Christmas tree pants finished

November 14, 2013August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I finally finished my Christmas Tree Pants (Skirt) from Happy Zombie‘s great tutorial you can find here.

It all started back in January 2013, when I challenged myself to have this done for Christmas 2013. Well, I met my goal and it’s not even Thanksgiving!

Here’s it pieced before making the quilt sandwich.

Here’s the finished product 11 months later.

I’m pretty happy with it. It’s better than the bed sheet I’ve been using the last couple of years and the Martha Stewart skirt from K-Mart that just didn’t do it for me anymore.

Of course, there is always wonky-ness, but that’s how it goes. I cut the scappy binding on the bias because I had never bound anything with curves. Worked out great.

The quilting I would have re-thought. I like the echo quilting around the stars, but some of the straight line quilting is a little boring. This is where my fear of free-motion quilting limits me.

Looking forward to using this under the tree this year!

For the Home

Patchwork Fabric Baskets

July 25, 2013August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

Awhile back, I had the privilege of helping to make the small version of this basket out of Full Moon Lagoon for Mo Bedell‘s Quilt Market booth. I became hooked on these! They are super fun and easy to make. You can find the tutorial here on Pink Penguin’s blog.

Here I used some left over scraps from the baby quilt I recently made for my son’s teacher. I thought she could use this little basket for diapers or other baby sundries. The fabric here is Sarah Watts’ Timber & Leaf. The solid is Essex Yarn-Dyed Flax.

Here’s another one using some of my favorite orange fabrics including Denyse Schmidt, Comma, Carolyn Friedlander, Joel Dewberry and Dear Stella.

These are a great way to use up your scraps and make something useful at the same time!

For the Home

Pearl District Table Runner

January 9, 2013August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I have been working on a Pearl District Table Runner by Busy Bee Quilt Designs since November. Here’s what I have so far…I’m waiting for Essex Sand to get re-stocked in the shop so I can finish my binding. I’ve used fabrics from Anna Maria Horner’s Field Study Collection. I have enjoyed making this a lot. I chose to make the circles by sewing a circle on squares of fabric and interfacing sandwiched together, then slicing open the interfacing with my seam ripper, turning right side out, trimming and ironing flat. While probably the most time-consuming applique method of the three suggested in the pattern, I liked the neatness of this one. I tend to be messy with fusible interfacing and get glue on my iron and fabric. Ugh!

Some of the prints from Field Study are larger scale, so you only see a partial part of the design. Maybe this would have worked better with smaller scale prints, but I think I still like it.

Not sure how I’m going to quilt this yet. I’ll probably just do something in the border and leave the circles alone. My free-motion quilting skills are still in the development stage.

I have a lot of left over circle in a square blocks that I didn’t end up using. Perhaps they’ll transform themselves into coasters.

As with every new year, I always have a bevy of goals, resolutions, etc. I am a dedicated list maker. So, one of my goals is to always do more sewing. I really want to conquer some of my many UFO’s (unfinished objects) that are sitting around my office. I also want to get over my fear of the serger. I have this beautiful machine, but it scares the heck out of me. I think another round of classes is in my future.

For the Home

More Pillows

November 29, 2012August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I’ve been making pillows again! Last year I made a set for Asher’s classroom. This year, I wanted to make a set for his new teacher. Unfortunately, there are many more issues to contend with in 3rd grade — sharing and spreading head lice! So, no pillows for the reading area.

I used mostly prints from Moda’s Oh Deer! collection with a few prints from my stash thrown in.

I echo-quilted the design on the front. Not sure what I’m going to do with them now. Perhaps an auction item?

For the Home

Placemats

November 29, 2012August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I modified the Reflected Wedges Table Runner pattern by Jacquie Gering from Modern Patchwork 2012 (a special Interweave Press publication) to make place mats instead. This is actually the second set I’ve made using this pattern. The first set was done in citron and grey fabrics which I gave to my son’s teacher as an end of year gift. I love making them and decided to make another.

My fabric inspiration for the aqua/red/grey color scheme was Denyse Schmidt’s aqua floral from her County Fair line. Added in are some Anela Hoey, Summersville, Valori Wells, Dear Stella, Pat Bravo, and a couple mystery prints from my stash. The bindings are done in Kona Medium Grey. I just did some simple quilting to mirror the triangles.

Too pretty to use in my house!

For the Home · Holidays

Christmas Stocking for Fox

November 29, 2012January 20, 2017 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

A Christmas stocking for Fox, our dog, the newest edition to our family. I found this Christmas stocking tutorial and it worked out really well. The green tree fabric is from Jo-Ann’s and the cuff fabric is Oh Deer Cherry from Oh Deer! by MoMo for Moda. The “F” is cut from felt and then Wonder-Undered on. I wish I had planned better and sewed, by hand or machine, the “F” on the front before sewing the stocking together, but I was just in the sewing groove and couldn’t stop.

For the Home

Work on the Soho Table Runner Continues…

November 15, 2011August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I am still working on the Soho Table Runner from Busy Bee Designs. I kind of stalled out on it because other stuff just came up. I have done most of the quilting. I thought I would some plastic quilt pattern stencils to do my design. I also purchased some chalk spray to transfer the design to my runner top.

All I have left to do quilting-wise are the short ends. I quickly discovered that the chalk-like spray to stencil your design is not for me. Ok…I am messy and kind of clutzy. It got all over the fabric even though I tried to block off the parts I wasn’t spraying and all over the table I was working on. So, I reverted back to a purple disappearing marker to transfer the quilting design. This seemed to be a much better method for me.

I really want to try free-motion quilting more. I took a class a while back at Modern Domestic, but haven’t practiced in a long time and now I’m kind of afraid of it.

Let’s hope I get this table runner done by Thanksgiving. I have the binding all pieced and ready to go. I really do like it even though I still am uncomfortable with machine quilting.

For the Home

Soho Table Runner

October 31, 2011August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

This weekend I started working on a fall table runner using the Soho pattern by Busy Bee Quilt Designs. I am using some older Denyse Schmidt fabrics I picked up in the basement sale room of Boersma’s in McMinnville along with some prints from Mill End and some stuff I had in my stash.

So far, I’m liking how this is turning out. It’s kind of like making a quilt, but on a much smaller scale. Which means it won’t take me a year to finish it.

Now I just need to add the borders on the shorter ends and start my quilt sandwich. I’m thinking of using the purple/orange dot fabric for the binding. I tend to go too busy with the prints, so I am experimenting with adding more solids in my creations. Here I’m using some Essex linen in Sand to offset some of the craziness.

For the Home

More napkins

October 18, 2010August 31, 2015 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I’ve been working on more ric rac edged napkins. Here’s a set made from Moda’s Odyssea collection in the red coral Poseidon print.

Felt · For the Home · Toys

Felties and Pumpkins

October 18, 2010January 20, 2017 Ms. ChinchillaLeave a comment

I purchased this book at Jo-Ann Fabrics with a 50% off coupon the other day. I knew my boy would like some of these cute critters. I had been wanting to check out Gossamer for quite a while but hadn’t gotten there. Now I had an excuse — wool felt to make some of these guys. Above is my first attempt — the samurai cat.

I didn’t get as many of the details stitched onto the sleeves and belt because my son wanted it done asap. Next time I’d like to do a better job stitching the head onto the body too. Next up will be the alien, chihuahua, and the mummy cat.

The little pumpkin pincushion next to the samurai cat is from a free tutorial by Ellen of The Long Thread available here. It’s super easy and the pattern includes two sizes. I think it would be fun to make a ton of these guys in a flurry of fabrics and group them all together.