Sewing Small Projects

Not a lot of sewing to report lately.  Work has been busy and when I'm at home, I've been as lazy as the cats--reading and watching TV.  

I have been sewing more small projects.  Currently I'm working on making several "Everyday Bags" from Sherri McConnell's A Quilting Life book.  This is a great pattern and it is perfect for using up those single charm packs that you have in your stash or scraps from your favorite fabric lines.  

I made this one for my niece Mackenzie.  Purple, cats, and owls--a perfect combination in my opinion.  I had a random charm pack from a Moda line called "Cosmic Cats" (from several years ago) and used Moda Bella solid in Periwinkle from my Daydreams quilt.  The owl lining fabric was leftover from an apron that I made Mackenzie. 

These bags are the perfect size for toting projects, books, toys, etc.  The interior has a nice pocket for keys, phone, or as Mackenzie says "George Washingtons" (that's what she calls quarters--cracks me up).

I'm nearly finished with my second bag for Cameron and I'll post that next.  

The cats love sleeping, sunbathing, and watching the birds from the windowsill in the bedroom.  

I call this photo of Remy "I'm Batman."

The More You Know: Weather Edition

Spring in the high desert is interesting to say the least.  It may change quicker than Michigan weather.

On Tuesday (May 13th) we had snow flurries all day.  Yep. After weather in the 60s and 70s then it snowed all day.  The snow didn't stick to the ground and it really wasn't that cold, but is sure was entertaining.  The snow then changed to this weird bean-bag-fill shaped frozen precipitation.  It has done this before while I've lived here but I didn't know what it was.  Like a small hail but not icy.  After some research on the Internets, I found out it is called graupel.  From Wikipedia:  Graupel (also called soft hail) is formed in high altitude climates and forms when supercooled water droplets collect and freeze on snowflakes.   The more you know.

Graupel on my Adirondack chair

After working all morning, I watched the grauple from  my sewing room and happily sewed away.

In case you are wondering the current temperature is 68F and is headed up to the 80sF this weekend.  YAY! Crazy weather.

My sewing mojo is running at a high level this week.  I have a million projects I want to work on.   Right now.

I started out with this month's Another Year of Schnibbles project.  The quilt is from Carrie's book Schnibbles Times Two and the quilt is called X Rated.  I picked out some French General charm packs that I had and Moda Bella Solid in Stone.

(I write my own selvedges on solids so I don't forget what color I bought...)












As you can see, Stella decided to "help" with the layout of the rows.  Such a big help.  Remy ran away with a couple of the little pieces and Edgar Poe came in and rolled all over the squares getting cat hair on the light pieces.   We had BIG FUN sewing this quilt together.

 I had the day off yesterday and whipped up this oh-so-cutemous bag.  I was (unsuccessfully) looking for some  French General fabric to use as borders for the Schibbles project and found a small fat quarter pack of the Outfoxed line by Lizzie House.  I have no idea what I had planned for this fabric.  It may have been a have-to-have-because-purple-hedgehogs-y'all purchase.

I found purples for the straps and the lining in my stash.  The pattern is Winslow Market Tote by Pink Chalk Studio (I've had it printed out for ages so I don't know where I originally got it.) and was fun and easy to make. It's the perfect size for a farmer's market bag.  I will definitely make more.

Lastly--a Remy photo for all his fans.  Remy was doing some major lounging on the bed yesterday.

A Trio of Small Projects

Now that most of the unpacking is done (the sewing space still needs a lot of help), I am getting back into the swing of things quilting-wise.

This week I decided to work on some small projects.  The first one was a Divided Basket by noodlehead. This is a great PDF pattern that I saw on different blog posts.  I needed some extra storage for our bath in this house.  The main full bath is small with a pedestal sink and no room for storage except for a tiny medicine cabinet and one shelf above the door (too high for me to reach without a step stool).  There is not even room for a small cabinet or shelf or a under-the-pedestal-sink organizer (it's a rental house so we go with what's here).  Also, pedestal sink are nice and all but completely impractical.

I found a gray and blue print from the Seaside Cottage line by Heather Mulder Peterson that  would match the shower curtain, rugs, and towels we had.  I added Kona cotton in blue and an unknown dark gray solid as accent.

The pattern was easy to follow and not as difficult as the finish product looks.  I whipped this up in a couple of hours.

 
Here's another view.

I'll spare you a view of the basket in its place on the back of the commode lol!

Perfect for holding hair brushes, kleenex, face cleanser, etc.

I think I'll make a few more at some point for gifts.

One project-in-a-bag I found while unpacking was the Cash and Carry pattern by Atkinson Designs paired with zippers and fat quarters of Kate Spain's Fandango fabric line.  I think I packaged this up way back when I was in the Groovy Girls club at Sweet Home quilt store (circa 2010).  Took no time to get these finished.  The small one has a pocket on the outside (I think I'll use it to store business cards and quilt shop punch cards) and the larger one will be perfect for sunglasses when I get a pair to replace the ones I lost.








Spring has finally found it's way to Santa Fe and Mr. SBQ and I are enjoying seeing all the budding trees and flowers.  Since we moved here in fall/winter, spring and summer will be a whole new experience.

I took these photos on my walk to the farmer's market this morning.

And of course, no post is complete without a cat photo.  Remy cuddled himself up in a quilt.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Finish for a Long-Aging Project

 

One of the zillions many UFOs I found while packing up the sewing room was a table runner that was layered with top, batting and backing but not quilted.  Why it has been languishing at the bottom of a pile of tops I can't recall but it was long past the time to get this done. I thought I had put it aside during a busy December.  A quick word search of my blog resulted in no such good excuse--I made the top way back in August 2008 LOL.   It was quilted and bound in a jiffy.  I still love this fabric line; it's "Winter" by Minick & Simpson for Moda.

Here it is on my sideboard all ready for the holiday season.  

Friday Finishes

Yesterday was a day off for me and I sewed my brains out from dawn until bedtime.  I LOVE days like that!

After making the blocks for the Avalon quilt, I set them aside to make block #10 of the Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Quilt and decided I might as well get blocks 1-9 sewn together.

I changed the flying geese setting by alternating the direction of the strips and adding a few different prints. This is such a cheery quilt.  I can't wait to finish it up.  Two more months.















I finished a couple of little projects that were floating around my sewing table.

One of my favorite quilt shops to visit in Michigan is Guildcrafters in Berkeley.  They have a great selection of fabrics and wool, wonderful kits, and a series of irresistible little pincushion kits.  I bought this pincushion kit some time ago and I don't know why I didn't make it sooner because it was done in a flash.

I also made this little card holder that came with the February issue of Mollie Makes.  I couldn't resist this issue with the little fox and raccoon.  

Edgar Poe looks like he was meditating.  Maybe he is thinking of more new quilt projects like I am.

Probably not.

Probably dreaming of kitty treats and yogurt.

Hope you have a great weekend.  It's supposed to be chilly and rainy here all weekend. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone in the U.S. enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend!!!!!  I spent more time off-line than on so I thought I'd do a weekend wrap-up post.

Thanksgiving, I worked half a day at Starbucks.  It was busy and lots of fun.  Came home, collapsed for awhile, S. bought a ham and I made side dishes, and we called it Thanksgiving. Simple and no frills, just the two of us.

Friday was no-shopping-for-me day.  Edgar and Stella went to the vet for their annual check-up.  Both are doing great.  I came home and started working on some handmade Xmas gifts.

Saturday, finished up Xmas gifts and made myself a new purse.

When I was in Michigan in October, Mackenzie helped me make pie crust.  She liked stirring, cutting in the shortening, and rolling out the dough.  I thought it would be fun to make her a couple of aprons.

 I made two aprons--one for her house and one for Grandma's house.  I used the super-easy reversible apron pattern from the Moda Bake Shop website. She likes owls so I made this and a matching chef's hat from the Michael Miller fabric blog.

For Grandma's house, I made used this cute dog and cat fabric with polkadot accent fabric. 

Here's the reverse side with the dog fabric.

Here's the purse I made for myself.  I love this pattern and this is the third one I have made.  The pattern is "An Everyday Bag" by Favorite Things.  I love it because there is 4 pockets on the inside and one on each end on the outside that is perfect for holding my work ID and business cards.  I used two magnetic closures instead of the ties in the pattern and it keeps your stuff from falling out if your purse falls upside down.  I used an older Moda fabric I had with a dark purple for the interior. 

Sunday was another busy day at Starbucks making holiday drinks.  I am sad that this long weekend is coming to an end and I have to go to my day job tomorrow. 

Here's a sweet photo of Remy to cheer us all up!

Oh Hello Mid-June

Apparently I fell off the blogging cliff for awhile.  Too much BS going on with day job and my head has been full of dark & stormy clouds so I haven't been doing much of anything.

Well I'll try to shake out the cobwebs and get back into things. Although I have been saying the same thing for 2 weeks now and it hasn't happened, but as Dory says in Finding Nemo "just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

I did manage to get a new project started and completed.

The pattern is "School Day Satchel" by Fig Tree Quilts and the fabric is my favorite prints and color from Flea Market Fancy.   I made the laptop bag, although I think I'm going to use it for a regular briefcase bag.  It was a fun project to make, but it is helpful if you have made some bag projects before in constructing this pattern.

As usual (for a quilter), I am getting pulled into another quilt along-- a Hexy Quilt Along held by Fat Quarterly.   I love this modern version of a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt and have ordered the supplies.  I'm using stash, a FQ bundle of Lily Belle in the cool colorway, and Moda Bella solid in Granite.  Anyone else joining in?  Anyone have an idea why I thought I needed another project???

I am also coveting these soon-to-be released fabrics from Liberty of London, which should play nicely in the Hexy quilt too.

Remy is growing up so fast.  He is about the same size as Gomez now.  His one-year birthday is approaching in August and he is just as mischievous as ever.

Here he is after getting in trouble for biting on my MacBook cord.  Look at that face. You know he's going to attack that cord again.