Walk in the Woods Quilt

I love when I am motivated to actually finish a project that's been in waiting far too long. I don't have too many of those, because I really like to finish quilts. (Let's all just forget about my 2 Swoon blocks languishing in purgatory.) Finishing is the best feeling, plus I am usually making some kind of gift with a deadline. 

But this was a quilt top I made back in November for no reason in particular. The patchwork in the middle is made from a small sample pack of Aneela Hoey's Walk in the Woods line that my boss brought me back from fall quilt market. After I sewed all the squares together, I thought maybe it could become a baby girl quilt pretty easily, so I used some things from my stash to improv some log cabin stuff around it. That pink and red wave is from Liesl Gibson's Modern Workshop line, and I love how well it works with Walk in the Woods. I also love how the large Ikea script print works in the quilt. 

I'm pretty excited about the free-motion quilting here. It's only my second or third attempt, and it came out just like I envisioned it. All the loopty loops just go in horizontal lines across the quilt with a couple inches between. I feel like at this point the only way that I can handle FMQ is to go generally in one direction. I'm not good at the all-over every direction stuff because I get too stressed out. Maybe I try to go to fast? Maybe I need to make a better plan of attack about where I will travel? I don't know, I'll work on it. 

The entire back is the same AMH Mixed Signals print in blue that I used some on the top. That particular print seems to be useful for many things, so I'm glad I still have a couple yards hanging around. The binding is from Bonnie and Camille's Ruby line, plus a little of the Modern Workshop waves again in the corner. 

Here is a section of the quilting you can see a bit better. I still prefer straight line quilting for lots of reasons, but I really think this design works with this quilt and fabric line well. Plus it was SO fast to do. Sometimes fast is necessary and ok, so maybe I should make better friends with free-motion quilting. (Lately I've seen and heard many great things about this FMQ book)



So I'm really glad the 100 Quilts for Kids charity drive gave me the push to finish this one up. More info on that right here.

AND since I just heard yesterday that the newest Craft Hope project is all about quilts for the wildfire victims out West, I've decided to ship this one to Pheonix Quilts in Utah. The project runs until September 15, but they are even accepting unfinished quilt tops and blocks. So maybe you have something waiting in quilt purgatory too that would rather be used in Utah? 

Stick it to the Spam- a Competition of Sorts.

A few weeks ago, I decided to finally take the robot-detector-annoying-code-thing off my comments. If that technical term isn't quite clear, I mean that I made it so that you no longer have to type in hard to decipher letters to leave a comment here. Spam robots did not automatically take over the world, or even attack my little blog. I have a gotten a few since then, but Blogger is really good at finding them and deleting the comment. But I still get the email for that comment. 

Here is one that I got shortly after that cracks me up:

I often wonder why I am not more smartly liked than I am right now. Don't we all? The solution is to talk more about Woman Gaga. 

If you don't have a blog and therefore don't know the tell-tale signs of a spam comment, that's pretty textbook. They usually compliment your blog or writing, but don't mention anything that is actually specific to your blog. Then they have that link at the end of the comment. Thank you, I have totally been wondering what the very best way to lose weight is. It's a wonder science has taken so long to figure that one out. 

They sometimes have a better grasp on English though. Here is one I got on Monday's post. I think it was one of the first comments on the post, but Blogger did not put it up:

Wowee, thanks! I AM a good writer aren't I? Glad someone who obviously reads my posts thoroughly has finally appreciated me in my time. Off to check out the Foamnasium!

Anyway, no harm done, no big annoyance. Like I said, I don't get these on every single post, and I'm glad I made commenting a little easier for actual readers now. 

But then, the same anonymous spammer, we'll call her Melvin, came back and left another comment:

Really Melvin? REALLY?!? Are you being inconvenienced by the natural consequences of you spamming MY blog? She didn't even bother to take off the random link on the end. I'm really glad to know that it's a different link than the first one. These people aren't working for individual websites obviously. I might actually need some calming therapy. 

So since Melvin is anon, I went back and left a comment on my own post this morning, knowing she would get it in 4 emails, and said this:

"Are you kidding me anonymous??! You left me a spam comment! You can't ask for any favors. I should just leave a comment on this post every hour for the benefit of your inbox. At least blogger was smart enough to recognize you as spam and not post your comments."

Maybe that was harsh. Maybe I forgot to use my calming therapy. To be fair, Melvin is kind of spacey for not knowing that she is the one that has to unsubscribe from the comments. If you are going to make an illustrious career for yourself in internet spamming, you have to learn these things.


My idea is to have you guys help me damn the spam. Obviously, Melvin is a real person, so we don't want to be mean. But we do want to be slightly (or very) annoying. Because spam is slightly or very annoying.

So maybe, if you fancy these kind of uprisings, go to this post and leave a comment. If you have a blog, you probably want to do it anonymously so Melvin doesn't also leave helpful links on your own blog. It won't take long to comment because I don't have code-deciphering remember?

I think you should start them all "Dear Melvin..." then proceed to tell her some good calming therapy tactics, or your favorite types of foam. For example:

"Dear Melvin, sometimes when I feel flustered and need to calm down, I cover my whole body in shaving foam and lie face down in the bath tub. Works wonders!"


And just think, Melvin will get 4 times the inbox spam for each one you do! And I will get the comment email and chuckle menacingly.


Right here. I'm serious, I really want you to. I'm going to give the best comment a prize next week! (But if you are commenting anon, you will just have to be honest about whose is whose, when prize time comes, ok?)

Sew in Tune- A Radiohead Robe. Kind of.

Hey guys, today I'm over at Stacey's for the fun Sew in Tune series, talking about how I made this robe for Hendrix and my love of Radiohead. Check out my post here. 

If you don't go for me, go so you can leave a comment and enter the giveaway for Melissa's (MellySews) new ebook of patterns for boys, Blank Slate Patterns. I am SO EXCITED to get my hands on these patterns. I think the concept is brilliant. They really are blank basics that can be customized however you like, which I think is exactly what we who sew for boys need! But basic as they are, they are very stylish and look to have a great modern fit. I truly think you could buy this ebook and be set on making your boy's wardrobe from 18 mo to 8 yrs. It always makes me so happy to see talented women like Melissa stepping out in bravery and making their talent a business. You go girl. Just kidding, I don't say that. Except for right now. 

Hope you have a happy Monday! I'll be attempting to baste a quilt. With pins. Yikes. 

Interrupting Pirate

This was me late Wednesday night after a visit to a very questionable urgent care. A babysitter was scheduled to come at 9 that night so we could finally go see Dark Knight Rises. (I cannot overemphasize how excited I was to see this movie.) About an hour before that, Hendrix was sitting on my lap on the couch singing me a nice song. Then he decided to tickle my face, which turned out to just be slashing my cornea with his fingernail. The Dr. said it was the biggest corneal abrasion he's ever seen, but he also decided an eye patch was all it needed, then sent me home. Obviously, I wasn't going to be visiting the movie theater that night.

After a night and morning of feeling like my entire eyelid was lined with needles, I finally went to a real eye doc. He gave me a protective contact lens, so the patch was no longer needed. Also drops for pain and antibiotics for infection. And he had me come back today to check on the progress.

The moral is, urgent care guy sucks, always see the real eye doctor. Like my husband says, the eyes are the testicles of the face.

The other moral is that kids ruin everything. You love them to death, but don't tell me it's not true.

Anyway, most of my sewing and blogging plans were interrupted by this, not to mention the big batman plans. It's getting much better, but it still burns to look at a screen for very long. So now I'm going to have to put on my shades and try to suffer thru Project Runway.



Mostly I just wanted to show you how I was a legitimate pirate for a day.




By the way, voting for Shorts on the Line is up at Imagine Gnats! If you were a fan of our mini SteveZ, I'd love for you to vote for Hendrix's Euro-shorts, #33.

Go here to vote.

Go here if you missed Film Petit: Life Aquatic

Bubble Painting and Sewing Gifts

Today I'm over at Kiki and Company with a fun summer activity involving painting and bubbles. It's brilliantly entitled "Bubble Painting." Go here to check out the fun I had with my buddy Ryan making this fun art. Also look around at some of the other great posts in Kiki's series- she is having all kinds of fun over there!

Also make sure to check out Jacey's blog to see the amazing gifts she sent me last week! If you've been around a while, you may remember this mini quilt I made a while back. It was actually sent to her, and now she has paid me back in the greatest way. I seriously love my new pincushion, fabric basket and sewing kit. Can you believe I haven't been using a pincushion for most of my sewing career? What in the world?

She really picked the greatest fabrics for me. (Her picture) Thanks so much Jacey!! 

I feel so behind in sharing things I've been making with you! I finished a quilt recently that I hope to get photographs of in the next couple days. I'm also really excited to be making my own version of my buddy Maureen's West Elm inspired pillow:

Isn't is crazy gorgeous? I can't wait to put my own spin on it. (See I told you I can't get away from those damn chevron patterns!)

The whole project has inspired me to give our living room a bit of a makeover, so today I made curtains and I hope to make two or three more new pillow covers soon as well. 

Quilt wise, I'm really close to finishing a gift quilt and then I'm itching to finish up the scrappy +&x. That one is always getting put on the back burner because it's just for me, but I WILL finish before fall is here!

On the kids' clothing front, the next installment of Film Petit is in the works already and we are pumped about this one. Just chuffed to bits.

Do you ever finish a blog post and think to yourself, "Wow, I really used way too many exclamation points on this one. How obnoxious... Oh well!!!"

Yeah, me neither. 

Fall Fabric Sneaky Peeks

(Business first: The winner of Wednesday's Peekaboo pattern giveaway is commenter #45 Rhonda D. Congrats! I'll be emailing you!)



If you are new here, you may not yet know that I work in a pretty little fabric shop called Sewn Studio. (See some of my pictures of it here.)

As if it wasn't fun enough to work in a place filled with great fabric and people who love sewing, sometimes there are extra special perks. This week, that meant getting to be in a meeting with the Freespirit rep and see all kinds of fabric lines that haven't even previewed online or at Quilt Market yet.

I thought you might enjoy seeing just a little of what I saw, although there aren't tons of pictures. It was just what I could snap on my phone while trying not to be too annoying to my boss, who was actually trying to make thoughtful decisions about ordering all this stuff.

This is Joel Dewberry. Collection is called Notting Hill and I think it's due out in November. There are two other colorways, but this was my favorite and I think it may be the one we ordered. I love the plaid and that art deco-ish print that's above it. And how fun are those scandinavian looking round flowers?

Valori Wells. I totally missed the name of this, but it's got really great color combos. Love the yellow flowers, and REALLY love those tear drop-ish prints in the upper right corner. (Sorry, hard to see those.)

 New Parson Gray by David Butler. I like that he used a lot more of the warmer colors in this one. Those overlapping circles are very very cool.

Very excited by this one! It's Jay McCarroll. (Again, missed the name of it.) Of course I love the city buildings and maps. Plus the pops of hot pink are killer. But I'm most drawn to that print in the upper left corner. I need to make myself a garment of some sort in that one. 

And we got to comb through the actual fabric samples of Anna Maria Horner's Field Study, which you've probably already seen and is due out next month. Totally had that Moonrise Kingdom feel that I'm so in love with right now. And of course, the genius-level AMH use of color you've some to expect.


If you follow me on Instagram, you saw these in real time on Tuesday. I'm pretty addicted to it now, so if you fancy following me on IG, I'm alittlegressica.



One more thing to share in Sewn Studio news- we are having a giveaway on our blog for one Figgy's pattern of your choice. Enter here.


Have a great weekend! I'll be sewing and hopefully pooling :)

The Retro Romper: review and giveaway

This girl is ready to pounce.

I am enjoying so much all the girly things I've been getting to make her lately. But MAN is she hard to photograph. I think she is just about twice as wild as Hendrix ever was at her age, and definitely twice as clumsy.

So from wild Elsie and me, welcome to my stop on the Peekaboo Pattern Shop blog tour!

This pattern is called the Retro Romper, and it's quickly turning into my favorite little outfit. First I should mention that today only, this pattern is only $5. So if you like it, you should snag it up now... but also read my super helpful and informative review :)

Fabric: 

I used a clearance navy fabric from the shop I work in called Many Eyes Seeing (weird name) and solid white Bella for the trim. My original thinking in choosing the navy was that this would be an outfit for the Fourth, but that did not happen in time. Even so, this little romper is so summery, that even the dark color looks great. It's totally nautical- so hot right now. (Hansel)

Pattern Pieces: 

There are five pattern pieces, and they were clearly marked and easy to print and understand.  (All Peekaboo Patterns are PDF downloads.) The cutting instructions for non-pattern pieces are also clear. 

Pattern instructions:

Everything came together fairly easily. The gathering on the bodice works nicely with the collar and halter straps, which is the design element that really drew me to the pattern. I also love the sweet elastic gathered back.

The instructions themselves are clear enough if you have followed a couple of clothing patterns before. I don't feel like this is something for a first time pattern sewer, just because some little things are taken for granted, but nothing major. If you have just a few clothing projects under your belt, you would be able to follow with no problems. There are also pictures for nearly every little step, which is always helpful.

Changes:
I made the 18 month size for Elsie, which Amy did warn me might be a little long. When I got the main part of the romper done, it was almost to her ankles and just looked odd at that length. I think in the older sizes that shape works really well, because I like the vintage-looking length in the sample photos.  But I decided it wasn't working on Elsie, especially with the darker fabric. So I chopped off a good four or five inches, re-did the crotch and added simple white cuffs. It was a super quick fix, and I ended up LOVING the shortie version on her.

And she loves it too. She can do all her climbing and troublemaking easily and comfortably. See? Look at that cheese:

Giveaway Time! (Do I even DO those things?! Apparently.)

****Giveaway now closed, winner is #45, Rhonda D. Congrats!*****

Amy from Peekaboo Patterns is offering such a great prize package to one of my readers- three patterns from her shop, your choice. What I love about Peekaboo is that there are so many options! Amy has boy stuff, girl stuff, hats, PJs, dresses, jackets, even several swimsuit patterns. Go look around and it will not be hard to find three patterns you will want to try. 

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment here telling me your favorite Peekaboo pattern. 

If you are the sort that likes extra chances to win, one extra chance each for liking the Peekaboo Facebook page and for liking my new Facebook page. Just leave me another comment for each. I'll pick a random winner Friday.

***But don't forget about the $5 romper! If you end up winning, you just get to pick three MORE good ones. And be sure to follow the tour on these other stellar blogs: