Featured Products Spyglass | PDF $12.00 Add to cart Harvest Star | PDF $12.00 Add to cart Misty Mountains | PDF $12.00 Add to cart Latest from the blog Etoile Quilt | Baby VersionBecause making three throw sizes wasn’t enough, I went ahead and made a baby size Etoile quilt too. I pulled from stash for this quilt as well, using Riley Blake Designs Confetti Cottons for the yellow, purple, and white sections. I’m sorry, I don’t know color names on these! I used leftover backing cut-offs from my Concrete Jungle quilt for a pop of print! Etoile is now available in my shop! Other Versions: Etoile cover quilt & tester versionsScrappy EtoileFarmhouse Etoile I’ve mentioned how quick and fast this quilt comes together. This is especially true for the baby size Etoile quilt! At a quilt retreat, I was curious to see exactly HOW fast this pattern was. So, I timed myself. It took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to cut, trim, and sew together the quilt top! That’s right, less than 3 hours from a fabric pull to a completed quilt top! I love quilts that come together quickly and this one is no exception. It is perfect for last minute gifts or when you just want to make something with (near) instant satisfaction. I quilted this quilt with my Janome MC6700P using one of the preset stitches. I won’t lie, it felt like I was cheating! This quilting was SO easy and SO forgiving to do! I’m planning on making many, many more quilts with this type of quilting! For the backing I used a print I picked up at my local Hobby Lobby. They’ve come out with the cutest prints this year! I really couldn’t resist! I bound the quilt with a 1/4″ stripe from Riley Blake Designs. I love this color because although it is technically grey, it will read warm or cool depending what you pair it with. It was the perfect finishing touch on this baby quilt! Want to make your own? Etoile is available in my shop and comes with instructions for 4 sizes! You might also like… Etoile Scrappy Throw VersionEtoile Farmhouse VersionEtoile Solids & Testers Versions... Read more...More Visible Mending! This time, socksWhen I went to Quiltcon back in February, I brought along with me some visible mending I needed to do. I had a lot of people come up to me and ask me why I was mending socks?? I mean, isn’t it just easier to go buy more? Well, maybe. But the truth is that I knit these socks myself, years ago, and I love them. And since I rarely knit anymore because it causes me wrist pain, I know that I can’t simply throw them away and make more. So, why not mend? I had two knitted items that needed mending: a pair of socks, and a pair of slippers. I was actually surprised that the slippers started to wear. They were knit with acrylic yarn so I assumed they would be hard wearing. The socks: The socks were knit with 100% merino wool, which was my first mistake. The lack of any nylon in these means that they started to show wear and holes rather quickly. I attempted to mend them once before, years ago, and put the patch on the inside of the sock, which of course did nothing to stop the hole from getting bigger, and was rather uncomfortable to wear. You live and learn. “old” patches yeah, that patch on the INSIDE of my sock did nothing Hanging on by a thread! …literally This time, I was determined to make them wearable again. I first took out my clumsy last attempt at mending. I assessed the wear spots and holes, deciding to proactively create patches for the wear spots that hadn’t worn through yet, instead of waiting until they did. I mostly used Swiss darning, or duplicate stitch for these. First I sewed in some quilting thread as a guide to where my stitches should go. This is helpful for holes so that your stitches have an anchor to adhere to. Then I used some contrasting yarn to create my stitches. What I love about this method of darning, specially for socks, is that the darn really captures the wear spots and almost melds together into one, instead of simply sitting on top of the hole or wear spot. I have a feeling this will be a durable type of mend. I used some of the same yellow and teal yarns that I had originally knit the socks with, but for a more fun and contrasting look, I also used a purple that was the same yarn weight. The benefit of visible mending is that you’re supposed to see the mend, so there isn’t a worry about it “standing out” – that’s the point! For one of the patches, I chose to use my Darn Easy vintage darning loom to create a patch over the hole instead (the grey patch in the left sock below). I love the uniformity of this mend, but I’m curious to see if it holds up as well as the Swiss Darning will. Swiss Darning and a darned patch with the loom I love how the patch has become part of the sock now The slippers: For the slippers, I chose to do a swiss darning mend to both slippers. One had a hole and the other was just starting to wear, both where my big toe would be. This was a smaller mend and looks quite a bit neater than the job I did on the socks, and I’m happy to be able to put these back into rotation now. I used white yarn that seemed fairly close to the original yarn. I made these a long time ago so I couldn’t be too picky about the yarn I used. In fact, I would have loved to use a completely different color to really make the visible mending stand out, but I don’t have much acrylic yarn left in my stash. So, white it was. Swiss Darning – First use thin thread to create anchor threads, and then use yarn to create the mend (image source) You might also be interested in… Visible Mended JeansVisible Mending | Hemming Jeans... Read more...Visible Mending | Hemming JeansI’ve started clothes shopping pretty exclusively at thrift stores, especially for jeans. I often find jeans in great condition for just a couple of bucks. Knowing the ecological cost of producing jeans, buying them secondhand makes me very happy. Not only that, but I’ve found myself much more likely to use them, wear them out, and get them dirty when I only spent a handful of dollars. The “fear” of ruining good jeans goes away! That, my friends, makes life much more fun. On a thrift store trip about a year ago, I found a pair of pants that I loved and fit great… except that they were way to long for my frame. They sat in my closet for a long time, simply because they were too long to wear. Finally, I decided I needed to do something about it, and this month’s Aurifil Challenge of visible mending was the perfect kick I needed. Instead of a normal pant hemming, I chose to visibly mend them by adding a hand-stitched cuff with Aurifil 12 weight thread. Not only are they now usable, but the added pop of color brings a beautiful twist to otherwise ordinary pants. I first put the pants on, figured out where I wanted them to end, and then added some pins to keep folded cuff in place while I stitched. I did a simple running stitch to secure the two layers of denim together, paying special attention to catching the hem in my stitches. I didn’t want to find myself with a hem that rolled over in the wash or wouldn’t lay flat. I first went through with Aurifil #2745, which is the blue color that matched my denim really well. Once I had gone all the way around the cuff, I went back in and added a few rows of stitching with Aurifil #6728 for a pop of color. Another benefit of this mend is that it is reversible. This means that if someday these jeans are still in great condition but they no longer fit me, I’ll be able to remove my stitches so that someone taller than me is able to wear them. Unlike a normal machine hemming, you can reverse the length back to original! I’m very pleased with this mending, and it didn’t take very long at all. I just needed to sit down and do it! Isn’t that sometimes the case? I’m so happy to be heading into summer with these jeans in my wardrobe. And, as someone on the shorter side, I’m happy to have a new hemming solution in my pocket! You might be interested in… Visible Mended Jeans | Attacking Knee Holes Visible Mending | Socks & Slippers... Read more... Follow us on Instagram I’ve been spending my evenings mending clothing I basted and started quilting this #inklingquilt o Inkling ✨ Pattern releases June 25! . Fabrics ar Riley had zero cares that this quilt was only half I think this quilt *may* be one of the fastest qui Load More... Follow on Instagram
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