Books: Saturday Night Hat

I do love a good book. And my mom sent me this hard to find goody for my birthday, "Saturday Night Hat" by Eugenia Kim. The designs are pretty basic and technically easy to do, but she uses those to build upon with creativity. Especially good is the Haircut Hat, a standard cloche that she modifies the edge on to make it look like a sassy bob with bangs - so cool! I also loved her whimsical pillbox that looks like a slice of Wonderbread with butter. Nice inspiration and fun, an excellent addition to the hat book collection!

Eugenia Kim

Black and White Quilt

The "Look to the Cookie"* quilt I made for Jill and Jon. As you can see she likes the monochromatic look, but will allow a touch of red. Also made the pillow cases.

Had a great time picking out the black and white fabrics. I tried to pick out things that Jill and Jon would like - the French influenced ones, some hawaiian prints, some cat prints, some Escher-like ones, and one that I thought looked like coffee beans. The black and white quilting fabrics are very in right now, so there are lots to choose from. I found a bunch at Charlton Sewing Center (they had the fabulous Eiffel Tower fabric and the white I used for the background) and at The Quilter's Stash. Got the red backing at Quilt and Cabbage in Sturbridge, MA.

The pattern was designed by Mabeth Oxenreider and was in the August 2006 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting (picture of original quilt).It was an easy one to put together. The only issues I had were cutting the long strips accurately (always a challenge) and then sewing the long strips without shifting - for that I used my walking foot and it helped a lot.

This was quilted by Kathy Sperino. We had much discussion over the design. The most challenging part was the thread color. Because you're working with black and white you have the most stark value contrast possible. So if you choose white, it's not going to show up in the background, and if you choose black it's going to show up really strongly in the background, but get lost in any of the black squares. And the grey tended to get a bit lost in the black too. She ended up doing an all over swirl in white, then did the outside border in grey in a tighter swirl - you can see it in the photo if you go to the bigger view of it. She also made an inner border in the grey swirls two blocks in - so it looks great bordering the top of the bed. I think the quilting came out fabulously!!

Also made her hat (the same one Olive models in some of the other pics on flickr).

*Seinfeld reference to Black & White cookies, or as we call them in Upstate New York "Half Moons".

The quilt in progress with help from Olive and Puddin.

Green Linen Cuteness

Made this hat with with more great fabric from the Franklin Mill Store. Same pattern from McHats as the Pig Hat. I love it!

The Pig Hat

Peter's mother collects pigs. Or rather, people (including myself) won't stop giving them to her. I found this adorable fabric at the Franklin Mill Store and couldn't resist it. I got the pattern from McHats. It came out so cute! And so easy to make! Definitely going to be making more hats.