Maple Leaf Pillows

Posted on December 29, 2012 by admin

Maple Leaf Pillows

Well Christmas has passed and the New Year is right around the corner. Almost all the presents have been given and received (Adria, I’ve still got yours waiting under the tree for you!). And, as usual for me post-Christmas gift-giving, my mind is conjuring up ideas for next year!

While I tuck away those secret lists, and make use of my time off to put my basement sewing/crafting/stashing workspace back in order (the holidays always turn our basement into a disaster zone), here’s a post about one of my favourite creations this holiday: a pair of Maple Leaf Pillows for my mother-in-law.

Pillow detail

I made similar pillows to these earlier this year for my friend in Norway, using bright reds and whites, but I had also thought this design would be a lovely addition to Chris’s parent’s cottage in Coboconk, Ontario, where their living room enjoys a beautiful view across the widest part of Gull River. I originally considered doing each leaf a different colour for the season, but of course maple leaves fall off for winter, leaving one of the four seasons problematic, and I couldn’t come up with a symbiotic mix of colours from my fabric stash.

To make colour choice even more challenging, the room where these would go at the cottage isn’t entirely finished renovations yet; it will eventually get new flooring/carpeting (right now it’s a slate-blue colour), and probably new (matching) furniture. But Chris’s parents paint virtually every room some form of beige, and the living room is no exception, so I decided to use a beige fabric for the negative space and to create the leaves and other details in warm reds and browns. These are left over fabrics that I originally used for my Party Mix Tape quilt (Elizabeth Hartman design).

Pillow backing

I’m very pleased with the results, even though the pillow covers are a teensy bit tight over the pillow forms; I had a bit of a brain fart while figuring out if I had the right amount of fabric left for the red borders on the pillow fronts (I have issues calculating square yardages for some reason, and I’m generally challenged in the mathematics department). I actually had plenty of fabric left because I had folded my fabric in half for easier cutting, but my brain fart involved leaving that factor out of my calculations before I started cutting, and to ensure I had enough I tightened up my border measurements, but I only realized my mistake after cutting more than enough — in fact too many — border pieces. Duh. HUGE forehead smacking moment right there.

Unlike the pillows I made for Norway, I kept the backing of these very simple, mostly to hurry along the project, which I completed over a long weekend a few weeks before Christmas. Also for speed and to learn something new, I tried machine binding for the first time on the pillow backs, using this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts. This is a great project for practicing the technique, because one side of the binding is hidden by being on the inside of the pillow, and so if you don’t quite get your technique down perfectly, it’s not going to be as visible as it is on a proper quilt.

Anyway, these pillows will provide many years of enjoyment while nestled on the sofa, enjoying a warm fire and the beautiful serenity of the cottage.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful New Year!

P.S. I just might write these pillows up as a pattern at some point… if there’s a demand for it!

Backpacks for the kiddies

Posted on October 21, 2012 by admin

Kids’ Backpacks

This is a bit of a late post — I kind of forgot about posting this project until I came across the photos while doing some photo housekeeping.

I made these two backpacks for my niece and nephew’s birthdays, which are usually celebrated on the same day at one big party because their dates are so close. My nephew Magnus was about to start school, so this was mainly something he needed, but since I could get the fabric in boy and girl colours, I thought why not make them a matching pair?

Girl backpack

The fabric is called “Zoo Pals” by Dwell Studio, in blue and pink (purchased from the good people at Tonic Living), and I chose it because the packs hold their shape better when constructed out of a canvas. This is 100% duck cotton, 7.75 oz per yard. I used Made by Rae’s Toddler Backpack pattern, however I enlarged it by about 30% on a photocopier, and I made a small modification in that I added the front pouch using a simple velcro enclosure. I kind of felt that the backpack, at the larger size, was a bit plain on the front and could use the extra detail.

Boy Backpack

I needed to make the pack larger because Magnus needed one that could carry a certain number of items laid out by the school, and because my other friend who I’d made one for said her child had to stop using his because his school said it was too small. So I wanted to make sure it was big enough for everything — his lunch, a sweater, a book I think was the list. Maybe also shoes. I can’t remember exactly. But it seems to be big enough and Magnus exclaimed, “It’s Perfect!” when he opened his birthday present. You gotta love when a four-year-old says something like that!

Kids’ Backpacks — Back

Miss Vu, as we call my niece, isn’t really talking a ton yet, at 2 years old, but she put hers on and trucked around wearing it with a giant grin on her face. Adorables!

Happy Birthday Boy

Modelling his new Pack

Happy Birthday Girl

Patriotic pillows

Posted on July 11, 2012 by admin

Maple Leaf Pillows

As we geared up for our trip to Norway for both our official honeymoon and to finally visit an old friend that I made in high school twenty (ahem! …TWENTY!!) years ago (I am so old), I was trying to think of a compact gift I could make that would travel well.

My friend Guro is my “big Sis.” She was an exchange student whose original host family didn’t work out, and we met when my family responded to an ad in the paper looking for a new host family she could spend the remainder of her time in Canada with. My parents had been considering the idea of hosting an exchange student — it would be a great opportunity for me and my brother, and given that we had a huge farmhouse and a varied farm, we thought we could give an exchange student a great Canadian experience. From the moment we met during the family interview, I felt like I’d known Guro forever.

Last year my parents made this trip, intending to visit her finally in her home country now that she’s got two kids old enough to remember the visit. I don’t have to tell you how pricey it is to travel to and in Norway, so even though Guro has been back to Canada twice since her original stay, it was pretty cost prohibitive for me to make the trip to see her.

But here we are! I’m finally crossing the pond to see her. And with me are these two very patriotic pillow cases, based on the maple leaf block available from Canadian Living magazine.

The fabric is a mixture and I’d be hard pressed to identify it all. There are definitely some Kona cotton solids, in white and tomato red. I looked around at my usual online fabric haunts for good reds for this project but in the end I found the best selection at Fabricland (if not necessarily the best quality, which is an unfortunately trade off). I made four blocks for each pillow using four red prints, and the backs are done with the mosaic piecing technique from Elizabeth Hartman. The pillow construction, including the envelope-style closure, is also based on her pattern, although modified to fit 19″ pillow forms.

Tomato fabric. How appropriate to come from me!

I’m super thrilled with how these turned out. I was even able to work in a cheesy Canadiana print in the mosaic without the end product looking cheesy at all. This was good practice making blocks that used diagonal shaped pieces, as this was new to me and posed some interesting design and assembly challenges (as in avoiding sewing off your leaf points accidentally when seaming the blocks). I hope once we get to Oslo we can find an Ikea and buy the pillow forms to complete the gift, as for travelling we’ve just taken the pillow cases.

They turned out so well I think I’d like to make more of these, perhaps in autumn colours, as Christmas gifts. And the smaller quilt projects like pillows are super easy to manage on my small machine. These are quite bright in their red and white colours, but to me they also seem to exhibit some of that Scandinavian boldness that you see in so many traditional craft designs. Hopefully Guro and her family love them!

Play farm

Posted on January 12, 2012 by admin

After Christmas 2010, my mom told me about a potential sewing/craft project she thought I might like to take up for my niece and nephew, as a future Christmas gift. I endeavour whenever possible to make Christmas presents — I loath the commercialism of the holidays — and I truly believe people appreciate something more when you’ve taken the time to make it for them. Some home made gifts don’t always work out, but I’ve always found it’s about the thought and consideration you put into it that counts most to the recipient. (As an aside, I did however have a prominent local media personality, who shall remain unnamed, once tell me that “no one likes getting preserves!” during a discussion about our Christmas preparations. I was pretty offended by the comment; I had just told her that I’d made a big batch of my famous peach salsa that I was going to gift for the holidays. Clearly, this woman was in the dark about artisanal home-canned products!)

Anyway, back to the story at hand… I will openly admit that we ‘borrowed’ the concept for this project, a card table play house. There is an Etsy seller named MissPrettyPretty based in Wisconsin who sells both patterns and completed playhouses. I’m a pretty crafty person (have you noticed?) so I didn’t really feel I needed a pattern to make it on my own, and doing it on my own allowed me to customize the design. But some folks might enjoy using MissPrettyPretty’s patterns, or buying one of her pre-made houses so I’m happy to give her the airtime! There are others out there too who offer tutorials and ideas for the same concept.

My mom and I started sourcing the felt for the project about a year ago — she found some at the local fabric store and I found some unexpectedly at a button store in Boston during the holidays while we were there, so between us we had a ton of felt on hand. It can take some sleuthing to find but its around. Fabricland has some but sometimes the colours are limited. You could also use other types of fabric but the felt has a real kid-friendly feel and solid structure to it, which works well for this.

I also found, quite by accident, some kids’ fabric decals, for decorating rooms, at a local Kitchen Stuff Plus outlet — flowers and animals, which I used to save time creating all the animals and decorative bits from scratch. They just needed a bit of hot glue and Velcro and voila — they’re part of the farm!

I kind of combined the idea of a farm/barn/house — I wanted the design to appeal to both kids, who are aged 16m and 3 years, and both genders. The flowers, corn cobs, carrots, beets, pears and apples are detachable with Velcro, as are the animals, and there’s a mailbox on the front that can have mail added (with envelopes addressed to the kids!).

My original plan was to put a truck on the side with the tree, which would have been fine, but as I was working on it I started thinking about my dad and his collection of antique Oliver tractors, and how cute it would be to do the tractor instead. That was a fun little surprise to reveal when we brought it out at Christmas!

Overall it seemed like a real hit, and the kids had both me and Uncle Chris trying to squeeze inside with them! As a toy for limited space, it’s really great because the card table can fold away (and also be useful when you need an extra table).

I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and it was a lot of fun to make. Almost everything is sewn, with a few exceptions, where I used hot glue in places that were too awkward to sew. The ‘straw’ is actually yarn that I sewed onto the felt. The door is attached along the top and can flip up out of the way if needed, and every side has an opening where you can see in, with the exception of the tractor/tree side, which just has a little peep hole in the tree. While the playhouse itself doesn’t easily fold up, the felt is pretty forgiving of wrinkles (another advantage to using felt over fabric) and I just had it stored loosely collapsed in a clear garbage bag for transportation (and to keep my cat off it, who was having loads of fun dashing in and out of it, and sitting on top of the table, while it was set up).

Piles of pillows

Posted on August 7, 2011 by admin

One of our home reno projects this summer was to finally, finally paint our bedroom. We did that in May, and there’s still the odd little finishing touch to be done. A few weeks ago Chris got the trim on the windows finished and I painted it (we haven’t had trim on the bedroom windows since I’ve lived here, over 4 years). The radiators still need new trim and we need to replace one of the switches for the light/ceiling fan combo. And there’s no art on the walls yet either. But… I finished a pillow!

New pillow for the bedroom

This is the Mosaic Floor Pillow quilt design by Elizabeth Hartman. I made one of these already for Adria’s birthday but this time I followed the pattern a little more closely on the assembly of the patchwork. It worked out very well — I’m very pleased. There are a whole bunch of fabrics used from all over the place so I’m not even going to try to sit down and figure them all out. I know some people really love to track that stuff but I’m less concerned about that.

The smaller pillows are ones I got at Winners for a steal, and they match the room really well, and now I feel like the bed at least is complete. We have an enormous (and so comfortable) king-sized bed, and now with these three pillows on it, it looks a little less enormous.

A little something for me

Posted on May 19, 2011 by admin

Last week my iPad arrived. It’s taken me some time to get it set up and figure out what apps are good for what and what I want to put on it, but today I really put it to the test, taking it with me to the PSEWeb conference. I had to find an app for note taking after I got there — in my cold-induced haze I didn’t think overly hard about that before I left this morning. Thankfully they had WiFi there so I could connect and download what I needed.

my iPad and the case I made

You know I had to make myself a case for it. I had made one for Chris as well which he loves but I felt I could have done a better job. I guess the first time you do something is always a bit of a test run. However I hadn’t taken good notes about the width of binding I used on his and I made the binding too wide on mine at first. The stitching was inset too tightly for the iPad with the SmartCover on it, so I had to redo with a narrower binding (after I talked myself off the ledge that I didn’t need to redo the whole thing over again!).

iPad Case for Me

I wanted to try a rounded corner on mine because I didn’t like how the square corners of the flap on Chris’s stuck out. I’m not totally thrilled with how the binding looks on those rounded corners but for my first try, it will do. I need to watch a few more tutorials to get that figured out.

It’s a pretty straightforward pattern, and maybe if I do a few more for other people and perfect it, I might decide to write it out and post it. I noted that on Etsy there are many handmade iPad cases available, but none that I saw were quilted! You could easily do this with random patchwork like I did, or just with a single piece of fabric that you love. Certainly quilting it gives it a nice extra padding for protection, and it just feels nice to carry around.

Backside of the case

As for the note taking at the conference — I am so done with paper! On Chris’s advice I used SoundNote — an app that lets you record audio and type (or hand write or draw with a stylus if you like) notes. I haven’t tried it with the audio yet, just used the typing functionality, but you can email yourself the notes and apparently also the audio if you want. I was recommending this app to my colleague Larissa before I had even tried it, thinking she would love that as an alternative to transcribing interviews.

I’m also loving the magazine app Zinio, and I’ve even started reading a book with the Kindle app. I wasn’t sure at first how I’d like reading a book on the iPad but it was fine. And while sick in bed on Tuesday I watched some Netflix on it too. Flipboard is amazing for all your feeds — everything from Facebook and Twitter to Flickr and Google Reader. This thing is incredible. Even the mail and calendar apps are putting my poor old (and I stress old) iPhone to shame. I’m officially geeking out on this thing. It just may hold me until I can get an upgrade on my iPhone — if Rogers ever lets me (they keep expanding their equipment upgrade waiting period every time a new iPhone comes out). Phones will be tiny microchips embedded into your body before I’m ever eligible again for a free phone!

The jury is still out on the best recipe app. I’m trying out Paprika but I was disappointed it came with absolutely nothing pre-programmed, and it took me a while to figure out how to capture recipes. It’s a lot like the Mac app Sous Chef, and I wasn’t thrilled with that app. I also bought the Epicurious app (of course!) which is fabulous, and also the President’s Choice app is so far pretty impressive. Both of these come with libraries of recipes, which is great to start out with. I’m guessing I’ll use all of the apps interchangeably, depending on what I need to do.

Finally one for me

Posted on April 17, 2011 by admin

Party Mix Living Room Quilt

For my fourth quilt, I’ve finally made one for me! This one is designed to go with the colours of our living room. Our leather sofas are brown, the walls are red and beige, and the crown moulding is a dark brown.

Back of the quilt

This is by far the biggest quilt I’ve made yet. All the others have been baby sized. This one measures 48 by 63 inches. It was also the first time I’ve done a pieced backing. I’ve been working on this off and on for a couple months, and this weekend, decided to take advantage of the crap weather to get it done. I’m so happy with it. You can see in the photo there are some little snags and spots where I started and stopped quilting are a bit obvious, but so be it. Not a big deal in my books.

Detail shot

I learned that sewing long strips of sashing and keeping it straight is not easy. I also learned that I should read the pattern really well before I cut (my sashing was supposed to be 2 inches wide for this quilt but I misread and cut 1.5 inch strips). I also learned how to number my rows with sticky notes to ensure I assemble them in the right order. I also learned it’s really really hard to sandwich quilt layers that are bigger than your work surface. Oh, and that Fabricland sells shitty-quality overpriced solids (their cotton is really ‘sticky’ and attracts any piece of lint or pet hair within 3 feet).

This is another pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!, called Mix Tape II. This pattern is fabulous because it is written with three variations of layouts, each with three size options, although all this variation is how I misread my sashing sizes (I can’t fault Elizabeth for that though!). This is the Party Mix Lap Quilt version, with, uh… my own mods. That’s right… I did it on purpose.

Party Mix Living Room Quilt

All the lessons learned are good ones. Despite the crappy Fabricland cotton, I love how it turned out (pretty damn amazing for my fourth quilt). Now the only thing I have to figure out is how to keep the cat off it.

Oh and in case you’re asking, I’d have to sit down and try to figure out all the fabrics — there are 14 different ones used in the blocks, plus the sashing (the backing and binding are also used in the blocks). It may be impossible to say what they all are — some of these I ordered, some of them came in my monthly stash building subscription from Sew Sisters, and some are even from Michael’s of all places.

Hanging out with the owls

Posted on April 7, 2011 by admin

After a bit of a rough day yesterday, I sit here coming at you at 2:30 a.m. wide awake and yet sleep deprived. Have I mentioned before that I’m an occasional insomniac? The problem has improved since I started my treadmill routine last fall, and then added on the yoga once a week this year, but sometimes there’s just too much stress that even a good work out can’t cure. Yesterday was one of those days.

So perhaps it’s appropriate to post a couple projects featuring owls, since right now, I kind of feel like one.

Quilt for Baby Crummell

Recently I discovered the fabulous online fabric retailer, Tonic Living, where I found most of the above fabrics. Besides their excellent wide-ranging selection of not only quality quilt fabrics but also outdoor and upholstery fabrics, they offer FREE SHIPPING to folks like me who are in the GTA (I believe the deal is available to those with postal codes that begin with L or M, although its not stated on their ‘about us’ section of the site — it must come up when you’re in the check out) if you order over $50, which is of course not hard to do at all when you’re buying fabric.

The baby quilt above was made for my friend Alice, who is a couple months away from having her second child, this time a girl. Alice is a little owl crazy, as is her little 3 and a half year old Calvin, so it wasn’t hard to know what direction I should go with in choosing fabrics for this quilt. I also wanted to steer clear of typical pastel baby colours, which are so not Alice’s thing. Oranges and limey greens are way more her style.

"Aromatherapy" and "Zen Garden" by Patty Young.

"Urban Zoologie Owls" by Robert Kaufman, with Kona in Pomegranate

"Kiss Me Owls" by Suzanne Ultman and "Zen Garden" by Patty Young.

The fabrics I can identify by designer and manufacture are:

“Kiss Me Owls” designed by Suzanne Ultman produced by Robert Kaufman;
“Urban Zoologie Owls” by Robert Kaufman;
“Aromatherapy, Sherbert” designed by by Patty Young produced by Michael Miller;
“Glass Tiles, Sherbert” by Patty Young produced by Michael Miller;
“Zen Garden” by Patty Young produced by Michael Miller
Kona solid in Pomegranate and Charcoal, and
“Meadowsweet Citrus” by Michael Miller.

The square with the lime green two-tone pattern is the only fabric pair I’m not certain about the designer or manufacturer. I got those through the monthly stash-building subscription I have going with Sew Sisters, another fabulous quilt fabric retailer I order from often.

When I found the above owl prints, I also came across this super cute print, called “Night Owl” (not sure who the designer is) in a heavier 10 oz. duck canvas. I thought it would make for a really cute little tote bag for Calvin, who I thought might appreciate a little present all for him that features owls. Then I found this adorable toddler backpack pattern by Rae Hoekstra of made-by-rae.com, and knew it was perfect for the little man.

Backpack for Cal

This was a unique project that tested my sewing skills; I’d never sewn piping into anything before, and really it’s the first zipper I’ve done in likely 20 years. It was actually ridiculously easy and the project took only a couple of hours to complete. I’m telling you, buying that new Baby Lock was the best investment I’ve made in years. I can’t believe I held out for so long before doing it. All I want to do now is sew all the time.

Backpack for Cal

I gifted both these projects to Alice on the weekend at a clothing swap we had planned, when we decided last minute to take advantage of our all being together to give the mama-to-be some well wishes, and they were of course, a huge hit. I already know some other little people in my life who just might need toddler backpacks of their own!

Baby Shower Cookies

And lastly, check out the yummy cookies I whipped up for the event! My icing skills are improving ever so slowly!

Meet some FOs

Posted on February 11, 2011 by admin

Mosaic Floor Pillow

So remember that new sewing machine I mentioned I bought myself before the holidays? I’m IN LOVE. It is incredible. I was withholding full judgment until I got my first real quilting project under its belt, but low and behold, here it is. This is the Mod Mosaic Floor Pillow, designed by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! fame. I’ll be gifting this tonight to my pal Adria. Every year, I usually ask her what she would like me to make for her birthday, and the last few I’ve knitted her something. But I was itching to put the new machine to the free-motion quilting test, so we decided I would make her a pillow for her bedroom (that’s why it really does NOT go with my brown leather couch at home, pictured here!).

Pillow back

Both the front and back of the pillow are quilted, making the seams of this pillow exceedingly thick — with three layers of batting and six layers of fabric where the overlap occurs on the backside. This made it the ultimate test for my machine, which trucked along sewing with ease. I have every confidence now that I made the right decision buying my Baby Lock Grace.

Pillow detail

The piecing of this pattern is very versatile and can be done for virtually any size pillow or quilt blocks, and so I think I’ll be using that again. I also love how this pillow uses an overlap at the back for a closure, so no zipper is necessary.

Norwegian Star Hat

Next up is this Norwegian Star hat, made for my mom, to match her new winter coat (yes, I know, winter has been going strong for some time now). Her new coat is sort of a tan-purplish grey, making her last hat totally mismatched. I made this with Malabrigo Twist in Terron and Zinc, two colours that are so yummy together. This yarn is deliciously soft. It feels like 100% cotton but it’s merino wool! Mom will get her hat next weekend when they visit the cottage.

Norwegian Star Hat

Finally I finished something for Chris that fits. A scarf to match his hat. I used the same yarn, bought from Americo Original. I wouldn’t call this a very soft yarn — in fact I would find it a bit too scratchy for a scarf, but Chris loves it. I really struggled with this scarf; the pattern was killing my hands due to the purling three stitches together repeatedly. But eventually I loosened up the tension and things got easier.

Extra Warm Men's Scarf

Both of the above patterns are available for free as Ravelry downloads.

Diggin' the Dirt

A little gardening, quilting, knitting, cookin' and more.

Category Archives: Quiltabulous

Maple Leaf Pillows

Backpacks for the kiddies

Patriotic pillows

Play farm

Piles of pillows

A little something for me

Finally one for me

Hanging out with the owls

Meet some FOs

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