Pixelated

I recently finished my first pixel quilt. It's killing me not to include a picture of it here, but you'll just have to wait until mid-April after my nephew's birthday to see the finished piece. 

The experience of creating a pixel quilt was pretty awesome and quite a test of my creative abilities. You see, I had to create the pattern for my nephew's quilt using nothing more than a tiny little picture on the internet and some graph paper. I sat for an hour staring at the picture letting my eyes blur so that I could recreate it in pixel form on my graph paper...one square on the graph paper equalling one 2.5" square on the quilt top. The result was a surprisingly good reproduction of the character I was trying to recreate...and it only took 500 squares (!).

As much as I enjoyed the design process (and I really did), I knew there had to be an easier way to create these patterns.

Enter MyPhotoStitch.com. The site is intended to create cross stitch patterns from photos, but the concept can easily be applied to pixelated quilt patterns. Simply upload your photo and it spits out a pattern complete with DMC thread recommendations and everything!

Here is the second page of the pattern that was created when I uploaded a photo of a felt brooch. When uploading, you get to select how large the pattern will be, whether you want symbols shown, as well as how many thread colours will be used. More threads and larger size equal more detailed pattern.

It would take some tinkering, but I'm thinking it would be pretty easy to get the basics of a pixel quilt pattern going from these patterns. Instead of the DMC thread colours, I would look to Kona solids (or similar) to match my colours.

I certainly have enough projects on the go at the moment (and more waiting to get started), but once I have some free time on my hands, I'm definitely going to be playing around with this fun new tool.

These days...

...I am pondering what to make with this bounty of scraps that arrived in the mail this morning. Thanks, Lesley! I am so lucky to have such a generous, crafty friend who went out of her way to package up and send me a huge bag of scraps for my quilting projects. I will return the favour one day!

...we are relieved that our rental house has finally been sold and that the new owners are letting us stay until June when we will (sadly) be leaving Regina. We don't know where we're headed yet, but look forward to moving on to the next adventure.

 ...I can't stop listening to Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

...I am killing myself laughing every time I watch this Downton Abbey spoof. In a freakishly twisted way it's a great introduction to the actual Downton Abbey story if you haven't gotten on the Downton bandwagon just yet. The Dear Sweet Husband and I are utterly obsessed!

...I am patiently waiting for my nephew's birthday to pass so that I can share my latest creation here on the blog. Stay tuned in mid April for the big reveal.

...I've been discovering a few new blogs to waste time over. I'm particularly enjoying it's like this, cat.

...are passing by in a blur of late night sewing and prepping as I get ready for the spring shows. Only a couple of quilts and some coasters left to finish! Yay me for being so productive! 

Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt

We had a birthday to go to over the weekend for one of Abner's little friends. While I don't always succeed, I do try to make handmade gifts whenever possible. Nowadays, I think people are regaining an appreciation for handmade items and it makes me feel good to make gifts with a specific person in mind.

With the discovery of Oliver + S's free Lazy Day Skirt pattern, I now have a new go-to little girl gift that I can whip up in short order. The pattern is so super duper easy, I actually made up two skirts in a little over an hour (would have been less if my machine hadn't been acting up!).With the beautiful spring weather we were having over the last while, twirly little skirts seemed like a good idea...then it snowed the morning of the party. Sigh.

Cold weather or not, Abner was happy to put her skirt on this morning so that I could snap a few pictures.

This is the skirt that went to the birthday girl.

The fabrics were both purchased at a Boxing Day sale in Moose Jaw late last year. The trim was bought years ago at Dress Sew in Vancouver. I can't believe it took me this long to find a project suitable to use them on!

Kicking off the spring shows

Spring is definitely in the air - birds are returning from their southerly vacations, the snow is gone (yes, even here in Regina), people are walking about in their shirtsleeves, and more importantly, posters are going up to promote the first of the spring craft shows!

First up...Flock & Gather's Springtime Handmade Market on April 13 & 14 in Saskatoon! Can't wait!

Tutorial: Go bind yourself, Quilt!

Self binding is not my usual approach to finishing a quilt, but when I found myself without enough coordinating fabric* to do my usual double fold binding, I decided to give it a shot. I have no idea if this is how other people approach this technique, but it seemed to work beautifully for me. Here's what I did if you'd like to give it a try:

Step 1:
Prepare your quilt sandwich the way you normally would making sure your backing fabric is at least 1" larger than your quilt top and batting on all four sides. For the record, your quilt top and batting need to be exactly the same size. I found it easiest to trim them to size before placing them atop the quilt backing. Be sure the quilt top and batting are perfectly centered on top of the backing fabric.

Step 2:
Baste the layers together using pins or spray adhesive - whichever you prefer.

Now, here's where things start to deviate a bit. Normally, this is where you would begin the quilting process. You would either machine or hand stitch a pretty little pattern all over that quilt top of yours. But, with self binding, you need to do one more step first before we get to the quilting stage.
 
Step 3:
With the layers of your quilt sandwich well secured so that they won't shift, stitch along all four sides of the quilt top using a 1/2" seam allowance, like so:

The backing fabric outside that line of stitching is now your binding fabric.

Step 4:
Now, you can go ahead and quilt your quilt. Just make sure your quilting lines stay within the confines of your stitching from step 3.

Step 5:
Along one side, fold and press the raw edge of your backing fabric in to meet the raw edge of your quilt top, like so:

Step 6:
Fold and press that edge over again so that the folded edge of your backing fabric just covers your stitching line from step 3, like so:

Step 7:
To turn a corner, make a 90 degree fold toward the side of the quilt you'll be moving on to next. Press the living daylights out of that corner.

Step 8:
Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 along the remaining sides of your quilt. Your corners should look something like this:

Step 9:
Normally, you would hand stitch your binding to the back of your quilt. But with a self bound quilt, you need to hand stitch the folded edges of your binding to your quilt top instead. Here's what the finished edges and corner will look like when all is said and done:

From the back, your quilt will look like this with just a simple line of stitching about 1/2" inside each edge.

*Confession time: Remember that old adage "Measure twice. Cut once." The truth is, I had enough fabric when I started. However, when you cut your strips a full inch wider than you intended, you're gonna wind up with fewer strips than you need to make it around your quilt.

One Word Wednesday: Bus

Rorschach of the quilting world

I was doing a little chain piecing to save time on a 500+ piece quilt top the other day when this pretty little oddity emerged. To me it looks like a bunch of disembodied bird beaks nestled together. (Yeah, you'd get a bit loopy too if you had to piece that many 2.5" squares together.) What does it look like to you?

Done and Done! Two new quilts

Let's celebrate this beautiful, sunny weather we've been having here on the prairies with a couple of equally sunny new quilts!

All the multicoloured fabrics on both quilts are from the same fabric collection which, for the life of me, I can't remember the name of. One of these days I'm going to start a fabric journal like a proper quilter! If anyone can refresh my memory, please leave a comment.

This one is my first ever stacked coin quilt. Stacked coin quilts are a rather traditional pattern where equally cut pieces of fabric are stitched together into rows that look like stacks of coins piled on edge, hence the name. This modern take uses pieces of fabric in different widths to get a slightly different, more contemporary look.

The backing is a wickedly vibrant orange flannel. Is anyone else noticing orange everywhere they look? I love it and am so happy to be able to integrate it into a few of my recent quilts.

I picked up on several of the colours in the fabrics for my quilting pattern (circles, as usual). They look nice blended into the brightly coloured fabrics, but I particularly love seeing the stitching on the solid grey at the top of the second quilt. It's given me an idea for another quilt, but I better hold off until I clear through the stack I'm already working on. Only three more to go!

The second quilt was actually the one I started first. I really wanted to try my hand at half-square triangles and chevrons. The zigzag pattern seems to be popping up everywhere these days!

I didn't have enough flannel to finish the back of this one completely so I had to go with a pieced together back using some leftover grey. Not quite as cozy, but still lovely.

Perhaps it's just me, but I think these quilts would make a lovely gift for a set of twins. What do you think?

Additional photos have been posted in my Quilt Gallery on Flickr and on the Milkybeer Handmade Facebook page. Both quilts are now available in my Etsy shop.

Sharing the good news

Today I am beyond excited to share a tutorial over on the Fat Quarterly blog. Pop on over to learn how to sew this sweet little bedside book/pajama pouch. Mine is the first project in a week-long Designer Challenge featuring the new Quilt Blocks fabric from Ellen over at The Long Thread.

In other happy news...

Did you hear a strange commotion yesterday? A whoop and holler from somewhere you couldn't quite place? Yeah, that was me waking up to the news that the deal on our house fell through. Never has anyone been so happy NOT to sell a house.

For those who might not know, our rental home was recently put on the market and snapped up within the first week. Had the deal gone through, we would have been out on the street at the end of March. To make matters worse, we are still patiently waiting to hear whether we will even need to stay in Regina once my husband's contract is up in just a few short months.

The upside of the deal falling through is that it means that my little family and I get to stay right where we are until at least the end of April. That should be plenty of time to find out if we will be staying in Regina and will put us in a better position to find another rental should we be staying more than a couple of months.

The downside is that we have to put up with showings (read as: we actually have to clean the house again) and rude agents walking into our backyard and home without even knocking. Yes, that has actually happened several times. I still can't get over how some people think this is acceptable when you can clearly see people inside the house watching you!

Ah well, I'm just happy that we've got more time to sort everything out. Thanks to everyone who has been crossing their fingers for us. So far, it seems to be working!