The Trouble with Tula...

So fair warning: this post is frustrating.  I'm frustrated, therefore I'm trying to get it out by posting here, which may end up with you being frustrated.  But you were warned.

I bought this layer cake the second it hit the shop.  I'm obsessed with Tula Pink because her prints look absolutely insane but beautiful.  Who wouldn't love a giant Parisian ship pompadour print?

Naturally, I jumped on the chance to get a little bit of a whole line.  I had grand visions of making a quilt with just this line (something I never do and feels very exotic to me), but the longer I look at all these crazy prints together, the less convinced I am that I'm in love.  

There are absolute hits, like this blue camping scene, but then it's next to these pastel pinks to the left and melons and oranges to the right.  I just don't think it works for me!

And I've already got a Staple dress that I made from the navy deer print, but that pink one above makes my brain hurt.

So now I have to decide whether I want to abandon my plan to make one quilt out of all these, or to scrap the original plan and come up with a new quilt idea.

The original plan was to make the cover quilt from Dana's Imagine Quilts.  I was thinking of using some dark grey sashing and maybe a navy background for the round bits.  But I'm not sure I want to put all the effort into those curved seams if I'm not sure I'll absolutely love the result.

My other thoughts are to do a Sparkle Punch quilt a la Oh Fransson! Or maybe a plus quilt similar to this one from Film in the Fridge.  Both are fairly simple and quick to make, and would break up the prints so they aren't so in your face.

Anyone have any thoughts?  I'm pretty open to suggestions at this point because I want to get this done so I like the fabric again!

My Very Own Bundle of Cotton and Steel (AKA My Presssscious)

This Quilt Market was pretty crazy (note, I wasn't there, but I stalked the event like a pro on everyone's Instagram and blogs.)  And I have wild ideas about getting into Market next year!

The big news was Cotton and Steel, an amazing collaboration by five really creative and different fabric designers.  I was hooked in by the idea of it immediately.  All these great fabric designers that I loved separately creating a collection that would coordinate?  What could possibly be better?

 And then the pictures of the fabric came, and everyone drooled, then the video, which I may have watched a couple times through.  But the heartbreak of fabric releases at Market, is that there's still months to wait untili you and I can get our hands on it.

That is, unless someone is crazy generous and gives away a bundle of fabric.  I entered Rachel at Imagine Gnats' giveaway, totally not expecting to win.  So when the email came, I may have made a loud, high-pitched, celebratory noise that made my two kids and the dog look at me like I'd lost my mind.  Luckily, my crafting buddies on Facebook understood the gravity of the situation and responded more appropriately than my kids.

These fabrics are totally worth the hype.  Their soft and linen-y, but take a pressing really well and stiffen enough that I know working with them will be easy.  And the colors!  These pictures are good, but the colors are so much more vivid than this.  The green on the middle fabric is the perfect grassy green that I have searched for in all my local shops, but come up very short.  I'll be buying more of it for sure.

There was also this full cut from selvage to selvage.  I love the two Melody Miller bordered prints I got and plan on getting more, maybe in the lawn, to make skirts or dresses for myself.  This yellow is more gold (damn you pixels for not matching reality perfectly!) and needs to be a skirt pronto.

I've been debating on how to use these fabrics.  I could always use a new bag, but would love to make a quilt for my bed.  I think I'll end up buying more fabric, but I'm sure glad to have this pile to pet while I wait.

Thanks again Rachel!

Linking up with Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday!

 

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!

WIP Wednesday!

So much happening around here, but I think I'm on the home stretch of my crazy crafting!  I finished my knit-for-gifts projects, so I'm starting my second sock!  Can't wait to wear these.  After this I've got a cardigan lined up for the little girl.

Here are the two tops I've got waiting for quilting.  I'm delaying these since my Juki is getting clean, but I should get that back this week so I can knock these out quick.  I've also got another Boston quilt ready to be quilted, but I may just do that on my little machine so I can get it done by the end of the week.

And then there's the Pinkie Pie quilt I posted about yesterday.  That's my fallback project when I get bored of doing the rest of my projects, because there's always squares to sew together!

And these knits are ready to be turned into a shirt (dress if I have enough of the gray) for me, and the bottom will be a couple pairs of Parsley pants for a friend's son.  Luckily, the knit pants sew fast since you don't have to worry about ironing or doing the flat fell seams.

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

WIP Wednesday!

So here's the big project that I'm working on right now.  Cutting and piecing these 1.5" squares for the Pinkie Pie Pixel Quilt.  Right now it's more cutting than piecing, because there's a ridiculous amount of cutting involved.  This bit is from last night, there's probably around 500 squares here?  I'm totally guessing because we stopped counting.

And this is just the pinks.  I probably cut just as many white squares as well.  Completely insane, but so much fun to put together!  It's going to be an awesome quilt.

And I finally pulled my fabric for the Penny Patch Quilt-a-long.  I'm supposed to be into the sewing stage already, but I'm just chugging along at my own speed.  The teal and yellow are my main colors, and the plums are my pop of color.  I love that top plum fabric, so I'm glad that I finally get to use it.

I'm hoping to get these cut soon, because the piecing is super easy, and would be nice brainless work to do one evening with a cup of cocoa.

And this last bunch of fabric I'm just staring at right now.  It's a scrap bundle I got at our Guild's auction over the weekend from Laura (she blogs over at Little and Lots, and has the best fabric!), and I should just dump it into the scrap bin, but I love how it's already in a rainbow.  I might add more to the mix and do a simple patchwork with it.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!!

