First Forays in Quilting

I have admired modern quilting for a long time. Every time I see a new quilt by Ashley from Film in the Fridge I get inspired to try one for myself. There are so many amazing designs out there to choose from. Feeling a little brave this summer, I took my first little step towards quilting.

When Julia requested placemats in exchange for my beautiful new masthead, I thought this would be the perfect chance. I could make four small little quilts giving me plenty of practice with piecing, quilting, and binding.

In hindsight... not so sure that was a good idea.

I loved piecing each placemat. This phase of the project actually went quite smoothly and quickly. The quilting bit only required straight lines, no problem.

Unfortunately, when it came to the binding... things were pretty horrendous. The vision I had turned out to be ugly. Like, U-G-L-Y. But you know this was only decided after cutting and attaching the binding to all four placemats. Special thanks to my sister for teaching me the proper way to use a seam ripper (what had I been doing all these years???). After the ripfest and the purchase of new binding, the motto became "I don't give a _____!" until the job was done.

Did I mention I was operating on a strict timeline? I finished the placemats the day prior to returning to Abu Dhabi.

It was a high stress situation.

The only redeeming factor was the very gracious recipient who set them to work straightaway.

New Masthead

Did you notice my pretty new masthead? Thank you Julia!

More Color, Less Nikon

I always feel a bit weird advertising my camera brand on my strap. Plus, it's just not all that pretty. This quick and super easy camera strap cover tutorial was just the ticket.

My only complaint is the wrinkles in the fabric after lugging my camera around Scandinavia this summer.

Luggage Tags

It's a very lonely feeling to be the last one standing at the empty baggage carousel after a long international flight having only collected one of your two checked pieces. And it's a very frustrating feeling to realize that you did not put ID tags on your luggage.

But it's a very happy feeling to have your luggage delivered directly to your door the next day.

In order to avoid repeating a very foolish mistake, I decided to sew up a few luggage tags for my return trip. Originally I planned to use oil cloth and clear vinyl, but ended up using the same material used for reusable shopping bags. The clear vinyl proved too finicky to work with, so it went out the door as well.

I printed out a sheet of address labels from The Small Object onto a thick cardstock to serve as the informative bit. I filled out my details, tucked the paper snugly inside, and attached the tag.

I'm very please to report that the tags survived their maiden voyage to Abu Dhabi, keeping my luggage identifiable the entire ride.

Stopping Motion

A highly anticipated goal for the summer was to make a little stop motion film with this lady. With only days to spare we jumped into production. It's amazing how much time and effort goes into what boils down to just a few short seconds. Not to mention all of the scaling back we did during the creative process.

Considering all of our challenges (like working outside on a windy day under a tree pelting you with hard fruit of some kind), I think we produced a pretty cute little film.

Click through to view it larger.

Adventure Awaits Apron

When I saw this fabric at Bolt a few weeks ago, I knew it I had to use it for something. It didn't take me very long to decide just what to sew. My friends who were married earlier this summer are heading out on a three month honeymoon through Europe... so an apron featuring travel destinations seemed like the perfect shower gift for the bride.

I didn't complete it in time for the shower... but since I had already made her the picnic sets, I figured that was okay.

I followed the basic measurements from Bend the Rules Sewing and added a quick little square pocket.

The bride liked it... and someone else did too!

Embroidered Pouches

This past spring I had a lovely surprise package of fabric show up in my post box. Two sweet friends from home drove all the way out to the mighty Fabric Depot and picked out fabric in my honor. I was incredibly excited to open that package!

I just had to sew them a little something to say "Thank you!" for their thoughtfulness. I decided to make these pleated pouches from Skip to My Lou. Very simple but still offered a step up in skill from the pouches I made last summer.

Darby picked out the light pastel fabrics.

And Nikki picked these bold prints.

To add more texture and make it all a bit more interesting, I embroidered the design on one side of the pouch.

Thanks again, ladies!