Double Trouble

With a few weeks notice, I whipped up these coordinating blankets for twins that are due in July to my cousin-in-law!  

I did not want to ask about a theme or anything, because I wanted the quilts to be a surprise! I went with blues and greens, monochromatic for the backsides and more colorful/crazy for the fronts, with matching grey and white striped binding.  

I really love this color scheme and hope those boys snuggle with these blankets for many years!

Patchwork, sort of

I really am in love with this latest project for a friend who is due in June!

I bought this gorgeous henna-looking fabric thinking I would use one for the front of the quilt, and one for the binding, but I couldn't decide which would be better/less overwhelming as an entire quilt, since they both are so bright and bold. I had a stroke of genius when I decided to take a chance and try to do some actual patchwork rather then the wholecloth quilts I have always done. However, I got scared of messing it up and stopped at stripes. I used the same fabrics as the binding since they are so vibrant and I thought adding another color might be too kooky. The backside is a fun circle stripes pattern that coordinates great with the items this mama showed me she had registered for. 

Creating these stripes was not as scary as I thought and maybe I will experiment more with patchwork. I think the thing that scares me is just how precise things need to be. I get easily frustrated and would be mad if things didn't work out right and I end up having to start over again or adjust everything. So we will see.  I have a few small project ideas I can try first!

 

Seaworthy

In early February, my husband (it still feels sort of odd to say this?) and I took a belated honeymoon to Hawaii! Before we went, I stitched up this quilt so that it could be at the baby shower in my place since I had to miss it.

I really was unsure all through this project if the quilt I made was going to fly for a few reasons:

1. The mama in question had told me the only real 'theme' they were doing or telling people was 'boats and books.'  I could not find any fabric that had anything to do with books (which really bummed me out) and the only nautical one I saw was a really yucky blue color that I just could not bring myself to buy. I ended up going a bit abstract with my 'boats' interpretation and did more of a 'sea' theme.

2. The baby's gender was going to be a surprise! So I wasn't sure if I should try to be super gender neutral or just go with colors/patterns/fabrics that seemed right to me. I went with the latter and crossed my fingers. 

3. One of those 'fabrics that seemed right' was fish. I thought it was cute but would they like it? Would they get my 'boat' interpretation? Is Navy and Green to "boyish"? What if they have a girl? Girls like the sea too, duh. 

Ah so many questions!  In the end I said stop worrying about it, I love it, they will too!  I was really obsessed with this scalloped watercolory fabric when I saw it in the fabric shop, and wish I had bought a load more of it. It reminded me of the ocean so that was the first thing I grabbed. I thought the fish were cute for the backside and for the binding, I chose a fabric that was dark navy with white, blue, and lavender starbursts.  So the quilt is representative of the water (the scallops), under the water (the fish) and the sky above (the binding).  

To my delight, the parents of this little one LOVE their quilt! And their baby boy is enjoying his new blanket already. 

Each quilt I make is my favorite one until I make the next one! There are just so many gorgeous fabrics out there!

Two Custom Quilts

Three months since I last posted, that is just ridiculous. I wasn't working on much and then all of a sudden I had two custom quilt orders from Etsy and another little quilt is in the works for a friend who is expecting this summer.

These two quilts are really different but oh so adorable and really they both scream SPRINGTIME to me! I really enjoyed making them and getting back into the swing of making these quilts.

The first one of these was for a friend's second baby. I made a quilt for her first little one and it was a big hit! So number 2 could not be left out! The mama told me that she was working with a wallpaper in the baby's room that was pretty dark paisley, and she had a dark wood crib, so she was going to do all white linens with a pop of teal.  This seemed pretty straightforward but so simple! I made the front of the quilt just plain white, and I offered to embroider the gal's name on it, and I picked a fun springy fabric for the backside that I fell in love with. It's a buttery yellow with little white butterflies throughout. For the binding, I found a teal polka dot fabric so that was easy! The way I sewed this together was sort of a happy accident, and at one point I almost started over but in the end, I decided it looked like ruffles and so just kind of went with it. It turned out super cute!






This second one was ordered by a friend for her brother's girlfriend's soon-to-be-born little girl. She showed me a few pictures of things the mama-to-be liked including forest animals, and said for colors, coral, gray, white. I didn't find exactly what I wanted but I really love how this one turned out! I found a really gorgeous faux bois woodgrain print that I used for the backside, and for the front I found this lovely print of antlers surrounded by bunches of flowers. For the binding, I picked the most coral fabric I could find and it happened to have cute squiggly white lines throughout so that added a little interest! I couldn't find a plain coral color that I liked so I went with it! I love how the coral binding looks against the woodgrain. I hope this lady and her little lady love this quilt for many years! Here is a video of me sewing this quilt together! 

Ice Day Quilt

Yesterday it snowed most of the day and then began the freezing rain. Overnight the city turned into a gigantic ice rink! My boss told me to stay home and I agreed easily. I don't own ice skates and all my shoes seem to slip on the ice! I would much rather stay home and work on a project! Ice Day!

I got to digging through my bin of fabric and found an almost full yard of a pretty dark botanical print that I never used, a yard of a solid teal, one of my favorite colors, another unused piece, plenty of batting leftover from previous quilts, plus enough of one more cool black and white fabric for the binding! I got my crafting nook all set up and after a couple hours I had a finished quilt to sell (One of a Kind Modern Baby Blanket)!

Stowe Bag Surprise

With Christmas coming up, I had big plans to sew something for everyone I know but then decided to just do one of these bags and see how it went and then decided not to go nuts on gifting this year afterall since our apartment is kind of dark by the time I get home from work and weekends are too busy and I would never finish all I wanted to finish. So I only made one of these little bags to mail to my dear friend Meredith stuffed with a few goodies. I found some darling fabric from Japan and got to work!

You can see my cozy crafting nook here in this snap my husband took when I escaped work early one day to work on this project.


The pattern is the Stowe Bag by Grainline Studio. I am definitely going to be making more of these! The bag sewed up a lot easier than I expected and it has interior pockets and all! This is the small size and I  definitely want to make the larger one for myself.  If you have a birthday coming up, you might be getting one of these bags from me, just a warning! 

I had a heck of a time getting a photo of this bag in the waning light (not to mention my arm looks freakish) before I packed it up to be mailed off, but here is the finished product! I stuffed in a few home bar essentials and a cute cocktail book and it arrived safe and sound.


Hope you all have a very happy holiday!!

History of a Robe

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!! I am looking forward to a cozy feast with family in a giant log house in Washington! Before I get to work on the food I am going to make, I wanted to get this blog post out into the world since I finished this project last week.

Let's go way back to a time when Portland was still pretty new to me. I am pretty sure I had a friend visiting, and after exploring around on Mississippi Ave and heading back towards home, we got off the bus at the wrong stop. Instead of walking to the right transfer point or waiting for the next bus, we found a darling vintage shop around the corner.

I don't remember much else about this excursion and I haven't been back to the shop since! But I fell in love with some beautiful fabric there and even though I was trying not to spend money, I had to have it. I did not have a sewing machine or really any plans to get one but I just could not let that fabric sit in that store another minute longer. I thought to myself, "I'll make something out of it some day!"

Well, a little bit of time went by (at least a year or two) and I did get a sewing machine. I took an intro sewing class with a couple of gals to revive the skills I learned from my great aunt back in high school, did a few little projects here and there, and all the while kept thinking about the perfect silky robe I was going to make with that great fabric that I had folded up in a bin somewhere.

I kept accumulating fabric from various projects, scraps and bits that seemed usable for other small projects and every time I dug into my fabric bin to start something new or look for something I would see this bright orange peeking out at me from the bottom of the bin and I would think, "Darnit, I have to make that robe." I was so nervous that I would do something wrong, and once I cut into it, that was it, no more pretty vintage fabric and dreams of perfect robes. I didn't have enough fabric to cover any errors! It was just enough and no more.

Well last week I finally conquered my fears and cut it up. I made a robe that is just exactly what I was picturing. It's definitely not perfect, I absolutely stitched the bias tape on wrong, and this fabric gave me a lot more trouble than I expected because it was so slippery. It was very hard to cut straight lines with the fabric slipping all over the place. But I love the way it turned out and am so glad I finally did it and got that fabric out of the bin and into the closet!



Searching for easy robe patterns I found this blog post that did not use an actual pattern but more of a general guide with room for making it your own. I used the cutting guide there as my starting point which was basically folding the fabric in half, cutting out a neck hole, cutting down the front, and cutting out notches from the sides for the kimono-like sleeves, using that cutaway fabric to make the robe ties. I wanted as few cuts as possible to maximize the fabric that I had and this seemed like the simplest way. I had the smart idea to sew the belt to the back of the robe, so it would never get lost. In the end, since this is not a fitted garment, all these little imperfections are hardly noticeable. My only real regret is not adding in a pocket on one of the side seams!

I just can't get over how pretty the fabric is!


I am getting a brand new phone with a great camera later today, so I will try to post a lot more photos of all kinds of stuff in the days to come, so add me on Instagram!

Also, if you haven't already checked out She's a Giant on Etsy, you should! I have a discount code set up for 20% off if you enter code FBfriends20 at checkout. Custom quilts make wonderful Christmas presents!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! 

Return of the Mich

I'm back! I know, I can barely believe it either.

A whole lot has changed since my last post almost four (!!!!) years ago, including getting married and moving into a pretty small loft apartment, which is all very exciting!

I am reviving this blog with the intention of getting a lot more crafty and making a lot more things in general. I will probably still post about books and inspiring things I find around the web, but mainly I am going to focus on what I am creating in my craft space.

The most recent projects I have been doing are making little baby quilts for friends. These are super fun, pretty fast, and I really enjoy picking out fabric and making something that my friends (and their little bundles of joy!) will probably have forever!

Here are a couple of my faves

This doll has a space themed room filled with black and white details. I was obsessed with this constellation fabric when I saw it in the fabric store and am so glad it worked for this quilt!

This is the most recent quilt I made and since the family didn't have a set theme in place, we just went with colors. I was asked to use shades of blue, teal, maybe lime green. I love how this quilt turned out and it looks so good in the little dude's room!

There are a few more photos of quilts on Flickr.

I have a handful of other projects I want to work on and document, such as a robe out of some vintage fabric I have been toting around for about 8 years but am scared to cut up. I also want to try my hand at more regular clothing items, since I subscribed to Seamwork to encourage myself to sew more often. Once in a while I also like to try a random craft idea from Pinterest such as an eye mask for sleeping (not my most successful, but it works) or a padded sunglasses case (as a gift).

So! Please do follow along and I will be sure to try to keep the posts short, sweet, entertaining, and picture heavy. I know how this works (sort of)!