Birds of a Feather

This might be my oldest UFO.

A very long time ago, I had a sheet. It was getting a little old and a little grimy, and I *should* have thrown it away. 

But of course, I didn't. I have a very hard time throwing away anything. 

So I bought some red fabric, ironed on some fusible interfacing, cut out some birds, and got ironing. There wasn't much of a plan; I was just messing around, trying to do something new, but unfussed about how it turned out. 

I should have measured my sheet, but I didn't. 

I should have spaced out my birds evenly, but I didn't. 

Then, after a few rows, I got bored. The sheet went into the Closet of Unfinished Things, and there it sat for many, many years. (About twenty years, give or take.) 

Until now. 

In keeping with the spirit of experimentation, I decided I wanted to get intricate (if not technically perfect) with my quilting. 

I wanted the lines on the background fabric to look like wind - fluid and freeform. I think I was reasonably successful with that. 

I wanted the quilting on my birds to look like feathers. Definitely less successful there. 

But hey, it's done, and I'm happy. 

In other news, I haven't been either blogging or garment sewing for a long time, but I'm cautiously hoping to get back to both. 

Baby quilt time!

I love making baby quilts as gifts - they are super-distinctive, but piece up and quilt up a lot easier than a larger size. I even got to baste this on my dining table, vs. on the floor, and my back was thanking me!

The pattern - Finlay's Stars - is based off a Moroccan tile (and will be for sale soon on my Craftsy and Etsy pages, if there are any quilters reading here.) The most work here (apart from the actual quilting, which was a lot of work, since I rather painstakingly outline-quilted it) was trimming the half-square triangles to the right dimension, but apart from that, pretty smooth sailing.

Of course, I did have a lot of help with this quilt - Biscuit was intimately involved in both the quilting and the binding process!

Lots of pictures to follow - this project pretty much took over my life for all of the last week, so I'm going to show several photos of it!

All pieced-up, before adding a border 

Basting on a dining table...

Biscuit *helps* with the quilting...

Quilting detail. With bonus bits of thread, which hopefully came out in the wash... 

|Biscuit *helps* with the binding... (don't worry, I washed the quilt prior to giving it to the mom-to-be!)

Another photo of the finished quilt. I'm pretty impressed with my quilting diligence. 

Un-UFO-ing: A completed 9 patch quilt

The UFO story - I started this quilt way back - maybe 2 years ago? I made 25 blocks from scrap fabric, then got tired of the project, stuffed the blocks into a bag, and promptly relegated it to UFO-land.

Due to a silly most excellent 2013 resolution - I pulled the blocks out, made 75 additional blocks, pieced them together, basted, quilted, and bound. Phew!

Which means - the quilt - she is done!

I laid it out on my bed to take a quick photo. Quick being the operative word - I evidently didn't bother with smoothing it down.

As always, I had 'help' quilting.

Little Biscuit is seriously the world's most indulged cat. She wedged herself on the quilt in such a way I couldn't move it at all. And then, she looked annoyed when I continued sewing. (In fact, she's now head-butting me so I can't type.)

 As always with quilting, my philosophy is to use up scraps. These two blocks contain left-over fabric from 4 items of clothing I've sewn - this green BWOF dress, this floral vintage, this top and a pink skirt that I evidently never blogged about, but which was the second skirt I've ever made! (No new fabric purchased - I stole the sashing fabric from my mother's stash.)

And this one uses left-overs from my PJs. What can I say? I'm really bad at throwing away scraps.

For backing, I used a stash fabric, bought at Bouclair, when they were closing out their garment fabric section. This was over 5 years ago, I think. I have a ton of fabric from that shopping trip, and I'm glad to use this piece up. (And I used almost all of it up, score! I just have a 6 inch strip left - easily used for something else!)

In the era of high speed internet access, do people still apologize for picture-heavy posts? If so, my apologies.

This hits one 2013 goal (quilting UFO finishing), and one stash fabric used. (Only 24 to go!) Not only that, but since I used some itty-bits in its construction, I think I'll link it up to the Stashbusting Sewalong, as well.

Ah, the smugness.

And now, sewing for me. (This quilt is a very belated Christmas gift.) The Jan Burda awaits, and hopefully, a house-project-free weekend.

Sewing on the go means more quilting

I've brought a couple of clothing projects to sew in Mrytle Beach, but it's amazing how much equipment I take for granted when sewing at home - large cutting mat, weights, pins, etc.

An easier sewing-on-the-go project was at hand, a Moda Sanctuary pre-cut pack. My mom had bought this early spring at the Creativ festival. Before we headed out, I quickly cut up strips of sashing. I asked my mother if she wanted to sew it, but she was too busy being in 'vacation-mode' - and so I got to work. (I don't get this kind of gift of time in Toronto, what a perfectly lovely vacation - plenty of time to sew!)

I'm hoping to actually be able to quilt it up on vacation. My brother's two cats are weirded out by the sewing machine though. They aren't used to the noise - and spend a lot of time just staring at me. Plotting to take over the world, I'm certain. Either that, or eating me when I'm asleep.

In use, two quilts

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm sure you are tired of reading about these quilts, dear Readers, I'm certainly a little tired of writing about them. But, I don't think I showed a completed picture of the t-shirt quilt, plus, I like my blog to be a record of all the projects that I do.

And so, pictures.

My brother Madhav, readying himself for a post-meal nap.


The t-shirt quilt, held up by my brother Keshav.


Keshav's pretending to be Yoda?

Why I quilt...

Elizabeth asked an interesting question in the comments (I love both comments and questions - keep them coming!):

Can I ask why you keep making quilts when you don't like to? Why threaten your mojo and joy with things you don't want to do?

That's a great question, and one I actually think I have an answer to. Basically, I quilt for 4 reasons.

1. I quilt to finish up old UFOs.


The red quilt belonged to this category. This black-and-white quilt I did with my mother is the same - it sat in the UFO pile for more than 3 years. These projects tend to be fairly involved, left over from the days when I used to make quilt tops all the time. These are really grudging, with very little inherent reward. Why I do it? I do enjoy the satisfaction of checking something off a to-do list though, and that's basically what keeps me going.

2. I quilt to use up left-over fabric.


I can't stand fabric waste, and I'd much rather piece a quilt top than throw away scrap fabric. This is my most frequent type of quilting. My favorite quilts in this category are the woolen one shown above, and this crazy quilt. Examples of this kind of quilt top abound through my blog, and actually, of all the kinds of quilts I make, I have the most fun with these. Why I do it? It gives me immense satisfaction to make something useful out of scrap.

3. I quilt as a gift for other people.


I don't often sew for other people, but there are times when a quick little baby quilt is the perfect special present... The t-shirt quilt made for my brother falls in this category as well. And the photo quilt top pictured above was a very special present for my grandmother's 90th birthday. Why I do it? I might grumble about the process of making these quilts, but I'm actually all warm and fuzzy when they receive it and really enjoy it. (I've made one quilt for someone who wasn't super appreciative, I won't be repeating that. Most people love being given a hand-made quilt.)

A subset of this category is when my mom needs me to quilt her something (she's a quilter herself, so I only get asked when she's seriously short of time.) I might grumble (a lot) but my parents spoil the heck out of me, and it's the least I can do in return. (Damn! My mom reads my blog. Does this mean she'll pile more projects onto me? Kidding!)

4. Very rarely, I'll quilt because I have nothing else to do.


This is pretty rare though, but this will occur when I'm spending the day at my parents, or something like that, where I can spend some time sewing a quilt, but don't have any garment patterns at my disposal. (Also, my mother's sewing machine is the machine from hell - I'm not ruining a nice garment by using that thing.) The quilt above was similar - I was on vacation in Madras, my hometown. The internet access wasn't great, so in the spaces of time between visiting family, I made a quilt top. (Incidentally, this is the quilt that's on my bed right now. I do use them!)

So, though I whine each and every quilting project (and trust me, I whine!) - I actually get some satisfaction out of it (even if it is to just cross it off a list.) What I've become very good at nowadays is not starting a new quilting project (unless it is to use up scrap). And eventually, I'll be all caught up with the UFOs (ha!), and then, no more quilts. Until that day, I'll grumble away...

And done! The Very Very Red Quilt top

Dear readers - it was fairly obvious during this project that I was approaching this quilt rather grudgingly. "Finish the damn UFO," I kept saying to myself.

But what do you know? It was worth it. Look how pretty! (Lots of pictures, since I'm rather proud of it...)





Also, cats have magic powers! My cat can detect the moment a quilt top is spread out anywhere. And will be there instantly to sit on it.



This quilt top was made from assorted left-over pieces from many quilting projects. No new fabric (well, my mother has a basement of quilting fabric, why would I ever need to buy any? I simply raided her stash for border fabric.) There's remnant pieces here from projects that are over 10 years old. Totally impressive UFO-busting, if I say so myself. :)

A Quilt-a-long completed, 4 years too late

Dear Readers, I have a lot of unfinished projects. But I'm thrilled to finally finish this one - a quilt top that I've been dithering on for 4 years.

The story goes like this. 4 years ago, my mom started this quilt-a-long hosted by Amanda. She industriously made a set of blocks, set in white, but then, upon completion of the blocks, wasn't sure if she wanted to set them the same way Amanda had. You see, Amanda's quilt finished in a lap quilt size, and neither me nor my mom are very big on lap quilts. We much rather have bed-sized quilts.

So, I offered, in a moment of complete idiocy to make some blocks set in black, and then we could combine these blocks to make a larger size quilt. I started the project with enthusiasm, made a few blocks, and then got bored and promptly abandoned this project.

I think at some point, I did finish up the blocks, but then I dithered around with the setting, and so on and so forth. In the intervening years, I'd pull the pieces out, work on it for an hour or so, and then get bored and start a more interesting garment instead.

When my mom was going to India earlier this year, I was determined to finish this quilt top, so I could get it quilted in India. But then, alas, I ran out of fabric. And so the project sat in the background, yet again.

Well, it's finally done, and I couldn't be happier. The quilt's ok, but the real joy is in the finishing - I'm delighted to finish a UFO.

First quilting success - a tiny baby quilt

Dear Readers, this is the first time I'm actually happy with a quilting effort. (Not the top, the actual quilting process, which I usually fail horribly at.)

My mom needed a baby quilt in a hurry, for the baby shower for a gender-yet-to-be-determined baby. This pink quilt top was therefore not going to cut it.

I flipped through flickr for inspiration, and found this photo, with its lovely colour palette. I wasn't about to piece together a lot of triangles to copy it precisely, but I did copy the general layout and color scheme. I made this (all from scrap, yay!), and actually managed to do a decent job quilting it. Yay for me.

And the back. Notice the lack of horrible ripples. I'm pretty pleased with myself.



I think this quilt makes up for the fact that I never sew for my mom, don't you?

Pink Baby Quilt

What a bad blogger I am! Sigh.

A couple of Sundays ago, I looked at my massive, overflowing stash, and pulled out some random quilting cotton. Two football games later, here's my pink zigzag quilt top. It is very pink, it needs a border and quilting, but I still thought of it as a productive use of an afternoon.

This is a very simple pattern - a zig-zag with no triangles! Instructions here.

However, it does involve laying it all out on the floor before piecing the final bits, so you can make sure you get it right. Of course, the instant I did this, I had a little helper come to inspect.



She might have thought she was helping - but she most certainly wasn't. But, of course, like all devoted pet owners, instead of throwing her out of the room, I went for my camera to take a picture.

Now, to complete the rest of it!

Handkerchief Quilt Top - Done!

I'm still having trouble with the sewing machine. These are so frustrating that *everyone* around me has heard me whine about it. I'm hoping for some spare time this week to go and test drive a couple of options, but if I don't manage to buy a sewing machine, it doesn't get done for the next couple weeks; I'm off on vacation the first two weeks of Feb. (Which is pretty awesome, really.)

In any case, a friend loaned me her Elna. It has a few issues, but I jury-rigged it enough to complete this quilt top.

Up next - the Dec BWOF skirt that a lot of people have made. I'm actually almost done with this, I just need to get brave and try a buttonhole with a non-optimal sewing setup.

The Handkerchief Quilt Top - Part 2

Just to clarify, in case you were wondering, these are new handkerchiefs. I bought them for this project. (Rather, I made my mom buy them during a trip to India.)

Apart from buying the handkerchiefs initially, my mom rescued my progress tonight. I didn't have a suitable blue fabric in my stash, so she brought me some. (Along with food! I am a princess!)

Anyway, the blocks are done.



I laid out the pieces on my bed to play with placement. It goes without saying, of course, that Biscuit decided she must lie right in the center as I was working. It was not helpful.

I'm free tomorrow and Thursday, so it might indeed get done this week.

(Or, I could do my French homework?)

The Handkerchief Quilt Top - Part 1

I've wanted a handkerchief quilt for a few years now. The biggest part of the appeal is that it is very easy to sew. (Although, my decorating style is more ethnic, and less cottage-country, which is what this quilt is shaping up to be.)

I've 49 blocks to sew for this - and have sewn about half of them already (shown in the picture above.) In the next week, I hope to finish this up.

It should measure about 87"x87" when done. I'm going to India in January or February, and I'll get it quilted then. Getting someone else to quilt is the impetus behind the recent flurry of quilting projects.

WIP: Random fabric quilt

This is a preview of the quilt that caused the sewing machine to die. I'm just saying...

While I'm still to take any clothing pictures, I do actually have a couple of pictures to share. Around Canadian Thanksgiving, my mom decided that she wanted to make a couple of baby quilts for a friend's kids. I got drafted into this project (why?) and helped pick out colors, patterns, etc. And then, I got suckered into actually quilting. (I hate quilting.)

I used the birthing method for binding that I first found out about on Lady Havratine's blog I do love this method of binding, I think its way easier than binding, and the results ended up neater. I also used the simplest quilting design in the world...

The little boy's quilt was just pinwheels alternated with solids. I've done this before, I like this layout a lot, and it helps use up triangle blocks that are lying around.



The little girl's quilt - both my mom and me absolutely loved Amanda's the future's so bright quilt. Since she was kind enough to post measurements, our decision to make this was even easier. As with the other quilt, my mom pieced and I quilted.



I'm currently working on a wraparound dress made with some of my ridiculously large Bou-clair haul. Its cotton, which is silly, since its freezing in Toronto. Ah well. I'm almost done with this dress though, so I'll post pics later this week.

Old stuff

I think I've mentioned here before that I used to quilt (or rather, just make the patchwork tops) a lot, once upon a time. And I would sell stuff on eBay, and get heartbroken when stuff wouldn't sell well, and my hours of effort, not to mention fabric, would get bought for $20. Or less.

Anyway, I was browsing through an old backup, and found these pics, so I thought I'd share.

My grandmother's birthday quilt...

When I saw this beautiful quilt at Amanda's blog, I was choked up a little by the post and the thought. I also filed it mentally away...

Until last week, when I made a similar quilt for my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's my only living grandparent, this birthday is a big deal, my parents will both be flying to India for it, and I wish I could be there too.

The quilt... (apologies for the ridiculously large picture, but I'm too lazy to resize)



I twisted my family's collective arms for the pictures, with me calling my parents in Canada to ask for pics, and they calling across the world to India. Sheesh, you would think collecting photos would be easier.

Close-up of my grandparents...



Thank you for the inspiration, Amanda. And the entire blog world, that is so generous in sharing everything that they create. I'm very grateful.

I'm making stuff...

in an attempt to avoid job-hunting, something I truly, truly hate doing.

This quilt - from the Roundabout pattern in the Piece and Play book by Judy Martin. Its small, and for a friend's new baby. (I'm actually not going to quilt it, since I loathe quilting, but am simply going to attach a back to it and call it done. Woo hoo!



A week or so back, I also made this quilt (or whatever you call patchwork with a back and no batting) for another friend's baby. I really didn't like the way this turned out, it didn't do anything for me at all, but in the spirit of better done than not, I sent it off anyway.



I also sent the same friend this bib, my first ever bib! I liked it a lot, especially the patch of the boy - the fabric was a great thrift store find.



Also making...

This messenger bag for a friend's 10 year old boy. I think he liked it!



This tote-bag for a friend's mom's birthday... (I really, really like this bag...)


This cushion cover for a craftster swap...


More stuff for a different craftster swap...




Last month, for the first time, I actually made an apron for Tie One On! I took awful pictures of this apron, this is a close-up of the pocket - the best picture I have. However, I sent it to my friend Shirin, so maybe she'll send me an action shot...



And a preview of this month's WIP for Tie One On... I found the house, half finished, in a thrift store, and added the trees... Hopefully, this will also make it off the WIP in time...



Just realized that the apron is not due until the end of June. Yay!!!! I thought it was the end of May. Stress for nothing.

And now, back to the job search, or the avoidance thereof...