thrift store score

Frances and I headed out on a late-night thrift store run the other night in search of picture frames for a party activity for her Sweet 16. We were unsuccessful on the picture-frame front but we did stumble on something else we needed for the party:

A bunch of matching beer glasses we can use as vases for bright paper pom-pom flowers that will decorate the tables at the Mexican restaurant where we're having the party. We found a set of 4 for $4.99 and another set of 3 exactly the same for $3.99. Yay!

While we were gathering those up, Frances spotted a gorgeous Fostoria Americana double candle holder. I inherited a set of Fostoria Americana from my great grandmother--I think the pattern was common enough that random pieces turn up in all kinds of places. But alas! There was a big chunk broken off one of the arms. Wait, what's this? There was another one down the shelf, this one in perfect shape! For $6.99! What a score!

gathered wristlet bags

Another great tutorial from Anna at Noodlehead! This bag has been on my list of things to try for a long time. I added the clip-on wrist strap. I thought it could either work as a clutch to carry along a phone and some keys, or as a little accessory bag in a purse or backpack.

I made a bunch of them for Hanukkah and Christmas presents this year. I even used some stashed fabric. So virtuous. I invented a smaller version when all I had was a smaller zipper. So resourceful, too.

In some of them I added the divider--I had to fiddle around with it to get the divider short enough to lay flat. I eventually gave up on the divider, but Frances wanted them in the bags I made for her.

This will be a good project to have in my back pocket for those surprising gift-giving occasions! Though that zipper stash has gotten pretty picked over. It may be time to try one of those etsy zipper sellers.

scrappy inaugural weekend quilt

I was a little under the weather this weekend, and Frances was gone for quite a lot of it helping with a play, so I spent a quiet inaugural weekend at home. What better way to pass the time than making a quilt? A trip to the fabric store seemed too taxing, so I had to use what I had on hand. I make it sound like that would be hard around here. Owing to my fabric-buying habit, this is not actually the case. I did happen to have a fresh bag of quilt batting so that was good luck.

As it turns out, I didn't even end up using any impulse-bought fabric. It came from my Nana's stash and the scraps from many previous projects. It's fun to see pieces of so many old projects--Frances's baby quilt, a t-shirt quilt I made for a friend last summer, Frances's duvet... I decided to try a really random assortment and I think it turned out ok, but I would also like to see this pattern made up with more coordination.

I used this tutorial by Amy at Diary of a Quilter, sort of. I decided to mix up all of the stripes for a scrappier look. It went quite well, right up until I cut the backing fabric a bit too small. I had to trim the front a little, resulting in not-quite-squareness. It is also the biggest thing I've machine quilted so far, and I had a little trouble keeping the backing flat. More pins are part of the solution, I think. Washing and drying covers a multitude of sins too.

For the back I used a big piece of periwinkle cotton seen previously on my vintage yoga tunic and Frances's Flying Geese duvet cover. I love that stuff. I still have another yard or so. The pieced stripe has a bit of each of the fabrics used in the top. I quilted it with randomly spaced vertical lines criss-crossed with random diagonals. I definitely need more practice before I tackle the Postcards from Hawaii quilt.

This one is headed out as a very non-traditional baby quilt. Hopefully the new baby will enjoy looking at the wild and random color combinations!

some late Christmas stuff

This photo makes the colors look a little overly vibrant--it's really more muted. Better photography in 2013?

I have some late Christmas entries that I couldn't post until all the gifts had been given out! Here's a quilt I made--this one for us, but I made a couple of similar mini-er versions as gifts. Way, way back when, I said that I had actually gotten some holiday stuff done much earlier in the year. Like February. That makes me sound really compulsive. It was really more like exceedingly late for last year.

I found this cute Christmas fabric at the after-Christmas sale at M&L last January, but I didn't know what to do with it. Then when I was shopping for something probably for Frances's birthday, I found the small coordinating prints and decided to make a display quilt just the right size to hang on the fireplace screen that hides our TV. I don't actually do much holiday decorating besides the Christmas tree, but I do have a place to display quilts--just never had a Christmas quilt before.

It's also my first attempt at machine quilting. I got an absolute steal on a walking foot for my trusty Kenmore ($30 marked down to $4.99! Last year's model? It rang up $4.99 and I didn't ask a lot of questions!) and gave it a try. It went pretty well and much faster than I had anticipated. Luckily I also found a website with lots of ideas for straight-line quilting, because all that beautiful free-motion quilting that I admire on everyone else's blog is way above my pay grade.

Wow. Once again, the colors. I'm really going to have to work on that.

I didn't find the yellow until I made another trip to the store for backing fabric, but the yellow got incorporated into the tops of the mini-quilts I made as gifts. Now if I can just remember to take it out and store it with the other Christmas stuff, it can become a holiday regular!