WIP Wednesday: KCW Edition!

Kids Clothes week is in full swing!  I set myself up for a couple quick finishes on Monday, which just got me all excited to make more.  Apparently, accomplishing stuff is addictive.

This is the stack that I'm planning on cutting into next.  The top two are flannels that will either become more tunics from a self-drafted pattern or button up flannels a la the Ethan Shirt that was in the SewFab bundle.  (They seriously planned that well!)

The middle two are quilters't cotton for dresses or skirts, and the bottom is a corduroy that I'll either make into Parsley pants, a dress, or both.

These jumpers are just waiting on hems and buttons.  Both are drawn myself, but the purple is based on the Olivia top from Craftiness is Not Optional.  And the stripes is based on the Snappy Toddler top from Prudent Baby, but I had to upsize it a lot, so I basically just winged it.

I feel bad about leaving the little dude out of most of my sewing, but he has so many hand-me-downs still to go through, that it's just silly to make him clothes.  I did find this t-shirt at the thrift store and had to re-cut it for him.  I love how it fits (tees are so hard to get right when you don't have a huge size to start with), and he won't stop wearing it.  I haven't been able to hem it because he wants to wear it all the time, so it might just go unhemmed.  

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

WIP Wednesday

Little late posting this morning.  I was up late last night planning and scheming a quilt for my daughter for Christmas inspired by S.O.T.A.K.'s Pinkie Pie quilt.  Hopefully, we'll be able to start working on it soon, because Christmas is coming fast!

And these sheets just came out of the dryer!  I'm using these, and a couple more vintage sheets given to me by my sister to make her a quilt.  I haven't decided if I'm going to use that bright yellow in back on the front or to back it.  I guess I'll have to see how much actual material I have to play with.  Not completely sure on layout yet, but I've got a lot of ideas.

Last on my Christmas list is to start busting into this awesome pile of yarn.  This is what happens when the awesome yarn guys set up shop at the farmer's market; I can't help but buy a skein every time I walk by!  And I didn't even have a project in mind!  Very unlike me.  I'm a project-oriented purchaser.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

Where I Cut Flea Market Fancy, and the World Didn't Explode!

I've spent all afternoon working on a really awesome project.  I'm pattern testing for a blogger I've read forever and squeed a little when I got the email yesterday.  Right now, it's super double secret, but hopefully I'll be able to share the pictures next week because I actually cut into these beauties for it.  And two Anna Maria Horner scrap packs that I've had stowed away for the right project.  It's awesomesauce.

I did manage to finish the last block for my Sew Pieceful swap.  And I got them shipped out!  I'm pretty proud of myself for getting that all squared away two weeks early!

Here's all the blocks together.  I ended up not changing out that brown polka dot fabric for white after seeing some of the other blocks that people have made in that palette.  I think the white would have been too white, so I hope she likes it.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday!

WIP Wednesday!

This week I finally got my butt in gear and started my swap blocks for the Sew Pieceful group.  Half of the colors are out of my comfort zone, but at least in my stash, and there's one that I have to go buy a fabric because I have nothing remotely close to the color requested.

Here's the fabric pull for the third of my four blocks this month.  All the colors match the request, and I like it, but I have no idea how the recipient will feel.  And I'm a sucker for keeping things a surprise, so there's no way I'll ask.  I think it'll work out.  

And here's the stack of fabric to be made into clothes this week.  That denim will easily make two or three pairs of Parsley pants, and light green piping for the little girl, dark green for the dude.   

I'm not sure who's going to end up with the sparkly blue fabric.  I dug it out of a remnant bin thinking I'd make the girl a Bateau Neck Top like this one from No Big Dill, but I like the fabric so much I might keep it.  

This is what I'm working on at this very minute!  Mending a mountain of t-shirts for a friend.  I don't understand how they get so mangled, but they're a quick fix. 

Finally, the world's most patient cat presents the ribbing of the second arm of my Sweatshirt Sweater.  I feel like I'm very near the peak of this sweater and after I join the arms, it will all be an easy downhill slide to the finish.  

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

Insta-Monday!

So last week was kind of crazy.  The first few days were spent in denial of the upcoming first day of school.  And the last couple were just trying to readjust all our clocks back to school time.

The biggest change is that the dude is staying longer at school, which means no more nap time for him, or his sister unless I can beg someone to carpool with us.  I love naps because that's when I sew, so I had a mini panic attack about never being able to sew ever again, and then husband just suggested I set up a work space on the porch. Duh.

And since we were already on the road, the little girl and I were able to get out and finally go to playgroups that we've just ignored all summer.  We also managed to meet up with a friend that I've been promising a bag to for a while, but hadn't gotten over to her house to sort through her fabric.  She told me she had a lot of hand-me-down fabric, complete understatement.  There was so much vintage awesomeness.

 

We finally settled on this amazing orange and blue print, probably from the 70s, and a nice lightweight denim for the outer and some Alexander Henry fabric from '95 for the lining.  I can't wait to raid her stash again.

Then I capped off the week with an awesome Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild meeting in Portland, ME at A Gathering of Stitches.  Such a great space, I really hope that I can get up there and use it.  And, as an added bonus, our guild president managed to get us a discount at Marden's and we all went on a fabric spree field trip.  I was trying to be good, so I only got four yards of fabric and a handful of trims.  The whole thing only cost $20!!  The lighter flower fabric is begging to be a dress, and the silverware on blue is going to end up as pj bottoms.

And now, we'll see how this week turns out.  Fingers crossed that we manage to settle into a routine sooner rather than later.