sewvivor sewalong - the coloradifornia cameras

crazy name for a quilt, right?
well, it's pretty perfect for this one.
when deciding on a project for this fourth and final challenge, i wanted something that was going to be appreciated by me, and not just done to try and win something schnazzy.  i searched pinterest for LOTS of ideas, and then fell upon this vintage cameras quilt pattern by carina gardener and knew it had to be the one.  lisa agreed, and then it was settled, as usual.  problem is, i had no clue what fabric to use.  i thought about using a line of moda fabric i constantly saw in our local beverley's, but figured i wouldn't get working on it until post colorado.  well, that was incorrect.
you heard about colorado (if this is brand new information, click here) and you heard about the fantastic holly's quilt cabin, and now you'll see where that handful of fat quarters got put to use.  a small recap is that friday we went to the quilt cabin, wandered and oogled.  saturday, we returned to include brett, kent and lorelai on this wonderfulness.  lorelai helped me pick out some fat quarters to use for this project, which helped make it even more special.  i finished my bag project on wednesday, so i really wanted to get some crafting going since lisa had hexagons out the wazoo.  i wonder undered, appliqued and started on the bodies of the cameras, but found that i had run out of fabric.  one last run to the quilt cabin before i left, and luckily found FQs for the flash and button portions as well.  the rest of the fabric came from joann's, which i feel blended quite well with the rest of the fabric in the quilt.
the cameras fabric is all from colorado, the background, border and backing is all from here in california.  thus creating, the coloradifornia cameras.  alright.  enough jibber jabber.  on to the photos!
originally the pattern was 5x5 when it came to number of cameras, as well as a whole lot more scrappy.  i kept the fabric jewel tones similar in shades (you should have heard me hating on the orange ones... it totally happened.  but i appreciate them being there now.  i really do.) and everything else on it uniform as far as the borders of the camera, the lens, flash, and framing around the flash.  i added on another row to unsquare it and add a smidge of length to it as well.
i still wanted that scattered effect of colors, instead of organizing them in diagonal rows. for most colors, there were 2 of each print, 3 of each color scheme (purple, pink, blue, green & orange) which left me at i believe 14 different fabrics. lorelai tried to add red in there when we were at the store, but it just wasn't happening. now these colors, they are totally happening.
here's a bit closer in so you can see the pieces of the camera flash.
i did find one oops in the pattern, where it tells you to cut one of the pieces at 2" when it should be 2.5"
luckily, i had enough of the fat quarter left (the one i originally ran out of while still in colorado) to make enough pieces to replace the oops ones.
soooo i've pretty much been home from colorado for about a month now, and i JUST bought the fabric to do the backing and the border last saturday night AFTER i spent 7 hours at a wedding... yeah, it was an exhausting joanns trip. i found that perfect backing fabric, but they did NOT have enough for it. i purchased a different fabric for the binding, and then drove across town to the other joanns that claimed to have 8 yards of the fabric because i wanted to get working on this project on sunday. they DID have the fabric needed, and a much better fabric for the borders. came home, got my prewash on, and spent pretty much all day sunday working on this quilt, and all day monday finishing up the quilting. tuesday was 100% binding day, and i found myself hand sewing at my computer as i watched lectures for my online classes. that my friends, is emily level of dedication.  p.s. back to fabric.  let's talk about how fantastic this not white white is.  it has this texture-ness to it that isn't quite cross hatch, and it isn't quite checks.  its fantastic, and not stark white either.  the black is a slightly larger print of the same texture, and the back is a teal-ish fabric in the exact same print as the white.  perfect.  love it.
let me just take this moment to point out that since i've started actual quilting, i've never made a quilt for myself.  sure, i have two t-shirt quilts, but those are tied, and generally boring.  this one, i'm never going to let go of it.  or share it.  unless you're uber nice to me.  and even then, probably not.  this year's catvent plans might also fall in to this same "mine all mine" category.
one last photo for the road.
over all, this sewvivor process has been pretty crazy, and i cannot imagine how i would have met the actual deadlines if  was competing for reals.  through the #sewvivorsewalong hashtag, i've sound some pretty fantastic people to follow on instagram, and i hope some people feel the same about following me!  i'm pretty excited to go back to leisurely sewing things here and there, and busting out some blocks for the quilt block swap that needs to be sent out by october 20th (ACK)
oh, and a heads up.  i know i totally skipped out on weekend wips this past monday, but as you can guess, all i did this weekend was quilt this beast.  i have some in progress photos i'll be sure to throw in on next week's post so you can see some of the pre-quilting goodness :)
thanks so much for stopping on by!

sewvivor sewalong - hexing around

a day later than desired, but hey... better now than never!
still made it in time for the #sewvivorsewalong entry on instagram, so that's a plus, right?
when doing my project research for this sewvivor cycle, i stumbled across this hexing around block by freshly pieced, and knew it was what i wanted to do.  this was actually the first project i had decided on WELL before auditions even happened.  even better was i knew what fabric i wanted to do it with.  remember catvent 2013?  yep.  same fabric!  i was working through more of the batik fabric i inherited from my grandma, and all i had to purchase for this project was the gray used for the front and the back.  before i chatter more about this, take a look at the full quilt!
pretty stoked about this one.
the blocks pieced together easily, it was just SUPER time consuming.
sew two sides, iron, trim to the right angle, repeat 3 times for each color round. once i hit the green round, my pieces started to be too short and i had to connect pieced together just to be long enough, and then make sure i had enough just to get around.  once i got to the orange ring, i completely ran out, and pulled some yellow left over from baby mark's petite trellis just to complete that round.  i pulled in some red from that project as well, but was able to finish the blocks off and have enough to create the binding.  woo hoo!
i really like the purple parts, just like in catvent, but there just wasn't enough to make them the bigger ring to the quilt. oh well. i like the lack of scrappy purple on each one, and that it is a center point
more close ups. this is my top center block, and i like it quite a bit.
haha. i did such a awful job sewing on this tag. i literally finished sewing it, threw it over the cat and left for work yesterday. it's a little wonky, but that makes it unique, right?
the quilting was an absolute breeze to do.  i did it in two sittings, probably because i had somewhere to be (this week was chaotic, let me tell you what) but it was just around and around the hexagons.  easy peasy.  just time consuming.  and i really like how it looks on the back.  so glad i went with the solid gray fabric with gray thread instead of anything with a print or color.
i would absolutely love to do this quilt in a larger scale and see how it turns out.
i am out of batik remainders (finally?  is this true?  maybe almost...)  but i would love to see this done in different color schemes, and a different aspect ratio of blocks.  i didn't have much of an option since i only pulled off 12 blocks, but i would have loved to see this a little bit bigger with at least a 4 block across width.  something about 3 just doesn't do it for me... haha.
i'm quite pleased with how this turned out (i think i say that about all my quilts lately) and think it looks just like i imagined it in my head.  i love how all the same colors mixed around on different blocks make each one unique and so different from the others.
there you have it folks!  sew-vivor challenge 3: finished!

sewvivor sewalong - sweet retreat's little sister

hello again, sew-vivor fans!
here we are at the post for challenge 2: quilted bag.
when this challenge was posted originally, well before i auditioned and such, i thought instantly that it would be my weakest project.  no high hopes or anything for it.  just... blah.
i pinned a billion different ideas, but none of them really wowed me.  i stumbled across the "sweet retreat's little sister" bag pattern while at joann's one day, and decided it would be my project.  i picked out my fabric, and did some of the quilting the night before i left for colorado, and then finished it up while out of state.  turns out, i should have read the instructions a few dozen times before doing anything.  i had to requilt some things, and others were fudged as well.  and the binding... oh was there lots of bias cut binding.  oy!  but it's all finished now, and i had this super cute lorelai just sitting around to model my bag for me.  everything looks better with kidlets, right?
this bag has a whole lotta pockets on it, which makes it even more awesome. one on each side, two on the front, two on the back, and 3 on each side on the inside. i told you... a whole lotta pockets.  and that zipper was fantastically easy to put in.  and it looks great too.  love it.
this bag was a pretty good size,so i'm a little afraid to see what it is the "little sister" of... lisa and i were pretty certain if kent curled up in a ball, he would fit inside quite comfortably.
love those side pockets. although having to sew that curved edge... not so much love.
hugh would have easily fit inside the bag. with a whole lotta room to spare. now on to the solo bag photos, just to get a smidge more of the details while lorelai ran around like a crazy person.
and on a final note...
while this bag turned out better than i envisioned it day one in colorado, i am quite thrilled to be getting back to quilts.  big, flat, rectangular, snuggle up in quilts.  okay, maybe they're not going to be big enough for me to snuggle up in... but at least they won't be bags.
i shouldn't be talking too much trash about this challenge.  it was good for me to do something like this and try something new.  and i keep seeing posts about this weekender bag people have been making... perhaps that will end up on my desires to sew list.  in the meantime here is some info about the bag pattern:
sweet retreat's little sister by whistlepig creek
here is a fantastic tutorial i wish i knew about before i made the bag.  makes everything a whole lot more visual than the itty bitty drawings in the pattern:  tutorial by the designer
how funny.  the designer is from colorado.  it's like it was meant for this bag to be put together at lisa's house.

