Echino Quilt

I posted a few weeks ago about Modern Relief for Japan, and how I had made a quilt for that, which would be raffled off with dozens of other quilts, the proceeds going to Japan. 

And then it didn't happen.  There were some legal issues that forced Modern Relief to shut down.

Bummer!

So I needed to find something to do with this quilt I made.  Thankfully, I saw that Seven Islands Fabric was having a quilt drive in participation with Patchwork Tsushin in Japan, who will be distributing quilts to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. 

Seven Islands is just down the road from me in Torrance, so I was hoping to go there myself, as opposed to mailing it.  Last week I contacted them, set up a time to bring it to them (which was today), and whipped up a label to put on the quilt.

Even though the quilt is not going to be raffled off, I thought I'd still show some pictures of it.  Please excuse our sad yard.  What you don't see is about 5 mole holes that the quilt is covering.

Here's the front.  All I did is take some patchwork Echino, and cut it into strips.  I did have to piece the strips to make them long enough, so I did some fussy cutting - should've got a picture of that.  I was so proud of myself that the piecing wasn't even noticeable!

And the back.  I just used the leftover solids from the front, and added the pink and this bird Echino print, which is one of my faves.

When I first wanted to make a quilt for Japan, I wanted to use strictly Japanese fabrics, so I did!  Everything, even the solids, is Echino by Etsuko Furuya.  To top it off, I bought it from the local Japanese fabric store, Momen+, also in Torrance.  (By the way, I was in there the other day, and they totally knew me.  I go there too much!  I'm gonna miss that store when I move!)

Once again, I did the binding completely by machine with no pins - and I'm getting better at it!  This is, by far, the best job I've done with machine binding.  Here's a look

And look at that corner!  All four corners came out perfect.

And the label.  I didn't know if I should put one on it, but Melissa encouraged me to.  She can be very convincing!  Unfortunately, my printer is not working, so I couldn't do my usual print-something-out-in-a-cool-font-then-trace-it-onto-fabric thing, so my horrible normal handwriting will just have to do.



I just realized that I didn't get a good picture of how I quilted it.  I just did random lines throughout, and it kind of looked like a spiderweb.  So I'm calling it "spiderweb quilting."

I don't know how much good this will do - those affected have been through so much, and this seems like such a small thing.  But I hope it gives a little comfort to someone.

Mug Rug Madness!

Couple of things before you start reading...

*First, I took the Process Pledge (see the button on the left), so this post will be...lengthy.
**Second, I'm going to mention more about this at the end of the post, but since most of you probably don't care about my particular processes, and I don't think you'll make it that far down, check out Erin's Mug Rug Madness (also see the button on the left...I'm getting too many buttons!).

For the past month or so, I've been in a mug rug kind of mood. I love making them, and they make perfect gifts! Plus, I love the freedom you have with them - they're so small, so you can try out new techniques, or just have fun with it!

First up, I actually made this one several weeks ago, but just never got around to sending it until a few days ago. It's for my friend, Cheri. She's super, uber-crafty, and really, she's the one who originally got me sewing to begin with. A few years ago, before I even owned a sewing machine, I would see some of the stuff she would make and I thought, "Hey, I could do that!" Well, I couldn't...then, at least. I still can't really do the things that she does, and my main focus is quilts now. But she's the reason I bought a sewing machine to begin with.

At the end of last year, she suggested that we do our own swap, and she specifically asked me to make her a mug rug. I asked her what colors she likes, and she said greens and blues. So I got the fabric I wanted at Sew Modern, but I still didn't know what I was going to do with it all. Cheri happened to read this blog post about when I went to Sew Modern the day it opened, and she somehow saw a whale fabric in one of the pictures. So one night, on Facebook chat, she said she really wanted that whale fabric because she loves whales. Little did she know that I already got fabric for her mug rug (not the whale fabric, though), and that gave me an idea! So I began my search to fulfill that idea.

I found what was actually an embroidery pattern here, and used that as a stencil for my whale. Appliqued that little guy on a kind of sky/sea scene, embroidered the spout spray, free-motioned some clouds in the "sky," and did a little wavy line quilting in the "sea." I kept the back simple, because Cheri likes things simple, so I really held back.

Next up is the one I did for Marybeth.  Did you see the Pay it Forward 2011 thing that was going around Facebook at the beginning of the year?  I'm doing that, and Marybeth is on my list, and she also requested a mug rug (see, these things are in high-demand!).  Originally she said she wanted blues and greens, too, but when I talked with her further about it, she said she'd like something yellow, because she's about to repaint her kitchen yellow.  I used a bunch of yellow scraps I had, and then bought this great Robert Kaufman print for the back.  And remember that plus pillow I made for Valentine's Day using Melissa & Co.'s pattern?  Well, I kind of did that with this mug rug, except I didn't actually look at the pattern, so I messed it up a little (but I only figured that out when I was piecing it.  It's not an obvious mistake).  And of course, it's way scaled down.  I really love the way this one turned out. 

Next is Michelle's.  I wanted to make something for Michelle, just because she's a good friend.  And then I realized it was her birthday (this was back in February).  So, I had to get on the ball.  She loves the Beatles, so I found some Beatles fabric on Etsy, but it came in way after her birthday, so I gave her the warning that I was working on something for her, but it would be late.  I had wanted to do a Union Jack for the front of the mug rug, but I could.not. get it to look right.  So I gave up.  One of these days I'll try it again, and actually use a tutorial!  So I finally broke down and asked her what colors she liked.  She gave me a few options, one of them being blue and yellow, since her and her husband are UCLA grads.  So I kind of used this tutorial for a starburst block, but stopped piecing when I thought it was big enough for the size I was going for.  That's why I say I kind of used the tute, because I didn't go through the whole thing.  After it was all said and done, I thought it kind of looked like spotlights, like at Hollywood?  Which was kind of cool, too, since we live in LA, and Michelle and I just recently had a Hollywood adventure (I really need to blog about that!).  The back, obviously, I just left simple with the Beatles fabric, and I did some herringbone quilting.  I figured this one is really a reversible mug rug - if she's feeling some Bruins love, she can have the blue and yellow spotlight side up.  If she's feeling more Beatlesy that day, she can have the Beatles side up.

Last, but not least, is for my dear friend, Melissa.  Melissa's awesome, and she's done some pretty thoughtful things for me in the short time we've known each other (see this post), so I wanted to make something for her.  She moved away back in November, but she was going to be coming in town, so I wanted to have it done for her when she got here.  She loves color spectrums, and what do you know, I won a color spectrum fabric bundle at the last LAMQG meeting!  Even before I got that though, I knew I wanted to do something rainbow-ish for her mug rug.  I found this great Kokka fabric for the back on etsy totally randomly, so after I won that bundle, I was set!  She also loves hexagons, so I just kind of went with that and came up with this design.  And of course, I used Liz's machine-piecing hexagons tutorial, because it's the best. To go with the rainbow-theme, I quilted in an arch pattern.  Come to find out, the day before she came in town was her birthday, so it was kind of good timing on my part to have already had this made.

This past Saturday, I had a little sew day at my house, and Katy came over.  She coined the term "March Mug Rug Madness" for our sew day - the boys have their basketball and mustaches, we have our mug rugs.  She actually started and finished a mug rug while she was here!  I was so proud.  She won my giveaway back in February, and since she's the one who won, I threw in a few Bliss hexagons for her, because she loves her some Bliss.  I had already pieced most of those hexagons, but she did a couple, then put the whole thing together.  Go Katy!

I think that's enough mug rugs for me - for now at least!  If you still can't get enough, you'll have to check out Erin's blog March 21-31, for her Mug Rug Madness!  She'll have tutorials and GIVEAWAYS!  So check it out.

Fabric and a Meeting

Last night was the LAMQG's monthly meeting in our new home - Sew Modern, which I've already mentioned here before.  It was awesome, and it'll be so nice to have an excuse to make it to that store once a month!

I took a couple of pictures, but with my camera phone, so they're kind of crappy (Alissa's got some better ones on her blog, though).  We had a record number of people there last night - over 60!  I think we usually run 40-something, so that was quite a difference.

And of course, I had to buy some fabric.  When I was there last week, I noticed this Living Elements line from Pat Bravo, and this one print really stood out to me.  So since I couldn't decide which colorway I liked the best, I decided to get a little of it all.  I have no idea what I'll use it for, but I just had to have it!



PS - Did you know I was having a giveaway?  If not, check it out here!

Sew Modern is Sew Cool!

One of the girls from the LAMQG just opened her new fabric store/sewing lounge yesterday!  It's called Sew Modern.  The Guild is going to start meeting there for our monthly meetings, but I couldn't wait until Monday so I made the trip up there to check it out!

It's the cutest little store ever!  I'm kind of living out my dream of having my own fabric store through Lauren.  She's done a great job setting it all up, and I hope it's a successful business for her.  Maybe someday I can do this myself...or maybe I'll just keep dreaming. 

Check out some pics!

Fabric...in a Pharmacy?

*Please excuse the poor quality of the following pictures. :)

When I really started getting into sewing, which was only earlier this year, my mother-in-law told me about this pharmacy in town that actually sold fabric. But the way I remember her telling me about it was that it wasn't very impressive. Then I talked to someone else from this area, and they said this store made them want to sing the "Hallelujah Chorus," because of the great selection. My sister-in-law also said this store had a lot of fabric. So, I told myself that the next time I was in town, I would check it out.

It's called A&E Pharmacy, and it's in a kind of scuzzy part of Pensacola. This is what the outside looks like. I told myself, "Don't judge the book by its cover. Go inside!"



And here's some pictures of the inside. It was kind of a pharmacy/consignment store/99 cent store.




Need some boas? They have a few...



I'm not going to lie...when I saw the boas, I was skeptical. But then I found the fabric (cue "Hallelujah Chorus")



And this is really only part of the glory of it all - the picture really doesn't do it justice. Simply put - I was in shock! Granted, there was tons and TONS of traditional fabrics, but the selection of modern, designer fabrics was some of the best I've seen under one roof. Amy Butler, Riley Blake, Kaffe Fassett, Michael Miller, Robert Kaufman, Valori Wells, Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, Alexander Henry - pretty much just about anything you want. Plus, they had stuff from a few years back, as well as the current trends. They had just aisles and aisles of fabric! Oh did I mention, they were having quite the sale?

Okay, so I went in with a purpose, and I succeeded in getting EXACTLY what I needed, and nothing more. I've really been wanting to do an all-polka dot quilt, and I'll be doing the Birdie Stitches Block of the Month starting in January (button on the sidebar), so I'm joining the two ideas. I picked out all of my fabric at A&E, and decided that all those dots needed something to break them up a little so I found some great solids, too. It was awesome to be able to pick out all my fabrics at once, rather than buying online or getting a little here and a little there. (The colors in this picture don't exactly read quite right)



The dots are a mix of Michael Miller's "Ta Dot," Kaffe Fassett's "Spot." The solids are a mix of Kaffe Fassett's shot cotton, Robert Kaufman kona, and Robert Kaufman quilter's linen. I absolutely loved laying everything out and picking and choosing from the HUGE selection! I was nervous about going with a scheme based on a pattern, and not color, but I feel very confident about all of my selections.

So that was my little adventure. If you're in the Pensacola area, this store is definitely worth a stop. If you live in Pensacola and don't know about this place, go there immediately. If you don't live in Pensacola, don't plan on ever being in Pensacola, then I'm sorry my friend, you just wasted a few minutes reading this. But I hope you liked it anyway.

Political

I found this one - Quilt Ventura. It was a great little store with a nice selection! In the main part of the store, they had everything from batiks to designers. They even had a parrot named Hoagie (who Kendall absolutely loved talking to)!

While I was browsing, one of the workers there told me that they had a bunch of sale fabrics in the back. I went to check it out and found these gems....



I laughed out loud when I saw them, so I had to buy a little bit of it (they had some precuts available).

I'm participating in a swap in which I signed up for red and blue fabric to send. I signed up for that a few weeks ago, but hadn't cut my fabric yet, so when it was time to, I decided these little guys would have to be a part of the swap. I hope they make people laugh.

If you're ever up in that part of the state, or driving on the 101 thru Ventura, this store is definitely worth a stop!