Moneta Madness!

Well, it's been a while since I posted clothing here, but not to worry, I have been making things! Most recently, lots of knits, and lots of Monetas! I like sewing with knits because things are more likely to fit! And they are fast because you dont have to finish the edges. So, on to the Moneta, which is a knit dress pattern by Colette. (disclaimer-- these photos of me arent good! I need my bangs trimmed and my highlights spruced up, but alas, not in the cards at the moment. So just ignore my general face area :)  .)

Shibori Moneta

When in Ohio for my family reunion my cousin and I had a day of dying knits! I brought a bold of off-white really soft, stretchy, mid-weight knit that hadnt been selling that wel in the store, and ended up just dying the whole bolt (my wardrobe is now quite shibori-heavy).

Sunshine and shibori

This version was actually my third go-round with this pattern, so by this time it was fairly quick. I actually wanted to do the short-sleeve version for this one, but I had already folded the tissue pattern and put it back in the envelope, and I didnt want to go through the ordeal of unfolding and looking for the sleeve, so I just went with the half sleeve, which is probably better for fall anyway. It is a unique length, but I like it!

Side view

This dress is so comfy, especially this fabric because it has a decent amount of stretch to it. The waist is gathered and shirred with a piece of clear elastic, so it isnt too tight in the middle, and it, as Devon puts it, basically feels like "secret pajamas." I agree!

Moneta #2

The second time I made this dress I used a heavier weight (not quite ponte but close) and less stretchy knit from Fashion Fabrics Club, which is a weird site where the fabric is very inexpensive but the quality doesnt seem horrible. (though I did accidentally order 3 yards of swimsuit fabric. Ooops!)

Side view

I really like this version too, the fabric makes it feel a little bit fancier, and it is a print that I never normally wear...Leopard but not quite? I like the royal blue with black. I have already worn this dress 3 or 4 times in 2 weeks. It's also warm for cool days, which will be nice once it starts to cool down! Just kidding, Tennessee is getting slightly chilly, but only at night. Which is fine with me!

From the back

I still have about a yard of this fabric left, so I may make a Mabel skirt, or if anyone else is interested in it, let me know! Im sure we can work something out.

Strutting the catwalk

Just awkwardly walking towards the camera man! (Seriously dont know why I couldnt take normal pictures this day. Oh well!)

Version #1

And, the first time I made the pattern I used a nice floral knit from the shop and did Version #1 from the pattern, which is a lined sleeveless bodice with a collar. It fit well, but for some reason I really didnt like this version on me. Im not sure if it was the collar, which seems really high, and also maybe too thin, or maybe it was the fabric, or possibly both, but I just didnt like it. I tried again because the waist falls at a really great spot on me (which is surprising since in most dresses from stores the waist is too high), so I tried it with sleeves. 

Overall, I really like this pattern! I used size XS on the bust and graded out to S for the waist and hips, although I think a straight XS would have worked too. The only changes I made were to omit the pockets and on the dyed version I shortened the hem 1 1/2" instead of 1". Otherwise everything fit well! I'd like to make this in long sleeves for winter, just need to decide on the fabric! Maybe this one.... though maybe in short sleeves. Or maybe just solid black, that would be useful/boring to sew.

Patchwork Plus Quilt

Navy, green, yellow, grey Plus patchwork quilt

Greetings from The Fabric Studio! Finished another fun quilt today, this one was an order from my top customer, my cousin Stephanie, for her sister and brother-in-law who are having a baby boy. She send me photos of a few things they had bought for the nursery, one being a graphic, modern green and white rug, and the other being some grey and navy sheets that I believe had sailboats on them. 

Diagonal straight-line quilting and close up

I really liked the idea of bright green, which I must not work with much because I had to order a few more pieces. I added in navy and bright blues, a few yellows, and then some neutral greys and whites so it wasn't quite so crazy. I cut 4 1/2" squares for this one, just like the last quilt I made, because I really like the size the end up being. It's a good size for showing off fabric, but not too big, and not so small that you have to cut a million squares (just 120 instead :)  ). Then I laid them out in a plus pattern, which is fun to do and gives a more modern look to what is essentially just a patchwork quilt. 

Pieced back

I've been doing a lot of quilt backs out of just one fabric lately, because it's quicker, but I had some squares left over, and I really ended up liking the combo of green and navy fabric on the back. I may go back to pieced backs, because I really like this one, and especially on baby quilts it really doesnt take that long. 

Bridge fabric by Michael Miller, available here

I did a simple straight-line quilting going diagonally through the patchwork squares. I was going to go back the other way to make an X through each box, but I ended up using green thread and didnt want it to stand out too much on top of some of the lighter colored fabrics. I think this is enough quilting, and the quilt is still nice and soft! 

I used a nice green solid by Michael Miller (Cotton Couture in Apple), which I think both contrasts and blends, which worked out! Sending this quilt off tomorrow, and then on to the next! I dont usually work with such dark, bold colors, but I must say I liked it! I think I'll look for a few good bright greens for the store (but they arent easy to fine!)

What are you working on right now?

Star Patchwork Baby Quilt

Star and Patchwork Baby Quilt

Greetings! Well, fair warning, this post has kind of a lot of photos! I just really, really love this quilt and I was actually sad to send it away. My friend's cousin recently had a baby, and her sister ordered a quilt for me. I've known this family since I was in middle school, so it's always nice to make something for someone you know. The only directions I had were to use a little bit of green to match a nursery, still make it girly, and embroider the baby's name on it. 

Maybe my favorite section. Love that horse and carrot!

Honestly, I had some problems for a while coming up with an idea! I didnt know what pattern or fabrics to use, so I was stumped for many weeks. I did know that I wanted to use a Tina Givens print, "Elephant Flight," which is the center pink square in the bottom row above. It is pink with white elephants dangling from hot air balloons!! I've been wanting to use it in a baby quilt since I ordered it. I had also recently ordered some cute prints from the "Wee Wander" line , which are cute kids and horses and have some green. From there I gathered up 8 or 9 other fabrics from the store, and ended up with what I think is a really fun color palate. Though there is aqua in it, and grey, it still felt new and fresh for me to use, possibly because of the addition of yellow and purple, 2 colors I dont generally use, especially together. 

Embroidered Star

I hadnt made a patchwork quilt in ages, so I thought I'd go that direction, but and the last minute decided to ad a few stars in a light, contrasting print, and I'm really glad I did because it's my favorite part of the quilt now. I cut 4 1/2" squares, and then embroidered the name on an 8" square that would take the place of 4 of the regular patchwork pieces. 

Close-up

For the back I used the elephant print, which I love cut up but also love as a large print, and added one row of scrappy pieces I had left over from cutting the patchwork squares. I quilted straight lines on either side of every seam, which actually didnt take that long on a quilt this size, maybe 90 minutes, and then I also outlined each star, which was tedious and added probably another 45 minutes, but I like it so it's ok. 

The back

For binding I used a coordinating aqua polka dot by Dear Stella, which has a slight bit of stiffness to it that actually makes it really great to work with as binding. Although I have recently learned how to hand-bind, and dont mind it, I must say my machine-binding technique is getting pretty solid too! 

Machine binding

I also really like how the aqua binding looks next to the pink of the backing fabric. Its almost a lavender-y pink, and they look neat together.

More machine binding

I kept this quilt around the store for a few extra days before sending it out because I just didnt want to part with it! I was also able to use a few fabrics that I used in a wedding quilt for the mother of the baby, plus a few fabrics I used in the baby's cousin's baby quilt, so I like that they are all kind of tied together. 

In the harsh light of sunset. 

Also, I sewed these squares up in sections of 2 or 3 at a time, instead of piecing whole rows, and it made a big difference in getting the points to line up. Some still didnt, but a lot more did than normal. Check it out!

Beautiful point matching.... and above, point non-matching

I love every single fabric in this quilt, and I love that even though I've been staring at the same group of fabrics in my shop now for 6 months I was able to come up with a combo that felt new to me. It was a fun quilt to make and I hope baby Marie Elizabeth will love it for years to come!

Outdoor Modern Quilt Show

First of all, ThankYou to everyone who made it out for the quilt show at the shop. It was really, really fun and I loved seeing everyone's different quilts. There was such a great, cool variety of styles and I thought it was really inspiring! And if you didnt make it, please take a look at the pictures below! I'll link to the owners of each quilts blog, when possible.(if there is a name written in the caption, it is most likely a link). Many of these pictures are courtesy of my friend Lindsay, from LindsaySews!

Behind the scenes help!

I was lucky on the day of the show to have my mom, my cousin, and my cousin's awesome roommate come and help me set up. They actually did all the hanging while I ironed, cleaned up the store, and talked to early arrivals, so their help was vital!

Mom and Sarah

I love this fence that runs along the front of the building, and it was the perfect length for all the smaller quilts that I had collected. There were 16 different sections and I had 16 small quilts so that was nice!

Welcome to the Outdoor Modern Quilt Show!

The show went from 5:30-8:00, although I hadnt really considered that it would be dark at 8:00, so it kind of ended at 7:30. But the golden light of sunset looked really pretty with the quilts, and although it had been cloudy and threatening rain all day, it cleared up for the show. How nice!

View from across the street. 

I ended up collecting about 25 quilts or so, maybe a few more. They just look so fun and colorful all next to each other!

Hiding amongst the quilts!

Checking things out.

Now, although these pictures dont show people, there actually were people who came to the show, came to the shop, and wandered down from the other part of the art crawl. I promise! I was too busy chatting to take pictures once people arrived though. Below are pics of all the quilts except for one that was right outside the door of the shop and for some reason I didnt photograph it. Sorry, Devon!

Australia pixel quilt, made by me

Richly colored Joel Dewberry quilt by Jessica's mom (dont think she has her own blog?)

Improv and log cabins quilt by Jennifer of Jennifer Quilting

Jennifer's quilt was hard to take a good photo of since it was windy, but it had lots of really vibrant colors and interesting piecing. The back was also really cool too, which you can see on her blog.

Scrappy X-Plus quilt by Jessica of A Little Gray

My X-Plus quilt

It was fun to have two different quilts using the same block. I made my blocks much bigger, I think they finished at 12" squares, and Jessica's were probably around maybe 7" (not sure). But it was interesting to see how much size and color choice change the look of a block. A quilt show with the same block interpreted 20 ways would also be really cool, I think!

Quilts by Lindsay (left) and Jayne (right)

Quilt by Jayne (left) and me (right)

Quilts on the fence by Katie Haas (left) and me (right)

Michael Miller Quilt challenge quilt by Jenny Parker (left) and "Echo Quilt" by Lindsay (right)

Triangle Quilt by me (left) and Clamshell Quilt by Lindsay (right)

Cool color diamond quilt by Jayne (love what she does with solids!) 

Modern Mini by Jenny Parker

Cathedral Windows mini by Lindsay 

Fun modern baby quilt using Lotta Jansdotter fabrics by Lindsay 

Pixel Ohio quilt by Devon and Miss Make.com

Adorable Fancy Foxes quilt by Erica of NYCNash. com

Quilts in the setting sun. From closest (on the right): Flying geese quilt by Jessica, Foxes by Erica, and the last 3 barely visible ones are mine 

Close up of my scrappy spiderweb quilt (separate blog post on this one to follow)

So there you have it! It was so great working with talented, creative women who so generously and trustingly let me borrow their quilts for the show. Check out the links to their blogs too, because they have lots of great creations and each have their own very unique styles. I am hoping to do another show this spring, maybe for the 1-year anniversary party, so we will see! In the meantime, I'll just be here sewing and (hopefully!!) selling fabric! Hope you enjoyed the virtual quilt show :)

The aftermath: Quilt mountain

Cotton and Steel Plus Quilt

Cotton and Steel "Plus" Quilt

Hey, who made that extremely understated, dare I say Scandinavian looking modern baby quilt?? As a matter of fact, I did! I know, I know. It only used 4 fabrics, which is totally crazy for me, and the pattern is symmetrical. (no, not in this photo! I just realized I had it hanging "sideways" when I took pics of it, but in my mind, the row of three pluses on the right should actually be the top. For symmetry sake!  

Barely noticeable but nice: light aqua thread!

How did this quilt come to be? Well, actually it was a customer design, so that explains the restraint. A friend of a friend came into the store and wanted a quilt for her unborn baby boy. She picked up fabric she liked, and told me what the nursery was going to be like (during this whole exchange I thought she was buying fabric to make it herself.) We eventually got on the same page, and I took the order.

Understated calm

I must say it was actually pretty fun to make a quilt like this. It came together really quickly since I pieces the pluses and then used larger pieces of fabric in between. The navy is one of the Cotton and Steel basic blenders which has cute white "X"s on it. The back is the amazing mustang print by Melody Miller, also by Cotton and Steel. It is a great mustard background with navy and aqua horses. And gold "X"s. So cool! (can purchase here!)

Wild mustang quilt back

I quilted it with straight lines on either side of the patchwork pieces, which creates a really nice grid, as you can see below.

Straight-line quilting

I used Michael Miller's Cotton Couture solids line in Seafoam for the binding, which I think works really well with the front and the back of the quilt (which is the challenge, when choosing binding, I think). Overall I really love this quilt! I think it would be fun to pick a big-scale, colorful print for the back, and then chose just one color from it to combine with white on the front.

Will I ever be able to restrain myself this much again?? Who knows, but I always enjoy a good challenge from a customer, and helping to make someones idea come to life. Thanks, Erin!!