QuilterGeek
Quilts by Julie Ramsey
Sewing in stereo
Jul 12th
My latest project was to sew a messenger bag big enough to hold my new Street Fighter arcade stick. That’s actually been a fun art project, as I’m conspiring to swap out the original art for a design of my own. I decided I needed somewhere safe to keep my stick (as the current location on top of a cabinet attracts a TON of dust), and I’ll need a carrying vessel anyway if I ever end up taking it to play at the local arcade. Thus, a handmade messenger bag was begun.
I forgot how difficult it is to sew in three dimensions, rather than the flat creations made in quilting. I used to do a lot of apparel sewing, particularly making Renaissance faire costumes, but it’s been years since I had to read a pattern, so it took a while to get back into the swing of things. Once I figured everything out, though, I think it came together fairly nicely.
My only complaint with the pattern is that the pockets were a bit difficult to get on. I messed up the alignment of them a bit, so they look a little sloppy, but at least they’re (mostly) covered up by the flap. The inside is very neat, thanks to a snazzy lining, so overall I’m very happy with it.
Zodiac stack-and-whack
Jul 4th
Finally finished the stack-and-whack quilt! The top doesn’t quite lay flat, and there are a few triangle points that got cut off, but otherwise I’m very happy with how it turned out. I especially love the colors– I’d expected it to be a lot more gaudy, but it turned out very happy and cheerful.
Jul 1st
When I was home to visit my parents in January, my mom and I checked out a massive sale at a fabric store that was closing. I ended up bringing home a full bolt of Alexander Henry’s “Astral Works” fabric, which was VERY busy, but I thought I could do something fun with.
With all the crazy colors, I figured a stack-and-whack would be in order! I finally decided to cut into the fabric last night, and I’m really impressed with the kaleidescope effect that I’m seeing.
The finished quilt will be on a white background with dark pink (or maybe yellow, haven’t decided yet) triangles between the pinwheel blocks. I’m really excited about how this is going to turn out, and even more jazzed by the fact that there’s easily enough fabric to do a second copy of this quilt in the same style. Hooray for fabrics with long repeats!
Disappearing Nine-Patch
Jun 27th
I had a big stack of charm squares from a discontinued line from Connecting Threads sitting in my sewing box, leftover from an abandoned project that just didn’t work with the busy fabric, and today I decided to do something with them. Not knowing what else to do with a bunch of charm squares, I decided to try my hand at a disappearing nine-patch pattern, which worked up very quickly this afternoon.
I’m very pleased with the way it turned out, and it’s bigger than I expected– somewhere in the neighborhood of 40″ x 50″. The color scheme probably excludes it from being a baby quilt, but it makes a nice small lap quilt, and hopefully I’ll be able to find it a home where it’s appreciated.
Mind the Garden
Jun 24th
I was on the lookout for a quick project, and I found this pattern at my local Jo-Ann. Conveniently enough, they’ve started to carry jelly rolls and charm packs, so that made my life easy! Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough charms of the color I liked to make the full lap quilt, so I got creative and made it one row shorter, left off the borders, and called it a baby quilt.
Even though the color planning is a little off and there are a couple of spots where same-print patterns are touching, I’m happy with the way it turned out. It’s definitely a very cheerful quilt, despite having such a mellow color scheme, and I think it’ll look even better once I get it machine-quilted.
Baby Quilt Number Two
Jun 19th
Finished the piecing for the second baby quilt in about two hours. I need to iron the top out from the front, since the borders aren’t laying correctly in the picture, but overall I’m pretty happy with it. I probably should have gone with a darker color for the outer border, maybe have done yellow sashing with a blue border, but I think my friend (and the new baby) will like it a lot.
Rainbow Sherbet
Jun 18th
My husband is going out of town for the weekend, leaving me at home to go on a quilting spree. I need to put the binding on my table runner and do the piecework for a baby quilt, but since I should finish those fairly quickly, I decided to pick up fabric to do another lap quilt once those are finished. This design is from Creative Two Block Quilts by Trice Boerens, and I really look forward to making it.
Table runner
Jun 14th
Rather than starting a new full-size project, I decided to tackle a table runner (the first I’ve ever done in that size). This one is for a family friend whose house is decorated in red, so hopefully it’ll go reasonably well with the decor in her dining room!
Crazy-quilt uke case
Jun 12th
My sister plays the ukelele, and I’m making a quilted case for it. She ordered a bunch of fabric scraps on Etsy, and I’m doing a crazy-quilt style case for it. I originally planned to do just a pattern of different-sized squares, but after mis-cutting a large section, I decided to run with it and add all different shaped pieces.
The next step is to quilt the top, then cut similar-shaped pieces out of a solid fabric for the bottom. I’m not looking forward to inserting the zipper, but I’m sure I’ll figure out how to do it eventually, even if by trial-and-error 
A new-brother gift
Jun 4th
One of my best friends from high school just had her second baby this week, hooray! Since I didn’t get a chance to send off a gift for the birth of her first, I’m making quilts for both kids to get shipped off soon. I decided on a very quick-and-easy pattern that I could work up in a few hours.
The first quilt is for the big brother, who’s about a year and a half old if I recall correctly. I wanted to do something bright and colorful, and this large-scale jungle print fit the bill perfectly! I love the way the bright blue compliments the green leaves and sets off the animal blocks.
I’m going to piece the second quilt tomorrow. The main print is teddy bears on pale green, with light blue sashing and yellow and green borders. It ended up being the same color scheme as the “boy” quilt, but much more subdued. I think it’ll look very cute and I look forward to seeing the finished product!
