christmas village bold blocks quilt

 

today is the day! bold blocks quilt is available and ready for a sew along!  head on over to allisonramsing.com for more details about getting the pattern, timeline and more on that straight from the designer allison herself :)

once the kapow! quilt pattern test was over, i was totally on board to test another (and clearly put off all my own projects even more).  i saw the "better not pout" line of fabric while cutting orders one day at the shop and couldn't help but fall in love with these cute houses and need to find something to make with this.  allison sent out a call for pattern testers, and once i was chosen, i KNEW i had to incorporate them.  I picked a wintery/festive variety to include, and then BOOM.  it came to life!

the simplicity of these blocks and the way the layout makes them look askew without being overly chaotic.  i stuck closely to the pattern this time, and didn't get too fancy with adding more colors to the quilt at all.  i purchased exactly what the pattern called for, and while my cutting instructions changed from the recommendations Allison gave, i still had enough fabric to use (both the blue blocks as well as the yellow background fabric were cut directionally) i considered doing the same poinsettia quilting i had done on previous christmas quilts (which you'll FINALLY get to see sprinkled through this month) but the more i thought about it, the more i wanted the prints and the quilt's layout to be the focus and not be overwhelmed by the quilting.  i used one of my favorite pantographs "loop the loop" with jade green glide thread and i'm SO happy with the results.

i decided to use glide in particular because it was new in our shop and i had been getting a lot of questions about it from customers.  i was able to use a mini spool for the quilting (plus winding three gamill bobbins for it)  and still had plenty of thread to spare in the end.  i have also heard it is good for piecing, so i will have to give that a shot sometime as well!  my current projects are far from jade green, so i'll have to find something soon to give it a go with :)

i went with blue grunge 108 for the backing, since it was a perfect "solid" tie in without having to add even more print to the back.  after talking with customers and hearing about how "nobody wants to cuddle up with a cotton backed quilt, they want minky" i ALMOST took the plunge, but at the same time... i don't know if i'm ready to jump in to that quite yet.  maaaaybe soon.

i also had a huge struggle trying to decide on binding.  i asked instagram, and got a lot of responses.  i wanted to steer clear of red to keep this more "wintery christmas" instead of IN YOUR FACE obvious christmas.  that way, it isn't awful if it stays out just a little bit longer beyond christmas.  i even purchased a stripe from this same line of fabric, but when i got it home and next to the quilt... i hated it.

so back i went the next day to get a bit more of the holly leaves to finish up the quilt, and it is perfect.

someday i won't feel like i have to include a quilt tag photo on each and every post...
but today is not that day.  i'm still pretty obsessed with them.  and i also managed to remember to fold this one out of the way when i was top stitching so that it wouldn't have a green line through it.  it's the little things, guys.  mentioning green lines, i DID sew on my binding with the glide thread, and it worked like a breeze for that as well.  nothing wigged out at all beyond the weird spots my machine occasionally catches ALL thread, so there was nothing specific to glide that i had to grumble about.  and now that you've made it to the bottom of the post, rosco is here to remind you the quilt along starts TODAY!  go get yourself that pattern (it's on sale through my birthday, even!) and join in the fun.  allison has some great prizes in store, and i'll be rummaging through my stash to see what i might come up with for my very own quilt along version.  this holiday one has a home already, but the recipient doesn't quite know it yet.  will it be you?
guess you'll just have to keep checking your front porch every so often this month!

pattern information: bold blocks by allison ramsing

quilt count: 142

not a girl. not a robot.

Jason: And to Janet, the best robot. 

Janet: Not a robot. 

Jason: Girl. 

Janet: Not a girl. 

Jason: And straight-up hottie. 

Janet: I am attractive, yes.

2020 is SUPER WEIRD guys!
i didn't even think about making a costume this year, but who really has anyways?

though i did realize that i never did the post i promised from last year's halloween costume.  so, 365 days later... here we are!

disclaimer: if you have not watched the good place, please note that i'm not a flight attendant.  also, if you haven't watched the good place... go do so now.  4 seasons of delightful mike schur feel good fun.

watching the series, janet was pretty much my favorite character.

seeing her evolve and grow from being not a robot and not a girl to a straight up awesome individual was so much fun to watch.  when the series was ending, i knew i needed to be janet for halloween, while she was still "relevant" as a tv character.  
granted, she'll always be relevant to me... but that's neither here nor there.
so since we're a year behind, here's some photos i made my dad take this past weekend so that i'd have something beyond dark phone photos for y'all

i was so determined to find the actual fabric for janet's shirt somehow, some way... and after searching for a good long while... i did!

