~~~November~~~

Sewing this pouch for my mom with my Vintage Dresses pattern.

My Diamond Patchwork Purse in Stitch Winter 2016.  

Carved another block from Design, Carve, Print Class. More details [HERE]

Made a purse from my first block print from the Design, Carve, Print Class

Making progress on my Farmer's Wife Quilt

Loving this knit top and plan to make more : )

Playing with my new coverstitch machine and will share a review this month.

Finished my blocks for Amy's Maker Quilt and even mailed the package!

Shared some Free makes and Patterns just in time for Holiday Gift Giving

Have a lovely 1st day of December!!!

xo

Charise

Amy's Maker Quilt

This week has been all about finishing projects. 

Amy's "Maker" quilt was close to being finished but needed a few finishing touches.  

A little background on the quilt ~ Amy, Melinda and myself decided to do a round robin quilting bee.

Amy sent the Zipper and Sewing Machine block to Melinda who added the needle, stitch and thimble blocks.  She then sent it to me to add my blocks and send it back to Amy.

*** I have added links to the blocks that are available at the bottom of the post ***

I made three blocks for Amy - the scissors, "SEW" and the iron.  I'm not sure how Amy

is going to assemble the blocks, but I wanted to fill up the last bit of space in the quilt.

After a bit of ruminating on the layout, I decided a trio of notions jars would be perfect.  I used the jars from my Jam Jars and Fruit pattern and enlarged them to fit Amy's Quilt.

The yellow print is one of my favorites -  An out of print Japanese fabric by designer Kumiko Fujita.  It was fun to find the perfect text to include on the jar. 

The Buttons fabric is a Japanese print from Suzuko Koseki.

The labels were made by designing them on the computer and then printing them onto printable cotton fabric sew in fabric.

It was fun to collaborate with the very talented Melinda and Amy.

xo 

Charise

Links to Blocks:

Zipper block and all the block from the Sew Out Loud Quilt Along

Sewing Machine Block

SEW block

Work in Progress Wednesday ~ Cocorico Traveling Bee

I have been so fortunate to have met some wonderful ladies when I joined the Cocorico Bee on Flickr.  

We are just wrapping up the second round and it has been a wonderful journey!

Having seen so many wonderful traveling, round robin quilts on the internet, I really wanted to start one.  After a bit of coordinating, three members from the original Cocorico Bee created a Traveling Bee.

Amy's theme is "Maker" and she started with the sewing machine and zipper blocks.

I received Amy's blocks as well as Melinda's additions a few weeks ago.  The blocks have been up on the design wall and I have finally added my designs. 

 The first block I made was the iron.  The pattern is part of a quilt I designed for Quiltmaker Magazine a few years ago.

The SEW letters are from Kumiko Fujita's book, "Patchwork Patterns 318".

I added my signature style by fussy cutting the word fabrics, isolating my favorite parts of the text.

My last addition was the scissors block - a pattern I drafted this week. 

It has been nice to have all the blocks up on my design wall.  

It is really quite amazing how seeing the quilt ~ all day, every day ~  

helps to inspire the design process.

I am not done yet : )  That upper left section that is blank will be filled with a trio of blocks that will balance out the quilt.

Be sure to head on over Freshly Pieced to see some inspiring WIP Wednesday projects!

Happy 

Sewing!

xo

Charise 

~ pinwheels, strawberries and lemon slices ~ oh my ~ Work in Progress Wednesday

Happy Wednesday.  I have been working on lots of projects.  My Sweetheart Pattern is top priority now that I have a secret project for Sew News complete : )  The Sew News project will be in the Spring '16 issue that hits news stands in December.  Hint - you carry it and it is sparkly : )

I have been working on bee blocks for the Cocorico Traveling Bee.  I made a few more for Melinda's quilt whose them is "Itty Bitty and Bright".  I am trying to add a little more orange to the group - I think I succeeded : )

The lemon is from my Jam Jars and Fruit pattern.  

The strawberry is also from my Jam Jars and Fruit Pattern.

The Pinwheel is from a Stitch magazine project from a few years ago.
I would love an entire quilt made with pinwheels : )

I have also found time to work on My Small World quilt.  It is a fun one to work on but I have a feeling this will be a very long work in progress.  The little pinwheels are just 2" square!

Happy Stitching!
xo
Charise

Itty Bitty and Bright ~ Work in Progress Wednesday

Two of the gals from the Cocorico Paper Piecing Quilt Bee are joining me for a traveling quilt bee.

It is basically a round robin.  We each make a few blocks to start the quilt and then send them on to the next person.  They make blocks adding to the quilt working within the theme.

I received Melinda's start of her quilt - "Itty Bitty and Bright".  She is making a quilt consisting of small 4 -5" small blocks surrounded by low volume fabrics.

 She provided a great Pinterest board full of inspiration.  I decided to make my apple block.

The Umbrella is designed by Leila for the book "Playful Little Paper Pieced Projects".  I reduced the block size by 50 %.

I made my Vintage Dresses Pattern and also reduced it by 50% so it is a wee 4 1/2" tall.

It was fun to make these little blocks and they went together fast and easily.  My plan is to make four more!

Here is a picture of all the blocks so far.  I think they play nicely together : )

xo

Charise

Let's Take a Trip ~ Work in Progress Wednesday

Happy Wednesday to you.  I have been working on a few bee blocks for a new - well kind of new - quilting bee.  The Cocorico Bee was one of the first online sewing bees I joined.  It is a paper piecing bee and that is where I found the technique of paper piecing.

Months ago I thought it would be fun to start a spin off bee with the ladies from the Cocorico Bee to start a traveling bee.  It is a round robin where we send the start of our quilt to one person in the bee.  It makes it's rounds and ends up in our hands again as a finished quilt top!  There have been some great traveling quilt groups started and I have been admiring their pics on Instagram and Flickr.

The first block I made is the girl going on an adventure (Adventure girl) - something I'd love to be doing right now : )

The second block was made today - a camera block - since every adventure girl needs a cool camera to record her adventures.  I think she has already traveled to Paris - I spy the Eiffel Tower in the lens!

The text and floral fabric is from a new line from Kokka called Lighthearted designed by Ayumi from the Pink Penguin blog.  I think the floral is my new favorite fabric!

Check back tomorrow for the next installment of the Anna Blouse Sew Along - Putting the pattern together.  We will start sewing her up next week.

Be sure to check out the other fab WIP Wednesday projects over at Freshly Pieced.

xo

Charise