Happy Zombie

I bought a new travel-iron, so first my order of business was to make a cozy, protective bag for it. Pretty much the iron was an opportunity to make something cute and useful. There are 18 gazillion patterns and tutorials for box bags, but the tutorial (by Stacy Schlyer) I found most helpful is from the PBS show “Sew It All“.   The tutorial is short and to the point, and the illustrations are clear and easy to understand (huge thumbs up to the illustrator!). I read by illustration so this tutorial was perfect for me. I used my own measurements and made a jumbo, super-sized me bag. I measured around the box my iron came in and then tinkered with muslin-ish fabric to yeild a just-the-right-size bag.

I made my outer bag by serendipitously/making-it-up-as-I-went-along into a small quilt top. I then sandwiched it with batting and a muslin backing and machine quilted it. I trimmed it to 16″ x 20″ (and also cut a matching piece of fabric for the liner).

I used a 20″ zipper for the 16″ edge (that I bought at zipit - the best zipper source ever) which gave me lots of room for trimming. Probably overkill, but I always am in need of wiggle room.  Always.  After some sewing (and un-sewing and re-sewing), I finished my bag.  It’s a perfect fit for my travel iron and it’s box.  Of note, I LOVE my Hamilton Beach travel iron.  It was an impulse buy as I was totally glamored by the shiny sole-plate and the low price (under $20 USD). This iron is so good I’ve been using it at home as an everyday iron this week. My Oliso is jealous.

When I finished I thought, dang, this box is as big as a loaf of bread. Sure enough, it’s the exact size of the Costco version of an Oroweat loaf.

And of course I had to check. Curiosity may kill the cat, but I’ll be a rock-star if I’m ever invited to a sandwich pot-luck.

For everyone who’s asked, here’s the resource info for my bag:
Linen:
– Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed in black

Solids:
– Moda Bella Solids
– Robert Kaufman Kona Solids

Prints:
– Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Tsuru from Cloud9 Fabrics
– Anna Maria Horner’s Postage Due (Kaleidoscope) from her Dowry collection.

Fabrics purchased at:
– Modern Domestic, Portland
– Fabric Depot, Portland

Zipper:
– zipit

Iron:
– Hamilton Beach

Tutorial:
– Sew It All ep 704

My bag’s measurements:
(edited in - I made my corner cut-outs at 2″ x 2¼” (or 2″ x 2″ at bottom seam/side fold)

—-> —-> Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment.

The NYC Mod Quilters have teamed up with EZ Quilting/Simplicity, Juki and Interweave for the Double Wedding Ring Challenge using the Darlene Zimmerman EZ Quilting/Simplicity Double Wedding Ring rulers.

Remember the Dresden Challenge the SLMQD did with Darlene’s Dresden ruler?  This is the same type of challenge and it is open to everyone who wants to participate.  If a challenge isn’t fun enough, there’s a cavalcade of prizes and multiple categories to enter in.

You can read all about the challenge here.

The nice people at Simplicity have given me one set of Darlene’s ruler for a give-away for one lucky winner. More at the end of this post.

The rulers can be purchased from participating retailers or you can purchase them directly from Simplicity here (and the optional solid arc here) or from Darlene here (and the optional solid arc here.).  There’s a complete Dresden set plus the single arc ruler if you don’t want to make a pieced arc (like I did).

This is the first time I made a double wedding ring quilt (well, mutant coaster quilt), and I found this tutorial on the Simplicity website helpful.  I was putzing around trying to learn how to use these tools, and hopefully trigger an idea to make something unconventional and new with them.  While I was playing with the rulers, I discovered a 10″ Moda layer cake is perfect for two single arcs and two connector squares.  PERFECT!   I dove into my Moda’s Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille stash and set out to make a mutant drink coaster.  Four 10″ fabrics + background fabric = one ring.

I made some paper templates to insure I’d cut in just the right spot.

I used Robert Kaufman’s Kona Snow for my background. The tools are marked so I knew exactly what size pieces of Kona I needed to make before cutting out the shapes. Nif. Ty.

I got a little cocky and went pin-commando.  I wanted to use my seam ripper, anyway.

A steam iron, pins (learned that the hard way) and a good spritz of starch is helpful.

Lots and lots of pinning (the perfect job for a Duck Dynasty marathon) and patience and steam and more pinning.

DWR Challenge Kick-off Blog Hop:
July 8: NYC Mod Quilters & Interweave
July 9: Emily Bailey & Shelly Pagliai
July 10: Amy Ellis & Faith Jones
July 11: Amy Smart
July 12: Dan Rouse & Elisa Albury
July 13: Jenny Cameron
July 14: Jane Davidson
July 15: Joanna Wilczynska & Jackie Kunkel
July 16: Kathy Doughty & Juki
July 17: Lisa Mason & Flaun Cline
July 18: Pat Sloan & Jessica Alexandrakis
July 19: Jacquie Gering, Lee Heinrich & Monica Solorio-Snow

GIVE-AWAY!
For a chance to win a set a tools, leave a comment and I’ll have random.org draw a number on Tuesday, July 23rd around noon-ish PST.  If you want, you can comment what sounds more fun: a pieced arc or a single unit arc.

Edited in: The giveaway has now ended, and using random.org for comments 1-156, the winner is #94 by BrendaLou. Congrats, BrendaLou!!

Martingale is giving a hardcopy book of Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe to one lucky winner!

My quilt/project in the book is my Juicy quilt.  Juicy because it’s your basic HST/hourglass & flying geese blocks, making it easy to sew up while sewing with friends and being able to keep up with juicy conversations.

I love this book and diversity of the quilts featured. Some super modern, and some edging on traditional (like mine) - all super fun and beautiful. I have my eye on at least 3 quilts that I HAVE to make, and even if my quilt wasn’t in this book I’d want it for my library. Curious what’s inside the book - you can peek inside here.

Leave a comment below by noon-ish PST on Monday, April 8th, and I’ll draw one lucky winner for the MQBU book.

Edited in: The giveaway has now ended, and using random.org for comments 1-185, the winner is #55 by Ursula. Yay, Ursula!!

My new favorite book is Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe - a compilation book published by Martingale. I love this book not just because I have a quilt and pattern in it… but because it’s such a great book! Martingale really outdid themselves and put out an aaaaaamazing book. Visually stunning layout, beautiful quilts, great illustrations, amazing bloggers (!!!) and jam & jelly packed with projects.

What I love about MQBU is that Martingale chose to just put the projects in the book. Just projects - LOVE that. All the other stuff like binding, sammiching, quilting, etc - has all been left out (and delegated to a URL to their website) to make room for more projects. Genius. Seriously. Genius. That I’m lucky enough to have been included in it, and having gotten to use my Happy Mochi Yum Yum collection… that’s gravy. Crazy, crazy, gravy!

My quilt/project in the book is my Juicy quilt. Juicy because it’s your basic HST/hourglass & flying geese blocks, making it easy to sew up while sewing with friends and being able to keep up with juicy conversations.

Plus I think my quilt blocks look like juicy little nuggets of Starburst candy.

Flashback photos: A mini-Juicy I made with 2½” Kate Spain’s Terrain and Central Park charms (and the charms are extra special since Kate gave them to me!). The mini-Juicy led to the Juicy that’s in the MQBU.

And if quilts could talk, there would be some juicy stories to tell!

GIVEAWAY:
Martingale is generously giving an eBook of Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe to 19 lucky winners! Holy eSmokes! You have 19 chances to win an eBook - leave a comment here for one chance, and then visit the post at Martingale to enter plus get access to the 17 other bloggers.  Curious what’s inside the book - you can peek inside here plus see all the quilts and the bloggers on Martingale’s giveaway ground zero. Leave a comment below by noon-ish PST on Tuesday, January 29th, and I’ll draw one of 19 lucky winners for the MQBU eBook.

Edited in: The giveaway has now ended, and using random.org for comments 1-484, the winner is #122 by Jane of Two Wednesdays. Yay, Jane!!

RESOURCES:
MQBU: Bloggers, projects and contest
MQBU: Book info
Fabrics: Kate Spain (Terrain and Central Park)
Fabrics: Me (Happy Mochi Yum Yum)
Fabrics: Robert Kaufman (Kona solids)
Monster: flashback post

My two favorite times of the year are when Amy Ellis has her Blogger’s Quilt Festival. Both festivals coincide ish with Spring and Fall Quilt Market’s. If you’re unfamiliar with the BQF, it’s an online quilt show where everyone posts their favorite quilt (at the moment). BQF has evolved and grown over the years, and now there’s even Viewers Choice voting - and prizes. Lots and lots of generous sponsor prizes! If you’re interested in participating in the show-n-tell aspect (like I am) and/or submitting your quilt for voting… and/or to vote… or just plain want to see a bounty of beautiful quilts - head over there now - PS, submissions close today!

Here’s my favorite quilt at the moment, it’s my teenie quilt-as-you-go-log-cabin quilt I made specifically for some Tammis Keefe Tribute cat fabric scraps I got from my friend Elizabeth (pretty much where 99.5% of all my amazing scraps come from!).

I also secretly make teenie quilts just so I have something to bind. On the night of the final game between St. Louis and the Giants for the NLCS title, I rushed to get my binding sewn on so I’d have it to bind during the game.

Full disclosure: I find baseball painfully boring, but the Giants are The Other home team (go A’s!) so it was exciting and fun to watch and my teenie quilt was going to be a Lucky Giants Quilt. And they won the NLCS.

And then the Giants won the World Series. Coincidence? PS: You’re welcome, San Francisco.

So now that the World Series is over, my teenie quilt is now my Happy Halloween Quilt.

And because I’m so lazy because I’m so filled with holiday spirit and like to over extend my holiday seasons - I threw in some graphite Winterkist into my SF Giants-Halloween-Christmas-ish teenie quilt. Bam. Seasonal multi-tasking.  PS:  You’re welcome, Santa Claus.

Dear Towel,
I love you.  Yes, love.  Little hearts circled around atop my head when I first spotted you at IKEA.  On the drive home, I glanced a few times to the back seat to see how you were doing.  With every glance I sighed and professed my love.  I love you, Towelie.

Oh Towelie, I know you’re supposed to be a bathmat - but it breaks my heart to just toss you on the cold, cold floor.

There you go, Towelie - now I can see you every time I enter the bathroom.  I smile every time I see you.  All the more eager I am now to finish painting the not-my-taste green to the beautiful Clay Bisque on the other wall.

I love you so much Towelie that I could pee. Good thing I’m sitting in just the right spot.

And now, Towelie… it’s time for you to make some babies!

I bought some great London fabric by The Henley Studio (from Makower UK/Andover) from both Pink Chalk Fabrics and the Fat Quarter Shop.  My big plan was to sew with it on the weekend of the Diamond Jubilee, as well as simultaneously with Fat Quarterly’s London retreat.  Transporting myself to London from my little spot at our Portland MQG All Day Sew.  I had it all planned out - I would make another Lunch bag from Ayumi’s pattern (I think this makes 9 bags, now).  I was so careful, too.  Making sure I had my directions running in all the right ways.

Easy, this is the 9th time I’ve made Ayumi’s pattern.
Focused and mindful.
No sweat.
Piece of cake.
I can make Bag9.0 with my eyes closed.
I can sew this bag in my sleep.
I don’t even need to use a machine… I can mind-sew it.

Of course… naturally… I am full of $#!+.  Oh yeah (Kool-aid Man voice).

Sigh. Not gonna toss it. I sewed the outer and inner units together and trimmed it with some top stitching. I guess I have a too-small iron cover.

Or a hat for Traci.  (Meg, Amber and Jen are the happy little sewing bees in the background)

With no purse to finish now, I’ll just watch Violet make her beautiful bee block for Sally.

After PMQG All Day Sew we go out for Mexican food (so very London-ish, eh)… I watch Traci and Violet drink something out of giant cereal bowl that tasted like Froot Loops with tequila to me.  One sip and I was glad I was sticking with a Coke.  This has nothing to do with my sewing fail - I’m just so amused by this drink that I’m making it a part of Bag9.0’s story.

