Fall Sewing

This past week has been a cold one in Nashville - fall has definitely arrived! All the more reason to sew a new scarf, don't you think?

I had some new Loulouthi velveteen just begging to be turned into a loopy scarf. I plucked some Loulouthi voile from my stash that was just the right blue and got sewing.

I followed the tutorial from Anna's blog, but I altered my measurements slightly to better suit my short petite frame. My fabric was cut somewhere in the realm of 12" X 54".

I love the chartreuse color of the velveteen - perfect for a pop of color in the cold weather. The voile and velveteen together make a very cozy, warm scarf, and the infinity aspect means no ends flailing around or getting caught in zippers. It was quick and easy to sew. (AKA you can expect me to make a few as gifts this Christmas!)

Hope everyone has a good week! 

Weekend Wedding

Curt and I had the privilege of attending our dear friend Matt's wedding this weekend in Indiana. It was a beautiful weekend for a wedding and I snapped a few Instagrams to share with you.

The drive up was gorgeous - the trees were all kinds of colors through Kentucky and Indiana. We don't get that autumnal changing of seasons here in Nashville - it's just kind of hot and then it's cold, so the trees don't go through "the change."

The wedding ceremony was at this sweet little covered bridge in Zionsville. They had Ball jars lining the aisle with candles and the sun was shining just right to cast a perfect afternoon glow over everything.

The men wore plaid shirts with skinny black ties and suspenders; the girls wore grey dresses with sweet bows in the back, and the bride wore a beautiful strapless dress with plenty of ruffly layers.

Keeping with the fall theme, the reception tables were decked out with pumpkins, twigs, and a dusting of glitter. The groom is a musician - aptly represented by the hymnals and antiqued sheet music. The reception was in the town Curt and I (and Matt) went to college, so it was fun to visit for the night.

The reception was of the dessert variety, with plenty of pies and sweets arranged on two glowing tables. The second table had grab bags to fill with all kinds of treats like M&Ms, nuts, pumpkin seeds, chocolate covered espresso beans, peanut butter cups, etc.

I opted for the raspberry cake, which tasted as delicious and pink as it looks. Curt had apple pie with a flaky crust - yum!

Matt & Charissa were very civilized in their cake cutting, aside from a tiny dollop of frosting which somehow got from Matt's finger to Charissa's forehead :)

The wedding was beautiful, the desserts were delicious, and the bride & groom were grinning all night long, so I'd consider it a pretty successful wedding weekend. 

Have you been experiencing autumn where you are? We are going to carve pumpkins this week and roast the seeds. I can't wait! 

Crappy Scrappy Quilt

(Let me preface this post: I don't want to offend anyone. I'm going to call some fabric ugly. If you happen to find the fabric beautiful, or you designed the fabric, please do not take it personally. Personal opinions for the win!)

It all started innocently enough .. Before unpacking all my fabric, I wanted to clear out my stash of a lot of fabric I have deemed ugly (there, see, I said it). It's fabric from various projects in which said fabric worked well with other fabrics, but I was left with scraps of fabric that no longer match other fabrics in my stash. And/or I love the fabric, but didn't have anything else to match it. Also, I once bought a jelly roll that looked way cooler online, but turns out the fabrics were all pretty lame calico prints. And leftover blocks from strange projects. You following? 

So everyone knows the transitive property of quilting states if you throw enough ugly fabrics together, they will merge into one glorious quilt that is so ugly it is cool. You know, like that old painting in your grandma's house.  

I started sewing together random blocks, using all that fabric I didn't see myself using in other projects. And yes, a  little bit of fabric I actually love to offset the ugly. There are log cabins, nine patches, flying geese, half square triangles, and lots of improvised blocks. 

I laid them all out into a size I liked, adding blocks here and there where necessary. 

After getting most of the spaces filled, I started sewing the blocks together into larger sections, adding sashing and extra pieces to bridge the gaps. My goal was to make the chunks random sizes so there is not an obvious block layout in the finished quilt.

When all was said and done, I had most of the quilt sewn into large chunks with the exception of two little holes (see arrows above). At that point I had to face what I'd been avoiding and sew a few Y-seams. It went surprisingly well and the finished top has the random feeling I was aiming for. 

This quilt will be a picnic/concert/grassy knoll quilt because I won't feel bad about getting all those weird fabrics a little dirty. 

The back is comprised of large pieces of fabric I did not purchase, but they landed in my stash anyway. A pinky calico print, a dark green calico print, a golden dyed-looking fabric, and that awful green striped fabric which is more of a seersucker with glitter stripes. Yes, glitter. 

Finally, I rounded up all my 2.5" strips of less-desirable fabric and sewed them into binding. This ugly sucker is really to be quilted as soon as I can get my hands on some batting. 

How about a winner for the My Memories Suite giveaway?? Congratulations to Kim! Kim, I will email you shortly with more information.