One small last gift for my dear sis Leah before she moves to NB this week with her partner to run the Seaside Beach Resort! I am feeling a bit of 'sewjo' lately after many years of not being able to muster much in the way of creative flow, so it is nice to get the sewing machine out when i feel called to play with a little bit of fabric eye candy. I have not made a knot bag in a while (such as this one and this one), so it was nice to return to an old favourite (I have made many others since but not documented). For Leah's bag, I thought I would choose a few beautiful scraps of batik from my stash and make her a little rock collecting bag for when she is walking on the shore. It took a little fussing to make the outer panels and join the side seams in a coordinated way, but got it done! And I like the contrasting fabric of the longer handle. Not a great pic of the inner lining, but you get the drift!  :) It had been so long since I made one that I had forgotten the steps to make this Chilly Dog pattern (I got it back when it was offered for free). So I was grateful to SewVeryCrafty for their outline of the pattern instructions for a refresher! I hope Leah enjoys this little bag on her new seaside adventure! 

This quilt for my sister Leah B. for her 45th bday was the product of many people who love her! I have already made a quilt for her years ago, but this one was a group project.  I arranged the making of this quilt starting back in June of this year (2024), when I emailed a bunch of Leah's family and friends welcoming them to contribute a quilt block for Leah's friendship quilt!  I gave them a few parameters including the size (8 inches square), a suggested-but-not-required color palate (Leah loves blue) and sent them some ideas on how they might go about it (sewing, applique, fabric markers, etc....) and gave them two months to send me something. And by the end of August, I had a whopping 16 blocks!  They came in all different techniques and ideas, and it was so cool to see how people got creative! 

In terms of putting the quilt together, once I had all the blocks, I worked on trimming form down to size and making sure they were all solid/ would survive daily wear and tear, and then chose a series of unique blue-ish fabrics with which to 'frame' each of the blocks. I tried to pair the frame with the block, whether by complimentary color or by theme. Once they were framed, I could trim them each down to 10 inches so I had a consistent size to work with. I also made an extra 4 quilt blocks myself which I put in the four corners of the quilt to give me a complete 4x5 grid.

From there, it was a matter of sewing everything up with the light blue cozy denim cotton border, sandwich everything together with the batting and teal backing fabric, and quilt stitch in the ditch (since I didn't want to sew over people's designs, especially because some were quite elaborate or bulky). I made binding out of pieces of the framing fabrics, and finished everything off with that fun pop of color!  And voila! A friendship quilt for Leah to cozy up with for a hug from friends and family!  We gifted it to her at her 1930s-murder-mystery-themed birthday party, and she was very happy to receive it-- and people at the party who made blocks were very happy to see their creations in the final quilt. 

For posterity, the contributors in order from left to right, top to bottom are:
1) Amy; 2) Aunt Karen; 3) Mikkel; 4) Amy
5) Aunt Francie; 6) Mom; 7) Cousin Nathan; 8) Rachel D
9) Chris M; 10) Abe G; 11) Vanessa C; 12) Kate B.
13) Dallas A and fam; 14) Aunt Chris; 15) Brenda W; 16) Cousin Tiffany
​17) Amy; 18) Ariella and Ken; 19) Lloyd G; 20) Amy      

I made this runner for the upcoming nuptials of Chris and Jess. Inspired by the early autumn vibes of their wedding date, I thought I would make a runner that is meant to evoke the trees starting to change color at this time of year.  I went through my stash to find some complimentary colors to play with, and got to slicing. I thought it would be fun to vary the width of the panels, as well as the 'height' of the trees (the darker color is meant to be the tree and the lighter the autumn sky behind. I bookended the panel with some nice conifer felty material (also used in this quilt many years ago) and made a fun backing with some different color green fabric. I really like how the color combo turned out with this runner!  Sandwiched with some think cotton batting in between, quilted stitch-in-the-ditch, trimmed everything up, made some binding with some cheeky graphic green tomato fabric for a bit of fun, and bob's your uncle!  I hope they enjoy this pop of color on their autumn table as they move into their coupled life together!  

I am interestd in doing some more wearable sewing this year, and so played around one day this month with some bits in my stash to make a shirt. It is pretty baggy/ not well fitted, but it is wearable, and I enjoy the color scheme. The solid blue is an upcycled cotton curtain, and the colorful poly is a remenant from the Hintonburg fabric swap that I got for 2$--- what a steal!  I self-drafted the pattern using a shirt I already own--- it also isn't super well-fitting/ is boxy, so I guess I should have guessed this would be the same. But I still like it, and did my best to take it in here and there to give it a bit of shape. While it is not the most fashionable, I do love the sleeve fabric (which I also used to bind the neck), and I enjoy the extra-long sleeve cuffs. Toyed with adding some pockets with the sleeve fabric but I think will leave it as is for now.  I have already been wearing this, and look forward to more experiments as the year unfolds! 

After a long hiatus, I seem to have contracted the sewing itch this holiday season, and so did up a series of colorful tote bags to gift to some people in my family. This obviously is nothing deeply revolutionary in terms of pattern or design, but I enjoyed playing with some of my favourite fabrics and creating the different color palettes. I was also delighted to have a way to use some of my second hand unicorn lining fabric--- huzzah!  Hope folks enjoy the pop of color, and they are sturdily enough constructed to tote many a grocery in the coming years.

Sewing has still been a bit elusive for me this year, but I had to drag out my machine to do some clothing repairs for a friend with mobility issues, and took the opportunity while the machine was out to finish up this quilt that was started a while ago. Kailee B. and Thiv T. welcomed their first-born to the world a couple of years ago, and I made them a baby quilt to echo some of the beautiful bright orange colors in their wedding. Well they have recently welcomed baby #2 into the world (hello Kiran!), and I wanted to make sure he had his snuggling needs fully met. To that end, I wanted something that was complimentary to his sister's quilt, but also different. For this, I used a partially-finished quilt top a friend had started but didn't complete, and pulled it together with a backing of well-loved tie-dyed soft gooshiness (a sheet that I have loved for literal decades but the fitted sheet in the set had met it's makers, so it was time for an upcycle of the topsheet). I used a poly quilt batting in between for extra bounce, quilted it simply along the cross stitch lines, and bound the while thing is a slightly contrasting binding that I personally think does a nice job of framing, while giving a small nod to the funky colors on the back. I think this could genuinely be a reversible quilt--- I love both sides. It's a simple quilt, but I think a perfect size for a petit bebe, and I love the color matching with his sister, but also the differences and gentler vibe--- knowing how active his dear sister is, I imagine he will bring a bit more of the chill... or not!  We shall see!  Etiher way, i hope he and the whole family enjoy this little bundle of comfy! 

Well it's been a minute.... 2022 was a dumpster fire of a year for me after the trauma and violence of the occupation here in Ottawa in February. So everything, including sewing, fell away as I collapsed in on myself. But life goes on, literally and figuratively, and my dear friend Dallas A. is about to welcome her second child into the world in early 2023. Healing is a journey, and new life is a big motivator. I did a little quiet ritual for myself on New Years Eve, and without intending to, woke up New Years Day inspired to sew again for the first time in a very long while. I followed the inspiration and got this lovely little gem sewed up. 

 It is a bit of a contrast to the one I did a few years ago for her son Elio, but also has echoes of it, which was ultimately the intention as sibling quilts. To that end, the color palette is light, rosy and feminine (I am not usually into gendered baby stuff, but Dal is having a girl and is excited for it--- it felt right). Riffing off of the suspended diamonds in Elios quilts, I went for suspended squares in this one. So, inspired by the warm red and pink checks of the background fabric, I raided my stash of repurposed/ upcycled fabrics for complimentary patterns and colors, and got to cutting!  It came together pretty quickly once I had figured out the pattern in my head. That said, my math was a bit off and I made one too many rows. So I repurposed that work and incorporated it into the binding which is kind of fun. I used a backing fabric that has little textured nubs on it--- reminds me of a bedspread from my grandmothers home. And quilted it simply using the suspended colored blocks as a base. I also hand tied the blocks with some white yarn from another project for a bit of added baby-esque charm, and added an iron-on label on the back. I was out of the habit of taking pictures as I go, so only have some of the final product, but that is good enough as I get back into the saddle of sewing again. 

Looking forward to welcoming Dallas' little bean into the world, and hope she gets many years of warmth and cuddles with this blanket!   

I made this lovely quilt for my youngest sister Lesley B. for christmas. She is a big skull fan, so I decided to go with a tighter purple palate and pulled all of the different fabrics in my stash that I could find that fit this color way, and then embedded a sneaky secret skull in soft grey into the design. It took me a while to map it all out, but eventually I got there, and went with an 11x15 block design. I placed all 120-something blocks out on my floor to get the pattern right (and added some corner flairs to the blocks around the mouth to give it a bit more definition), and then collapsed everything up in order into the 15 rows that made up the length of the quilt. Once everything was all mapped, it was then a matter of sewing ALL THE BLOCKS together which took a while, but was quite satisfying in the end. I was using a soft quilted backing again, but having learned recently from my cousin's baby quilt, this type of fabric is not great for machine quilting, so after binding it in a complimentary batik fabric, I decided to hand tie the entire thing with golden embroidery floss. Again, quite time consuming, but in the end a nice final effect, in my opinion!  I hope Les gets many years of warmth and coziness from this spooooooky quilt!  

My dear cousins Heidi C. and Nathan H. are about to have their first baby (aka swirly), and since I was seeing them over the holidays, I was able to complete their baby quilt to gift to them in person. I felt like I wanted to do one with lots of faces on it (which I learned later was a favourite feature of Nathan's own baby quilt), but I broke things up with slashes of bright rosy fabric just to mix things up a bit. I also framed everything in that fabric, and then made a narrow border using some of the fabric from cousin Alexis and Andrew's daughter Claire's quilt a few years ago, for a little cousin resonance. I made some bright red binding to go around the outside, and backed it in a soft, quilted green fabric. This backing was a little stretchy, so unfortunately it didn't quilt very smoothly and there are some puckers in the back... but hey!  I guess that means it is homemade!  :) I hope swirly gets many years of cuddles and comfort from this quilt!  

Well... better late than never, right?  I have been working on this quilt for Vanessa M. for a few months now, and in that time, I missed all three milestones for which it was intended. You win some, you lose some. But in the end, I got it finished and sent off to her. Vanessa and I have been friends for decades, and there were three milestones this year to celebrate: both of us turning 44 (#doubledigits), Vanessa getting married to her long-time partner in August (perhaps the most important), and celebrating the 25th anniversary of International Amy and Vanessa day in September (no wait, that is the most important). 

It was a moment of milestones, and I thought it would be nice to mark them with a quilt for my dear friend two whom I have never actually gifted a quilt despite so many years together. We are similar in some ways, but not always when it comes to aesthetics. As one might notice on this blog, I am into COLOR, whereas Vanessa has a more minimalist aesthetic. So I did my best to honor that in this design. 

Using up-cycled batiks, I wove together a mosaic-inspired central panel showing off the navy and blue fabrics, and then like a supernova, slowly worked my way out from there and into the abyss of space (which is an upcycled bedsheet, also used as the backing). It is a small design detail but one I like for those who care to notice, at one corner the scattering of stardust leaks into the outer trim and into the binding itself. Not revolutionary or particularly dramatic, but i love that little detail and I feel like it is something she would notice and enjoy.  

After finally finishing the quilt top, I sandwiched everything and started the epic task of quilting this thing. I am not a huge quilting fan and usually keep things quite simple, but I felt like this quilt demanded the free-motion-quilting treatment to really bring it all together. It took a long time, but as usual, when I do make the time for it (like on my white whale quilt), I love the final effect on both the front and backsides. I made the binding from more of the navy backing along with some scraps from the center blocks to create the very subtle 'fading off into the edges' effect. 

I hope that this quilt gets many years of minimalist-design-loving snuggles!