The following day I pick up where I left off, and redo Bag9.0’s main body. So cute is Ayumi’s pattern, and I love it in this London fabric (+ some of Darlene Zimmerman’s long ago Little Darling’s from my stash for the band and handles).

I’m so glad I Instagram’d/tweet’d/flickr’d my Bag9.0 Diamond Jubilee Edition fail - Sandie left me a comment on my flickr pic with a great tip: “Turn it inside out and then fold a couple inches to the outside.  It’ll still be upside down inside, but once you fill it, who’s gonna notice?“.   And that’s just what I did.

Lesson learned: When life gives you lemons… Instagram/tweet/flickr about it. Thank you for the lemonade, Sandie!

Last February the Portland Modern Quilt Guild had a very special visitor - Kathy Miller of Michael Miller Fabrics.  It was a fun and so very interesting evening, but nothing could top the excitement when Kathy handed out color cards of Michael Miller’s dreamy new Cotton Couture solids to everyone.  It was definitely an Oprah handing-out-keys-to-new-cars moment.  A color card for you, and a color card for you…

We also learned that Michale Miller Fabrics chose our guild to participate in a block challenge, and the winning blocks would be made into a quilt and displayed in the Michael Miller booth at Quilt Market (next week!).  Oh boy, I don’t think Kathy knew what she got herself into. I don’t know how she is going to pick winning blocks - when they are ALL winning blocks.  HOLY SQUIRREL NUTS, they’re all so amazing!  Edited in: the selected blocks and quilt.

I love how the blocks look against the white brick wall.

Each block could easily be a full size quilt version of itself.

This is my block. I had no idea what to do or what direction to go in… so I went in all directions. I don’t know how I feel about it, kinda meh, but it was fun to drive to the fork in the road and take all the roads at once.

I fell in instant love with the new Cotton Couture.  The colors are super saturated eye candy, and the fabric feels like little heavenly clouds of cotton that angels farted out. Poof.  So much for any hope of me becoming a Michael Miller copywriter. But seriously, Cotton Couture is so dreamy, and now that I’ve sewn with it - it feels like I’ve flown first class, and I can never go back to coach.

I harvested all my leftover scraps, tiny little flakes of cotton happiness just begging me (in a Kool-aid pitcher man voice) to be used.  In a granny kind of way.  Fiber filled Gran Flakes.  Oh yeah.

I’m seeing the grannies all over, and just loving seeing them. I know there are different methods being used, but I have a thing about bias edges - so I made my sides with 3″ quarter-squares and 2″ half-squares for the corners.  The center squares were cut at 1½”.  It’s a little over-kill on the sides and corners, but I like having room to square-up and trim.  Kinda like wearing an elastic waist-band skirt when going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Simple sashing and auditioning floss. Mmmm, any excuse to use Cosmo.

Some hand quilting.

Two things I love doing - hand quilting and big stitch embroidery quilting.  Edited in:  I use two stands of Cosmo floss and a Piecemaker embroidery needle. Even though an embroidery needle feels like a quilting needle from Land of The Giants, I do use the same rocking method to quilt as if it’s thread. It just somehow works.

I love quilting so much, that I get a little sad when I’m just about to finish a quilt.

Bam. Snuck in some Happy Mochi Yum Yum, and I love that it does not even come close to matching or go together.

This is not a cry for help. I repeat, this is not a cry for help. At least not for now at this very moment.

Starting back when Lori and I did our iPhone sew-along (Lori’s, mine) with Ayumi’s Lunch bag (purse) pattern, I have not been able to stop making them or stop thinking about making them.   I see fabric and all I want to do it harvest a small collection that would make for a cute lunch bag (or as I lovingly call them now:  Ayumi Purses).

This last Saturday I made two more.  I couldn’t decide which Suzy Ultman Appleville brown or Appleville white to use, so I made both.  BOTH!  Paired with some of Tula’s Prince Charming and Robert Kaufman’s “ring” fabric - it would have been criminal not to make both.

It was a sewing-day with the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and if I hadn’t spent so much time proclaiming (proclaiming = When Harry Met Sally deli scene) how cute the pattern and the fabrics were together, I might have even been able to crank out an additional bag.  That’s Susan waving hi - she’s so dang squeezably cute! And that unusual bright light emanating from the window in the top right of the photo - that’s sunshine people. Sun. Shine.  Dispelling all rumors that Oregonian’s are Mole People. Fact.

I’m playing with making the lunch bag bigger, so I decided to go all Scarlett O’Hara ish and use the (Darlene Zimmerman Mama’s Kitchen) fabric that was once my sewing room’s closet curtains at my previous house.

I love how Lecien’s red check from their Color Basic’s collection goes with Darlene’s fabric! Cutting and sewing next up (and fingers crossed my upsizing hacks work out).

As soon as I got wind that Michael Miller flipped the switch on the way-back time machine and was bringing back Patty’s Andalucia  - I flew over to the Fat Quarter Shop and ordered me some of the Andalucia II.

It’s not an addiction if everybody joins in with me, right? And now on to the next harvesting of lunch bag fabrics… what ever they may be… re-Flea Market Fancy…

Edited in 13 Feb 2013:
The pattern Patio (known as Taking Turns in the 2012 Quilts & More issue) is available in my PDF pattern shop!

+ my shop + Patio pattern + Patio on Pinterest

ORIGINAL POST, March 17, 2012:

Whoo whoo - I’ve got another quilt pattern in Quilts and More!   Ok, so the Spring 2012 issue has been out for a while - but I do like to wait until I actually see the issue on the newsstand before I blog about it.  And here in teenie little Astoria, magazines and mail apparently arrive by pony. If I can find an issue here, I know it’ll be available everywhere and it’s safe to blog about it.

Photo credit: Better Homes & Gardens, used with permission
In this Quilts and More issue, is a special “All About White” section devoted to quilts made with prints and white fabric.  Three quilts, four designers.  Oh yeah, the best part of seeing another one of my patterns published by Quilts and More (which is a thrill on it’s own) - was seeing who else was featured in the All About White feature: Aneela with her Picnic Play quilt, and Team Amazing’s Kate and Sherri with their Double the Fun quilt, and my quilt Taking Turns.  Also in the issue is some more project sweetness by more sweeties - Camille, Joanna and Vanessa. BAM, what an issue!

My Taking Turns quilt:

Photo credit: Better Homes & Gardens, used with permission
A very fat quarter friendly quilt that’s also large scale fabric friendly.  Sometimes I just cringe cutting into fabric, and this pattern is my little way alleviating some of the shear fear I’m constantly stricken with.

Sew Modern has made up a Happy Mochi Yum Yum Taking Turns kit for sale (gotta hurry, I hear they’re almost sold out!), and the BEST FREAKING PART is that you get to DIY your background color from Sew Modern’s complete collection of Robert Kaufman Kona’s.  This is like going to a U-pick orchard - but better because it’s quilty and you won’t get mud on your shoes or fall off a rickety ladder.  I gasped when I saw Lauren’s (Sew Modern’s awesome momma) blog with the shop sample.  I smiled so hard my face hurt.  Talk about an OMG moment.  All the photos MUST be seen.  Go look and then come back.  I’ll wait for you.

Photo credit: Sew Modern, used with permission

Here’s a pic I took of my quilt. Sucky photo, so I played around and made it even suckier. Sucky, but it was fun to play around with the settings in iPhoto. And this is why I don’t get stuff done.

I played around with my pattern, and downsized the measurements by half and made a little baby quilt for a cute little Turtle.

The other night at guild, Elsa showed a baby version she made of it, too. A super thrill for me, especially since she made it in Aneela’s fabric.

Also at guild, and this has nothing to do with anything - but look how cute Megan and I were sitting next to each other.

I’m not even going to pretend I’m not begging, so if anyone makes the Taking Turns pattern or uses it to insire their own version like Elsa did - I’d love for (“I’d love for” is code for “I’m begging for”) anyone’s photos to be added to my Happy Zombie HQ flickr group.

Edited in 13 Feb 2013:
The pattern Patio (known as Taking Turns in the Quilts & More issue) is now available in my shop!

+ my shop

+ Patio pattern

+ Patio on Pinterest

+ Happy Zombie HQ pool on flickr

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