Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2015: Allietare! Clue #5

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called Allietare! I participated last year with her Grand Illusion and really enjoyed the process. Last week I shared my progress on clues #1 and #2, clue #3 and clue #4.

This week was super quick and easy. Just piece together units made in clue #1 and clue #2. I'm pretty sure this is a quilt I would never attempt if I knew from the beginning how many pieces would be included. I do like the surprise, though.

What am I listening to this week? I've been trying to catch up with episodes of Escape Pod, Pseudo Pod and Pod Castle. I don't know where I would be without the Escape Artists crew to listen to while I work. If you like fantasy, horror or speculative fiction I suggest you check them out. I keep links to them in the sidebar so you don't have to search the blog to find links like this.

Are you participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt this year?

Linking up with Quiltville.

In the Mail Monday: Con Man!

In the spring of 2015 I came across an IndieGoGO campaign that captured my attention. I jumped on the campaign with little abandon. The campaign become a wonderful thing that exploded past their initial request to the tune of millions.

Con Man is now available on Vimeo in demand. If you are a Firefly fan and want to see Alan Tudyk make fun of himself and the convention circuit I recommend you check it out.

My extras arrived in the mail and I was so excited I let out a squeal! I am creating quite a collection of Firefly themed t-shirts and this one is close enough to join the collection. They are also going to release Spectrum in comic form!

Have you found any great projects on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo that you just had to become a part of?

Charity Quilting: Last of the year

Here is the last charity quilt of the year. It won't get dropped off until next year but it is quilted.

This quilt was pieced by another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids and quilted with the humble meander. 

2015 Charity Quilt Count:  50

Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2015: Allietare! Clue #4

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called Allietare! I participated last year with her Grand Illusion and really enjoyed the process. Last week I shared my progress on clues #1 and #2, and clue #3.

I cut a few blocks and pieced them.

This clue isn't difficult, but the cutting seems to go on forever. This doesn't show all of the little black corners needed for this clue. In the end, I cut too many of those little black corners. I'm hoping they don't go to waste.

This is the first time I've really tried to make a pieced block that is even this close to a flying geese unit. I think when I'm done I'll be able to use the tools I have (the Easy Angle Ruler and the Companion Angle Ruler) to try my hand at flying geese.

I foolishly timed how long it took to make one set. I'm not going to tell you. You can do your own test.

It took days and several distractions to get these finished.

I've got them all into the bin, which is almost overflowing. I'm glad we're getting all these bits done. I'm not certain I would attempt a quilt like this if I saw it as one giant meal. Chopping it up into these small and tasty bits makes it manageable.

Are you participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt this year?

Linking up with Quiltville.

In the Mail Monday: Crazy for Yarn

I've been working on a few knitting projects during those little times when you don't have something to do. Like waiting for your flight. Or riding in the car. Or waiting to get your hair cut. Or waiting for dinner to come to the table. I've also discovered West Knits and I love Stephen's designs. These things combine to help me have a reason to order more yarn!

My favorite online yarn store is Knit Picks. Great products and great service. I also love their Options Interchangeable needle set.

They recently had a sale and I decided I needed more fingering yarn. That brought me to this amazing sampler of yarn. This is Hawthorne, a beautifully hand-painted fingering weight yarn. This is the Desert Sunset kit.

Twelve hanks of yarn in these warm and yummy colors.  "Yarn Information: Hawthorne: Fingering Weight, 80% Superwash Fine Highland Wool, 20% Polyamide (Nylon), 357 yards, 100 grams."

They come packed in this handy cedar box that fits perfectly on my shelf. I see some amazing shawls in my future.

Do you have a favorite online shop?

Last Minute Holiday Making

I decided to participate in the the holiday gift exchange at work this year.

I did a quick fabric pull and made this cute pouch using Noodle-head's free tutorial. The Open Wide Pouch can be made in three sizes (and many more, three is just what the tutorial is written for) and it makes a great quick gift. I then filled it with chocolate and holiday flavored teas.

