Sewing for Houston

This is the time of year I get busy sewing garments for my work at International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, TX.

The Education Team is given fabric from one or two manufacturers each Fall to create our choice of garments--jackets, tunics, blouses, dresses, even aprons, whatever we want. to make. We wear these garments on specific days, looking similar but not the same, as colorways and garment designs are individual.

This helps identify us as "staff" on the 3rd floor of the huge George R. Brown Convention Center: Here is a group photo from 2015, when we used a bright pink from MODA in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness:

These garments sure help with "what to wear" for the 12 days I am there. Several pair of black slacks, a variety of tops, and I'm good to go. This year I will wear 6 different garments over those days.

This year I made one of my favorite patterns, one I have used twice before:

It is an easy, kimono-style jacket. I usually line it and that makes it faster to construct, no need to finish the inside seams. Added bonus with this pattern--no buttonholes. This time I made the first one without a lining, using Metropolis fabrics, from MODA:

Now I know I really do prefer this jacket lined so the second one has a lining. The fabrics are Road Trip and Kaleidoscope by Allison Glass for Andover Fabrics:

Since we wear these for 3-4 years, I create labels for everyone to add to their garments--it helps to remember which garment was for which year. It is always fun to see the various garments everyone makes--there are 20 of us on the Education Team.

My friend, Lori D, has just started a Quiltalong on her blog:  Humble Quilts. As this is a small project, I jumped in. She says hers is only 18" square, we may decide to add more borders to our own. She gives instructions once a week, just little steps over time get the small quilt made. She is using French General fabric from MODA. I have a layer cake of French General's Rue Indienne so decided to see how far I can get with that--each week is a mystery. Here is my Part 1, 8.5"  square at the moment::

Now that the garments are done, I can concentrate on a few upcoming quilt projects that need work.

One other little thing that has kept me busy--our grandson was born a couple weeks ago in St. Louis--we took a quick trip up there to meet him, 8 hours each way. Meet Sam:

Big Sister Stella is doing just fine:

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Working, Teaching, Creating

I've been having a great time making Curved Flying Geese for the Halo Star Medallion Block of the Month:

I can't show you mine yet, but April 1 the next Blog post of tips will appear--they are NOT AS HARD as I feared, in fact, they are FUN to make.  And what an impact they make in this quilt!

The Smitten Class I started a few weeks ago finished up yesterday.  Here are the wonderful blocks the students have created:

Leigh's soft, subtle Australian-feel set of blocks

Joan's Christmas blocks

Pat's bright, scrappy blocks

Susan's bright, very happy blocks

They had fun and even though each still has work to do, they are happy with their progress and eager to get their quilts made.

I've kept up with the Long Time Gone Sew-A-Long, two weeks, two different blocks. This is a Jen Kingwell pattern and I am using lots of leftover fabrics, mostly brights and black and whites:

10" Bowties

10" Bowties

12" Squares in a Square Stars

I signed up to participate in Lori's Humble Quilts Quilt Swap, her fourth, and the quilt I am gifting to a quilter is ready to ship as soon as I sew on the label. It will be mailed Monday to someone who doesn't know it's coming.  The deadline is May 1 so I am way early. I hope the recipient likes it:

Pattern is by Lori Smith, 16" x 20", 2" blocks

Yesterday I basted the Ohio Stars quilt so now I am eager to start quilting it. I plan to do some decorative designs in the open spaces and some ruler work in the larger stars:

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Garments? Check!

I had a very productive few days and got my Houston garments done:

This fabric is Eternal Sunshine by Amy Butler for Free Spirit Fabrics.  The pattern is Kwik Sew 3732.  I used this pattern in 2011 for one of my favorite jackets so it was easy to decide to use it again.  I still have to put 2 buttonholes on this--I found the perfect buttons in my stash for this jacket.  Some of the prints in this line are quite large--it will be very interesting to see how the other 20 members of the Education Team use their fabrics.  I'll have group photos when I get home from Houston, mid-November.

This fabric is from Cherrywood Fabrics, with an old Hoffman print as the accent piece.  The pattern is the Kanustandit Jacket for Design and Planning Concepts.  It's an old pattern, I first made it in 2005.  The sleeves are kimono-style so they look slouchy on the hanger, a little less so on me.  Again, I'll be eager to see the other Cherrywood garments our Team makes.

We wear these garments on specific days so, as a team, we look recognizable, but everyone chooses their own fabrics/colors from what is offered and we can make whatever we want.  Here is a shot from 2015--we are wearing Vintage Made Modern by Amy Barickman for RJR Fabrics:

Now I have a couple quilts to finish quilting--one of them is going with me to hang in the office.  That helps the space look more home-y, less industrial.

And I'm going to do another small sew-a-long put together by my friend Lori D at Humble Quilts.  She is calling this one "Quilters Madder"--it will be small and scrappy, right up my alley. Here are my fabrics pulled quickly from pieces I am also using in Circa 2016 and Rajah Revisited:

 Those two projects are winding down so it is safe to use these for the next project--then I don't have to put them away, right?

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Machine Binding

At the retreat a few weeks ago I saw again how to apply a binding completely by machine.  While I enjoy binding by hand, there are those quilts that just need to get done and don't have to have "heirloom quality" bindings:

Two small quilts made from 3"paper-pieced blocks

Detail shot of 2 of the corners--the next ones will be better but you get the idea.

Country Roads quilt-a-long from Lori at Humble Quilts.

So, bearing in mind that "finished is better than perfect", I'm happy to have these done.  Now to finish quilting the baby quilt so I can do that binding by machine too.

The process and binding tool I used came from Franklin Quilt Company.  Thanks, Kathy and Kay, for the tool and hands-on instruction!  They have a video to help you see the process too.  The tool also comes with detailed instructions with photos and also shows how to make a Two-Sided Binding, different fabrics on each side of the quilt.  Check out their video at the link above for more information.   I just have to adjust my edge trimming when I have a design that finishes precisely at the edge of the quilt, so the flange doesn't cover up the outside points.  I don't do that very often because it's more difficult but sometimes a quilt deserves a little extra work.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Small Projects Finished

In two weeks the first Simple WhatNots Club will be wrapping up at my local shop, Patches & Stitches.  I plan to devote this session to finishing techniques.  So I've gotten a few of these little quilts quilted and bound, or partially bound, so I can demo a few methods. 

 

"MEANDERING":  This one I bound with one of the fat quarters of striped fabric in the collection .  I usually bind with straight grain cut the width of fabric but stripes lend themselves to being sewn on the bias.  I also machine stitched this one in place after turning it to the back--I'll have some tips on how to do that.  Approximately 18" x 24".  The buttons are sewn on the teal blocks to cover some funky stitching--I free motion quilted the petals--still have a long way to go with that but the buttons cover the majority of the "issues" with the quilting.  Finished is better than perfect.

"WIDDLYTINKS":   This one called for tiny yo-yos--I opted for buttons instead.  This binding shows what NOT to do--cut and sew straight or your corners will be "pokey" like these.  Approximately 12" x 15"

"LILY":  My favorite in the first collection.   I quilted this with the walking foot and will use it to demo how to trim the outside edges and how I join binding strips--with a bias seam.  I add a hanging to sleeve to 99% of the quilts I make and will demo that on this project too.  28" square.

The second collection of The Simple WhatNots Club has been announced and the shop is doing this club one more time, from January to June, 2015.  See the projects here.  We only have room for 30 people to sit for the two-hour monthly demo.  Many in this first club are signing up again--they love Kim Diehl fabrics and have learned a few things. 

Another fun project I completed was a Quiltalong small mystery quilt from Lori D of Humble Quilts.

 

This she calls Cascadia.  I've done several of Lori's little quiltalong quilts--they are fast and easy and I enjoy making something fairly quickly. I had a bunch of 2" finished four-patches already completed  so that made it easy to get this one done.  18.5" x 17".
Folks in the string block swap I put together have decided what colors/design they want for their blocks.  I wrote about that here.  That tutorial showed how to split the block exactly in half with two different colors.  Three of the seven of us want a 1" finished strip down the center of the block, like this:

 

This takes a little care, lining up a 1.5" cut strip exactly down the center of the paper foundation.  I pin that to hold it, then add strips on either side.  These are blocks that were made for my in a previous swap--I want light colors on one side, dark colors on the other.  There are many design possibilities with these blocks, just like Log Cabin blocks. 

Finally, I started Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt, even though I said I would not until I got a few more things done.  There are over 23,000 people on her Facebook group, Quiltville's Open Studio, and I think most of them got started this Friday November 28, when the first clue was released.  Click the Grand Illusion link below to go to Bonnie's Blog--then  click on Grand Illusion Mystery in the heading--the introduction and Part 1 are posted--or click here.  Each Friday until the end of 2014 she'll have another part of instructions.  Here are my first little 4" finished units:

I am not in a hurry to complete this so I'll use it for my leader/ender project.  The fun part for me is picking all the fabrics and I wrote about that here.

That will do it for now.  I'm almost finished Little Letters and will have that to show next time.  Linking up to Bonnie's Monday Mystery and Patchwork Times.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara