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!

What I've Been Working On

Ever since our move in mid-November, I've been working on the most random projects! The lined drawstring bag sew along started right after we got here, so I haven't really shared what I'm working on since November! So this is going to be a bit of a catch-up post of things I've sewn and crafted since then, starting with some holiday projects.

It should come as no surprise that I love table linens. I have a couple drawers full of thrifted tablecloths, napkins and placemats. My stash is the most lacking in placemats, most of the ones we use are handmade. This year I decided to sacrifice a vintage Christmas tablecloth that was too small and turn it into placemats! I made six placemats and still have plenty leftover!


My daughter has discovered the joys of perler beads. She's a bit young to do them on her own, but she loves telling us what to make her! We started by making a bunch of colorful ornaments but have also made cats, bows, hello kitty and friends, etc. It's been fun to revisit this craft.


I didn't hang up my collection of paper snowflakes this season, but I did make some new tiny ones! These are made with 2.5" squares of paper.


I usually make a few new holiday lined drawstring bags outside of the ones I make for the sew along tutorials. This one used a scrap of postage stamp fabric that my friend Jacey gave me many years ago. I love how it turned out!! I was able to use thrifted fabrics for the accent and lining too, which is nice! This is the everything size from my pattern.


I made my daughter another Christmas quilt! Looking back I don't think I ever shared the one I made her the year before, oops! I'll be sure to share them both in full soon. This one is bigger and just simple patchwork. I even managed to finish it before Christmas!


Speaking of quilts, I bound three that I had quilted by Katie this past fall!


We were long overdue for a new potholder, as our old one was looking a bit rough. I actually ended up repairing the old one too, I'll share more about both of these soon!


Another peek at a project that will show up in full here in the coming weeks, a zipper pouch made with old fabric samples!


The last little tease of an upcoming post. I remade the "SEW" pincushion I made for a publication long ago. I'm writing a tutorial for it!



This month I finally made myself one of these stuffed geese with the Silly Goose pattern by Woolly Petals*. What a hilarious and fun project this was. I love how it turned out, I think it's adorable! I used about half of a vintage pillowcase and the orange print was pulled from my scrap bin. Thankfully I had some safety eyes on hand to finish it off. I will definitely be making more of these!!



I have plans to change out some of the light fixtures in our new house, but I've only just started the process of sourcing new fixtures so I know it will be a while before we actually make the changes. So for now I decided to dress up the light in the dining room a little. I painted it green (it really needs another coat!) and made these little shades for it out of vellum. It had no shades previously, so the light was pretty harsh. These simple pleated shades help diffuse the light and make it a lot more pleasant to have the light on! It took some experimenting to get the shades right, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it kind of looks like flowers now! To head off any concerns: the bulbs are LED so they don't get hot and the shades don't touch the bulbs.


Lastly, I started a new junk journal. This one is really simple, it's a "stamp" collection!! I saw someone doing this on instagram (here) and the idea really spoke to me. I already had the punch in my stash, so it was an easy choice! I love real stamps, so it feels like it was meant to be. And it's very low effort, which is what I need right now. It's been fun!

Okay, that's a pretty good recap for now! I hope to be back soon to share a little tour of my sewing space.

Happy Making!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Quilted Tea Towel Pillow Cover

I have another recent pillow project to share! I thrifted this vintage tea towel so long ago that I can't even find a photo of it! Honestly, it could have been 15 years ago for all I remember. I know I've had it for a really long time. Last month I decided it was finally time to make it into something! This idea was fueled by thrifting a long rectangular pillow form. I realized that this tea towel was pretty much the perfect size for a cover.



I knew I wanted to use an invisible zipper for this cover so that it would be a double sided pillow. Lucky me, I had this geometric canvas print by Ellen Luckett Baker in my stash that coordinated nicely in color and design to the tea towel. I started this project by quilting both pieces. After cutting them both to size, I used my serger to finish all the edges.



Ta-da! The finished result! I love how it turned out. Such a simple project, but so satisfying. The tea towel is so funky, I am very glad that it is out of storage and living its life as a pillow cover!


And the other size is fun too. I started working on this pillow after our local JoAnn fabrics closed and honestly had a hard time sourcing an invisible zipper that matched and was long enough. My Mom brought me one from her stash, but while she was visiting we went to Ecoworks, our local craft thrift store and they had the perfect match! It's the same color blue as the back of the pillow and the length was just right. It's like it was meant to be. My application of it could have been better, but that's okay. I haven't installed that many invisible zippers in pillows, so I just need some more practice!

If we're keeping track, this project used a thrifted pillow insert, thrifted tea towel, and thrifted zipper! :)

Happy Sewing!

Vintage Striped Sheet Quilt

Happy Thursday! I have a finished quilt to share today. This quilt has been in progress most of the Summer, and I'm excited that it's finished!


Whenever I rip up a vintage sheet for fat quarter bundles, there are always leftovers. Either a long strip that wasn't wide enough or pieces that are just under fat quarter size. After I made striped sheet bundles this Spring, I decided to cut into all those leftovers instead of folding them into my stash.

There are still some striped sheet bundles available, find them here: Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Bundles



My inspiration for this quilt was strip quilts. Quilts like Scrap Happy by Amy Smart, and this quilt by Steffi Troy. Obviously these kinds of quilts used strips pieces together, but I wanted to play with achieving a similar look with a striped fabric. I used the block from the free Tessellation Quilt Pattern I shared when Geometric Bliss came out. These blocks are smaller, I cut the stripe squares 4.5" and the background squares 2.5"! I cut all the stripes on the bias so that I would get the look I wanted.


I paired the stripe sheets with a plain white sheet that I also thrifted! I've picked up a few recently but this is the first one I actually cut into. I like that all the fabrics in this quilt are reclaimed!


All the stripes! I love how this turned out. I kept the palette strictly to the sheets I used when I made the bundles, but now I'm tempted to make another all stripes quilt with my whole collection. They're so fun all together.


Quilting is simple as usual, I followed all the vertical and horizontal lines with 1/4" quilting on each side.


For the back I used this incredible striped sheet! It feels very 80s to me, especially the colors.


I honestly struggled with choosing a binding for this quilt. I knew I wanted it to be a stripe of course, but finding something that went with the very specific color palette on the back as well as the front was tough. In the end I made a scrappy binding from sheets I used in the top.


Always a win when I remember to use one of my tags!



Dusty cat (and baby girl) really likes this quilt! She was trying to lounge when I was trying to take photos. Such a silly goose!


Vintage Striped Sheet Quilt
Pattern: Modified Tessellation Quilt Pattern (free)
Fabrics: Vintage Reclaimed Bedsheets

Happy Quilting!

What I'm Working on Right Now

Happy Tuesday! I wanted to share a little bit of what I'm working on right now. I'm mostly working on moving prep and taking care of our toddler, but there has been some sewing too. Not as much as I'd like, but I know that is temporary!


When going through my closet a few weeks ago, I pulled some handmade shirts that I haven't worn in a long time. One was a tunic made from this excellent dot from Habitat by Jay McCarroll. I decided to chop it up for the fabric instead of letting it continue to languish in my closet. Right away I turned it into a drawstring bag! This is the bottom accent from the expansion pattern. I used a scrap of leftover sparkly cotton by Robert Kaufman for the accent, a purple blender for the lining and some cotton twill that I dyed last year for the ties! (In case you missed it: Tie Dye Twill Tape Tutorial) This is an everything size bag. I used my Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern and Expansion Pattern to make it.


Another drawstring bag! I had the fabrics pulled for this one for years! I was cleaning out my WIP storage and found this combination. It was perfect for an afternoon where I didn't have much time, but wanted to sew. I don't work a lot with black fabrics, but I really like how this bag turned out! I love how the black ruler twill tape looks with these prints.



I can't stop making towel bags!! I need to write a dedicated post about working with towels, they're just so much fun. I found this incredible mustard/gold plaid towel at the outlet and knew it would make some great bags. I was able to squeeze two boxy bags, made using my Triplizip Pattern, plus a plain flat pouch. I was so glad that I had some matching zippers on hand.



I've been working on a new quilt for the last month using all striped vintage sheets. Actually, I used scraps leftover from putting together these stripe bundles. I'm hoping to share more when I share the finished quilt soon!


Another project made from a vintage quilt, a giant bow! I didn't have a seasonal wreath to hang on the door for Summer, so I made this bow! It has a bit of random interfacing to give it a bit of structure. I serged the cut ends and hung it up with a zip-tie. Easy peasy! And I love it.



Saved some little half-square triangles leftover from making my Starflower zipper pouches, turned into a few random blocks!


I have started slowly adding things to my online shop as a part of a moving sale! I'll continue to do so through the Fall. These will be a dedicated post about it hopefully in the next month or so!


I'll leave you with a photo of Dusty cat helping in the sewing room. So nice!

Happy Sewing!