a VERY nice Surprise!

I about jumped out of my skin in surprise to discover that I sold my Meadowsweet Baby Quilt through my natural baby store EuphoriaBaby.com.  It’s my very first handmade sale ever, so please forgive me for this little party!

But, I have something to share besides my good news.  I’ve been saving a few pictures of the finished quilt to share with you when/if it sold.  This one showcases a hand embroidered tag I made to identify my work.  I used Epson printer transfer paper to transfer “Stitched in Color” and “handmade 2010” to a plain piece of cotton.   Then, I embroidered over “Stitched in Color” and hand stitched the tag to the quilt back.

This was my first go at embroidering in the Dauphin font script.  I hadn’t quite figured out how to alternate between chain and back stitches.  It came out all right, but the practice served me well for my later work on the patchwork Christmas stockings.  The continuous chain/back stitch is definitely quicker than what I did here.

The angel who bought the quilt found my blog and Flickr account after making her purchase.  She was so kind as to leave this comment in Flickr

Your work is beautiful, and I’m so pleased to have something handmade with such care.  My baby girl is due in early November, and I’ll be sure to send you a photo of her wrapped in this amazing piece. I bought it because it gives me a “treasure forever” feeling. I love it. Even the front. 🙂

I am soooo thankful. Her comment really made my day! Wishing you all a  most wonderful start to the new week!

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Note to Self

1.  Oh, Fransson!’s binding method works (be sure to cut strips 2.5 inches!). Loving the hidden stitches and crisp mitered corners.  Next time, use a thimble when hand-stitching…

2.  For some reason, making a small quilt is not nearly as satisfying as making a larger one.  At least it looks respectable all folded up. Best to go bigger next time.  Toddler bed quilts?  Throw quilts?  Twin quilts (gulp!)?

3.  Don’t judge a quilt until it’s quilted.  My goodness what a BIG difference that little bit of texture makes!

4. Um, press the quilt before photographing. Yes, it’s really necessary.

5. Working from a pattern (Oh, Fransson! New Wave with modifications) is not all that creatively fulfilling even when it’s a cool design.  Enjoyed making the quilt back (especially the quilting design) more than the front… because I created it.

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I hate binding!

I’ve just stepped away in disgust from my sewing table, where my meadowsweet baby quilt lies in binding progress.  But, can you really call it progress when I’ve just realized I cut the binding 1.5″ wide instead of the necessary 2.5″ AND I’m not even sure if the color is working for me?  Grrr!

I was vaguely worried about doing the binding to begin with because I’m trying a new method of attachment.  On my first quilt, the Colorbrick quilt, I machine stitched double-fold binding all the way through, attaching both sides of the binding at once.  It looks OK, but I’d like to do better.  I got extra practice because with Colorbrick I attached bright yellow binding first, which was all wrong.  After completely finishing it, I ripped it off in one night and started work on a pieced binding from leftover fabric scraps.   Much better.

Anyhoo, this time I’m using Oh, Fransson!’s excellent binding tutorial.  I just failed to follow the directions on cutting the width of the binding.  How “duh” is that!  Of course before I figured that out I spent about 30 minutes going back and forth between Oh, Fransson! and several YouTube tutorials to see what the heck I was doing wrong, because there was no way my binding was going to be able to fold over the back.  I was sure my mistake was with the machine stitching or the folding itself, but turns out the simplest explanation was correct – I simply spaced out on the cutting!

Well, since I do have to completely remake the binding, this does give me an opportunity to change it up.  I’m not sure that the shade of  red I found at my local Hancock’s is working.  Does it stand out a little too much?  I know these pictures are awful, so I’ll try to get another in daylight tomorrow.  If you agree that the red is sub par, what would you do?

Updated with new, daylight picture!

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No Placemats for Me

Lately I’ve been tempted by beautiful placemats.  Tempted?  Yes.  1.  I have enough projects going right now.  2.  We don’t need placemats.  More on that later.  Don’t you want to see the objects of my temptation?

I stumbled upon this gorgeous set in the Good Folks Sewing Flickr pool (oh, how I LOVE that pool!).  They are made and designed by Three Dancing Magpies for a swap:

Anna Maria Horner fabric + Patchwork + linen = Perfection.  Lucky swap partner!

Then, Sew Mama Sew featured this little beauty as a “Quilt of the Day” during their April quilt month:

It’s made by Bloomin’ Workshop.  Her “mini quilt” placemat makes me want to test out quilt designs on a small scale like this.  Hardly takes any fabric and definitely takes less time than a quilt.  I’ve been hankering to try quilted hexagons, which are reported to be incredibly labor intensive, but as a placemat not so much.  Tempting.

However, I do declare that there are no placemats forthcoming!  You see, placemats don’t work for us.  They’d be dirty at every meal (those messy kids, never me! ;)).  I’ve heard that you just shake them over the garbage and put them back on the table (maybe any spills would be hidden in the patchwork?), but that sounds like more work to me than simply wiping down our bare table.  Plus, I sew at that table.  It’s already enough to haul out the sewing machine, iron, ironing table, cutting mat and supplies every time I want to sew.  So, plain is my table and plain it will remain.

Nevertheless, time spent gazing at beautiful placemats instead of quilting my Meadowsweet baby quilt is not in vain.  I think that Three Dancing Magpie’s minimalist patchwork row on linen would be a lovely outer for a make up roll, don’t you think?  And, the mini quilt concept with or without hexagons would work well for a pot holder, which we do need.  And, that’s what I love about browsing other’s work on Flickr.  Inspiration comes in handy and sewing is SO versatile.  Thanks to all the artists on Flickr!

P.S.  Poor, patient Meadowsweet quilt.  I will stitch you tomorrow!

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Sweet Spring Piecing

Our yard is a bloom with rose, iris and dogwood.  Little violets cluster under the shade of the pear tree and all the trees boast bright new green leaves.   I started cutting for this baby quilt on Easter and just finished the quilt top this evening.  The warm, girly hues of Sandi Henderson’s Meadowsweet collection are quite sweet for spring.

While I love this fabric, I’m not sure that this quilt is doing it justice, to be honest.  I like the taupe Kona cotton I paired it with, as I felt that cream and natural linen had a washing out effect.  However, the quilt just doesn’t have the “pop” I’d hoped for.  Here is a bird’s eye view of just a few rows.  Unfortunately my camera lighting ran out before I finished the quilt top:

I plan to use Kona’s rich red for the binding, which may be just what it needs.  And, I’m hoping that it all looks much better once bound and quilted, as things tend to do.  But, for now, I’m putting this Meadowsweet baby quilt aside for another project.  My mama has requested something special for mother’s day.  I’ll be sharing more about that soon!

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