Modern Material Girl: July 2015

Friday, July 31, 2015

July 2015 Finishes!

Here is this month's collage of finished quilts!

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Weekly Progress Report!

Here's a belated report on what I've been up to in the last week and a half! My goal was to tackle this pile (literally!) of projects that were next to my sewing machine:

I did tackle the pile, but in the process, I was also inspired to tackle my entire sewing area! Here is what it looks like now (sorry for the dark photo!).

The room itself is very small (8 x 10), and previously, I had been sewing on a table that was 2.5 x 3 feet. It took up quite a bit of space in the room, and most of the space behind my sewing machine was not useful since the table butted up against the window. I finally decided to install the desktop piece I had purchased months ago from Michael's (all of my storage cubes are from their Recollections scrapbook storage collection). With the new configuration, I have much more accessible workspace, and additional floor space so I don't feel cramped! The piece in front of the left side is actually a rolling storage cart, so it gives me a nice work triangle, but I can easily move it out of the way.

So, now on to the projects that were in the pile! First, I completed a recent WIP -- this is Thimbleblossoms' Jellybean pattern in Persimmon fabric by Basic Grey:

Secondly, I finished a full-size patchwork quilt in my long-hoarded California Girl fabrics by Fig Tree Quilts. This will be a new quilt for our bedroom!

The third project is a special quilt re-make for a friend of mine. I had previously done some repairs to a quilt that was made by his mother, but over the past two years, additional blocks had ripped, so I decided to deconstruct the top, replace some blocks and all of the sashing, and put it back together.

Some of the original blocks were pretty wild, so when I replaced a few of them in the previous repair, I had fun including some novelty prints that were meaningful to him. This time, I had to replace 11 additional blocks, so I put in a few more novely prints.

I also started a knitting project this week. I've known how to knit for a while, but I could never figure out how to purl -- until this week! (Thank you, youtube). I'm working on a pretty basic shawl. It's got a few imperfections, but overall, it's coming along.

So now that I've tackled the sewing room, I'll be returning to my goal of working through my fabric storage drawers. Next week: Dr. Seuss fabrics!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Week 4, Final Finishes

So, this week I took a hiatus from my summer challenge to work on some projects with impending deadlines. I had two custom order quilts that needed finishing, a birthday gift quilt to complete, and a twin quilt to work on, so I decided to focus on those projects. Here's what I accomplished!

First, the birthday quilt (the top was made during my Joel Dewberry week). I'm happy to say the recipient loved it. I backed it in Azalea minky dimple dot from Hawthorne Threads so it will be warm and cozy for the winter:

Next, a finished Bricklayer custom order quilt in the Aviary Lilac palette (also completed during Joel Dewberry week):

This next quilt is also a custom order. It began with the Aviary colorway, but we added in some other coordinates, and I absolutely love the combination. I have already decided that I need to make a quilt for our bedroom out of these fabrics! This one is headed to the quilting machine shortly! (Pattern is Flowers in the Sunshine by Sweetjane).

My mother sent me to Kmart last week for a black and white twin "quilt" that was on sale. Luckily, they did not have the right size in stock, so it gave me an excuse to make her something much better! (She loves my quilts -- she just didn't want to stress me out with having to make something for her!). I didn't have anything on hand, so I ordered a few black and white fat quarter bundles. I managed to get the top done this week, and hope to quilt it over the next couple of days.

I also managed to quilt a couple of smaller tops from my ever-growing pile of flimsies! The first one is a small patchwork quilt made out of 2 Hello Luscious charm packs:

The second top was made during my Chez Moi week and features several of their collections:

I also decided to pull out a couple of "miscellaneous" fabric drawers. Both of these quilt tops were made from leftovers of previous custom orders. The first features Anna Griffin's Animal Parade collection, with some coordinates:

And the second one is mostly from the Gypsy Girl collection by Lily Ashbury for Moda Fabrics:

All in all, it was a very productive week, and I enjoyed the "break" from the summer challenge! In fact, this week I'm going to attack a pile of projects in the corner of my sewing room (see below). I'm sure that I will also "play" with a fabric drawer or two, but since the main goal of emptying drawers is to get more clutter put away, it makes sense that I should also deal with the clutter itself! I'll try to share my progress throughout the week!

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Week 3 Final Finishes

I had a very productive week with my Joel Dewberry fabrics. Not so much with dishes and laundry, but that's okay! I started out with three very full drawers of fabric, as well as some lilac Aviary fabrics that wouldn't even fit in the drawers.

Part of the reason I chose Joel Dewberry fabrics this week is that I received a custom order request for a lilac Aviary quilt last week, so I started with this quilt in my Bricklayer pattern:

I also finished this Hip to Be Square quilt (many of the blocks were left over from a previous project)

The remaining Aviary fabrics went back into a drawer, because I usually keep those "in stock" for custom orders. I then moved on to a different collection, Heirloom. I remember when this collection came out several summers ago -- I stalked my favorite online fabric store and ordered it at soon as it was in stock. Then it sat in a drawer for 4 years. My favorite of the three color palettes is the Citrine, and I had purchased some Kona Stone several years ago after seeing this quilt by Fresh Lemons Quilts since it seemed like the perfect background color. I whipped out my Accuquilt hexagon and equilateral triangles dies, and cut the pieces for this quilt:

These two dies are awesome, by the way! The hexagons are big, so they are great for featuring large scale prints, and the tops go together quickly and line up easily with the dog-eared corners and notches. They are so much fun to make that I also made one out of Modern Meadow and Moda Bella in Ivory:

Next, I pulled out some Deer Valley fat quarters. I had originally bought these to make a Bricklayer quilt, so that's exactly what I did!

I had enough pieces left over to make a small Hip to Be Square quilt, too!

After those tops, I went back to the remaining two colorways of Heirloom, and chose the Coming Home quilt pattern from Camille Roskelley's book Simplify. This one is the Ruby palette (I have no idea what the background color is -- a pale grey that matched quite nicely!)

...and this one is the Sapphire palette, with Moda Bella Snow. I'll be adding borders to this one and finishing it for my husband's aunt, who turns 80 this month.

After all of those tops, I am only down to two drawers from the original three, and they are still packed pretty tightly! How is that possible?!

So, who is my next designer of the week? Well, this blog challenge has been pretty intense so far (I've made 20 quilt tops in the last three weeks!), so this week will be sort of a break from the challenge. I need to quilt three of the finished tops, as well as work on a new twin quilt for my Mom's guest room, so I'll start with those projects. I do have a few miscellaneous drawers in my storage units, so I plan to pull out one "surprise drawer" this week to work on. Next Sunday, I will share this week's finishes, and resume the blog challenge!