WIP Wed - 4/10/13

It's been a week. And things were made. Ideas were gleaned with a few finishes, a couple of new projects and quite a bit of stepping back and taking stock. So here's my stock:

​New:

Both the little iPod Nano and the cozy for it are new this week. Splurge, I know, but I have no doubt that both will get plenty of use in the very, very near future. Talked a bit more about it here.​

Lately I've been looking for projects to diversify into, and I keep looking at these little pillows I have in my sewing studio which I made a couple of years ago, and you can see here.​ It seems a great way to use some of these coveted fabrics that I've had trouble making into quilts or placemats or other stuff. I definitely need to practice my FMQ (free-motion quilting), but I'm excited to do more of these little guys.

This combines both an "in progress" and a new project... the new part being a commission for a wedding gift. This was simply the initial all-in fabric pull – there will be edits going on before any cutting happens.​

In Progress:​

Trying to get a handle on organizing my scraps and making them more accessible for future use.​

​What? More pot holders? Unbelievable! Actually, these were two sets of blocks I already had pieced and just finally got around to quilting and getting the binding strips sewn on.​

Completed:​

BOM blocks for PMQG. I've decided to stick with the B/W with a hint of pinks, peach or orange for the ones I keep, and so far I've been cycling through the 3 colorway options (B/W/Pop; scrappy; ROYGBIV) for the donation blocks. I hope it's obvious which one this falls under.

​So, all in all not a bad start to the month. I made the mistake of going back to see how many finished quilt tops I have that need to be quilted... it's kind of horrifying. So those little gems will be popping up from time to time without warning. But hopefully each one will seem new and exciting by the time it hits the list!

​Gonna link up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wed. Thanks for stopping by!

A Fun Little Pouch for my New Gadget

Yesterday I finally made a trade-in / trade-up. Still not part of the "smart phone" world... trust me, my cell phone is dumb, dumb, dumb, but I'm okay with that.​

That is what my old iPod looked like,  just a few more scrapes and smudges. I had thought it was a first or second generation, but as I was looking for a photo online I learned that I had a THIRD generation iPod, released back in 2003. Yep, I had an Apple product working for me for 10 years! ​Until the battery just went kaput. Well, not entirely, only when it had been unplugged from a power source for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Even while turned off. No juice. 

So on an errand-running mission yesterday J and I were passing by The MAC Store (not the makeup one) by the Lloyd Center and I asked if he minded swinging in there.​ I go straight for the iPod display and though I am briefly tempted by the iPod Touch, I knew that my goal was to get an iPod Nano. I just don't have that much music stored up and only use the thing for doing yard work, bike rides or the occasional trip to the gym. And let me tell you, they are NANO! I mean tiny! Just trying to test it out and put in the headphones it kept slipping from my hands. I knew right then it would need a little cozy sooner rather than later to keep it safe (and visible).

On days that I work at the quilt shop I like to have some hand sewing, knitting or crochet with me to stay busy during quiet times. As I was gathering things to bring with me this morning I went looking for scraps of batting and whatever fabric I had at home to play around with a prototype for the nano-cozy. I came across a deserted QAYG (quilt as you go) block that I did a couple of years ago, but didn't like much so it never became anything.​

It has now sacrificed its left ​log to live a new life...

...as my first ever iPod nano accessory.​

At this point I think it's only missing some velcro and a strap to go through the "belt" loop that can be adjusted as either an arm band or to fasten to a backpack strap or something.... Just don't look too closely at the terrible hand stitching! Not a skill I'm practiced at.​

Making sense of the mess

How many of you all have scrap bins that look something like this??​

And this is just a small fraction of the scraps I have hanging around my studio. Not that I figured any fellow quilter would need an illustration of how I reached my name here, but if so, this should do the trick! (And I didn't even take a photo of the floor around this basket where strips had edged their way through the wire grid or over the overflowing top.)​

I spent much of my Sunday in front of the ironing board taking out handfuls of these strips – did I mention that this basket contains only my scraps in strip form? – pressing them flat and sorting them by tonal warmth and lengths. Thankfully I had some Netflix streaming to keep me entertained. Making my way through season 5 of Eureka, which JUST showed up last week, thank you very much!