and of all places, it was project runway's favorite fabric shop, mood (thank you, mood!)  now finding a pattern for all the pieces though... THAT was an adventure.  the vest pattern was sized down from something else we already had (because apparently finding vest patterns are quite difficult these days, and the skirt came from a few rounds of buying patterns that i thought were the right style but then i'd compare and go "nope"

since i'm a quilter by nature, i absolutely did a test run on this shirt pattern before cutting up my fancy mood fabrics.  so somewhere around this apartment is a very harry belafonte blue and yellow ruffle front shirt, because i ran out of fabric to do a practice one in a solid color.  it's SUPER attractive, really.  the worst part of this was the zipper, because i just couldn't quite do it right.  i know i pulled it apart at least twice, and left it for my mom to do.  two thumbs up for having a costumer mom who is WAY more familiar with stretchy fabrics and such than i am.  i also sized down the vest a little too much, so i'm quite surprised i didn't hulk out of that thing at any point. i am still super stoked with how this all came together, even if people thought i was a flippin' retro flight attendant.  maybe at some point we'll still get to throw together the good janet/bad janet/michael combo with my sister and my dad like we had planned for our dance recital... unless we come up with some other crazy idea to go with instead!
and for good times sake, here's some halloween throwbacks from 2019 in the costume.

moda grunge kapow! quilt

i think i've tested a few patterns in my day prior to this one... but i honestly cannot think of any others besides boba fett... but this one was a real delight to put together!
in the past month or so i joined a young and millennials quilter group on facebook, and have zero regrets about the group.  like... i made lisa join it too, and she's had great results from it.  one of the first posts i responded to was from joanna with kustom kwilts looking for people to test her pattern.  i thought it looked AWESOME, so i jumped on board and responded, despite the other things i still had planned to do.

i'm sure you're sensing a pattern here with my project behaviors.  can't be productive if 10,000 things aren't happening at once!  originally, i signed up for the lap sized quilt, but when she needed testers for the baby size, i gladly obliged.  let's be real... i should have only taken on the baby sized quilt for testing... but you'll see where this same situation happens again VERY soon.
before this quilt, i had never made one that was 100% out of grunge.  and if you've seen my posts before, you know very well how much i love, love, love it.  like, we just got all the moda grunges in at the shop, and i'm like a walking heart eye emoji whenever i'm near them.  i took advantage of this size and pulled a rainbow assortment of fat quarters that helped complete the rainbow plus a few extras to make it pop (i needed 9 for the baby size).  with that, i starched, ironed, and then got to cutting! i tried to space the colors out the best i could, since i didn't want the same three colors to rotate through the blocks, leaving me with only 3 different colorway sets.  i have to say, i think i did a pretty darn good job with it!  this quilt, much like the mini meadowland i posted last week, had 16" blocks, which was perfect.  the size of the center star was just the right side, and with the grunge there was no worry about anything being directional.the great thing about this crayola-esque color way, is it isn't really gender specific.  the fabric i picked for the back was this perfectly matched rainbow brick print i got at thistledew's retirement sale.  once i quilted this quilt, i assumed it was just going to sit and wait for a home before i decided how to bind it.  then, i remembered a dear friend of mine from high school was expecting her first baby, and she would be the perfect person to receive this fun quilt.  i bound it in raspberry pink grunge, since i had a ton left over from the meadowland backing, and sent it on it's way.beyond the grunge, i loved a lot of things about this pattern.  everything is made from traditional quilt block piecing - half square triangles and flying geese in particular.  there is plenty of room to trim down, and most of the points aren't even near the final seam allowance to get lost.  i'm one that often loses points on my block edges, but this one i had GREAT experience with, and i think i only lost a few points, and that was due to binding.  i call that a win.

i loved looking and seeing other pattern testers versions of this block.  some fussy cut things for the middle and others used only two color ways instead of 9 to get a totally different effect.  i hope someday i'm a little more bold when it comes to pattern testing instead of following the instructions EXACTLY as written.
but you know what.
i love my grungey kapow so much.  i think that top left pink/yellow/aqua one might be my favorite block though.

pattern information: kapow! quilt by kustom kwilts
quilt count: 142

just give me a cape and call me super productive

 but seriously...

