Tag: swap

Looking Ahead

Oh boy, did we have a hectic August! It tends to be so every year, though, because both my husband and my son’s birthdays are in August… only 2 days apart! We also had a wedding out of town, which was great! And, unfortunately, I had to say good bye to a friend.

My coworker, Ricky Manginsay, passed away from cancer very young. I worked with him every day.. on our team we had our Director Rob Oliver, Ricky as the assistant director, and me as the lead Background artist. It was very emotional for everyone. I am happy to say that we have celebrated him as much as we can since he passed! And I took the opportunity to make something special for him (and his wife), and as a way for me to process/grieve. I’m only sorry I didn’t get to give it to him in person. He died the morning of the day I was to visit with a group of coworkers. I hope, with all my heart, that he may rest in peace and that his friends and family’s suffering is eased.

Sorry for the sad moment..there were a lot of great parts of August! Levi’s 4th birthday (puppy themed), the wedding of friends in Idaho, and how much family we got to spend time with thanks to 2 reunions!

Lets look ahead to the rest of the year! The SewMyStash Mini Quilt Swap is getting close to the ship deadline of Oct 3rd (international) and a final ship deadline of Oct 12th! Its been really fun to see what people have been making! I invite you to browse the hashtag on Instagram: #SewMyStashMiniQuiltSwap

As we have gotten closer to the end of the year, I have begun to panic about how much (read: little) I have sewn my stash. Not as much as I intended, I’m sorry to admit. Oh, I have sewn from stash, but I have not made time to sew my collections that I have been hoarding. And I am not sure how much I can honestly get done with only 3.5 months left in the year! Not to mention the holidays!

Instead, I think I will focus on something a little different, but is still stash sewing. This month I had joined blogger Emily Chapelle of So Damn Domestic in her “30 Day Countdown to Clutter-free” challenge. I am certainly not a hoarder, but I do find that I have copious amounts of clutter around my house. The past few weeks I have been working successfully at reducing this clutter, and would like to apply the concept to my stash. I have already gone through and very honestly destashed some fabric. After that, there was still a lot of “but I want to make something with that” going on in my head. So, I think I am going to focus on stash busting the fabrics I like, but don’t like for me…. how, you ask? Sewing for my Etsy shop! I’ve already used a charm pack to make a simple baby crib quilt that I whipped up in just a few hours! I plan to do the same with a few more too. And after that, I think I will pull out all my baby nursery fabrics and make bibs for the shop. And sew on and sew on!

I was kind of thinking about starting a SewMyStash Holiday bootcamp group…. what do you guys think? Something to motivate each other to sew up some stash for our shops and for handmade gifts!

Leasa

Tags Quilt, quilting, Review, sewing, SewMyStash2015, swap, vacation

Finished Projects

Harry Potter or Die

If you don’t know already, I am a big Harry Potter fan! I mean… I was trying to convince my husband to consider the name Sirius for our son! No joke. He became Levi, obviously, but I have already stated if the next child is a boy, Sirius just might be his middle name 😉

So, when I caught wind of a Hogwarts handmade swap on Instagram I had to join!

The partner I got answered her questionnaire pretty thoroughly. From it, I could tell she liked the creatures of the wizzarding world and identified mostly with Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. She requested either a mini quilt or something she could wear like a bag or a scarf. I always love fan gear that is subtle and clever, as opposed to overly marketed looking. The clever things you can sport and enjoy on a regular day, not just at a theme park.

I had seen this amazing bag pattern from Elizabeth Hartman called the Perfect Quilted Tote. The scrappy nature of it really caught my creative eye.

I went to my stash first, looking for whimsy, which I have a lot of thanks to the gorgeous prints of Heather Ross.

I decided to add some Lizzy House and Cotton and Steel to the pulls. Lizzy House is whimsical too and Cotton & Steel has a great line out right now with perfect colors and an even more perfect mix of whimsical lions and more graphic/clean prints to balance the bag and make it more modern with a hint of hipster.

I really loved where this was going, but I knew I needed a little bit of Harry Potter to ground it to that world. Official licensed fabric is often less-than-amazing, so I went to the best place for unique designs: Spoonflower!

How great are those glasses/scars!? And that repeating print of Harry Potter book covers are just amazing! I was also excited to find great prints of owls, phoenix feathers, and centaurs! You can’t buy those in a store!

And, it started coming together just divinely! I used Photoshop to get a rough idea of how these fabrics felt together.

I declare right here and now… I LOVE the quilt-as-you-go technique!

One side finished!

Next side!

And here is the outside of the bag, assembled.

Next up, the bag lining.

I lined the pocket with skulls because, as Sirius says “we all have both light and dark inside of us”. I know, nerdy. But cool, right!?

And the finished bag!

I ordered this little leather tag from a shop on Etsy. I wanted the bag to feel like it was purchased in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.

I loved this bag so much that I cut the main bag pieces again to make one for myself!

Want to see what I got?? I was given an awesome Sew Together bag in various Hogwarts colors, an awesome needlepoint, and many goodies including a pink wand! Ahhhh!

That night, I tried to turn my son into a tea cozy 😛

Leasa

Tags bag, handmade, harry potter, purse, sewing, swap

Finished Projects

Schnitzel & Boo Mini #3- Angel Mini

Post author By Leasa
Post date October 6, 2014

Hi friends! I was scrolling through my Flickr feed and realized I never took the time to share with you a project I completed in 1 week! After having so much fun with Schnitzel & Boo’s mini quilt swaps (see the Flickr photo stream here)… and being blessed with great minis that came my way…. I decided to volunteer to be an Angel in this swap! An Angel is someone who agrees to take on another partner without something in return. These new partners had partners of their own at some point but, as happens in all swaps, their partner had to drop out for some reason. Without Angels, that person will have made their item for THEIR person, but would never receive one.

I knew I was going to need to whip up something great and fast, and package a lot of goodies for it! Luckily, I was paired with someone whose taste was similar to mine so I was able to pull right from my stash instead of ordering new stuff! I also had a Red Letter Day pattern by Thimble Blossom that I won from Westwood Acres a few months ago that I was DYING to try out! And the pattern for 1 block was the perfect size for a mini quilt! The pattern was well written and so easy to put together… I should make things from patterns more often. LOL

I chose fabrics from Art Gallery (arguably my favorite fabric manufacturer) using mostly Bonnie Christine’s Sweet as Honey and Leah Duncan’s Tule and Meadows collections and a little bit of Heather Ross‘ Briar Rose. I kept it simple with straight line quilting, but decided on a super cute pieced back. I picked up some goodies from the Daiso store (Japanese dollar store) and I made this awesome pin cushion mason jar after spotting it on Pinterest.

I just love doing these minis!! Every time I do one, I keep wanting to make the same thing for myself! Someday I will. Enjoy the photos!

I really enjoyed the whole, fast, process of this mini and the results have my head swimming thinking about the next time I put these fabric beauties to use!

Happy sewing!

Leasa

Tags fabric, Instagram, Quilt, quilting, sewing, swap