Today I shared my senior thesis project at Ovation, "a campus-wide celebration of student creativity, research and academic and artistic achievement. This annual event is a day-long activity that brings together students, faculty, staff, alumni and benefactors for student presentations and performances."
It was a lot of work, but a lot of guests checked out my booth which was nice!
I'll be sure to provide a big update after I've turned in my final paper! :)
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Favorites
1. 100 square block, 2. Starry Web, 3. sneak peak MiniQuilt Swap - april, 4. Values quilt - Front, 5. girly quilt, 6. Obsessed w/ my scraps!, 7. april 2011 do. good stitches, 8. A Double Shot!, 9. April 2011 - Faith Circle
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday
Finally! This turquoise pyrex mixing bowl set has been 2 years in the making! It is my absolute favorite set! I finally broke down and bought the last bowl online when I spotted it for a good price! The other three bowls were found thrifting. I'm so happy that it's finally complete :)
I pattern tested this fun little make-up roll-up pattern by Rachel of Stiched in Color this past month! It's so nice to have a proper travel kit for my makeup! I made mine using Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen and Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow! The pattern even makes use of a sewing trick that Rachel has dubbed George's Trick! He is quite honored!
Beeeee happy! Baby's breath from my roses!
I finally printed all the photos from last year's project 365! Snapfish had a deal I couldn't pass up! Unfortunately they were not printed in chronological order, bummer! Haha, I was hoping they would! Oh well! Now to figure out how to store/organize them! :)
Made Bretzel again this weekend using my favorite recipe. Would anyone be interested in a little video "tutorial" of the baking soda bath? There are always a lot of you interested in this bread, is the bath what is stopping you? I'd be happy to go through the recipe step by step if there is interest!
Thank you so much for your response to my Dream On quilt! I love reading your comments and I know everyone is so busy, I appreciate that you're taking time out of your day to leave me a note! I am feeling back in blogging mode which is awesome! I turned in the rough draft for my Thesis today, so I am feeling really relieved! Hopefully in a few weeks I can start up the Art of Choosing posts again! :)
Today I love the..
Smell of: Pumpkin candles
Sound of: Spongebob season 3!
Taste of: Japanese takeout
Sight of: George
Feel of: Cool fan
Good Things about Today:
- Finished my rough draft!!!
- Happy, happy mail!
- Sunny afternoon despite rain forecasts!
- Watching spongebob! It's such a stress-reliever! :)
I pattern tested this fun little make-up roll-up pattern by Rachel of Stiched in Color this past month! It's so nice to have a proper travel kit for my makeup! I made mine using Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen and Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow! The pattern even makes use of a sewing trick that Rachel has dubbed George's Trick! He is quite honored!
Beeeee happy! Baby's breath from my roses!
I finally printed all the photos from last year's project 365! Snapfish had a deal I couldn't pass up! Unfortunately they were not printed in chronological order, bummer! Haha, I was hoping they would! Oh well! Now to figure out how to store/organize them! :)
Made Bretzel again this weekend using my favorite recipe. Would anyone be interested in a little video "tutorial" of the baking soda bath? There are always a lot of you interested in this bread, is the bath what is stopping you? I'd be happy to go through the recipe step by step if there is interest!
Thank you so much for your response to my Dream On quilt! I love reading your comments and I know everyone is so busy, I appreciate that you're taking time out of your day to leave me a note! I am feeling back in blogging mode which is awesome! I turned in the rough draft for my Thesis today, so I am feeling really relieved! Hopefully in a few weeks I can start up the Art of Choosing posts again! :)
Today I love the..
Smell of: Pumpkin candles
Sound of: Spongebob season 3!
Taste of: Japanese takeout
Sight of: George
Feel of: Cool fan
Good Things about Today:
- Finished my rough draft!!!
- Happy, happy mail!
- Sunny afternoon despite rain forecasts!
- Watching spongebob! It's such a stress-reliever! :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Dream On Quilt
I finished up my Dream On quilt last night! I am so happy to have this one finished! I made a last minute decision to use this in my thesis, so it needed to get done! I'll be comparing this quilt, which is made from new quilting fabric that is inspired by vintage sheets, to my star quilt that is made from real vintage sheets. I had a few lines already quilted but the majority of it was finished Sunday night and Monday. It's the biggest quilt I've made so far at 71"x88"! I love that I can get all snuggled under it with my feet sticking out! :)
This quilt is made from 4 charm packs of Dream On by Urban Chiks and 4 yards of Kona cotton solid in Corn Yellow. I also managed to find one of the actual vintage sheets used in the line, which I used for the backing. It was JUST big enough! You can see the backing sheet here!
I struggled for a long time to decide what to use the charm packs for. I don't particularly like precuts because I feel so limited. I originally thought I might just do a simple checkerboard quilt but that just didn't feel right. On a whim I decided to "go random!", which was really hard for me! I ended up cutting all the squares and putting them in a big paper bag. I tried my best to make each part of the piecing process random. Which was kind of nice as far as keeping it all organized goes!
The binding was made using a few Dream On fat quarters from Amanda and part of a layer cake from Kerri! Thanks again ladies! I just love a good pieced binding. Originally I was simply going to use the fat quarters, but they were mostly pink/yellow, so I added in some blues and greens using the layer cake.
I had a bit of trouble quilting it. I simply did straight lines on either side of each seam horizontally and vertically. It was a little bulky to get through my machine. The center rows are a bit wonky. My pin basting didn't seem to be quite enough, I probably should have tried spray basting this one. Luckily, it washed up pretty well and hid a lot of the quilting imperfections! I also had a little trouble with my walking foot at first. It didn't seem to be doing it's job! the bottom was being pulled much faster than the top! I ended up cleaning my machine, oiling my walking foot and putting on a new needle and it was smooth sailing from there! :)
George had to test the quilt out for good measure! He approves!
Overall, I'm very happy with the way this quilt turned out. It's so bright and cheerful, perfect for summer. Even though it was hard at times for me to let go, I'm glad I went random!
This quilt is made from 4 charm packs of Dream On by Urban Chiks and 4 yards of Kona cotton solid in Corn Yellow. I also managed to find one of the actual vintage sheets used in the line, which I used for the backing. It was JUST big enough! You can see the backing sheet here!
I struggled for a long time to decide what to use the charm packs for. I don't particularly like precuts because I feel so limited. I originally thought I might just do a simple checkerboard quilt but that just didn't feel right. On a whim I decided to "go random!", which was really hard for me! I ended up cutting all the squares and putting them in a big paper bag. I tried my best to make each part of the piecing process random. Which was kind of nice as far as keeping it all organized goes!
The binding was made using a few Dream On fat quarters from Amanda and part of a layer cake from Kerri! Thanks again ladies! I just love a good pieced binding. Originally I was simply going to use the fat quarters, but they were mostly pink/yellow, so I added in some blues and greens using the layer cake.
I had a bit of trouble quilting it. I simply did straight lines on either side of each seam horizontally and vertically. It was a little bulky to get through my machine. The center rows are a bit wonky. My pin basting didn't seem to be quite enough, I probably should have tried spray basting this one. Luckily, it washed up pretty well and hid a lot of the quilting imperfections! I also had a little trouble with my walking foot at first. It didn't seem to be doing it's job! the bottom was being pulled much faster than the top! I ended up cleaning my machine, oiling my walking foot and putting on a new needle and it was smooth sailing from there! :)
George had to test the quilt out for good measure! He approves!
Overall, I'm very happy with the way this quilt turned out. It's so bright and cheerful, perfect for summer. Even though it was hard at times for me to let go, I'm glad I went random!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A Proper Post
First, thanks for hanging in with me during this down time here on the blog! I am really missing being able to post regularly. Two weeks from tomorrow I'll be graduating and things should calm down quite a bit! Until then, I'll keep trying to pop in at least once or twice a week! :)
I decided to start off the long weekend with a little sewing. I just started Kaye's cross-stitch pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and I needed another project bag to keep it in! This was the bag that almost wasn't. Every possible thing that could go wrong went wrong. I had to seam rip the zipper 3 times! It was just one of those mornings! I have a little extra of these fabrics that I put in the shop if anyone needs some that can't get to/find any at Joanns.
My Mom came up to go thrifting yesterday morning! I hit the vintage sheet jackpot! I hadn't found many lately, so this was a welcome surprise! These will make their way to the shop in two weeks. I haven't been adding in my new finds simply because I don't have the time to cut them up! This May there will be lots of new prints, some quilt kits, and I'm going to try to put together a bunch more wrapped wreath kits!
I don't have much time to sew, but that doesn't mean I can't play with fabric, hehe! I pulled this stack around the top print which is Praline in Fruity from Pat Bravo's Dreaming in French collection.
I had to take a few fabric photos for my last Graphic Design project. As if I need a reason to take photos of fabric, especially in pyrex! :)
I simply could not resist these coral roses at the grocery store today. I'm not generally drawn to roses but this color was just so pretty! The perfect excuse to use one of my very favorite vintage pieces, my turquoise Dansk Kobenstyle Pitcher!
George bunny got his own basket! Amanda's bunnies love baskets so I thought George might need one. He seems to like it!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Today I love the..
Smell of: Lavender lotion
Sound of: Harry Potter 7 Soundtrack
Taste of: Cadbury Mini Eggs
Sight of: Sunshine
Feel of: Warm afternoon breeze
Good Things about Today:
- Test drove my thrifted dress, I love it!
- Finished sewing that pouch!
- The apartment is still relatively clean!
- It's 70 and sunny, need I say more? :)
Friday, April 22, 2011
Favorites
1. Project Modern Monochromatic Entry, 2. Dress Your Taxes in Amy Butler and Polka Dots, 3. Umbrella hanging - 106:365, 4. Constellation, 5. Improve Camping Collaboration, 6. DQS10 Received!, 7. rainbow geese quilt, 8. IMG_0958.jpg, 9. Kaleidoscopic Kites Front
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Experiment Quilt
Finished up the final quilt for my thesis this afternoon! It feels good to get something else crossed off my to-do list! This quilt was started around 11 months ago. Finished quilt is 30"x55". Hand-dyed and un-dyed Kona Snow used to piece top, vintage sheet for the backing and shot cotton binding.
I had a hard time deciding how to quilt this top, which I think is why it sat unquilted for the better part of a year. The general consensus on flickr was to do channel quilting but I just wasn't feeling it. The dyeing and piecwork were imperfect and I wanted to emphasize that, not mask it. After a little help from friends I ended up settling on this ripple-like spiral quilting.
Luckily I had this wonderful dark pink shot cotton on hand from my last quilt shop run. It was the perfect match color-wise and texture wise alongside the modeled look of the hand-dyed fabrics.
This quilt was inspired by the techniques used by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson, here. Her improvisational blocks made dyeing seem so accessible.
I promptly collected supplies to do this small batch dyeing: two packages of rit dye (I used red and yellow I believe), a pack of red plastic beer cups, and some Kona snow yardage. I cut my fabric into long strips to dye. The process was easy to follow and the results mixed. I had expected a more even dye. Having now experimented with wax-resist dye, I know why the result was uneven. Kona is not an ideal fabric for dyeing because of low thread count and sizing. I would have had better results with Kona PFD or Pimatex. The fabric was also not pretreated before dyeing. A simple soak in soda ash would have helped quite a bit!
In general I am happy with the final results of this quilt. After I put together the quilt top last year, I really did not like it. It sat in my sewing space for months before I finally pulled it out and hung it up unfinished. Now that it's quilted and bound I like it much better. I've come to accept it's imperfections!
I had a hard time deciding how to quilt this top, which I think is why it sat unquilted for the better part of a year. The general consensus on flickr was to do channel quilting but I just wasn't feeling it. The dyeing and piecwork were imperfect and I wanted to emphasize that, not mask it. After a little help from friends I ended up settling on this ripple-like spiral quilting.
Luckily I had this wonderful dark pink shot cotton on hand from my last quilt shop run. It was the perfect match color-wise and texture wise alongside the modeled look of the hand-dyed fabrics.
This quilt was inspired by the techniques used by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson, here. Her improvisational blocks made dyeing seem so accessible.
I promptly collected supplies to do this small batch dyeing: two packages of rit dye (I used red and yellow I believe), a pack of red plastic beer cups, and some Kona snow yardage. I cut my fabric into long strips to dye. The process was easy to follow and the results mixed. I had expected a more even dye. Having now experimented with wax-resist dye, I know why the result was uneven. Kona is not an ideal fabric for dyeing because of low thread count and sizing. I would have had better results with Kona PFD or Pimatex. The fabric was also not pretreated before dyeing. A simple soak in soda ash would have helped quite a bit!
In general I am happy with the final results of this quilt. After I put together the quilt top last year, I really did not like it. It sat in my sewing space for months before I finally pulled it out and hung it up unfinished. Now that it's quilted and bound I like it much better. I've come to accept it's imperfections!
Friday, April 15, 2011
Favorites
1. quilt top featuring dobby butt, 2. more munki, 3. Peaks and Troughs by Sarah Fielke, 4. Plus Pillow, 5. Supernova top complete, 6. crazy scrappy quilt blocks, 7. Dandelions by Sarah Fielke, 8. big stack!, 9. MMM swap placemats
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday
Sewing Corner.
Easter Decorating.
Bunny Dishes.
1 year of 3x6 Mini Bee.
New fabrics.
George Pordge.
My thesis and other schoolwork is taking up all of my time at the moment, so most blogging and definitely The Art of Choosing series will have to be put on hold for the time being. I still have a lot of post ideas though, so it will certainly be back as soon as things slow down!
Today I love the..
Smell of: New shampoo
Sound of: Stardust
Taste of: Fresh pizza
Sight of: George
Feel of: Warm snuggly quilts
Good Things about Today:
- Finished sewing a big project.
- Not a cloud in the sky.
- Yummy new fabric.
- Breathe Right Strips
Easter Decorating.
Bunny Dishes.
1 year of 3x6 Mini Bee.
New fabrics.
George Pordge.
My thesis and other schoolwork is taking up all of my time at the moment, so most blogging and definitely The Art of Choosing series will have to be put on hold for the time being. I still have a lot of post ideas though, so it will certainly be back as soon as things slow down!
Today I love the..
Smell of: New shampoo
Sound of: Stardust
Taste of: Fresh pizza
Sight of: George
Feel of: Warm snuggly quilts
Good Things about Today:
- Finished sewing a big project.
- Not a cloud in the sky.
- Yummy new fabric.
- Breathe Right Strips
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Thesis Quilt
What started off as 5 yards of Pimatex cotton is now a finished quilt! I am so happy with the finished result and really enjoyed the process. I am so proud of this quilt, knowing that I created the colors and patterns in addition to the actual sewing and quilting. I knew that I wanted to play with warm and cool colors again, but felt that half-square triangles would have taken away from the fabrics, which is what I wanted to shine. I ended up designing this simple patchwork square version of my warm vs. cool quilt. It's not as pronounced as the other version, but I think you can still see the contrast.
For the backing I ended up using the same method as my Castle Peeps Quilt. I had around a yard (I think?) of undyed Pimatex left and a lot of dyed scraps from cutting the top. This gave it some interest and broke up the white a big. I fought with it a little to get a large enough back but I am happy with how it turned out. This quilt took all about maybe a 1/4 yd of those 5 yards, it was pushing it!
I quilted it free-motion, quilting these little worm guys, haha. I don't know what to call them? I quilted horizontal lines on the warm colored sections and vertical lines on the cool colored sections. To add even more contrast I quilted the horizontal lines tighter and the vertical lines looser. It's hard to see on the top, but you can really see it on the back! Sometimes I got into a rhythm and would get a little tight on the vertical lines, but for the most part I was good about remembering to switch!
The quilting was a little tedious. I quilted it in rows so every few squares I had to stop to turn the quilt. I think it took around 3.5 hours to quilt. Which isn't too bad for a lap sized quilt (finished at 45" square). This was the first time I ever used gloves to quilt. The pimatex is a higher thread count than regular quilting cotton and slightly slippery. The gloves really came in handy and I'm thankful that I had them on hand!
Dyeing the fabrics was such a fun project! I was so pleased that even the first time I tried it, the fabrics came out usable. If you're interested at all in dyeing your own fabrics with resists, I highly recommend Malka Dubrawsky's book, Color Your Cloth. I worked almost exclusively from her book and had really no problems at all. I did mix some of mine own colors and perhaps did not dissolve the dye enough a few times but honestly, it was really easy! It's a little expensive to get all the supplies together, but most of the items you might already have in your home. The resulting feeling you get from holding and sewing with fabrics that you dyed patterned yourself is so worth it!
I had so much fun applying the wax to the fabrics. I used lots of cardboard to create my designs, tubes and shapes created using cut pieces of cardboard. Everything about the dyeing was really accessible. I found almost everything I needed at Wal-mart and my local craft supply store. I ended up purchasing the fabric and some of the chemicals at Dharma Trading Co. They have a fantastic selection of products and very reasonable pricing.
I have dubbed this quilt the "Thesis Quilt" because it is a part of my senior honors thesis. I am lucky enough as an honors student to have a lot of flexibility in my thesis. I'll be talking about it more in the coming weeks, but you all have honestly already read a lot of it! I'll give you a hint.. the title of my thesis is "The Art of Choosing: Fabric and Color in Modern Quilting"... ;)
For the backing I ended up using the same method as my Castle Peeps Quilt. I had around a yard (I think?) of undyed Pimatex left and a lot of dyed scraps from cutting the top. This gave it some interest and broke up the white a big. I fought with it a little to get a large enough back but I am happy with how it turned out. This quilt took all about maybe a 1/4 yd of those 5 yards, it was pushing it!
I quilted it free-motion, quilting these little worm guys, haha. I don't know what to call them? I quilted horizontal lines on the warm colored sections and vertical lines on the cool colored sections. To add even more contrast I quilted the horizontal lines tighter and the vertical lines looser. It's hard to see on the top, but you can really see it on the back! Sometimes I got into a rhythm and would get a little tight on the vertical lines, but for the most part I was good about remembering to switch!
The quilting was a little tedious. I quilted it in rows so every few squares I had to stop to turn the quilt. I think it took around 3.5 hours to quilt. Which isn't too bad for a lap sized quilt (finished at 45" square). This was the first time I ever used gloves to quilt. The pimatex is a higher thread count than regular quilting cotton and slightly slippery. The gloves really came in handy and I'm thankful that I had them on hand!
Dyeing the fabrics was such a fun project! I was so pleased that even the first time I tried it, the fabrics came out usable. If you're interested at all in dyeing your own fabrics with resists, I highly recommend Malka Dubrawsky's book, Color Your Cloth. I worked almost exclusively from her book and had really no problems at all. I did mix some of mine own colors and perhaps did not dissolve the dye enough a few times but honestly, it was really easy! It's a little expensive to get all the supplies together, but most of the items you might already have in your home. The resulting feeling you get from holding and sewing with fabrics that you dyed patterned yourself is so worth it!
I had so much fun applying the wax to the fabrics. I used lots of cardboard to create my designs, tubes and shapes created using cut pieces of cardboard. Everything about the dyeing was really accessible. I found almost everything I needed at Wal-mart and my local craft supply store. I ended up purchasing the fabric and some of the chemicals at Dharma Trading Co. They have a fantastic selection of products and very reasonable pricing.
I have dubbed this quilt the "Thesis Quilt" because it is a part of my senior honors thesis. I am lucky enough as an honors student to have a lot of flexibility in my thesis. I'll be talking about it more in the coming weeks, but you all have honestly already read a lot of it! I'll give you a hint.. the title of my thesis is "The Art of Choosing: Fabric and Color in Modern Quilting"... ;)
Friday, April 8, 2011
Favorites
1. sunshine on a cloudy day, 2. March-2011-for-Muriel-2, 3. the daily tote :: octopus, goldenrod, 4. bee block for Katie, 5. improv block, 6. Block Nine, 7. State Street Totes!, 8. log cabin layout, 9. MMM #2
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
Every week I go through my favorite photos on Flickr, and choose nine sewing/quilting related projects to showcase here. These photos and projects are not my own, you can find the original images and creators by clicking the coordinating links! If for any reason you do not want your project featured here, please email me and I'll remove it!
Happy Friday!
