This is my sewing circle.

Lelia, me, Katie, and Misty

Love,

Tiff

all folded up!

I used materials that I had on hand: the black polk-dot remnant (look familiar?), some white material, and a red button from my button bucket.

unfolded

ready to be folded into a "wallet"

I like it, but the construction was a little weird in some parts. If I make it again, I will be modifying the pattern.

Love,

Tiff

TYS, 7/25/10

The fabric is a remnant I bought at Jo-Ann’s, and the clip came from an old bag.

It’s basically double-fold binding sewn down the edges.

I slid one end through the clip before sewing the edges together. I then flipped the loop and sewed across the straps, close to the clip with my zipper foot.

Easy-peasy!

Love,

Tiff

Big Book of Rotary Cutter Quilts

I had checked out this book from the library and loved it, so I am very glad to own it.

Look at the cute dinosaurs!

I love the trees.

Brendan and I finally took our CDs to McKay’s (the used media store), and I actually found two sewing books there from this decade!

The first, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, was on my Amazon wish list, and it has the pattern pieces (unused!).

This kicks the pants off the case I made for Nette

ooo, color!

I also purchased The Perfect Handmade Bag.

pretty

I have to make this one: it's an owl in a tree!

I love having so many inspiring pages. I think I’m starting to get ideas for Christmas…

Love,

Tiff

I had a devil of a time laying out the blocks so that the same prints weren’t sharing a seam (if you do see a repeat, don’t point it out, please, for the sake of my sanity). I wasn’t sure if I would add a border, but I think the forest print and gingham squares finish it nicely (visually and size-wise).

Now I need to think about backing, quilting pattern, and binding…

Love,

Tiff

P.S. Isn’t Brendan sweet to help me take pictures?

I went for drama with floor-to-ceiling simple panels (my favorite kind of window treatments–I’ve never been a fan of fancy drapes–strange, I know, when you consider my collection of accessories…).

Now I need some cool iron tie-backs.

They are lined with blackout fabric (50% off at Jo-Ann’s last week), which really keeps it dark in our room. This also makes the panels extremely heavy; we will need a new curtain rod (see how it bows?).

Don’t they look good? As I look at them, I keep thinking I need to make a quilt in black and grays for our bed…

Love,

Tiff

P.S. I have a little bit of fabric left over for throw pillows for the bed…or a new quilt.

Once I had all of the squares cut, I sewed them into strips of three.

strips!

Sixteen of the strips have a red gingham square in the center, which became the center for the nine patches.

nine patches galore!

The next step was to cut my nine patches into quarters so that I would have a total of sixty-four blocks.

nine patch pressed and on cutting mat

first cut

second cut

When I made up the strips for the nine patch, I was careful about my fabric placement. That way, only certain squares are halved, and the super cute prints (owls, Little Red, the forest, and its creatures) would remain whole. I wanted the red gingham to be a snappy little square, hence its placement in the center of the patch.

I finished cutting all of the nine patches and the blocks are now ready to be arranged!

all of my blocks!

Lest you think I’m awesome, I got the pattern idea for this quilt from one of the blogs I subscribe to, Obsessively Stitching. This lady is awesome and did a quilt-along tutorial on her blog. I didn’t participate because I was working on “Saint Brendan.” Here is the arrangement of the blocks that I will be following.

Love,

Tiff

P.S. I got all specific with how I’m doing this in case you wanted to know, Nette. Otherwise, just enjoy the eye-candy of that delicious fabric.

I really think the fabrics came together beautifully, and my first attempt at free motion quilting isn’t half bad. I still haven’t made my own binding, but I did hand-stitch the binding on the back. It looks much better than if I had machine finished it. I love the dark brown frame for those beautiful blues.

I have named the quilt “Saint Brendan” for my husband’s name, of course, but also because it has ships–the Irish saint went on a great sea voyage, and the brown fabric has beautiful Celtic knots. What else could I have possibly named it?

Brendan seems to like it.

Love,

Tiff

quilted!

Doesn’t the quilting look like waves?

little flotilla

center ship

I left the large sails of the center ship “puffy” and did in-the-ditch quilting around them. I think it gives the center ship more visual impact.

the back

It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty pleased with the results. I can’t wait to get some dark brown binding and finish this thing.

Love,

Tiff

Dad and I matched.

The skirt is so full (my favorite part)! I need to take in the waist a little bit, but the bodice fits perfectly.

copper shoes!

I hand-stitched the hem while watching episodes of Murder, She Wrote. So far, my summer has been awesome!

Love,

Tiff