Hello! Long time no see. It's been a very busy Spring/early Summer (mostly wrangling a toddler) and I have a lot to catch you all up on! I wanted to start with something I never expected to be working on so much, english paper piecing! I've dabbled in it many different times over the years, but it just never stuck. I have very little time to sit at the sewing machine right now, so having a hand project going has become essential.

I love having this space as a documentation of what I make, so I do intend to be back more regularly. Preschool is on the horizon, which means more time for my work and life outside of being a mom coming soon!


My journey to falling in love with hand sewing actually started because we needed to have some tree work done. We spent two days in our sunroom watching the tree work unfold and I found I really wanted something to work on. I usually grab knitting, but knitting in the warmer months just isn't appealing to me. I knew I had a bunch of random english paper piecing projects that I had started and abandoned over the years, so I dug through those and found a big stack of already basted hexagons. This project started in 2010, so it was long overdue to be finished!


I had enough hexagons to make 21 flowers, but decided about halfway through the project that I wanted to make 24 instead. I managed to find some of the original fabrics I used (whoa) plus supplemented with a few newer fabrics to come up with enough colors. These are 1" hexagons.


I stored everything for this project in a small zipper pouch, which worked okay! As I worked on other projects however, I realized I need something with a bit more room and organizing potential.


I am currently at the stage of this project where I'm putting the blocks together into a small quilt! I love how it's turning out, and I'm going with a very maximalist approach in terms of the colors and fabrics. I'll leave it here for now and share more once I've finished the quilt.


After I finished stitching that first set of hexagons, I found another small group that I had received in a swap with my friend Jess on Flickr, also from 2010! I was a few shy of being able to make four hexagons, so I basted a couple more and started stitching. These are 1" hexagons.


I am stitching these to a piece of ice-dyed fabric and making some drawstring bags. They're currently stitched down and waiting for me to choose lining and accent fabrics!


My current project is brand new! I'm not sure what I'm making, I'm just going to keep making hexie flowers until I get tired of making them. So far I've only cut from my scrap bins, which is fun. I'm using low-volume prints for the petals and gold/mustard yellow prints for the centers so they look like little white flowers. I love how they're turning out. For these ones I am glue basting. I am conflicted on whether I like glue or thread basting better, but it's hard to argue with the speed of glue basting so that is winning for now! These are 3/4" hexagons.


For this project I quickly outgrew the zipper pouch I was using and upgraded to this tackle box! It's a vintage caboodles/plano tackle box I thrifted a few years ago (or last year?). It's been working great! I can keep all the stitching and basting stuff all in one place and can easily move it around the house with me to stitch wherever I want. And it's so cute, which is a nice bonus.


I'm really enjoying this project and I am excited to see what all these flowers eventually become. I'm so glad I gave english paper piecing another chance. It's allowing me to sew when I otherwise wouldn't be able to sew much. It is giving me to the same meditative experience as knitting does, and I certainly need that!

I hope to be back soon with some other kind of update, maybe on the garden? See you later!

Finished: Waypoint Quilt

Hi there! It's been quiet in this space lately, but today I'm back to start sharing a backlog of finished quilts with you all! I think this is the first of 5? I was able to get a bunch photographed recently so I can finally share them!


Photo © 2015 Lauren Hunt for Lucky Spool Media.


We're starting with what I think is the last quilt top that I made in the process of writing my book, Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle. For each quilt pattern in the book I made either an alternate block or entire quilt top. This quilt is the alternate I made for the Waypoint Quilt. Above you can see the version that was photographed for the book!


This one was simply an alternative color way! To be honest, I don't remember what the jumping off point was for this color palette, it's been so long ago. I do remember I was excited to use that Momo scissor fabric that I had long stashed.



When I am trying to finish up old works in progress, I try to make the finishing steps as easy as possible for myself. This quilt top lingered for so long, I was not about to do anything fancy for the quilting. At this point my eye was on the prize! So I chose to do my signature wavy quilting. I did however use a fun thread color, a light aqua! This quilting style is relaxing for me to do and it's forgiving too. Win-win! You can find a tutorial for how I do it here: How to Quilt Wavy Lines with a Walking Foot


With the backing and binding, again simplicity was key. I chose one fabric to use as both the back and the binding. One of my prints from curiosities happened to perfectly match the front, yay!


This quilt ended up going home with my younger brother for his condo!


It's a bit hard for me to believe that my book came out OVER 10 years ago, wow. So much has changed in 10 years! I know I still have a few quilt blocks kicking around from the process, but I am glad to have finally finished up all the quilt tops!

Happy Quilting!

New Sewing Room Tour

I'm excited to share a look into my new sewing room! We moved into a 70s split level home in November and I've been slowly building out a space for crafting. The room is part of the main living area of the house, which makes it really convenient to pop in and out of all day. I believe the previous owners used it as a formal living room. For us, it has become a room that we spend a lot of time in, especially my daughter and I. Either sewing, crafting, coloring or just playing; we are in here all day! I'm sure it will continue to evolve as we settle in, but I wanted to share how we've arranged the space for now!

See tours of my previous sewing room here: 2019 Sewing Room Tour, Big Sewing Room Changes



This room is quite a bit larger than my previous sewing room, so I've been working on adding a few more pieces of furniture. I have been able to find two great pieces for this room from a local thrift store called Centre Peace. Lucky for us, they deliver! And they have a great mission, it's a win-win. My most recent acquisition is this wood dresser! It's holding most of my art and craft supplies: paper, paint, stickers, washi tape, stamps, etc. There is a lot crammed in there!!


My fabric cabinet moved just fine and I got my quilting cotton all organized by color again. To be honest, I'd love to replace this cabinet at some point with something wood. For now though, it's what I've got! I'm really making it a priority to buy furniture that we need secondhand, which just means being patient and always having a list! I am happy to have room for my yellow vintage store display stand again. It was stored in our attic the last few years. Right now it has mostly vintage pillowcases and scraps in it!


Another thrifted piece of furniture for office supplies and pattern shop inventory. I believe this was a dresser originally, but I'm using it as more of a credenza or sideboard. A little feed-n-wax brought this piece back to life and it's been working great at containing my online shop stuff!


My two wooden schoolhouse tables fit perfectly under this big bank of windows. I immediately filled the window sill with plants and set up a cat bed for Dusty. Definitely still need to work on this corner a bit, but it's coming along!


Machine is up and running! I set up my sewing machine in a pretty similar orientation as my last space. I am missing my wall shelves behind it though, it was nice to keep the table space behind it open. We'll see if I do anything to change that in future. I am using this wooden organizer from ikea to store tools and notions for now. It was a relief to get my ruler storage pegboard up! It needs a fresh coat of paint, but I can't decide on the color!


Ironing set up is pretty basic, just my board and an ikea cart to hold my iron and water.


The previous owners left lots of ceiling hooks near the windows, so of course I had to take advantage of that right away! I ended up making all the hangers from thrifted materials or stuff I already had. They're all a bit different. They're made from colanders, plastic pots, baskets, and tins. I've never had space for hanging plants before, so this is fun for me! I used nylon paracord for the hanging part.


We repurposed the table from our office/library in our last home as a coloring table for our daughter! I swapped in adjustable legs and set them to the lowest height. We keep a sheet of paper on it all the time so she can color anytime she wants. It's been great having a dedicated space for her to play in here too.


The expedit shelf survived another move, relatively unscathed! I'm using it in basically the same way as my last space. Storage for notions, patterns, interfacing and my vintage sheet collection.


Last but not least, I hung up my thread shelf! At first I wasn't sure I'd like having it so far from my machine, but honestly it's been fine. I sew with white thread like 95% of the time, so it's really not a big deal. I am just happy to have my thread out of a box! I do have a tutorial for this shelf if you're interested: My DIY Thread Storage Shelf

That's it for now! I know this space will continue to change to fit our needs, but for now we're loving it! I am very lucky to have such a beautiful space. I think I'm most excited about all the empty floor space. I love being able to spread out on the floor and I was missing that in our last home. Plenty of room for basting quilts here! We'll see if that translates into more quilting by me!

Happy Sewing!

SEW Pincushion Tutorial

As promised, today I have a tutorial for this SEW pincushion to share! I originally designed this pincushion for a publication back in 2013! It didn't end up getting included in the book, and I've been wanting to share it here ever since. The first pincushion I made has sun damage, so it seemed like a good excuse to make a new one!


The piecing for this pincushion can be a little tricky, since the strips are so narrow, but it still comes together quickly! One advantage of the small pieces is that it's really great for using scraps. For the newer version I added some fusible fleece interfacing and light quilting. It's totally optional, but I think it gives it a nice look and a little extra stability. Anyways, enjoy the tutorial for this fun wordplay pincushion!

SEW Pincushion Tutorial
Have questions about making pincushions? Check out my All About Pincushions post.

Sewing Level: Intermediate
Finished size: 7.5”x3.5”

Materials:
- 1/8 yard of fabric for letters (or scraps)
- 1/8 yard of fabric for background (or scraps)
- (2) 10"x6" pieces of cotton batting or fusible fleece interfacing (optional)
- Pincushion filling (fiberfill or crushed walnut shells)
- Coordinating thread
- Hand sewing needle

Cutting:

From letter fabric, cut:
(8) 1.5”x1” A pieces
(2) 2”x1” B pieces
(3) 3”x1” C pieces

From background fabric, cut:
(6) 1.5”x1” D pieces
(1) 2”x1.5” E piece
(4) 3”x1” F pieces
(2) 8”x1” G pieces*
(1) 4”x8” backing piece*

*You may want to cut these pieces a little extra long (ex: 8.5" instead of 8"). With so many seams and small pieces sometimes the piecework can end up a little larger than expected! Easier to trim it down after the fact than have a piece that's too short.

Instructions:
*1/4” seam allowance unless otherwise noted*


1. Letter S: Sew together two pairs of A and D pieces, along the long sides. Press seams open. Sew an A piece to the left side of one pieced pair, press seam open. Sew an A piece to the right side of one pieced pair, press seam open. Sew both pieces together according to the diagram, press seam open. Sew a B piece to the bottom to complete the letter S, press seam open.


Letter E: Sew together two pairs of A and D pieces, along the long sides. Press seams open. Sew pieced pairs together, press seam open. Sew an A piece to the bottom of this pieced unit, press seam open. Sew a C piece to the left side to complete the letter E, press seam open.


Letter W: Sew together an A and D piece, along the long sides. Press seam open. Sew a D piece to the end of the pieced pair, so that the A piece is in the middle. Press seam open. Sew piece E to the top of this pieced unit, press seam open. Sew piece B to the bottom, press seam open. Sew a C piece to the left and right sides to complete the letter W, press seams open.


2. Arrange the pieced letters according to the diagram, with an F piece between each letter and on either side. Sew together in order, press seams open. Sew a G piece to the top and bottom of the pieced letters. Press seams open.

3. Optional: Layer pincushion top with batting or interfacing, quilt as desired. Layer pincushion backing with batting or interfacing, quilt as desired. Trim both pieces to 4"x8".

4. Place pincushion top right sides together with the backing piece. Sew around all four sides, leaving a small opening for turning on one of the short ends.

5. Turn right sides out, poking out the corners with a dull pencil. Fill pincushion with desired stuffing and close the opening with a whip or ladder stitch.


I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! I have lots of other tutorials for everything from quilts, pillows, bags, and holiday items to informational series and techniques. Find all my tutorials here: Tutorials. My online shop is filled with patterns for quilts and bags. Find my patterns here: Jeni Baker Patterns

Tag me @jenib320 on instagram if you make something from this tutorial, I'd love to see it!

Don't forget to pin this post to your Pinterest for future reference!

Happy Sewing!