sewvivor sewalong - fun with flags

the first of four sewvivor sewalong posts is finally here!
when sew-vivor was announced, and the challenges were listed... i was at a loss when it came to nautical.  nothing inspired me.  i didn't want to do sailboats or anchors... because really... what would i do with said quilt after i was done with it?  (happy birthday, baby boy peterson 2.0 perhaps?)  i wandered fabric stores, hoping inspiration would strike... but nothing.  not until i saw a collection of fabric at beverley's titled "bartholo-meow's reef" and loved the subtle nautical-ness of it.  (really... i didn't notice the "meow" part of the title until after i had bought the fabric and went back to get the background print...  ha).  i saw the fabric, but had no clue what to do with it.  i thought hard over what nautical would come to mind, and all that i could think of was a nod to the big bang theory.  sheldon's fun with flags came to mind, so i took the idea and ran with it.  i came across this great tutorial from film in the fridge simply titled "scrappy triangles" that fit the vision perfectly.  let's start off with a little behind the scenes action.
first off, the fabric selection from bartholo-meow's reef.  i picked the prints that were more subtle, but would work well in a scrappy layout without being too busy.  initially i was trying to decide on one of the anchor prints or the other.  but after much surveying (including my sister saying she was useless because she doesn't quilt) it was decided on both anchors to be used, but in separate flags.  i don't think the brown fabric is from the same collection, but it was shelved with the fabric.  i was originally going to go with a solid white or blue, but i'm glad i stumbled across this wood looking fabric to use.  gives it more of a boat-like feel i guess.
i busted the top out quite quickly, and then had to figure out the back.  i almost used the white that i originally purchased for the front, but wasn't in love with it.  i went back to my room to see what i had and sitting on top of my final tub that has yet to be organized, i had a giant blue sheet that perfectly matched the light blue anchors.  i instagrammed a photo of the pinning process, and apparently people were impressed by my over kill of safety pins.  i have a fear of the back shifting... the more pins, the better?  it looks pretty crazy, that's for sure.  and now, on to the final detail photos!
from the original layout, i decided to keep all my flags pointing in the same direction and slightly off set every other row.  this resulted in some rows having 4 full flags, others having 3 flags and 2 halves.  i am quite pleased with the result of it!  to me, it looks like they are really hanging pennants in a row.
the quilting... i am SO THRILLED with this too.  i didn't want to ruin the individuality of each flag, but i also didn't want it to be too blah when you look at it.  i decided to stitch in the ditch around the outside of each flag, and then do a 1" cross hatch following the same angle inside the brown parts.  i am so glad i went with a solid quilting thread instead of the usual variegated threads that i use in my quilts.  it feels much crisper to me, and doesn't detract from the quilt in any way.
the binding i created from that same giant blue sheet i found in my room.  i cut off a few strips, sewed it together, and did the hand sewing in what felt like record time.  probably because it was such a tiny quilt in comparison to others i have done.  i almost didn't "tag" this quilt, because i didn't want to cover the quilting i'm so amazed i pulled off. but to keep with tradition, i placed the tag for this one in the top corner. since i have 10,000 of these tags, i might as well! (ok... maybe not 10,000... but the more i clean & organize my room, the more i find!)
and there you have it folks!
i am super pleased with this quilt.  it only has a few flaws i wish would go away, but that gives it that little bit of charm that most of my quilt have.  i plan to knock out my bag this upcoming week in colorado, so i hope to have that for you to see soon enough :)

audition for sewvivor round 3 - emily carroll

hey howdy hey.
my name is emily, and i'm auditioning for the part of super awesome sew-vivor 3's top 16.  super exciting, that's for sure!  my cousin lisa auditioned for sew-vivor's round 2 last year, and made sure i knew about this uber cool quilting round this year.  she's all about kids clothes & that fun stuff, but i'm all about quilts.  so what the heck.  why not audition.  so here's a smidge about me before i get to sharing my entry piece :)
as you learned, my name is emily.
i am a 25 year old with a bachelors degree in photography & soon to be an associates degree in early childhood education.  i've been a dance teacher for nearly 10 years, and adore working with kids.  i love disneyland, mexican food, and late night oreo sundaes.  i have a grumpy black & white cat named elroy who lurks in the shadows, plus a desire to always pick up pennies off the sidewalk.
i'm well versed on television shows with top 16s, but modeling & singing just aren't my style.
i took my first sewing class many moons ago, and somewhere in my hodge podge of a room, still have the first quilt i ever made.  someday i'll have to locate that little bugger and blog it.
i come from a family of crafters, and have always been doing something in one way or another.
both my parents sew in one way or another, as do various grandmas & a few of my aunts are crafty in their own rights.
my mom has headed up the costumes for our dance studio for what feels like forever, and my dad makes soft puppets that he uses for ventriloquism.  i mentioned my cousin lisa, who is also an avid sewer, and both of her parents are crafty in their own rights.  p.s. our dads are twins... which makes our cousinly-ness even that more awesome.  we always planned to open a mall kiosk to sell our crafted goodies... but will have to settle on using our etsy site for now.
i'm sure you're thinking "but emily... why quilts?  you're 25..."
just kidding.  you the judges are above the average person.  when people ask what i do in my spare time, and i answer that i make quilts, i usually get the response "oh my mom/grandma does that..." with the undertone of "you have the hobby of an old woman with a house full of cats"  well...  yeah.  but i'm awesome.
i'm not really a fan of yarn crafts.  i can crochet a smidge, but never really picked up on knitting... perhaps that could be because i have a "teach yourself how to knit" book that has never been opened.  i bought that in 2010 i think.  oops.  i cross stitch a little bit here and there, and since my mom generally made all our christmas & easter dresses, i never really desired to take up clothing construction.
i made that first quilt when i took a "kids can sew" class probably around age 7 or 8, but then never again until my senior year of high school.  i had to do a senior project that benefited the community in one way or another.  i swore up and down that i would NOT just make quilts.  well, after two other failed project attempts, what did i do?
i made quilts.
27 very basic, but very quilty quilts, that were donated to shriner's children's hospital in the end.
this was in 2006, and after a lot of ins and outs of being crafty and such, i feel that now is better than ever to really continue to push my quilt creating skills even further above and beyond where i was 8 years ago.  i've gone from these basic 9 blocks & t-shirt quilts, to log house cabins, railfence quilts and much, much, more.  things progressed from simple yarn knots to keep the layers together, to having my grandma quilt things for me.  this past august my grandma broke her hip, and at the time she was going to quilt some projects for me.  whelp, that wasn't exactly doable, so she talked me through the process and i started to quilt things myself.  so far, basic stitch in the ditch or straight line designs, but i have already made plans to take things on my own to the next level in the coming months and take a free motion quilting class at a local store.  i've harnessed a real enjoyment for the craft, and finally feel like i truly found my niche in with my crafty family.  without further adieu, i introduce to you judges my 2014 sew-vivor entry:
this past december i participated in the catvent quilt along put on by elizabeth hartman of oh, fransson!
we are very much cat people in this house, and this was a fun project that gave me something to keep doing while i was enduring finals at that point of time as well.  i feel like this help showcase what i am capable of, as well as hints towards the potential i could have in this competition.  this quilt was entirely done by me: fabric selection from a box of inherited batiks, piecing each cat, completing the top, ALL the 1" quilting, and blind stitching the binding to finish things off.
i cannot imagine another quilt at this moment that better showcases everything rolled in to one.  this quilt to me helps show how far things have come, and my determination to the craft.  i love trying new things, and having a challenge/competition aspect to it all would just make things extra exciting!
i would absolutely love to be a part of this competition and to meet some new individuals out there in the crafty quilting community.  cannot wait to embark on this journey :)
i'll try not to cry too hard if i get voted off the island.
but hopefully, it won't come to that ;)  even making top 16 would be a dream.
thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting!

if you want to cruise some of my other quilts, click here!