​Sorry, got distracted... Soooo, THIS happened:

And these had actually already been removed BEFORE that first photo was taken of the overflowing basket. Now I bet you can really imagine how messy the floor around it must have been!​

You might also notice a pointed lack of the jewel tone greens and blues. I'm about to get to work on a commission for which I am just beginning to pull fabrics, so in addition to this lovely dowel display there's also THIS:​

There is definitely quite a bit more work to do before I can claim perfect organization (yeah right, like THAT will ever actually happen!), but I feel good about where this is going. It will be much easier to work from the hanging strips, which will hopefully encourage me to actually use up those guys before cutting into more yardage. Or at least in conjunction with... who am I kidding I'll always want to play with the fun new stuff!​

The sew day that almost wasn't

Friends are fabulous. And when your friends actually like each other, it's ten times better. Do you all have any friends with whom you can spend an afternoon sewing, gabbing, snacking and just enjoying one another with sewing machine and irons in the room?​

For the most part I have yet to break out of my shell among the quilters I've gotten to know out here. There are certainly a few I call friends at this stage, but the people I socialize with most frequently are not part of the quilting community.

In time I've learned that most of my close girl friends DO, however, sew. But not as often as they'd like. ​In comes Linda with a centrally-located sewing studio space, multiple sewing machines, a mini-fridge (courtesy of last year's birthday present from my awesome boyfriend), and a desire to share it all (except awesome boyfriend). So 4 of us coordinated a sewing day weeks in advance, with one member traveling close to 150 miles and 2 pre-toddlers expected. And they are all people I met at various stages in time, through various venues, who happen to really like one another. Lucky me.

BUT... it was not meant to be as planned. Flu, school projects, doctor's appointments stepped in so we postponed.

Instead, Lady J and I had a mini-sew day. And we both got some s&%# done! I should have taken a pic of her wearing her brand new skirt which she stitched up from each individual piece to finished hem this afternoon. Dang! But I did get photos of the pillow covers I finished up. Something I've been wanting to branch out into and finally am making that move.​

​The pillow forms are the wrong size, but hopefully you get the idea.

​Envelope back may get a button or two on it, just to make sure...

I also had a brainstorm about what to do with "scraps" from the Insul-Bright batting roll I have. When I cut pieces for pot holders, I end up with bits that are about 5" wide at the end of each row.​ And of course I've kept them hanging around even though I didn't know if I'd ever actually find a use for them. But being in my sewing room with Lady J it hit me. She was with me when I found my 10" cast iron pan at an antique mall in Sellwood and we've discussed the usefulness of a handle cozy for such pans, but I never got around to trying to make one. That is now changed.

Not having the measurements I wasn't sure if it would fit. Turns out, I could probably get two cozies from one 9" length if I'm aiming for the cast iron pans. But if we work with my Calphalon...​

... looks like an almost perfect fit. Crazy. Glad to have the inspiration of my girl friend to lead me in this direction! And also felt good to get some things done in the company of another. No streaming TV, not too much spacing out staring at the design wall daunted by the number of impending projects, just DOING. And chatting. Hopefully next time we'll have the full guest list in attendance, though.​

​But until then, my studio welcomes the curious, the motivated, any company that wishes to drop by.

FAL Q1 - A Look Back

As the first quarter of 2013 wraps many quilting bloggers are assessing ​their progress by way of the 2013 Finish-A-Long, hosted by Leanne of She Can Quilt. There are already many links posted which I'm eager to take in over the next few days, and I'm glad I went back to read the instructions again, as this is a bit different than other link parties I've seen! 

My initial post, found here, listed essentially 7 items, and I have to say I did better than I realized as I went.​ I can say that I got a true completion on 4 of those (grouping the mass of pot holders as one listing), and of the remaining 3 items, 2 are underway. I hit a hiccup with quilting the pink and green baby quilt, wanting to do circles or bubbles, but not having the proper technique down. Thinking I'll need to employ a compass to mark my quilt. Worse things have happened.

Whether I'll be continuing on for the second quarter, that is still up in the air. I know that I work better with deadlines, but the self-imposed kind don't always pull muster. In the mean time I'll enjoy looking through other people's successes and upcoming goals linked over at She Can Quilt.​

Giveaway Winner!

So, apparently next time I decide to do a giveaway I shouldn't add it as a parenthetical on a post. There was but one comment in response to last week's magazine giveaway, which made choosing a winner very easy - but no less exciting to me! I'm thrilled to have dropped off a sweet little packet headed to Lauren S. yesterday at the post office. Here's what she offered as her recent inspirations:

I'm inspired by paper-pieced stars and geometric designs; there are far too many inspiring blogs to list them all, and trying to find the original source is impossible!​

And there is actually one paper-pieced star project in the magazine, too! So again, thank you Lauren for taking the time to play along and keep your eyes peeled for the manilla envelope with the above goodies which should be arriving early next week.​