Photo Friday: Handstitched Vintage Block Quilt

 

I finished this quilt last weekend after just a few short weeks of working on the top. I think I've gotten faster at stitching with all of the wedding dress sewing! The top is made with vintage blocks, so this wasn't actually that much work since I didn't have to piece the top together. And, the best part is that we get to keep this one! It will live in our living room and keep us (me!) warm during the cooler months.

Stay tuned for better photos and a peek at my next quilting project—and have yourself an excellent weekend!

Back at It: Starting to Stitch Again

 

Guess what? After my summer post-wedding hiatus from sewing and general craftiness, I'm happy to report that I'm back at it. I just kept reading books until the urge to pick up the needle struck, and about a week ago, I started working on this guy again. Made with vintage quilt blocks that I found at a local antique mall, it will be the first full size quilt that I make and keep since I started quilting a decade a go.

Did I ever tell you guys about that? I was living in Durham, North Carolina at the time, working for Habitat for Humanity as an AmeriCorps member. I spent my days hammering, building walls, painting, hauling random piles of stuff, working with volunteers, shopping for supplies at Home Depot and Lowes, and even digging holes for trees. It was a fascinating year, but the need for a softer side away from the hammer and nails and trucks was not lost on my friend Hilary and I. She taught me to knit during our lunch hours and we took an intro to quilting class on weekends in a nearby town.

A funny thing happened in that class. When we were given the assignment to choose fabrics and start piecing our design together, my teacher didn't agree with my fabric choices. I am sure that I may have overreacted since I was young (and potentially more stubborn than I am now), but I was completely irritated with her. So I stopped going to the classes. I think I missed the last two as I determined that I'd simply find a good quilting book and figure it out myself.

In some ways, I think that turned out well for me. My style of quilting has always been doing things that make me happy and not paying much attention to design theory or principles. I figure that if I like it enough to spend a year sitting and stitching it, then that means something. My technique has gotten better as I've had more practice, but the decision making and creative control continues to come from gut instinct. Which is rather refreshing and the entire point, if you ask me.

I'm about 1/4 of the way done stitching this guy and I hope to finish it this winter so that we can enjoy it when cuddled up on the couch.

Happy making this long holiday weekend!

Vintage Textile Jewelry from Lisa of That Old Blue House

 

 One of the reasons that I love reading other blogs is because they so often lead me to people who are making the most lovely things. In this case, I am head over heels in love with the work of Lisa of ThatOldBlueHouse on etsy that I stumbled upon the other day (when I can figure out where I saw them first, I will add some credit here!). From Lisa: "I have worked with stained glass for over 20 years. My jewelry evolved from my love of antiques. I collect vintage textiles and postcards, and I had to finance my collecting addiction!!"

 

"My Vintage lace & quilt jewelry pays homage to the women who created these works of art many years ago. I only use tattered pieces of fabric & give them a 'second life', to be enjoyed by a new generation."

 

 Apparently her work has been featured all over the place (including in Anthropologie), and even though I am convinced that I should have come across this sooner, I'm really glad that I have found it now—as someone who has a growing stack of old quilt pieces and lace, I love thinking of the potential for it in wearable pieces.

 

 And there is something so classic, and yet modern, about the way that Lisa combines the old textiles with the hard metal materials. The fact that they manage to look delicate and fine, rather than bulky or overwhelming, is a true testiment to the quality and attention that she puts into her work.

 I am officially adding at least one of these pieces to my 31st bday "things to treat myself to" list. Now I just have to decide which one!

Tis the Season for Stitchery: The Making of My Wedding Dress Update #2

Hello friends! I have some big news to share today—I have started beading the panels of my wedding dress. Which means that I've completed the stitching and I'm on to the fun part. I have realized that doing this sort of handiwork must sound so tedious to some, but the remarkable thing is that when I do this, I am so overjoyed with the outcome that I have to forcibly make myself get up and do something else!

The beading actually goes pretty fast, in comparison to how long it took me to stitch each panel- I think it's probably 2 hours to bead as much as I'm currently doing on each panel, which is nothing compared to about 10 hours of stitching on each panel. (This works out really well for me right now, when it's subzero outside and being busy with a needle and thread is the perfect way to spend a Sunday!). You might notice that I decided not to do the reverse applique—it just feels more like me this way. I love it.


I learned the basics of beading at the workshop, and I've consulted my Alabama Studio Style book a few times. But I also figured out a way to bead, by which I mean the actual orientation of them, on my own which differs slightly from the pattern of my design. I like how the smaller medallions look a bit like stars, and how the sparkles suddenly transform the dress into a Dress (or it will once it's put together). So exciting!

In other exciting news, my good friend Katherine gifted me a most amazing quilt last week. I was overwhelmed, to say the least, upon receiving it—what a remarkable thing it is to have something that she spent so much time on. I love that she has a quilt that I made for her, and I have one that she made for me. Somehow, it makes me feel like we don't live so far apart after all. The quilt is living in our living room so it's within arms reach when we need a bit of warmth.

An Ode to Macaroons

Okay, I made an enormous discovery this weekend- coconut macaroons are CRAZY easy to make. No letting butter come to room temperature (no butter at all, in fact), no beating, whipping, or measuring a long list of ingredients. Just coconut, egg whites, sugar and a dash of salt, mixed and scooped onto a lined baking sheet. 15-20 minutes in the oven later you have HEAVEN.


I would like to come back as a macaroon in my next life.


I'm always incredibly amused (and vocal) when I make something at home for the first time and it's way easier than I thought. I have known I love macaroons for maybe my entire life but I just assumed they were hard to make. They are definitely my new go-to baked good because I just can't think of a single other item that delivers such whopping rewards for such little work.


And for all of you who believe that dessert is not dessert without chocolate, dip these suckers into melted chocolate chips and call it a day.

Speaking of all things sweet, I also made two loaves of pumpkin raisin whole wheat bread (with coconut because I can't help myself) and have been eating thick slices with butter all weekend long. I made a concerted effort to stock the fridge over the weekend because my momma is coming to visit tomorrow—so there is veggie chili for dinner and bread for snacking because it's the first time she'll be staying in our house and I want to make sure that she is warmly welcomed. And, apparently, well fed.

The other big weekend development is that my new fabric came from Purl and it goes with the vintage block quilt splendidly. I'm glad I took the time to get the right backing fabric—especially since I already know this quilt will spend a lot of time in use in the living room and being able to really enjoy both sides will come in very handy.


P.S. A big happy birthday to my sweet sis Katie and my friend Cara!

On Finding Patience (and Fabric)

 

Remember how excited I was about finding these vintage blocks? Well my love remains steady, and I spent Saturday afternoon finishing up sewing them together. The block with the bursts of orange flowers in the front left here is the design I have the most of, so that is the one block that pulls them all together throughout the layout. I've said numerous times how much more I prefer the quilting to the piecing, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to get started quilting this baby.

Except my scrap pile didn't offer up anything suitable that I could use for the backing fabric.

And while I went to JoAnn's early Sunday morning (where I saw a coworker and we laughed at our sewing sickness that caused us to get there just as the doors opened) and got enough fabric for the back, I'm not in love with it. The fabric, a light blue pin stripe, was really the only fabric in the entire store that I could imagine using. But it just didn't hold up. I mean gave it a shot: I washed and ironed it, and bound it together the the batting and the quilt top. But it's just not right.

Which has reminded me of a very important aspect of quilting: when something takes months to make, there is a reason you should love your components. You (I) won't finish if you aren't aching to use the completed work.

So I'm going to slow down, search for a backing fabric that makes my heart sing a little more, and we'll resume from there.

The one good thing to come out of all of that was that it inspired me to change things up and pick up my crochet hook again. So I'm making a set of light aqua blue coasters, just for fun.

Weekend Highlights: Whole Wheat Pear Chocolate Chip Bread and New Sewing Projects

 

I made a very important realization this weekend: when I'm stressed with too much work (or wedding planning or trying to decide whether or not to install hardwood floors or just new carpet upstairs), baking is an excellent way to restore balance. I had an overwhelming urge to make quick bread, so I did a variation on this one with 2 grated pears, walnuts and chocolate chips. And, just because I thought of it, we had this as French toast on Sunday morning. It was moist and rich, just the thing to start the day with a side of Greek yogurt. 

I also spent a good chunk of time getting two new sewing project in order. The first one is another small quilting project with a purple block that was the only one of it's kind in a stack of blocks I picked up recently at an antique mall (the rest are below), paired with remnants including some Liberty of London fabric that I had once used as a curtain, and lovely voile from Anna Maria Horner as the backing and edge. This one should quilt up quickly and I might try to save most of it for the Alabama wedding dress road trip.

The second project is one that will take a bit longer, but it's a quilt that I plan to use in our house, which is really exciting. I haven't made and kept a full sized quilt for myself since the first one that I made way back in 2002, and I just love the colors in these vintage blocks. Plus, I know that the size of the pieces on each block will lend to dense quilting, which will give the overall piece the texture I love.

I keep looking at the stitches, wondering about the woman who originally put these blocks together. It's a fascinating experience to work with a quilt that someone else started‚ humbling really, given the amount of work that went into these. There are 20 blocks, so I've arranged 5 rows of 4 blocks, and I'll do a border around that when the time comes.

Stripe Meets Floral Quilted Wall Hanging, Done!

When I moved to Iowa, and even before when I worked with people from Kansas City, I heard a lot of them speak about collections. It sounded fun—going to antique malls to hunt for salt and pepper shakers, paper ephemera, and egg cups, but I couldn't imagine what I might like enough to have in spades.


Friends, I have found it. Vintage quilt blocks.


Last week a friend emailed to let me know that she'd seen an impressive display of vintage quilt blocks at the Brass Armadillo, a local antique mall. You know what I did? I left work an hour early so that I could go check them out, knowing that I wanted first dibs on the good stuff. (And that these would Surely be less expensive than the ones I used in my office wall hanging which were purchased in nyc.)


And that is when I realized that this could be a problem!


But until I have too many too possibly use, or hunting for them starts to interfere with normal life, I will just excitedly share my finds with you. Which is appropriate since I finished the wall hanging that I started last weekend with the blue florals and stripes—which you can see above—and am ready to start something new. I even added some decorative quilting on the stripes to give them a bit more texture. I love that it took only a week to do, and that I was able to get the sides relatively square.

I am going to work on squaring up the blocks that are in the pile on the left—there are 20 of them—and piece them together to make Josh and I a full size quilt. I love the subtle colors and that the small pieces mean that I'll do a fair amount of quilting on this, which will translate to heavenly texture. These two stacks which have about 50 blocks were, I kid you not, about the same price as I paid for 4 blocks in nyc. Hooray Midwest!


Thank you to whomever stitched these blocks together. I hope it makes you happy to know that they are being finished and will be put to very good use.

Stripe Meets Floral Quilted Wall Hanging and Green Tomato Jam

 

Since finishing my wall hanging, I spent a few nights embroidering, but soon had the urge to start a new quilting project. I'm sticking with the theme of small—this is another vintage block that I've surrounded with new (and new to me) fabrics.  I haven't fully decided what this one will be used for, but I think I'm going to start a stash of gifts, which seems like a great idea especially since this will only take a week or two to finish.

The outer floral is from Liberty of London and the floral blue is Monroe from Leah Duncan. 

The other bigger project I did this weekend was to make Green Tomato Jam. We had three bowls full of them from the garden and while some of them have slowly been ripening, I knew I should at least try to turn the rest into something. I was skeptical since I couldn't imagine what this would taste like—it's green tomatoes that are soaked overnight in sugar, a bit of salt, pepper, cinnamon and the zest and pulp of two lemons—but after letting it cool, I had it on No Knead Whole Wheat Bread (forgot how good it is!) with cheddar. So unexpectedly good!

I love the experience of trying new flavors, and I was happy to have a kitchen experiment turn out so well.

And in case you missed these last week, I have two posts over at ReadyMade that you might be interested in—it's fall baking season after all!

The first one is for this Whole Wheat Raisin, Walnut, Coconut Quick Bread.

And the second is Harvest Nut Muffins made with cornmeal. 

Both are delicious and definitely helped me to embrace the cooler weather.

Quilted Wall Hanging Headboard- Done!

I'm excited to report that I finished my wall hanging this weekend, bringing this project in at exactly three weeks. I love how quickly it came together (not having to piece together the top vintage blocks really sped things up!) and how it adds a lovely final touch to my guest room/home office.


To hang it, I added about six loops onto the back of the hanging and threaded a thin tension rod through it. I found the mid-point of where I wanted the hanging, then used a level to line up two spots for nails. I started my nail holes with a drill since our plaster walls are notoriously known to blasting apart, then pounded them in (they were small picture hanging nails). After that, I hung the rod onto the nails and stepped back to make sure it was all evened up.

I have three more similar blocks and I think I might try a little experiment of doing even smaller wall hangings using one each. I figure they will make good gifts, be very quick to make, and serve the same purpose on a wall as a picture (only better I think!).


A few other weekend highlights involved meeting my friend's new little baby, enjoying some sunny fall weather while working in the garden, and baking on Sunday morning. I made these Blue Corn Harvest Muffins, which are delightful and delicious if you are in the market for a new muffin recipe. I used regular old cornmeal since it's what I had in the house and I plan to enjoy them as afternoon snacks all week. Fall baking is definitely helping me to embrace the cooler temperatures!

It's-Starting-to-Feel-Like-Fall Apple Crisp

Oh fall, I am not quite ready for you because at the moment you feel like you're taking us straight into winter with your chilly, rainy days. But I am doing my best to embrace this weather by making a point to cook more comforting foods—a pot of meat sauce (using local meat from Grinnell Heritage Farm), baked fennel (finicchio! In Italian, which I was proclaiming all over the house), and the first apple crisp of the season.


We get some pretty good apples here at the farmers market and last week I went and stocked up because I knew that this urge would hit. My version of apple crisp swaps in plain yogurt for butter, making a sort of cross between a cobbler and crisp topping. It's very good, just sweet enough, and the perfect way to end a chilly weekend in September.

I am also happy to report that I'm sewing my way around the binding of my wall hanging headboard. Soon, my friends, this project will be in its rightful place on my guest bedroom wall!


I'm off to nyc for the start of this week where I eagerly look forward to the delightful sunny 70s forecast and the smiling faces of my dear friends.

Quilted Wall Hanging Headboard- Update #2

I was determined to use the weekend to get a good start on my wall hanging that will serve as the headboard in my guest room/office and boy did I. I find that every so often, I need uninterrupted hours working on a project like this (honestly, it's been a while), with perhaps, a cheesy (and awesome) dance movie playing in the background.


The two blocks that are the center of the piece are vintage, from the 1920s I believe, and I didn't realize until I started working with them how not square they were—it took me a really long time to get my subsequent pieces straight. It might surprise you to learn this, but I am not all that fond of nitty gritty details during piecing, which is mostly a factor of how much more I enjoy quilting. But I think it was a good thing for me to practice my patience and get it right. I actually took one of the apart entirely and started over since it was looking all wonky.

Imagine the quilted piece hung on the wall above the pillows...

Thankfully, I only planned to do two squares, so after about 4 hours* on both Sunday and Monday, I had the entire top pieced. Since then I have nearly finished quilting the inside of one of the blocks so I have a feeling this is going to quilt up really quickly. Which is thrilling!

I haven't made a quilted project for myself since I first learned to quilt nine years ago, so I'm really happy that I love this so much—and that I get to keep it! Plus, I think it's pretty great that I get to keep the tradition of quilting alive by incorporating these unfinished blocks into a new work of my own. I wish I knew who the woman was who made those blocks, but I'm pretty sure she'd like knowing that I find them to be so lovely.

*This would have taken about half of the time had my sewing machine been cooperating. The bobbin thread kept getting stuck below the actual bobbin, for reasons unknown to me, so rather than struggling with it/throwing it across the room, I simply hand stitched all of my pieces. I am not very mechanically inclined :)

Baby Quilt: Done and Done! (With a Preview of My Next Project)

After getting home from work early enough to do a Friday night dinner and movie (saw Eat Pray Love, thought the book was way better...more time to understand the motivation for change), the weekend felt blissfully and properly long.


On Saturday we hit the farmers market to check out a potential wedding band, and get some farm fresh goodies, I gave the house a deep clean, and we started on the beginnings of major changes to the lawn in the backyard. Which meant moving a lot of rocks. And Sunday I baked, cooked ahead for the week (black beans, wheat berries to go into a chopped salad for lunches, a big jar of salsa to be used with baked chicken, and two loaves of quick bread for breakfast Friday—two of my best friends will be in town, I'm hosting breakfast club that morning AND it's Josh's bday). We also took a long bike ride and sat on the couch with homemade popcorn and Mad Men.


And...
I finished the baby quilt.

Hooray!
Both because it's a big accomplishment—I proved to myself that a gifted quilted item does not need to take a year of my life to be thoughtful—and it means I get to start on a project for myself.

A few months ago, I picked up four vintage quilt blocks while visiting nyc. I love them and have been thinking of how to use them ever since. Once I painted the guest room/office, I realized that they would be a somewhat bold, but not overwhelming addition, in the form of a quilted wall hanging to serve as a headboard. I spent some time at the fabric store and got an assortment of fabrics to go with them. It might take me some time to settle on exactly how I want to design this, but I love how well it all goes with the wall color.

And that my friends, was my weekend. We packed a lot in, but I also got three lovely nights of sleep and feel ready to start another week.


P.S. Since I've been so interested in balance lately, I'm going to start a new Wednesday series where I profile a crafty person, tell a little about their work and include a tidbit of advice for achieving work/creative work/life balance. If you would like to share, please drop me a line at thingswemake [at] gmail [dot] com.

Summer Projects Update and Friday Link Love

 I thought I'd take a moment to update you on where I am with my summer projects since it's been a while. I've been working on the baby quilt a little bit each night and am so close to finishing up the body—and then I get to move onto doing the binding, which is my favorite part since it means I'm almost done!

I like that the quilting on this one has been pretty minimal (as compared to this crazy beautiful one) and that I just might finish it before my friend has her baby. Above you can see the back.

The other project is my embroidery, which I started while on vacation. I've been working on this in the car, while traveling and also while I was on the beach last weekend and I've definitely gotten over the hump on this one too. That patch of green leaves in the center was a bit of a mental challenge, so I'm really happy to be done with that part. I love how this is turning out and love how I've been learning a new way of stitching.

Link Love: a few things I've found around the web this week that I just love
1. Summer Hair Challenge: the ladies at No More Dirty Looks are running this challenge that I am doing today—which is really hard since I have super curly hair and it's crazy humid outside!

Some time in the next week, when you get up in the morning, shower, shampoo and condition your hair using nontoxic natural products, comb it when you get out of the shower, and that’s it. Once it’s dry, send us a pic.

I'm being brave because I love the idea of breaking our reliance, or at least becoming aware of our reliance on chemically laden products. (Found via Beauty Schooled)

2. The colorful floral fabric dresses in this vineyard wedding make me swoon.
3. My tomato herb risotto recipe on ReadyMade which I am making again tonight.
4. The fabric jewelry from Vadjutka.
5. Pasta with corn pesto from Tim at Lottie + Doof sounds delish, if only we didn't clean out our pile of sweet corn last night. I guess it would be a good excuse to go get more!


Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Baby Quilt Update #2

I've been steadily working away on the baby quilt that I'm making for a friend—the small size means that it was the perfect thing to keep me busy on our weekend road trip—and I thought I'd share some of my progress.

After finishing my last quilt, which was rather intensively hand stitched, I've decided to go easy on myself this time around—which means I'm not stitching every line on the fabric design. That is making this process much speedier and I'm already over halfway done with the quilting.

When my sister saw this quilt in progress, she commented that out of all of the quilts I've made, it's the least "baby" looking. I agree, but the person I'm making it for is a pretty stylish lady, so I wanted to be sure that I made her something that fits in with her aesthetic. Plus, I figure that bright colors are good for babies and once the kid is old enough to not want to lay around on a quilt, it can turn into a wall hanging. Two for the price of one I say!


For those of you who are intimidated by hand stitching, please see my totally not uniform stitches above. I like to think that since it's handmade, it's not supposed to look perfect. In fact, that's sort of the point.


P.S. Thank you all for the bday wishes yesterday!

Link Love: Bright and Cheery Fabrics

Whenever I start a new quilting project, I am much more aware of fabric combinations and collections. I find myself with a new urge to start multiple projects at once—in part because of these fabrics. How could I not want to work with them all?!

Above are the Feather and Bird fabric and the Bicycle fabric from Aunt June on etsy. She designed the fabric and prints it via Spoonflower and I am loving the rainbow of colors—even more so this week since it feels like we're under a perpetually gray sky that just keeps dumping buckets and buckets of rain.

These fabrics are from a different part of the color wheel, sure, but together they make a ridiculously  gorgeous palette (which I am just realizing is very similar to the colors that we used in our house). This is the new collection from Cloud9 Fabrics, which is a line of organic cotton designed by Michelle E Bencsko that is just heavenly. It's called "Beyond the Sea" and I'm hoping to eventually make my parents something for their shore house from some of the options.

And finally, via True Up (one of my new favorite blogs with a header that inspires some serious jealousy), there is Amy Butler's coming-in-fall line of fabrics for Westminster, Soul Blossoms. I love the combination of graphic and floral patterns and the colorway (pink!). I'm looking forward to seeing this one in my local quilting shop come fall.

Baby Quilt Update #1, Plus Studio Sneak Peek

This past weekend I finally set up my sewing area. I got really lucky with the space in this house as I am able to use an entire half of the basement—which was formerly a wood working studio and has been immaculately kept and well lit. And I got to work on my next quilting project, which is a gift (I know that I promised myself I'd make something I could keep, but then two of my friends announced that they were pregnant, so there you go). I'm really excited that I found a way to use these Anna Maria Horner voile fabrics, which are so, so soft. Perfect for a little one to roll around on.

It measures about 3x4 feet and while I haven't quite decided on how I'm going to quilt it, I am eager to get started. I machine stitched about half of the top—until my bobbin started giving me agita—so I went back to hand stitching (which meant I was able to work on it over my lunch break yesterday at my desk!).

Okay, back to the work space, which you can see below. There is a huge work bench at a great height and after I covered it with an old floral sheet, it was transformed. I also made a little sitting area where I can work when I'd rather be sitting and I'm going to gradually cover the peg board with things that inspire me.

Sure, it's a basement and it's going to be chilly in the winter (and likely warm in the summer), but there is natural light, windows that open, and—most of all—it is terribly exciting to have my own little sanctuary with ample space for me to make things.