It's a rainy, cold, dreary Memorial Day weekend. I decided to spend the morning cutting and sewing the remainder of my Urban Abacus quilt blocks. It was great fun and I managed to finish sewing all 72 squares. I only need 68 for the quilt. The remaining four will become a pillow (I think).
Now I just need to make the six end pieces, join the blocks into strips, then sew the strips together and my quilt top will be done. I wonder if I have enough time to finish this tonight. Hmmmm.
My friends and I took our Urban Abacus quilt class at The Quilt Shop yesterday and had so much fun. We learned how to use the Quick Curve Ruler. In no time at all, everyone had completed several squares for each quilt. We even took the time to display them on the felt board.
I loved seeing all the different colors people chose. They're so beautiful!
I thought the picture of everyone taking a picture was hilarious. :D
Did you guess which one is mine?
I can hardly wait to keep sewing away. Now if I only had more hours in the day.
My friends and I will be taking a class on how to use the Quick Curve Ruler as we make our Urban Abacus quilts designed by Jenny Pedigo
Here's the store sample which is nearly identical to the quilt made by Jenny for the pattern. I originally was going to try to make mine in reds, but when I got to the store, I was overwhelmed by the choices and decided to go with a black and white theme, too. I picked a grunge yellow background fabric and I'm ready to go.
Now I just have to wait a month for the class. In the meantime, I might practice a bit following this tutorial.
My friends and I are taking a modern quilting class next month, so today we took a road trip to Danbury, CT to The Quilt Shop to purchase our material for the class.
It was a dangerous place to go for a few crafty ladies. We were like kids in a candy store... only better.
This one reminded me of birthday candles.
This one was pleasing for its long woven strips and striking pattern.
This easy large print "Action Hero" fabric was adorable. Nothing too difficult about it as it was made using very large pieces of the matching material to create a children's quilt. It made me smile just to look at it.
Stay tuned tomorrow to see the quilt we'll be making in our class next month.
I made another upcycled cashmere cowl. This time it's for Lindaly.
Red, pink, hot pink, and more pink all serged together.
Here's a picture of the cowl flat. It's done in anywhere from 3-6 inch strips. Each strip is 3 inches tall. The whole cowl is then joined to make a tube.
Here's a close-up of just the cowl.
And here's another shot of me modeling the cowl... and my new glasses. It's my first time wearing progressive lenses. I'm thrilled with them. I can see again.
Here's hoping you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and gave and received some homemade gifts.
Well, that was so much fun, I decided to do another one. This time I decided to use up all the odds and ends, specifically, the waistbands, cuffs and turtlenecks from various blue sweaters that I had trimmed for a future blanket. I serged all the odds and ends together in a loop creating one very comfy, cozy cowl.
I've been wearing it throughout the blizzard and it's quite toasty warm.
Here's a close-up.
Have I inspired you to go on a recycling tear? Because of the blizzard, I missed my chance at the Sunday discounts at our local Goodwill. I'm looking for pink cashmere. I think I'll have to try again sometime this week. Good luck with your recycling efforts!
Yesterday my knitting group came over and we set up shop in my unfinished basement. I set up the folding tables and chairs. Everyone brought their sewing machines and/or sergers. We all brought our old cashmere sweaters. You know the ones that have lots of holes in them so you can't really wear them - but you somehow just can't let yourself throw away a cashmere sweater? We washed the sweaters first to see if any new holes would appear.
This is what I mean by holes in the sweaters. These two scraps were used to test the serger on the sweaters.
One friend even went to Goodwill and bought a few cashmere sweaters. She discovered that the sweaters were the same price whether they were men's or women's sweaters - so she bought men's sweaters which were much larger and would provide more material.
We set out to cut the sweaters into sewable strips of fabric. We somehow came up with the expression "filleting the sweaters." Oddly enough, this term fit. That's exactly what it felt like.
Here we are clipping away. Why, yes, that is a full size tent set up in my basement! Why do you ask?
Using rotary cutters and cutting boards, we made quick work of slicing the sweaters into approximately 6 inch wide strips.
We had looked online for different options of 'upcycled' sweater scarves and some were serged for a decorative edge. Others were sewn and the seams were hidden inside the doubly thick scarf. I opted for a serged decorative edge.
Lori made a wide cowl.
Michelle W. made an extra long stripey scarf.
I made a blue and green stripey scarf. That darker color is really blue not periwinkle.
Michelle W. Made a lovely stripey scarf.
Kathy made a lovely scarf showcasing this gorgeous argyle pattern. She used the inside hidden seam for her scarf. It's doubly thick - so doubly warm!
I also made a New York Mets scarf. This is really a blue and orange scarf - but it looks purple in this picture. All the guys in my house thought it was very warm and soft. Not sure if any of them would actually wear a scarf like this... but it sure was nice.
More pictures to come at our next Sweat Shop day. If you've got some old sweaters like this lying around, I highly recommend getting the courage to upcycle them. I haven't worn my holey sweaters in years. I'm thrilled to have them out and being proudly worn once again!
BF has lots of blue dress shirts. Unfortunately, some of them are starting to die a slow death. When I went to the quilt show last spring, I saw a quilt by one of the male designers that utilized old men's blue dress shirts.
It made me want to do something with the old shirts.
So when BF brought me a shirt whose collar was frayed to the point beyond use... I decided to give my repurposing plan a try.
I snipped off the buttons, which will be used for my cross stitch Christmas ornaments...
I cut all the usable fabric of the shirt into sections.
I had quite a bit of fabric, nearly a dozen buttons, and scraps. I felt like I had used as much of the fabric as possible.
I used my serger to sew the fabric into various little gift bags.
Fold back the band, iron and then sew it.
Turn the bags right-side out; thread the ribbons (also recycled from previous gifts) through the band, and tie knots. Trim loose strings and the top of the ribbons.
Voilá - you have eight new drawstring gift bags out of one old shirt. The best part of this is that the men in my life (BF and the boys) hate gift wrapping. We joke that we reuse the same gift bag over and over. Now people can have their choice of gift bags.
The final part of the 10th Anniversary Fabrics and Fabrications Quilt Show at the Southport Congregational Church was the special exhibit - Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice! There were many wonderful contributions on the theme from artists, designers, crafters, and students at the local middle schools and high schools. Check out some of these amazing items.
This tote bag is made out of recycled sails.
How gorgeous is this dress?
That gorgeous glittery dress is made of candy wrappers! Sweet!
My friend, Lori, crocheted this bag out of recycled plastic grocery bags. Very resourceful!
Here are two adorable paper dresses - with other recycled clothing items hanging on the wall above.
I loved this flapper style dress made out of shredded paper and pop tops.
There were many other items that I didn't photograph, but just let me tell you that there are so many wonderfully talented people out there. Thanks for a great show! Thanks Lori for organizing this special recycling exhibit. It was truly inspiring!
My favorite quilt at the 10th Anniversary Fabrics and Fabrications Quilt Show at the Southport Congregational Church last week was the dollhouse quilt by Mary Julia Skwar.
Wonderfun - 2010
This bed quilt was machine pieced and quilted, hand embroiderd and appliqued. It was inspired and adapted from Rosalie Quinlan's pattern "It's a Dollie's Life." I hope the view can have a little laugh looking at the "The Day the Stuffed Animals Came Alive and Decided to Have Some Whimsical Wonderfun." It was professionally quilted by Sandy Morawsky of Sew Inspired Quilt Shop and Studio. - Mary Julia Skwar
I love the whimsy and the mischief the stuffed animals concocted. Let's take a closer look at each block. Click on the photo to enlarge it and see the details.
How cute is this quilt? I think the sock monkey (first picture) is one of myfavorites, followed by the teddy bear and the rabbit making carrot cake in the kitchen; and the bathroom scene is simply too much for words. When did you ever think you'd see a toilet on a quilt and find it adorable?
I'm not really a quilter... but after going to this quilt show, I know I'm going to give it a try. I'm drawn to children's/baby's quilts, so that's probably where I'll start. It also has the added advantage of being smaller. Do you have any patterns you might suggest for a beginner? I really like the whimsical.
Change is Good
