I've moved

The blog has officially moved to my surface design website Call Me Chartreuse. Hope to see you there :)

Pillow Chat

My friend Kerrel's birthday was January 6th, so I whipped up this lovely quilted pillow for her. I have a not-so-secret love for half-square triangles and took this opportunity to play with them. In a magical world where unicorns run free an ideal situation I would have loved to just surprise her, but being the kind friend that I am, I wanted it to actually match her bedroom. I nonchalantly asked her what her bedroom color scheme was and found out that it was a navy and neutral color palette (neutral as in khaki). 

Surprisingly, navy fabrics were hard to come by, but I found these beautiful blue batiks that worked out well. This is the first pillow that I've made and didn't feel like searching for a sewing pattern, so I just winged it. The front is quilted in a zig-zag pattern that mimics the blocks and the back is straight line quilting with an envelope closure. 

I mailed the pillow off to her about a week ago and she LOVES it. It matches perfectly with her bedroom (which she thinks is creepy…I told her to be impressed). The greatest feeling ever is when people truly love and appreciate handmade gifts. 

Sneak Peek

I've been working on a handful of different projects, so I figured i'd show a few sneak peeks until the full reveal :)

 I've been working on my pattern design website the past few months and it's almost done. YAY! I still need to add more photos to my portfolio and work on my bio. Is it just me or does anyone else hate writing about themselves? Any who, once it's done this blog will be moving to my website.

Also, the School of Visual Arts' MFA Illustration program is having an alumni show and a handful of people had the option of creating a piece based on a small Pinocchio figurine. Not gonna lie… I wanted one of those figurines, so I jumped at that opportunity. Below is a snippet (and i mean a snippet) of the pattern i designed based off the Pinocchio. The final piece will be posted on the school's blog and Facebook page.

I'll post more information about the show when it gets closer.  

Play Time

11" X 12.5"

Since I'm in between big projects right now I used monday as a designated play day. I've had a lot of ideas swimming around in my head lately including making art quilts. I only had a general idea of what I wanted to do, so like a mad woman I just started grabbing fabric. The background slowly grew as fabric slivers were cut and sewed together.  Then I started adding the other elements on top of that. 

The quilting is easier to see looking at the back. I had absolutely no plan whatsoever when it came to the quilting, so I just freestyled it :) If I use dark fabrics next time i'll most likely use thread that's a shade lighter, so the quilting will be easier to see while still blending in.

I'm definitely going to be experimenting more with art quilting. The next piece will probably more intricate.

Finished Quilt + Pattern Review

After finding out that a friend of ours would be having a baby in December, I knew I had to make a baby quilt for her and her husband. Since it needed to be done in a timely fashion, I chose to use a quilt pattern instead of messing around with fabric yardage and what design to use. 

The quilt pattern is from Fat Quarterly's Shape Workshop for Quilters. If you have ANY interest in quilting you need to check out this book. It has 60 different block patterns, as well as quilt and project patterns. It's pretty awesome. Anywho...onto the pattern review.

Pattern: Cub Crawl Baby Quilt by John Q. Adams

Description: "Cub Crawl combines square-in-square blocks with long rectangles to create a design perfect for highlighting both fussy-cut squares as well as large prints. Although it's a beginner-friendly pattern, the versatility of the design for different color and pattern combinations can appeal to all skill levels.

Finished Size: 48" x 56"

Did it look like the photo when finished? Yes, the overall pattern looked the same.

Were the instructions easy to follow? The instructions were very clear. The yardage that was needed for each block was spot on and the quilt top as a whole came together quickly.

Basted Quilt

What did you like or dislike about the pattern? I like how well the design showcased large scale prints and how quickly i was able to sew up the quilt top. I had all the fabric cut on Day 1, on Day 2 I sewed the individual rows, and Day 3 I sewed the rows together to make the full quilt top. I was so happy I'm sure I did a happy dance around the apartment. The actual quilting took me about two weeks. I did free motion quilting in the squares and random straight line quilting in the rectangles. The random straight line quilt was a bit labor intensive, but I love the effect and got a good workout maneuvering that quilt :)

Were any design changes or pattern alterations made? The only changes were color, fabric choice, and the design of the quilting lines.

Would you sew it again? In a heartbeat. This pattern is great if you want to whip up a quick yet beautiful baby quilt.

p.s Our friends LOVED the quilt. Yay!!!!!!!

Work In Progress

This is a new quilt I'm working on from an Amy Butler jelly roll. I love the look of flying geese in a quilt, but they are oh so tedious to cut and sew. Cutting fabric is the part I dislike the most. I have no idea where my patience has gone.

Anywho, I'm not following a pattern with this one, so the placement of the blocks and the pattern I want to create are still up in the air.

An Apple A Day

I saw this lovely apple fabric in a shop back in NYC. It came as a fat quater and I purchased it with the intention of using it in some type of present for my grandma's birthday (she loves apples). Wasn't sure what I was going to make with it, but I knew it'd come in handy. I ended up making a set of quilted coasters... kinda want to make a set for myself too.

Baby Quilt

This past summer I fulfilled my life-long (and by life-long I really mean year-long) dream to start quilting. 

I wanted to keep it "simple" for my first quilt and made a postage stamp baby quilt. Needless to say, it definitely wasn't as simple as I was hoping. My seams were no where near perfect although they got better as I progressed. The actual quilting of it was the easiest/most entertaining part of the process for me.

free motion quilting with a hand sewn binding

 The flower pattern on the back is one of Kaffe Fassett's designs. I fell in love with it at the quilting shop and had to use some for the back of the quilt.

I gave the quilt to my parents to use for baby photo shoots :)