I'm still unpacking boxes. I was so happy when I found this bin full of 4.5" charms and crumb blocks. What would I do without all my scraps? I'm still unpacking boxes.

Adventures in Fleece: Charity Sewing

I have a disturbingly large collection of fleece fabric. I see the remnants at the Hancock Fabric and I think I need to take them all home with me. This means I have loads of small (1 yard or less) pieces of fleece fabric. I also have a friend that will send her unwanted fleece my way.

This means I've used fleece to make hats for charity a few times.

This year, there is a box in the vestibule at work asking for donations of winter clothing: hats, scarves and coats for donation to Martha's Table. This is a perfect way to use up some of that fabric.

My pattern uses the Quick Curve Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful to make cutting these hats super quick and easy. At some point I will write the entire pattern and share it with the world. Until then, making the hats is so much easier than writing the pattern.

All last week I would sew a few hats every day. The total for the week was 37 hats in various sizes. A couple of those were made by a friend.

I changed colors more than a couple time on the Baby Lock to get these all done.

Here is my bag full of hats ready to go into the bin for Martha's Table.

Do you make things to give to charity? I would love to hear your story.

Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2015: Allietare! Clue #3

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called Allietare! I participated last year with her Grand Illusion and really enjoyed the process. Last week I shared my progress on clues #1 and #2.

Bonnie's directions for making 4-patch units are just the best! I cut the strips, and pieced these really quickly. I love these colors more every day.

The low-volume prints for this quilt include some calculated risks but I love them.

The piece count on this quilt just keeps climbing. I should sit down and add them up. You know, for science. 

What am I listening to this week? I finally caught up with Stephanie at Modern Sewciety and her chat with Amanda Woodruff at Westwood Acres.

Are you participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt this year?

Linking up with Quiltville.

Adventures in Fleece: Fancy Hat

While I sit here, my head wrapped in warm fleece, it occurs to me that I should share this little piece of wonder with you. I have more fleece fabric than a person has a right to have. I also have an easy fleece hat pattern that I love to use to make hats for charity projects. I wanted to make something a little different.

I grabbed my notepaper and got to work. I designed the hat and got cutting. I have been using the Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful to cut the panels for my fleece hats and I love, love, love the technique. I used it again this time, but to cut six panels.

The overlock (Baby Lock Evolution) machine made quick work of my first draft. I think the band is a little loose, but I love the drape of the resulting hat. It isn't perfect, but it is a wearable first draft.

It's Friday. Are you excited about the latest clue from Bonnie Hunter for her Mystery Quilt Allietare?

Whedonverse Swap: Serenity Bag

In previous posts I shared the package I received and the package I sent as part of the Whedonverse Swap 2015. I'm so glad I got to participate in the swap. Occasionally I see swaps titled Big Damn Heroes and I wonder how they get started without me noticing. I can't join them all, though.

During this swap I came across another crafter make some amazing coasters and I commented that I would happily take her mistakes. I didn't expect anything to come of it. I was surprised when she said she would send me the mistakes if I really wanted them. I said sure and proposed we do a trade so she could get something, too.

Looking at her Instagram feed I found that she was also a knitter so a Firefly-themed, knitting-project bag seemed the perfect thing. I decided that the Open Wide Zippered Pouch from Noodle-head would be a good fit and I just needed the right thing to put on the outside of the bag. This is where I went on an adventure to find some machine embroidery to use. I found a couple designs from Etsy seller Lynellen Perry.

I purchased two designs: the Serenity logo and Serenity the ship. I attempted to create my own designs, but after a day of trying to create the outline of Serenity and getting a machine embroidery stitch-out that I didn't really like, I gave up. Learning digitizing software is like learning how to use Blender.

I spent entirely too much time trying to find a font that would read like the font used in the show. This task proved much more difficult than I anticipated. I ended up using this font which isn't terrible.

This is the largest size of the Open Wide Zippered Pouch. The perfect size to carry a couple balls of yarn and your current knitting project.

I love this project and I'm glad I took a bit of a risk and asked another crafter for a swap outside the bounds of a hosted swap.

"A [bag] like this will be with you 'til the day you die."

If you are new to craft swapping, Megan at The Bitchy Stitcher wrote a wonderful post about swaps and how they work.

Have you had any fun personal swaps? I'd love to hear about them.

Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2015: Allietare! Clues #1 and #2

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called Allietare! I participated last year with her Grand Illusion and really enjoyed the process.

Step one: replace the blade in the rotary cutter. So often I cut, and cut, and cut, and cut, and don't even realize how much energy I'm using to do so when the blade gets dull. Remember, rotary blades make a great stocking suffer!

I shared some of my shopping for this project. I think I've shopped at six different shops to find all the fabric for this quilt. I like spreading the small-business shopping around. I purchased fabrics at six different shops this year. I bought the backing fabric online. I have been interested in picking up some of Tula Pink's wide backing called Free Fall. I love the texture of the fabric. With my color choices I thought this would be just right. I'm always a little nervous buying fabric online. Being able to really see fabric is important. (The fabric on the right is the slipper sole fabric I bought for my fleece slippers.  I haven't cut into it yet, but I think it will make my planned slippers so much safer.)

Whenever Bonnie shares a clue I look at the tiny pieces and almost groan. It isn't difficult to work with small pieces.

The sheer numbers are mind boggling. I think last year Grand Illusion had almost 3000 pieces.

This quilt looks like it is going to pass that number. I took the first clue in small-ish bites and made part of them over the first week. The three photos above are from three days of cutting and sewing these tiny blocks. (If you want the know the sizes and counts for these little half-square-triangle blocks you have to go to Bonnie's blog Quiltville and look up Allietare.) I didn't trim my blocks until Saturday.

These are my test pieces for clue two. I know these aren't real flying geese, but they are as close to them as I've ever gotten. Making these made me realize I might not mind flying geese as much as I fear. I may have to play with making a few using Bonnie's technique.

On Saturday I had time to work on clue two and trim up all those half-square-triangle blocks from clue one. My bin is quickly filling up! Now that I've finished clues one and two I think I'll pull out some of my holiday fabrics and come up with some sort of plan. I swear I don't buy holiday fabrics but they keep showing up in my sewing room. Or some crumb blocks, those might be good to fit in during my limited time during the week. So many projects and so little time.

Are you participating in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt this year?

Linking up with Quiltville.

What am I listening to this week? The Crafty Planner did an amazing interview with Karen McTavish and I need to catch up with Stephanie at Modern Sewciety.

Sewing Space

I love seeing how other people set up their creative space. I figured it was time I shared a couple of my own.

When we moved in both upstairs rooms had carpet. Since moving in we've removed the carpet and replaced it with laminate flooring. It is so much easier to keep clean. We also had the walls painted. Here is my cutting table.

I put up some hooks to hold some of my thread racks. I think I need more thread racks, or a carpenter.

Good thing I made room, too. Because new So Fine! arrived. Have you tried the topstitch needles from Superior Threads. I love them. You can often find these are local quilt shops. Whenever someone complains of shredded thread I recommend they try a topstitch needle. I use the  #80/12 Topstitch Superior Titanium-Coated Needle (Blue Package) for my sewing and embroidery.

The newest addition to the studio was the television my husband and son installed over the Thanksgiving holiday. I now have my very own Amazon Fire TV Stick. I can watch all the Amazon Prime goodies with it.

Extra points if you know what's on the TV without trying to read the title on the top of the screen.

Charity Quilting: Fairy Dreams and Farm Life

I gave the fairy alphabet panel for this quilt to another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids. She added in some blocks and pieced together this fun quilt.

This fun quilt was pieced by another member, too.  I really like to different setting on this one.  I love the bunny panel.

Here is the bundle of quilts that was dropped off at the last meeting of Annapolis quilts for Kids.

2015 Charity Quilt Count:  49