i got SO MANY PROJECTS done this week!
first off, i ran a bunch of errands last monday, got some cans exchanged for a solid $5 AND got taco tree for dinner.  that was just on monday!

tuesday was a trickier day - our dance studio started back up, which was an event all in itself.
can i just say i'm glad at least some of us know how to wear masks correctly? oy.
psa: not covering your nose doesn't count.

wednesday though... wednesday was productive!  
after a full day at work, i knocked out the quilting on my bold blocks quilt i've been pattern testing for allison ramsing AND came home to make 2 pillowcases that i had been putting off.  i bought some really cute"dinoween" fabric well over a month ago at the big J, but it just sat.  finally on monday, i bought the flannel to coordinate and i knocked these suckers out.  at least i'll have 10 days of pre-halloween useage of them this year.

thursday and friday i sewed up the rest of my dinosaur blocks in to a quilt top, and then saturday i got binding on my bold blocks quilt.  on sunday, things got photographed, which means more blog posts are about to happen!

i've printed off a blank calendar to start planning for next month's posts, and that leads me to my next predicament.  should i invest in a 2021 planner?  or is it going to be a total wash like the one i bought for 2020?  i've got some big blogging and youtube plans for 2021, so part of me wants to say yes, just based on that alone.  its not like i'll be having to keep track of summer camp writing deadlines, preschool meetings and such.

i guess if i go run errands and hit target today (or stay home and spend too much time on amazon) then i'll see if i end up impulse buying something!

granted, i'm nearing birthday week. so impulse buys are going to be more justified (by me) than normal...
but that's also really difficult with a november birthday followed by december in christmas.  i usually get told i'm not allowed to buy anything for myself between now and january.  ha.

ghouls and goodies tote bag

for the first time in forever, i did a swap!

there was awhile back where i did a LOT of swaps (primarily in my craftster days) but it also seems like the swapping concept totally died out on instagram.  it is weird how these things come in waves.  anywho, my friend angelina added me to her online crew of sewing/quilting type and at some point during one of the saturday night hangouts, they suggested a halloween themed swap.

simple small item, sounded easy enough, so why not put off all other things and jump on in?
sounds like my style.

once the wait was over, i was given angelina's name to create something for.  i decided that i would create a tote bag using one of the fussy cut sampler blocks from the class she did in 2018, but make it "spooky."  i switched between a handful of fabric ideas before settling on using a bunch of the fabrics from moda's ghouls and goodies.  this line was just TOO CUTE to pass up, and PERFECT for fussy cutting.

i used one of the blocks from chapter 6 (see the catasaurus version here) and the majority of it all is the ghouls and goodies line.  the black squares are moda grunge (holla!) and the witch boots i believe are riley blake.  those teeny tiny kitties were just too cute to not arrange this way!when crating the front of the back itself, i used this star print i picked up locally from swifty stitches.  i didn't use a specific tutorial for the bag/block placement, but instead just doodled up some measurements in my bullet journal and went for it.  the bottom strip is probably an inch bigger than the top one, just to give it a little more weight visually.  things i learned in photography classes do in fact pay off with quilting!for the back of the bag, i considered just doing a solid... but i kind of went on an impulse buying spree and had so many cure prints leftover that i hadn't used yet!  i made 3 strips of fabrics of varying colorways and prints, pieced them together and wha laa!  one fabulous bag back.  as far as the quilting goes, i primarily did a stitch in the ditch on both the front and the back of the bag, and then did a skinny straight line stitch on all the black.  on the front, the vertical and horizontal lines intersect in the corners.  keeping it simple sure helped my sanity!  i probably should have layered the batting with some muslin to stabilize it a little bit better when quilting, but i still think it turned out great.

the purple clothesline from the collection was something that i instantly knew would be the lining.  i couldn't bring myself to cut it up and loose bits of it because of how insanely cute it was.  i sewed up the sides, squared up the bottom and then attached at the top.  i should have left a hole in the side to flip it right side out, but instead i left the hole in the top and closed it up when top stitching.  if i made a tote again, which could easily happen, that is what i'd do instead.  

