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But seriously. How freaking cute are they? Hella cute, that’s how cute.

 

 

Sock truths. #🦄

A photo posted by Monica Solorio-Snow ✂️ (@happy_zombie) on Jul 21, 2016 at 3:47pm PDT

I got my unicorn pair here. (or see all of the Sock Guy socks here)

And because I love unicorns. Even the ones with missing horns.

 

Took the long 🚲 route to the bank today and made a new friend. Poor thing, she seems to have lost her horn. 🦄

A photo posted by Monica Solorio-Snow ✂️ (@happy_zombie) on Jul 19, 2016 at 6:01pm PDT

 

 

Cuisinart, you are an asshole.

A photo posted by Monica Solorio-Snow ✂️ (@happy_zombie) on Jul 18, 2016 at 2:06pm PDT

There are 49 heart blocks in the Love Quilt, one for each person who lost their life.  One heart for each person who left behind a grieving spouse, partner, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, and friends.  One very important heart of forty-nine very important hearts.

The Love Quilt can also be used to just show love, and maybe it wants to be made for other loving purposes.  Please use this pattern for all kinds of love that need to be celebrated!  I ask please that no profits from this free pattern be made.  Unless of course a finished quilt is used for a charity auction/raffle to raise money for such organizations like Equality Florida/Support Victims of Pulse Shooting,  your local LGBTQ center, It Gets Better - any charitable organize that promotes love, kindness, safety, help, shelter, equality and support would be awesome.

This Love Quilt pattern is very basic and for quilters who know how to make quilt tops.  Not included are finishing measurement and instructions (sandwiching, batting, backing, quilting, and binding), and is intended for individuals as well as guilds, groups, and clubs.  Please feel free to download the PDF version and share with your friends, or group, or you can give your friends or group the link of thehappyzombie.com/love and they can go download and/or print it themselves.

Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment.

Sold exclusively by me on Amazon, and in 100% super yummy cotton.  Shirts come in both men’s and women’s sizes/styles, and I can say the women’s shirt fits quite yummy on me and very femine flattering.

There are two styles, one with Bob Flossy in lime and aqua, and one with Fob Flossy in pink and orange. Both designs come in 5 color shirt options. Click here for lime and aqua, and click here for pink and orange.

Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment

I went to my local big box home improvement store (which BTW is Home Depot and we appreciate immensely the discounts they give to veterans) and found a big 36″ x 72″ sheet of corrugated plastic sheeting for $10.50 USD. I found it near all the flat stuff (acrylic, glass, plastic, etc.). It’s super lightweight, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to get this piece of sheet (hahaha I crack myself up) home, so I waited until I was shopping with my husband and could pop the sheet in the back of his truck. Getting this home is the most creative part of this project, but is also available on Amazon.

With an old rotary cutter (that’s dedicated for paper and crafting use), I cut the big piece of sheeting into ten 14″ x 14″ pieces.  I chose 14″ so I would have room to work on a 12″ finished block.  I saved all the leftover small pieces and set them aside. Of course anyone could cut any size they wanted, larger or smaller.

I took a “Baby Size” package of  Soft & Bright and cut ten 15″ ish squares - so all sides were larger than my 14″ plastic squares. Soft & Bright also available by-the-yard here.

I adjusted my sewing machine’s pressure foot as high as it would go.  I also used an old needle (or if you use a current needle, be sure to replace it with a freshie once you’re done).

I did a test run on the plastic and it sewed like a charm.  I used Aurifil cotton thread (because I love it and it’s always threaded in my machine) and I put my stitch length somewhere between a basting length and a piecing length.  Everyone’s machine is different, so kinda in the middle but more towards a baste length.

With the smooth side of the batting towards my worktable, and bumpier side towards the plastic, I centered the plastic on top of the batting.

It is important to stitch on top of the plastic so that your sewing machine’s feed-dogs have something to grab on to (ie, grab the batting).  Stitch about 1/4″ (or less if you’re comfortable) from the edge.

At each corner, be sure to back-stitch to lock your stitching. You do not need to cut your threads at each end, just pivot 1/4 turn to start the next side.

Trim the excess batting from your plastic board.

Flip your board over and admire your work. High five yourself.

Give it a go - try out your new board buddy and build a block on it. Pretty cool, eh.

Do a vertical test. What? Yup. Awesome. And you can even stack your board on top of other boards that have block pieces on them. The plastic backside no-likey the fabric pieces on the stacked board below it and doesn’t want to stick to them.

With your leftover pieces you can make mini Block Buddies. It’s also a good way to use up some batting scraps. I did try cotton batting scraps (Warm & White is what I use for quilting), but I particularly like the Soft & Bright poly for this project as it’s not too stretchy, has a low loft, and the poly makes for a nice stick.  It’s just perfect.

Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment.

The Strawberry delight PDF template pattern is now available in my shop or at my Craftsy shop.

Just enter soupweather20 (before Feb. 13, 2015) in the discount code field when you’re checking out. My entire shop is on sale until 2/13/2015, so shop big!

I made my red & white Christmas Tree Pants, as well as made a scrappy version.

My scrappy version as modeled by Violet Craft.

Blam-O, tree pants!

Sew,Mama,Sew! has made a Christmas Tree Pants Sew-Along flickr group if you’d like to join that, too. Come sew with me.  Friends don’t let friends have trees without pants.

Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment.

I’m so smitten with the cover quilt - Pacific Crest. Crazy smitten. I even love all the fabrics and colors John chose. John writes in his book that Pacific Crest is, “… an asymmetrical repeat to mimic the movement of a flock of birds…”.  It totally looks like a flock of birds, but when I saw it I immediately saw sunlit sparkles on water atop darting fish, most specifically Pacific Ocean water which is just a few miles from my front door.   And then my mind immediately went to fish tacos.

What I especially love about the quilts in John’s book is that the patterns are what I think are easily adaptable to modify and personalize, which is something I like to do 99.5% of the time when I make someone’s pattern.  I set out to make a giant placemat/mugrug (<— just for you, homeboy) for my living room coffee table.  With John’s cutting instructions and a stack of yummy fabrics consisting of Anna Maria’s Dowry and Pretty Potent, Robert Kaufman Essex olive and Kona solids, and Moda Bella solids - I went at it.

I got a little giddy when one of my smaller blocks (with the Echinacea print) ended up having some seam-magic with it’s bad self.

I had an s-ton of fun making all these little blocks. So pretty and so fun to make. And the olive Essex goes so beautifully with Anna Maria’s prints.   I may be just a tad addicted to Anna Maria’s Dowry and Pretty Potent collections. I’ve bought it 4 times now, and no doubt will be buying more.   I did the same thing with Totem from her LouLouThi collection.   When I fall in love I fall hard.

Tah-dah… my Fish Tacos table mat!  Next I need to quilt it - so I can bind it.   I think 80% of the quilts I make are for the sole purpose of having something to hand bind.  Up top, fellow hand binding lovers.

I’m not sure yet how I’m going to quilt it.  Not that I don’t not have an idea of how - but this pattern screams so many possibilities.  Which is another thing I love about John’s quilts is that they are easy for me to come up with quilting ideas.   Often I find myself not knowing or seeing how I’m going to quilt something, so I could not be more tickled to have quilting possibilites dancing in my head. Thanks, John!

RESOURCES
Linen:
– Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed in olive

Solids:
– Moda Bella Solids
– Robert Kaufman Kona Solids

Prints:
– Anna Maria Horner’s Dowry and Pretty Potent collections.

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

Fish Tacos eaten at:
– Astoria Coffeehouse Bistro & Bar, Astoria
– Fort George Brewery + Public House, Astoria

John’s publisher is giving away an e-book copy of Beyond Neutrals.  To enter, leave a “QuiltDad is my homeboy” or something like “I’d love to win a copy” comment on my Instagram post here.  I’ll draw a winner Friday, Sep. 26, 10am PST.  You really need this book so give it a go.  Be sure to check the Beyond Neutral Book Tour for more blog posts and more chances to win a copy!

Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment or to enter giveaway.

The downside to being a quilter and a sewist is that we have an S ton of stuff to haul. The upside is that we can make really kick-ass things to haul our stuff in and adorn ourselves in. There’s no better way to travel than to travelhandmade.   If anyone is headed to Sewtopia in November (or any retreat or communal sewing adventure), there’s a super-fly list of #travelhandmade patterns and tutorials featured on the Sewtopia blog.  One of the patterns featured is my ID/Badger Holder:

Business in the front…

Party in the back…

Fabrics above are from my Sew Yummy collection with Cloud9 Fabrics. (in stores now! :)

At work, at play, at anywhere you want someone (or anyone) to know your name. My PDF pattern is available here.

My little ID/Badge Holder pattern was made and spotted in the wild at the Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, PA this last May. Loving all the people who made it and all the yummy fabric combos used. Such a thrill to see all these super-fly, beautiful people wearing the ID/Badge Holders!

Click here to my Instagram for comments/to comment.

Seems like every time there’s a do-something-good quilt making opportunity there’s not a whole lot of time involved, so I thought I’d share my cutting instructions.  Patchwork hundreds of fabric pieces together and you snuggle one baby.  Share a baby-quilt pattern and hundreds of babies get snuggled.   Tiz my hope.  It’s not a rocket-science pattern by any means, but hopefully it’ll be a project that others will want to do as well.  Fast and yet meaningful,  and stitched with love.  I came up with the itty bitty quilt, and I also wanted to make fabric gathering a simple task, too. Two 2½” strips of print fabric + one 5″ strip of background fabric = four 8″ finished blocks.

I decided to make two quilts, one in citrus colors…

… and the other in by-land-and-sea colors. The quilt requirement for the Providence quilt is 36″ square, so I’m adding a simple border on my 32″ square quilt to plump it up to 36″.

What’s also nice about this pattern is that each block can be alternated in direction so no seams need to be met on the blocks when joining them into rows (and then joining all the rows). Perfect for beginner and young quilters. I think it would be fun for youth groups (any groups, for that matter) to make itty bitty quilts for some nice do-something-good project.

CUTTING FOR EVERY 4 BLOCKS:
From two 2½” strips of print, cut each:
2) 2½”x 8½”
2) 2½” x 4½”
4) 2½” x 2½”

From one 5” strip of white/background:
2) 4½” x 4½”
4) 2½” x 4½”
4) 2½” x 8½”

*for a 32″ square quilt you will need 8) 2½” strips of assorted prints and 4) 5” strips of white (⅝ yard)

I mocked up some different size quilt tops and the fabric needed:
4 x 4 grid | 32” square
8) 2½” strips of assorted prints
4) 5” strips of white (⅝ yard)

4 x 5 grid | 32” x 40”
10) 2½” strips of assorted prints
5) 5” strips of white (¾ yard)

4 x 6 grid | 32” x 48”
12) 2½” strips of assorted prints
6) 5” strips of white (⅞ yard)

5 x 7 grid | 40” x 56”
18) 2½” strips of assorted prints
9) 5” strips of white (1⅜ yard)

I have a cutting chart/alternate sizes in PDF format available here. My intention is to provide a free, simple, and meaningful option for anyone who wants to make a do-something-good charity quilt or just make an itty bitty quilt for a teenie weenie person you love.

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

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.