Lac Rose Scarf

I don't crochet that much, but I try to get out my hooks once in awhile, just so I don't forget how! I recently completed Lac Rose, a lacy crochet scarf by Katya Novikova. The pattern is super easy, and I deliberately used a bigger hook and smaller yarn than called for for an even more open look.

I'm really happy with this scarf. I like my scarves pretty long, about 7 feet, so that when I wrap them around my neck once, they still dangle at thigh-length. The crochet lace look is a very different style than a knit lace look. The knit lace look tends to look more delicate, while the crochet type, more hardy. I like both looks, but I tend to wear my hardy scarves a lot more simply because I'm not as afraid of damaging them.

I also really enjoyed the yarn, which is Artyarns Merino Cloud, in a hot pink / fuchsia shade. (It also felts easily, which was great for wet-splicing.) I don't actually own much in hot pink or fuchsia, so this is a great addition to my scarf collection. Despite there being so many holes, I think it'll work well for winter because it is quite big, and hence great for wrapping around my neck, and the yarn itself is insulating. It's also a great big punch of color on my usual black-on-black winter wardrobe.

Zip-It Up: Bendy Bag

The final project of my Zip-It Up class is the Bendy Bag, an adorable little bag with zipper casing and faux piping.

Up first is fabric selection. I'm using a fat quarter from the Paper Obsessed collection for the outside of the bag that I had left over from Snail Mail, and a neutral fat quarter for the lining. I'm pairing it with a bright yellow zipper, and I just love that color combination.

I'm not sure why this bag didn't need to be quilted, but that certainly saves time on the construction process. Constructing this took quite a bit more work than the other ones. Though my sewing skills left much to be desired, the finished bag is actually very cute, and the two features I love most about this bag are the faux piping and the grab tab made from leftover zipper tape.

With this bag completed, I'm done with this class. I'm happy to report that it did help me get over my fear of zippers. I already signed up for Joan Hawley's next class on Craftsy: Zippered Bags With a Twist. I'm excited to make those projects soon.

Ruler Roundup

While almost every quilter enjoys notions ... I think a lot of us really love to collect rulers. Each new one we add to the collection promises to make cutting easier, more fun, more accurate, and faster. I've been quilting for about a year, but I've already amassed a nice collection of rulers, both basic and specialty. I can say which ones I can't quilt without ... and which ones I could bear to clear away to make more space.

Basic Rulers

8.5" x 24.5" - the most commonly used ruler in my sewing room. If I had to pare down to just a few, I'd keep this one.

16.5" x 16.5" - a great size for those large blocks to square up, but too large for normal usage.

12.5" x 12.5" - my 2nd most commonly used ruler in the sewing room, it's a great size for most blocks.

9.5" x 9.5" - nice to have but not necessary if you have the 12.5" x 12.5".

6.5" x 6.5" - not necessary at all

4.5" x 4.5" - a fairly common block size so it's nice to have, especially if you work with charm square a lot.

2.5" x 2.5" - too small to get a good grip. This one is completely useless to me.

As far as brands go, Creative Grids is by far my favorite because of their readability and non-slip bottoms. They're quite a bit more expensive than the other brands, but to me it's worth it to invest in good tools in order to reduce hand strain and cutting mistakes from ruler slippage. After Creative Grids, I like Omnigrid for its readability. I dislike Olfa's due to the smoky color making it hard to read, and I despise Fiskars as I've had too many slippage issues with them.

Specialty Rulers

I have a number of specialty rulers, such as a standard dresden ruler, a Hex n More ruler, and a Super Sidekick, which are all for cutting different shapes. They all work well and I'm glad to have them. However, there are 2 specialty rulers I want to talk about in particular, because while they aren't a necessity (other rulers can do their job) they do their job exceedingly well and are a joy to use.

Stripology by Creative Grids - This is my favorite specialty ruler. I couldn't quilt without it. It is very expensive, but worth its weight in gold. I use it to cut strips, and most importantly, to subcut. It is several times faster to use this ruler to do subcuts than to use a normal ruler, and the cuts are so beautifully accurate, *and* it doesn't slip. I can't say enough about how much I love this ruler. I had to cut over 1000 little pieces for a recent quilt, and with this ruler, it's really no problem at all.

6.5" Bloc Loc - What a clever ruler this is. I use this to square up half-square triangles, and the little ridge it has makes squaring up HSTs so accurate and so much fun. This tool however is best when combined with a rotating mat. Again, it's expensive, and not essential, but since I do a lot of half-square triangles, I love having it.

Cutting Related Tools

When I first started quilting, I think the most challenging thing for me was rotary cutting. It looked so easy when other people did it, but my cutter was either nicking and slicing up the ruler, or it cut a wonky line and made the cut useless, or my ruler slips and I get a smaller cut. For my first patchwork project, I was so frustrated with rotary cutting that I ended up drawing lines with a marker and using a scissor to cut them, and it was a disaster. (I admire quilters in the past who did this for every quilt!)

So naturally I looked for a lot of tools to help me make rotary cutting easier. Some have worked for me, and some have not.

Invisigrip - I picked this up after someone told me it would make ruler slippage less. I was having a lot of issue with ruler slippage, but I don't find this product to have made much of a difference. My ruler still slipped even with this on.

Gypsy Gripper - This is another product that I picked up to reduce ruler slippage and hand strain, and I know some quilters swear by it, but I hated mine and returned it. I found it didn't make a bit of difference to me. My rulers still slipped. It might reduce hand strain, though, I don't know, I didn't keep it long enough to find out about that.

Quilter's Slidelock - I saw this at a show and picked it up. This ruler definitely does the job of not slipping. However, it has no measuring marks and basically functions as a straight edge. In other words, it needs to be used in conjunction with another ruler or template. I find it too much work to use this ruler for regular cuts, but I love using this when I need to cut irregular shapes (with straight edges) with the plastic quilting templates. I simply put the template in place, then butt the Slidelock against the template, remove the template, and cut. It works great for that purpose.

AccuQuilt Go! - Ah, the AccuQuilt. Since rotary cutting is so hard on the hands, this is a godsend for people who have arthritis or excessive hand strain. I don't have that problem yet, so I use mine just to cut curves. It is great for that purpose, but the dies are very expensive, and they only come in very limited sizes. I've found myself redoing the math in some patterns in order to use the dies I have.

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Before I was a quilter, I once overheard a conversation on an airplane, where a woman commented that now that she's retired, her friends think she should start quilting, but they warned it's expensive. As it turns out ... they were right! Not because of what we absolutely must have to quilt, but because of all the extra non-necessities that tempt and lure us.

Heart Builder Quilts

I recently was sent a couple of quilt tops by Stash Builder Box Heart Builders, and I had the honor of finishing them. This has been so great because 1) they're going to help kids in need, 2) I get to see what people have pieced, and 3) I can have lots of fun machine quilting without worrying about too many quilts in the house.

The first top I quilted has a lot of pink, brown, and green, along with some puppy prints. I quilted this one with an allover style with flowers, paisleys, and swirls. I've used paisleys and swirls a lot before, they're my go-to designs, but this is the first time I added flowers to the mix. The flowers are a great addition, I think, because the paisleys / swirls can blend together due to their similarity, but the flowers look just different enough to stand out a little.

Detailed shot of quilting:

The second top is an alternating 4-patch, and it's very structured, so I did some simple custom quilting here. I quilted the 4-patches with a continuous curve design and quilted a dot-to-dot design in the larger patches and filled it with a continuous curve flower. (Believe it or not, this quilt was much harder to quilt than the first one.)

Detailed shot of quilting:

I really enjoyed quilting these quilts, but more importantly, I'm glad they're going to end up somewhere where they can do some good. Now, off to find a box to ship them!

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I'm Feeling Zen Chic

I'm actually pretty picky when it comes to fabrics or quilting patterns. On average, I only like about 5% to 10% of what I see. So when there's a designer whose collection I like almost all of, that's pretty special. I find her style to be a blend of mid-century modern (which I adore) and Japanese minimalism (which I adore even more) so naturally, I love pretty much everything she does.

That designer is Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic. She's an interior designer, and it really shows in her quilt photos. Every one of her quilts is photographed against a lovely interior that compliments the quilt perfectly. Now that's great presentation!

Naturally, when I found out she had just come out with Zen Chic Inspired: A Guide to Modern Design, I was thrilled. I snagged a copy and waited quite impatiently for it to arrive.

I've read through the book several times already, and there are quite a few must-make patterns in there for me. But the real appeal of the book isn't just the patterns, it's the way she wrote about designing quilts. I usually approach it with what technique I want to play with or (usually) what fabric I want to use up, and then trying to fit a pattern to that. Brigitte's approach is to think of the space that quilt will dress up, and designing according to that, and she offered tips and illustrations that I found both unique and very interesting. Reading through this book makes me feel really calm, relaxed, and happy ... and really, I think that was the aim.

I'll eagerly look out for new fabric lines and patterns put out by Zen Chic, because if there's a designer that melds with my style so closely, that's something to hold on to.

Tiny Tin Sewing Room

I've always loved miniatures and models, so naturally I was intrigued as soon as I heard about the Tiny Tin Sewing Rooms sold by Tea Rose Company on etsy. Since each one is different, I kept my eyes peeled for months to find the one that matches my style the best. Then, finally, I found one!

Well, I dare say this adorable little tin will make a whimsical piece of decor in my sewing room!

Snail Mail Quilt

What do you do when you have a quilt where the fabric is too busy to showcase quilting designs? Well ... you can 1) do an allover design or 2) use the opportunity to practice practice practice since it won't show anyway.

Of course I opt for option 2.

I've had my fabric bundle Paper Obsessed in my stash for a few months, and while I really like the whimsical prints, I also didn't know what to do with it. It's a bit novelty for my usual taste, but I couldn't resist it at the time. I had also been interested in making Radio Way by Jaybird Quilts for some time, but the timing never felt right. Then, one day, I pictured the Paper Obsessed fabric on Radio Way, and knew it was the right combination.

Piecing this quilt was easy and relaxing, which is exactly what I was looking for. I debated between using the black or the white for the frame squares, but ultimately decided on black as I thought it'd look a tad more striking with the lighter tones in the printed fabric. (And to be honest ... I wish I had gone with white. It would have at least made one area where you can really see the quilting.)

For the quilting, since I can't see what's going on anyway, I threw tons of designs on there, but the one I used the most is ribbon candy. It's a design I love, but never was able to get the hang of. Well ... after quilting it 30+ times in this quilt, I got the hang of it! It is so fun to quilt, too. While I mostly treated each "strip" as a unit and quilted within it with linear designs, I kept in mind Angela Walters's "make a rule, break a rule" and occasionally I'd treat the block as a single unit and quilt a square design.

I'm glad I got a fun quilt out of this whimsical fabric bundle, and lots of free-motion practice in to boot. I've always been on the fence about rail fence quilts (pun intended) but the Radio Way pattern introduced a twist with the frames, and that makes it more interesting to me.

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