fabric

My First Quilt

Posted on by Tisha

My first quilt has been locked in a closet for the last couple of years…THANK God.  It’s terrible, the fabric shrank, it’s off, just an overall mess.  Thanks to my parents for loving it no matter my critiques.

I made this the Fall/Winter of 2000.  I was home from my freshmen year at IU for Thanksgiving and thought this would be a great gift for my parents.  I took my Gma to Wal-Mart with me to buy the fabric.  There was no pattern in mind, just wanted to make something.  Found some blues that would work for my parents room and started cutting.  No rotary cutter and ruler, just scissors and a 3″ square cut out from poster board.

To keep the quilt a secret from my parents I had to leave everything at my gmas.  Let’s just say I spent a lot time over there during that break.  On Christmas Eve I was to the point that I needed to bring the quilt top and sewing machine into my parents house to finish sewing.  Of course no one wanted to go to bed that night.  They all stayed up to watch a Christmas Movie until 11pm.  I gave up and took a nap and slept until they went to bed.

I ran outside, grabbed the machine, and set up my machine.  The quilt was finished around 3am, only because I ran out of binding.  It’s tacked with embroidery floss and not at every block.  It shrank after the first wash.  My parents were so happy with their gift.  They actually used the quilt on their bed for a few years.  Now it’s retired to a closet since they have updated their room.

 

Thanks Mom for busting it out for my feature.

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A little something for myself

Posted on by Tisha

I was in love with Studio E’s Etching fabrics that were out earlier this year.  I wanted to create pillowcases to add some color to our neutral bedroom.  Lots of brown and tan in there.  Blue is color hubby and I can agree on.  You might remember my Vintage Modern post from earlier about looking for fabrics that would go well in our room.  There is still lots of design work to be done in there, but we are focusing on other locations in the house right now…the basement.

Here are the completed pillowcases:

So far we have had two nights of sweet dreams on them.  Hubby commented that maybe he should leave more often since I did these while he was on a camping trip.

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Sam’s Strip Quilt #2

Posted on by Tisha

Well both baby boys named Sam have arrived.  Both are happy, healthy and have wonderful new quilts to lay on.

For this quilt I knew the nursery was a bit more muted in color.  I did struggle to find a print for a baby boy that would get me started.  Found a print and matched solids and other prints with it.  Took them home and started cutting.  I am hooked on strip quilts.  They are easy to cut, piece and get quilted all in a reasonable amount of time.  Plus one fabric doesn’t have to be the main focus point.

My coworkers were loving this quilt, they get sneak peeks before most stuff hits the blog, facebook or twitter.

Baby quilt madness has slowed just a bit, but more great things to come.

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For Your Protection

Posted on by Tisha

I have been making potholders for about a year and half and with time you see where you can improve your product.  Based on feedback from friends and family I have designed a bigger potholder, every time I make one, they get bought before I can put on Etsy.  So bigger potholders, check.

Other feedback has been that they felt thin.  I went back and looked and yes, it did feel thin.  So adding a layer of cotton batting was the next step.  The batch of insul bright that I had used felt thinner than others.  I should have been proactive rather than reactive.

I wanted to give my customer’s the best product I can make.  Here is a look inside my potholders.

just a layer of insul bright
cotton batting to be added to exsisting potholders

There has been a good response to the new design.  Just a few more to make changes to expired listings.

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Swap Blocks

Posted on by Tisha

Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild has been hosting a block swap for the last year or so.  I have really enjoyed the challenge of doing blocks for someone else.  I must admit not every month was my favorite and I struggled, but overall it has been a good creative outlet for me.  Thank you to me fellow swappers for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

My blocks are up for June.  Meg totally stole my idea for May, so time to look for something new.  I have a block idea but need to decide if I should utilize my FAVORITE fabric in my stash, Timeless Treasures Botanica.  Or should I do something else.  I have some extra fabric that I think would go really well.  Anyone up for all solids???

Here are some of the blocks I’ve done over the last few months.

Modern Mosaic
February blocks

The block above was super easy.  I should try this with some of the fabrics sitting in my stash.

Wonky Log Cabin

Darn you Meg for taking my idea.  No worries though.  Love this block and actually made mine bigger than you asked for.  I really got into the creating, sewing, etc part and just forgot to check the size.

Purple Stone Walk-up

Really struggled with this one.  Had to create without a real pattern.  EEEK!!  Why do you think the block is so tall?

strips!

Loved the colors combination for this block.

Can’t wait to see what people create for me.

 

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Mug Rug

Posted on by Tisha

Well I finally made one.  I had some leftovers from my new potholder design.  I grabbed some backing fabric and went to work quilting.

quilted

The quilting only took an hour or so.  I tried to make it very close together, something I rarely do.  As I was quilting I had a recipient in mind.

bound
back side

When we all met for dinner one Sunday I brought it along as a belated birthday present too.  Very happy with the results and the feedback.  I will try one of these again.

 

Excited to use with her tea.

 

 

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