since this is a chance for all (ahem, 29) of my followers to get in on something good.
I won yet another awesome fabric prize from Free Spirit Fabric- 6 one yard cuts of Valori Wells' Cocoon!

from Free Spirit Fabrics

You really should follow the blog. This is the third (!) time I have won fabric- I also got a full fat quarter bundle of Taza and 6 one yard cuts of Curious Nature. They are wildly generous.

My big ego-building news is that I am going to have a quilt exhibited at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show! Portland Modern Quilt Guild has a special exhibition there this year and the board selected 20 quilts to represent us there, and my Little Apples Valentine quilt was chosen!

Thankfully my mom said I could borrow it for the show.

Zakka Style project- zakka pincushion

I was sent an eBook to review for Zakka Style by Rashida Coleman-Hale, and it coincided nicely with the Zakka Style Sew Along hosted by Lindsey and Amy.

I wanted to start with the Zig Zag Tote from the book, but I was not sufficiently motivated 2 weeks ago! This pincushion project was perfect for me- I whipped it up in an hour or so, and am happy with the cute result. Of course, I made a few materials revisions, as the reader is urged to. 

Instead of linen I used double of my natural muslin I have on hand, and instead of rik rak or crochet lace (which are fantastic looking in the sample) I used a small bit of coordinating ribbon. I had this wacky fish bead as well, so I added that in lieu of a covered button. 

Yay for improvising! I did have some cotton tape, so I drew a little leaf pattern in ink to echo my Parisville damask dot print. 

The fabric choices and trim make a lot of difference. I could see myself making many more versions for gifts and giving them all a unique personality for each recipient. I also did use Ayumi's tip for using a glue stick to secure the ribbon trim and the cotton tape- genius! Much better than pinning.

This book is very well thought out. I had no idea when I started in, but it is a collaborative book, so it has projects from many different people in it, all just along the Zakka aesthetic spectrum. I am really excited to sew more projects from the book. There are a huge range of them, from quilts to softies with their own pillow pocket  (my next earmarked project) and many in between. This is a great book for gift ideas, and there are many different levels of time commitment and difficulty. I have my top favorites to try:

1. Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack

2. Little Pocket Pillowcase (the one with the softie)

3. Nesting Boxes

The directions for the pincushion were very clear and simple, and I did find myself flipping to the front page a lot to refer to the photo, though that is less important the less attached you are to making yours look like the book sample. I think the best part of this sew along is seeing all the variations people are making to the project- it really makes them all sing their own tune.  

Thanks to C&T publishing for sending me the book to review as part of the Creative Troupe! I will be using this book for many projects to come. (P.S. - If you are a blogger, check out the Creative Troupe program. Nice perks.)

Block for Portland Modern Quilt Guild challenge

 This month for Portland Modern Quilt Guild we had a challenge to complete a block using Michael Miller's new Couture Cottons line- the colors were chosen by the Guild's board and the fabric donated by Michael Miller. Big thanks to them! It was fun to play with solids.

 The block measures 15.5" x 18.5". Kathy Miller is going to select 16 of the blocks from PMQG to be made into a quilt for Spring Quilt Market. Not gonna lie, it would be exciting to be chosen.

I winged it all, except measuring the green for the background. I was heavily influenced by Alissa Haight Carlton, especially this quilt, which has been on my to-make list for a while.

Progress! Sparkle Punch quilt top completed! And a bunny!

Finally just laid put my Sparkle Punch quilt on the floor (I have no design board) and then pieced it together. Happiness. The stars are Taza from Free Spirit, the background Kona dark grey.

Linking this Half Square Triangle project up with Canoe Ridge Creations...

 And I made a little bunny for my son for Easter, very last minute on Saturday, freehanded the pattern, but it was influenced by Revoluzza's cute bunnies. Done up with my Birch leftovers.

Thanks to many, and a new mini Petra-dactyl quilt

It has been a while since I have blogged, and since I have sewn much. But I do have a lot to share, and I'll try not to overburden this post! I have some thanks to parcel out first.

I recently received this beautiful fat eights bundle of Peacock Lane from a giveaway at Very Berry Handmade, from the UK shop M is for Make. I have no solid plans yet for it, but I better make it lovely, since the designer of the fabric is in my quilt guild.

I also won this adorable wall hanging from Nellie's Niceties. The center of the Dresden is embroidered with a woodland scene, and the whole bit is hand quilted. I am lucky to have it! I would not make anything like this myself, since it is beyond the scope of my skills!

Lastly, I won 6 one yard cuts of the new Parson Grey Curious Nature line. I am so psyched to work with these, I am thinking of attacking a hexagon quilt finally, because they would look fabulous in one. Now to get motivated to do the cutting. These I won from the Free Spirit blog, which is always having low-entry giveaways that are very generous. I recently won an entire fat quarter bundle of Taza from them too.

Whew! Now that I have caught up with all that, some sewing to show. I made another mini quilt for a birthday gift for a one year old. We call her Petradactyl, because her name is Petra and my husband thinks she sounds like a pteradactyl when she yells. (You know, because we all know firsthand what a pteradactyl sounds like.) And since I have been experimenting with reverse applique lately, I had to try it out again.

 I embroidered the nickname in two different colors and fonts to emphasize her name (thanks to my sister for the lesson and the floss!) and then quilted some air current-type lines in white to fill in background.

 I used some of my fat eights of Heirloom for the patchwork, which was very randomly cut and assembled. I laid some natural muslin over it, and reverse appliqued it, then echo quilted the shape in variegated yellow and purple.

  Bound in Heirloom scraps, and off it goes to Petra! The finished mini measures about 32.5" x 22.5".

The back is some pieces I had in my stash, the cute larger pieces being FQs I received from The Intrepid Thread a while back, though I have no idea about designer or line. The binding doesn't necessarily coordinate, but I had to use Heirloom again! It will likely hang on the wall anyway, so I doubt it will be an issue.
So happy with it!

Mini quilt challenge entry- Shaaarrk!

I made this mini quilt in response to the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge from Ellison Lane Quilts. It measures 19" x 21.5" and is super cool.


I have wanted to try making a reverse applique quilt with patchwork ever since I saw this amazing quilt from Dan at Piece and Press. I knew it would take many tries to pull off an amazing piece like this, so I wanted to get trying! I love sharks and worked in shark research for a summer in college, so I knew what animal I had to make. They are as old as dinosaurs, so the connection was complete.

I made the grey patchwork square first, and loved the way it looked all on its own, but I forged on. I took out my shark books and found some pictures I liked, then drew them only as lines to see how well they would translate to patchwork. I picked this shape because I thought the plain side view was not graphically interesting enough. It is a little played out, in other words.

I loved the shark after I cut it out, but it was clear I needed to add the eye and the mouth and nose lines for the applique to read as a shark. So this is really a skill builder for me. I almost called in my sister but resisted.

Then I quilted on some wave lines to look like water, which I am pretty pleased with. I tried variegated blue thread thinking it would look cool, but it just got lost in the blue fabric, so white it is.

Overall, good lessons, fun time making it, and a nice piece for my shark loving household. Case in point: my toddler identifies the size of his bites relative to shark species and their size,
i.e. a lemon shark bite < tiger shark bite < megalodon bite.

Yes, we are bio (and shark) nerds. Love it.

Linking up...