Friday Felicities

Hello, friends! It's Friday and you know what that means - Friday Felicities!

My Felicity today is a big one. I achieved a big personal quilt-related goal this past week:

I finally (FINALLY!!) found the time and motivation to publish my Easy Going Modern pattern! It's available for purchase on Craftsy for $5 (USD). The instructions for the quilt top and back for three sizes of quilt are included.

The motivation for me to finally get this pattern done was making it one of my Q2 goals in the 2013 Finish-A-Long hosted by Leanne She Can Quilt. There is time to prepare your UFO/WIP list for Q3 so if you'd like to get in on the fun, just click on the button here and have a look at the details.

This weekend is a long one here in Canada as we celebrate Canada Day and I think Vancouver may luck out in the weather department. I hope you to too!

Sweet Dreams: a Baby Quilt

One of G's directresses (they're not called teachers in Montessori) is expecting her first baby, due in September. About a week before the end of school, Kevin reminded me that a quilt for Ms Cindy should be on The List. It's a good thing he did - I had her due date of September in mind, completely forgetting that - duh - we likely wouldn't be seeing her once school was done.

So the race was on. I had cut a bunch of my 30s reproduction scraps into 5" charms using Krista's Go!Baby cutter (fun!) so this project was super fast to put together. I really like 30s repro fabrics for baby quilts - they're really sweet and I think they read as gender neutral much of the time.

Surrounded in dappled sunlight in the courtyard

It's smallish - 45" square - so it will be useful for playing on, or for tucking into a stroller.

Aren't those doggies adorable?

For the quilting, I simply FMQd big loopy loops, one in each square - I really wanted this quilt to stay soft and cuddly.

The back is an upcycled/thrifted Ikea crib duvet cover that wasn't quite wide enough so I added a strip of patchwork, and I quite like the effect! The binding is all done by machine. First time for me attaching it to the back and then flipping it to the front and stitching it down using a presser foot with a centre seam guide (ditch sewing?). It was a great way of doing it - I may invest in an even-feed version of that in-the-ditch foot.

This is NOT one of my 2013 FAL goal projects, but it was fast and fun to do. I found out after we had gifted it to her that Ms Cindy had been hoping I would make her a quilt. Now I'm *extra* glad Kevin reminded me!

Mug Rugs for Colleagues

Recently, I officially joined a new team in my company. I'd been seconded to work with the Training & Development department while my own area of the business was undergoing a redesign of our processes, and needed a trainer to train staff on the changes. When an opportunity arose for me to make my assignment permanent, I went for it and got the job!

To celebrate, and to thank my coworkers for being so welcoming and wonderful, I made them each a mug rug customized to their interests (e.g. Vancouver Whitecaps FC soccer, sailing), personalities (e.g. classic, sunshiney), tastes (e.g. purple, bling) or a particular fact about them (e.g. recent transplant to Canada from UK, meaning of their name). Here is a collage of the 10 (yes, 10) mugrugs I made.

They were *very* well received, I'm happy and proud to say. 

There are individual photos of each mug rug in my Flickr photostream. They're all my own design, and I sourced the foundation paper piecing patterns for the Maple Leaf here, the Union Jack here, and the sailboat here (I adjusted one sail slightly so they weren't the same size).

Zakka Along 2.0: Weeks 2 and 3 Dish Towels and Tea Cozy

Thank goodness teachers needed gifts because I was able to kill two birds with one stone - Zakka Along projects AND teacher gifts!

First up, it's the Week 2 project, dish towels. The book gives directions and adorable appliqués for three towels. Owing to time constraints and lack of interest in a lot of appliqué, I only made two towels, and rather than the words Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, I stuck to the rather bossy "Eat" for both towels and also added the salt and pepper shaker appliqués. I hope Ms. Cindy likes them!

As you may be able to see, I used a thinner linen for the towels because I'm really trying to sew from my stash and that's all I had. I think they'll wash up and soften quite nicely.

For Ms. Chris, I made the Week 3 project (and linked up in time to be eligible for prizes - yay!) Lettered Tea Cozy:

I didn't use the foundation paper piecing templates from the book (feeling lazy), so I basically free-pieced the letters. That strategy wasn't as successful when it came to the teacup so I just left it out of the final project.

Notice a 30s reproduction theme going on here? I happened to be making a baby quilt for the afore-mentioned Ms. Cindy using 30s reproduction fabrics (to be blogged soon), so they were around my sewing space when I needed scraps for these two projects.

I like these little sailor dudes!

See the other Zakka Along 2.0 Patchwork, Please! projects in the sew-along's Flickr group!

Zakka Along 2.0 Project 1: Bell Pepper Coasters

I'm sewing along with Lindsey and Debbie who are running Zakka Along 2.0: Patchwork, Please!

Each week, a different blogger will host the project of the week, and we'll be stitching along with them. Today is the kick off with Penny Sew Take a Hike.

Aren't these Bell Pepper Coasters cute?

They're sewn together without any curved piecing and assembled in quite an ingenious way.

I'm pleased to report that this is a 100% scraps project! I think it took me longer to choose the fabrics than it did to actually sew up these little sweeties. My little tip is to use premade bias tape for the stems (they're supposed to be felt, but I didn't have any) - it worked quite well!

Are you interested in joining in the sew-along? There are some pretty great prizes. Check out the details here, and join the Flickr group too.