Tag Archives: noodlehead

AG Challenge Finish: Noodlehead Diaper Pouch

January 27, 2017 kittywilkin 11 Comments

Sometimes you just need a quick finish. Something small and beautiful that you made with your own hands, but that takes only hours (instead of days) to create. When Yvonne announced her Quilting Jetgirl Alison Glass Challenge as an incentive for the rest of us to get one of our Alison Glass fabric makes into the finished pile, I had a few different ideas of which of my many Alison Glass-influenced projects I should finish first. At first I thought I’d focus on the table runner I started late last year using the Insignia and Seventy-Six fabric lines, but then thought it might be the perfect boost to finally finish Max’s Eye Spy quilt that has a dominance of bright Alison Glass prints from across the years. Then I gave myself a reality check and decided to select something small. I have two big deadline projects to finish within the next month, so to be real I decided to pull a diaper pouch project off of my WIPs shelves and finish it up. I’m so glad I did!!

I made this Diaper Pouch using a free tutorial by Anna Graham of Noodlehead, found here. It took me about two (2) hours to make, start to finish, which is pretty awesome as far as projects go.

I used my all time favorite Alison Glass Print, the Art Theory Panel from her Ex Libris line as the outer panel, and lined it with Artifact in Charcoal from her Abacus line (Andover Fabrics). I was lucky enough to buy all of these fabrics, AND the cotton webbing strap from my local quilt shop Fiddlehead Artisan Supply.

I used my go-to 50wt Aurifil thread 2600-Dove for all the piecing and 50wt 2692-Black for sewing on the velcro so that the stitches would not stand out. I love that Fiddlehead also carries a good selection of Aurifil threads! One stop shopping for the win!

Of course I had to plan it so that the rainbow star from Artifact was visible right on the top. I should have given myself a tiny bit more space in that seam, but I’m not losing sleep over it. It’s gorgeous anyway!

Now instead of having a purse filled with diapers and wipes floating every which way, I can have a beautiful and function space to store them compactly, not only making the inside of my purse a bit more organized, but also making it easy for me to visually check that I have a diaper for my little one before I head out!

Since pens are another item I’m often digging for in the chaos within my gorgeous bag, I decided to store two of my favorite micron pens tucked in the corner of the diaper pouch, so that they are easily found when I think of something to add to my Quilter’s Planner Mini–my traveling to-do list, grocery list, and inspiration keeper. Pst… you can now order the Quilter’s Planner Minis individually, here. Just a PSA for the day!

This pouch also perfectly coordinates with the amazing Alison Glass fabric bag my husband bought me for my birthday last year, made by the ever talented Kristy at Rock Baby Scissors. There’s no such thing as too much Alison Glass fabric, right?! No way!! What next?…. I’m thinking a few zip pouches to help organize the other contents of my purse. What’s your favorite simple zip pouch pattern? (Noodlehead’s Open-Wide Zippered Pouch is a fab one, but should I know about others?)

I’m linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday, and of course Yvonne’s Alison Glass Challenge. Yippee for gorgeous and functional finishes!

Life, Quilting, Sewing

The Final Countdown: QuiltCon 2015

February 14, 2015 kittywilkin 9 Comments

The days have been ticking by with a fury, and in only 4 short days, I’ll be on a plane (four planes to be exact) to Austin for QuiltCon. My family–husband especially–has been super understanding and helpful in terms of giving me a bit extra sewing time so that I can feel prepared. After a long late-night sewing stint last night and a great mail day today, I’m feeling much more prepared. Here’s a quick post outlining what I’ve finished:

Super Tote

I amazingly finished sewing this Super Tote (pattern by Anna at Noodle-head) so that I will have an awesome handmade bag large enough to carry all my supplies around QuiltCon. Only the second bag I’ve ever made, there are a number of things I messed up or would do differently next time, but I am happy with it! I used Anna Maria Horner’s line Field Study for both the front pocket and lining, and used Robert Kaufman 21-wale corduroy for the body.

Night Quilter Belt for the AlterEgo Moda Dance Party

night quilter alter ego belt in progress — Night Quilter Alter Ego belt in progress.

quiltcon night quilter alter ego belt in the snow — Don’t mind the snow. Of course it’s snowing again. We are getting another 24″ tonight into tomorrow!

quiltcon night quilter alter ego beltquiltcon night quilter alter ego belt — Can you tell what my favorite colors are these days?

Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl proposed a fun idea a month or so ago, where we dress up as our QuiltCon Alter Egos for the Moda Dance Party Thursday night. The idea was to dress like your blog name, since everyone will recognize blogosphere monikers far more easily than actual names or faces. I decided to make a belt reflecting my new Night Quilter logo (see business cards and pins below), and I will be wearing a navy blue shirt with silver star stickers all over it. Night Quilter? I hope it works!

Business Cards and Pins

My business cards from Moo and pin-back buttons from Button Arcade finally arrived today! Now I’m feeling like I’m REALLY ready to head to QuiltCon!! There is an official-unofficial pin swap going on at QuiltCon, so I’m looking forward to swapping! I love that Kyle at Button Arcade was able to put my blog url on the back/side of the pins. What an awesome feature!

Here’s my updated QuiltCon to-do list:

~~Order pin-back buttons~~
~~Download QuiltCon app~~
Prep for classes
–~~Buy fabric for Alternate Grid~~
-Make blocks (5 finished)
-Cut scraps for Playing with Value
~~Make Super Tote~~
~~Make quilted belt for QuiltCon AlterEgo~~
~~Order business cards~~
Make Noodle-head pouch for holding buttons
~~Buy a new moleskin notebook & micron pens~~
~~Make a lanyard?~~ (both Sarah at Smiles Too Loudly and Daisy at Ants to Sugar offered to make me a lanyard! I’m SO grateful for awesome quilter blogger friends! Woohoo!)
Make a list of people to meet (It’s ongoing!)

Up I go to cut scraps for Playing with Value, then perhaps I’ll make a couple more blocks tomorrow for the Off the Grid workshop. Tonight is date night with my hubby for Valentine’s Day, so all sewing comes to a halt when he arrives home from dropping the kids with his cousin!

Life, Quilting, Stash Building

T Minus 16 Days Until QuiltCon!

February 2, 2015 kittywilkin 9 Comments

In my early planning phases for QuiltCon, I didn’t realize how much preparation would go into the trip. Now that February is actually here, reality is hitting. I initially mentally blocked off February as “QuiltCon Prep” thinking it would mostly involve creating and ordering business cards, making a cool bag, and psyching myself up for my first public quilt-world appearance.

I’m registered for two awesome workshops at QuiltCon–Playing with Value with Cheryl Arkison and Off the Grid: Creating Alternate Layouts with Lee Heinrich–not to mention lectures by Carolyn Friedlander, Heather Jones, and Meg Cox, which means that my first quilt conference experience is sure to be amazing, but also that I have a lot of work to do before I head to Austin! So far, I’ve narrowed my QuiltCon to-do list down to:

~~Order pin-back buttons~~
~~Download QuiltCon app~~
Prep for classes
–~~Buy fabric for Alternate Grid~~
-Make blocks
-Cut scraps for Playing with Value
Make Super Tote
Make quilted belt for QuiltCon AlterEgo
Order business cards
Make Noodle-head pouch for holding buttons
Buy a new moleskin notebook & micron pens
Make a lanyard?
Make a list of people to meet (let me know if you’re going and want to me added to my “stalk until I meet them” list!)

As you can see, I’ve crossed a couple things off my list but still have quite a bit to do. For Lee’s Off the Grid workshop, we need to take 5-20 premade quilt blocks in addition to other bits of fabric for sashing and background. I’m wicked excited (pardon my Northeast terminology there), and really want to create something fabulous. I also don’t really have any stray blocks hanging around (a side effect of being a newbie quilter?) which meant one thing: new project!

To put my mind a bit at ease, I snuck in a stop at my local quilt shop (LQS) Fiddlehead Artisan Supply before today’s big snowstorm got going and picked up some half-yards in my color palette of choice.

I’m planning to work out of my white and grey background comfort zone and go with a navy blue background and negative space with these gorgeous pops of color. I probably will add more turquoise and perhaps a bit of light grey as some low volume additions, but I’m going to shop my stash as much as possible for those. I have not yet decided on a block design, although I’m leaning toward making five or more different blocks with this similar color scheme. If you have a favorite block you would suggest, I’m definitely still open to ideas!

fabric and noodlehead super tote pattern — from L to R: Alison Glass Sun Print Bike Path in Magenta, Joel Dewberry Bungalow Swallow Study in Lavender, American Jane Pindots in Leaf Green, Alison Glass Sun Print Bike Path in Leaf Green, Cotton and Steel Basics, XOXO in Dandelion, Super Tote pattern by Noodle-head; bottom: FQ of unknown teal thready fabric

I also want to make a Super Tote for carrying all of my ~~crap~~ precious supplies around QuiltCon, so I picked up the pattern while at Fiddlehead. Now that I have the pattern, I can begin to wrap my head around what will be involved in making it. I have not yet decided on what fabric I will use for the bag, but I’m going to try to shop my stash as much as possible for that, too. I want to have a little budget left for shopping at QuiltCon.

What am I missing? Are you going to QuiltCon? Any tips for a first-timer?

Paper piecing, Patterns, Quilting, Sewing

Finishes New and Old

January 23, 2015 kittywilkin 11 Comments

Remember back before Christmas, when I only showed you tiny peeks at most of my projects since they were to be given as gifts? Well now that the holidays are long over, now that I’m back and getting into the groove of home life, now that I finally have a free minute to blog about them, now I can show you the full gifts!

I also have finalized and posted another Valentine’s Day themed foundation paper piecing pattern, which goes live in my Craftsy (for US buyers) and Payhip (for international buyers) today! It’s a day full of finishes, both new and old. A picture is worth a thousand words, so without further ado…

Open Wide Zippered Pouch by Noodlehead

I made this pouch for my sister, since her favorite colors are teal and lime green. The zipper installation was my FIRST ever zipper, and I think it came out quite well. I used linen blend fabric leftover from my Go Anywhere Bag, and I think my sister loved it! Anna from Noodlehead has the best tutorials, and this one was a perfect first-zipped pouch tutorial.

One thing I learned while making this pouch, though, is that when the directions say to “align… the side/bottom seams” while boxing the corners, you really need to line them up perfectly. The bottom and side seams for mine (as you can see in the photo above) did not line up perfectly, since I flew past that little bit of instruction, but now I know for next time! I’m hoping that the chocolates inside the pouch distracted my OCD sister from this slight misalignment! (Love you, Lucy!)

Reversible Tea Cozy

When talking to my mom about quilting about a year ago, she made it clear that she thought making a quilt was too much work and too time consuming, and therefore she did not want me to make her a quilt. She instead requested “a tea cozy for every season”, since it’s a quick project that can be completed in a couple hours. She also drinks tea from her tea pot every afternoon, so it will be well used and loved. It has taken me a while to get this first one made, but I don’t think the next one will be far behind. I used the fabulous tutorial by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. I definitely will be using her tutorial again, since the tea cozy fit my mom’s large teapot quite well. Here are the two Christmas-themed sides of the tea cozy I made for my mom.

A New Paper Piecing Pattern!

And finally, a recent finish: a new paper piecing pattern called Love Struck. Special thanks to Julie from That’s Sew Julie for her awesome pattern testing! This pattern includes printable foundation paper piecing templates including two “printer pages” to help save paper when printing multiples, clear assembly instructions, a coloring sheet on which you can try out color schemes before beginning, and sewing tips along the way. You can find in on Craftsy here (for those in the US) or on Payhip here (if you’re international). Both this and my Key to My Heart pattern are on sale for $2 until Valentine’s day!

We’re getting lots of snow this weekend up here in Maine, so I know what I’m doing all weekend–sewing (and playing with my kids in the snow). If you’re looking for a good weekend project, turn this block into a festive table runner or pillow. Here’s the pillow Julie made from four blocks. AND she says she “whipped up this whole thing in a week while taking care of five kids, one sick, and getting a double crochet hat order together.” Holy smokes, Julie! You’re amazing!!

Get the pattern here:

Craftsy (if you’re in the US)
Payhip (if you’re international)
…or go to Julie’s blog and comment to enter for a chance to win a free copy of the pattern!

If you do decide to make this pattern, share the love and tag me @nightquilter on IG or twitter, and use #lovestruckpattern. I’d love to see!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and TGIFF. Happy weekend sewing!

Patterns, Sewing

Ready to Go Anywhere: My First Bag!

December 5, 2014 kittywilkin 12 Comments

I did it! I made a bag! It’s definitely not perfect, but for my first bag, I am SO happy with it. I followed Anna from Noodlehead‘s pattern for the Go Anywhere Bag, and it was quite easy to follow, even for an absolute beginner like me.

Going into making this bag, I was extremely, unnaturally scared of the whole process. I was seriously terrified! A huge thank you goes out to Sarah Fredett from Smiles too Loudly, for being there as real-time support on Instagram when I first got started on the pattern. Sarah walked me through the tangled mystery of interfacing, and helped me gain that first bit of confidence to forge ahead. Thank you SO much, Sarah!

Anna’s pattern was very clear and specific, going as far as to suggest little triangles at the tops of each pocket to reinforce the opening (genius!?). The images in the pattern were a great help for me, a visual learner. The steps were clear and well sequenced, and I feel like I was able to follow along without too much reading ahead or back-tracking to make sense of it all. It is my first bag ever, but most definitely not my last! (I’ve already bought a bit of the coveted Anna Maria Horner Field Study Feathers-Parenthetical Linen in the Deep colorway for my next bag. Shhh!).

While this bag did not include the installation of a zipper, I’m proud to say that not only did I create pleats for the first time, but I also installed two magnetic snaps and sewed inner pockets (not to mention taming the dreaded interfacing). Go me!

go anywhere bag top view — Top view of the Go Anywhere Bag. Pleated pockets!

I think of myself as a very practical person, so choosing a white-based fabric for the outside was initially a hesitation. Before making the bag, I figured since I loved the fabric so much, I would go ahead and use it for the front and back pockets (aka the feature fabric), but would only use the bag for special occasions. Now that the bag is complete, I can’t help but use it as my everyday purse. Sure, it probably will get dirty, but it’s pretty fabulous in the meantime!

Like I said, since it’s my first bag, it’s far from perfect. I had quite a bit of difficulty maneuvering the whole thing in a smooth manner through my domestic machine, so there are wiggle waggles in the stitching here and there. All you expert bag-makers extraordinaire (Hillary, you’re on the top of this list!)–how do you smoothly finagle thick layers of bag under your machine?! I am clearly in need of some tips!

imperfections in sewing bag — Wiggle waggle stitching.

I also made the executive decision to create two impromptu pleats in the back pocket to ensure that the front and back pocket tops lined up with each other. The alternative would have been a smooth back pocket, but completely unaligned pockets on one edge (shudder).

All in all, making this bag was a really fun activity. I’m proud of myself for biting the bullet and trying something new, and I’m excited to try making more bags! Next up will be a zip pouch–small, but with a (dun dun DUN) zipper!

I didn’t get very many great photos of my bag, since I had my usual helper with me. He’s pretty cute, though, huh? It’s worth the bit of blur, and he certainly seemed ready to go anywhere with my new bag! (I’m leaving out the photos of him actually taking off running with my bag, since I realized post-photo that our messy house litters the background!)

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday. Bag #1: done and done!

Crafting, Patterns

Getting Brave with a Bag

November 19, 2014 kittywilkin 6 Comments

I’m going to do it. It’s official, now. I’m going to attempt to a) follow my first non-quilt pattern and b) make my first bag! I bought all of the fabric, interfacing, and notions needed so now there is no turning back.

I recently stopped in my local (really local this time at 20 minutes away) fabric shop Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast, with a bag in mind and was taken by their colorful linen blend selections. Initially, I had in my mind that the feature fabric for my first bag would be linen blend, but I decided on a cotton print (the butterflies-“Flutter” by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics) for the large front feature pocket for the bag. The main body of the bag will be the teal linen blend, then handles and inner pocket will be the lime green linen blend, and the inner lining will be the dark blue fireflies (from Water Garden by Jane Dixon for Andover Fabrics).

I bought the necessary interfacing, pattern paper, and a magnetic snap closure, so I think I have everything I will need. I opted for the Go Anywhere Bag by Noodlehead, for many reasons:

I’ve seen so many awesome bags made with Noodlehead‘s patterns,
Noodlehead was also recommended by the woman at Fiddlehead,
Fiddlehead had the patterns for sale, so it was one-stop-shopping,
The bag is BIG! which means it should fit all of my ~~crap~~ valuable items,
There are no zippers, so I don’t have to face that challenge yet, and
I feel like the pattern really highlights the fabric choices.

I can’t wait to begin!

I am hoping (planning?) to have a chunk of time tomorrow to sew, and that’s when I plan to tackle this bag. Sure, I have other projects that could use some progress made, but I’m ready to sit down, bite the bullet, and MAKE a BAG! I’ve read through the instructions a couple of times and have been thinking about this project a LOT, so I’m counting it as a work in progress and linking up with Freshly Pieced’s WiP Wednesday.