Author: thelongthread

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Modern Blocks

I’m thrilled to be a part of this upcoming book from C & T Publishing, Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers. Due out in the fall, it features many designers with their interpretations of the modern quilt — from appliqué to embroidery and all kinds of techniques in between. This looks like a book I would totally buy even if I didn’t have a block in it. My block has a pleating technique to add texture to a quilt. Which reminds me, maybe I should make a quilt from that block. One more project for the list.

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Etsy Finds Friday

Striped Linen/Cotton Blend Fabric, $8.50 per 58″ x 19″ cut from Retronana.

Houndstooth Tea Towel, $25 from Avril Loretti.

Orange Flats, $55 from the generation.

Things that are Round letterpress poster, $49 from 1canoe2 (via Keen & Fitting).

Handwoven Pillow Cover, 16″ x 16″, $79.95 from sukan.

Color Coding Necklace, $30 from Lepidoptery.

Hand Painted Wooden Cubes, $15 from how now design.

Chevron Stripe Dress from all the numbers.

Modern Baby Quilt, $280 from Pennington’s Quilts.

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A Little Dress

More Nani Iro fabric. Can you tell that it’s my latest obsession? This time I made a dress for my 6 year old. I started with Simplicity 3859, but of course made modifications.

First, I added the yellow gingham trim between the layers and then opted for buttons in the back instead of a zipper (wish I’d made this decision before I cut the back of the dress into two pieces). I also added some outline stitching for a bit of texture. Every time I make a dress from a pattern for my pip squeaks, I have to modify it. Granted, my kids are puny, but is everything made to fit a box-shaped child? I’d be willing to bet that the dresses pictured on the pattern package are pinned a good 3″ in the back.

Oh, and if you want to know about the butterfly garland pictured above, I didn’t make it. But you easily could. Just cut from paper and sew the butterflies together. This one has a felt pom-pom at one end to weight it down.

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Rope Handbag

Here’s a quick tutorial for a handbag with rope handles. I’ve pretty much been making the same summer bag for the past couple of years (see here and here).

Long story, but I bought some heavy-duty cotton rope to use for chair seats, then decided to go with wooden seats for the chairs since we have kids standing and spilling on the chairs. So I will be doing a lot of rope projects! This rope is a bit sturdier than the rope trim that you can find in the sewing store, but I think that will do just fine for this project. You could also use bamboo handles as I’ve done in the past, following the same instructions. I secured the rope handles by sewing them and then holding them together with hidden masking tape, but I think it would be a nice detail if you used metal clamps from the hardware store — and perhaps a bit more professional!

The fabric is by Nani Iro from Matatabi.

Click on the image below to download the instructions.

 

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