WIP Wed. 6/11/14

This is an uncommon Wednesday for me. Not just because I've been lax about keeping up with these posts, but instead of sitting at the quilt shop I am sitting in a Jury Assembly room waiting to see if my name gets called. Gives me plenty of time to play around with combining mobile apps and my computer to hopefully post some photos of recent projects underway.

Right now I am working on two big projects: still making samples for The Creative Bungalow, trying to populate our Etsy shop with some great kits for you quilters! My most recent finish (or finished top, at least) is from the Modern Quilt Relish pattern Taffy Twists. LOVE how this one turned out and I'm even eager to quilt it up!!

I feel like there is another sample top that I've finished lately, but the last few weeks have been such a whirlwind that something is escaping me. Plus Cherie has also been busy at work and has busted out some gorgeous quilt tops which I cannot claim for my own WIP (though she did make up a sample using my new-ish pattern Dorm Room Cots!).

My other big project is busting out more of those paper-piecing blocks for the wedding chuppah my mom and I are making for my brother and his fiancé. We met up at her home in Scottsdale the last weekend in May and were able to get just a few blocks together on the design wall to give us an idea of how absolutely gorgeous it will be when it's all together!

I had been somewhat vague about these before, not wanting to give away any surprises. Even though Lee and Glenn helped choose the general design (which my mom drafted in EQ7 for the paper-piecing) they hadn't seen the fabrics we chose to work with. And those fabrics are these luscious hand-dyed ombré jelly rolls (I want to say from Northcott, but that's probably the other ombré she picked up) with Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Snow as the background. However, I can reveal now that Lee face-timed with Glenn who was still in NYC at the time and they got to see this preview "together". It was super-cute! And my first experience with Face-time!

Sadly, that about covers it. I did make a muslin of the bodice for one of the dresses I'm hoping to make for the wedding trip next month. It's too short-waisted, which is exactly what I had feared. Next step is to see if I can recall my costume shop education from college almost 20 years ago in order to make the necessary alterations to the pattern. Yikes.

Sorry there aren't more photos to share. Thanks for keeping up with me on this journey!

Branching out

So Cherie and I are doing a major push to get The Creative Bungalow off the ground. We have a new kit in our Etsy shop, for instance.

The new Lock 'n' Bolt kit featuring assorted prints from Art Gallery Fabrics.

And we have a couple more kits cut and almost ready to make available...

Double Shot Star kit coming soon!!

A whole slew of new fabrics are on order. Oh, and I got a great response to my blog post about pattern-writing and proofing! Thank you for the generous efforts of Michelle, Dawn (First Light Designs) and my mom (who is actually pattern testing with a sample for the upcoming Dorm Room Cots!!).

Our new adventure as of this week is expanding on social media. I have, of course, been blogging off and on over the last few years, and am active on Flickr (though less so recently), Pinterest and Facebook, but with all of these mobile devices the list must expand. I had never logged onto Twitter before yesterday. Well, that's not quite true, but the previous time I did was out of curiosity and didn't go anywhere (and was before I even had a smartphone). Cherie and I have signed up for a series of short classes on using social media as a marketing tool for online business — actually Cherie has signed up for the series, I was only able to make one of the classes, which met this past Wednesday night. In response to the class, both The Creative Bungalow and Surrounded by Scraps now have Twitter profiles, @TCBQuiltStudio and @linda_SbSdesign, respectively. We are still figuring this stuff out and just getting warmed up. So, any of you who may be old-hats at this Twitter thing have suggestions? Or feel like leading by example? Stop on by!

And stay tuned for our Double Shot Star kit and Sessoms kit coming soon!!

WIP Wed. 3/26/14

I am still getting my footing returning to sewing. Atlas and I have been gradually upping the time at the sewing machine and he even accompanied me to the studio over the weekend! First time since his injury!

But it's slow going. And how come it's so hard to concentrate with an injured pup looming over me? I mean, he's doing loads better, doesn't need that much attention, but somehow I still cannot help giving him the attention. And J keep reminding me that we've only had him since December and yet SO MUCH has occurred. Rehabilitation will take time.

So, we move forward. And get back to projects. Like my do.Good Stitches commitments:

March blocks based on the Rugby Stripe block by Teaginny.

Collection of the blocks from January (some of which I finished Tuesday afternoon to make one more row), based on the Converging Corners tutorial from Film in the Fridge.

I've also been working on finishing the quilting on a quilt from last year. Quilting was finished Tuesday morning, and binding chosen and cut that afternoon...

Obviously I need to take out a few little tucks back there, but otherwise I am hoping the little gathers blend in once this guy is washed.

There's been less progress with the paper-piecing, though I've done just a few over the last week or two on both the chuppah project and the The Creative Bungalow sample.

And today will mark the first day that both J and I are *supposed* to be at work full days since the pup's injury. However J took pity on my anxious self and is planning to go into work late so that Atlas' alone time will be closer to 5 hours than 8 hours. And this time HE will be the last one out the door and the first one back home. Ha!

Okay, linking up at Lee's blog for WIP Wednesday. Been a while but glad to take part again! Check them out!

Shot Cotton Love

Do I really need to say it? The Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons produced by his manufacturing company Rowan are some of my favorite fabrics to work with, and certainly my favorite "solids".

What makes shot cottons so rich (besides the unique colors within Kaffe's own palette) is the combination of different colors used for the warp and weft threads in the woven fabrics. Meaning that when the cloth is woven the threads going vertically are dyed a different color than the threads going horizontally.

close-up of Rowan Shot Cotton - Blueberry

Plus they have a beautiful hand. Because of the looser weave and not going through a screen-printing process they have a softness and flow to them that most quilter's cottons do not (though the industry is changing!). 

When Cherie and I were first discussing the launch of The Creative Bungalow (even before it had a name) and deciding between potential fabric lines with which to plan projects there was a suggestion of finding something to do with shot cottons. It stayed on the back burner while we went ahead with our plans for the Art Gallery fabric combination we are so excited about, but after a visit to E.E. Schenck, a local quilting and sewing wholesale warehouse, we came across some inspiration.

As with so many other things that were put on hold this past month while I was tending the injured pup any pursuance of this project halted temporarily. But then I was able to step into my favorite fabric store again after being away for nearly a full month (this also being my job) with the exceptional selection of shot cottons that Marie carries at Cool Cottons on SE Hawthorne! My inspiration soared and I couldn't wait to put together a stunning array of colors to test with a very cool Carolyn Friedlander pattern we found, Sessoms.

Now, I am still very much in the testing stage for this project, but so far we are thinking it has some serious potential! here are a few test blocks I did earlier this week:

We'll likely be trying out another background color to compare the two, but for now this is what is going forward. Isn't that lovely?? I can't wait to see how more of the blocks turn out!