Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2014

It's That Time Again!  Blogger's Quilt Festival is here!!!

The linky party opened a few days ago and it has prompted me to finally get online and blog about the quilt I made my niece Arielle for her birth.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Giggle + Squeak pattern from SUCH Designs
Fabrics: Various fabrics in mainly purples, greens, and greys with a few pops of blues and pinks
Methods Used: Applique, quilt-as-you-go, straight line quilting & free-motion quilting
Quilted: By me on my home machine
Dimensions: 46" x 46"
Completed: March 2014

Arielle's nursery theme was Monsters so I knew right away which pattern I would use.  I bought the Giggle + Squeak pattern from Carrie of SUCH Designs a few years ago at a quilt show and she was such a lovely person to meet.  It's always nice to know that people are just as wonderful in person as they seem on their blogs.

 I loved adding all the little details to the faces in each block.  Some definitely came out looking more monster-like than others, but I love them all.

And while this photo isn't the greatest for showing the true colors of the quilt, I love that the quilting is easy to see.  I quilted each block differently as inspiration hit me.  My favorite is the top center since I free-motion quilted loops and hearts in it.  I also loved the top left, which is just a back and forth squiggle, but it took only a few minutes to finish so it was awesome.

 I didn't want to buy any additional fabric for the back so I used up all the leftovers from making the front.  I've never made such a scrappy backing before and I love it.  Since I did quilt-as-you-go on the front there's very minimal quilting on the back. 

I also did a little embroidery tag for the back and appliqued it on in the center of the large square of text you see on the bottom right of the above photo.  And do you see the date?  Today is actually Ari's 6 month birthday! Happy 6 months little one!!!

These photos of Ari enjoying her quilt were actually taken over the weekend, so this is her just a few days shy of 6 months.  She's shaping up to be quite the bruiser, just like her cousin Penny.

Oh, and here's one of Penny with her cousin's quilt before I sent it off.  What do you guys think? Do the girls look alike???

"Be Creative" Mini Quilt + Blogger's Quilt Festival

I only have this one photo of this little beauty for now, but I thought I'd share anyway.



This little mini quilt has been over a year in the making.  I was inspired by this quilt by Bijou Lovely (hey, she told me to be inspired).

I tried to "Be Creative" with the quilting on this one.  I used superfine 100wt silver thread from invisafil for the quilting, which is a combination of free-motion and straight line.  Each design is different, and while I used some designs I've repeated often I tried a few new ones as well.  That woodgrain quilting is my first ever attempt.

While the mini quilt might not be perfect, it makes me happy having it hanging on the wall above my computer.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Dresden plate, inspired by this quilt by Bijou Lovely
Fabrics: Various prints from my stash, Essex linen in Natural, Kona Indigo
Quilted: By me on my home machine with 100wt invisafil thread in silver
Dimensions: 24" x 24"
Completed: October 2013

And hey, why not?  I'm entering this little quilt in the mini quilt category of the Fall 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Penny's Quilt + Blogger's Quilt Festival

I have a quilt to share with everyone today that I'm really excited about.

You could even say that this quilt was 9 months in the making..... but not really.

Here it is..... Penny's quilt



This is the quilt I made my daughter Penelope.  It's definitely the showcase of her woodlands-themed nursery and everything else in the nursery evolves around it.  This is my baby quilt entry for the Fall 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival.



I love the colors.  SO bright and fun without reading either "boy" or "girl".  The fabric inspiration was the "Fox Hollow" line by Monaluna (which I used in the border and the centers of the dresdens),  paired with five different more basic prints.


For the pattern I was inspired by this quilt by Melissa of Polka Dot Chair, but I wanted the border to be a little more fun and show off the different prints in the Fox Hollow line, and I wanted to frame the quilt a little more so I added in the gingham piping between the center panel of the quilt and the border.  It gives the quilt such fun dimension.



I chose the fabric placement for the centers of the dresdens very purposefully.  The center of the large dresden has a frog under a flower because Penny's daddy's nickname as a child was "Toad".  The smallest dresden has a little gnome poking out of his stump house because gnomes are mommy's favorite.  The mid-sized dresden has a momma fox being followed by her two babies, with a papa fox watching, because the fox family reminds me of our family (though of course we only have one child so far).




For the quilting, I didn't want to distract too much from the quilt top, but I did want to add a lot of free motion quilting, so I did things a little differently.... I had two layers of batting and quilted the top and back separately.  It gives the quilt a heavier weight, but since I was using fairly thin cotton batting it worked out well.  On the quilt top there's quilting around each square in the border and each spike in the dresdens.  I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine.  The look it gives each dresden plate is fantastic.



The back is quilted in an allover design with flowers.  It was quite fun to do once I got the hang of it. Once I had the back and front quilted individually I did some quilting that tied the whole quilt together.



I love it and I hope it's something Penny can treasure when she's older. She was kind of cranky when I was taking these photos so she's not in any of them, but I hope to get a shot or two of her on the quilt tomorrow to share with everyone.

edited 10/25/13: The photoshoot was well worth the wait.  While I had 200+ mediocre photos of a blurry baby, all the shots were worth it to get this one perfect shot of my little girl.



 She's still a little blurry and the quilt is slightly out of focus, but that smile is to die for.  (And yes, she's wearing the little mini dirndl I made her for Halloween, but I'll post about that in a few days).

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Loosely adapted from this pattern by Melissa of Polka Dot Chair
Fabrics: Various Fox Hollow by Monaluna prints + basics in red, green, and blue
Quilted: By me on my home machine
Dimensions: 36" x 46"
Completed: March 2013

Thanks for looking, and please think of Penny's quilt (and my baby's perfect little smile) when it comes time to nominate your favorite baby quilt!

To check out my 2012 entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival that took "favorite hand quilted quilt" check out this post.

WIP Wednesday 9-18-13

If you saw my post from Monday you would know that I was almost done with my Japanese + and x quilt when I realized that I had messed up on the binding at one point and would have to go back and fix it.  Well, I finally got around to doing that yesterday, so now I'm happy to say that I'm 100% done with the quilt.  Of course, today of all days it's overcast outside so I'll have to take photos of the quilt later this week.

In the meantime the overcast weather seems to have put me into a cleaning and organizing mood because I've decided to re-organize my fabric storage.  Of course I have no before photos (I'm never that organized), but I do have a few photos of how it all looks mid-organizing.

These shelves are the shelves that inspired me to re-organize.  This space in my sewing room used to have a dresser that held all of my "other" fabric (all the non quilters cotton), but when we did the nursery we moved the dresser into the nursery and my sewing room got this cabinet that we found on the side of the road in our neighborhood.

Before the reorganization started the bottom two shelves looked like the way the bottom shelf does now, and the second shelf had a few large folds of quilters cotton cotton in it, and the top shelf housed all of my fat quarter stacks and precuts.  I've pretty much left the top shelf alone, but I put all of my "special collection" quilters cotton from my other fabric shelves on the second shelf where they can be a little more on display and are less likely to get dusty since they're behind glass.  I also put all of my garment making fabric onto boards to make mini bolts and put all of those on the third shelf down.  They go: linens, flannel, cotton, voile, corduroy, jersey knit.  I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about the bottom shelf.

Once I moved my "special collection" fabrics off of these shelves I cleared up quite a bit of room so I was able to add some new fabric I've bought recently (I'll show photos later), as well as give my stash a bit more wiggle room.  Before they had been so tightly jammed in there that you couldn't pull anything out without pulling a bunch of boards out at the same time.  While I was in the precess of moving the mini bolts around I decided to make it prettier by putting them in rainbow order (they were already grouped by color, but the colors were on the shelves in a random order based on how they could fit), and now they look much better.

Now it's a lot easier for me to see what fabrics are where, and hopefully it will inspire me to make more projects using my stash.

My goal for the rest of the week is to finish organizing that bottom shelf and to get started again on my WIP list from the beginning of the year.  I definitely got sidetracked a bit from the list and only got a few of the things off of the top of the list done.  Since many of the items are Christmas-themed items I really want to get back to them and get them done before the holiday season starts.

I also have a quilt to make for my sister's first baby who's due in December.  She's having a monster themed nursery in lilac and green and I think the Giggle and Squeak pattern from SUCH Designs is going to look great in the colors she chose.

What's on your WIP list this week?

Almost finished up...

Almost done with the quilting on this one.  I just need to quilt the border and then add the binding.





It will have to wait though until after my husband and I take the baby to the park.

I love Saturdays.

August do. Good Stitches Quilt Finished

Way back in August it was my turn in my do. Good Stitches circle to be the quilter. That meant that I got to pick the blocks and the color scheme for the blocks we all did and in return it was my job to make sure that the blocks turned into an actual finished quilted quilt (for the post I wrote about what blocks I wanted see here).