fot the straps i started off a little bit wider, but once i got the inner witch boot strips cut, they needed to come down a smidge, so the focal could be on the boots in the center of the lining.  i kept the star black consistent on top and sewed the 3 layers together before flipping right side out.  top stitched the edge and about a quarter of an inch away and they were perfect!  i also wanted to include one of my new quilt tags on to my bag, so after realizing i could have sewn it in the seam of the lining (fail) i cut it down to size and sewed it on to the inside of the strap.  i love how it turned out there, and i might just need to order some square tags now specifically for these kinds of projects!while i might tweak the creation process of this bag, i have no regrets in the final result!
i'm so glad i went with this one line of fabric... and it honestly made me want to keep making fussy cut sampler blocks for a halloween quilt.  but then i swiftly reminded myself i have a list a mile long to deal with, and that fleeting idea will have to wait for another day (or year).

happy spooky season!

book:  the fussy cut sampler by elisabeth woods and nichole ramirez

mini meadowland kitty quilt

oh my goodness... this poor quilt has been done FOREVER and just got mailed off last week.
it is WAY over due for it's time in the spotlight!

when i found out my dear friend jessica was having baby girl number three, i was thrilled to come up with a way to incorporate our childhood love of kitties in to this quilt.  but apparently that is the theme for her getting baby quilts... they come eventually!  (half hexi smokey cat quilt was baby girl #2).

being in the midst of quarantine while making this, and possibly even during my unemployment phase, i needed a pattern that was quick, easy and i could use my stash for.  the meadowland quilt was one i had my eye on for quite some time, and it was the perfect size for a wee one to grow with.  i had a lot of pinks, aquas and grays from previous projects, so it was the perfect mix for a baby girl.

the collections of pinks i had surprised me, since i don't often use them in my quilt!
granted, a bunch of them came from my rad 100 days 100 blocks quilt that was all over the rainbow.  the aqua kitty heads were just too cute to pass up when i did some shop hopping awhile ago, and they became the perfect tie in for this quilt!
these blocks were much larger than i expected them to be, which was great to feature these fabrics even more so.  bigger blocks = more kitty cuteness, am i right?  i used to think 12"blocks were gigantic and good, but something just feels good about these 16ish ones.  maybe that's because i spent a good three months making 6 and a half inch blocks a few years ago!i picked up the gray binding and raspberry grunge backing from caliquiltco.com to help tie it all together.  i felt like the gray was enough to frame it up without being too "in your face" while the pink on the back was perfect.  i did a simple crazy puzzle pantograph all over it to keep the focus on the blocks and not necessarily overwhelm it with quilting. i would absolutely do this quilt again, using a wider variety of colors and in a larger size.  could i use a new quilt for my bed?  hmmm...  6 quilts layered during the wintertime could be exactly what i need!  
i should also add that i found a blog post that helped figure out how to keep the directional fabric going the same way on all of the flying geese pieces (helpful for those kitty heads especially)
if you plan to do a meadowland and want to know how to keep it directional, the link is here: four at a time geese with directional fabric

pattern information: meadowland by then came june
quilt count: 141

spooky season

i think calling october as a whole "spooky season" is pretty cute.
but this post doesn't have a single spooky related thing in it...

oh well.

i have to say overall, this week has been pretty good in the crafty department.

monday, i went to the long arm to complete someone else's quilt, and after a few funky moments, i finished it!  it will go to it's home this week, and then i'll actually be back long arming my own project this wednesday.  whoo hoo!

last week, you may have heard i cut out 1200 white squares...
yeah.  true story.
well, a few days went by that i had nothing to sew, and then i finally hit the ground running.  i bought the fabric i needed for the next phase of my cutting, which is only half of the ones i need.  we don't seem to have all of the "old colors" for the v and co ombre dots, so i'll be looking to see which new ones to mix in.  as well as comparing to add in to the little sister quilt that goes with this one.

ALSO... we had a sew day yesterday out in elk grove, which means i got started on my baby sized elizabeth hartman dinosaur quilt.  so far, i got all my plants done as well as half the dinosaurs.  i don't have any sneak peek photos yet, unless you look on my instagram, but this one is SO GOOD.  i had a different idea for when i made the one that would be "my size" but man, i'm going to have to scrap it and make it in this colorway for sure, i love it so much.  also, i had to start the hashtag emilylovesdinosaurs, which i imagine will take over instagram in no time.  
well, a girl can dream, right?

i also impulse bought a ring light this week, which will hopefully be a game changer when i have to do late night blog header photos (like the one above) BUT i also have a crazy idea for 2021, quilting and youtube, and i really think that this will help out.  granted, i bought the cheapest one on amazon, which comes with a crummy non adjustable tripod and a weird phone mount, so i might need to make some adjustments there.

stay tuned for new finished projects this week!  i've got 4 coming at you before the end of october, so don't miss out.