Working on My Closet of Washis

I'm clearly a convert to the Washi Dress.  I love how it fits without fiddling, and I can make it in just one morning.  I keep meaning to try the three-quarter sleeves, but then I chicken out.  And I really need to get the Washi expansion pack that Rae just put out, the Peter Pan collar kills me!

I've had this pile of fabric for quite a while ($4/yard from my last Marden's trip), and I've just been waiting for the time to make the dress.  It's really a chrysanthemum print, but it looks really odd and geometric from far away.  So it's fun but respectable.

She had to get in on the fun.

I ditched the interfacing on this version.  I figured the scoop neck would be fine without it, and I didn't have any.  Instead, I just sewed the facing around the neck and then sewed the bottom edge of the facing down.  Super easy, and seems to hold up well.

We had to take a break suddenly for a Popsicle stick sword fight.  And now I can say that this dress has been "battle-tested" and aced it with flying colors, even though the sword fight ended in a draw.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday!

WIP Wednesday!!

It's my first WIP Wednesday of the new year, and I have a kind of New Year's resolution project to share!  Perfect.

So the Catvent QAL left me with a bunch of awesome scraps that were conveniently similarly sized, so I figured they'd be perfect to use together in another project.  I was keeping them all together in a little baggie since my normal scrap bin would have taken over the entire dining room, and that baggie got pretty full.  So I decided to start stitching them together into some "found fabric" a la Victoria Findlay Wolfe's 15 Minutes of Play.

I didn't want to cut them any smaller, so I would just find pieces that fit together and sewed.  When some of those pieces fit together, I sewed some more.  And eventually, I got a couple pieces that were decently sized!

I've used up almost all the patterned pieces, and have a bunch more solid scraps, so I'll save those until I fill the baggie up with more prints and make some more squares.

So what's the New Year's resolution?  I want to use up those scraps almost as fast as I make them!  No more 10 gallon bucket of scraps for me!  Fingers crossed...

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday and Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday!

January do. Good Stitches

I just got into the Cheer circle of do. Good Stitches.  I've been on the wait list for a while, and I'm pretty excited to join this group.  I've seen some of the quilts that they've made pop up in my Flickr stream, and they're some of my favorites.  The Airplane Quilt they did back in July is amazing.  

This is the first block that I've made for the group.  It's the Antique Tile block from Fresh Lemons.  I love this block, and was halfway through sewing the first one when I realized I've done this block for another bee, and loved it then too.  Clearly, I need to make a whole quilt of these for myself.

I'll be sending them off tomorrow (yay for turning in assignments early!), and I can't wait to see what our quilter does with them.

February is my turn to pick the block, and I had decided on the economy block from Red Pepper Quilts.  I've had so many of them in my Instagram feed because of the sew-along, it's like subliminal messaging to make them.  But now I'm not so sure I want to use this block, since I'd need everyone to make at least four.  Sure they stitch up fast, but that's a lot of blocks for a bee.

What do you guys think?  Any other block suggestions?

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday!

Hello Birdie Super Tote Finish!

I'm back!  It was a great break, just knitting and sewing up presents, and enjoying Christmas break.  And I got to get more practice with the fancy new camera, and I'm so excited to take pictures now.

But the tote!  It's the Noodlehead Super Tote.  I won (kind of, begged) for the pattern at our guild's Yankee Swap and was dying to make myself one of these bags.  They're super big, and zippers!

So I was just waiting for the right fabric sale to get myself some supplies, when I realized that the perfect finishing touch for my cousin's art supplies Christmas gift would be to wrap it all up in a tote.  Luckily, I'd just managed to convince a friend to spend some quality time at the Ikea fabric section for me, and she brought back this hilarious bird print.  And it was almost home dec weight, so perfect for a tote.

Finished it off with some coordinating solids and red piping, and it was done.  The whole thing only took one night, but it was a late one.  And a real testament to how easy this pattern goes together is the fact that in my caffeinated, buzzy, late night stupor, I only had to rip out one side of the zipper because the fabric was stretchier than I anticipated!  So much win!

Still haven't made one for myself, but I plan on looking through some more of those Ikea fabrics later and finding a print for me.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!