I was supposed to finish quilting the quilt by the end of October but with the Sewing Summit in there and finding out about the baby I was a little distracted and so it didn't get finished in October.  And even though I wasn't feeling good for the majority of November I did manage to get the quilt finished up before the deadline for Rachel of Stitched in Color's Celebrate Good Stitches celebration.

August do. Good Stitches Quilt -- Quilted by Stephanie of Sewing by Stephanie

The quilting ended up being much simpler than I had wanted it to be, but at the time I was actually sitting at the machine quilting this was the absolute best I could do.  Even though I wasn't impressed with my quilting job, I'm still happy to know that the recipient of the quilt will love and cherish it (all of the quilts my circle makes are donated to "My Very Own Blanket" an organization that gives blankets to children in the foster care system)

August do. Good Stitches Quilt -- Quilted by Stephanie of Sewing by Stephanie

These photos were taken on a rare rainy day in southern California.  I managed to sneak outside before the rain started coming down to take these shots, but as you can see in the little bit of sky pictures in the photos the sky does not look very happy.

But let's rewind a little bit.  Remember a little bit ago when I mentioned Rachel of Stitched in Color's Celebrate Good Stitches celebration?  Well, my circle didn't choose the quilt I quilted as our one quilt to submit for the contest, instead we chose this beautiful quilt quilted by Jenn of Knotted-Thread.  And guess what? We're currently in 2nd place!  So if you have a moment and haven't already voted please go over and consider voting for our quilt (or consider going over and voting for whatever quilt you think should win!).  Click here to vote!

October do. Good Stitches Quilt -- Quilted by Jenn of Knotted-Thread

 Thanks!

Custom Bunting Quilt on Etsy

Hi Everyone!

I've been busy here the last few days working on a custom bunting quilt commission that I got on Etsy.  I finished it up yesterday and sent it off this morning.

Instead of the green/ blue/ yellow color scheme that I normally make these in I did this one in blues and yellows.  I personalized it for it's lucky new little owner-- a little boy named Thomas Henry who was just born last week.  I hope he loves it and gets lots of snuggles in it.

Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop!

Hi and welcome to Sewing By Stephanie! Whether you're just stopping by as a part of the Let's Get Acquainted blog hop or are a regular follower I'm happy you're here. 

For those of you who don't already know me I'm Stephanie and I've been blogging as Sewing By Stephanie for a little over a year.  I started this blog in March 2011 thinking that it would be a fun way to share my finishes with friends and family but as I blogged more and more I discovered that there is a whole world of other quilty bloggers out there who share the same passions I do, so now I blog as a way to connect with other quilters online. 

With that said, I think it's time we got acquainted! 

How long have you been quilting?

I've been sewing since I was 6 but only got into quilting after I graduated college, so for a little over 3 years now.

Harriet's Quilt.

Favorite quilting tip(s)
The #1 tip I have for beginning quilters is to be precise with your measurements and your seams.  You'll save yourself a ton on time later on if you're precise to begin with. 

Little Leaves Hand Quilting (this quilt won "Favorite Hand Quilted Quilt" in the 2012 Blogger's Quilt Festival)

Favorite blogging tip(s)
Use Flickr!  I host (almost) all of my photos on my blog through Flickr and I love it.  There are so many great swaps and QALs hosted through Flickr that you're really missing out if you don't have an account.

Padded Camera Pouch & Wallet.

Favorite fabric (or wish list fabric)
I'm currently dying to get my hands on some Out to Sea by Sarah Jane Studios.  It's so whimsical and fresh, I love it.  Also, as a general rule I love any fabric with either gnomes or dachshunds on it.

Olive's quilt.

Favorite craft book
One of my favorite bloggers when I got started was Alicia Paulsen of Posie Gets Cozy and her book  Embroidery Companion is one of my favorites.  As far as quilting books go though my first and favorite is The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman.

Dogs on quilt.

Favorite book (or book you are currently reading)

I have a deep love for books so picking one "favorite" is impossible.  I'm currently reading A Dance with Dragons (book 5 of Game of Thrones) and I'm really enjoying it.  Some authors I enjoy include Sarah Addison Allen, Deborah Harkness, Julie Garwood, Terry Goodkind, and Kathleen Woodiwiss. 

Reversible Tablerunner.

Favorite children's book  

This one's an easy answer.  My favorite by far is Pickle-Chiffon Pie by Jolly Roger Bradfield.  It's my sister's favorite as well and we fought over which of us would get to keep the original we had in our childhood.  She won and got to keep it, but luckily it's back in print so I have a copy for myself as well. 

Manly T-shirt quilt.

Favorite quilting tool

Either my mega mat, my huge ruler, or my rotary cutter.  I pretty much can't do anything without all of them!

Wonky Stars baby quilt.

Favorite music to listen to while quilting

I listen to Pandora a lot while working on my machine.  Currently I have it on a country station I made. 

Custom Dolls

Favorite TV show while hand stitching

I love historical pieces, but I watch pretty much anything.  Recently I've been watching Doc Martin and Misfits.

Back of ruffle onesie

Binding - by hand or by machine?

By machine to the front of the quilt and then by hand to finish.  I use the hand binding time to kind of wind-down from making the quilt.  It's so relaxing to sit and sew by hand knowing that the quilt I've been slaving over is almost done.

Tree applique quilt I made a friend's little girl.

If I'd only known - what you wish you knew about blogging before you started your blog

I don't really know what to say here.  I feel as though I'm still figuring all of this out.

Okay, enough with the introductions.  Let's get to the tutorial!

I don't know what the weather is like where everyone else is but where I am it's in the 90's, so today I have a quick tutorial on how to make a cool down for your neck.  I'm sure there are other tutorials out there on how to make these since this isn't my original design, but I wasn't able to locate one when I went looking so I thought it might be a good thing to write up a quick tutorial for.

For this you need a few simple ingredients:

-A piece of fabric 36 1/2" long by 4" wide ( I used my favorite Gnoming Around print, it has both gnomes AND dachshunds!)

-A water soluble pen

-A sewing machine

-Jumbo aqua gems (I bought mine in the floral section at Joanns for about $4)

Optional: a 12-16" length of PVC pipe (I used one of the sides of my lap quilting frame)

Step 1: Cut your fabric to the desired size of 36 1/2 " by 4" wide.  Fold fabric along the long edge with right sides together and sew down the long side and along one edge keeping a 1/4" seam allowance.  Turn right side out and press.

Sew closed long side and one end.

Turn and press.

Step 2: Using a water soluble pen mark lines along the length of your tube every 6 inches, separating your tube into 6 sections. With your sewing machine stitch along the line you just drew that is closest to the end of the tube that is sewn shut, effectively closing off the section.

Mark lines on the outside of the tube every 6 inches

Step 3: Measure out 1/4 teaspoon of your jumbo aqua gems.  Using your length of pipe as a guide, put your aqua gems into the tube (if you're not using a length of pipe you can just put your aqua gems straight into the tube, just jiggle it to make sure that all the gems make it down into the bottom of the tube.)  Using your machine sew along the next line, making sure to inclose all aqua gems in the section.

Measure out 1/4 teaspoon of aqua gems

Insert the pipe into the tube and use it to guide aqua gems into the tube.

Step 4:  Repeat for the next three sections.  When you are done you should have 4 sections that each have 1/4 teaspoon aqua gems in them.  The two sections on the outside should have no aqua gems in them.  Close off the last side of your tube by turning the fabric in 1/4" and sewing shut.

Turn the end in and sew shut.

All Sewn!

Step 5: Soak your cool down in water overnight until the gems are fully expanded.  When you're done you'll have a nice easy way to stay cool in the summer heat! 

Soak!

20 hours later and ready to go!

I have 4 that I've been using and I love them.  I took them camping with me and whenever we got a little hot I just threw them in the ice chest and they got nice and icy cold for us.  Whenever it gets a little dry you can roll it on your neck or if you need to you can re-soak it and it will get full again.  Also, when the summer is over and you no longer need it you can lay it out and let it dry and the beads will go back to their original size so you can store it until you need it again.  I should warn you though that you cannot freeze them.  If you freeze them the aqua gels will burst and will no longer soak up water (so once they dry out, they're done).

I hope you all enjoyed this quick tutorial!  And I hope you come back again soon!!!

Don't forget to go and check out the other featured blogger for today, Kirsten from Gemini Stitches

And be sure to check out Tuesday's featured bloggers, Sarah from Sarah Sews Quilting Blog and January from Sew Sew Go.

p.s.  I plan on posting more pics of my gnome cool down once it's fully soaked up all it's water, but that will have to wait for the morning!

Edit: I added the pictures of the finished cool down!  Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! 

Edit: I made a pdf file that details how to use and enjoy a cool down if you want to make one of these as a gift for someone.  You can find the pdf here.