Ladies Night. Challenge Issued.

Sometimes in the midst of the crazy something amazing happens.

A couple of weeks ago (a long, long time ago), in a land far away (in the North Carolina mountains), I began my clam quilt. I fell in love with the colors.

Fast forward to the following weekend, I went to Sew Lux World headquarters to help Chrissy with some stuff. Before I even realized it was happening, I was pulling bolts off the shelves. We were smitten and decided to make a bundle.

Then Lee (over here at May Chappell) was smitten too.

So Chrissy issued a challenge. Who can say no to a challenge?

We decided you all should play too.

Don't say no. Don't say you have too much sewing to do for Christmas. Do this for yourself. Do it to maintain your sanity.

Make something amazing.

Because a challenge has to have some guidelines, here are ours:

Challenge Rules:

1. Make a project with one of the three Ladies Night Bundles (or use your stash to make your own ladies night bundle in one of the three color schemes).

2. Link up your finished project on the Sew Lux blog by December 23th (the link will open December 10th). The project must be finish. A quilt must be a completed top and anything else (tote, pouch, pillow, etc.) should be completely finished

Three winners will be announced on the Sew Lux blog on December 26th. Like a Christmas present! Just for you!

Prizes will include gift certificates to Sew Lux Fabrics, patterns, some handmade goodies, and surprises (spoiler alert, I am going to make something epic to giveaway, 'cause that is what I do).

Easy, we are not big on rules!

Here are the color ways:

The Ladies Night (curated by me). 

Ladies Night 2 (by Lee).

Ladies Night 3 (by Chrissy).

Do it. Make something amazing and sew it off (see what I did there with the pun?).

I may even start today. I know what I am making. It will be epic. We are all on the instagram and you should play there too if you can/want to. I am @stitchingandbacon and we are going to be using #isewwithsewlux and #ladiesnightchallenge

PS - All of these pictures were taken by Chrissy (except the one with the clams, that's me). Love you Chrissy! Lee designed the logo. I smiled and looked pretty.

Bacon is Sewing in Between the Traveling.

Good evening my friends!

I am typing this post from my lovely Atlanta hotel room. It has been a little nuts in bacon-ville recently.

I have been traveling a bunch for work. As in I have worked in three states in the past three weeks, next week I am going to make it an even four (in case you were curious, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.

In the past three days I have walked 19 miles. Probably more. Maybe that does not sound like a lot, but I was carrying an instrument and wearing wellies (my fault for forgetting the other pair of acceptable shoes).

But who cares about all that? I sure don't.

I have been sewing.

I turned these:

Into this. 

Then I did this:

and this happened.

But I recovered and got some of this nonsense into one piece. 

That may be as close as we get to a play-by-play without a tutorial. Phew.

I met Carolyn Friedlander. Then I tried not to be too annoying/act starstruck. She was amazingly sweet and such a treat to talk with.

She showed us stuff she made. It sort of blew my mind. I wanted all of the patterns and I wanted to make all of the things. Actually, I just wanted her things. Just perfect.

She signed a quilt block for my new botanics quilt (see above).

I am failing at keeping myself from overcommitting. I will share the results from this failure soon. They are sort of epic and amazing. There are some awesome things going around the internet (okay, that wins the general statement of the year award).

Love you all. Love your work. Keep it up.

See you soon.

I have this group of friends. I made another bag.

I have this group of friends.

We all met at Sew South last year and then we reconvened last summer to sew up in the mountains (at the very kind invitation of Lee). Somehow the group just clicked. It was magical. I seriously have not laughed so hard in my life, nor have I worried so much about flood insurance.

This winter, since we were meeting two months before Christmas, we naturally decided to do a Christmas gift exchange (#averysurmachristmas).

It was a blind swap but you know a lot of these ladies figured out out who had their names.

I am sneaky though. I had Lee (May Chappell) and I knew what I was going to make her as soon as I got her name. I totally convinced her someone else had her name and even had her help me pick out some of her gifts.

Lee seemed to like my It's a Cinch Tote. So I made her one. Basically the same way, in fact I referenced my notes.

