Showing posts with label aprons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aprons. Show all posts

5.05.2011

Happy (Early) Mother's Day

So what's more motherly then an apron? Yeah, I know, classic stereotypes n' all but still... So for mother's day I wanted to make me and my sister aprons. (I'd already made my Mom one for Christmas). I had mostly worked on mine a few weeks ago and finished the pockets off on Sunday night I think. Anyway, remember a few Fabric Fridays ago with the apple fabric? Yup, now she's an apron! (Didn't my 5 year old do a nice job taking pictures?!)

Photobucket


My sister really likes aqua and greens together but green isn't really her color. So when I went fabric shopping for her and found this cute aqua/red paisley I couldn't resist.

Photobucket


I also made her some pot holders to go with. I wish I'd had more of the poke-a-dot fabric (see pockets on her apron) but I'd run out so the front and back of the pot holders are the same. Since I had quite a bit of the binding I'd made left over, I finished them off with that.

Photobucket


I gave her the apron today and she loved it. Yay!

1.05.2011

WIP Wednesdays

  • APRONS (2010)
    I've got two aprons in works. One holiday one that I'd started for my self but my sister really wants, so I'll finish it up and give it to her. And another that's in the process of being pieced together, quilt like, for myself as an everyday apron. While I most likely won't add batting, I do think I'll line and quilt it.
    Here is the little stack of fabric I'm making it with. Most of it I pulled from my Single Girl quilt stash.
    Photobucket
  • STRING PLATES (2011)
    I bought a little bag of stringy scraps from a single line for another project that I actually only needed very little of the fabric for. Now I have this lovely little pile of fabric that needs a project. For once the fabric will dictate the pattern! (I usually decide on a pattern first then find the fabric to fit it.) Anyway I was rather inspired by Andie's quilt and I think it would be the perfect match of pattern and fabric. Isn't her quilt adorable? Now I just need someone to have a baby to give the quilt to! (Oh wait! I need to make it first! lol)
    Photobucket
    Here is my pile of scrap fabric (Verna by Kate Spain for Moda)...
    Photobucket
    And I still have lots of the espresso brown fabric laying around which does in fact seem to go with so much...Pictures of it however always seem to come out black looking. In fact this is more of the "real" color when seen with the naked eye.
    Photobucket
    And this is pretty much how far I've gotten with the top assembly. I'm actually really enjoying this pattern and think it would be great fun to make another one to fit the new Queen sized bed for the guest room.
    Photobucket

    Edited to add Sunday night (I add to these all week in an as-I-go-along fashion):
    I um. Finished the top tonight. Heehee.
    Photobucket

    This pattern was seriously *perfect* for the fabric I had. If it had been any bigger I'd have run out. It wasn't a lot to begin with. I was also trying to not have spend any $ on new fabric or supplies. As mentioned I have a ton of espresso fabric I'm trying to use up and a large spool of matching thread. I have a lot of Warm 'n Natural cotton scrap batting left over and I'm trying to decide if I should zigzag it together and use it up (wouldn't that be nice?) except most of it is in 8" strips. Can anyone use that size batting? I feel like it might make my quilt lumpy. On the other hand I do have two largish chunks of poly batting (shudder) so it'd only be one zig-zag seam and I wouldn't have to buy any batting.

    Now my other thought is backing. I'd like a flannel back but all I have on hand is some citron green and white striped stuff someone gave me long ago. It'd be okay (but not ideal - other then "free") if I wasn't planning on "hiding" my quilting on the front by using dark espresso colored thread. If I do that and use matching bobbin then all my quilting would show up dramatically on the back, which I don't really want. I prefer to always have my quilting be "invisible" on the back - that is matching thread to fabric. If I use a bobbin that's light to match the back and a dark to match the front, I usually wind up getting "stars" in my stitching on the front... meaning you can see little bits of where the light colored bobbin thread overlocks the dark thread that runs on the top of the quilt. Ideally I should go look for a dark colored flannel for the back.

    Oh and the last thing? I'm now not allowing myself to work on this any more until I finish my sister's quilt.

What I really should be working on is my sister's kaleidoscope quilt. I didn't finish it in time for Christmas so now I've got till mid-month to finish it for her BD. I sort of took a break from it as shoving it through my machine knots up my shoulders. I find pushing that much fabric through my machine tiring after a while so I need to work on it intermittently.

12.31.2010

Fabric Friday

Well the last little bit of Christmas money was spent at the fabric store.... shock of shocks! I really need to go on a fabric diet after last year. More sewing, less purchasing! However I am in the collection stage for the Oregon Patio Quilt I'd like to get to sometime in 2011 so I don't feel too bad picking up a few more greens and grays.
Photobucket

However what I really should've spent the $$ on was getting my serger fixed. Remember when I made my Mom her holiday apron? Yeah, well now my sister wants one too and it's so much faster to use the serger to finish the raw edges then my sewing machine. Ah well. So what I've decided to do is finish making the holiday apron I was going to make for myself and give that one to my sister and then just make an everyday apron for myself. I want to scrap together the main body and make it quilty. I'm using all the fabrics out of my Single Girl Quilt and will coordinate it with these then for the pockets and sashing and such. I don't think I'm going to add any batting between the layers as it'll loose its drape and get too stiff.
Photobucket

12.15.2010

WIP Wednesday

So until my serger died I was working on an apron for myself at the same time as I was making one for my mom... see previous post to see the one I finished for her. Anyway, here's the pile of would-be cute apron I now don't have time to make. Foo. The pattern is Indigo Junction's The Ruffled Chef.
Photobucket

I also sit in the coffee shop on Monday afternoons and quilt while Snookie is in school for a few hours. There is a group of spinners and knitters who I usually sit with and one of them made this lovely pumpkin cowl. I bought it off her and just need to add buttons. I had the big coat button which I think goes in such a nice way. I needed two more buttons and it's taken me a while to remember to pick them up. I have them now and just need the ten minutes to sit down and attach them all.
Photobucket

The thing that's been really keeping me busy is my sister's quilt. OH the trouble this quilt has given me! Sheesh.
Photobucket

Now, as a disclaimer before I became a SAHM I used to quilt by check (yay for having extra $$ from being employed) of course I can't afford that now so I've been left up to my own devices. Fortunately before I quit my last job I had enough forethought when buying my sewing machine to get a stitch regulator with it. I've been using it to quilt with for the past few years. So while I've been piecing for a long time, the whole quilting aspect is rather new to me. I admit the SR is a bit of a crutch.

Now back to the problem of my sister's quilt. For whatever reason the SR is not happy when I sew over seams while also having a flannel back. I love flannel on the back of a quilt... it makes it so warm and cosy. My friend Heather has been encouraging me to let go of the SR and learn to self regulate. Well I had the thread bread six times while trying to quilt just one of the 12" motifs. I knew then that there was no way I could make it all the way though all the quilting I had to do if it was going to keep going that way. So I let the SR go. It wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be! How wonderful that she had more faith in me then I did in myself. Thanks Heather! See? My stitches are pretty even and small. Yay! Of course I still have a long way to go and need loads more practice but it's a start.
Photobucket

I also was planning on using two different thread colors for this quilt. I stitched up four of the 12" motifs before I realized that the dark teal color looked ghastly. I had done a wee bit of the border in a cream thread and decided it was loads better.... SO last night I started picking out all the thread and starting those sections all over. Maybe you can see the difference in this picture... the light triangle block in the lower right has the cream thread while the light triangle block in the upper left is using the dark teal thread... yack. I still have to pick that one out and redo it.
Photobucket

So all that to say there's no way I'll be done with this quilt in time for Christmas... so I broke the news to my sis this morning and happily she was cool with it. Thankfully her BD is in late January which *should be* just enough time to actually get it done. ^^

12.14.2010

Happy Holidays!

Yeah, I know I should be working on my sister's quilt but I just really needed a break from it so I whipped up a holiday apron for my Mom this past weekend. I gave it to her yesterday. She adored it. ^^ Nothing like making something and have it be appreciated. Yay. Might have to make one for myself here soon too. I wonder when I'm gonna find the time?

Photobucket