making, learning & sharing a crafty life
Happy Holidays! I’m actually still super busy, so I haven’t had lots of down time yet. I’m really looking forward to a quiet New Year’s weekend. I’m still working away on some of my ‘holiday/new year’ gifts!
In the midst of holiday sewing, I made time for my new Sunday routine. This block was inspired by the leftover scraps from a gift I am making using Kona Charcoal. I rarely use solids in patchwork, but I love how this turned out.
I’m trying out a new weekly routine where I dedicate Sunday nights to sewing and to doing some improvisational patchwork or other type of patchwork. No pressure to make anything from these blocks, but just time to play around with colour, form and fabric. So far I’ve been using scraps for these blocks and it’s giving me so many ideas for colour palettes, possible larger quilts and some smaller projects I want to try out. I’m absolutely loving the magical things that are happening when I sew with no plan.
All I have to say is, “Thank Goodness For City of Craft!”. In the couple days prior to the show, I was entering a holiday meltdown mood. I was really starting to freak out that I was so unprepared with only a week to go. I have only finished a few of my gifts and none of the major ones.
This year was the first year that I went to City of Craft with the sole purpose of shopping. The last few years, I had done a little workshop and had ten minutes to rush around the floor before heading back to the workroom to teach a class. This year I had about an hour, but I could have stayed for twice as long.
The vendors were really incredible! I had a very hard time making my final selections as I had given myself a set budget for spending. But I was able to pick up some great Christmas gifts and a few special treats for myself.
Congratulations! to Becky and everyone City of Craft-related on a wonderful show. Next year I will allot even more time, so I can spend even more money! If I can’t make all my gifts, it feels great to buy gifts from such talented locals.
Details on the fun goodies I picked up:
Watermelon Pair by The Maple Ridge
- these guys are for me! i could not resist these matching figures, especially since they were holding watermelons. Becky told me that Andrew Zangerle was just about to give up on making these figures before doing City of Craft. Please don’t let that happen, they are too awesome.
Mini Blackboard Necklace by Killside Krafts
- okay, this is also for me. Melodie laser cuts her books and cute accessories at the workroom. These mini blackboard necklaces are perfect for someone who loves anything blackboard.
Pin Cushion by Needlebook
- um, this is also for me. I have a few other items by Claire and you can just feel the love crafted into them.
Ceramic Heart Brooch by Julie Moon
- This is a gift for Andrew’s mom. I could easily purchase one of everything Julie makes.
Glow in the Dark T-Shirt by Hieng Tang
- This is a gift for my brother. He loves t-shirts and monsters and you can’t go wrong with something that also glows in the dark!
Asparagus Brooch by Denture Thief Productions
- Oh dear, this is for me.
Cat Tea Towels by Lines by Davis
- This is another gift for Andrew’s mom. I’ve long admired Davis’ cat pillow, so I was really excited to see a tea towel version.
This really shows you what happens when I go out shopping for gifts… 50% for me and 50% for others. Luckily, I don’t get out much! I’m working away on making the rest of my gifts and will post those photos soon-ish.
My holiday sewing has been going at snail’s pace. Last weekend I decided to download this pattern to make a patchwork mug rug. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what a mug rug is. I only learned about them recently. It’s a little coaster/mat for your mug with a little extra room for a cookie or yummy pastry. I think this is a brilliant idea because you gotta have a cookie with your hot tea!
I have been coveting Amanda‘s mug rugs for ages. (this one! & this one!) So when I saw she had published a pattern for one, I knew I had to make a few.
I had so much fun sewing up these little mug rugs. They were made almost completely from my scraps and leftover fabric. I made the first one for myself, to see how the pattern went and then made four more for gifts. They come together really quickly! I can’t tell you how justified I felt using up some special wee scraps (some only a couple inches square) that I had been keeping in my scrap box. As you can see, this pattern is perfect for some choice fussy cutting. A great way to show off some of your favourite fabric details.
I did very simple straight line quilting on these, echoing the patchwork lines. That’s pretty much what I do all the time. I need to get a little bit more creative in the quilting department! I am already starting to think of some New Year’s crafty goals and free motion quilting is one of them.
This pattern has really inspired me to start working on smaller patchwork projects. The same night after I made the mug rug tops, I stayed up and made my chromatic half log cabin. I gotta say patchwork mug rugs, mini quilts and table runners are where it’s at! You get all the fun of making patchwork and doing quilting, but it’s done in a day or two.
The Venti Mug Rug pattern & other cool patchwork-y/cross stitch-y patterns can be found at The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.
I had a marathon sewing night on Sunday. I pulled out my bin of fabric scraps and started working on some Christmas gifts from a new pattern I bought. I’ll show you the results as soon as I put the finishing touches on what I made. I was having so much fun playing with all my scraps and sewing improvisational patchwork, that I kept going until the wee hours of the morning. (um… 4:30am!)
A few months ago, I actually spent a night organizing my scrap bin by colour. This made the patchwork process so much easier, since I had little bundles of each colour that I could just choose from. As I was working away on my Christmas gifts, I started thinking about making a little patchwork block that was based on the colour wheel. I decided to do a half log cabin and started with a sunny yellow corner and worked outwards through all the colours. I really love how this turned out! The block is approximately 20″ square. I am simply going to baste this block, quilt it and bind it. It looks great on our dining room table, but I think it will also look great hanging on the wall. I have officially fallen in love with mini quilts.
I’ve got a bunch of ideas for more scrappy blocks. I really enjoyed free style sewing all the pieces together. I’m thinking that Sunday nights are going to be my ‘mini quilts’ night. I had so much fun and felt so inspired by the process.
I decided yesterday in the spur of the moment that the workroom should have a fabric sale. Perhaps it was the fact that is was December 1st and it’s now very clear how close the holiday are. Perhaps it was the fact that we were expecting fifty new bolts of fabric but really have no where to put them. Mostly it was just because I think you guys are pretty awesome and you deserve a little pre-holiday treat.
To make it even more fun, you get to choose the fabric you’d like to get on sale! Simply purchase 2 metres or more of fabric to receive 10% off your fabric purchase. If you purchase 4 metres or more of fabric, you’ll receive 20% off your fabric purchase.
You can even mix and match fat quarters and yardage of different fabrics! So, 4 Liberty of London fat quarters + 1 metre of nani IRO + 2 metres of Heather Ross’ Far Far Away = 4 metres = 20% off! Whoo!
The only catch is that the sale is only 4 days. It starts today and ends on Sunday December 5.
AND… tomorrow night is the Sheridan Textile Studio Sale at the workroom. We hosted this sale last year and it was a lot of fun. The students of the Textile program have hand printed fabric yardage, fat quarters, aprons, t-shirts, napkins and created other textile gifts. The proceeds from the sale go towards the graduating class exhibit at the end of the year.
Happy Holiday Crafting!
a
