embroidery

to Ayumi with love

 

This month’s installment of Ringo Pie is brought to you by all things “mail and packaging” for my good friend Ayumi of Pink Penguin.  I really had gotten myself stuck in a little rut lately of slacking off.  Thus May’s block will arrive at Ayumi’s house about a week late.  I guess I just felt kind of stuck.  But, as soon as I was nearly finished with this block, the biggest smile crept across my face.  So, thank you Ringo Pie and Ayumi.

I think this is by far the most difficult block I’ve made for this quilting bee (and believe me, the other members blocks are all so amazing and more difficult!).  You can see my other blocks here, here, here, here, and here.  And by far the one that involved the most seam ripping.  In the end, it’s just perfect for her (I hope).

I incorporated as many precious fabric scraps as I could, knowing she’d appreciate them as much as me.  It’s really no fun to let your favorite fabrics sit in a bin in a closet is it?  Some of the scraps are from other bee members, Amy of Badskirt and Kerry of verykerryberry.

Just to a quick count and this block is made up of 29 different pieces, whew, no wonder it took me almost 3 hours to complete.  Little beads of sweat were rolling off my forehead.  So worth it though.

I added a bit of hand stitching around the top heart to make it pop a little.  And below is a little sneaky of the seams in the back:

I can’t wait to see what your quilt will look like Ayumi.

embroidery, patchwork

m is for mom

I was hanging out at my mom’s the other weekend and I suddenly realized that I’ve really only made her bags or purses.  And of course mother’s day was coming up, so I made an apron for her newly redecorated kitchen. 

I used the patchwork apron pattern from the book I Heart Patchwork (which I just spotted today that she’s selling her signed copies of the book for 25% off!).  All of the projects in that book are so fun and it makes it easy to make a personalized gift.
We had recently gotten my mom and dad a new set of dishes, so the apron is the start of a little set of things for her kitchen.  Oh, and the fact that I had to use a Christmas bear potholder to take something out of her oven really called me to action.
I added a little hand stitching along the patchwork border and embroidered a little ‘m’ on the pocket just in case my dad gets confused and thinks it’s his apron, haha.  But really, the ‘m’ is for either her first or last name since they both begin with ‘m’. The only thing that gave me any trouble was the waistband, I think I had to re-sew it about 3 times before getting it to the point where I was satisfied.  Anyway…
Hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s day!  Glad you like your apron mom.
embroidery, quilting

urban home goods swap

Well, I couldn’t resist joining in the this round of the Urban Home Goods swap hosted by Heather and Kerri.  It’s been kind of fun figuring out what to make for someone I don’t even know.  But I have to admit that it’s a lot of pressure, there’s so many cute things popping up in the flickr group. 

Here’s the main item for my partner: a sewing machine cover! 
This was fun to put together, and I loved thinking about what kind of embroidery I would put on it.  I thought a scissors seemed appropriate, although I did want to try some kind of fun quote, but couldn’t settle on anything. 
Hopefully it fits her machine, if not, it’ll be a nice table runner with some extra ties!
Fabrics:
Linen
Melody Miller Ruby Star Rising from Kokka
Tailor Made by Cosmo Cricket
Shot Cotton
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