The One With The Gnomes

I recently participated in a Doll Quilt Swap on my favorite sewing forum. The theme was "Summer" -- so naturally, I went with gnomes.

I promise the actual quilt isn't as wonky as this picture makes it look! (My lawn is the wonky one.)

This little quilt measures about 16" x 20" -- I used some much loved Heather Ross fabric (the gnomes and stripes), Art Gallery solid, and Michael Miller dots for the binding. Then went to it quilting the feathers and a "crossing paths" dense filler.

See, I told you it wasn't (quite) as wonky as that first picture showed; this pic shows a completely different kind of wonkiness!

On the back, I added a strip of stripes, with selvedge, of course, and a bit of Heather's newest line Briar Rose. There are little crickets in among the clover. Definitely summer!

I'll be hanging out with some other fun sewing peeps on Friday and Saturday. My local MQGs (yes, two of them!) are hosting sew days. I've got some utilitarian quilty bits (placemats) and some fun stuff (a swap and a charity top) to work on. Which means there'll be something new to share next week.

What are you working on today?

ko

The One with the Quilted Feathers Tote Bag

My best favorite part of quilting is the quilting. I *love* to push those layers through my Janome and see the designs come together.

Last week I put together a piece of Angela Walters' Right Angles Panel, and a piece of Ikea's nummers fabric just so I could practice my feather quilting. Gotta say, I *love* the results! I cut the panel across the WOF, so the practice piece was about 18" x 42" -- the finished tote is approximately 15.5" tall and 19" wide.

I FMQ'd the feathers on the panel and was thrilled to see them improve in just this short practice piece. That picture above is the front because it's got the best feathers. The photo below is the back. The feather on the left was the first one I'd done on this practice piece.

I joined the feathers together with some "Lazy L" quilting to really make the feathers pop. The handles are cotton webbing, and the gray tabs on the end are just a bit of Kona charcoal to keep the webbing from fraying.

The inside is as much fun as the outside:

I sewed it into a tote and bound the top edge. It's a fun, happy bag that holds a ton!

ko

eta: Linking up at crazymomquilts!

The One With The Chair

I made a chair!

Okay, so I didn't really *make* a *chair* -- I spruced up a chair! It was a challenge, in more ways than one.

My sewing chair was an office chair in its previous life. It was covered in a rather boring, office blue, tweedy sort of fabric. It's a great quality (Hon brand), and has been with me for at least eight years, and at my previous employer's office for...maybe five or more before that. She's high quality though, nary a scratch on her. Dust and thread...well, that's a different story!

Anyway. There was a "Make It Right" Challenge by Art Gallery Fabrics and Angela Walters. I spent oodles of time deliberating about what I should make. A quilt was too obvious. A tote bag might be too simple. I spent so much time deliberating that I left very little time to actually *create* something!

I did a simple piecing of a panel and some of the teal (Tile) AG solid. On the back I pieced Cozumel and Snow (I think it was snow, it was definitely white, and definitely Art Gallery!). Then I quilted it like I wanted to hurt it! I had a lot of fun quilting it, actually.

After quilting, I really had to make a decision. I could make a huge tote bag, with interesting straps, or I could Do. Something. Else.

But what? I set the quilted piece down on my chair and left the sewing room to get a drink. (Of water, people. Of water!). When I walked back in to the sewing room, Angels Sang and Light Streamed. The chair of course! Use the quilted piece to re-cover the chair!

It was just crazy enough to work. But I needed a staple gun, and I had to run out to my daughter's End of School Field Day. After three hours in the hot sun, school was out for the day and we trundled off to OSH for the necessary tool. I won't bore you with the details of that little shopping trip....lucky you! So. Once we got back home again, I wrangled open the clam shell packaging and laid hands on my new toy.

Now all that was left was cutting in to my precious quilted fabric, then affixing it to the actual chair.

There was a lot of soul searching that afternoon. Not gonna lie. I've never quilted something just for the sake of cutting it up into something else. But I did it. I'll also admit that I have a healthy respect for my electric staple gun.

Having made a short story incredibly long, I'll cut to the chase and show you the finished chair.

I entered it in the Pinterest/AG/Angela Walters contest, and am (im)patiently awaiting the final tally. Voting is open until June 27. There are loads of cool projects, and you should take a look around. Get inspired. Make your own project. Just be sure you Make It Right!

ko

PS: linking up (for the first time ever!) with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday!