I made myself an ironing board pad. boring? sure. but it's so useful. my ironing board is finally useful! I simply layered some batting and insulbright and traced out the board. I then marked where I wanted the elastic, pinned, and used an overcasting stitch all around.

while I was at it, I prettified the board with a new cover using some daisy janie fabric. I was lucky to win two panels of this lovely fabric on jan's blog and, after hording it for months, thought it was perfect for my cover. I actually like looking at my board now.

the first project to be ironed on my lovely board were some pollen8 bee blocks for rangsiwan. she asked for scattered hexes on a grey background. as much as I like them, I don't think I want to sew up another half-hex block for a while. it'll be interesting to see how she sews them together, I'm kinda feeling overprotective over the hexes at the top and bottom and would hate to see them sliced up.

I picked up my baby quilt again and almost have the top done. I'll admit that I'm a little scared this quilt is more "me" than the recipient. hopefully she won't find it too crazy. I'll go easy on the back I guess :)

I was feeling a little down on sunday, so I picked up a couple of treats for myself at ulta. I haven't bought nail polish in years, but all of a sudden I WANTED some grey polish (I blame pinterest). I picked up some other colors while I was at it, thinking of sandal season. for now it'll be my little secret inside my shoes since spring hasn't properly arrived here.

there was also some cleaning, pizza, lots of texting, and even some indian food. I hope you had a good weekend as well!

Posted by bitter purl at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

sorry I disappeared this week, I've mostly been living with headaches and insomnia which doesn't make for happy blogging. I did get to send of my quilt to its new home this week though! tracking shows it as delivered and now I'm just crossing my fingers and waiting to hear from my partner. I really hope she likes it because I would have been happy to keep this one!

my whole theme was texture, so I combined the dupioni silk with a smooth bamboo/cotton blend to make all those great little lines and bits on the silk stand out. I also left some areas unquilted so there would be a little softness mixed in with all the quilted lines. I threw in a couple of lines in pink just to be cheeky.

I LOVE the back! I kept petting it as I was binding and while I was wrapping it up.

to play up the texture even more I made up a pleated square with a little bit of the threads sticking out. this way she could see how there are green and pink threads crossed together in the fabric.

Posted by bitter purl at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Posted by bitter purl at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

september was parikha's month in pollen8. notice it's november and I'm finally showing these. we've gotten a little behind in our bee and I take full responsibility. no one told me that asking for improv blocks would place fear in everyone's heart. I've gotten a couple of blocks back from my month, but everyone else is hiding from me. :)

when parikha told us she wanted plaid blocks, I had no idea what she meant and I got a little scared. she thankfully sent us a little sketch with do's and don'ts and I got to it. I love all the fabric and colors she sent. I had fun spacing out the stripes and playing with different thicknesses (why does that sound dirty?). I think the orange one is my favorite because the large print really works with the solid stripes. I can't wait to see this quilt come together and finally see the plaid effect she's going for.

Posted by bitter purl at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

first things first, if you ever work with silk let me tell you right now that it'll end up everywhere. all over your machine. your table. other quilt projects. your dog. everywhere. oh, and it'll never photograph right. you've been warned.

as part of pollen8, there's a little swap involved so you get a little something extra before or after everyone works on your blocks. it makes the wait a little easier and who doesn't love getting a surprise in the mail. I decided to make my partner a mini-quilt/wall-hanging since I thought it would be cool to send some art her way, but now I'm questioning myself. part of the problem is that I've been thinking about this quilt for months. I think I got the fabric back in may and have been sketching out ideas since then. too many ideas really, to where I'm not really sure what i want this quilt to look like.

I chose the silk dupioni for its texture and picked out a few crossdyed colors to add some interest. my original idea was just to do some simple, randomly pieced and cut, stripes. but now I'm wondering if it came out boring or if there are too many colors battling out in such a small space. or maybe it's the lack of negative space? I'm still not sure how I feel about it. this morning I moved on to one of my other sketches. this one has a little more order while still being improv. I mixed in some bamboo/cotton fabric to separate the silk and to make the texture really come out. it's smaller and a little more contained, but now is it too plain?

does this happen to you? you get too many ideas for one project and you start second guessing yourself? I wonder if it's because I'm making this for another crafter or if it's just letting ideas marinate in my head for way too long. thoughts?

Posted by bitter purl at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Posted by bitter purl at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I'm a little behind on this month's bee blocks, but I just got my second one done today and I still have a few more days to get a third, and maybe fourth, done so I'm not sweating it yet. our bee seems to be dominated by stephs and amandas. july is steph's month with stars, but june was steph's month and stripes. did they plan it out somehow? I don't know, but I'm suspicious!

at first I thought working with only two colors would be a challenge or intimidating, but I ended up loving it. I definitely see myself making a similar quilt for myself in the future. steph wanted stripes of any kind and my mind immediately went to rothko. I wanted my blocks to be clean and graphic. instead of lots of thin stripes, I wanted larger blocks of color that would make the blocks really pop. of course, I went a little overboard and some of my blocks ended up a lot bigger than necessary. it'll be interesting to see how they work in relation to the others.

by the third block I reigned the size in to be closer to 15" square. at the time, this one was my favorite though I can't really explain why. the proportions maybe. it doesn't feel so "in your face" as the other two. but then I got inspired to make a fourth block since I still had enough scraps left.

this block became my favorite (for now at least). I was inspired by an amish quilt I saw online. that quilt was pieced in many colors with rectangles going up the side (my memory is a little fussy right now). I really liked the movement and tried to recreate that feeling with only two colors. I randomly pieced the center of the block until I got a size I liked and then surrounded it with larger swatches of color. it still has the constraints of the other blocks with hints of a freer feel to it.

Posted by bitter purl at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I've been in my own little quilting/sewing world since I started sewing again last year. but it's hard not to notice all the wonderful blocks that come out quilting bees. not knowing how you even got into one, I talked rangsiwan into starting one with me. we asked six of our friends to join in and pollen8 was born (for a while it was pollin8, but pollen8 just looks better).

may is our first month and amanda asked for log cabin or square in square blocks. the only request was to use a grey strip of fabric in at least one of the blocks. since there are only eight of us we decided to each send in three blocks.

it was great taking a little break from the precision blocks of my "80s quilt" and just being free to improvise. no worries about seams or patterns here. just random cutting and piecing. it also helps that amanda has great taste in fabric. can you believe these are from her scraps?! this was my first time working with the heather ross gauze so I just had to show off that little frog.

I wanted each block to stand on its own, so I approached each one differently. my original plan was to gradate to the blues, but my block became pretty big without me realizing it. I like how it reads as calming compared to my other ones.

my next challenge was to only use solids. I wanted it to be graphic and modern. I hope I succeeded. I love the way the shot cottons mix with the linen.

before I mailed out my blocks I got the urge to use up what I had left for a bonus block. I think this one is my favorite. the blues and whites are so fresh and relaxing.

I already got our june package and I can't wait to get started. I'll admit I'm a little nervous, there were only two colors in the envelope.

Posted by bitter purl at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)