Striped Briar Tee

Striped Briar Tee (and again with the giant head!)

A few weeks ago I gave the Briar tee another go. I wanted it to be shorter in the back than the first one I made, but longer in the front than the second one I made (which I never blogged about because it was a horribly unflattering crop top in a knit that really smashed down my already small chest. I have since passed it along to someone younger.

From the back

I think I like the length of the back of this one a lot more. The fabric I used is a pretty lightweight knit that I carry at the store, with skinny black stripes. It hangs well and is really soft, and it wasnt quite as tissue-y as the first one I made, which was nice!

Side view!

I wish the front was just ever so slightly longer, because with some of my shorts its not quite long enough. I think the next time I make this i might make a much less exaggerated high-low. I do have a really nice, soft, thin black knit I got at Mood almost 2 years ago, so maybe I should use that! (1. Sad! I havent been to Mood in 2 years. and 2. I hoarded all my Mood fabric and never used it anyway, so I guess it doesnt really matter!).  Anyway, I really think the Briar is a great pattern! I wear this striped version all the time, and it's really comfy. I guess I'm really a much more casual dresser than I like to admit, but maybe I should just accept it and make myself lots more t's....

What's your favorite pattern for casual, comfy day-to-day wear?

Sewviver Entry for The Fabric Studio

This is a quilt I've been meaning to blog about for ages but never got around to it! I thought it would be perfect to use it as my entry for the "Sewviver" quilt competition!  It seems like a really fun contest with different challenges each month, so we'll see! 

First, some background on the quilt: when I lived in Indianapolis in 2011 I went through a long phase of listening to the same Dr Dog cd every single day. (I do that a lot with bands... Dr. Dog finally broke the 2-year Paul Simon loop I had previously been stuck in. Happily stuck of course!). There is a line from a song, "what you thought was a hurricane was just the rustling of the wind," and it really resonated with me at the time. Then, I took it to mean that although things always seem big and important in the moment, they usually turn out to not really matter that much. It was a reminder to just calm down and not worry. So I knew I wanted to make something to go in my house with the quote. For the longest time (probably a good 6 months), I didnt know what to make. I thought about a poster, or cross stitch, but didnt seem quite right. Then I think when I was driving to IL to move back to Chicago from Indy it hit me: make a quilt!!

I started working on it while living at home in the fall and winter of 2012. I didnt use any type of pattern, and I made each letter one at a time, in order of how they are written, just improve cutting and hoping for the best, and filling in the rows with the different creams, whites, and golds I had picked out for background fabrics.  Below is a picture of the early stages hanging on the design wall in my parents basement. 

When I moved to Nashville I packed it up and put it on my new design wall. I really went slowly with this quilt because I had no plan ahead of time other than the quote. I just kinda waited until I had an idea that felt right, and then I went with it. I have always loved stars, so I knew they needed to be involved, and then the last side I made, the scattered triangles, I wanted to look like they were blowing in the wind. 

I had the top done for a long time before I started quilting it because I had no idea what to do! The quilt is huge! (For me anyway, and my little Singer). So, I made the back with more stars and some great coral solids that I dont remember what brand or color they are :( Sad! Im bad at keeping track of that kind of stuff. 

At some point I had coffee with a quilting friend and we were looking at examples of text quilts online, and how they were quilted. Like a crazy person, I decided I wanted to do straightline quilting, about 1/2" apart. I would never attempt this again, because it took sooooo long, but I do love how it looks. On the text section, the lines are randomly spaced but no more than an inch (mostly much closer), and they run up and down. On the star section the lines go cross-wise. Then on the part with the triangles I extended the line made by the angled side of the trianlge, and just quilted along that edge. I love that part the best and how it looks random but I actually comes from the shapes in the quilt. 

The pictures below sort of show the quilting lines, but I dont really have any great shots. It took about a year and a half from conception to completion, but so worth it!

And one more, quilt in the sunshine photo.

Thanks for taking a look! I love cuddling with this blanket, love the mix of white, gold, coral, and pink fabrics, and love that I am done and dont have to work on it anymore!

Half Square Triangle Baby Quilts!

Fabric Pull!

Recently I got an email from a friend requesting a baby quilt that will be for a little boy. The only restrictions were that it be modern, crisp, and use the color scheme of navy, turquoise, and grey. I added a little black and white in, and was set! I love this color palate so much, in fact it's one of my faves in recent memory. I have been wanting for ages to try a quilt made with randomly placed half square triangles (like here, here, and here), and so I thought this would be the perfect time to try!

Pieces cut and ready

I started by cutting my fabric into 7" squares and then dividing them into 2 piles of light and dark fabrics (28 square of each). I matched a light square up with a dark, right sides facing, for my favorite half-square triangle method, and drew a diagonal line across the square.

Chain piecing

I happen to have a 1/4" foot for my machine, which is very handy for this method. Just line up the diagonal line you've drawn on the fabric with the blade edge of the foot, and you'll get a seam that's 1/4" away from the line. I chain pieced my squares and then sent them through the other way, getting a second seam 1/4" away from the other side of the seam. Before I had this foot I simply used a ruler to draw lines 1/4" away from the center line, then sewed over those. But this method was faster!

Trim blocks!

I must admit that for the first quilt I didnt trim my blocks, so the seams did not exactly match up. I can get a bit lazy at times. But I made the quilt again, for a baby girl, and I trimmed down the finished half-square triangles to 6" squares. Much better.

Baby boy half square triangle quilt

I just laid out the squares in a manner that I thought looked random, but wasnt actually random because I tried not to have the same fabric right next to itself. It mostly worked out, though I didnt realize until later that one row had three triangles of mustache fabric in it. How do those things sneak past?

Straight line quilted

For the blue quilt I did diagonal quilting about every 2 inches. I didnt want to do anything that relied on the seams, since they were no where near perfect, so this was a good option. I used Michael Miller's Domino in navy for the binding, and I cant for the life of me remember what the backing is called, but it is from Spool, in Chatanooga, TN.

Girls half square triangle quilt

I made the second version in a  really fun palette of pinks, orange, yellow, gold, and a big of white and neon and I really like this one too. It seems cheerful and warm and a good summer picnic/play blanket. (they both measure around 42" x 48")

More straight line quilting

I did the quilting lines 1" apart and 3" apart on this one, which I think I like a little bit better, for whatever reason. The binding is a cute pinwheel pattern by Anna Maria Horner, and the back is an extremely soft Micahel Miller print called Pollen. Sending them off to the recipients this week, so I hope they like them!