This Week

Scheming, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

There has been a bit of sewing going on around here, but it's for a swap, so I can't share any photos quite yet! I've been having so much fun sewing for it, it's a Harry Potter craft swap with one of my very favorite sewing buddies Amanda! We're total HP geeks! :)

She sent me this awesome Simplicity duffel bag pattern today! We are going to make them to take with us to Sewing Summit! We're both using Far Far Away II! :)

Pips!, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I was SO happy to be able to pick up some more Sherbet Pips on sale to make matching pillowcases for my quilt! I got mine from Julie of The Intrepid Thread! She still has some on clearance, 50% off! :)

Vintage Sheet Wrapped Wreaths, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Made a few wreaths for gifts using my Wrapped Wreath Tutorial and a wreath kit! I cut the strips in half and used a 14" wreath form! Keep your eyes out, I shall be giving away one of the kits soon!

Kobenstyle, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I snatched up this Dansk Kobenstyle Pan on etsy a few weeks ago, and it arrived this week! In my defense, the only one I've ever seen was red and was $85! Compared to that, mine was a crazy steal! I LOVE IT! The handle is what did me in! :)

George, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

George just loves to be in his basket!

Today I love the..
Smell of: New conditioner
Sound of: Arrested Development
Taste of: Brewer's pretzels from Cornerstone
Sight of: Michael!
Feel of: Soft futon

Good Things about Today:
- Got to see Michael for the first time in 2 weeks!
- Filled lots of shop orders!
- Skype chat with two of my favorite sewing buddies!
- George gave me a bunny kiss today :)

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Basting and Quilting

This post is a part of the Warm Cool Quilt-Along! Feel free to join in the fun at any time! :)

1. Color Refresher
2. Quilt Sizes and Fabric Requirements
3. Half-Square Triangle Tutorial
4. Piecing the Top
Today's Post: Quilting

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Today we're going to talk about the quilting! But first, before we start quilting, we need to baste. I'm going to walk through how I pin baste, but feel free to baste your quilt however you'd like! :)

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

1. Using masking tape, tape the backing to a clean, hard surface right side down.

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

2. Spread out your batting on top of the backing. I like to use Warm and White 100% cotton batting in all my quilts! :)

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

3. Carefully spread out your quilt top on top of the batting, right side up.

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

4. Pin your top, I like to use curved safety pins, spacing the pins a few inches apart. Make sure that your pins are going through all three layers! Also be mindful of your quilting design when placing your pins.

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Now we're ready to quilt! I've created a little video to show how I am quilting my top. I'm simply stitching on either side of the lines created by the warm vs. cool pattern.

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting a video by jenib320 on Flickr.

After you've finished quilting, trim off your batting and backing and square up your quilt top!

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Quilting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Stop by next week for binding! The post will be on Tuesday since Monday is July 4th! :)

In the meantime, check out all the great quilt tops popping up in the flickr group:

Warm Cool Quilt Along Tops, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

1. warm/cool quilt top 1, 2. warm cool quilt, 3. Warm Cool Quilt - possible layout, 4. Warm Cool QAL Top, 5. Warm/Cool in progress, 6. Jun11 009, 7. Warm cool progress, 8. warmCool3, 9. ready. set. quilt., 10. IMG_2395, 11. Warm-Cool Quilt-along, 12. Warm/Cool Quilt Top

Sewing Summit Interview

They're doing a great interview series on the Sewing Summit blog each week interviewing a different teacher! Today they're interviewing me! Click here if you're interested in reading it! :)

Sewing Summit Interview, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

For those of you who do not know what Sewing Summit is, it is a modern sewing and blogging conference! It's being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, this coming October! It's going to be so much fun! I'll be there teaching Creative Fabric Selection! Hope you'll come along!

*Shall be posting the next step of the quilt along this evening! :)

This Weekend

Kobenstyle, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

This week's luck continued today when I found this vintage yellow Dansk Kobenstyle Pitcher to add to my collection! I cannot wait to be able to unpack all of my collection and see it together. I picked this one up at an antique mall so it wasn't very thrifty, but compared to etsy/ebay prices it sure was! :)

Designs Pyrex Casseroles, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I also managed to find the large Designs Pyrex casserole to match the little one I already had!

Vintage Sheets, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Saturaday I had the BEST vintage sheet haul I've ever had! The shop is now fully stocked with new goodies! :)

Yarn, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I used this tutorial to dye some yarn with Koolaide! It turned out great! I can't wait to dye some more!

Granny, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Yesterday, my awesome friend Amanda taught me how to crochet! Look what I made, my first granny square!!

George, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

George was glad to be reunited with his basket after being in his cage while I was at home for the night!

I am a little behind on responding to comments, so if you've asked a question or such in the last few days, I'll be getting back to you tomorrow morning! Cheers! :)

Today I love the..
Smell of: Lemon Blueberry muffins
Sound of: Ever After
Taste of: Red Raspberry Jam
Sight of: Clean Apartment
Feel of: George

Good Things about Today:
- Basted my Sherbet Pips quilt!
- Found Kobenstyle AND Pyrex today!
- Got all the sheets photographed + listed!
- Video of George eating a banana :)

Favorites

Favorites, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

1. XOXO quilt, 2. One Shiny Bee blocks, 3. Whack-a-Bunny Quilt, 4. folded, 5. resurrecting George, 6. baby Ingrid in progress, 7. Tourquise and Brown Quilt, 8. Untitled, 9. PTS 5 front complete

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!

This Week

Sherbet Pips Top, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Finished up my Sherbet Pips (by Aneela Hoey!!) quilt top today! Unfortunately it was raining, so I had to settle for indoor shots! I am so happy with how this turned out! I started playing with this idea at the beginning of the week and everything just fell into place!

I knew that I wanted to be able to showcase the super cute prints in this line. So what I did, was split the line into two parts, "story prints" and "basic prints". There are 15 story prints and 12 basic prints. So, based off of this (and the fact that I wanted a double sized quilt!), I decided to use a 5x6 layout. This gave me 30 squares, 15 of those pieced the other 15 whole blocks. So! I was able to showcase each story print and then used the remainder of the prints as well as small squares from the story prints to piece the other squares. Each pieced block has 16 squares, 4 of which are story prints. It really just all worked out perfectly!! I used all but a few scraps of a FQ stack! The quilt top measures about 78"x93"!

Yarn Dyeing!!, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I'm playing around with yarn dyeing today using Koolaide!

Happy Fabric!!, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

My Mom and I made the long trip to my favorite quilt shop yesterday! I made sure the trip was worth it, hehe :)

Stripes!, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I've slowly been collecting sweet stripe sheets! I was able to put together stripe bundles for the shop!

Friendship, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I FINALLY found some Pyrex!! And even something I was looking for! I have been after the Friendship 502 for forever! I already had the 501s, but they were $1 each, can't pass on that!

George, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

George baby :)

Today I love the..
Smell of: Koolaide
Sound of: Harry Potter 7 Audiobook
Taste of: Red Raspberry Jam
Sight of: Clean Apartment
Feel of: Soft sheets

Good Things about Today:
- Finished up the quilt top!
- Did some much needed cleaning!
- Dyed yarn!!
- Pizza for dinner :)

Tuesday

Zippy Pouches, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Finished up these zippy pouches today! Crossed them off my Finished it Up list! :)

Pips, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Finally decided on a pattern for my Sherbet Pips! I'm super excited about it, started cutting right away! I'm using almost every last bit to make a double sized quilt!

Red Raspberries, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Made red raspberry freezer jam today! Can't wait for it to set up so I can try it!

George, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

George :)

Bunny Tails!!, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

And, speaking of George! I have a very special announcement! George now has his very own blog!! It's called Bunny Tails! I'll be posting lots of photos, stories and videos of George! Don't worry, he'll still be showing his face around here! But if you'd like to know more about George or see more photos and such, check it out! Today's post is about George's story! :)

Today I love the..
Smell of: Red Raspberries
Sound of: Morning rain
Taste of: Mac & Cheese
Sight of: George
Feel of: Cool Apartment

Good Things about Today:
- Got a lot of sewing done today!
- Red raspberries!
- George has been so sweet all day!
- Planning a fun trip with my Mom!

Warm Cool Quilt Along - Piecing the Top

This post is a part of the Warm Cool Quilt-Along! Feel free to join in the fun at any time! :)

1. Color Refresher
2. Quilt Sizes and Fabric Requirements
3. Half-Square Triangle Tutorial
Today's Post: Piecing the Top

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

It's time to lay out and piece your quilt top! The beauty of half-square triangles is their versatility! There are so many different patterns you can create with them. I recommend checking out the Half Square Triangle Quilts flickr group for lots of great ideas!

I'm going to show you a few different options for your quilts! :)

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

1. Traditional Value Quilt Layout
This layout creates a giant diamond pattern! If you need help laying yours out, feel free to refer back to the diagrams in the first post, here! Another interesting variation of this is to do it off-center!

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

2. Squares on point
This is a fun one, creating a squares on point pattern!

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

3. Zig Zag
Another popular HSTs pattern, zig-zags!

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

4. Little Diamonds
This pattern is a variation of the traditional value pattern, with 5 smaller diamonds!

Whichever layout you choose, they are all pieced the same way, in rows! Be sure to play around a bit with your layout, making sure you have an even distribution of colors and fabrics! For my quilt, I went with this little diamonds pattern! I couldn't help myself after seeing littlebluebirdie's layout on flickr! :)

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Carefully stack up your rows and mark them accordingly. It's important to keep your rows organized! I like to use a little slip of paper and a safety pin! :)

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I recommend pressing your rows in alternating directions, which allows it to lay flatter. For example, press row 1 to the left, press row 2 to the right, press row 3 to the left, etc.

Warm Cool Quilt Along, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Finally, piece your rows together and press your seams! I like to press mine open!

And there we have it! Your top is done, woo hoo! Go ahead and cut out (or piece) your backing in preparation for next week's post! We'll be talking quilting!

This Week in Photos

Snippets Mini - Front, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Mini quilt for my Mom's Birthday!

Jane Market Bag, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Jane Market Bag for a friend.

Winter Scarf, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Infinity scarf using Folksy Flannels for me!

Today's Haul, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Great Saturday of thrifting!

Thrifting, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

A few favorite sheet finds!

Oval Elements, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Delicious Oval Elements by Pat Bravo.

Ready, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Ready to sew some summer clothes!

George, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

George, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

A little George for good measure :)

Today I love the..
Smell of: Fresh Basil
Sound of: George running about!
Taste of: Smarties
Sight of: Apartment
Feel of: Cool Shower

Good Things about Today:
- Skype chat with sewing buddies!
- Working on my Harry Potter swap with Amanda!!
- Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc!
- Seeing George bunny after a night away!
- Relaxing evening!