Author Archives: oliver's fancy

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About oliver's fancy

I am wife to a patient husband named Ian and stay-at-home mom to a busy little boy named Oliver. When not running around after him, I enjoy dabbling in all sorts of craftiness. I am a self-proclaimed fabric-aholic and proud of it! I have started this blog to document my journey of bettering my sewing/ crafting skills and show off occasional pictures of my little man and superb culinary creations:).

Let’s Quilt! part 2

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For part 1 in this series go here.

I have finished two blocks for my online quilting class- a log cabin block and a rail fence block. I have done a log cabin block several times but never a rail fence. I found the construction of both blocks to be fairly simple and straightforward. I did take a long time in deciding color/fabric choices for my blocks because both of them can turn out very differently based on where you place your fabrics. I am happy to announce that both my blocks ended up 18.5 inches square- a rare feat for me! I think the solution is accurate pressing of the strips as you sew.

First: the log cabin block

I really wanted to show the two color palettes in this block. I also wanted to have a graduated intensity toward the outside of the block. I really like how the finished block turned out. This block doesn’t look square, but I promise you that it is!

Next: the rail fence block

This block utilizes dark, medium, and light fabric hues to draw your eye across and down the block. I spent forever debating medium versus dark fabrics and finally ended up with the choices you see here. While I don’t know if this is a perfect representation of the dark, medium, and light hues, I am pleased with the flow of the block. I will definitely keep this block in my repertoire to use again.

I had hoped to have a third block to show to you tonight, but alas I am struggling with the construction of this one and after sewing wrong sides together 2x in a matter of minutes, I have decided to put this aside until tomorrow to complete with a fresh mind. Do you find that as you rush to finish projects, you make stupid mistakes? I most definitely do and am learning to stop when I get to this point in order prevent unnecessary frustration! Here’s a sneak peek at that third block and my mistake.

 

 

Finished Quilt!

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I am so excited to show you a quilt that has been about 3 years in the making! After I made my very first quilt from a class I took in town, I was hooked on quilting. When a friend alerted me to the fact that a website was selling vintage reproduction prints for a clearance price of about 80 cents a fat quarter, I snatched some up with the goal of making another quilt. I researched all the ideas out there (pre-pinterest days made things more difficult 🙂 ) and found a pinwheel quilt that I liked. This quilt did not have instructions, just a finished pictured so I had to figure it out on my own. I combined my vintage prints with some polka dot charm squares and made a ton of half-square triangles. I then began sewing the HST together to make the pinwheels, got about halfway through, and stopped. Fast forward a few years up to a few months ago when I decided that it was high time for me to finally finish this quilt.

It has been so fun to finish this project. The original idea ended with the bricks stacked all around the border of the pinwheels, but I wanted this to be a nice lap size quilt so I added some Kona coal and Lizzy House Jewels to make it wider. I picked up the Jewel print a few months back out of the Whipstitch remnant bin and couldn’t be happier with how it blends into the quilt. Purple is my favorite color, and I think this quilt is a good representation of me. I hand quilted it with various Perle cottons and bound it in a Kona cotton purple (can’t remember exact shade). This is my second experience with hand-quilting and although I wouldn’t want to spend that much time with all my quilts, I did enjoy the process. For the backing, I used up the remained of the fat quarters and Kona cotton. I like the scrappy look of it.

Yay for finishing up another long-term project! Now back to making quilt squares for my current quilt class. I’m in the middle of several blocks and will post progress when finished with them.

Let’s Quilt! part 1

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I thought I would try to update regularly on the progress of my quilting class.  I will link all the posts together so they are easy to find and will be a fun way to look back and see the whole quilting process. Today we learned a lot about color schemes and fabric selection for our quilts, and I really enjoyed learning more about how to think through this process and not just randomly select colors you like. I bought some of the DS Quilts collection a while back intending to make a quilt with it and haven’t done anything with it since so I have decided to use this for my quilt. Choosing to use a designer’s collection makes fabric selection a bit easier, but I will also pick up some solids to coordinate with my prints. I’m thinking Kona cottons in white, pink and green to bring some balance to the busyness of the prints I have. In my quilts, I like to have enough solids to provide visual rest so that I  don’t go cross-eyed when looking at it. 🙂

Essential Quilting E-Course

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I am so excited to announce that I have FINALLY won a giveaway!! Excuse my enthusiasm, but it seems I have entered so many giveaways with no luck that I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got the email telling me I’d won. I had seen a retweet about a Whipstitch giveaway last week so I clicked on through the link and entered myself into the race. The post was a guest posting from Deborah giving some helpful advice for newbie bloggers and giving away a chance to win a spot in her essential quilting e-course. Of course, you know I won the giveaway and am so pumped to begin the class today. The class continues throughout the month of June, and she has lots of fun things planned for this month. I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress and hope to show you some fun finished projects! I am very excited for this chance to improve my quite basic quilting skills. An interest in quilting is what sparked my desire to pick up sewing again a few years back so I think quilting will always have a special spot in my crafty soul :).

Thanks to PlumandJune and Whipstitch for this great opportunity.

More Treasure Pockets

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I have yet another pair of treasure pockets to show!  When I made the last pair of treasure pocket shorts, I had planned on using this pocket fabric with those shorts, but I didn’t like how they coordinated once I had them cut out so I stashed away these pockets until I could find some linen fabric I liked. I picked up some linen this past weekend and here are the resulting shorts.  I love how lightweight and airy this linen fabric is! The pocket fabric is an organic cotton- Cloud 9 I believe- that I picked up at Whipstitch when I was in Atlanta this spring. I only bought a fat quarter because the organics are so expensive, but I love how even a scrap can be used as a fun accent in this pants pattern.

These are my favorite treasure pockets to date! Every time I make this pattern, I improve my sewing a bit and understand the instructions better 🙂 Except for cutting the pants off 3 inches below the crotch seam (to turn them into shorts), I pretty much followed the instructions word for word.

Note what a helpful little gardener I have 🙂

Where I’ve been…

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This past week has been quite full…. family time, a sick little man, car trips, hand quilting, and practicing new skills. I so enjoyed the family time we had with the hub’s extended family, but I am very happy to be back in my own house and on a normal schedule again! Since we’ve been back, the poor little man has not been feeling well and has needed extra momma time- resulting in less sewing time for me. Oh well, he’s only little for a short time, so I need to enjoy every minute, right? I did sneak some time in during our 8 hour drive home to finish the hand-quilting on my quilt. Just have to add the binding and it’s done! I have also been working on some new projects that I hope will turn into more of a lucrative venture for me… more to come on that if it works out!

A photo collage of said activities…

my nephews and their handmade vests

new fun project!

rough day on the job

hand quilting- check!

 

How to Make a Guest Book Quilt: Part 1

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Updated: As this is a very popular post on my blog, I am updated it to offer a mini-tutorial on how to make your own guest book quilt. Here’s the succinct version of the instructions for a patchwork guestbook quilt part 1:

  • Cut out about 100 9″ (or whatever your preferred size is) squares of varying fabrics. You want to have extra in case people mess up on one and then need to redo it.
  • Bring your stack of fabrics plus markers to the guest book table at the wedding. I used both sharpies and fabric markers and found sharpies to be easier to write with.
  • Make sure to have a sign reminding people to leave you plenty of room at the edges for seam allowances. I discovered I had to continually remind people about this because they would write on the very end of the fabric square.
  • Go here for part 2 of the tutorial

 

As I am the resident quilter in the family, my sister in law called me a few months ago to discuss an idea she had for her wedding. She wanted to know about the possibility of creating a guest book out of quilt squares. I had never heard of the idea, but immediately loved it- where was this idea when I got married?! I told her that I would research it and send her the ideas I found.

After spending some time on Pinterest, I compiled several different ideas and options on a Pinterest board and sent it to her for review. We decided on a simple patchwork style. She told me her favorite colors and patterns, and I went to the fabric store to find the right fabric. I found a mix of prints and solids. At the wedding, people will sign the lighter colored squares with fabric markers, and later I will mix and match those signed squares with the coordinating prints. She has also asked for a big monogrammed square in the middle of the quilt. The final quilt will have 9 inch squares and be queen sized so they can put it on their bed if they wish. I am so excited to see how the final product will turn out! What a great way to preserve your wedding memories!

 

Quilt squares all cut and ready to go

guestbook table all set up

basket of unsigned squares

instruction slate and basket for signed squares

Little Boy Vests

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vest fronts- ignore wonky looking pockets

As mentioned previously, my sister-in-law is getting married this Friday. Two of my nephews are in the wedding and needed some vests to wear. My other sis-in-law (I have 5 on the hubs side!) mentioned that she was not able to find any vests she liked at the store so I volunteered myself to make them since I had made one for the little man for Easter. At this point, I’m wondering why I always volunteer myself for these things, but I just can’t seem to resist. I do enjoy it and it’s good experience for me but somehow everything ends up needing to be done in about 2 days time!

I had planned on going to the fabric store to find the outer vest material but as the closest Joann is over 30 minutes away and we are a one car family, it just never worked out. I had the idea to get some men’s dress pants and use those. I went to Goodwill and found several pairs of men’s pants that were the right color in the $1 section. Score! All was going well as I took my nephew’s measurements and cut out the first vest…until I got it all sewed together and realized it was 3 inches too short. Oh drat! Back to the drawing board. This time I actually used an old pair of my husband’s pants because I wanted both boys to have the same fabric.  Final fitting went well…whew! For the back of the vest, I cut along the outer fold in the pant’s leg- now it has a nice finished seam down the middle that I didn’t have to sew! Vest number two is cut a bit wider around the back and armholes as nephew two is a bit bulkier than nephew one…He’s not here to try it on so let’s hope it fits!

The vests are a boy’s size 5/6 and I discovered that this is about the largest size I can use and still get one vest out of each pant leg. For the lining fabric, I used some boyish fabric in my stash.  I got the vest idea from a tutorial I found on Pinterest but I have tweaked her instructions a bit.

Changes I made

Topstitched around the entire vest when finished.

Wait to sew pockets on until after buttons are in place- somehow the pockets end up being lopsided otherwise. (this is a change I’ll put in place next time I make a vest as I had to learn the hard way this time. :/ )

A few other odds and ends: only topstitched once on the pockets, sewed the front arm holes closed before turning, sewed all but a few inches together before turning right-side out, vests are not reversible.

vest backs…see the factory seam I kept?

I am really happy with the final product…just have to do some seam ripping to fix the pocket problem and they are all done. Now on to cleaning the house and cutting out 100 ten inch quilt squares before we leave tomorrow morning!

The craze of May

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It seems like May is a crazy month. Between graduations, weddings, family vacations, and Mother’s Day; there is so much going on. Not to mention attempting to enjoy the outdoors before the weather becomes unreasonably hot. Well I am full-swing into this craze of May. We had family staying with us all last week and had a great time. Poor little Oliver does not know what to do with himself now that his cousins are gone- no worries, he will see them again this week! However, with all the goings-on, I was not able to get much sewing accomplished. Ah well, memories are more important, right?

What I was able to accomplish last week:

Alterations. I am now the family seamstress, even if I don’t exactly know what I am doing all the time. Last week I got to experience my first attempt with sewing knits on my sister’s graduation dress. The lining on her dress only came mid-thigh so we found another similar knit material and I added length to it. A pretty easy fix and non-stressful since no one will really see the lining. She also wanted me to change the sleeves from off the shoulder to normal sleeves, and I was able to fix that for her with minimal sewing effort. I like to do small projects like this because it gives me good experience in alterations and in practicing new techniques.

Little boy vests. I volunteered to make the ring bearer vests for my sister-in-law’s wedding and had one of my subjects staying with us this last week so I was able to measure him and finish one vest (well actually two since number one was a dud), except for the buttonholes. Thankfully both boys are the same size, making this project fairly easy. At least, it would have been easy if I had measured accurately and not made the first vest 3 inches too short 😦 Oh well, chalk up another sewing lesson on the importance of accurate measurements. I was able to be extra thrifty for this project and bought men’s pants from the thrift store to use as vest material. I am pretty happy with how the first one turned out. I hope to finish the other one this afternoon during nap time. I’ll discuss these a little more in depth when I finish both of them completely but here’s a sneak peak.

We leave Wednesday for our trip to Tennessee to attend said sister-in-law’s wedding and before we leave, I have to finish the other vest and cut out a ton of 10 inches squares for the guest book quilt (more on that later), not to mention house cleaning, packing and working in between. I will definitely not be bored the next two days!

More Pillows

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The pillow frenzy is finished for now. I completed two more pillows and it makes me so happy to sit in my cheery living room!

I really wanted to quilt the patchwork pillow above, but time is a little lacking right now, so quick and easy needed to prevail. Therefore I threw it together with another envelope back- so convenient! I may eventually quilt it but for now it is fine. This pillow came with my couch and while it is huge- 23 inches square- it is a fun way to showcase a big design.

Lest you think my sewing experiences are all happy ones, this is what happens when you are in a hurry and trying to finish before nap time ends- pillow front sewn wrongside to pillow back…enter seam ripper. Oh well, such is the life of the sewist.

Next on the agenda, vests for my little nephews in a wedding this May. Hope to have those to show you by Thursday or Friday!