Where have I been?

I have pretty much spent the entire month of September chained to my sewing machine, churning out crafts for my first real craft fair--this Saturday! Above is a picture of the piles of stuff I have (almost) done.

Here are some of the 12 quilted scarves I have finished. These are patchworked onto batting, backed with cozy flannel, and topstitched. I've had my own since last winter and I love it! So warm and comfy! Scarves finish around 6-1/2" x 60"--plenty long to wrap around your neck once or twice.

These are the mini-quilts I have completed--plus some I have nearly completed. As of this writing, I have 5 of the 13 of them completely done. Those that aren't finished just need me to hand-stitch the binding to the backing (easier said than done, though). The quilts all finish around 20" x 30", which is a perfect travel size for baby! They would also make great wall art. Most of them are backed with flannel, too! Soft AND cozy!

This is just a gratuitous shot of my favorite minis, all using Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels. These were a dream to work with, and are SO soft! Also, they're gorgeous, like all of her stuff!

Pricing is still a little in question for me. I think I have it figured out, but I'd like to pose the question to you, dear reader: If you were to buy one of my scarves, how much would you be willing to pay? Same with the mini-quilts; what do you think they're worth? Would you pay more for the Folksy Flannel ones? I've been pouring ALL of my energy into these for weeks, and I doubt I'll be able to make any kind of profit on them once I factor in my time, but I'm curious to know what other people think. I also think I'm overvaluing my work because I'm having a hard time letting go..

New(est) ink!

In my last post, I promised pictures of some "needlework" I had done. Here it is! My newest, most bad-assest tattoo! It's a line drawing of my grandmother's sewing machine, an old Necchi, on my inner left forearm, just below the elbow. I. Love. It!!

Here's a little before-and-after. The photo of the machine is the one I gave to Molly, my tattoo artist (at Witch City Ink, which I would highly recommend!), who drew up the tattoo from there. I love all of the detail she was able to keep--the knobs and levers, even the thread guides and, my favorite, the screw holes on the throat plate!

I got the tattoo in early August so I've had some time to adjust to it already, but I'm continually struck by how awesome it is. I love having this reminder of what I love (both sewing, and my grandmother) right where I can see it. All of the time.

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. I wear my sewing machine on my arm.

Even more baby gifts

I'm back...again...after some more unexpected silence. Gah! Can't keep up! Here is another set of baby gifts, gifted to my coworker James a while ago. His little boy was born just over a week ago and is a real cutie! Can't wait to see pictures of him wearing those little rockin' booties!

Per usual, the elephant pattern is from here and the booties are from here. I am so predictable.

I'm hoping to get my bloggy mojo back soon. I spent way too much time this morning setting up a Google reader of all the links to the right and then catching up on weeks' worth of other people's crafting. Yowza. I still can't show you much of what I've been working on, but I did finish a large commission job (my first! yay!) and am now embarking on another adventure: selling at a craft fair! It's in two weeks. Panic has not yet kicked in, but I need to be massively productive this weekend. So, stay tuned for some in-progress shots, as well as pictures of some, uh, needlework I had done....

Tethered Threads: July

Now that August is nearly over, I guess it's time to show the blocks I made for my Tethered Threads block party for July! These are for Beth, who had requested blocks in the style of Denyse Schmidt's Drunk Love in a Log Cabin quilt. This is a really popular block party request, it seems, but I'd never actually made blocks in this style before. Hope I did it right!

Psst! This is my 250th post, according to Blogger! Wow. Perhaps I should do some kind of giveaway at some point? I've got some big projects cooking right now, but maybe something in October??

Gifted: Wedding-ish quilt

Wow! I don't know where the time is going, but it seems every time I look I've been neglecting the blog! And yet, even though there's not a TON of crafting going on, I've been amassing pictures on my camera. Nearly 300 of them, from various day and weekend trips, plus a little bit of crafty crafty. I finally downloaded them last night in a marathon session--seriously, we're talking hours here. Phew! Anyway, this is a quilt I made for my lovely friends Nick and Katie. It's only a "wedding-ish" quilt because they were married in May 2009, but in late July had a party/reception/ceremony, which is when I gave them this gift.

The pattern is from this book (you can see the original on the third page here) but I definitely changed it up a bit. For starters, I used a Dill Blossom jelly roll, so I re-drafted the blocks to use the 2.5" strips instead of 2" strips the pattern called for. I eliminated the prairie points and changed the layout to use fewer blocks, but the essence of the quilt is still the same.

For the back, I pieced some lovely, super soft Connecting Threads solid teal with some strips and fat quarters of fabric from the front. (By the way, did you see that Connecting Threads has massively expanded their line of solids, and lowered all pricing??)

For quilting, I divided each block into three sections--a top, middle, and bottom--and quilted loop-de-loops up and down through all of the rows with some gorgeous variegated teal Aurifil thread. I also did some curlicues in the outside borders. (Side note: Gloria is still quilting a-maz-ing-ly! I was so surprised when I was able to quilt this entire twin-sized quilt in little over an hour and a half! Free-motion ftw!)

Bound in the polka-dot, the quilt is folded and ready for gifting! Nick and Katie loved it, of course. Rob and I traveled to Providence, RI to stay with them last weekend and were able to see the quilt in action on their couch and sleep under it for two nights. A lovely quilt for some lovely people! Does it get any better?

Little Red hoop hangings

Remember when I made this quilt for a friend's birthday? Well, when I bought the fabric I also bought some matching wooden buttons, but then didn't know what to do with them. It took me a while, but I finally decided to make these hanging embroideries for the same friend as a housewarming gift. I love how they turned out!

These were really easy to do! The appliqués are cut from felt and stitched to the linen background. I used some floss to stitch some grass, and then just sewed on the buttons.

I finished them the best way I thought possible, though it was a little sloppy: I glued the linen to the back of the inside hoop, trimmed the excess, and covered all of it with some bias tape. It looks okay, but I could've probably just glued and trimmed the linen and been okay. Still, they are a cute addition to my friend's new apartment!

Folklore Bag (again)

I'm back, after an unexpected bloggy break! Summer is just flying by, and we've been out and about a lot, spending time with friends and just enjoying time away from the computer. And I've been toting this new bag! It's my second attempt at the Folklore Bag pattern from One-Yard Wonders. I wasn't planning on making another bag so soon, but then this happened to my corduroy, right where my phone rubs against my body, so I fussy-cut some of this amazing volumes print by Anna Maria Horner for my new bag. I am in love with it!

This time around, I left out all of the interfacing. I probably could've used some in the handles, which are still pretty floppy, but the outer fabric is home decor weight (though still super soft and nice--love Ms. Horner's fabrics!!) and the bag is holding up well--a little slouchy, but that's okay with me! The lining is a print I'd had around forever, so I was really happy to use some of that up, too. Gotta make room for more, new fabric, right?

How in the world is it August already?!?