Sewing Summit 2013

I figured if I wait until I find the right words I will never blog about it so instead I will just share my photos.  All in all, Sewing Summit was a wonderful and amazing experience and I hope I am able to go again one day.

I made a QAYG version of Amy Butler's Weekender Bag.  Don't look on the inside though, because I haven't finished hand sewing the lining in.  I used so many of my most favorite prints.




In keeping with the travel handmade theme I left my leather purse at home and instead  made a 241 tote using Anna of Noodlehead's pattern.  The fabric is linen with prints from the Tsuru collection.  Love this bag, love this pattern!  I've been itching to make another but not just yet.  Too many other things to be made first.

I made a little travel sewing kit which definitely came in handy for my classes.  I found a free pattern here but the measurements were off so I had some reconfiguring to do.

For the secret swap I made this box bag for my partner and a wall mini.  It was so fun to do the swap in person and see every one's reaction to what they received.


I was able to get into LR Stitched's leather accent tote class and this is the fabulous result.  I gave it to my momma as a thank you for watching my boys while I was away.

So much awesome swag thanks to Sewing Summit and the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild!

Another one of my courses was a curves class taught by Angela of Cut to Pieces.  I'm going to mount it on canvas like she did and hang it on the wall.

I had to make myself a name tag of course.

And lastly, here is a snapshot of all the pics I took that weekend.  It was so fun to meet my Instagram friends in real life.  I also met so many new people.  Words fail to describe what a wonderful time I had.

There is so much more I could tell but I'd be writing a book if I shared it all.  If there are any questions please feel free to email me.
Thanks for reading!
Melissa

Summer Sewing with Les Amis

I've been sewing like crazy and I am pretty happy with the things I've made lately.  I was able to complete 2 different baby quilts using the same collection.  The fabric is Les Amis by Patty Sloniger with Kona Medium Gray.

Pattern is Swirling Medallion from the Book Quilting Modern by Jaquie Gering and Katie Pederson. 

I quilted it with a serpentine stitch which gives it such a great effect.

The back

Here is the second quilt from the same line.  Lately I've been rounding the corners on some of my baby quilts.  I love how it softens the frame.

 

Simple crosshatch quilting.

 

I also finished another pillow for the X factor Pillow Swap round 6.  I named it Double Hexy Delight.  The theme was hexies.  I used Kerri's tutorial.  As I was making it, I wasn't sure about the direction it was going in.  The hand stitching totally made the difference for me, and I really enjoyed doing it.

 

Here is a peek at what I'm working on now.  It's my swap piece for the Sewing Summit Secret Swap.  Sewing Summit is less than a month away and I'm so excited and a bit nervous about going.  I'm also working on my Amy Butler Weekender Bag, which I hope to share with you soon.  If you're on instagram you can see some pics of it there.  I'm cutsewpresslove on instagram.

I hope you all have had a productive and fun summer.  I cannot believe its almost time to start thinking about Christmas projects.  EEEK!  Crazy talk!  Happy sewing and thanks for reading!

Melissa

Recent projects

Here is a look at some projects I've sewn up lately. 
To start, a baby quilt for my new nephew.  I used a few solids from a Bella Solids 'Neutrals' bundle mixed with some high and low volume prints.  The pattern is a simple disappearing nine patch.  It finished at a nice crib size so it can be used for a toddler.

 I used minky for the backing.  It was pretty easy to quilt with.  Not as difficult as I expected it to be from what I read online.   I kept with simple straight line quilting.  I don't know if I would try fancy free motion with minky.

 Next, is another custom maternity gown.  I wasn't too sure of the fabric at first, but once the pink bow went on I loved the whole thing.  I used Spotted in the Crowd in Grace from Anna Maria Horner's Field Study line.

 I made this little pillow for my friend's daughter who turned two.  It was made from scraps I had left over from making her baby quilt before she was born.  I'm told she likes her pillow very much, which makes me smile.  I used Elizabeth Hartman's dogwood quilting tutorial. 

Again I used Svetlana's method for the back.  Just a few adjustments and I got the face to match up perfectly.  I love it!  This Tula Pink Parisville print kills me with how gorgeous it is.

 And that's about it for now.  It's been nice to have time behind the machine even though it means staying up until 2 sometimes 3 in the a.m.  I love the quiet time of the night.  Its great to relax even if I do pay for it in the morning.  Anyone else a night owl sewer? 
I leave you with a sneak peek of what I'm working on now.  It's so sweet and dreamy.

Thanks for reading!
Melissa

PTS 10

 

I have been wanting to participate in the Pillow Talk Swap on Flickr for a while now.  I've seen so many beautiful pillows made for each round, I had to get in on the action.  My chance finally arrived when I saw that sign ups were open for round 10.  Imagine my excitement when I saw that my partner was one of my favorite bloggers.  I already knew that she was a huge Anna Maria Horner fan, and in her mosaic I saw triangles, so that's the direction I decided to go in.  There is something about sewing triangles that I just love. 

I only had a few AMH prints in my stash so I ordered a charm pack of Field Study and Lou Lou Thi to work with.  I love the fact that AMH's charms are 6 inches instead of the usual 5.  I cut 60 triangles but ended up using only 25 of them.  Then I began playing with the layout.

 

 

This was ok, but ok wasn't gonna cut it.  It needed something more.

Enter some texty lovliness.  It was so fun showing teasers to the group throughout the process and getting such positive feedback.

 

Once the piecing was done I had to figure out how to quilt it.  I love free motion quilting but I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone so I decided I would attempt hand quilting for the first time.  I used six different colors of Perle cotton 8wt.  I also did not use any kind of quilting hoop or frame.

I must admit, I did pick out my stitches more than once due to uneven stitches.  Once I got in the groove though it went nice and smooth.  I did a simple petal motif in the center.

For the low volume background it took me forever to decide what to do with that area.  Finally I settled on simple straight line quilting that echoed the hexagon.  I did the colors by hand and then machine stitched the white with the perle thread.  I never knew you could do that but thanks to Little Miss Shabby, I discovered a new technique I will definitely be using again.

I really enjoyed making this pillow especially knowing who I was making it for.  I think it was pretty obvious that it was for her.  I wanted it to be special and I hope I achieved that.  Judging from her comments on Flickr I think she's going to be a happy lady.  I also made her a linen feather pouch and a wall hoop pocket but I forgot to take a pic of the hoop. :(

I cannot wait to see which pillow I receive!  There are so many beauties in the group I know I will love any one I get.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

 

 

FLiQ Mini

This mini was made for the Flickr Fab Little Quilt Swap.  My partner said she liked bright colors, especially red and turquoise together.  This design was totally inspired by The Elven Garden's Tesseract Mini.  It was so lovely I had to try the design for myself.  I referenced Don't Call Me Betsy's Kaleidoscope Quilt along for cutting and piecing directions. The triangles I used were smaller than her templates so I ended buying a kaleidoscope ruler from my LQS to help with precise cutting.

I FMQ'd the background areas and then used a template to trace the curves in the colored parts.  I quilted those areas with my regular sewing foot.

 

I like the flower shape in the middle and the corners.

  I worry it may be a little too bold because my partner kinda went silent on me.  Maybe she didn't like the direction I went, not her style?  I enjoyed making it.  It's a really fun block to put together.  I enjoy working with triangles.  That Architextures print makes for such a great background too. 

This mini finishes at 24" square.  I bound it in a some shade of Kona red.  I hope it makes her happy.  On to the next project :)

 

Melissa

 

 

 

Circle Celebration Pillow

This little pillow was made for my second time participating in the X-Factor Pillow swap.  The theme was circles.  I wanted to do something different but wasn't sure in what direction I wanted to go until I saw this photo full of amazing paper pieced blocks made by Wombat Quilts.  Those blocks are seriously stunning!  Something about the Celebration block stood out to me and so I decided to go with that one.  I've foundation pieced before and I enjoy the process but man oh man did this block kick my butt!  I screwed it up so many times.  This was almost the pillow that didn't happen.
Here is the 1st block I made.

I was so excited because I used a color wheel to choose my colors.  I wanted to get away from my rainbow comfort zone.  When I was done I just didn't love it so I decided to go back to a rainbow design. 

A word of advice, although it may be relaxing, don't drink and paper piece.  I had to unpick seams more than a few times.  Even when I hadn't been drinking I still messed up despite being super careful.  Can you spot the mistake?

 

Frustrating for sure.  I almost gave up at the thought of having to cut more fabric to redo the segments, and although my instagram friends said it wasn't that noticeable I couldn't send it out in the world knowing it was off.  So I cut the pieces again.  For the quilting I decided to go with straight lines to highlight the design of the block.

And then came the binding issue.  I love piping on a pillow and so I tried it on this one, with this result.

Terrible, hated it, bring on the seam ripper once again!  In the end it was better without anything.

For the back I used Roses in Celebration from the Valentina collection.  I also used Svetlana's awesome tutorial for a hidden zipper closure.

For all it's trouble, in the end I'm glad I stuck it out and finished this little pillow. 
It finishes at 15 inches square.  I used Kona Ash for the background.  The free block pattern can be found at Quilting On the Square along with lots more blocks.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa