Me-Made-May Update

Top row: Megan Nielsen Banksia in a polyester blend, Self-drafted top in coral knit, Sew Liberated Schoolhouse Tunic in cotton seersucker

Bottom row: Self-drafted skirt in pima cotton, Grainline Scout Tee in lace, Grainline Scout Tee in cotton silk

Thoughts about Me-Made-May so far:

1. Actually wearing some of the clothes has reconfirmed some fit issues that some of them have

2. I like making shirts - I have several dresses in the next week though

3. I finished up those two Grainline Scout Tees just so I could wear them, so MMM is helpful for my productivity!

4. I really wanted to take pictures of me actually living my life while wearing my handmade clothes, so my pictures are taken at (1) a farewell work lunch, (2) outside on a lounging day, (3) at a Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo, (4) outside my office, (5) at Tijuana Flats for lunch with coworkers, (6) outside my apartment during a day that I took off to have craft day with friends

5. I find it really hard to wear some of my clothes to work because they sway between too casual or too fancy for some of my workdays. I run youth programs [for the next two weeks, at least] and sometimes I'm outside running around after kids and sometimes I have meetings at City Hall. I've been finding it very hard to plan out my clothes since I don't usually know what might crop up until the day before. That's actually why I made my last Grainline Scout Tee in a cotton silk, because it's casual when worn with shorts, but the fancier fabric dresses it up if I want to wear it to work. I think that was an important realization for me to come to.

6. I don't necessarily want to keep buying so many clothes at Target, but I wish that I had access to cooler prints to make my own clothes. I hardly wear florals, I'm more of a geometric, mod, tribal print, polka dot kind of gal, and there just aren't too many prints out there that I've found that I like. I need to go to NYC! ;)

7. I'm two days behind. That last picture was taken on a Friday, which is technically in the 3rd week of May. However, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because I'm still adhering to the spirit of MMM, which is just to actually wear your handmade items.

I can't wait to see what the next two weeks bring!

Diamond Chain Quilt Along - Cutting Instructions

Hello all! Today we're going to tackle the majority of the cutting for the Diamond Chain quilt!

Supplies:
-Your fabric
-A marking tool of your choice
-60 degree diamond template if you have one [for the scrappy cutting version]
-Template plastic or sturdy cardboard
-Scissors

We're actually going to discuss two options for cutting. We will start with the cutting of individual diamonds.

If you are going for a scrappy look [this quilt is great for that because the diamonds aren't too big!] then you can cut your diamonds individually. We are using 3.5" UNfinished diamonds.

One thing to be careful of is if you're using a cardboard template make sure that your shape doesn't start to get warped over time from tracing around the carboard.

You will need:
-192 background diamonds
-108 dark blue diamonds
-96 medium blue diamonds
-48 light blue diamonds

Your next option is if you are using a cohesive fabric scheme. That is, your quilt will look much like the mock-up at the top of the page in that I've used the same fabrics for the rings of diamonds in each block. You can even use this method if you're alternating blocks, like the example above.

We will be strip piecing our fabrics for this method, so you will need to cut all strips to 3.5 x 18".

You will need:
-12 light blue strips
-24 medium blue strips
-36 dark blue strips
-48 background strips

If you want to use 2 dark blue fabrics, for instance, just cut 18 strips of each, and so on.

Note: We are not cutting our corner pieces until that week in the schedule, because they can be a little confusing.

Next week we will be sewing our pieces together to create the triangle pieces for our blocks. Please know that if you cut diamonds this week you will only be sewing next week. If you cut strips, we will be sewing the strips together and then doing additional cutting and then more sewing. So basically, those of you cutting individual diamonds will require more time this week, while the strip cutters will require more time next week. It all balances out :)

See you next week with all your pieces!

Colette Laurel Contest

Eep!

My green linen Laurel is one of 20 finalists for the Reader's Choice in the Laurel Contest! The winner gets $500 in prizes [swoons on the inside].

You can vote for your top 5 favorites by scrolling to the bottom of the post! :)

Giveaway Day winner!

I'm so sorry I'm a little late on this, but the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day winner is Karen Chatters, who loves the Pow Wow pattern! So I guess that's my next quilt too ;) I've emailed Karen yay!

And because some people mentioned being curious in what kind of advice was given, this is what people said about fitting sewing into the work week:

1. "Work on a little bit at a time because it all adds up eventually"
2. "Sew for 15 minutes a day"
3. "Schedule your time or else it won't end up happening"
4. "Ignore the housework!" [favesies]
5. "I have no idea because I have no time to sew either"
6. "Get up early and sew before the day starts"

I'm trying to make #6 work...so far I've managed to wake up earlier, but I haven't actually managed to make it out of bed yet. Baby steps, right?

In other news, Me-Made-May is trucking along. This was my outfit from today - a lace Grainline Scout Tee with a linen skirt from Target. I'll be doing a mid-month outfit update this weekend.

And I don't know about you all, but I have had a fabulous day. I got a job offer [that I'm accepting!], received payment from Stitch magazine, had free salted caramel truffle ice cream from Haagen Dazs, and had lunch out with friends. It doesn't get much better than that :)

Fabric Requirement for Diamond Chain

Good morning all, and a happy Friday to you!

First up, don't forget that all the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaways end today at 5, so if you haven't yet entered those, get going!

And now on to those fabric requirements that I promised you earlier this week. I meant to get them up yesterday, but I burned my hand really badly [reason number 96 I don't like alfredo sauce] so I spent the night feeling sad ha. Anyways!

This quilt uses 20 inch blocks, with 12 blocks total, for a 60 x 80 inch quilt. For that size you will need:

-3 yards background fabric [the cream in my mock-up]
-2 yards for the outer ring of diamonds [dark blue]
-1 and 1/3 yards for the second ring of diamonds [medium blue]
-3/4 yd for the inner ring of diamonds [light blue]
-Backing fabric

****SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: These fabric requirements were made using the tool in the Threadbias Design Tool that I used when designing the quilt. I am like 88% sure that you will not need that much background fabric, because the only way you can fill in weird spaces in the design tool is by making the background be just a large rectangle that you layer under your design.

Also, these requirements are made for keeping all the diamonds in each ring the same color. If you want a scrappy look, just divide the required fabric amount by how many different colors of that level that you want to use. For instance, if you have 4 dark blue fabrics that you want to use, dividing 2 yards by 4 will give you 1/2 yd of each.

And for even having that little bit of math on my blog this early in the morning, I'm going to deliver happy news too:

Jennifer of Knotted Thread has graciously extended us a 15% to her Etsy shop for this informal quilt-along. Use the code SEWFESTIVE15 at checkout! She has a fabulous low-volume bundle that would be perrrrfect for the background and lots of saturated prints in a rainbow of colors. How great would Notting Hill be in this quilt!

And also, Jennifer is just a super nice person, so make sure you go say hi on her blog and visit her shop. She's living the dream - Hawaii AND opening a fabric shop?! #jealousonthemainland :)

I'm headed to an early meeting - my boss just left for Africa to adopt a baby, and so all hell has broken loose as to what to do for 4 months in her absence. This kind of meeting requires a really big cup of coffee...TGIF!

Projects in Stitch with Style 2013

I was going to spend this entire post talking about the progress I've made on my Mother's Day project [spoiler alert: not much] but then I read Sara's post about the release of the Stitch with Style 2013 projects...

And I have several projects in the magazine! I'd like to introduce you to:

the Transitional Dress

and the Retro Restyled Blouse

I have another smaller hair clip project in the magazine as well. And phew, I'm so glad that I can finally own up to these projects. Because OHMYGOSH it was so stressful. This was all done over the holidays, and I was working on like 204+ projects all at once.

And this dress was easily the hardest project I've ever tackled. In fact, deep in the midst of it I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew. I had a really hard time grading the pattern myself, only to turn it in and find out that I didn't even need to because they started offering pattern grading on project submissions. I almost wanted to cry when the editor told me that. I also made up two versions, since they wanted to see some changes to the neckline. I think the version above was first. Maybe? It all runs together.

Anyways, I'm really proud of myself for submitting the sketch of the dress and seeing my idea to the finish. I'm a little wary of going through the process again, because I sure got torn down a lot before I built myself back up. But it's still exciting to see it all shake out in the magazine :)

Diamond Chain Quilt-Along

I've received such a great response from my mini quilt that I sent off for the Fab Little Quilt Swap that I decided to make up a tutorial and quilt along for anyone who is interested.

Instead of having to wait for a full tutorial that will take me several weeks to get finished, I figured it might be more fun if we do this together! So starting next week I'll be posting up a few steps at a time once a week.

The blocks are 20 inches, so if you just want a mini or a pillow you only have to make one! The entire quilt only requires 12 blocks -- I love big blocks! Plus there's a lot of options for different fabric placements. I like how changing up the fabric slightly can highlight circles within the diamonds, or changing up the background fabrics can make it glitter a little more :)

I'll be listing a blank coloring sheet and fabric requirements in a few days so that you have time to get some fabric if you want to play along.

Thursday May 16: Cutting Instructions
Thursday May 23: Piecing the Diamonds
Thursday May 20: Adding the Corner Triangles and Assembling the Block
Thursday June 6: Finishing the Quilt Top and Backing
Thursday June 13: Quilting and Binding