create

Where I Sew & Create…

July 21, 2012 by Wendy Cohen 4 Comments

I always love to see where some of my favorite designers and crafters create their fabulous works. Well, Kathy over at Pink Chalk Studio is hosting a “Where I Sew” party. She is featuring some of our favorite designers’ sewing rooms. So, I thought I would join in on the fun!

This first picture is from the doors looking into my sewing machine. You can go here to see the tutorial on these curtains.

The Table….

Here is the corner nook in my sewing room that holds all the good stuff. This is a shelving unit from ikea that has 16 separate cubbies. This shelving unit is about 8 years old and probably cannot be moved again, but it works perfect. You can still find them at Ikea. I keep stash here and all the things that I like to look at and daydream. The framed print on the left side of the photo is from the Jacqueline Kennedy exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. I was lucky enough to go to the exhibit where they had the most amazing display of many of her famous outfits from her days in the White House. One of my most prized possessions….

The Corner Nook & The Jackie O Print

Close up of my stash…and books. I organize my stash primarily by color, but sometimes have a hard time with that. I tend to love stripes and dots so I am inclined to separate them out, but have not done that yet. I do keep the seasonal fabrics like Christmas and Halloween separate as well as flannels and wools.

The Stash….

Just a few details….

Little Details….

Here is the inside of the closet….another Ikea shelving unit on the bottom and random organizing bins on top. I bought the thread holder at an antique store. Love it! By the way, the Ikea storage unit barely fit….I had to wiggle it into place at an angle after a slight tantrum! (ask my husband…or maybe not)

Creative Storage in the Closet

Here’s the other half of my sewing room. The two baskets I use to hold magazines and other things I like to keep handy. They are about 15 years old and came from Pottery Barn. I use the bulletin board as my dream wall / idea wall.

Inspiration Wall

Here’s my sewing table…it is about 8 years old and I got it at Pier One on sale … it is a big sturdy table which is great.

Ironing board and other stuff….the shelf above the ironing board was really meant for a bathroom, but I decided it looked better here. And, it works great.

Ironing…

And, here’s the view from the sewing machine….

My view from the machine…

One day, this room will get a laminate or woof floor and that light fixture you see will be replaced with a funky chandelier!

Hope you enjoyed my place to create! You can check out all the other great sewing rooms by clicking here.

Filed Under: create, home decor, inspiration, photo, quilt, sewing Tagged With: craft, craft room, create, sewing room

4 Comments

Jasmine Quilt All Finished!

June 10, 2012 by Wendy Cohen 15 Comments

I started this create spring quilt that was inspired by jasmine back in late April / early May. You can see the first post on this quilt here. I have been working on this quilt little by little on the weekends and really tried to take my time. Well, it is now finished. Yes, it is finished. I tried to take my time on every step of this quilt and as always, tried something new.

As a reminder, this is the fabric that I started with from Simplify by Camille Roskelley.

The pattern is from Fresh Vintage Sewing by Fig Tree Quilts.

Quilt Pattern

One of the great parts about this quilt is that the blocks are very large and the quilt comes together fairly quickly for such a large quilt. The one thing I might do differently next time is pick a slightly darker color for the inside of the star blocks. I selected a light green dot on white background fabric which doesn’t show well unless you are in person. This is the quilt top below before any borders were added or before Baja the yellow lab curled up in this chair!

This quilt has two borders; first a smaller framing border followed by a larger and wider border. Check out an earlier post for my method of measuring and making your borders perfect. You can see this post here.

Here is the finished quilt top. This is when the next step begins of adding your batting and backing. This was such a large quilt that I had to find just the right place to layer the batting and backing. Here’s the link to the tutorial on how I create my quilt sandwiches…

Finished Quilt Top … Before Quilting

Here is the quilt in the midst of quilting. I quilt my quilts on my Bernina machine which sometimes can take some muscle given the throat size of the machine and the need to navigate a large quilt through. I quilted the entire quilt over a series of two days so that I didn’t wear out my shoulders.

Quilting the Top

I typically use a stippling pattern to quilt most of my quilts simply because it is what I am most comfortable with. Over the last two years, I have branched out and tried some different patterns. This time, I decided to quilt some designs that just seemed right for this quilt.

Quilting Close Up

Here is the completed quilt with the binding added on. You will see that I used several quilt methods throughout the quilt including using some special quilting in the blocks themselves as shown above, stippling on the border and a wavy pattern on on the corners near the appliqué. The tutorial for my appliqué method is on a post a few weeks ago and you can see it here.

Jasmine Quilt All Finished

I used a scallop/stripe fabric for the binding in a green fabric which turned out really well. I tend to love stripes for binding as they add just the right element to the edge of a quilt. It’s like a good picture frame.

Close Up Applique Detail with Blanket Stitch

And, here is the finished quilt hanging in the fresh air.

Jasmine Quilt All Finished

This was a fun quilt to make. I even added my own elements of appliqué to the quilt which were not included in the original pattern. I was inspired by the blooming jasmine in my yard initially and my inspiration turned into this. Take not of the inspiration in your everyday world….you will be surprised what you notice.