Seeing Rainbow

{photo by me}

I can not believe it is May already! April and March have been such a whirlwind for me! I had family come into town to visit for a couple weeks- which meant road trips all over the South, sightseeing and showing everyone a good time. Then we found out that we will be moving back to the midwest at the end of the summer, which somehow crazily resulted in a spur of the moment "book a flight the day before the trip" house hunting excursion last weekend- which was a lot of fun but also somewhat stressful and tiring! ;) Plus, regular everyday living has been busy busy busy- but I'm not complaining! Life is good and I am so blessed.

{gemology block pattern}

  I've been sewing off and on through it all, but everything is still in a WIP {work in progress} state so I haven't had much to show here on the good ole blog....... Soooooo.... I decided that I better do a "What I've been working on lately" post for those of you that aren't cruising around on Instagram seeing the progress.  

{feather pattern}

Over the last few weeks I've done a bit of work on my La Passacaglia, sewed a Quilted Suitcase for quilt market, but the biggest things that I have been working on as of late are a couple mini quilt swaps- one that I am doing with a few close IG friends, and the other is the #cottonandsteelminiquiltswap. Both are pushing me to create something that will be loved and appreciated by the recipients.

{Rainbow is a improvised version of the Pickle Dish mini I made, the January block is scaled down to 50% which makes it roughly 6" square. }

Here is the progress on my Cotton + Steel mini. It is looking like it will be a sampler mini quilt of sorts, but I still have a few more elements to add and then will start to figure out placements of each block and whatnot. The colors are so vibrant and I love each of the blocks! I'm gonna have a hard time sending this mini to it's new home! 

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Sewing!

xoxo, Ashley

WIP Wednesday: Handmade Halloween Costumes

It's finally looking like fall has come to visit in my neck of the woods... Temps dropped from in the 90s to the 60s in a matter of 2 days. A little drastic if you ask me, but I love this time of year so I guess I shouldn't complain! I have pumpkin spice candles filling my home with a yummy, cozy aroma and I've started working on Halloween costumes for my two little girls. 

It's totally crazy to me that it's already time for Halloween costume preparations, but with going the handmade route, it is a lot of work and I don't want to be burning the midnight oil on October 30th to finish them up. Thus, I am being proactive and feeling on top of things (for once in my life!;).

I said I would never do handmade costumes. EVER.

For a couple reasons.... 

1- On a whole, I think they cost A LOT more than buying a costume at the store. 

and 

2- They are so much extra work and time... 

But never say never I guess... I waffled this year and the handmade costumes are in full swing at our house! 

I am going the homemade route mainly because my youngest wanted to be something that I knew I was not going to be able to buy somewhere. She wants to be Sheriff Callie. (If you don't have a toddler in your house, you probably have no idea who that is, but trust me- She's a big deal)

I'm really excited with how the costume is coming along so far... I can't wait to finish all of the other details and  try it all on my daughter. She is loving watching the progress and very excited about the thought of being "Sheriff Callie"- which is making all this extra work totally worth it! :)  

My oldest daughter was kinda wishy washy on what she wanted to be, but leaning toward Elsa- which we already have a costume for, but since I was doing handmade for one I figured I better go all the way crazy and do handmade for the other- right? 

So after brain storming together, we came up with Little Red Riding Hood. 

Luckily, I have the darling book Little Things to Sew, which has a pattern for the cutest Little Red Cape. 

So with my favorite show starting again tonight (NASHVILLE- can I get a Hallelujah?! I dying to see what Rayna is going to say about Deacon's proposal!!) and lots of pattern pieces to cut out, you know where you can find me for the next little bit!

Hope you have a wonderful week!!

xoxo, Ashley

P.S.

I haven't done a work in progress post in a while...  do y'all like WIP posts?? I post plenty of behind the scenes pictures on Instagram, but I know not everyone is on there, so I thought I would pop over and go the "old fashioned" route with the old bloggety blog... So let me know one way or the other by leaving a comment on whether you like seeing it here, or would rather just see it all on insta and see finished projects on the blog...

Thanks in advance for your input! 

WIP Quilted Patchwork Weekender Bag

A couple weeks ago, I came across a quilted patchwork Weekender Bag by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! 

I fell in love with it the minute I saw it and knew that I needed to finally take the plunge and make the notorious Weekender Bag by Amy Butler. This bag is kinda the Holy Grail of bags and definitely has a reputation for being hard to get along with due to all of the layers of peltex, interfacing, cording, etc that are involved when making it. 

I have always loved the look of this bag, but the reputation and horror stories had me pretty much sworn off making it, but when I saw Elizabeth's bag and the method that she used to make it by quilting as you go onto cotton duck cloth, I had a change of heart. 

Apparently I am not the only one either- from what I have heard of Sewing Summit and seen on a few blogs, it looks like Elizabeth sparked a quilted weekender craze and there is now a quilted weekender bandwagon! Check out these fabulous bags by  Laura and Amber!

Two weeks ago, I raided my scrap stash and even dug into a few fabric piles that I had been saving for a rainy day and came up with my color palette- red, aqua, and yellow. 

It hasn't been a fast process by any means, I just add a little each night and am finally finished creating my patchwork panels so now I am ready to start assembling my bag now...Duh, duh, duh... I am hoping to make it out in one piece! Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peak of what the the main and pocket panel are looking like together! I am excited to see it finished! 

I plan to finish it over the weekend since I am headed to Nashville next week. This is the perfect bag to take along on my trip! :) 

Stay tuned for more pictures to come soon once I finish it!

Work In Progress Finished... well... almost!

Remember the WIP {work in progress} that I shared with you guys FOREVER ago?? I finally finished it. Well kinda- I have just a tiny bit more hand quilting to do on two blocks, but it has been bound and in use for the past month on my littlest's toddler bed (which is why it is so narrow and long). I am not sure why I can't make myself sit down and finish it. It would take all of 30 minutes or so, but you know how things go... other projects take priority and things get put on the back burner. So alas, this little gem has been a bit abandoned but perhaps an afternoon during nap time will be enough to get her finished...

But until that happens, I thought I would show her off to you guys. 

What do you think? It was my very first time paper piecing and my first time making dresdens and I kinda loved it. It was definitely the most time consuming and labor intensive quilt I have ever made, but I still really enjoyed it. I was inspired by Kerri's vintage nursery quilt and decided to add in the dresdens to make my quilt a little different.

Almost all of the fabrics I used were japanese import goodies (most from Lecien's Old new 30's line) that I found in Kerri's shop. She has the cutest fabric and I loved picking and choosing out fabrics in soft pinks, aquas, and a tiny bits of yellow for this quilt. It almost a bit monochromatic to my eyes since I stuck with just a few shades of colors, which isn't normally my style, but I love the way it is totally matchy matchy and shabby chic looking. 

For the center of my paper pieced blocks, I used prints from the Sweet Life fabric I picked out. Since it is a Japanese import, some of the sayings on the fabric is so funny and isn't always grammatically correct- for instance, there is a block that says "I'm now cleaning a living" and "Let me give you hand".

I think the saying on this block had to be my very favorite- "You look spruce. Are you going on a date today?" ha ha My family says it all the time now and it makes me laugh every time!

I started machine quilting the quilt initially and had machine quilted around the edged of each block, but I decided to hand quilt the rest of the quilt instead of finishing it on the machine... which added to the time and labor intensiveness, but I love the look of it and think it adds to the vintage look and feel of the quilt. I used a pale pink DMC pearl cotton 8 thread for the hand quilted part.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you are all having a fabulous week! 

Happy Sewing! 

xoxo, Ashley

Work in Progress Wednesday

Hey everyone!! I thought I might try something different this week and post something I have never really posted before: a Work In Progress or WIP. 

I realized that one of my very favorite blogs in. the. world. always gives everyone a sneak peak to what she is working on and I love it! I am always waiting in anticipation for the finished project to get posted. Not that I am expecting you all to do the same {ha ha}, but I thought it would be fun to give you a little sneak peak of a project that I am working on!

Today I am up to my elbows in these beautiful fabrics. {most of them are from Lecien's Old New 30s collection} I love the sweet vintage feel of these fabrics and thought they would be perfect for a quilt for my little girls new toddler bed.

It is my first time foundation paper piecing and I am in love! 

I got the idea for my these blocks when I found this darling quilt from Kerry at Lovely Little Handmades. I seriously loved her quilt so much and I happened to have the same Sweet Life fabric that she used for the center of the quilt block- so I am totally being a copy cat and making some of these darling blocks. 

{Have you seen Kerry's blog or shop?? Definitely on my "Love it" list!} 

As for the rest of the blocks- they are still being thought up and designed in the ole' noggin at the moment, but I will keep you all posted on what I decide to do for those blocks! (I am thinking about maybe some dresden plate applique using the scraps of the fabric on some plain white blocks or maybe some hexagon flowers but I not sure... any ideas??)

I was a little intimidated at first to try out paper piecing, but I am so glad that I took the plunge and went for it! It is really easy once you get the hang of it and it has opened up so many possibilities for intricate quilts on the horizon! :)

(I only had a small piece of the fabric that is in the center of the blocks so I wasn't able to center each kid exactly due to lack of extra fabric, but I like it all the same... even if their feet or half of their head isn't showing ;)

Like I said, I got my inspiration from Kerry's quilt so I definitely can't take credit for this cute idea! I also found a great how to video for foundation paper piecing on her blog as well! Definitely check it out if you have never tried paper piecing before!

Happy Wednesday!!