Potholders

I whipped up a couple more potholders. These have been a really good way to practice machine-sewing binding. I only had to re-do a couple inches on these potholders, which is a personal best for me. I intend to make a few more sets as practice before I quilt and bind Isaac's monkey quilt.

Pride

Isaac sporting his new rainbow onesie at the Pride parade last weekend.

I think this was the biggest Pride parade in Minneapolis yet, there were 400,000 spectators. Super fun! Isaac, however, was more interested in our food and his feet than the parade.

Warm Cool Quilt Along - sewing the rows

After I settled on a layout I chain-pieced the rows together. Now I have four rows, ready for ironing and then more sewing.



My grandma taught me this method when she helped me make my first quilt from denim squares. I am a huge fan of chain piecing quilts because I am not a very organized person. At some point, every project of mine ends up looking like this:



Having the rows chain-pieced makes it easier for me to start and stop and not lose track of where blocks go. If I'm making a large quilt I label the top of each row. Also tremendously helpful is having a picture of the intended layout.

For Father's Day

For Father's Day I made Isaac a little tool belt / apron to go along with a toy tool set. The pattern is from One Yard Wonders.

Warm Cool Quilt Along - layout

I got all my half-square triangles cut, sewn, pressed and squared. I *think* this is going to be the final layout of the mini quilt:



It occurred to me while I was laying the pieces out that I included fabrics with all different values - lights, mediums and darks. If I had more (or maybe less?) variety in my stash I could've chosen fabrics from one or two values. This finished product is going to look a little scrappier than I'd envisioned.

Take that, mosquitoes!

I made some beer bottle torches, following this tutorial, for the summer. Thanks to the cool weather and lots of rain, our backyard is so full of mosquitoes this year it's ridiculous. The torches help a little but not enough. It's kind of a bummer since we just got a fancy grill installed and were looking forward to spending a lot of time in the backyard this summer.

But on the plus side, our yard has never looked nicer - also thanks to the cool weather and rain. All the plants are flourishing - hostas are huge, groundcover is spreading, fruits are ripening - and all we've done is weed a few times, scatter some seeds and plant a few annuals.

I was able to find all the parts for this project in only one trip to Home Depot. That is amazing. Usually projects that take a trip to Home Depot require at least 3 trips to Home Depot. I did make one trip to my local Ace store where I bought materials for the torches themselves, but Ace did not carry the hardware to hang the torches.

Warm Cool Quilt Along

A bit late to the game, but last night I started the warm cool quilt along hosted by In Color Order. All of her posts are so inspiring, I felt compelled to join in.

I'm making the mini quilt. Here are my fabric selections:

This is all fabric - mostly scraps - from my stash. I had a surprising number of yellows in my stash. Not surprisingly, I have more blue than all other colors combined. I have almost no reds, and all the pinks are scraps from the big pink quilt I finished last year. I can't wait to put the squares together!

Black, white and grey

I attended my first Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild meeting back in February, where we swapped strips of black, white and grey fabric. The challenge was to make something adding only one solid for the top, plus optional additional solids for the binding and back. The big reveal was in mid-May. My project was a little wall hanging for my sun room.



I quilted this with my walking foot, making parallel lines 1/4 inch on each side of the seams using black, white and grey thread. I'm really happy with the result, it looks great in our sun room :)

Baby pea coat

I found a pattern for a hooded jacket for Isaac, and I bought yarn to make it last fall. I should've bought one more ball of yarn... I did not have enough to finish the hood. So Isaac got a pea coat instead of a hooded jacket. I also should've started the jacket sooner... I finished it in late May and the little guy wore it once. I'm packing it away for the fall, hopefully it will still fit in September.



Pattern: Lino's coat (ravelry)

Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Bulky

Needles: US10

Fruit trivets

Pattern: Crocheted fruity trivets and pot holders by the Purl Bee (ravelry)

Yarn: Rowan 4-ply cotton

I doubled-up the yarn and used a smaller gauge hook than the pattern called for. I did have a problem with the sides of both the trivet and the potholder curling up, so I sprayed them with spray starch and ironed them on high heat. Problem solved!

It was hard to find a cheap yarn line that had both a light and dark orange. I have quite a bit of the dark orange left over, but none of the light orange. I hope to make a matching set, maybe of lemons or limes, if I can find suitable yarn.

Getting ready for summer

In preparation for warmer weather, I made Isaac a sun hat using the Betz White reversible bucket hat pattern. I made the smallest size, and it fits him just perfectly. He hates it though. He hates all hats. He spent most of the time he was wearing it trying to get it off. I did get a picture before the fussing started.





I used a cotton quilting print that I got on clearance from a local quilt store, and some denim that I had in my stash. I was a little intimidated by the idea of sewing curved pieces, but the pattern was actually pretty easy. I'll be making a few more for Isaac in different sizes and maybe one for myself as well.