Broken Star Quilt

When I first got into quilting, I pointed at a pattern and said, "this will be my very first bed-sized quilt!"  And then I proceeded to make 4 other quilts, none of which remotely resembled that first pattern. Well the times are a changin' because I've started working on my first broken star quilt!  I got some really nice batiks in my favorite colors and spent the weekend cutting, sewing, and avoiding ironing.  Because of the color combinations I could make it an untraditional broken star:

Or very traditional:

I'm leaning toward the untraditional version with the bursting wheel in the traditional format.  I really love how the dark blue emphasizes the multi-pink/purple in the center of the star and sends it shooting to the far reaches of the quilt.  Still a lot more work to be done here and I definitely need to get a better cream color for the background. But that comes after I finish piecing the diamonds on the bias!

Baby Quilt

Moving to a new city and joining an informal quilt guild has really upped my sewing game!  One of my coworkers is going on maternity leave and the sewers in the office are putting together a baby quilt!  It's going to be sooo cute for the lil' babe!  The parameters of the quilt 1) Gender neutral-it's a mystery baby! 2) Lots of color 3) Usable and machine washable.  These are all things I can handle!  So I'm going to put you out of your misery and do finished pictures first:

Now the backstory... I've been delegated the second phase of the project: sew the blocks together, make the backing, quilt it together and put on the binding.  And I've been given the blocks, which ranged from 5.5" to 8 inches once I squared them up.  Not exactly ideal since I needed 7" blocks...

So I picked out some "matching" fabric from my stash and expanded the blocks, making replacement blocks for the unsavable ones.  This star is made up of Lincoln log blocks and the triangles are made by the "stack and whack" method.  A couple of borders later the top was pieced and you couldn't tell the replacement fabrics from 3 feet away, acceptable.

The backing was fun and simple, more fabrics from my stash: one playful and one a nice batik.

I really enjoyed (and stressed) over how to quilt this little blanket. I've never even quilted a pot holder together!  And I'm no good at free motion quilting on my little Bernina.  So I stitched in the ditch with hopefully unnoticeable colors.  One binding later and it was time to wrap up my first baby blanket!

Steampunk Wedding

So I was lucky enough to have a friend throwing a steampunk themed wedding, costumes required.  Well *cracks knuckles* I think I can handle this challenge!  1. black corset 2. blue and black lacy dress 3. mini top hat 4. navy blue tights layered with black fishnets 5. golden key shoes 6. bustle 7. bracelet, 8. test tube garter, 9. purse, 10. Party!

Lets start off with a doll's top hat, a metal clock scrapbook addition, a tulle veil, bit of ribbon and a giant peacock feather.  All found at your local craft store and hot glued together to a standard black headband while watching too much Life.



Next up the purse, 'cause let's be honest, my corset and dress won't have pockets.  Also it's rare to find to find any woman's clothing item with any reasonable sized pockets, we do have needs clothing designers!!  One cheap fake leather black purse, another metal clock from the scrapbooking section, bronze chain from jewelry, and a bit of metallic thread...BOOM.



Now for a little bit of sass.  Some leftover tulle, ribbon, and steampunk-ish lock decorations and I have a clever way to hide my digital watch.  It's all about appearances and I would feel naked without my watch so, concessions had to be made.



Speaking of black tulle, I probably shouldn't be proud that I just happened to have 10 yards just sitting in my house for a rainy day.  Today is that day!!  I needed a little bustle for my tussle, and with a little help from the folks on tumblr I slapped some tulle, ribbon, and fabric together over the weekend.


No pictures of this one but my shoes, let me tell you about my amazing shoes.  There is a thing called rub 'n buff which is a wax based product and they sell it in a bunch of metallic colors, perfect for steam punk. I used antic gold rub 'n buff on an old pair of black flats and then sewed a couple of dangling keys onto the back of the heels, perfection.  Add on a test tube garter (test tubes hot glued to a thin black belt and some navy ribbon) and I was set to go!

Luckily I got to the wedding site a day early so I could do last minute costuming for a couple of my friends... 3 emergency mini hats, 2 necklaces, and a set of earrings later we were all ready for the wedding!

Scrap Quilting

Calling it a "scrap quilt" might be a little misleading because after my first hand dyed quilt, I had enough fabric left over to make 4 more queen+ quilts.  This quilt pattern is another one out of my imagination.  It was inspired by a layout on my digital scrapbook website and progressed from there. Being a night owl, I don't think I ever worked on this before 10pm, which means there were a number of long nights but now its finished!  I'll post again with a close up on the quilting, which transformed this quilt from good to freaking fantastic.

An Impromptu Christmas

Living in an apartment and traveling for the holidays, it didn't make sense to get a real tree so I decided to make one.  Weekend Challenge: no supplies runs, no prep work, using the materials currently in my house make a 3 dimensional Christmas Tree.  No problem!  1) Easel, 2) green fabric-ish stuff, 3) Construction Paper, 4) Penn State themed ribbon, 5) Buttons!    Done.

Wall Hangings Done Easy!

I finally finished setting up my new apartment this week which means I can finally start decorating! Wallhangings done cheap and easy are my specialty this week.  So I stopped by the dollar store and got comic book themed washcloths!  Stretched and stapled to foam board, they look great!

As for supplies, all you need is fun fabric or washcloths, foam board (single ply works), an x-acto knife, ruler, stapler, adhesive hanging eyes, and little wire command strip hooks.

These will look great on my wall!

Queen of Tie Dye... get it? It's a pun since it's a queen sized quilt!

This is the draft, the in progress, the -nothing-is-sewn Queen sized quilt.  The white spaces will eventually be single-colored strips of fabric which will be colored to match the surrounding square.  The question is what blocks need to be moved or switched to create the perfect quilt layout?

The little image is for a general overview and the big image is for the nitty gritty look over.