something old, something new

I just finished a multi-generational collaboration. My cousin Lynetta sent me these basket blocks that were hand-pieced by my Great Great Grandmother Harriet Woodcock Emiley. She died in 1925, so they must have been made before that. I wonder if these were leftovers from a larger quilt, or these were all the blocks she finished for this project.

I decided to put them together into a small display quilt--I know from an antiques point of view, I probably shouldn't have trimmed and sewn them, but hey, who enjoys them if they are sitting in a drawer somewhere, right? Now I am talking about my Great Great Grandma Harriet and showing off her work.

I sashed the top with Kona coffee and bound with some Kona red. (Still don't know which one, sorry.) I wasn't sure how to quilt it, and in the end I decided on diagonals along the edges of the triangles in the baskets. Those diagonals weren't exactly straight, but I decided to follow them anyway, resulting in a little bit of a wonky look.

Ten blocks seemed awkward until I decided to use one on the back. I was so happy when I found this backing fabric. It was pretty and old-fashioned looking, and perfectly matched the red and brown I had already picked out. I bordered this block in the red and brown, and added both my own label and this hand-written label that tells what I know about the blocks.

Thank you so much to Lynetta for sharing these beautiful blocks!

faux fur for faux winter

I was enchanted with the faux furs when I went fabric shopping in the L.A. garment district with my best sewing friend Tana--they were so soft and came in so many pretty colors and textures, some natural-looking, some more fanciful. (Pink mohawk, anyone?) The very next day I read this tutorial over at another of my favorite blogs, Aesthetic Nest. Now Anneliese lives in a cold and snowy place, while my home is mostly warm and sunny, but little faux fur scarves could be just right for our faux southern California winter. Throw one on with a jean jacket and you're ready for almost anything Mother Nature dishes out down here. (Anyone who read my New Years letter--remember the teenagers and their blanket outerwear?)

Of course I was already done in the garment district when I got this inspiration, so I ended up buying my fur at my local JoAnn Fabric, at what I'm sure was a decent mark-up. But, hey, a quarter yard made two scarves AND I had a coupon. (And thanks to Bill for agreeing to stop at the fabric store on the way home from the Indian restaurant on Saturday night.)

I followed the tutorial as written for this first one--the white poodly fur is so soft! The satin lining is left over from Frances's Glinda dress from seventh-grade Halloween. One end of the scarf has what is essentially a big buttonhole that you pull the other end of the scarf through. It might be cute to add a pin also.

For this one I shortened and widened the scarf--it looks like a miniature fur stole. I love the swirly pattern in the sable-colored fur. Like a bed-head guinea pig. No idea why I had this scrap of charcoal satin but I liked them together.

Now I have some cute winter accessories for the approximately 15 minutes of winter we have left!

Just a disclaimer--I am vehemently anti-real-fur. I think real fur belongs on animals. But as long as fake fur is an end in itself and doesn't make people want animal fur, I'm all for it! Go ahead and wear it--we'll make more!

catching up

Whew! I have gotten through Frances's birthday and the end of basketball season with the cheer team. Time to catch up on the blog! Here's another late Christmas present. We stayed at a cool hotel in Palm Springs over Thanksgiving break. In the rooms there were robes to borrow. Some were traditional wrap-around style with a tie belt, like the one Bill had at home. But they also had some that were pull-overs with a button placket. When Bill modeled one down by the pool, I decided what kind of new robe to make him for Christmas.

I wanted him to help pick out the fabric, so all he actually got for Christmas was a pattern envelope. I decided to use a traditional men's nightshirt pattern, with the addition of some on-seam pockets. We hit a little snag with fabric selection--I thought flannel would be the right weight and very robe-appropriate, but Bill was adamant that he didn't want flannel. Quilting cotton didn't seem to have enough body. We looked through some twills and canvas, but nothing struck us just right. We headed to the clearance room in the back of M&L and found this great printed chambray! For $2.50 per yard! It's the perfect weight, and I think the printed pattern makes it more interesting--a little Japanese-inspired, maybe.

It's a great fit and seems to have been accepted as a replacement for the old Washington, D.C. model (which was just plain worn out). No belt to fall on the floor when you hang it up. And it reminds us of the Ace Hotel, which was a lot of fun!

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!