Summer at Grandma's House

MN Love

2013-05-13T08:47:00.000-04:00

Before leaving Ann Arbor, I promised Jenna I would try to blog more. Since I'm not always crafty in the sewing sense, but I'm usually expending some creative effort, I'm going to try out blogging about more things to keep me in the habit of record keeping.

A few days ago we safely arrived in MN and had a bunch of fun along the drive from Ann Arbor to Minneapolis. Here some of the highlights:

Teddy Bear Factory in Chelsea, MI

Epic pirate-themed mini-golf in the Wisconsin Dells

I'm so happy to be home and I'm even more excited to get settled and put down roots.

Triple Finish

2013-05-11T08:41:00.000-04:00

About a week before the move, I finished up a project I'd been plugging away at for the last few months: three little quilts for a set of triplets.

The quilts weren't hard, but I was slow in getting them done since I was distracted by the impending move and nervous about such a high risk pregnancy. The mom did great though! She managed to go over 36 weeks and each of three were born last week at over 5 pounds!! So without further ado here are three little quilts for Mason, Noah and Paige.

My favorite fun fact about these little ones is that their uncle (one of my husband's best friends growing up) wanted to name them Corey, Sean and Tapanga (Boy Meets World, anyone?)

Movin' along

2013-04-25T07:18:00.001-04:00

I've been sewing, even though I haven't really been blogging...

I'm working on three little quilts for three little babies on the way (a friend is having triplets!) and I'm finally feeling urgency to get the project done since she's only a month from her due date (and is amazingly still pregnant, woohoo!) and as you can see from the boxes and my cutting table being on the floor, we're about a week and a half from moving again.

The move is really exciting. I got a job in Minneapolis, where I'm from, and I can't wait to live long-term near my family. I still don't like these kinds of transitions and major relocations, but there's some solace in knowing this will be the last one.

In celebration

2013-02-02T11:18:00.000-05:00

After making the quilt for my PhD advisor, I still had half of the Parson Gray fabric leftover. Since I loved that quilt so much (and Jon did too), I decided to make another almost identical quilt to keep for my self to commemorate finishing my degree. Mine is just a little bit bigger than the original at about 50"x70".

I pieced, basted and quilted almost the entire thing at a weekend retreat I went to with the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild at the beginning of January. It was an awesome way to get this project down, I just hunkered down with a great group of women and no distractions (except for hilarious conversation and girly movies).

I learned all kinds of great tips too, from how to make my own spray starch, to ironing a quilt sandwich before basting so the top and back "stick" to the batting (you can use fewer pins!), to making sure that I have tables on all sides of my sewing table so the quilt glides as I quilt it. Quilting this quilt was the first time I wasn't sore from moving the quilt around!

the back

So all around, I'm loving this quilt and the label will read:

"In celebration of earning my PhD and starting the next chapter!"

antique quilt from my (other) grandma

2012-12-05T19:52:00.003-05:00

At the first Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild meeting I went to back in August, Ginia gave a great presentation about the history of quilt dyes and patterns. She also does quilt apprasials, so I had her take a look at this quilt. It was a lot of fun to talk to her about it and I thought I'd share it here to remember the details!

This quilt is a bit of a mystery to my family. My parents found it in my grandparents' house after my father's mother pasted away. It was kept in the back of a closet without a note or label and my dad had never seen it before. You can still see markings from the original construction, so it probably has never been washed.

Ginia estimated the date of the quilt at circa 1940, which was an interesting time in my grandma's life. My grandparents were raised on farms in western Wisconsin and went to school to become teachers so they could live in town. In 1940, my grandpa was teaching at a school in Minnesota and my grandma was still in Wisconsin teaching one-room school. In 1941, they were married and my grandma moved to Minnesota as well. This quilt could have been something she did to pass the time before they got married; it could have been a going-away gift from a parent; she could have bought it; or any number of other things.

The craftsmanship on this quilt is pretty remarkable. Each Sunbonnet Sue is hand appliqued (perfectly) and embellished with embroidery. Each Sue has a solid bonnet with a cute matching print dress. The colors match beautifully and are wonderfully arranged. The hand quilted stitches are amazing. Ginia also noted that the binding is "jack-knife" binding which I've never seen before, but also adds to this particular quilt's value, as it's a more difficult and less common technique.

I can't help but think about the woman who made it and wonder who she was and why she made this quilt. There are two mystery marks in the border on the back of the quilt, one looks like a S and the other looks like a G or C next to a faint E marking. They look intentional, but it's not clear to me what they mean. I guess we'll never really know...

