Taking the plunge... err, pledge

Why is it so difficult find time to sew in the summer? I’m certainly struggling! So many trips, BBQs, and days where the weather is too nice to be sitting at my sewing machine.

So, for the next 4 months I’m joining a Wardrobe Refashion blog.

You can follow my journey here on FSDS, but I’ll also do be posting on the WR site. I’m concentrating on clothing right now because I think my motivation will be restored if I can see a few projects from start to finish!

The Pledge

I, Jerilyn Fabulous, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed J-Fab

The website says that many aspects of the challenge are up to the pledger’s interpretation. My main goal will be to work the garments and fabric that I already own, along with thirfted items. I may, however, need to make some new item purchases (thread, zippers, trim, etc) to ensure my projects are of high enough quality and craftsmanship that I will actually wear them :).

I’m also going to try to do 3 garment repair or hemming project per month because I have an embarrassingly large “good intentions” pile that needs to be dealt with. Does anyone else do that? Buy something knowing that it needs to be tailored or hemmed and then NEVER get around to it, and eventually there’s a box of such items with the tags still on?

Lastly… Why this challenge? This encourages “green” sewing, saves money, and gives the opportunity to improve sewing skills. Garment sewing is certainly not new to me but I’ve been quilt-centric recently and would like to make room in my life for both activities.

So from now til Halloween, it’s on! Wish me luck!

Disappearing Log Cabin Quilt

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had been inspired by the Disappearing Nine Patch to create a Disappearing Log Cabin, only to find out that this is more or less a Bento Box design...

Here's the scoop, I had 9 or 10 different fabrics in the blue and gray family and cut strips of assorted widths (.75 inch to 2.5ish inch). I did improvised log cabins that were all unique. I just kept adding rounds until the blocks were 15-16 inches square. Then I added 4-5 inches of the the outermost fabric to the blocks, half of which were blue and the other half gray. (The middles were always blue or plaid gray and varied in size.) This allowed me to checker gray and blue in the final layout.

Once I had 18 of the big blocks, I cut them in half...

And then into quarters...

I wasn't concerned about getting the cuts even, as I cut down each of the 72 smaller blocks to make sure that the corners were all 90 degrees and that they all had identical measurements. I used varying angles to cut down the blocks, so the log cabins lines are not squared to the blocks, and makes the blocks a tiny bit wonky.

Lastly, there was the layout... I just started putting blocks on the floor, making sure that the 4 similar blocks made from each large log cabin were spread out.

Below are pictures of this in 3 stages. You could certainly recreate log cabin square throughout with 4 different blocks, but I only included a handful of full squares, and the others are pieces and parts of the larger squares.

My final quilt was approx 70" by 80"

I used Warm & Natural batting for the first time and I'm very happy with the shrinkage. (It also hides some of the big goof-ups that occurred during the top stitching! I really need a better system for sandwiching)

This does follow some of my "Man Quilt" rules, as it was an anniversary gift for some friends. I wanted it to be something the husband could also appreciate. The colors were picked to correspond with their Dallas Cowboys themed tv-room, but the quilt is varied enough in color that it would work in other rooms too.

So there you have it, a "Disappearing" Log Cabin. I think it has a bit of a 3D effect, and it is just the kind of modern-meets-folk that I was hoping for!

Snack Bag Tutorial!!!

I've finished by first tutorial, wahoo! The linked pdf will show you how to make these reusable snack and sandwich bags:

The document contains

-Materials & Tool Lists

-Information about mylar snack packaging

-Assembly Instructions

-Frequently Asked Questions

-Templates

Plus lots of pictures and tips! And did I mention it's FREE?

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS .pdf LINK (link updated 11/23/09 - If not all pages display, select the download option)

Enjoy!

What will someone else think of next?

The deeper I get into the quilting world, the more I realize that whatever I think of has already been thought of (and named) by someone else. And that's okay, I'm not here to demonstrate that I have original thoughts... I just want to make nice looking quilts and share those quilts with you!

Still, the above revelation has come to me twice recently. Last week as I was arranging the blocks on an upcoming gift quilt, I thought "Hey, this looks a bit like a Bento quilt!" So I googled it, and yep... that's pretty much how you make a bento quilt! I was going to call it a "Disappearing Log Cabin" as the Disappearing 9-patch was how I thought of the approach. (Want to see it? Too bad... I can't post any pictures until it has been gifted.)

The other time this happened was when working on a baby quilt (pics below). First I picked out all my fabrics (the part I hate most):

Then I tackled a Crazy Nine Patch Tutorial by Elizabeth from Oh Fransson!. If you aren't familiar with Elizabeth's blog, her talent is only matched by her generosity, so many wonderful tutorials! She also has quilt and craft patterns available on her etsy site.

Elisabeth warned that the seams will not line up, but once I have finished a few blocks I just couldn't handle it! Don't get me wrong, it's pretty common for me to have seams that don't match due to my complete lack of perfectionism... whether it was the fabric selection or the seams, I just wasn't feeling it. So I decided to use a narrow sashing to separate the "patches" and call attention away from the uneven seams. I used 3/4" strips of inexpensive black fabric so with 1/4" seam allowances, it left 1/4" of sashing:

Here are the before and after of the blocks:

When looking at the finished quilt, I had my moment... "Wow, this looks like stained glass! This style should be called 'Stained Glass quilting'!!"... so I googled it...

And it is called stained glass. There are even published books for this technique.

Like I said, I'm not here to be the first ever quilter to try something, but darn this quilt looks good! I can't ask for more.