Thursday, September 26, 2019

Minikins: Turnpike Convertible Wallet

The Turnpike Convertible Wallet is my 4th wallet of the year, and one I can close out my "year of wallets" with. When the year began, I wanted to make a few wallets and I had 4 patterns in my collection. Now I'm done with all 4!

This wallet is from Sew Sweetness's Minikins Season Two collection. I used a black and gold fabric that was probably a Harry Potter print, and the cool thing about this wallet is that there's a removable shoulder strap that is fastened on by snaps. I didn't think I would like or use the strap, but it's actually quite adorable when being carried as a mini purse! The inside of it features a cell phone pocket, card slots as well as a zippered pocket.

Now that I'm finally done with my wallets, I can say that my favorite of the lot is actually #3, the Charm School Wallet. In daily use, it is the most practical and easy to use, and it was also the most enjoyable to make. (This one probably ranks at second place, though.)

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Circuit ~ Ready to Quilt

In February of this year I went to Nashville for QuiltCon, but unlike the previous year I didn't take any classes and I only was able to spend a few hours at the show because I wanted to get out of Nashville before the traffic got really bad. But one of my favorite finds in the vendor hall was undeniably the Circuit quilt by Sylvia Schaefer.

Circuit drew me in immediately because black and neon green is such a cyberpunk look, and being an ex-engineer myself, naturally I'm attracted to anything "techy" looking. The kit makes a smaller quilt, but I was easily able to find black and green fabrics in my stash to complement the kit and now I have a beautiful 75 x 75 quilt top that I'm in love with.

The blocks are a mixture of traditional and foundation paper piecing (which I love), and the scrappy blacks and greens have such a great look. I used a lot of metallic fabrics, and it adds so much interest and shine to this quilt.

I don't quite know how to quilt this, but I also think it doesn't matter how I quilt this, just that I do. The most important thing about this quilt is the pattern and the fabric, which is busy enough that the quilting won't show. I just want to get this one finished soon(ish), because I really want to use it!