Seams To Me Swap ~ My part

{Seams to Me in Springy Style}

A few weeks ago I sent out my end of Tracey's We the People Swap: Seams to Me edition. When we signed up for the swap we got to choose which of Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me projects we would like to receive in the swap. One of my partner's choices was the Taxi Tote. She gave spring and summer, the beach and funky fabrics as inspiration. I used a thrifted sheet and some coordinating fabrics from my stash to make her tote. Mine hasn't arrived, yet, but soon I hope.

{Seams to Me Taxi Tote Front}

For the button closure I had to extend the fabric loop a lot. When I followed the instructions the loop was way too short to fit under the binding and around the button. I ripped out the seam there and doubled the loop. I used two stacked buttons, one cloudy white and one teal, for the front closure.

{The back}

The colors and watercolor like floral print struck me as nice and springy. I used a solid sea foam green for the lining and a soft yellow for the binding.

{Room for snacks, toys, keys, a book, a notepad,

knitting needles and a little take along project}

The interfacing is iron-in and pretty stiff. The bag has nice structure and is roomy enough for everything a girl needs and lots of stuff for her young son, too.

{A flattering side shot}

The pattern was great and really easy to follow, as was the other project I made from the book. Immediately after finishing a project like this, I always try it out. While modeling in front of the mirror I decided that when I make one for myself I will extend the strap a bit and make it more of a sling style. I've got a lot of this fabric left over and even though I am not usually crazy about florals, I do quite like this print.

Speaking of thrifted sheets I think I am finished gathering the necessary fabrics for my month in Snip.Sew.Send. No photos yet, I want to wait to post on the bee blog. I found a great, colorful fitted sheet and pillowcase set at Goodwill yesterday. I also grabbed a queen size white flat sheet and what I thought was a king size white flat sheet that turned out to be a king size white duvet cover. Yea! Twice the fabric for half the price. Next weekend I plan to dye the white sheets with coordinating colors since I can't find just what I am looking for. I am unnaturally excited to do this. I am sure it will be a mess, even if I decide to follow the instructions. Wish me luck!

=]

Whirlygiggles and zigzags

What better way to spend the day?

{Zigzag play quilt top}

I nearly finished the zigzag quilt top for my friend's soon-to-be-born baby boy. All that's left is to cut off the points and square it up. I used Amanda Jean's tutorial on Bee Square Fabrics' Blog. This came together so quickly. Of course, it's not nearly as big as the sample quilt, but quick none the less. I used six fat quarters I had on hand instead of the recommended fabrics. I didn't have matching solids, so I just used variations of the blue and yellow. Hopefully I will finish this play quilt later this week and get it mailed off before the baby arrives.

{Discharged Whirlygiggle}

This beauty is an experiment of two interesting techniques I have read about lately. First, I discharged one of the fat quarters I won from Sew, Mama, Sew! I used Elizabeth's method, but had to leave the fabric in longer than the 7-8 minutes she suggested. It just didn't take in that time. The half of the fat quarter I discharged soaked in the bleach solution for about an hour. You can see that was a bit too long and the discharging didn't take uniformly, but I still enjoyed doing this. I want to try overdying as well, but need supplies I don't have on hand for that. R0ssie started a flickr group for discharging and overdying which includes a getting started giveaway.

Also via Amanda Jean (I just love her blog) I found Michelle's tutorial for whirlygiggles. Isn't that a great name for this block? The name alone makes me want to make an entire quilt of them so I can tell other people they are whirlygiggles. I discharged some red fabric too but didn't get a chance to sew the pieces together, yet. Eventually they will be made into place mats, pot holders or a floor mat. We'll see which.

=]

Seams to Me ~ Smashing Smock

Rae is organizing Spring Top Week. It started yesterday with her tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! Her top is really cute and has just been added to my ever growing list of things to sew.

{Just Smashing}

My first Spring Top was made using the Smashing Smock pattern from Anna Maria Horner's book Seams to Me. Even though I've had this book since Christmas, this is the first thing I have made from it. Actually, I thought this might be the only thing I wouldn't make. I just didn't care for smocks in general and I think the fabrics used in the sample in the book turned me off. While perusing through the flickr group I saw several people had made it from thirfted sheets and I really liked the way they turned out. Earlier this week I had some free time so I decided to make it with a recently purchased thrifted sheet.

I love this pattern. It was fairly easy to put together and it looks really cute, if I do say so myself. I like how loose and airy it is. It is perfect for the sizzling summers here.

{French seam horizontal with the bottom hem to the left}

I usually wear a size small, but I wanted to make sure this was loose so I added about 1/2" to each piece and I am glad I did. The top of the top fits nicely. I think it would have been a little too small without the extra space. I probably didn't need the extra on the sides of the main pieces, but it's OK. I don't have a serger, so I used french seams on the sides (for the first time). This seam is going to go into many more garments. It just finishes the seams so nicely.

{The back}

The fabric is an off white with a little diamond/leaf pattern made with little red dots. The button on the back is a slightly shimmery gray that I got in a sewing box that came with an old sewing machine I got for $20 at a flea market last year.