Since I'm the one in the family who's most interested in quilting, my parents gave it to me a few years ago. I think the sunbonnet Sue's are kind of cute and the colors are great. It's also a twin size so if I ever wanted to put it on a bed or hang it on the wall, it's a good size.

I need to be more careful about refolding it in more ways so that the fold lines aren't so prominent, but overall, I'm pretty happy that the quilt didn't get more damaged while my family's had it since none of us knew what we were doing with it.

Ann Arbor has a Modern Quilt Guild!

2012-10-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

One of the major benefits of living in Ann Arbor this year is that I get to be a part of a Modern Quilt Guild!! I've been to two meetings so far (they happen monthly) and the women are awesome and really welcoming. They also have a monthly "sew-in" where you can bring your sewing machine and a project to work on and quilt/sew together (this is where I got the art kits done).

I've never had a community like this before or a place to sew with other people before, so this is pretty great. Plus, it means I will definitely sew at least one day per month. :)

I'm taking part in a round robin style bee with some of the women of the guild. The starter blocks were really eclectic, but I think that's going to make it fun! My starter block was actually one from another bee I was in that didn't quite fit with the other ones I received, so I figured this would be a fun way to give it a new life.

Last month, I received this block from Cherie.

It was so beautiful and the piecing was perfect. I wanted to show it off and allow some space for others to add something more detailed later, so I just squared off the block and framed it up. I'm excited to see what becomes of it!

More art kits!

2012-10-24T22:12:00.000-04:00

My best friend is getting married this Saturday and I made the little kids attending her wedding (including the flower girls) traveling art kits like I did for my wedding. There are 4 girls and 1 boy all between the ages of about 3 and 7, so these will hopefully make them feel special and give them something quiet to do during cocktails and dinner.

Each kit has an 8-pack of crayons, 5 markers, a Dover Little Activity/Sticker book, a 4x6 pad of paper and a couple loose sheets of stickers, so the total cost for each kit was about $8 (I bought a number of items in "bulk" on Amazon). Like last time, I used the Traveling Art Show free pattern from Bread and Buttons (found here) and made the following modifications:

I used velcro instead of ties so that little kiddos could open and close them by themselves.

To make the velcro strap, I cut a strip of fabric 2 1/4" x about 5-6", folded it in half lengthwise (like a hotdog, not a hamburger), sewed right sides together, leaving one short end open to flip it right- sides-out. Then I sewed on the velcro to the strip.
When I attached the strap to the main part of the kit, I made sure to attach it in the middle, but lower than the top edge of the inside pocket (this allows the exterior velcro stitching to be hidden by the pocket).
To get the velcro on the pocket part of the kit in the right place, I put the supplies into the kit before I sewed the pocket divisions and placed the second piece of velcro so that the kit would close securely.

I also altered the size of the pockets so that they fit the supplies that I wanted to include.

If you want to make the pockets as shown here, the measurements from left to right:
4.5" - 4.75" - 1" - 1" - 1" - 1" - 1" - whatever was left.

I feel like those instructions are kind of confusing without pictures, so if you'd like to see me put together a tutorial on these modifications, let me know and I'll take some pictures and post one soon.

Settling in

2012-10-24T21:28:00.000-04:00

Since I last posted, Jon and I successfully moved to Ann Arbor! I've been at my job for a bit over two months and it's going really well. I definitely think the career change was the right move. It's too bad this position is only a year, but we'll see what life has in store for us in the spring/summer!

We're all moved in and I'm sewing again. Nothing big yet, but moving has definitely inspired me to get going on finishing up some old projects.

The first project in the new place was a yoga mat bag for my sister. I'll be honest that when she requested it, I had no idea she even did yoga, but it was an easy request and sewed up really fast!

I liked that the tutorial didn't require making a lining, but still had a pocket and drawstring (you can find the tutorial here)

One of the perks of having a "real job," instead of being a doctoral student, is that I have more guilt-free time for myself, so hopefully this is the start of regular blogging again!

Done and done.

2012-08-02T23:10:00.003-04:00

I successfully passed my defense this afternoon! I really couldn't be happier!

Thanks for all of the support last night!

Quilt for My Advisor

2012-08-01T20:24:00.000-04:00

On the eve of my dissertation defense (the final step of getting my PhD), I can't help but feel a little bit nervous and a whole lot of gratitude for all of those who have spent countless hours teaching and mentoring me to get me to this point.

