in the mail!

My blocks for this swap are in the mail today.



I think I love packing stuff up as much as I love making stuff.

Christmas in July

Let the record show that I don't really quilt. I can never get my seams to line up (not a big deal, I know). I simply find the whole process to be daunting and maddening, especially when I get to the let's put it all together part! I do like to make small doll quilts, though. What I enjoy the most, though, is the putting together of blocks part. There's just something fun about starting out with a square and adding to it to see what you get.

I joined the Scrappy Christmas Block swap at modernJax because I really wanted to try the tutorial being used for the blocks. So, so simple and once I got my fabric scraps down to the colors I wanted, I managed to whip out 8 of these in two days! The tutorial was clearly written, easy to follow, and I had no issues what so ever. I did, though, only use strips of one size.


And if you are wondering: yes, Christmas at my house is usually a pink, lime green, aqua, green dotted, stripped explosion.

I used the last of what Christmas fabric I had and threw in a few pieces of non-Christmas to balance it out. I think they are fun and colorful and so not the traditional holiday fare. I love them and I can't wait to see what everyone else in my group comes up with!

See the rest of them here.

a bag and an update

First, the bag:

While cleaning out the massive amounts of junk left in a closet and in the garage, I came across two old, hand pieced quilts. Too lovely to throw away but way too much for me to salvage to their former glory, I cut them down into usable pieces. I did some zig-zag stitching for reinforcement and just quilted lines to give it some stability.


I LOVE it. I wish I knew how old this quilt was.



I lined the inside with some vintage floral print (found in the same bag) and gave it a magnetic snap.



An update: I finally did a shop update. (Yay! if you have a coupon!) Cozies, pouches, and bobby pins. The quilt bag. (Free shipping on the quilt bag!) Coming up: wallets, card holders, tote bags.

Oh. And. If you Twitter, you can follow me now!

And Facebook too under the email collectedmess1 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Oh! And if you ever want to trade, I have some bags and whatnot in my Flickr stream!

Clipping

Am I the only one who hates clipping threads when it comes to things like quilt squares? I finally figured out a quick way to do it: when I unpin my squares, I stack them one on top of the other and fan out all the threads to each side. Then I clip them all at once and move on.

tin quilt

You know what's sad? Creating a swap and then being late with yours. The whole head cold/tonsils/sinus thing blew me way off track (and sucked!) and I finally got this done and out yesterday.

I found the mini quilted tin idea in a magazine and had to try it. My quilt piece was actually a piece from a vintage quilt I found in my garage that was far too damaged for me to repair, but usable enough for small projects. I goofed, though, and started making a pin cushion. I remedied that by running it through my machine and giving it more of a flower look by quilting each hexagon.

I love how it turned out.


My lid. Just a square from the Recess Charm pack and a felt flower. (Seriously, if you are looking to buy fabric online, check out Pink Chalk Fabric. Not only is she super nice, she's got a great selection and I swear the woman runs a post office out of her house because I get my orders usually within a DAY.)


Instructions from the magazine if you'd like to make your own!





Edited to say: I honestly did not know that Kathy Mack, the woman who created the mini-quilt tin, was the same Kathy who run Pink Chalk fabric.

Sometimes I forget to update

I forget to update sometimes...especially when live gets really busy and I find myself having to juggle, well, everything.

My latest tutorial project: ha. I can't find the link now. I think it might have been one of the ones I accidentally deleted yesterday.

It was just a simple pouch with a button tutorial meant for a camera case but I was thinking more as for use for a wallet.

Things of note: this is the first time in the two years I've had my machine that I've done a button hole. I had no idea it was that simple. Second, this is the first time I've done a binding with actual quilt binding. Thanks to this awesome (and amusing video), I now know how to do it. I need some practice, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

Inside of the wallet:


I really need to learn how to finish off the corners of the tape before moving on to making more!

Works in progress!

A few works in progress...

I bought these charm squares a few weeks ago on Etsy and finally got to putting them into some kind of patchwork formation. I was just playing around with them and came up with something I liked and the border just happened...it's wild and bright and I love it!


That patchwork is going to be turned into an overstuffed pillow for this chair, which I found this morning in our garage while cleaning it out. (Like I said before: previous owner = lots of stuff. ) The chair was in great condition and I just spray painted it black then gave it a coat of shellac for some shine. Tomorrow I'm going to finish the pillow and it's going to go into my bedroom, where my cats will probably claim it for sleeping.


(Please ignore my recycling bin and misc. pieces of junk on the floor!)

It was a cigar box I'd peeled all the paper off of and sanded. I covered it with the Damask paper on the outside and used the black/white dots on the inside. Unfortunately, I got black paint from when I did the edges on the dotted paper, so I'm going to have to redo it. To put it all back together I have some decorative hinges that should do the trick and match the paper nicely. More pics when it's done!



On today's garage cleaning adventure: there was a large steamer trunk piled under boxes of glass for stained glass making. Inside was a full service silver set for Thanksgiving (antique!) and...AND...about 40 yards of vintage fabric from the 50's along with several sets of really awesome sheets. Oh. And a brand new with all sorts of attachments Minolta camera.

You'd think score, right?

WRONG.

In addition: there were 4 GIANT boxes of mothballs. When I say GIANT, think large box of detergent GIANT. The smell was so awful we could hardly stand it even though we were in open air. We took out the silver service and resealed the chest. Its going to the dump. Even I know there's nothing that can be done for the smell and it makes me so very sad. I wanted to cry, losing all that glorious fabric, but it was a lost cause.

Cozies and banners and such

It's been a banner productive week here. (I laugh at my own play on words there.) When I finished Erin's quilt and matching pillow (go a post back or so) I realized I had an entire panel of blocks sewn together with no real purpose. I was in dire need of a quilted cozy for my beloved French Press coffee maker and after some quick measurements, the cozy was born.

It fits like a glove and works so exceptionally well. In an experiment yesterday, it kept my coffee hot for about 2 extra hours and warm throughout most of the day. I certainly call this fly-by-the seat of my pants no pattern or tutorial cozy a success.

Then Wednesday night found me inspired by something that I would normally find more irritating than anything else: the uppity woman who came into the store to buy stuff for a class she was teaching and was rude...but in that I'm going to laugh like I'm making a joke because I think I'm funny way. She was not funny and not very inspired about the class she was going to be teaching, but I did vow to prove her theory wrong once she'd left.

She was teaching a banner making class somewhere else and was concerned that the letters she'd picked out would be too small. They were perfect...I could see it in my head while she spoke and I knew that what she had would work. But she wasn't having it and left after purchasing a few other things. That's when I turned to Erin and said "I want to make something."

This was born:
And this:

And this:


Just a simple banner. Decorative paper mounted on top of an ink colored piece of cheap cardboard. I rubbed the edges with some ink and used the Grunge board for the letters, coloring them with a chalk ink pad. (I don't do paper creations often but when I do, I love the chalk inks. Such fantastic colors.) A little Stickles, some foam tape to give it some dimension, some ribbon, and poof! I had three very cute and whimsical banners.

I think it's one of the best, most adorable things I've ever made. Thanks uppity, unfunny rude teacher lady!