stitchery

I am on a roll! Over the past few weeks I've snuck sewing time in 10 and 15 minute increments and it has finally turned into something.

When I bought my sewing machine a few years ago, I was very excited about it's ability to make awesome buttonholes. I also was keen to try out some free-form machine quilting. I may have inherited my walk and some mannerisms and also a love for olives and cream cheese on english muffins from my mother, but I did not inherit her smashing hand quilting ability.

tipsy owl

Yes, I know that if I quilted as frequently as my mom does I would probably improve. But for now I'm juggling knitting and crocheting and also trying to make that damn bread so getting my hand quilting leveled up is just not going to happen. Enter: la machina. It has this dandy foot that stitch regulates while you glide the fabric underneath. And it is way, way harder than it looks. You can make a serviceable stitch that holds fabric together right out of the gate, but to make it actually look good is proving to be more difficult than I thought.

completely drunken tree

My first project is a blanket for the boys to roll around on while we're in Hawaii. I want to minimize sand-in-baby-crevices, so I used some of my coated fabric for the backing. It's the same stuff that backpacks are made out of so it's water resistant but very malleable. The middle layer is an old Ikea curtain. Then the top is a zany yard of a new Moda print that I love. Owls, yes. I love owls. I basted the layers together (by hand, mom!) and then tried my hand at putting on just enough stitchery to hold the layers together. I tried some outlining, some crazy curlicues, and some sort of straight lines. The end result looks like I sat on my glasses and then proceeded to sew, but it does the job and from a distance you can't really see how crooked and wonky it is. First attempt: satisfactory.

Then because I love having bags for everything, I had to put one together for this too.