A bright and sunny table runner for my dear friend Julia S. to mark her running in a federal by-election with the NDP party in February 2019. (Yes, I know it is now August--- I have been SUPER delinquint in posting updates lately). Made a simple pattern of half square triangles with some pre-cuts gifted to me by my aunt, and created an inner border and binding with some upcycled fabric I have used in other projects (bonus marks if you can guess which ones!) The election went a different way than we wanted, but hopefully this runner serves as a happy reminder of a very hard-fought and fun campaign!
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Well, I finally get to reveal my 2018 white whale--- this hexi lap quilt for my dear maman. As with many of the projects I start, I didn't quite appreciate the amount of work on this one, but I plugged away throughout the year, and eventually it all came together.
Essentially, this is your typical paper-pieced hexi quilt-- I basted all of the fabric scraps to 2" hexi templates (I just used normal paper), and started hand sewing them all together... and hand sewing... and hand sewing... :) The middle is a random assortment but the outer layers have a bit more direction as I started working out, with blues and greens at her head/feet and reds and oranges as the focus on the sides. In order to have it feel like the centre panel is floating and there were no hexis cut off abruptly, I did a final row of brown hexis around the whole quilt, before sewing panels of the brown to these hexis and trimming them accordingly. The border is a soft grey flannel with pieced panels from the cool and warm palates of the outer layers of the hexi panel, and the back is a simple blue. The binding is a fun purple batik that I think pulls it all together well. I kept the quilting simple with lines criss-crossing the hexi panel, and simple, randomly spaced vertical lines for the borders. I was glad to give this to mom for Christmas, both so she could enjoy it, and because I couldn't stop looking at it and petting this quilt. I love it SO MUCH, and cannot imagine making something so labour intensive for any one else but my long-suffering, sewing mother. Hope you enjoy it for many years to come, momma! :) Tis the season for high school graduations! While I am WELL out of the high school scene, a dear friend's son is graduating from high school and moving on to greener pastures at Concordia University. I remember receiving a blanket when I graduated, and still have it with me almost 25 years later. I am not sure what kids want nowadays, but thought I would take a chance and hope that Francisco S. would appreciate a little non-digital, low-fi, homemade coziness as he prepares to hunker down into his university career.
As with pretty much every project I start, I have ambitions of changing it up and starting with a tight, modern, hip design. But then I dive into the depths of my fabric stash and I get swept up in the rainbow chaos of all the eye candy... and I make a rainbow-inspired quilt... again. At least I am consistent in my weakness... After succumbing to the siren call of the unicorn, I laid out 2.5 inch strips of some of my faves into color families and started sewing them all together (alternating directions to avoid slippage in the rows). After the main panel was done, I sliced out an off-centre column and reversed its direction, putting it all back together and framing all three panels in a neutral star fabric (because #unicorn) and backing it all with a soft bright teal and pink retro-patterned cotton remnant. For quilting, as usual I kept it simple, quilting the larger panels in vertical lines and the reversed column in tight horizontal lines. Nothing revolutionary but I like it. Made a scrappy batch of binding with some of the leftovers, gave it a good wash and bob's your uncle! Even though it is not very out-of-the-box for me, I still love this quilt. It came together relatively quickly but delivers some big eye candy color payoff. I hope that Francisco enjoys many years of study snuggles in this quilt! I was casting around for a new easy-sew lunch bag, and happened upon The Chilly Dog's pattern for a Japanese Knot Bag. I had not encountered this design before (it seems I am very late to the game), but was thrilled at how quickly this charming bag came together. There is a little bit of fussing to get a few of the elements to come together (particularly at the end with the short loop and closing everything up), but the guidance provided in the blog post was really helpful, and I was very happy with the result.
BONUS#1: I finally got to use the charming cabbage-themed fat quarter I had picked up many moons ago! BONUS #2: Enjoyed making and using it so much that I whipped up another one for Anne-Marie B. who was leaving the Refugee Hub to move to the federal government. Made her a lunch bag with an urban/bureaucracy vibe to it--- I hear it is used frequently, so am glad she is enjoying this little gem of a bag as much as I am. Will likely be making more of these in the future. Fun pattern to bump into-- thanks internet/ The Chilly Dog! A quick and fun table runner for Susan S. as a thank you for the fabric she bestowed upon me. She is moving back to the prairies, and had collected some African fabric that she never got to use and offer to give it to me. I of course said yes, but wanted to make her a little something to say thank you.
So essentially, I cut out the elephant panels from a swath of wax batik (making sure that each person at the end of the runner had an elephant right-side-up), framed it out with some colorful fabric I got a long time ago in South Africa, and did some simple quilting to frame out the elephants. I bound it in some funky mottled orange cotton, and bob's your uncle! Hope she enjoys this reminder of some of her travels--- and thanks for the fun fabric, Susan! :) A quick but fun little set of bunting as a gift for Anne L., a colleague who just welcomed her second daughter into the world. I went with a gender neutral theme and (as usual) colorful palate. So I dug out my outer-space-themed fabrics (astronauts, aliens, and planets) for the flags, and used some primary colored binding for the trim/ ties (which was left over and much treasured from this baby quilt earlier this year). I loved how it came out, and hope Anne and her family enjoy the pop of color for the baby's room!
So many friends having babies... and another fun baby quilt on the blog! This time for my beautiful friend Julia S. who recently welcomed Zawadi into the world. While Julia is French, she lives in Joburg with her Zimbabwean partner, so I thought it would be fun to make her a baby quilt with some fabrics spanning the African continent, along with some more classic details. So, I dug out of my stash fabrics from South Africa, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Ghana, and got to work!
I combined the fabrics into groups of three similar-ish colorways and made strip sets, cutting those down again into 7 inch blocks. I then arranged them into an alternating pattern (both color and direction) and bordered everything in a modern, graphic woodgrain fabric that I love. For quilting I experimented with nesting triangles cutting across the blocks, and then bound it all together with some cool fern binding I made from another favourite fabric from the stash. The design is simple and the palate is perhaps a bit 'ample', but I love this quilt: soft, colorful, funky and beautiful. I hope that Julia and Ish like it, and little Zawadi gets many years of use out if it! Channeling my inner "Madmen" aesthetic and inspired broadly by Angela Water's placemat design from this video (but I made runners instead of placemats, and did not do quilt-as-you-go construction and instead sandwich method), I had a blast playing around with these runners, both in terms of quilting and color ways.
The blue and white design I made specifically for Malaika N. as she transitioned out of her role working with me at the Refugee Hub. She loves mid-century modern design, so I thought this could be a fun piece to make for her. I chose darker batiks for the 'background' (8 inch and 4 inch strips-- I like the offset, non-centered nature of how the finished facing comes out, but you could make it even if you like) and went with lighter fabrics for the 'diamonds' (6.5 inch strips) to get a bit of a contrast in the design. I then created strip sets, angling the joining of the units at 45 degree angles. I took some time on the placement of the strips so that there was a good variety and as few as possible matching fabrics sitting next to each other, and then sewed them all together. For Malaika's I added a small navy border to square it all up, sandwiched it with a fun contrasting fabric and cotton batting, and quilted simply in the diamond shapes to accentuate the pattern. Made a binding out of a complimentary fabric and bob's your uncle! I enjoyed this enough that I thought I would try making some other versions in brighter colors and different quilting. I love them all! Great way to play around with some favourite fabrics and putting rich contrast-ish colors together in a pleasing way. Hope Malaika enjoys her version, and I will enjoy paying around more with this eye-candy of a design! Well, actually I might be a bit later than that even.... #betterlatethannever?
I made this belated baby quilt for Alexis and Andrew L. for their newest addition to the family, Claire, who arrived a few months ago but I was only recently able to put aside time to get this completed. Claire's cousin Vibeke was born a few months earlier, and they live quite close to each other, so I wanted to bring a little bit of what was happening in Vibeke's quilt into Claire's. That mainly came into play with the border fabric (which is the same as the background fabric in Vibeke's) and the general colorful chaos (which I can hardly help in the best of times) #rainbows4evah For this quilt, I collected some bright primary colors, and a few of my (rare) neutral prints (greys, beiges and white tones) to make a series of diamond blocks sitting in a more neutral background. From there I framed each of these in a fun diamond fabric, and encased the whole thing in a very narrow yellow border before going into the blue outer border to finish. To be honest, I wasn't sure if the yellow was going to be too thin, but in the end I really like the super narrow sashing--- makes it feel even more like a bit of lattice work, or a window pane. Anyway, once sandwiched, I quilted it simply by echoing the diamonds a few times, and following along the narrow yellow sashing. I backed it all with a fun complimentary graphic floral fabric, and bound it in dusty rose. I hope Claire likes her new quilt, and she and her cousin enjoy some of the complimentary colors between their two blankets! I gifted this to Dallas A. and Roberto C. for their impending bundle o' joy, and frankly, is one of my favourite baby quilts I have made of late. Inspired by a piece of Indonesian batik that my aunt gave to me over the holidays, I used that as the backdrop to a series of complimentary diamonds made out of primary colors. To make the diamonds I started with half square triangles of the background and navy, and then snowballed the navy with 4 different colors. From there is was just a matter of piecing them all together, sewing some narrow borders in between the squares and rows, and sandwiching it all up! I echoed the same fabrics from the diamonds in the binding, and backed it all with another piece of Indonesian cotton. Before binding, I quilted the blanket simply by echoing the diamonds, in a variegated rainbow thread. I love how this came out, and hope that the new member of our urban family enjoys this quilt for years to come!
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