Fabric outside is Echino dots and Essex Linen. The main lining is Art Gallery Indian Summer (ask me how easy it is to used art gallery's slippery fabric in a zipper), and the whole thing is done with Aurifil thread. Mostly it went pretty well, except for the part where I had to re-topstitch the zipper three times, broke a whole pack of leather needles, and broke my walking foot. Otherwise it was perfect.

I also made her a little pouch (in a hotel room in West Virginia, important fact).

I got her a kitten calendar too, but she didn't take a picture of that.

All of these pictures were stolen, with permission, from Lee. Who finishes swap gifts when it is still light enough to take pictures? I bow to your superior sewing and time management.

PS - I am in Maryland again this week. Currently, I am watching Duck Dynasty.

PPS - I have two boss level quilts in progress right now. I can't wait to show you pictures. I also am stoked to have time to work on them. Teaser, I am sewing curves.

PPS - I am going on three trips this month and I am likely to go on two next month for work. Probably about 4 states. Not glamorous at all.

PPPS - Chrissy made me stuff and it was awesome. See below photo (no photos of the other stuff, cause I am silly). Seriously though, everything was awesome.

The Migration Quilt [Planes, Trains, and Automobiles]

I decided to start tonight's blog post with a list.

Fun facts to catch you up with me:

1.) In the past three weeks I have been in eight states. I only slept in three of them.

2.) I am leaving again tomorrow.

3.) I have achieved diamond status with my hotel reward program. That means I have spent over 40 nights in Choice Hotels this year. This would be less sad if I only stayed in that brand of hotels, but that is not true. The actual number of nights in a hotel room is much higher.

4.) Some of my dearest sewing friends and I hung out this weekend. We drank milkshakes, ate pizza, and bought a lot of fabric.

5.) I learned about life mistakes and then I bought more Collage. This entire visit deserves its own blog post.

6.) Today I ate a chocolate croissant and took a pilates class. I think those two events neutralize each other.

There you go, caught up with me. Don't you just feel like we had a cup of coffee together? Except if we had coffee together, you could have added your things too. Then we could have talked about how good your hair looks and I could have asked you where you got those shoes.

I finished another quilt on the plane to in Denver. Then I gave it away the next day.

I improvised a photo shoot, 'cause I wanted to show this awesome finish with you.

I made this quilt for Derek's grandparents, we call them Gammie and Grandad. They are amazing people.

Gammie is a quilter and a former high school math teacher. Grandad is a retired engineer. So, I new this quilt had to have some math. I also knew it had to be good. So, I used some of my precious architextures and I worked super hard.

I think they really liked it. Little know fact, quilters are the best people to gift quilts. They appreciate them tons and they know how to use those quilts. They were both totally surprised and excited. This is technically a birthday present for them both. Gammie just turned 82 a few weeks ago and Grandad is turning 83 in January. I hope they don't mind me sharing this on the internet...

Gammie and Grandad assured me they would snuggle under this one all winter.

That sort of makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Thanks for tolerating me friends. Love you bundles.

Sarah

Quilt Stats:
Quilt Name: Migration
Quilt pattern: Mine, though, I know this block has a name. Shall we just call it *%&$%^ bias seams?
Fabric: Caroline Friedlander's Architextures, Simply Style by V and Co, and a great deal of Essex linen from Robert Kaufman.
Quilting: My lazy infinity quilting, quilted and pieced with Aurifil thread
Size: Ha! Like I remembered to measure before I gave this away.

PS - All photos on this page were taken with my iPhone. I apologize for this, I just did not have room to pack the dslr. We will be back to regularly scheduled photos next time I finish a quilt.

Blue and Yellow and Denver

Do you ever just have one of those weeks months? I mean, seriously. Nothing major has gone wrong. I mean I have my health (poison ivy itches are mostly gone), I have a fuzzy cat, a loving husband, a great house, and a good job.

But, seriously.

Why do I feel like I have not sat down in six months?

Why is being the partner of a graduate student sort of like going through grad school a second time? I think I have learned what people mean when they say marriage is a partnership in the past couple of weeks. We are riding this crazy train together.

Not that I would ride the train with anyone else and, honestly, how do you get anywhere unless you get on a train anyway?

I do not mean to complain in this space. I sound like such a whiner (poison ivy, grad student husband….). This is just a space for me to shout it out. There has been so much talking about the future in my life lately, this blog is a nice place to say, hi friends, I am going to tell you about the right now.

Now, the four of you who haven’t clicked next on your reader feed probably want to know what it is about this finish I have here (hi mom!).

As I write this, I am jetting to Colorado.

You may not know this about me, but I lived in Colorado for 6 years before I moved to North Carolina. I met my husband in Colorado. I drank my first beer in Colorado. I went to undergraduate and graduate school here. Very important things that have made me who I am today.

Derek has a conference in Colorado this weekend (oh hai German Studies Association Annual Meeting 2013) and I decided to tag along. I wanted to see the mountains and revisit some old Denver haunts.

Derek’s family still lives here too.

Naturally, I decided to make Derek’s mother a quilt. What else could I possibly bring her?

This St. Louis 16 patch was a little bit of quiet for me when I needed it this summer. The colors are calm and the quilt just soothes me. It was relaxing and quick to make.

I used this excellent tutorial.

It makes me feel a little old-fashioned. Quilting is totally therapy.

Salutations,

Sarah

Quilt Stats:

Size: 56" x 70"

Fabric: Kona Snow, Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House, a Lana Jansdotter print, Joel Dewberry, Bonnie and Camile, a Moda basic dot, Summersville Spring (?), and I think that blue dot is from an Aneela Hoey line. I am sorry about this… these were long stashed fabrics…

Quilting: Figure 8 or infinity quilting with Aurifil Thread (I like to stay firmly within my comfort zone).

PS – My graduate advisor asked me to give a talk to his graduate student tomorrow, because why not go on vacation and have to prepare an hour long lecture? Also, am I the only one who feels like they cannot say no to their advisor? It has been nearly five years since I left, but I still feel like he could give me an “F”. 

I am a Wonky Triangle in a Right Angles World

Sometimes when I name my blog posts I just write things in the title that make no sense. Then I decide it is a metaphor or it has a double meaning and I leave it there. This is how I imagine poets write. The good ones. Make your own meaning.

I am feeling a bit punchy tonight. I had a terrible case of poison ivy this week. It was totally my fault. I was working and I saw the poison ivy, but I couldn't avoid it. I have been regretting that day of work ever since. I look terrible, I just want to take my skin off. Today I went to the magical doctor's office and she gave me things to make the itch go away. They are also steroids, with which I have a great deal of experience due to my freakish meat allergy. Steroids always make me a bit punchy.

Also, that was a long story. Maybe not that long...

Oh right, this is a sewing blog. The point of this post is to reveal a super fun project I made to forget my itches. Sorry if you are new to my blog. I promise story time does not happen too often.

Nancy over at Owen's Olivia made this awesome paper piecing pattern (etsy or craftsy, pick your poison), and I tested it for her.

It is pretty much cool.

The pattern consists of long strips of wonky triangles, and you just paper piece them out until you are done, making something as long or as short as you like. I think she has three different sizes of wonky triangle strips for your sewing convenience.


I decided I would be convenienced (not a word) by the small triangles. I would make a little pouch for my epi pen and pencils (I know incredibly unsafe, but the epi pen is in a case already, I don't have kids, and it is a pen...sort of ). Besides the epi was looking ugly in my pretty new purse. We can't have that.

I pulled out my scrap bins and went to town. This pattern loves scraps. It's also fun to play with the fabric's volume on this one.

Blue is my favorite color. It matches my eyes. Throw in some hand stitching and a little fancy stamping.  Done.

Rewarding. Beautiful.

Go support Nancy (etsy or craftsy), this is basically a steal at $1.99. This is her first pattern and it is boss, I think we should expect great things. Plus, I think she is giving away free stuff on her blog.

Hugs from the giant series of blisters that is me,
Sarah

PS - Good chance I will not be able to sleep tonight due to the 'roids. Well, that is awesome.

PPS - You may have noticed the lack of poison ivy photos. You're welcome.

*I received this pattern for free in exchange for my testing services, all opinions are my own. Bacon's honor.*

I Needed a New Purse. So I made an It's a Cinch Tote.

I have been wanting a new laptop bag/purse. You know something classy with a touch of whimsy, something I could travel with and feel cool. I have been eyeing patterns for a bit now, just looking for the perfect thing.

Also, it needed to have leather, because leather makes everything look more grown up and I have been hoarding this big bag of leather scraps.

I was thinking about the Super Tote, but it seemed just not quite right for my purposes (still want to make one though, lots of love for Noodlehead patterns). Then I saw this challenge in the Sew Mama Sew Super Online Sewing Match (whew, mouthful!).

 

The "It's a Cinch Tote" by U-Handbags (not a sponsored post).

I was in love. I just knew from looking at the entries that I could adapt this pattern for my very own self.

The pattern was also on sale (still has a coupon code active, check it).

I don't know about everyone else out there, but when Sarah makes a bag, she devotes herself to it.

Seriously, I cleared my schedule, bought the fabric online a couple of days ahead of time, cleaned my sewing room, trekked to Joann's for notions (hate that store), and sat down to do it. I put on a Spotify playlist and went for it. It only took me from Friday evening to Saturday evening (with sleeping, one happy hour, and a trip to the grocery store and farmer's market in between). I finished some little details on Sunday morning.

You are going to roll your eyes, but it really was a cinch. Some reviews online complained about the photos being located away from the directions. I guess this is a little annoying, but I am used to referencing photos from figure numbers, so it did not bother me. I would not read this one on a computer. Print it out.

I am going to run through my modifications really quick in case someone else wants to make it this way, but the pattern itself is really good. No head scratching moments at all, which is saying something because I nearly always have a moment or two. These will not make a ton of sense unless you are looking at the pattern. Also, they may just not make a ton of sense.

My mods to the It's a Cinch Pattern by U-Handbags:

- Measurements for two color bag. 10.5" for top print, 5.5" for bottom (when I joined these I used a half inch seam allowance, which made sense to me for stability). You need to cut the interfacings separately too.

- Bag straps (the ones on the bag) I cut 10.5" long.

- Here is the order you have to do everything to get this to work. Iron on interfacing, outside pocket (with zip), sew in interfacing/Thermolan (on all four pieces), straps onto top part of the purse, base, top-stitch base.

- Leather was cut to 1.25" wide in all places, which made sense with my hardware.

- The base meant that the zip pocket was about a half an inch shorter than the pattern called for, this did not bother me.

- Using leather for this is not for the faint of heart, it is extremely unforgiving. My sewing machine handled it sort of okay. I used a leather needle, a walking foot, and lengthened my stitch a little. This was also not my first time sewing with leather... The pattern calls for webbing handles, which would probably be cute. If you want to sew in fabric liner onto the leather (like I did with the polka dots), cut the fabric 1/4" wider than the leather (that would be 1.75" for a 1.25" wide handle). Then cut a 1.25" x length desired bit of woven interfacing. I think I use craft fuse. Fuse that to the center of the wrong side of your fabric, then fold the raw edges in 0.25 inches on both sides. Then topstitch the fabric to the leather wrong sides together, using clips to hold it in place. The interfacing is very important! Without the interfacing the bulk is too different between the fabric and the leather and the fabric will get caught in your feed dogs (at least mine did on some test pieces).

- I "basted" my leather to the bag outside using a basting tape and ironing it on the reverse of the bag, though the fabric. This helped make the top stitching easy.

- Remember how I said my machine handled it sort of okay? I had to hand stitch the leather cinch tabs on all four corner because they were too thick for my machine. The bobbin was literally not making its way up through all of those layers. To do this hand stitching, I machine stitched through the leather a couple of times to make holes so I could get the hand sewing needle through the layers. I broke hand sewing needles doing this. (PSA - use a thimble).

If I forgot something and you need to know it, just send me a little note in the comments.

Consider yourself purse bombed.

Heart you all.

Sarah

Materials List:
Outside - Feathers by Alison Glass in Indigo (I think), Essex Yarn-Died Linen, Coats and Clark metal zippers, Robert Kaufman Neon dots, leather from a scrap bin (bought by the pound, no good source)
Inside - Heather Ross Briar Rose Strawberries and some random Japanese (can't remember the designer or manufacturer)
Hardware - Joann's
Thread - Aurifil
Dimensions - 18" x 12" x 4"