technicolor dream coats

Okay not really, but there are so many of them, and they are so colorful :)



You may have seen two of them, the green raincoat and the blue runabout jacket. Before I knew it, I had two very excited four-year-olds in desperate need of new a spring jacket. One of their moms (also another coworker) got to see my jacket(s) in person and decided she needed one for herself (who can blame her? this pattern was great aside from my fabric rant from a while ago). If you are counting along, that is a total of five coats.



I can't wait to see photos of the little ones in their new coats (solid pink and solid yellow) - they are going to be absolutely adorable :) However, I can officially say I am patterned out of this jacket...time to move on!

What do you think I should sew next? Any ideas for something [non-apparel] maybe from my scrap bin?

Mary

process, practice, pillow

For a brief moment as I was finishing this pillow this morning, I thought to myself "This sucks. There's no way I'm going to share it with anyone."



Don't get me wrong, I still don't love it, but it is all about the process, right? And this is my process in learning what the heck I am doing with a lot of things. A BIG thank you to the folks that offered advice last week on FMQ! I practiced and practiced on scraps, but I wasn't taking it seriously enough. So I whipped up a pillow to practice more using Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy's tutorial that she shared on Sew Mama Sew's blog. I improvised a bit because I didn't have long enough scraps.



I'm hoping to retry this in the near future, the paper piecing was so quick and easy! Here's a better view of the FMQ from behind.



Looking forward to practicing more. I need a better feel of the pace and tension (lots of ripping out!) and just in general, the flow. You'll notice a lot of inconsistency in spacing and loop size/shape :)

Here is the finished product with my matching postage stamp quilt (Dad note - remember dad? We talked about how the "postage stamp" is just a pattern style? Not real stamps. You can't mail anything with this quilt. Love ya!)



So there you have it. A pillow. Thanks for reading :)

Mary

patchwork of sorts

Linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced...go check out what everyone else has been up to!

I took some time off from sewing this weekend to cook with my husband.  We did an 'iron chef' style challenge on Sunday, with chocolate and strawberries as the not-so-secret ingredient(s). I chose chocolate baklava as my dessert, and when I finished it, I realized why :)

Doesn't it just look like a culinary patchwork of HSTs? I laughed at myself after cutting it up!

Anyway, focusing back on sewing...last week, I finished another jacket, and now I am working on three more. Apparently 4-year-olds grow out of their jackets quickly and have a real sense of fashion (along with their mommas)?


Notice my (gasp!) paper scissors on the table. Yep, my nice, expensive, spectacularly awesome fabric shears are out of commission. Haven't heard yet if they are repairable, but the top shear is bowed inward. It made for a really sad Monday. These were a Christmas gift, and a new pair of scissors won't be in my budget for a while.

I also started cutting for the memorial quilts (how I discovered the broken scissors) and did some piecing for my monochromatic challenge quilt. [still trying to not reveal too much!]



Finishes:
-innocent crush runabout jacket

New:
-three more runabout jackets (2 pint-sized)

Processing:
-sliced coins quilt (no progress, still need to get batting!)
-crochet scarf for just me
-monochrome quilt
-first quilt
-memorial quilts
-Hideaway quilt

 Thanks for stopping by! I'm excited to see what you have been up to :)

Mary

boy things

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story today!

I go wild for a lot of things, not the least of which is fabric. My husband is amazing and lets me buy a lot of it with our budget ('lets me'...HA...so 50s) Regardless, we can just say that my hobby is a priority for both of us, and he does not reap enough benefits. Until now...


I took a Boxers and Ties class at Whipstitch Fabrics just in time for the month of love. Sadly, I am not a patient hand sewer, so I came up with a way to finish this voile strip at my machine. Still needs a good press, and a little skinny for his liking, but I am going to make the pattern wider for the next one. He especially likes it because it is easy to tie and doesn't slip too easily like silk.

Speaking of skinny...I also finished his pair of boxers. The pattern I received at the class was for the 'average' man.  Sean is quite a fit person and measures a little/lot smaller than average, so I asked for my pattern to be altered a bit. It went very well with a bunch of flat Fell seams until he so excitedly tried them on. Way. Too. Small. My nephew will probably be getting these for Christmas next year since they are more appropriate for a 2-year-old than my husband.



What kinds of things do you make for your man?

Mary

memorial quilts

Round 2, because I already made a set of three of them from my sister's clothes in conjunction with gifting [yours is still coming, Nic!]. This 'second round' will consist of my grandmother's fabulously 80s house coats and housewife dresses.


Love. Synthetic bliss. I debated just keeping a few to alter and rock out on the street. But I must live in this century, spread the love, and give some memories to the rest of the family.

My plan is to make a thousand-million HSTs and organize them in different patterns for each quilt (at last count, 8.) To that end, I have been cutting squares like it is going out of style, because by the time I'm done, they probably will be out of style. Or at least I will be sick of them.


I've seen a few HST quilts out there, but I would love to hear / get links to some of your favorites! Thanks for swinging by :)

Mary

runabout jacket

right off the bat, any tips for someone whose new darning foot will be arriving in the mail today? this person does not have any experience using said presser foot or free-motion quilting...[FYI this person is me]

on another note, I scrambled this morning to finish button holes, buttons, and the belt for my runabout jacket (a.k.a. raincoat redo) so that I could switch the thread color in my machine and get back to quilting.


Here it is on the back of my chair at work today! It kind of resembles a cross between my grandmother's couch and a certain pair of pants I used to own as a child (zubas), but trust me, it's a beauty in real life. Check out my raincoat if you want to see it full scale. I figure I will save you (but mostly me) another posey picture of myself :)

blossom shoulder bag

Linking to Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday (yay it's back! congrats to the block party winners!)

more than a yard of leftover raincoat fabric was just begging for a bag pattern.



That's where the blossom bag pattern from Amy Butler comes in (free at Sew Mama Sew!). I can't pass up free, but I also suspect that Ms. Butler has stock in interfacing because I ended up with 3/4 yards leftover timtex. I needed practice sewing littler things, cleaning up my stitching and improving my patience. Note: not a good idea when I already have an aversion to raincoat fabric (you can now add timtex to that list of aversions).

Anyway, it's done, it's pretty enough, and it's springtime. Which brings me to my next topic: I did not get enough of the first go-round with the raincoat pattern, so I am remaking it with these non-raincoat home decor beauties:



I learned my lesson and cut a half-yard of fabric off the requirements. What do you know, I still have almost a yard left. Seriously, such waste, both $$ and cotton (and we all know cotton is scarce this year).  There are only so many things I can have that are made out of green houndstooth (or now innocent crush).

Question: Are all patterns this wasteful? Or just particular designers?