Category Archives: Stash

Fabric Delivery!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Alyson| Leave a comment

I got home today and found a large box waiting for me. Yes, my fabric order from the weekend had arrived! I needed some batting & backing pieces for all the quilts that I put together recently. I also needed some neutral cotton solids to replace the ones that I used up!

But…nestled in between the necessary, albeit awesome, yardage was a perfect little pile of FQs called Mod by Annette Tatum.

I know, I know, I know, I shouldn’t be buying any unnecessary fabric, but I just couldn’t resist! Could you? I love the crazy Mod throwback prints and the colors are just so cool. Now I just need to figure out what to make with them…

By the way, Fabric.com has got to be one of THE BEST places to order fabric in quantity. I’ve been ordering from them for a long time and their selection has only gotten better and their prices have always been great. With free shipping on orders over $35, and Kona solids for under $6/yard, well, it’s way more economical than a trip to the fabric store. Yay!

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Posted in Stash

Tagged assortment, bundle, cotton, fabric, fabric.com, fat quarter, FQ, material, mod, modern, retro, throwback

Work in Progress: Zakka Style Baby Quilt

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Alyson| 2 Comments

Hey look, it’s my First. Ever. WIP Wednesday post! I so rarely take pictures of items that I’m working on, usually reserving the “big reveal” for the finished product. Over the long weekend I did a lot of sewing but didn’t fully finish anything, so I took pictures anyway.

This is a baby quilt pattern from Zakka Style: 24 Projects Stitched with Ease to Give, Use & Enjoy by Rashida Coleman-Hale. I know I’m way behind in this and everyone who wanted that book already has it and its old news, but I only just bought it for myself, so you’ll have to bear with me.

It took such a short time to whip out this quilt! It was complete and ready to photograph before the sun went down on Sunday, and I didn’t even get started until Sunday morning. I love, love, love the birdies on white, so I decided to build my fabrics around that one.

The quilt is 45″ x 60″ and I didn’t have any real linen on hand, so I used a linen-colored solid that I had lying around. Unfortunately, that means that my long strips came up a touch short. Oops! I had to piece some scraps onto the ends, but I alternated them in the quilt so they wouldn’t make a solid line and break up the quilt design in an odd way. You can hardly see it, I think!

I’m still deciding how I want to quilt this one. I always like the idea of somehow echoing the patchwork design in the quilting, but the reality is that an all over free-motion design is so much simpler.

The quilt is larger than I expected. 60″ in reality is way more than the fantasy in my head. I hope the baby that it is a gift for will love it for years to come!

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Posted in Pattern, Quilt, Stash, WIP

Tagged baby, cotton, gift, green, linen, pattern, pink, purple, Quilt, Zakka

And the winner is…!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Alyson| 5 Comments

I still don’t know.

Here’s the set that that I pulled to go with the hummingbird hues palette:

The background on this one is grey. I do need to buy some more grey fabric, I’m running quite low.

And here’s the set that I pulled to go with the macaw hues palette:

For this one, I think the background will be natural and the 4th color will be white. I’m not keen on making an entire quilt with a white background, and I like the idea of the white ‘popping’. I could pick up a few white-on-white fabrics or some natural-on-white designs to give the white a little variation.

Which color palette should I use for the Pile O' Fabric BOM?

Thoughts?

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Posted in Stash, WIP

Tagged color, hue, hummingbird, macaw

More WIPs

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Alyson| 2 Comments

You must all be wondering if I ever finish anything, considering that 2 out of my 3 most recent posts have been planned projects and works in progress. Well, I’m here to tell you that yes, I do finish things from time to time. And I’ll make this solemn vow, here and now, that this is the last Work In Progress (get it? WIP?) post that I’ll make until I have something finished to show you.

You see, I’m trying to get myself together to have a “Grand Opening/Re-Opening” of my Etsy store. I’m not the best at churning out several pieces that are all the same or even similar. I get bored with them easily and need to move on to something else. But I wanted to get together some stock that I could list in the shop all at one time and feel proud of the accomplishment. So, the kaleidoscope pieces that you saw a few posts ago are for some throw pillows that I hope to have ready to sell. And I’m working on some wonderous totes from a repurposed bedspread that I picked up on my Stash Enhancement eXpedition. I just received an order of emery sand to make pin cushions for sale and have started cutting out strips to make flower brooches and barrettes/fascinators. I’m working on writing up the pattern for my reversible crutch covers, and lastly, but not leastly, I even have a few small art quilts to list. There. It’s out there now, so I have to make it a reality, right?

Now on to the important part of this post. You see, I was working on those wonderous totes that I mentioned above and this happened:

I have said many times that sewing is a very dangerous activity. No one seems to believe me, despite the burn scars on my arms from reaching around the iron and the millions of pin pricks on my fingers. It’s a wonder that I have all of my limbs and the house hasn’t burned down yet. So I’m here with this public service announcement. Kids, do as I say, not as I do. Never pin your pieces on the back where you can’t see the pins. And don’t sew over your pins, even when they’re pinned on the front and you can see where they are relative to your stitching path. Just don’t do it. Also, don’t reach around a hot iron. And maybe wear a thimbles on each of your fingers when you are pinning.

Thank you and goodnight.

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Posted in Etsy, Stash, WIP

Tagged Etsy, pin, sale, Sewing, stash enhancement expedition, work in progress

Holiday Gifts: Necktie

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Alyson| 2 Comments

Pirate ship Necktie
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

Strictly speaking, this was not a holiday gift. My dad’s birthday falls just a few days prior to Christmas and, because I understand how much it must suck to get a load of Christmas ‘n’ birthday combined gifts each year, I make a concerted effort to give him one gift for each. This year’s birthday gift was a pirate ship necktie.

Now, be honest, a necktie is kind of a lame gift. But a handmade necktie? It kind of rocks. I used the Osman Tie pattern from burdastyle.com (http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/osman-tie) – it is available in a PDF download for all of $2. The most painful part of the whole process was taping the pattern together and then copying it out onto pattern paper. I do HIGHLY recommend this step, though. Pattern paper is much easier to deal with than taped together printer paper.

I used cotton, not tie silk; and to make matters “worse” it was quilter’s cotton – already relatively thick and stiff on its own. I also didn’t buy tie interlining, but used a piece of suiting that I had on hand as suggested in the pattern instructions. The whole thing went together in the matter of an afternoon. I ended up leaving out the interlining all together – the quilter’s cotton was so thick it was unnecessary.

Just a couple lessons learned on this one: don’t just eyeball where the design is on the material. As you can see from my photo, I only ended up with one little pirate ship on the front of the tie because I thought I had it lined up correctly, but I didn’t check. Also, if and when I make this again, I’ll move the stay up a little — the skinny side of the tie is a little short to stay in my stay.

Necktie - back
Necktie – back
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander