My Metier { LLC }

 

Pretty Exciting - I'm Official.

Spending lots of time getting all my things loaded back onto Etsy.  Seriously takes forever.  

I can sew all of this faster than it's taking me to do the photos, write the blurbs, load it on.  LOL

Visit my shop and check out what all I've been making!

MyMetier on Etsy

Leah's Quilt {Done and Delivered}

Leah's Quilt - Delivered this morning to a super awesome dad, made for his little girl.

I started talking with Mike this summer about making a quilt for his 8yr old daughter.  They had been looking for a long time, with no luck, trying to find just the right bedroom set for his purple tie-dye loving girl.



We talked a bit about designs, but he pretty much came up with the whole plan on this one.  Didn't he do an awesome job?

The biggest thing they had trouble with was finding that main purple batik.  I sent him links to a whole bunch of them, and we all loved this print.  We were able to find the source and he ordered a whole bolt.

Going from there, he then found Moda Marbles for making the quartered triangle blocks, and spent a good amount of time trying to get just the right colors from Hancock's online.  I think it was a labor of love!  I had thought that perhaps they changed their mind about having the quilt made, as I didn't hear from him again until December.  With a couple iterations of colors choices, and waiting for back ordered stuff, he spent a long time just gathering all the supplies.

THEN!  A quilt store person had mentioned at one point that fabrics should be pre-washed before quilting.  I told him how I usually do not pre-wash, but he was interested in prepping everything himself.  Seriously, this Dad deserves a medal.  He washed the half yards of solids, and full bolts(!) of the batik, cream, and a light purple that was used on the back and is intended for curtains.  AND HE IRONED IT ALL!  His daughter and wife are super lucky to have such a dedicated dad.



The quilt finished up at 88" square.  Too big for my husband to hold flat on his own, and everybody else was already off to school.

I really enjoyed making these huge blocks.  24" square - joined by 3" sashing.   Such a fun quilt, and the end look is really very striking - especially in person.  With the fabric hunting and quilt design, I thought that Mike just needed his own sewing machine to get hooked on quilting!

I was super happy with how well my horizontal and vertical lines matched up in all directions.  I had a system of rulers, and cutting mat, and order of measuring - all to make sure those creams would align.  



Since the little girl is 8, and they hope she will have this on her bed for years to come, a nice stipple was the way to go.

Good texture and extra strength for the long haul.



Along with the quilt, she needed two European sized pillow shams.

Since the purple would be right at the edge with the 24" blocks, and we wanted to keep the center solids the same size as the quilt, I ended up cutting down the edges of the purple a couple inches all around.  That way you would still get the effect of a sashed block.



I was kind of nervous about them being the right size, so I took the whole thing over to my mom and dad's.  Quilting was done and pillow mostly assembled.  Just the binding needed adding on everything.  But at that point, the pillow would still be easy to adjust in or out as needed.

We stuffed a 26" pillow inside and laid it all out on their queen bed.  At this point I was wanting to keep it for myself!

You can get a peek of the turned down top on their bed.  I had shown Mike several of my quilts when this all started, and he liked the idea of the pieced backs I do.  A great idea, he planned the back to have an accent strip of the same solids.



That backing purple is intended for the curtains, as well.

He asked me a whole bunch of times to make the curtains.  They're actually very simple, straight panels, but I declined.  Lining and then evenly hemming all four sides, so that they hang nice and straight, for those tall curtains....worried me.  Never having done them myself, I didn't want to have my first pass going into their house.  Things like that never seem to work out nicely on the first pass.

Even without the curtains yet, I hope that Leah is super excited about this quilt that her Dad designed just for her!  (And I love this pattern, I think I'll put it in the queue for myself.)

Now - please note the small tree just out the window, to the left of the quilt.  See how it's kind of bright out, and everything is all clear?  The nasty winter ice and snow storm headed our way was brought on quickly by my journey to deliver the quilt, and our joking about how we probably wouldn't get more than a drizzle and a couple flakes.  Because that's pretty much how these last two winters have gone in Chicago.



Within 10 minutes of leaving for home, my highway journey was attacked by ice pellets, sleet, and huge heavy snow.  The back yard is now a winter wonderland.

You're welcome O'Hare flyers and Chicagoland.

Now, with the custom quilt done and hibernation starting, Let the Baby-Girl-Sewing begin!

Buried in Girl Stuff

I have been working on a custom queen quilt for an 8yr old girl.  Her dad is awesome, and I think he would be a quilter if he had lots of spare time!  He and I get along well, talking quilt math and design.

The little girl has definite ideas regarding colors and pattern, being a HUGE fan of purple tie dye.  They were unable to find anything commercially made for her new bedroom set, so went looking for somebody to make her a custom set.  We met a few times and zeroed in on an exact quilt plan, as well as main fabric choices.  It was so funny when I finally met her over Christmas break - she came in wearing a pink/purple tie dye outfit.  I said that we certainly had the right fabrics for her, and couldn't wait to make her new bedroom set!

So, now I'm buried in pink, purple, rainbow yardage and trimmings!  Kind of like a tween girl and her unicorn exploded in my sewing room.  I never work with batiks, as I prefer more  modern quilting cotton prints.  But I am LOVING the minimal amount of fraying.  I assume that is the way batiks normally are?  One of my major pet peeves is all the little stray thread that end up all over the back of your quilt by the time it's ready to baste.



This photo is pretty true to the real colors.

I spent a decent amount of time thinking about and then squaring up the main blocks.  They are 24" finished - which is larger than my largest ruler, and half an inch wider than my cutting mat width.  Not only did I want the block to end up the right size, with four 90 degree corners, but it was important to have that middle perfectly centered as well.

Any of you out there, who have been making those big  swoon blocks, come up with a good way to square them up?  I was thinking about doing a quick photo tutorial of what I came up with for mine.



In  my own girly world.....Thank You so much for all your congratulations and kind wishes!  I have loved looking up your suggestions and links.  If you think of any more, feel free to add them on.  I have a pinterest board going with other sewing ideas, too.

My first fabric bought just for a girl baby - the pink colorway of Monaluna's silky organic Fox Hollow.  I've been stalking this adorable print for a while.  I bough half a yard and plan on using some to make a sweet, soft burp cloth. 



I also came home with a couple things from my Costco trip - a cute 3mo sundress, and a snuggly pj in 6mo size.

Had to laugh at the fact that they look mostly like the boy stuff I usually buy, in lime green and blue, just dress-shaped!

Ocean quilt {Finished}

Thank you for all the congratulations!

Way back, what seems like a million years ago, I got a custom quilt inquery.  There was a pair of little boys, who share a room, and needed coordinating ocean quilts.

I had a ton of fun picking out wonderful ocean-colored fabrics.  (Maybe a bit too much fun, adding in some of that 'while the cart if open fabric', and I had 55(!!!) yards of fabric arrive at my house from 6 online shops.)



Whirlygiggles in two sizes, with a special paper-pieced dolphin block for Luke's quilt.

And no photo of the other one at all - boo!!  But both finished at about the same size - 81" x 88"



Look at how well I used a bunch of the extra yardage on the pieced back.

I did both quilt backs like this.



The paper pieced dolphins were a labor of love.  From the start, as I hunted high and low for the perfect pattern.  To the final debate over how to quilt them.

I didn't want to include them in my overall stipple.  So I outlined the frame (which is my favorite Kona blue, Glacier), then did a seaweed kind of wavy thing in the water, and sketchy echo quilting in the dolphins.



Now, this was super cool.  Luke's mom wanted to include some of his artwork in the quilt.  I didn't want it to fade over time, and also know how hard it can be to draw on fabric.

I had her send me a picture on a regular piece of paper, and made sure that he signed it.  Originally, I intended to hand embroider a representation of his art.  But then I started working at the Bernina store, and met some girls that are really into machine embroidery.  With the 830 and fancy digitizing software, they are able to take any jpg and turn it into a fabric sketch.  Marcy made this awesome quilt label - it's about 5x7" - and is almost an exact replica of Luke's drawing.  I didn't want to quilt over it, so I hand stitched it to the back after everything was done.



One final picture, with the Kona glacier binding and a touch of mustard added in.  It picked up the couple bits of mustard in prints throughout the quilt.

They were sent off to be loved (priority, insured UPS, with signature confirmation - I didn't want to chance them getting lost!).