I already have plans to make another Smashing Smock from a delightfully lovely sea green sheet I bought yesterday. Next time I am going to make it into a summer dress. I can't wait!

I also finished my project for the Itching 2B Stitching Swap, but I want to make sure my partner gets it before I post pictures of it. More of those are to come, too, with one alteration, which I will share later, but can't now because it will give away what I made for her.

In other Anna Maria Horner news, we spent the day at our booth in our local arts market (like a farmer's market, but for artists and other handmade things) for the first time. I wore this top today and we made our first sale to a lovely girl who was carrying a sweet messenger bag she made from Drawing Room fabric. I complimented her on it right away, which I think cemented the deal. She bought a concrete ring!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Amy aka Park City Girl had the incredible idea to hostess the first annual Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Entry consists of adding a blog post link to the favorite quilt you made and leave a comment. Although there aren't any "prizes" (whew), many shops are sponsoring an extensive giveaway. So far 171 people have entered and the post has only been up for a few hours. I can't wait to look through all the quilts for inspiration and admiration.

{Lily's EZ Camper Quilt}

Lily's EZ Camper Quilt is my favorite quilt that I have made so far. When I was first sketching out this quilt I was going to make it a crazy nine patch, but after sketching it a few times and considering the fabrics I was using, I decided to go for the disappearing nine patch instead. I am so glad I did. I love, love, love how it turned out.

It's not perfect, not even close, but I am proud of it. It's the first quilt I machine quilted, appliqued and hand sewn the binding. I think my favorite part of the quilt is the applique to resemble her dad's Volkswagen EZ Camper. I drew it by hand, cut it out in pieces to applique and stitched the VW logo on the nose. The back is a brown plaid to match the curtains in the bus.

{The adorable Miss Lily and her quilt}

The EZ Camper quilt was made in honor of Lily's first Bulli Brigade last November. It's a big day in the life of a VW kid.

I'll be checking in with the quilt festival post and the flickr group frequently. I can't even imagine how many entries there will be by the time it "closes".

=]

How not to photograph bats

Several weeks ago while playing fetch with Pea in the lot next door we had a visit from some long lost friends--the bats. I don't know if bats migrate or not, but I haven't seen them since last summer. Our bug eating web-winged friends are back and we can't be happier. I tried to get some pictures of them, but bats are particularly hard to photograph. They are always dipping and diving and changing directions it is nearly impossible to get lucky enough to catch them in the frame. After about 50 attempts, I gave up and just watched them.

{Can you find the bats? Me, either.}

No pictures of the bats yet, but I got some pretty and creepy pictures of the trees against the twilight sky. The tiny orange dot in the bottom right corner of the picture above is the sun. I love twilight...





Welcome back, batty friends!

=]

Scores from the thrift store and pizza

{Thrifted sheets}

Last Saturday my guy and I visited a local thrift store. It was totally packed, being Saturday afternoon and all, but we were able to find some great stuff. I easily could have spent $50 and blown the budget but I showed some self-control and rolled out with three bed sheets, two pillow cases and two 95 cent Pyrex pie plates. Total=$16.80

{Yellow flowers}

I was hoping to make this sheet into a sun dress but I was told that we needed to use it on the bed instead. A little nostalgia came over my guy when he saw it hanging on the clothes line.

{Pink floral}

Part of this queen size sheet is going to be turned into the Smashing Smock from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me. I wasn't smitten with this particular pattern until I saw the super cute versions on the book's flickr pool. Inspiration for making a shirt for myself came from Rae and her Spring Top week. More info by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

{Stripes}

These are the pillow cases. I was hoping to us these in a quilt or as binding, but they too got re-appropriated to the bed. They actually looks good on the bed with the yellow floral sheets and our brown bed spread. I really want to make us a quilt but can't find just the right fabric/pattern combination (and courage). I also got a plain white twin size flat sheet, but it's not an interesting picture.

{Homemade Pizzas}

We put the pie plates to work Wednesday night. Homemade pizzas are one of my most favorite meals. It's a family tradition from way back. The left pizza is pepperoni, olive, onion, fresh oregano, mozzarella and the right is tomato, fresh oregano, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Mmm. The pizza dough was made from a Jiffy box (less than $1) and was surprisingly really good. All my guy had to do was add water and mix, let set, bake, top and bake some more. So, so good.

=]

More of a splish than a splash

{Etsy banner}

Even though I feel like a tiny spec of plankton in the Pacific Ocean, I jumped into the ever astonishing talent pool that is Etsy. My personal shop is hermionejschwartz.etsy.com. See the link over on the side? That goes to my stuff.

{A little snapshot of some of the handmade goodness currently awaiting purchase}

1 Blueprint Blanket 2 Split Beetle Bag 3 VW Cog Bag

4 Tiki Bar Sign 5 German Eagle Bag

6 German Eagle Sign 7 Fish Tacos Sign

Right now the shop is smallish, but hopefully not too haphazard. Since I opened it a few weeks ago I've been thinking more about what I like to create and have felt more driven to get it out of my head and into tangible states rather than just sketching it and putting it on the bottom of the to do list.

{Sneak peek}

I am almost done with this cute little item, but not quite yet. Hopefully it will be up in the shop this weekend, along with some friends.

=]