Pretty Row Markers / Beauties Pageant 29

I’m in charge of purchasing items for my guild’s monthly raffles. It’s a good gig—I get to enjoy the process of buying fun stuff without growing my own stash.

To keep things interesting, I’ve been trying to come up with ideas other than books, patterns, and fabric to use as raffle prizes. For the May meeting, I’m assembling a collection of notions to raffle off and decided a set of handmade row markers might go over well with the group.

These markers are super easy to make with the tutorial at Leland Ave Studios. I ordered the number stickers and laminating pouches on Amazon and used Art Gallery’s Bundle Up: Geometrical Edition for the background fabrics. A set of stickers and a packet of laminating pieces produce two sets of 10 row markers, with some numbers left over.

I am hoping these will be a hit at the next meeting, but I need to pair them with other interesting notions. Got any ideas? Let me know in the comments!

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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2019 Finish-A-Long: Q2 Goals

My Finish-A-Long Q1 list was humble, composed of a mere four projects, and I managed to finish only one of the four before the deadline. (Lame!) But every finish counts as an entry to the prize drawings, and I won! I linked up my Jane Market Bags in the finish linky and scored a fat gift certificate to Sew Sweetness.

I have higher expectations for the next quarter—it’s my attempt to wrap up as much as I can before summer is in full swing. I’ll start with the new-to-you projects because the holdovers from Q1 aren’t nearly as fun to talk about ...

Neighborhood

I probably would have completed more of my Q1 goals if I weren’t sewing up this quilt top and pieced back. This pattern is called Neighborhood. It’s an older one from Elizabeth Hartman, before she started designing critter quilts, found in her Modern Patchwork. I haven’t decided on my plan of attack for the quilting yet.

Update: Neighborhood is finished!

Gypsy Wife

I’ve been chipping away at the blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt in Bonnie and Camille fabrics. Current home renovations are affecting my sewing space, however, and I really need to jury-rig a design wall once things settle down. As a result, I won’t be finishing my quilt with the rest of the quilt-along participants, but I will finish it.

Valentine Quilt

This quilt, designed by Elizabeth Hartman and published in her Practical Guide to Patchwork, is super close to being done. I could have finished it at the 11th hour for Q1, but I spent time with my husband instead (#goodwifey).

 Update: Valentine is finished!

Garden Plots

I went to make the back for my Garden Plots quilt only to discover that I had forgotten to add a border to the top and didn’t have the necessary fabric to remedy that. Instead of just ordering the fabric already, I bellyached about it. Does that happen to you? Do you let a silly snag derail a project for a disproportionate amount of time? (A friend from guild admitted at this week’s meeting that the purchase of a zipper postponed a bag project of hers for months!)

Apparently, this is a pitfall of mine, because I could make a comparable statement about ...

No Latitude

So I at one time had enough Essex Linen in flax for my No Latitude project, but then I used a chunk of it in a tote. This is Essex Linen from years ago, and the bolts I can get my hands on now don’t match the yardage I already have. Every so often I pull this project out, resolve to make it work with what I have on hand, and then return it to storage, discouraged. Here’s hoping this quarter be the quarter I tackle it once and for all.

Update: No Latitude is finished! 

I have other things in the works; this is the list I’m willing to commit to, though. Wish me luck!

What’s on your to-do list for the next few months? Also: I am planning on buying cork fabric with that Sew Sweetness gift certificate. If you have any experiences with cork fabric, please share them below. Thanks in advance!

Pageant Highlight Reel / Beauties Pageant 28

As you are reading this, quilty friends, I am at an indoor water park with two little boys. It’s back-to-back days of splashing in the wave pool and going down the slides and trying to keep track of my kids. (So not exaggerating on that last point.) At the moment, I am likely anticipating the need for a nap when I get home and preparing myself for an evening on the couch instead of a productive session at my sewing machine.

I may be running around with the boys, but I still have sewing on my mind, including these projects from past Beauties Pageants ...

Lisa linked up this Bloem Basket from an Instagram sew-along. I love how she took the opportunity to use a large-scale print on the exterior—pretty!

Alice used an online tutorial to make up her Octopus’s Garden quilt. Look at that strong geometry and bold palette!

And Bernie, of Needle and Foot, made this version of Meadow Mist Designs’ Flock of Geese pattern. Be still my geese-loving heart!

If you have a recent finish to share, I hope you’ll include it in this week’s pageant ...

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sew. That. Stash!

 

Dear readers, I am dropping in today with a quick post about a recent triumph: I completed 11 Jane Market Bags for my kids’ end-of-year teacher gifts and can check something off my Finish-A-Long Q1 list!

To be more specific ... I finished these 11 bags months before school’s end. I even made a 12th bag for my niece, part of Operation: Like My Dog. And what’s more thrilling is that I used 11 yards of stash to do it!

Full disclosure: I did have to buy an additional 6 yards, but that’s a pitfall of stashing for quilt making and then sewing bags. I needed bigger cuts than I usually have on hand. Still, I used twice as much fabric than I bought, and that’s saying something.

I have made this pattern many, many times before. For real. Type “Jane” into the search box on the right to read more about my past versions.

OK, now off to bind a quilt and post another finish before the first quarter of 2019 becomes the second. Wish me luck!

Linking up to Let’s Bee Social ...

Let’s Be Honest / Beauties Pageant 27

Bernie, over at Needle and Foot, recently asked her readers to get honest for a moment. In a social media world where quilters curate their Instagram feeds and post finish after finish on blogs or Facebook pages, it’s easy to think, I don’t measure up. But is anyone’s social media presence an accurate portrayal of reality? We all make mistakes. Perhaps our interactions online would be richer if we owned up to them.

My pillow-y finish from last week is a perfect example ...

The wrench in the works here was the quilting. Originally, I was going to quilt simply—just along each side of the seams—but after I did that I kept quilting. And the more I quilted, the more I realized how difficult and time-consuming it would be to rip out those stitches, and I kept quilting anyway. In the end, I matchstick-quilted the entire front of the pillow, and although it looked lovely, I had a problem: The dense quilting affected the drape and fit of the pillow over the 18-inch pillow form I had purchased. I subsequently concocted and implemented various solutions ...

First, I basted around the pillow to gauge how the pillow form would fit in the pillow as is. There was bulk—a lot of bulk.

So I increased the seam allowance, thinking that would be the solution. (It was not.)

My pillow at this point was looking floppy, especially at the corners. I like my pillows nice and chubby.

So I took the rather drastic step of tapering in all four corners, a tip I had read long ago over at Granny Maud’s Girl.

This was the outcome of my seam-allowance fudging and corner trimming ...

The project now had 12 sides and was rectangular-ish! But I finished it off anyway and bound the edges ...

In the end, I think the pillow is fine. The process didn’t go as I anticipated and the final product is different from what my original vision, but live and learn, right?

To add your latest finish to the latest Beauties Pageant—all imperfections accepted and applauded!—click the link below.

Please note: InLinkz now requires a login for all photo-based link parties. I know that’s a pain. My apologies for the inconvenience!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter