2nd Willow Cowl

This is the second Willow Cowl I have made (free pattern on Ravelry) and I just love it. You can use any sock yarn and I made mine using size 6 circulars.

Yes, I am hooked on knitting cowls!

Zip Pouches

I made these two little pouches for a couple knitting friends. I love handmade sewing and knitting accessories and I hope they will too!

Winner!

Yesterday was my Tuesday quilting group's holiday potluck luncheon. This year we also had a challenge. Participants were each given five different fabrics and told to make a 10" block. We didn't have to use all the fabrics but we couldn't add any. Blocks could be pieced or appliqués, machine or hand done.

The big reveal was at our luncheon where we raffled off the blocks. And who was the lucky winner? Yours truly!

Wool Pincushions

A couple of us from our quilt guild, the Needlechasers of Chevy Chase, decided to take a wool class at a quilt shop on the eastern shore of Maryland.  The quilt shop is called Serendipity and is located in Dagsboro, Delaware.  It is a delightful shop with all sorts of fabric lines.  They also carry wool and yarn.  They are located right on the way to the beach, about 30 minutes from Bethany Beach, Delaware.  One of us has a place at Bethany so we made it an overnight field trip.

We had a great time and the wool class was lots of fun.  We each made a wool pincushion.  Mine is pictured on the upper right.  (I got a little carried away making French knots!)  I had not worked with wool before so I was happy to learn a new skill.  We used Perle Cotton No. 12 and Chenille needles, size 24, to make the buttonhole stitch.  The pincushions are filled with crushed walnut shells.

Nesting Fabric Bowls

I just spent a fun day with my sewing buddy, Linda. We each made a fabric bowl using a pattern from Nova (acuppaandacatchup.com).

Mine is on the right. I used a sewing-themed fabric that I bought at City Quilter in New York. We both used linen for our solid fabric. We did some embroidery with Perle cotton No. 8. Check out Linda's daisies! This was such a fun project. I look forward to making more.

Grand Canyon!

This has been on my bucket list forever and I finally made it!

Faithful, revised

This is my competed top for Lori's Quiltalong. If it looks different from my previous post it is because I took out the purple print border fabric and replaced
it with the more sedate green. I do like it better.

I will probably hand quilt this and call it done rather than make all nine blocks like Lori did although I love her larger version.

Gap Tastic Cowl is Finished!

As I mentioned, this is for my daughter but it is awfully cute (and warm) so I might have to make one for me!

Gap Tastic Cowl

Fall is the season for knitting. I am making this cowl for my daughter who requested a bulky cowl and picked the color. I made the little quilt last year.

Andy Warhol-Inspired Quilt

My quilt guild held a challenge to make a quilt inspired by an artist. I love (quilt) challenges so I signed up. My quilt is inspired by Andy Warhol's repeated images using different colors. I hand appliquéd the shapes and used perle cotton for the quilting.

All of the challenge quilts are currently on display at K Town Bistro in Kensington, Maryland.

Museum Crazy Quilt

I volunteer at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum on Thursdays. I was delighted to see this crazy quilt, made in 1889, on view at the museum yesterday.

Faithful

Lori of Humble Quilts (humblequilts.blogspot.com) does little quiltalongs from time to time. Here is her latest, called "Faithful". It's a lot of little half square triangles to make but she makes them a little larger than needed then trims them to size. Lori made nine of these wacky blocks and put them together into a quilt. See the header on her blog.

More Clutch Purses

I am back. After a long hiatus, I have resumed posting on my blog. I have no excuses, nothing bad has happened. In fact, I am enjoying life, with more time to sew than ever. Our youngest is off to college and after 27 years, we are empty nesters!

I will attempt to make up for lost time and post pictures of the projects I have completed since the summer. First up are more clutch purses. You will notice that one is made up of hexagons. Very labor intensive but I don't consider making hexagons labor at all. Do you?

Lined Drawstring (Project) Bag

Here is my second Lined Drawstring Bag. Pattern is from Jeni of In Color Order and the fabric is Dear Stella. These bags are addictive!

Zakka Along 2.0 - Patchwork Please - Tea Bag Pouch

Last summer, I participated in the Zakka Along, making projects from the book, Zakka Style, one project each week. I didn't make every project in the book but I made quite a few and had great fun doing it. I also won one of the weekly drawings. Yay for me!

This summer it's Zakka 2.0 and the book is Patchwork Please! First up was the bell pepper coaster (or hotpad if you wanted to enlarge it). Mine is pictured in a previous post. Last week was an appliquéd dish towel which I did not make. This week, the blogger Noodlehead is featuring a tea cozy and teabag pouch. I'm not much of a tea drinker and do not own a teapot so no need for a cozy. But the pouch looked easy and cute and I can always use it for storing needles, right? Here it is:

Super Tote

Today has been a rainy day in the nation's capital. Just the perfect weather for finishing my Super Tote!

The floral is a home dec fabric I bought at JoAnn's and the gusset is a linen blend, also from JoAnn's. The rest are quilting cottons. The pattern is from Noodlehead and includes piping and a recessed zipper. It was challenging but in a good way!

DC Modern Quilt Guild Retreat

This weekend the DCMQG had a retreat on the campus of the University of Maryland. What fun!

I finished two small projects and am most of the way finished with a third, the Super Tote.

First I made a bell pepper hotpad from the book, "Patchwork Please".

Next I made a Lined Drawstring Bag from a pattern by "In Color Order.". Note the sheep fabric - I made the bag to hold my knitting!

I will post a picture of my Super Tote as soon as it is finished, hopefully tomorrow.

We had a Secret Sister Swap. Here are some goodies I received from my "sis" Jessie.

It was great to spend so much time sewing with like-minded friends!

Double Graduation

The last few weeks have been wonderful for our family because we celebrated two graduations! Our older son graduated from law school and our youngest graduated from high school. They are pictured here along with our daughter (already a college graduate and gainfully employed). I am feeling very blessed!

DCMQG at US Botanic Garden

On Saturday, the DC Modern Quilt Guild met al fresco at the US Botanic Garden on the mall. What a beautiful setting for hand sewing and socializing.

2 Clutch Purses

I made two clutch purses. One for my sister-in-law who celebrated her birthday yesterday and one for my daughter, just because she's my daughter.

Urban Girl Wrap Skirt

In March, I attended Sew South, a modern sewing retreat, which was tremendously fun.  The founder and organizer, Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts, solicited sponsors which resulted in us receiving a huge amount of swag:  fabric, thread, interfacing, patterns, etc.  One of the sponsors was Kati Cupcake Pattern Company.  From them we received a free pattern to make the "Urban Girl Wrap" skirt.

Well, friends, I made the skirt!  Isn't it cute?  And it was so easy.  Just three pattern pieces plus the waistband.  The pink you see in the picture is bias tape which is used to enclose the raw edges and also forms the hem.  Ingenious!  The fabric is Amy Butler from a few years ago...from my stash.  Love it!!!

Willow Cowl, Finished

I'm not very good at taking pictures of myself in the mirror using my phone but here I am, modeling my Willow Cowl which I just finished knitting. I love the way it turned out and am very tempted to make another one even though it took me two months! The yarn is merino wool.

Quilts for Boston

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is collecting blocks to make quilts for those affected by the bombings. This is my contribution.

Flags for Boston

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild has organized this project. Quilters from all over are making flags to be flown in Boston over Memorial Day Weekend. Here is my contribution.

Low Volume Quilt

Here is my first attempt at a "low volume" quilt. It is a simple Rail Fence pattern using a wide variety of light fabrics from my stash. As you can see, it is HUGE - 88" x 96". I thought it would make a pretty, summer quilt for my bed.

Now I need to find a backing and also figure out how I'm going to quilt it.

Disappearing Nine Patch

If you want to know what a disappearing nine patch is, you can look it up on the Internet. Basically, you start with a nine patch and cut it in half in both directions. You end up with four pieces that can be arranged in a number of different ways.

My guild had its annual Demo Day and this was one of the demos. Fortunately I didn't have to make any nine patches because my UFO stash contained a box of 35 nine patches that were already made! And voila!

Sew South: March 21-24, 2013

Recently I attended an amazing sewing retreat in Charlotte, NC, with my sewing buddy Linda.  The retreat was the first annual Sew South, created and organized by the amazing Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane Quilts.

The fun began even before the retreat.  All those who were interested made a house block which Jennifer then made into two quilts to be donated to the local Ronald McDonald House.  I really appreciated Jennifer's thoughtfulness and loved being a part of this service project.

Here is one of the house quilts.  (My block is top row, second from left).

Another fun activity was the Secret Sister.  Throughout the retreat we left little gifts for our "secret sister" who had been assigned to us before the retreat.  Gifts were often handmade and many included chocolate!  I was lucky to have the amazing Kim from Winston-Salem as my secret sister.  Here is a picture of my loot from Kim.

Kim is an accomplished handbag maker and teacher.  Lucky me!  She made me this adorable clutch bag with strap.  Here is a picture of Kim and I.  It was great to meet her and I hope we meet again.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I had her and she had me as Secret Sisters!

More on Sew South to come!!!

Willow Cowl

I'm knitting a cowl to wear during these last cold days of late winter/early spring. I have not abandoned quilting (never!) but find knitting to be wonderfully relaxing and portable.

On Thursday I am heading to Charlotte, NC, for a quilting retreat, Sew South. See button on sidebar. Really looking forward to it!

Pink Tulips on Quilt

I know it's been awhile. Life gets in the way sometimes. It is sunny but cold and windy today in the nation's capital. I love tulips and these seemed to go well with this little quilt I made last year.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cookie Party

Every year, my friend Kate hosts a Valentine cookie baking party. We send the cookies to our respective children, in college, graduate school, or all grown up, on their own.

Quilt inspiration, anyone?

Abundance

Here is my finished doll quilt, "Abundance," from Lori's Quilt-a-Long.  I tried to copy the original vintage quilt as much as I could, using fabrics from my stash.  I was delighted to use leftover cheddar scraps from one of Lori's previous quilt-a-longs, Cheddar Cheese and Crackers.  Lori's quilt-a-longs are so much fun to do.  Her directions are clear and easy to follow and I am always pleased with the result.  This one is very small, only 12 1/2" x 12 1/2".  I hand-quilted it, following her design, and of course, it took no time at all!

Thanks, Lori!

Madrona Road Challenge

At the December meeting of the DC Modern Quilt Guild, I picked up a packet of Madrona Road fabric by Michael Miller. The challenge was to use these fabrics, any additional Madrona Road fabric, and any solid fabric. The resulting item must be quilted and must be finished.

I made a tote bag, adding the blue solid fabric and another Madrona Road fabric for the lining. I quilted it using a long zigzag stitch with variegated thread.