February 12, 2011

the pink quilt

Posted in completed, sewing at 5:11 am by carriebee

A friend of mine commissioned a queen-size quilt using the Urban Cabin pattern. I’m not generally a fan of the color pink, but by the time the quilt top was pieced I was converted. I was a little sad to have to turn it over to its rightful owner!

One corner of the quilt. A very talented friend went to the quilt store with us and helped pick out a great combo of printed and batik fabrics.

The other side of the quilt top.

I made these 2 quilted pillow shams with extra fabric.

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January 17, 2011

Self-binding blankets

Posted in completed, sewing at 7:38 am by carriebee

I just finished two little blankets for my kiddo to take to day care, which he starts at the end of the month:

I was able to whip these up in no time at all thanks to this awesome tutorial over @ Piece N Quilt. The self-binding edges are a really quick and clever way to finish flannel blankets. My binding is a little thinner than those in the tutorial because the flannel I used was less than 44″ wide.

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January 14, 2011

Happy Birthday!

Posted in completed, sewing at 12:37 am by carriebee

I made these meat-themed coasters for my sister’s (who has a degree in meat science!) birthday present. I used Sublime Stitching Meaty Treats transfers, linen (for the front), red Kona cotton (for the back), quilt batting and DMC embroidery floss. I love how these turned out, I will definitely be making more sets in the future. This will probably be the first and last meat-themed set though.

I tested the set out with my morning coffee. You know, to make sure they worked. The full set of coasters, sans coffee:

I also made her a pencil case, using this tutorial from Little Big Girl Studio. If you haven’t seen the tutorial yet, check it out – it shows a brilliant way of sewing a zipper in a lined pouch.

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September 29, 2009

Sophia bag

Posted in completed, sewing at 7:51 pm by carriebee

About a month ago I finally finished the Sophia bag that I purchased materials for last summer. This was the most challenging sewing project I’ve ever done, but it was totally worth it. Here it is:

I have a serious procrastination problem. I start projects, then I get to a point where I make a mistake or am not sure that the finished project will meet my expectations, and then I stall. For months. Or years.

With this project I stalled after I attached the top panel to one of the side panels. It was at that point I realized that piping + curved seam = headache. Even using an invisible zipper foot I had to sew the seam about 6 times, each time a millimeter closer to the piping than the previous time. It ended up looking fantastic on the outside, but the wrong side is a total mess. So I put it away for a few months until I forgot how much I hate piping.

I sewed for an entire Saturday in August and finished the bag. I realized how much I hate piping about 5 minutes in, but I managed to convince myself that the ends were worth the means. And I was right. This bag rocks.

If I make another one, and I think I will, I would put more interfacing in the side and top panels – after a month of use it is starting to lose it’s shape a bit. I would also make the lining a bit smaller, for some reason my lining was a smidgen too big. I would also consider adding a zipper pocket on the inside, a pocket between the handles on the outside, and some sort of inside divider to keep my knitting/reading/lunch separate from my phone/ipod/wallet/notebook.

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