weekend sewing

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was wonderful. Nothing much happened, just regular everyday family stuff, but I got to sew quite a lot and it felt wonderful.

I made some progress on my middle daughter's Pinkie Pie quilt. Those 1" finished squares are a pain to piece together, but I'm loving the way this quilt is turning out.

I even decided to piece all the white areas. I'm hoping to be a pro at precision piecing once I'm done with this giant of a quilt.

Also, I finally basted and started hand quilting my Swoon quilt. I'm quite enjoying it so far but I do have a loooong way to go.  What is it with me and all these time consuming projects I keep taking on?

And these are my pretty weeds/ flowers. They have nothing to do with sewing, I just find them so amazingly beautiful.

Wishing you all a very lovely Monday. Svetlana

triangle patchwork box pouch

I've been eying Ayumi's triangle patchwork box pouch from her fantastic book Patchwork, please! for ages now and last night I finally decided to give it a go.

I spent way too much time digging through my scraps as well as my very precious text fabrics and decided to make a sort of subtle, low volume main panel which I paired with some wonderfully saturated Nordika prints. 

This pouch was a little tricky because of its boxy shape and the lining had to be hand-sewn in, but Ayumi gave such amazingly detailed instructions that the whole process went without any major hiccups. Oh, I did, at one point, cut the zipper too short and had to redo it, but that was only because I cut before I measured correctly, ooops. Lesson definitely learned.

I really like how sturdy, and roomy, and chunky looking this sweet pouch is. I might have to make another one in the near future as this one will probably go to live with my ~sewing room swap partner.

slow and steady

Hello, happy Tuesday to you all.

I seem to be drawn to smaller, quicker, instant gratification projects lately. It's probably because I have so very little sewing time these days and I do want to see some finishes, not just wips.

I made these two patchwork lanyards from Amy's  Zakka Handmades book the other day . 

I love how pretty and happy looking they turned out, and I whipped them up so very quickly :)  I think this one looks perfect with my quilted name tag.

I also pulled this pretty stack of Nordika, text prints, and DS fabrics to work on a project for my partner in ~sewing room swap. I so like all these colors and prints together, I'm just hoping my partner will like them, too.

Last night I cut into some of these pretties and made a storage basket using this tutorial. This is the largest basket from the tutorial, each side is a 6" square. I like how sturdy and stable it is, but cutting all that interfacing and stabilizers turns making this basket into a pretty tedious work, at least for me.

I hope next two baskets I'm planning to make will go much faster.

Have a very lovely and enjoyable rest of the day. Svetlana

two quilts and a bunting

I just finished two custom order baby quilts and a matching reversible bunting. It was a fun project and I loved the challenge of making two different, yet somewhat similar boy and girl quilts. 

I already showed you Pretty in Pink quilt a few days back and now I finished Handsome in Blue (yeah, I'm very imaginative NOT with my quilt names :) ).

I started making this quilt thinking I would mix aquas and greens. I had a pretty stack of fabric ready for cutting and then, just for fun, I added some navy to the mix. Well, that changed my plans completely. I put away all the green fabric and raided my stash for some more blues and aquas.

I backed the quilt top with light blue minky and quilted it along the seams the same way as I did Pretty in Pink.

Here it is, all soft and crinkly, straight out of the dryer.

I was also asked to make a matching double sided (pink/ blue) bunting to go with the quilts. I think it turned out pretty cute.

What have you been up to lately? I'd love to know.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend. Svetlana

handsome in blue {in progress}

I started working on a boy version of Pretty in Pink quilt I shared the other day. I am in love.  From now on I want to add navy to every single project I will work on :)

Talk to you soon. Svetlana

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday.

pinkie pie progress

I don't think any other words can possibly describe my latest attempt at making a quilt for my middle daughter other than complete and utter madness. Here's what I've been up to.

I took this needlework pattern for Pinkie Pie and decided to turn it into a quilt. I must have been high on lots chocolate and caffeine when I promised my daughter this quilt and decided to turn each and every one of those 4410 cross stitches into a 1" finished square.

Fun, isn't it? I'm looking at the whole experience as one big precision sewing lesson (trying to see the glass full here :)

Each block is a 10" square. So far I have 10 block finished, only about 34 more blocks to go, yay me!!! And yes, I decided to piece even the blocks that are completely white. I simply could not bring myself to slap a large 10" square of white fabric next to all those teeny tiny color blocks.

OK, off I go. Lots more piecing to be done.

Hope you all are having a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Svetlana

pretty in pink {a baby quilt}

A while back I was asked to make a simple pink baby quilt. I raided my stash and put this pile of pretties together.

I decided to add a little bit of green to complement the pinks and to keep things from getting boring and flat. Plus, who could possibly resist these tiny adorable Heather Ross mice? :)

I went back and forth on what design to go with until I finally settled on the same one I wanted to do in the first place, a simple patchwork using 3" squares. I pressed, and cut, and pinned, and sewed, and pressed some more, and a few hours later I had this 36" quilt top all finished.

A gorgeously soft pink minky seemed to be begging to be used for the backing, so I happily obliged.

I then did simple straight line quilting outlining both sides of each seam and finished this lovely off with white and pink polka dotty binding.

 I must say, there was a point while making this quilt when I questioned whether the small size of the squares will cause the whole quilt to look too busy, but now that it's all finished I do like the way it turned out. I think all these fabrics mashed together make for a very lovely romantic quilt.

And, I already have a new stack of blue and green pretties ready to be turned into a matching baby boy quilt. Can't wait to start cutting :)

Thanks for stopping by. Svetlana

Linking up to AmandaJean's Finish it up Friday.

voile {times two}

Hello, happy Sunday to you all.

I have this small stash of AMH voile fabric that I love to pet and admire, but I did not seem to know what to do with it. So, I decided to cut into my lovelies this afternoon and make myself a voile scarf. It's big, and sort of chunky, and oh so very colorful - just the way I like it.

A big Thank you!! goes to my daughter who actually willingly modeled the scarf for me.

I cut all the voile 17.5" wide and decided to go with different lengths of each piece (anywhere from 12" to 24") so the scarf would have a nice patchworky look.

I made two 17.5" x 70" patchwork rectangles, joining all pieces with french seams. I know it was not really necessary as all the seams are hidden inside, I just felt like that might make them more durable.

I then placed both rectangles right sides together, pinned like crazy, and sewed all the way around, leaving about 4" opening for turning. I turned the scarf right side out, pressed, and slip stitched the opening closed. 

I love how quickly this scarf came together, the only problem is it's 90 degrees outside and very humid, so this pretty has to be stored in the back of my closet for a few months. At least I'll be ready when winter comes :)

Once I finished admiring my new colorful scarf, I decided one more small project was totally in order. Ta- daaaa!

Isn't this mason jar pincushion fun? And I can totally start using it right away, no waiting till winter comes. I loosely followed this tutorial to make it. 

Now that I took a little voile detour, I'm ready to get back to my Swoon and Pinkie Pie quilts.

Thanks so much for reading. Svetlana

lately....

Hello, happy July to you all!

I've been busy, and scattered, and not having enough time for any decent sewing lately. I have a few projects in the works, however, so I thought I'd share some of these with you today. 

I went totally crazy and started a new quilt for my middle daughter. I'll write more about it later as an endeavor like this definitely needs a post or two of its own.

 I also made an adorable felt bunny (which I gifted before I had time to take pictures), oops. I used a pattern from this book.

And, I acquired a few pretties. A girl can't ever have too much cotton ribbon or washi tape, right? Oh, and that blue Ball jar - ♥♥♥. I'm thinking of turning it into a lovely pincushion. I think something like this would look fantastic.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you all have a very lovely rest of the day. Svetlana