The process of getting a PhD is very much an apprenticeship where one learns the art of research and scholarship from their advisor, and I have been extremely fortunate to have an amazing advisor. He has been patient and encouraging when I've struggled with my research, reminded me to celebrate when things went well and was incredibly supportive when I decided to pursue a career outside of the faculty-track.

I wanted to get him a gift, but I had no idea what to get him until I ran across this post on Greenleaf Goods. She had made a beautiful quilt for her advisor and I realized that a quilt would be perfect for mine as well. It would be personalized for him and the process of making it allowed me to reflect on my time in grad school as I sewed the strips together, quilted the top and hand stitched the binding.

And the product is my new favorite quilt. I'll be sad to have it leave, but I'm so thankful that I was able to give my advisor a gift that was made with my own hands. For me, it's the only gift that comes close to expressing how truly grateful I feel.

--------------------------------
Quilt details:
- Inspired by this quilt and this quilt
- 48"x 60"
- Fabric from Parson Grey's Curious Nature line with Kona O.D. Green
- All over stipple quilting with straight lines around the log cabins and along edge of stripe

Notes from some weekend sewing

2012-07-29T19:28:00.000-04:00

Highlights from the weekend:
- It is possible for me to make a quilt in a weekend
- This is probably my favorite quilt to date
- I heart spray baste and will probably never baste a quilt with safety pins again
- I would rather sew gifts for others than sew for myself
- The Curious Nature line (from Parson Grey) is very difficult to color match

I can't wait to get the binding on this quilt, not only because I'm excited to finish, but also because I can do the hand sewing while watching the Olympics! More photos coming soon!

Weekend Plan

2012-07-27T19:12:00.000-04:00

I have a plan for sewing this weekend. It involves:

these blocks

these strips

and this sketch

Wish me luck! I've got until Thursday to finish it up!!

p.s. Life has been particularly quiet on the sewing front for the last six weeks--I turned in my dissertation! Since then, I've been using the downtime before my defense to travel and it's been so relaxing to spend time with family and friends in all different places. My defense is on Thursday (this weekend's quilt is a gift for my advisor) and then we'll be making the big move to Ann Arbor a week later!

Ricketts Glen State Park

Me and Best Friend in Chicago

Family Reunion Band

Home Sweet Home (Minneapolis, MN)

More pants

2012-06-08T20:03:00.000-04:00

I'm going to a baby shower/welcome home party tomorrow for the owner of one the dino quilts I made recently. Since I wanted to bring a little gift, I made a little pair of pants using fabric in my stash.

I used Made-by-Rae's tutorial for newborn pants and added cuffs for extra length. The baby is still very tiny since he was born 9.5 weeks early and only passed his due date a couple weeks ago, and figured with the extra length of the cuffs, they'll work for a while given Rae's description of how wide they are.

These could've been a quick 30 minute project, but I took about an hour (still no big deal!) since I did french seams and added cuffs. I'm really happy with the extra time since I think they look pretty professional.

Monkey Butt Clown Pants

2012-05-26T12:25:00.002-04:00

In honor of Maddy's half birthday, I made her a pair of pants (Maddy is Whitney's baby)! Maddy's parents are into gender neutral clothing and love colorful clothes for her, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to use some Juicy Stripe yardage I had laying around.

I used Made by Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants pattern and it worked perfectly for this wonderfully chubby, cloth-diapered baby. Since she's so big, I made the pants 12-18 mo size. I thought I was making shorts since I shortened the inseam by half, but it turns out they're pants on her, who knew!

The pattern was great and easy to follow and I think they're super cute!

Happy half birthday! You and your parents are doing great!!

Lady B's Quilt

2012-05-09T11:38:00.000-04:00

Another finish! I actually got this one done the same weekend as the Dino Quilts, but wanted to wait until the package arrived at Lady B's house. Lady B is the affectionate name the baby's parents have given her while they wait. And because Lady B is taking her time, the quilt arrived before she did (send good thoughts to her momma who is now officially overdue).

The colors were really hard to capture on this one and all of the pictures feel a little off. Trust me that it all worked together! Michael Miller's jewel tones never fail. :)

After seeing this Baby Life Quilt over on Moda Bake Shop, I knew that I wanted to use those words on a baby quilt. Lady B's nursery has a lot of words and phrases so I figured she would be the lucky gal! I appliqued them using the starch method (basically douse the applique pieces with spray starch and use spray baste to temporarily tack it to the background while you machine applique the edge). I LOVED it. The words were easy to applique and the quilt is soft as can be after washing.

The quilting is wavy lines. Two of the squares are horizontal and two are vertical.

I also included a little moleskin notebook for Mom and Dad to record the hilarious things their two and a half year old son is saying these days. I'm sure he'll have lots to say about Lady B. :)

Here's hoping everything goes smoothly with Lady B's entrance into the world. I can't wait to meet her!

Dino Baby Quilts

2012-04-29T12:01:00.001-04:00

I think I've been working on these quilts in the background for about a month or more now. I'm super excited to have them done! Doing two almost identical quilts definitely made things easier.

Nothing too complicated, just letting that awesome dino print speak for itself. For anyone looking to get some, it's Urban Zoologie 2 Dinosaurs in Bright. The corner squares are ones I got from Kati's charm square swap.

Here's the bigger one, measuring about 36" square, with black binding, yellow loopy quilting, and trees on the back (because Dinos live in a jungle, right?):

Here's the smaller one, measuring about 32" square, with bright green Ta Dot binding, black loopy quilting, and a pieced back:

It was going to a little guy who made his appearance at 30 weeks, so this card seemed appropriate:

I love quilts all tied up, ready to be gifted!

Exciting News!

2012-04-21T11:44:00.000-04:00

Although I've been slow to post about it, I finally know where we're moving this summer! I accepted a one-year job at the University of Michigan and I couldn't be more excited!! Jon and I will be moving to Ann Arbor, MI in August. One of the cool perks of this move is that there is an active chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild and I'll have much better work/life balance so I'm hoping to be able to sew more.

This also means that I set a date for my dissertation defense (August 2nd). This is the final step of my PhD program and it feels good to see the end in sight. There's a lot of work between now and my submission deadline in June, but I'm confident it'll all work out well.

And finally, and perhaps of most interest to readers of this blog, I've been sewing slowly but surely over the last few weeks. Two little boys were born early and I just need to sew the bindings on these quilts (I'll show more when I'm all done):

and there's also a special little lady coming soon and I've been working on some appliques for her quilt. Since her momma's a reader of this blog, I'll just share this little tease, but I'm excited to show you the rest.

(Yes, Andrea, it's for your Lady B and hopefully it'll make it to you before she does)

And one more...

2012-02-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

...because honestly, seeing one of my quilts getting so much use makes me so happy.

I also have a baby shower coming up, so I'll probably be back sometime soon with a new project!

Quilts and Sewing Projects in Action

2012-02-21T10:19:00.003-05:00

Life has been so full lately between trying to finish my PhD, get a job and figure out where we're going to move. I haven't been posting or commenting much, but I'm still reading, just a bit more quietly. My husband is also in the midst of a career change where he'll be going back to school this summer. In an effort to save money, we've been enjoying cooking new recipes and that's been eating up (pardon the pun!) most of my free time and brain-space.

BUT! Some of my projects have been getting some great use lately, which makes me really happy! My good friend, Whitney, had a baby around Thanksgiving and it gave me a great excuse to make some small projects. I made a quilt and some burp cloths, all of which are getting regular use which means I have to post some gratuitous adorable baby shots.

(Pictures are all from Whitney)

And here's one of the burp cloths I made using MAde by Rae's great tutorial

I get to take care of her sweet Maddy twice a week at my office, which also makes me ridiculously happy. Here's me with her and her having a great time with one of my co-workers.

Evolution of a Quilt

2011-09-27T09:47:00.000-04:00

As I keep saying at the beginning of my posts, I really can't believe how busy life has gotten. This is the last year of my graduate program, so I'm working hard on my dissertation and applying for jobs since the academic market takes a whole year to go through the process.

But in more fun and exciting news, I'm still part of the Once Round the Country Round Robin and the quilts are evolving in really cool ways. This round, I got Zonnah's quilt. She made an incredible starting block and the additions have been really impressive. I debated about adding a calm mostly solid border, but decided that with only one more round to go, it would put Robin in a tough spot to finish it. Instead, I made a whole bunch of flying geese and echoed the inner borders. I used the speedy method on Quilter's Cache to make 4 flying geese at a time and it really was speedy. I think I made them all in just a couple hours. (www.quilterscache.com/H/Howtomakegeese.html)

Here's where it's journey:

And because all the quilts are so great, here's a recap of their evolutions so far...

My Quilt:

Anne's Quilt:

Robin's Quilt (I've got this one for the final round now):

Adrienne's Quilt (aka Organized Chaos):

Elephant on Parade

2011-08-11T09:07:00.002-04:00

A while ago Kati (From the Blue Chair) posted some adorable elephant softies and I immediately bought the Heather Bailey pattern on etsy.

I have to say that the sewing was a bit fussy, but I'm in love with the finished product and it's the perfect little extra to go with the baby quilts I've been working on. I will definitely make some more. The only modification I made was to use ric-rac instead of fabric for the tail.

I mean seriously, how cute is this little guy?

As for size, he's a little bit smaller than a soda can...

or a little bit bigger than a Koosh, however you wanna think about it.

Draw String Maternity Skirts

2011-07-17T17:31:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine, Whitney (who is a seriously talented knitter), is expecting this fall. In an effort to save money and have cute, professionally appropriate maternity clothes, we made some skirts this weekend and I have to say they turned out pretty darn cute. In total, we spent $20 on material for 3 skirts! She tells me they're super comfortable, too! The key seems to be the uneven waist (we cut room for the growing belly) and elastic in the drawstring so it has some give when she sits down.

Since we're planning to make some more, I thought I'd write out our tutorial here so we have it for later and maybe it'll help someone else (if the instructions don't make sense, let me know). First, we bought 1 yard of fabric which was enough for us since Whitney is fairly petite pre-pregnancy and not particularly tall. The orange skirt above was typical cotton 44" wide fabric and the other black and white one we made with a linen type fabric from Joann that was a little bit wider, so the skirt turned out longer. We also bought another yard of a muslin-type white fabric for lining. If you want to make a bigger, fuller or longer skirt, you will probably need 2 yards of each fabric.

To figure out how big to make the skirt, we measured Whitney right below her belly figuring this was the widest part we were going to go around. She measured 38" so we used these measurements to create a 38" waist at the top and a little more fullness towards the bottom (keeping in mind 1/2" seam allowances):

Then we cut out a matching piece of the lining fabric using the outer skirt piece as a pattern since the lining fabric may be shorter or longer.

After cutting, we sewed the sides of the lining and outer skirt pieces with 1/2" seams and then zig-zag to reduce the chance of fraying.

Next we put the lining and outer skirt together right sides together (one inside of the other) and folded it in half so the seams were touching. This is when we created space for the belly. We measured the height difference between the bottom of her belly in the front and where she wanted her skirt to sit in the back (about 3.5-4"), then cut that much fabric out of the FRONT half of the skirt only.

Once we cut the belly piece out, we sewed the lining to the outer skirt at the waist using a 1/4" seam. Then we flipped the skirt right side out and top stitched at the top of the skirt:

Then we put in two button holes (only through the outer skirt fabric!) for the draw string

Then we did a line of stitching to complete the draw string casing

And finished by hemming the bottom.

To make the draw string, we cut two pieces of fabric 2" wide and about 25" long. We folded each piece in half (the long way) right sides together and sewed along two of the open edges. We turned them right side out and pressed flat. Then sewed a 6-8" piece of elastic between the two drawstrings:

Thread the draw string through the skirt and you're done!

From start to finish, the first one took about 2 hours and the second one only an hour and a half. Not bad for a $6 skirt! :)

Double Rainbow

2011-06-26T11:30:00.003-04:00

So that little block grew and grew this week...

And then came the complementary one using the strips in the opposite order

The tops are about 34.5" square which is a size I really like for baby quilts/play mats.

This is all that's left of the jelly roll... about 5 strips and some small scraps.

So now I just need to order some fabric for the backing and binding. What do you guys think of this fabric for the back? (Pictures from Hawthorne Threads)

And these for the binding? I would use the red on the one with the red in the middle and the blue for the other. I think it could be a nice way to pull it all together. Do you have any other ideas??

The start of something new...

2011-06-20T12:39:00.002-04:00

There have been a few babies born recently who I meant to make a quilt for, but couldn't get around to it since I've been so busy. This weekend I pulled out the Nest jelly roll that I was lucky enough to win last year. It was begging to become a bright rainbow baby quilt...

Hopefully there will be more to share next weekend!

Organized Chaos

2011-06-19T14:10:00.003-04:00

For this round of Once Round the Country (a round robin quilting bee), I got to work on Adrienne's Organized Chaos. For her quilt, we're using some wonderfully bold modern prints. When I got the quilt from Anne, it looked like this:

After much indecision, I decided to do Amish diamonds around the outside contrasting the blue and pink/purple fabrics and echo the square design from the original block in the corners. In order to make the math easy, I just made a paper piecing pattern and did the diamonds that way rather than figuring out how big the pieces needed to be for a 5 1/3" block. :)

So this sketch...

Turned into this (note how big it is, that's a 5 foot wide rug)...

With my trash can evidence of paper piecing...

I hope she likes it!