Archive | tutorials

Harriot Cargo Duffle.

By carolyn friedlander on February 6, 2019 in fabric, Featured on Home, tutorials, weekend projects | Comments: 4

I cannot take too much credit for this, but the Harriot Cargo Duffle is just adorable!

Rhiannon sewed this up, and she did a beautiful job working all kinds of cool tricks with the scallop print from Harriot.

It’s such a fun detail that really spruces things up. I also like this bag makes use of the mixture of textures and patterns from the collection–grids, stripes, scallops, texture–bring it all on!

Robert Kaufman is planning to feature this project in an upcoming It’s Sew Friday, so stay tuned for that. I may need to follow along so I’ll have one for myself! It was hard having to give this one back.

The pattern is one of my favorite free ones from Anna Graham of Noodlehead. You can find it here on the Robert Kaufman website. I’ve made a couple of Cargo Duffles (here and here), and I think a new one might be in order.

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A Batch Of Thread Catchers.

By carolyn friedlander on January 9, 2019 in Featured on Home, tutorials, weekend projects | Comments: 4

I did manage to crank out a batch of thread catchers for some of my local sewing buds. I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, and our holiday get together gave me the perfect excuse to do it.

Even with a lot going on, I was very glad to steal away a few hours to make a little something for each of them. And, most of the fabrics were leftovers from other recent projects that were sitting in piles needing to get sorted, so it was kind of like tidying the studio a bit too!

I used this tutorial to make a regular and a mini for each person. I’ve updated the tutorial to include both sizes. (Scroll down to the bottom of the tutorial for the adjustments to make the mini.) Personally, I like having both size options, because sometimes you need more and sometimes you need less. They each satisfy two different needs.

I probably could have made myself a couple more while I was at it, because I didn’t seem to have one handy a few times this week when I could have used one. Does anyone else end up with makeshift thread piles or is it just me?

Next time…

These guys are pretty speedy, and I really liked pairing up the different fabric combinations. In the end I let everyone pick their own. It was fun to see who picked what–many lined up as I thought they might and others surprised me a bit.

Lots of thread catchers!

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Bartow Quilt Finally Finished.

By carolyn friedlander on October 19, 2018 in Featured on Home, my patterns, tutorials | Comments: 5

This quilt top has been sitting around in the studio since 2014. But good news, this Bartow quilt is finally finished!

Back in 2014 Robert Kaufman released a new batch of Kona solids, and my Bartow design became a pattern that I created for that release. (Free pattern here, and notes on the first version here.) I’m pretty sure that this version was my first version, or at least it was where I got inspiration for the design.

At a Quilt Market around that time I saw a charm pack featuring a custom palette of Konas by Elizabeth Hartman. Elizabeth does a great job putting together colors, and I really liked this set and how they were arranged.

I wanted to have little slivers of all of the great colors transitioning in the same way that her charm pack was arranged across the quilt. Maybe it looks tricky, but it was pretty simple. I kept her colors in order and sewed them up by following the Bartow pattern. On my other Bartow quilt I kept the borders the same color as the background, but here I opted for colorful ones with a little bit of print mixed in. I think the borders here are mostly Flame Kona.

The top has been finished since 2014 and was sitting on a shelf in the studio. I dug it out and sent it off to Gina Pina to quilt. She quilted it up with a 1″ grid, and I just LOVE it.

As for the binding, I had it in my mind to use a piece from Friedlander Lawn, but as I was sewing it together I realized I had a scrap of Polk binding that would be perfect to mix in as well.

On the back is one of my Friedlander Wide prints. This colorway has been one of my favorites from that collection. It adds just the right pop to the back.