Material Obsession

Not the fabulous blog/store/books from Australia, but the kind that makes you want to work on nothing else until you have finished something with the material that your obsession revolves around. And just what fabric is so inspiring as to make me forget all else you ask? Behold...Strawberry Fields!

I was in the middle of a no-deadline commission quilt when I got a layer cake of it in the mail the last week of March. From the moment I opened the package, I wanted to do nothing but make something with it, NOW. I freaking love strawberry fabrics. Slap a strawberry on it, and I'm all over it. The colors are just perfection! It's so ridiculously gorgeous in person that my friend Pattie, who got her layer cake before me, told me "it's so pretty that I want to lick it!" I completely agree. The non-quilting people are now horrified, but you quilters out there know exactly what we mean, don't you?

I spent an evening deciding what project was worthy, then I had to run it by my SewMod friends, to verify that my choice was indeed the worthiest project and that my chosen background fabric was perfect.
We decided on the Coventry star pattern by Brenda Riddle of the Acorn Quilt and Gift Company.

And that gorgeous grey polka dot is from my all time favorite line, Ava Rose by Tanya Whelan. I actually had to order more, 5 yards was not enough! I'm actually making the quilt larger than the pattern, to fit the full bed in my guest room. Which also means I need to paint it since it's currently lavender and green. Yes, I am redecorating an entire room because of a little layer cake.

Since I started this quilt I've wanted to work on nothing else. I totally want to take a week off of my day job just to work on it! I've been designing another quilt to make with it, but have to wait for the yardage to hit the stores before I can make that one. Big, huge bummer. I know it's just 'til May, but that's just too long when you are completely obsessed!

I had finished about 40 blocks, but then had to get busy making a couple of grocery bags for the school raffle my bff Donna is running. Of course, just because I want to be working on something else, I  screwed them up and now have to make another set. I can't let Donna and the kids down!

And to add another worthy cause to my list, my quilting buddy Dori sent a note about some children left orphaned by the tsunami in Japan, where her daughter's friend is from, so I had to help out and get some quilts to the children (to be posted at a later date since it really deserves it's own post). You can read about it here. Fair warning, have the tissues ready.

And to put my obsession on the back burner even further, the hubby has been working on the basement which means that I've had to be upstairs since the tan dogs (Robbie and Daisy) are terrified of, well, everything to do with construction. Since I've waited almost 10 years for the basement/sewing room to be done, I don't want to discourage him, so my original spurt of sewing has been delayed until my retreat in two weekends. I don't know if I can last that long!

I put some of the blocks together to see how it was coming along. Yummm, it's lolly pop licking gorgeous!

Happy Quilting!

Vicki

Amy Butler Gumdrop Pillow Pattern Review

Last week I made 2 Gumdrop Pillows from Amy Butler's pattern and had a sew in with my Sew Mod group to teach them how to make the pillows as well. I guess I really made 4 Gumdrops since I made 2 inner pillows and 2 covers.

I have to say, they were totally easy and the directions were great. I like the fact that she has really well drawn diagrams as I'm a picture directions person rather than a word person.That being said, you should always read directions too! If you follow the directions and make them as is, you can easily get it done in an evening. I think stuffing the mass amounts of fiberfill into the shell took me the longest amount of time.

This would be a great pattern to make with a younger sewer for her room. It's almost instant gratification sewing/decorating.

I don't like cutting apart my patterns since I tend to lose the pieces, so I trace mine onto freezer paper and cut it out from there. I also cut my freezer paper templates to full size, so where it says to place the edge on the fold of the fabric, I fold my freezer paper and line the fold up on the pattern and cut it out.

One good reason to do it this way is that you can iron your template to the fabric so that there is no shifting, you can line your ruler on the edges easily and rotary cut out multiple layers at one time, so there is much less time spent cutting. It also makes it easier to fussy cut elements out, as I did on my Cosmo Cricket Snorkel Gumdrop (which the hubby called a beach ball).

I, of course, can't just let things be, and decided that I would make an inner Gumdrop and a washable outer cover as I was intending my trial run pillow for my 19 mo old nephew. I had seen this idea on a blog somewhere, but have no clue where at this point. Having never installed a zipper before, I did some research and found this fabulous tutorial by Kay Whitt of Sew Serendipity. It worked pretty spectacularly, except I installed it w/the zipper pull at the top of the pillow instead of the bottom. That being said, the pillow is sooo large, and the zipper opening soooo small, that it was a you-know-what to get that pillow in the cover! I ripped a couple of holes in the seams that I had to stitch back up.

Enter *brilliant* idea number two! Install 2 invisible zippers to make the cover open up in half. I totally screwed this up. First, I installed one of them w/the panels on the wrong side, so the pattern was all screwed up and I had to rip it out. I ripped the fabric while doing this and had to recut a panel. Then I sewed the seams together at the top and bottom, which means that it wouldn't open all the way up!!

At this point I gave up, had a glass of wine and watched Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door on PBS. The next night, everything went much smoother and it worked!!! It's not as pretty as I would have liked, but it's not bad. The seams where the zippers are are a little puckery, but they iron down fairly well. And it's significantly easier to remove the cover and put it back on than with the one zipper.

Lorrie found a make your own invisible zipper where you can make it as long as you like instead of being restricted to 20-22" invisible zippers that you can only get at JoAnne's. If I make a third pillow, I'm going to try that option and start it at the upper middle part and continue it to the opposite side upper middle part.

I think I may be a glutten for punishment.

Here are my final projects. I fussy cut out the largest blossom from the Optical Blossom Midwest Modern fabric for the top of my grey and citron Gumdrop.

The muslin covered inner pillows:

Pillow cover action shots:

Why is Kelly all smiles with her Gumdrop? Because she followed the directions as they are written and had hers done in an afternoon! I just notice how well Kelly and her pillow match my kitchen. Sweet.

The left Gumdrop is Lorrie's Kate Spain Central Park and the right is Paige's Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2 and Daisy Chain pillow.

A Gumdrop on a Tuffet!



Overall, I say this pattern is an A+ if you actually follow it as written.

I tried to link to Lorrie and Paige's Sew Mod blog for more photos and whatnot, but Blogger is being testy and refuses to let me link, so if you would like to see more photos from our Gumdrop Party, please click on the Sew Mod link located in the 'Fun Places' section in the right margin.

Happy Sewing!

Vicki

Giveaway over at SewMod

Thank you to everytone for your sympathies about my Beaner. I tried to reply to everyone, but some people didn't have an email with their comment, so a special thank you to you lovely ladies as well.

On a more positive note, Lorrie, a good friend from my SewMod sewing group is having a giveaway!!!! She made this amazing pillow as a 'practice' block.

Seriously, this is a 'practice' piece. Look at all those little, itty-bitty french knots in the birdie earmuff! And the tassles on the scarf. It's beyond cute. She used the Birdie quilt along pattern from Little Miss Shabby and Hideaway by Lauren and Jessi Jung for Moda
Lorrie's embroidery is amazing. I hope to spend more time  in the very near future learning from her how to make my embroidery look like this. Or half as good. I think I could settle with half as good and be happy.

You should all click over to Lorrie and Paige's blog ASAP and enter to win it. You can enter through Thursday, January 27th. The drawing is this Friday, January 28th.