crazy mom quilts

finish it up Friday, week 12

2012-01-27T07:53:00.000-06:00

Welcome to week 12 of finish it up Friday!

I started this quilt for a friend shortly before Christmas and finished it on the 31st of December, so it's been done for awhile. Last night I gave it to a sweet friend as a belated birthday gift (she LOVED it!), so I can finally blog about it!

I started with a simple patchwork center, made mainly from 30's prints (Hope Chest fabrics from Connecting Threads and other stash) and then added a wide white border, which I scalloped. It was my first time ever scalloping edges and I love the look! The process wasn't too bad, either. I started by watching this tutorial. I didn't want to order their special gadget for scalloping, so I used a plate and a water soluable marker and pins. A little marking and remarking the curves before cutting, and I was good to go. The results ended up pretty dandy! The edges are bound with bias binding. It's roughly a twin size, but I made it so it could also double as a table topper for her dining room table. Or it can be used as a lap quilt, too. Gotta love having so many options!

Now it's your turn! Please link up and share your finishes for the week. Remember to link up to a specific post and comment on other links so we can cheer each other on as we celebrate our finishes.
Happy Friday to you!

playing

2012-01-23T13:58:00.000-06:00

I've had my cool colored solid scraps set aside for quite awhile now and I've been wanting to play with them in the worst way, but it seems like there is always something more pressing that needs to be done. I recently signed up for the Fab Little Quilt Swap and I'm using that as an excuse to finally dive in. Yay!! I'm trying my hand at improv piecing again and I'm feeling very rusty. It's been awhile! Swaps make me a little (ok, a lot) nervous and I feel like the pressure is on. But on the other hand, it will be a good challenge. The biggest challenge will probably be stopping at a mini quilt size. :) I'm not completely sure where this is headed, but it sure is fun to play!

I also wanted to say thanks so much for all your sweet comments about Hailey's pillow...I appreciate them very, very much!

Happy Monday to you!

hailey's pillow

2012-01-21T18:44:00.002-06:00

My daughter and I attended our friend Hailey's 5th birthday party this afternoon. I'm always stumped at what to buy/make/give for birthday presents. Once this idea popped in my head I just ran with it. One scrappy patchwork pillow, complete with personalization! It measures about 18" finished and it has an envelope backing, so it washable. I was so thrilled when Hailey opened it up because she immediately hugged it. I think I have a new go-to gift for the next year of birthdays....hip, hip hurray!!! Now my daughter wants one. Come to think of it, I just might want one, too.

edited to add: the squares for the pillow were cut at 3.5" and finish at 3". For the name I first drew guidelines with a water soluable pen and then I free motion quilted it with 50 weight thread on white fabric. I traced over the letters twice to make them a bit more bold.

finish it up Friday, week 11

2012-01-20T09:34:00.001-06:00

Welcome to finish it up Friday! I hope you had a more productive week than I did!

I feel like I was so busy this week but all I have to show for it is this little mini quilt. Don't you hate that? I guess I have to consider that I was sick and so very tired this week. This mini quilt was languishing as a WIP in the craft room for a good long time. That's a sure sign that I have too many irons in the fire! So, having it bound and done IS a good thing...even if it is little. :)

How about you? Do you have a finish from the last week to share? If you do, please link to a specific post and share your finish! Then visit a few other links and help cheer others on in their finishes as well.

Happy Friday to you!

let 'em mingle

2012-01-19T10:17:00.001-06:00

sherbet pips fat quarters on the left, ruby fat quarters on the right

I came to the decision that I needed to split up these lovelies, even though it just seems so...wrong...you know?

Normally, I sort my stash by color, but when I get a FQ bundle, I have a hard time letting them mingle in the stash. It's silly, really, because mixing colors and fabric is one of my very favorite parts of quilting. It's NICE to have the pretty stacks of fabric all color coordinated. But then I have to think of the PERFECT quilt idea that matches that fabric bundle. And then I have to actually find the TIME to sew it up. In the end, the fabric sits for quite awhile. Too long, usually! So, I thought it's best to let them mingle with others. This was a HUGE stretch for me, as I can hardly make myself unbundle them in the first place, (I'll confess, the plastic was still on the bundle on the right) let alone mix them up. But I have a feeling that the this way the fabric will actually get used. What a concept!

Next on the list, a few of my (not so favorite) layer cakes divided up into the scrap baskets.

After all, it's all just fabric, right?

easing back into things

2012-01-17T11:57:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I spent all day in bed, as sick as can be. I can't remember the last time that happened. I often say that I want a day off, but I would have much rather have worked! :) I'm so thankful for my husband, who not only worked from home but also kept the kids quiet/calm and fed all day long AND did all the laundry. He's such a great guy! My kids did great, too. I'm so thankful for my wonderful family!!!

Today I'm so glad to be back in the land of the living. I'm still recovering, so I'm trying ease into things. (not easy for me!) Thankfully, I have my hand pieced stars to keep me busy.

I'm up to 50 stars in the main piece! I have several other stars that are in various states of completion.

If I make it a lap size I'm almost half done with the top! I am loving the process AND the results.

edited to add: the specifics of this quilt (including a link to the tutorial) can be found here.

About the last finish it up Friday post...sorry about the links getting cut off. I'm not sure what's up with that...I was able to access the last row of links (just barely) on my ipod, but not on my computer. Anyone know how to fix it? I'm afraid if I mess with the format, I'll loose all the links. I'll be sure to try to fix it on next week's post!

edited to add: if you place your cursor right after any of the numbers in the last column, then hit the TAB key, the links will show. thanks so much, Elaine!

finish it up Friday, week 10

2012-01-13T08:06:00.002-06:00

Welcome to week 10 of finish it up Friday!

Today I only have 2 little things to share....I made myself a GIANT pin cushion yesterday. I put the rotary cutter in the photo for scale. It's 7" square! It's made from scraps I had laying around and it's simply filled with stuffing. Adding the buttons (top and bottom) was the trickiest part. I just LOVE it!

And this little baby....oh, it was a LONG time coming! I have had this idea for what feels like forever. I keep my spare bobbins in this little tin can. (The can was probably originally from diced green chilis, so it's tiny-only 2" tall!) My plan was to cover it with a fabric sleeve of some sort. Yesterday I finally jumped in and made it up as I went along. I free motion quilted the word on linen (backed with batting, for stability)...it took me about 12 tries to get it to look good! I cut away the excess batting, trimmed the linen down to size. Then I pieced scraps to put around the linen and around the perimeter of the can. This is one of the sides....

Here's a detail shot of the back....isn't it darling??

It's constructed very similar to a coffee cozy. It turned out so SO MUCH cuter than I had imagined it would be. I absolutely LOVE it! Getting this project off my mental list feels soooooooooooo good!!!

Now it's your turn! Please link up your Friday finish here and so we can cheer each other on in our finishes! Thanks so much for those of you who link up and join in. And to those of you who don't, hey, thanks for reading! :) Happy Friday!

prioritizing

2012-01-11T15:37:00.000-06:00

mini quilt inspired by the cover of my book
yet another work in progress

I've been thinking about prioritizing a lot lately. It goes hand in hand with my resolution of being intentional this year. I have more quilt ideas and plans than I can shake a stick at. (And more fabric, too!) Too much inspiration is not necessarily a bad problem to have, but it can be painful at times. It's been feeling painful lately. I'm trying to figure out how to prioritize and to be honest with you, I'm not having much luck. I jot my ideas/sketches down on a scrap piece of paper as I think of them on whatever scrap of paper I can get my hands on. (I've tried to have just ONE notebook and for some reason that doesn't work for me...) The ideas continue to rattle around in this crazy head of mine. Eventually one idea screams louder and longer than the rest...and then eventually I jump in. That's how I prioritize. I think I may need a new method. (Or, I hate to say it, fewer ideas!) So, my question to you is how do YOU prioritize?

Just for the sake of keeping it real, here's a shot of my craft room today. I think CLEANING should be on the top of my list. There isn't even a path to walk through. I think I know how I'm spending the rest of my afternoon....

whirlygiggle

2012-01-09T19:07:00.001-06:00

So, I started a new project on Saturday. I was trying really hard to get down to 9 WIPs before embarking on something new, but I broke down and gave in. I'm very excited to be using fabric that is NEW while it is still new. What a concept! (I still have a FQ set of Sherbet Pips that I haven't touched yet. And Ruby, too. I just can't keep up!) This fabric line is A Walk in the Woods by the charming Aneela Hoey. The fabric is so sweet and soft. I just love it. For the pattern I started with my whirlygiggle block tutorial that I tweaked just a bit, so no trimming this time around. Bonus! I'm forcing myself to not rely on white as a background (as much as possible) so I made the blocks interlock instead. I like the results very, very much! It's gonna be one sweet little baby quilt.

Please excuse my daughter...she couldn't pass up the opportunity to pose in a silly manner for the camera. :)

Happy Monday to you!

finish it up Friday, week 9

2012-01-06T08:06:00.000-06:00

Welcome to week 9 of finish it up Friday! Today I'm happy to show you a very funky finish.

Out with the old....

this was my very old (12+ years) entryway rug that we've had since our very first house. It's done it's job, but the backing is disintegrating, the edges are raveling...it was past time for something else.

In with the new....

Isn't it fabulously funky? I made it from old knit shirts and upholstery squares. You can read about how I made the squares here.

It wasn't exactly easy zig zagging the squares together, but it came together after a bit of wrestling.

I'm so happy be done and finally using the new rug! I just love it!!! It came together better than I could have hoped. The frugal girl in me is DELIGHTED to have made something so useful out of repurposed materials. When I started out, I thought "at least it will make a good conversation starter". :) In the end, I'm so glad it worked out...and so well!

How about you? Do you have a finish to share? If so, please link up to a specific post from the past week. Then go ahead and visit a few other links and leave a comment when you visit so we cheer each other on in our finishing!

Have a fabulous Friday!

a new foot

2012-01-04T17:51:00.002-06:00

Well, it's official.
I quilt a LOT.
I wore out my first walking foot.

My walking foot was clunking a bit and it was louder than it had been in the past...so I sent it in to the dealer to check out. I had a feeling it was broken and I didn't know if they could fix it or not. They are expensive little buggers, so I thought I would see if it was repairable before spending the money on a new one. Well, it turns out it was broken. A piece of spring metal broke inside the foot and the part wasn't replaceable. I ended up buying a new one. I asked the sewing machine dealer if that happens a lot, is that a common problem? He said it happens sometimes. When I got off the phone with the dealer my husband laughed at my question. He asked if I quilt a normal amount? Well, there IS that to consider.....

The first walking foot lasted me over 5 years...so I guess I can't complain. Boy, is it nice to be using a working one again!

happy new year!

2012-01-03T19:45:00.001-06:00

I hope you all had a marvelous new year celebration! We spent some time with my husband's family and it was quite pleasant. Today was the first day of everyone back to their normal schedules. I am happy to be getting back to my regular routine...I think I spent most of the day trying to catch my breath!

Meanwhile, I've been doing my usual new years reflecting over the past several days and here's what I came up with.

Looking back...

My one goal for 2011 was to "make the quilts that I wanted to make and make them the way I wanted to make them". There really isn't a way of measuring that. I think I could have done better, but I certainly could have done much worse!

Overall, it was a big year for me. I finished a total of 31 quilts. I also finished co-writing my book! (My family isn't any worse for the wear, which was my biggest fear going into it, so a big YAY for that!!) I finally opened a little on line shop. I also hit my 5 year blogging anniversary back in November. Lots of big and exciting things! I suppose this all explains why I'm always so tired. :)

I ended the year with about 12 quilt WIP's...down from 25. Some of the remaining WIP's are long term projects, so I'm pretty happy with that number!

Looking ahead....

This is going to sound completely crazy, but I hope to quilt a little bit less this year. Maybe I should say, I would like to be more intentional about how I quilt. I think I need to quilt the right things (more for others, to start with) and less "just because" quilting. I'm not sure I can actually DO this, but it's a nice thought.

Also, I would LOVE to try to make a dent in my stash. I realize this is in direct opposition of the first goal of quilting less. (ha! Such is my life!) So maybe I should say I hope to buy very little fabric this year. I told my husband that the only things I should have to purchase this year are thread, batting and maybe some white fabric. He kind of laughed at me...probably because he knows the chances of that happening are very slim. Or maybe he laughed because he thought I shouldn't even need to buy that much!

I'd love to get my scraps under control again. Always a challenge, but one I'm delighted to work on. :)

This isn't quilt related, but I want to decorate my house and make it "ours". We've lived here for over 4 years and we still haven't done much to it. I would like to start focusing on house stuff a bit more. It will be fun to see things take shape and improve. It'll also likely involve covering most of my world in patchwork, so bring it on, I say!

Beyond that, I want to be more intentional about how I live my life in pretty much every area. It won't be easy, but it will be a very good thing! Here's to a wonderful new year!

winners

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-06:00

The winners of the Pat Bravo fabric giveaway are MG and Lee from Arizona (comment #48). Please send me your addresses so I can hook you up with your fabric. Thanks to everyone who played along!

giveaway

2011-12-30T12:57:00.002-06:00

Today I'm pleased to be hosting a little fabric giveaway, courtesy of Pat Bravo.

Up for grabs are two different bundles...(10 fat quarters each) in some of my favorite colors ever!

Aren't they so pretty? I know from experience that Art Gallery fabrics are super soft and great to work with!

If you would like to be in the drawing, please leave me a comment. One per person please. In your comment, I'd love to hear if you have any New Year's eve plans. Or else you can tell me something you are looking forward to next year. I'll plan to pick two winners on Monday.

I'd like to take the time to say a big THANK YOU to each and every one of you for reading my little blog, leaving such wonderful comments and for all your encouragement this past year. I appreciate it very, very much! xoxo

Hope you have a wonderful and safe New Year's!

little A's abstract

2011-12-28T17:21:00.005-06:00

Well, there are only a few days left of 2011, which means I'm doing a final push to get as many projects done as possible before the new year arrives. Anyone else doing the same?

Yesterday I was happy to find the time to finish up this little quilt. It was a joint effort between myself and my 5 year old daughter. We started this last spring and we worked on it VERY intermittently since then.

She designed on my design wall using my strings and I sewed up the blocks. (She is soooooooo silly almost all the time!)

Here is the block that started it all. I just loved it, so we kept going.

This is the second block she designed. It looks a little rough, but...

here it is all sewn up. Pretty fun! Then we just kept adding to it until it was big enough for her to use. (And to grow into a bit.)

We had a lot of fun working on this together. I tried my hardest to let go and run with her ideas. (Not always easy for me!) But overall, it was a good experience and I'm so glad I took the time to do this project with her.

She picked this backing from my stash. It is decor weight fabric that I got for super cheap at Mill End a few years ago. It's extra wide, so no piecing. (Hurray!) It gives the quilt a nice weight.

I did a simple stipple over the entire quilt in white thread. She wanted swirls, but I had to go with something easy because of all the strings and seams.

We pieced the binding from my scrap bin. She picked these colors....

and I suggested the orange to finish it off. I'm glad she agreed! :) I love a pieced binding, and I think it works especially well on a scrappy quilt.

She LOVES her new quilt!

I sure do, too!

It measures 43" x 54".

apple cake quilt

2011-12-26T15:23:00.002-06:00

Merry day after Christmas! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. We enjoyed some quiet time home (just the five of us) and we also spent some time with friends. It was lovely and fairly relaxing, which is quite a feat with 3 young children! ;)

Today I am so happy to share my apple cake quilt with you! I started it in the spring of 2010. When I started this quilt, I wanted to stretch my quilting skills and I also wanted a portable project to work on while I hung out with the kids over the summer. This is my first foray into hand applique (you can read my thoughts about it here) and I'm glad to have the experience under my belt. I enjoyed applique very much!

The other way I challenged myself was to NOT rely on solid white for the background squares. Once I got out of my box, I LOVED using print on print and working with light and dark values. It gives so much depth to this quilt! I have plans to do that more often. It's a very good way to reduce the stash.

The backing is asymmetrical, which wasn't my first choice, but in the end I kind of ended up liking it.

I hand quilted the whole thing, which was also a stretch for me. I think I only hand quilted one other quilt ever. I'm still not very good at it, but I love the results.

I love how delicate the hand quilting looks on the white portion of the back. The white also hides uneven stitches very well. :)

I used bliss dots to bind it. I hand stitched down the binding on this one. It was odd to do that after machine binding so many quilts. I was surprised that I didn't really miss the process all that much. It's funny, because hand stitching the binding used to be one of my favorite parts of quilting. Maybe I got my fill of gazing at the quilt during the hand quilting process instead?!

I think I took about 60+ photos of it. I am so, so thrilled with this quilt. I've been snuggling under it every chance I get.

It measures 56" x 70".

Happy Monday to you!

photo field trip

2011-12-21T17:09:00.000-06:00

I ran into my friend Val today at the library and I ended up dragging her (don't worry, she came willingly) on a little quilt photo field trip this afternoon. We had so much fun! I wanted to get some good shots of a few quilts. The quilt I'm sharing today is Lazy Summer Days, made back in 2009. I'm trying to work up the pattern for my shop and I never had a decent photo of it. Makes total sense to photograph it in December, right? Ha!

We went on some back road on the edge of town and found this cute little white building. We took a few there....

right next were these awesome grain bins. I'm not sure why I didn't have a quilt photo taken in front of these.

Then we went down the road a bit and found a red barn. LOVE the horses in the background of this shot. :)

While we were about to get set up for the previous photo, a guy pulled up in his truck and asked if we were having car trouble. We explained that we were taking photos and we loved the red barn. He told us that his neighbor had a good red barn just up the road. (Don't you just love that???) He told us to go over and check it out.

Oh, my goodness! It was just absolutely perfect! Their whole yard was super cute. This tree had a little branch that was just waiting to hold a quilt. I may have to go and visit them again. :)

I also took my apple cake quilt out and got some fabulous photos of that as well, but I need to get some detail shots before I post that one. They turned out so fun, I can hardly wait to share them with you!

strings of hope

2011-12-19T15:31:00.000-06:00

This quilt was made with the help of a few of my friends.
We started it a few months ago and I finished it up last week.
It will soon be headed to Margaret's Hope Chest.
I hope & pray that it brings someone comfort and HOPE!

It was made from strings from my bottomless scrap basket. :)
It measures 48" x 60".
I've decided that I've never met a scrap quilt I didn't like.
Shocking, isn't it?

Happy Monday to you!

random Saturday stuff

2011-12-17T13:39:00.002-06:00

Thank you for all your well wishes and great response to my shop opening! I am so thankful for your encouragement, your kind words and your orders. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! All went well, I'm happy to say! Phew!

***Maritza Bush, if you are reading, please email me!! I tried to send your order, but the email was undeliverable. Please contact me ASAP, as I have no way of contacting you. Thanks!

Last week I read this post, and I totally fell in love with the wrapping paper. Thanks to Anna I now have a few rolls of my own to ~~hoard~~ use. It took some determination, but I held back from buying the whole box at Target last night. I'm dubbing this my "Camille wrapping paper", because I can't see red and white polka dots without thinking of her, for some reason. :)

Also, after some gentle urging from several people, I have started a crazymomquilts flickr group. It's a place to share your photos of things you've made from my tutorials, patterns, quilt alongs or classes I've taught. I can't wait to see what you share there!

And the last thing for today...after all the finishing I've been doing, I started something new today. A 30's quilt. SO not appropriate for this time of year, but I woke up with an idea and I just jumped in before I could talk myself out if it. It's pretty fun to have a new project to work on! Plus, it's a great distraction from the messy kitchen I should be taking care of...

Hope you are having a happy Saturday!

finish it up Friday, week 8

2011-12-16T03:01:00.004-06:00

Welcome to finish it up Friday! I hope that those of you who are working on ambitious Christmas sewing lists are making great strides this week. :)

It's been a BUSY week here. Oh. My. Goodness. I finished a few quilts (yay!), but it's been raining/snowing, dreary and windy, so I haven't taken any photos of the finished goods. All in good time....

But, I do have a VERY exciting finish to share with you today. I am happy/nervous(oh-so-nervous)/excited and scared to death to announce that I've opened up a little shop to sell a few pdf patterns. Well, at this point, it's pattern, singular. (I have big plans to add more as I have a chance.) I can not believe how much work it takes to get the ball rolling. (Accountants, sales tax, pay pal issues, oh my!) No wonder I've been putting it off for so long. But, I've finally taken the plunge and thanks to my finish it up Friday challenge, I'm forgoing sleep in order to go live today. Gotta love a deadline!

My first pattern is for a 20" quilted diamond pillow cover with an envelope closure. You may remember these from last Christmas.

I have a few that live on my bed (that my husband loves to bat/launch/fling off the bed right before crawling in each night).

And here are a few new ones I sewed up using a Divine charm pack by Windham Fabrics. I love that fabric! The pillows were prizes at the Colorado quilt retreat last month. So now one lives in Colorado and the other one lives in Virginia. That makes me smile.

I've made many versions of this pillow and I love them every time! They are fun and easy to finish in a fairly short time. You might even have time to eek out a few for Christmas gifts? Not to add to your list or anything.....

Since everything is brand spankin' new in my shop (I know it shows-I've still got lots of work to do there), please let me know if you have any glitches in the ordering process. I have no idea how this is all gonna go...I'd appreciate any feedback in a gentle form, as I'll be extremely sleep deprived and it won't take much to drive me to tears today. (Ha!)

Now it's your turn! Step right up and link up your finish for the week. Please remember to link to a specific post. Thanks for joining in. Happy Friday!

irons

2011-12-12T13:02:00.004-06:00

Ironing is a big part of quilting...there's no two ways around it. There's a whole lot of math involved, too. I do WAY more math than I ever dreamed I would, all in the name of quilting. However, that's a subject for another day!

I've gone through a bunch of irons since I've been married. I've probably gone through between 12-14 irons in the past 14 years. I've kinda lost count, but I know it's a LOT. I should add, that once I started quilting over 11 years ago, my iron usage has gone up 1000%. At least. :) It absolutely makes sense that I've gone through a few irons since then. All that to say, when the folks at Panasonic asked me to test and write a review of their 360 degree cordless iron, I couldn't say no.

I really enjoyed giving this iron a test drive. I'm not a girl that likes change (my husband would laugh out loud at that understatement), so it took me a bit to get used to it. But I've been using it for a week and a half or so, and I'm loving it.

What I like about this iron:

The look. Silly, I know, to say that first, but it gives a good first impression. It's modern and sleek. I love that it's simple in design and very straightforward to use. All good things.

Ease of use. This iron has a simple push button to select the temperature rather than a dial feature. LOVE. THAT. The light flashes until the iron is up to temperature, which is very helpful. It also has a 10 minute auto shut off feature.

The weight. This iron has some substance to it. It's heavy (but not annoyingly so), which ensures a nicely pressed seam. I found it to do extremely well when I was piecing scraps together. The weight helped the scraps (even strings!) to lay flat. And to me, those are some of the toughest blocks to press well.

Carrying case. The iron comes with a clip on cover that has a handle, which doubles as a carrying case. An excellent feature if you want to take it to along to a quilt retreat or class. It's also handy just for storage. Not that the storage thing would happen in my house. :) But still a great and well thought out feature.

Detachable water tank. The tank detaches from the iron so you can fill it easily over the sink or wherever and you don't need to worry about spilling water all over the iron itself. The tank clicks back in place easily after it's filled.

Cordless. No need to worry about getting your fabric tangled in the cord when you are ironing! Also, the power base has a retractable cord, which is a super nice feature.

What took a bit of getting used to:

The football shaped sole plate. There is no flat bottom on this iron. I've been ironing for well over 20 years and it's hard to NOT just set the iron down just anywhere. When using this iron it must always be returned to the power base. I can see why the design is such...the shape allows you to iron in any direction at any time (the 360 degree feature). It's actually quite smart considering the fact that it's a cordless iron...it needs the power base to heat the iron, so it's very helpful to HAVE to place it in the base every single time. This feature did take some getting used to, but not a deal breaker.

Where it's a bit weak:

Heat. When not using the steam feature, I felt like the iron could/should be just a smidge hotter. However, when using the steam feature, I was very pleased.

A few other minor things to consider:

The power base remains on the ironing board (or wherever you choose to place it in your work area), so it will take up some space, somewhere, even when you are ironing. Very minor detail to me, but something to consider.

The cordless feature. When ironing large pieces of fabric (like the backing of a quilt), it doesn't have the constant heat source of a corded iron. I found it helpful to place the iron on the base periodically during the ironing process to make sure the iron was good and hot before continuing on. Usually this coincided with my need to readjust my fabric on the ironing board, so it wasn't a big deal. However, if you were ironing several large pieces in a row, I could see this becoming an issue.

One small story/confessional:

The day I got the iron, I was ironing and talking on the phone at the same time. Needless to say, I was distracted and I happened to set the iron down on the ironing board without thinking, rather than on the power base. (Force of habit!) The iron fell to the floor and I was so shocked/scared/surprised all at the same time. I felt completely horrible! The water tank had detached, but had not broken--thankfully!! I popped the water tank back in place and continued ironing. So, through that dreadful experience, I am happy to report that the iron is rugged! I assure you, I haven't dropped it since. In all fairness, I have dropped my other irons before, too, and it's always a scary experience. Thankfully I didn't get burned!

Overall I'd rate this iron 4.25 stars out of 5.

The folks at Panasonic are offering a discount to all my readers. The coupon offer is for a $20 instant rebate at checkout for the 360 Freestyle Cordless Iron while supplies last. Enter the code FREESTYLEQUILTER at checkout. The offer is valid through Wednesday, 12-21-11. Also, there is free shipping for a limited time on Panasonic.com.

edited to add: You must use all caps for the coupon code, as it is case sensitive. I hope that eliminates any further problems at checkout.

This iron could make someone (you?) a dandy Christmas gift!

finish it up Friday, week 7

2011-12-09T09:18:00.001-06:00

It's Friday again! Already! I hope you've had a productive week of finishing.

This week I was able to finish my daughter's abstract quilt top. I LOVE IT! She does too! I'm excited to have her pick out the backing. So far I know she wants flowers. Perfect!

I also finished hand quilting my apple cake quilt. WOO-HOO!!! I am so anxious to bind this baby and use it! It'll be a happy, happy day!

I did have a REAL finish this week too...my 36 patch quilt.

It's been a busy week, and it's so good to see progress, but I still have 14 WIP's! That's way too many! I guess I need to keep plugging away on this challenge. :) It's been good for me and I'm happy to report that I didn't start anything new this week. That's progress right there! Thanks to those of you who are joining in on this weekly challenge. It's more fun to finish with others!

How about you? Do you have a finish to share this week? Please link up to a specific post so we can see your accomplishments. Happy Friday to you!

a few things

2011-12-07T17:49:00.003-06:00

I've heard from several of you who have used my "one way to machine bind a quilt" tutorial and loved it. I'm so happy to hear it! Since reading all your wonderful comments on that post (thank you!) I've learned a thing or two. I've tweaked my method just a bit, so I've added an edit to the end of the tutorial. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Also! My and Cheryl's book is available for pre-order on Amazon!!! (That feels ALL kinds of crazy.)

36 patch quilt complete!

2011-12-05T15:51:00.002-06:00

I'm soooo excited...I finished my 36 patch quilt this weekend. There is a LOT going on in this one! I think I used 75 different fabrics in all. Wowza! All from the stash. Double wowza!!

If you recall, I made this for the quilt along I hosted this summer here on the blog in celebration of my 36th birthday. You can find the block tutorial here.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out! I was stalled for quite some time trying to figure out the right backing. I wanted to make a 36 patch back, and I started by picking 36 different fabrics from the stash for the back. When I tried to lay them out, things just weren't coming together. A good friend suggested that I use just 2 fabrics from my stash, so it would look like a 36 patch on the back. Of course! That made perfect sense. Thanks Tara! After rummaging around in my stash, this is what I came up with.

I used Jennifer Paganelli dots (LOVE!) and this fun black/white/gray print from Prints Charming. The backing makes me happy! With a 36 patch on the back I realize that I was in great danger of carrying the theme way too far. But I had it in my head to do so and I just couldn't let it go. I'm very glad I stuck with my original vision. Here's a bit of a closer shot.

To quilt it, I used my free motion foot and quilted vertical lines down the center of each row, and added a little circle/loopy thing in each square. It went so smooth and QUICK! After I was done quilting, I couldn't believe it. I used less than 4 bobbins! I almost felt like I cheated. :) I am very pleased with the quilting, though. I'll definitely try something like this again.

For the binding I used Denyse Schmidt tiles fabric. I LOVE this fabric. LOVE. IT. It's a crazy choice, adding more chaos to the already busy quilt...but I like that, actually. Usually I like a darker binding, but this seemed to suit it just fine. Plus, I'm trying to get better at using my favorite fabrics rather than hoarding them. This is one little baby step in the right direction!

The quilt measures 72" square.

If you'd like, you can check out some of the other 36 patch quilts from the quilt along here. Thanks to everyone who joined me for this quilt along...it was a lot of fun! I've got another quilt along idea up my sleeve, just waiting for January. Can't wait!

finish it up Friday, week 6

2011-12-02T08:13:00.005-06:00

Welcome to week 6 of finish it up Friday! How are your finishes coming along? Sadly, my progress on my quilty WIP list is less than stellar, but I'm hoping to see some progress next week!

I did manage to finish up these mittens for my daughter. These little babies prove that I have perserverence!!! They are riddled with issues, but they are d.o.n.e. The best part? She LOVES them! I put a string on them and tucked it in through her coat arms so they don't get lost before she outgrows them, just like I had to do when I was little. As a family we've gone through WAY too many gloves and mittens so far this season, and it's still early! I'm hoping the string does the trick. (Too bad my boys are a little too old for that!!) When I was knitting these it struck me that I was actually crafting out of necessity rather than just for the fun of it. It's crazy just how satisfying that feels!

How about you? Do you have a finish to share this week? If you do, I'd love to have you join in the fun. Please leave a link to a specific post and share your finish so we can all cheer each other on!

Oh, before I forget, thanks to those of you who wrote out your bucket list in the comments of the previous post. I absolutely LOVED reading them. :)

Happy Friday to you!

bucket list

2011-11-30T09:01:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking a lot about what would be on my quilt bucket list, if I were to have one. After much consideration, here are my top 5:

1. Dotty Dresden. As seen on the cover of Material Obsession. There is so much to love about this quilt!

2. Double Wedding Ring. It's a classic and I'd love to try my hand at it, but it scares me to no end! I think that's a sure sign that I should just jump right in and start it.

3. Tiny 9 patch. As seen in the Feb. 2008 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I'd love to make it huge! Like full or queen size. In the quilt shown, each of the little 9 patches finish at 2.25"!

4. Another spider web. I absolutely loved the process of making my first one. I dream of having a pair of single beds in room somewhere in my house with matching spider web quilts on them. I guess I'm half way there...as far as the quilts go, at least. :)

5. English Paper Pieced Stars. I've got a good start, just need to see it to completion.

I guess I have a bucket list now. And a substantial one at that! :)

So, what's on YOUR quilty bucket list? I'd love to know!

retreat recap

2011-11-28T16:48:00.002-06:00

I've been home from the Colorado quilt retreat for 2 weeks already! I don't know where the time went...I think I blinked.

Just a few of the many wonderful goodies from the gift bags...made by Tara.

If you EVER get the chance to attend a quilting retreat, JUST DO IT! (Especially if Tara is hosting...she knows how to do it!) It is so much fun to get together with like minded women and create/sew/chat for the whole weekend. It's overwhelming and so, so good! The only thing is that it just might take you 2 weeks to recover from the sleep deprivation. :)

I remember reading a post awhile back by Cherri House about teaching and she said that she learned so much from her students. I had that same exact experience! I learned a TON and came home so inspired! (I can only hope that everyone else left feeling the same way.) Everyone brought such great ideas to the table. I was astounded. Not to mention all the gorgeous fabric combinations there were to drool over. Seriously, I was on overload! We had running little game throughout the weekend called "name that fabric". There is a very specific audience that would appreciate that game, and we were it! Let me tell you, Randi knows her fabric!

I taught machine quilting and I showed this quilt completed. That means that I had to start another version of the same quilt so I would have something to demo for the class. Bummer! ;)

loopy quilting inspired by Denyse Schmidt,
herringbone quilting inspired by Latifah's amazing quilt.

During the weekend I somehow committed to quilting each of the 24 blocks in my second quilt with different designs than I used for the 20 in my first quilt. Maybe I really AM crazy?! Or maybe it does get easier to come up with quilting ideas the more you work at it? I hope that the latter is true!

We had a scrap exchange as part of the weekend. Everyone that wanted to participate could bring a bag full of scraps, dump them in a community basket and then take what you want in return. I could regularly be found hanging out at the scrap basket. No surprise there. I may have been teased about it a time or two or three. But in my defense, no one else would have wanted the tiny pieces that I was rescuing. I pieced a bunch of scraps together for more of these blocks. I was so happy to see new-to-me scraps. Mine had been worked over and then some!

We also had a mini quilt exchange.

I took a ticker tape quilt (I can't get the photo to flip correctly, sorry!)....

and came home with a log cabin quilt, made by my friend Mama Urchin. It happily hangs in my craft room right beneath my thread shelf so I can see it whenever I'm sewing. I just love it! Thanks, Jen!

I came home with loads of new fabric, thanks to some generous friends. And a new Chik-fil-a cup. A reusable Chik-fil-a cup. (I'm still trying to live down drinking out of the same styrofoam cup all weekend long two years ago!) Several people were involved in the acquiring of said cup, which makes me grin. A lot. I love it and I use it all the time. Thanks Michelle!

I'd like to thank everyone of the women who attended the weekend: Julie, Rebecca, Emily, Ruth, Randi, Amanda, Penny, Jennifer, Meloddee, Audrey, Carmen and Darla. A huge thank you to Tara and Lizzy for feeding us so well, and for making it such a memorable weekend. I sure appreciate all the hard work it takes to make it happen! I keep smiling when I think about the weekend. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. And I'm super excited that Tara and I have already started to plan for next year....I can hardly wait!

Happy Monday to you!

finish it up Friday, week 5

2011-11-25T14:53:00.009-06:00

Happy day after Thanksgiving! For those of you who celebrated, I hope you had a good one. We had a lovely not-so-little get together at my house. I'm thankful that I got to spend time with my family. They are wonderful! I'm also thankful that we have some leftovers so I can coast as far as cooking goes. Having pie for breakfast isn't too shabby, either. :)

While the turkey was in the oven yesterday I managed to finish up my Merry Minis quilt. Yay!

When I finished this quilt top, I'll admit that I was kinda "meh" about it. But I feel like the quilt got better each step of the way. How wonderful! (the quilt top specifics are here, if you are so inclined.)

I picked out this awesome backing fabric from the clearance section at Connecting Threads. I think the little sketchy print is absolutely charming and it really compliments the quilt top. It doesn't hurt that it's a lovely shade of blue/turquoise/aqua, either.

When I get to the quilting point I usually tend to want to rush through just to get it done. I made myself slow down and do it right. I'm so glad I took the extra time-the quilting is one of my favorite parts! I quilted little loops all over in light aqua thread. It reminds me of swirling wind.

The binding is a sweet stripe from the Children at Play line. It kind of reminds me of those old fashioned candy sticks. I love a striped binding! I feel like all the components of this quilt work together so well. I'm happy to have this one off the list and on to the couch. The timing is perfect! The quilt measures 55" x 66".

How about you? Do you have a finish to link up this week? If you do, I'd love to have you play along. Please leave a link to a specific post and join in the fun. Since I'm posting so late today, I'll keep the linky thing open into Saturday. Happy Friday to you!

one way to machine bind a quilt

2011-11-22T10:18:00.003-06:00

I put the binding on this quilt the other day (week?) and I machine bound it. I thought ahead enough to snap a few photos along the way so I could share my process. Sorry if the photos of the process are less than stellar, I did it late in the evening, long after daylight had gone. I hope this gets the point across anyway.

A little disclaimer...I'm by no means an expert on this subject...my first "big" quilt bound by machine was back in March of this year, so I'm still almost a rookie. But, I looked back at that binding this weekend and I have learned a thing or two since that quilt. Hurray for progress!

To machine bind a quilt....

Make the binding. Cut strips 2.5" wide from selvage to selvage, not on the bias. Join as many strips as needed, mitering the seams as you go. Make the binding strip long enough to go around the perimeter of your quilt.

Take your quilted quilt and trim off the excess batting and backing so all the edges are even with the quilt top.

Attach the binding "as usual" (you can read my indepth tutorial here) with a 1/4" seam allowance, except attach it with your machine on the back of the quilt, rather than the front. To finish it off, join the ends together with a mitered seam, just as you would if you were binding a quilt "normally".

Now that the binding is fully attached to the back, here comes the fun part!

Flip your quilt over and pick a point to start from. I start about 12" down from the top right corner. Here's the kicker...I don't pin a bit! In my first attempt I tried to, but I hated it. I got better results from just folding over the binding as I went. I was delighted to find this out! It sure beats getting pricked 1000 times during the top stitching process.

Fold the binding over and top stitch slowly, close to the left hand edge of your binding strip using your walking foot. I use my right hand to fold the binding into place and I use my left hand to hold it in place AND guide the quilt all at the same time. Go slow and steady. Take breaks to readjust it after every few inches or so, or as needed. I'm here to tell you that this gets MUCH easier with practice...just like anything else. Going slow is better than stitch ripping. And it's still much faster than hand stitching. :)

Keep going in this fashion until you are close to the corner. At this point stop stitching, adjust the corner so it's mitered nicely, holding it in place with your hand and stitch slowly until you catch the corner point.

Stop, pivot the quilt and keep top stitching. It's really that easy! Continue until you make your way all the way around the quilt. When you get to the point that you started at, back stitch a bit to secure the stitches and you are done!

A few thoughts...

Start with mini quilts...or place mats. It does take practice, but it gets easier with time. On my first big quilt attempt, I did it on a low stakes quilt. Meaning, it is a quilt that was going to live at my house anyway, so there wasn't the pressure of getting it perfect on the first shot. My 8 year old doesn't care that the stitching lines aren't straight.

I don't machine bind every quilt. If the thread color won't blend with the binding AND the back, I will bind it in the traditional way, with the hand stitching on the back.

The binding shown on the back is significantly skinnier than on the front. Consider this if you are thinking of machine binding a quilt that has a lot of points. The wider binding strip on the front will chop off your points. But on a quilt like this, with a solid border it's a non-issue. This is just something that I consider.

When top stitching, try not to go off the edge of the binding. If you do, just stop, go back a few stitches so they overlap (to secure that spot) and keep going. The goal is to keep the edge tacked down, all the while doing it with a consistent seam allowance, and keeping the back line of stitching from showing on the back binding part. Doesn't sound scary at all, huh? It's really not so bad, trust me!

I'd like to give a big shout out to the lovely Anita for posting her lovely tutorial on machine binding awhile back. That is the first time I thought "I just might be able to do this!" Then I tried it six months later. :) I ended up doing a few things differently, but it gave me the pointers that I needed and more importantly the hope that I could do it. Thanks Anita!

If you are one of those people who have always wanted to try machine binding but have been afraid to attempt it, I hope this gives you the nudge to jump in and try it. You might be glad you did!
-------------
12-7-11
edited to add:

after reading the comments, (thanks for the tips you shared!) I've done a little more experimenting with my machine binding. The issue of the front of the binding appearing so much wider than the binding on the back started to bother me. I tested out this little change and it helps a lot!

When trimming, I left 1/8" of the backing/batting beyond the quilt top's edge, rather than trimming all the layers even with the edge of the quilt top. Then I proceeded to finish the binding as directed above.

After top stitching, the binding was a bit more even on the front and the back....

but there was still plenty of room to fold over the binding and do the stitching without getting too close to the edge of the binding on the back.

This is a view of the back. The binding is nice and full but still plenty of room for stitching.

It's amazing how much that little 1/8" changes things!

finish it up Friday, week 4

2011-11-18T08:23:00.002-06:00

Welcome to week 4 of finish it up Friday! I hope you all have been busy finishing. I know I've been plugging away and it's so fun to celebrate the finishes (big and small) before going to the next item on the list. I'm still trying to figure out why on earth my list is so long?

This week my finish is this fun little pillow cover. It measures 20" square and you can find the tutorial for piecing the triangles here. This is a great scrap project to use up those teeny tiny strips! And as a bonus, the finished pillow looks mighty fine on my couch. It's bright and sassy. Just like I like it. :)

How about you? Do you have a finish from the past week to link up? If you do, I'd love to have you play along. Please link to a specific post and then go ahead and visit a few other finishes so we can all cheer each other on! Happy Friday!

intuitive design

2011-11-17T09:33:00.001-06:00

My daughter loves to play with my fabric scraps. Shocking, isn't it? This spring while I was working on many other projects, she did a lot of designing on my design wall. I can't tell you how delightful it is to "work" side by side with my daughter. Her work is so inspiring to me! On a whim, I decided to sew her blocks together with as little editing as possible. I'm so glad I did! Kids have such an intuitive design sense and I really wanted to capture that. Last night when she wanted to quilt with me, we pulled out this WIP and worked on it again. Her attention span isn't very long, so I try not to push, but just sew with the flow. :) We are soooo close to finishing the top. We need to add just a few more pieces on the side to make it a bit wider. I'm thrilled to pieces with how it's coming together! I had to laugh at her posing next to her work. She's a hoot! And her pants ended up all thready...like mother, like daughter. :)
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Thank you so much for all your sweet comments on my last post. I so appreciate each and every one! xo

thankful

2011-11-15T10:26:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for...

...my little blog break. I was dealing with a massive case of inspiration overload. Such a terrible problem to have, huh? I was unable to shut my mind off for days at a time and it was wearing me out! The break was just what I needed and I have gained a little perspective, I think. :) I'm so happy to be back!

...those of you who checked in on me during that time. You guys are so sweet!

...my heavily creamed cup of coffee this morning. Mmmm.

...my little family. They are all so wonderful!

...an awesome quilt retreat this past weekend. I feel so blessed to be able to quilt as one of my "jobs".

...sleep! (See point directly above.)

...my amazing friends that are so supportive of me.

...sunshine and a decent run in the crisp air this morning.

...good music on my ipod and a little quilting time to go with it.

...loads of new fabric. I'd better get busy....it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. :)

merry go round

2011-11-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

blogging feels
like a merry go round.
everything keeps
spinning
faster
and faster.
everything feels
off kilter.
so I'm gonna step
off the merry go round
for a bit
and try to get my bearings
again.

finish it up Friday, week 3

2011-10-28T08:42:00.003-05:00

Welcome to week 3 of finish it up Friday! I've heard from several of you that this challenge is really motivating you to finish up your projects. Hurray! Thanks to all of you who have joined in. It makes finishing much more fun! I'm really enjoying the challenge, although it does seem like Friday rolls around faster than ever before. Ha!

This week I was able to finish knitting a pair of socks that I had been working on since February. I'm so excited to see these complete. I'm a very sporatic knitter, and I had one of the socks knit for months. The other one was started, but I stalled out for awhile. I turned the heel on the second sock last Saturday, and sped through the last part of the foot in record time. I closed the toe last night...thanks to this challenge! I always get a little bit giddy to see how slick the kitchener stitch finishes things up. (Look at me throwing around knitting lingo like I know what I'm doing!) It's getting COLD here, so hurray for a timely finish!

How about you? Do you have a finish from the past week? If so, feel free to link up and share your accomplishment! Please remember to link to a specific post. Thank you! And happy Friday!

evolution of a quilt top

2011-10-26T17:31:00.007-05:00

Here's a little rundown on how this community quilt top came to be....

I started with several blue scraps (thanks to Heather!) and cut several 4.5" squares with my Go! baby while talking to a very good friend on the phone. (I love multitasking!) The go cutter made quick work of the task. Plus, it was easy to do while I was on the phone. :)

My friends and I sewed the blocks together into 4 patches at the beginning quilting class I taught last month.

I had enough blue scraps to make 26 blocks. But how to lay them out to get a decent size quilt? I mulled it over for several days. At this point I also started thinking about what I could use for the back of the quilt.

One night while I was NOT sleeping, I remembered I had this fabric, which would work great for the back. It came from my neighbor, Mary. It was leftover from her son's school project and it ended up in my stash. Who am I to turn away awesome fabric?

The backing choice inspired the addition of a few green blocks. These fabrics came from my stash. I'm so glad I added the green, the quilt would have been very flat without it.

I decided to use my fair and square pattern, so I trimmed all 33 blocks down to 6.5" square.

I did a quick layout on my floor, then added some gray sashing. (The color is ash from connecting threads. Best gray ever!)

Here's the finished quilt top! I wasn't sure I was going to like it before I sewed it together, but now I am pleased as punch! My son just told me that it looked kinda weird and kinda cool. Ha! Good to know! :)

So there you have a slightly scary look at the inner working of my brain and how a quilt comes together. :) Lots of using what I have, using what others share with me, and bits of inspiration during sleepless nights. That about sums it up!

madilynn's quilt

2011-10-24T09:50:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I hosted a baby shower (with the help of a few good friends) for my friend Tanya and her little baby girl. Of course I had to make them a quilt. :) I don't really make that many baby quilts, so I always forget how much fun they are! I love that you can start and finish one in a few short days.

I went with a simple patchwork pattern with a few random circles thrown in. I started with 5 circles (on white background squares) when I pieced the quilt. After the quilt top was done, I decided that the circles were too sparse, so I cut a few more to add on. I ended up quilting them right on to the quilt sandwich. It worked fine and dandy! It's fun to design on the fly. :)

The circles have raw edges, so they frayed nicely in the wash. I quilted the circles in spirals and the rest was stippled. The whole quilt crinkled up quite a bit after washing and drying. Yay!

The binding is from the Children at Play line. LOVE this fabric for binding. It's just so sweet!

The backing is Remix by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman. I picked this up last summer for a song. It's the perfect baby (girl) quilt backing! I'm happy I still have a bunch left. The quilt measures 40" x 50". I'm pretty certain that this quilt will be well used and loved. Hurray!

And while we are on the subject of baby quilts....remember this one? My daughter and I went to a birthday party a few weeks ago, and the new little guy was passed all around the room wrapped in his quilt. It made me so very happy to see his quilt in use! He made it look so much better. :) Aren't those little feet so adorable???

Happy Monday to you!

finish it up Friday, week 2

2011-10-21T08:47:00.001-05:00

Welcome to week 2 of finish it up Friday! I hope you have been motivated to finish up something this week. I want to thank everyone who linked up last week. It was fun to visit and see all your beautiful finishes. Keep up the good work!

I was able to put the last few stitches in the binding of my Machine Quilting Sampler this week. It was quite exciting, especially since I bound this one and a half times. I wasn't happy with the mitered corners (or non-mitered corners, as it were) the first time around, so I ripped out my stitches (a whole lot of stitches!!) and did the binding all over. Now it's much better, and it's complete. Hurray! (Sometimes it's a huge pain in the hinder to be a perfectionist!)

This quilt is my class sample for the retreat I'm teaching at in a few weeks. I quilted each square individually with a different quilting design and then joined them with a quilt as you go method. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!!!!

The backs are all different prints, which made things a bit tricky when it came to layout time. Not only did the prints need to be evenly distributed, so did the solids on the front. Just a bit of shuffling and it was good to go. What a relief!

It measures 64" x 80".

I had a bunch of questions in previous posts asking how to join the blocks together. I'm not ready to share that information here on the blog yet, as it wouldn't be fair to the students that are taking the class. And to be honest, it takes a whole lot of prep time to get a class planned out (not to mention getting the sample done), so I'm planning on teaching this class several more times. Thanks for your understanding!

Now, how about you? Are you ready to link up with your finish for the week? Please link to a specific post (not just your blog address) from the past week so we can see what you finished! Thanks for joining in! :)

finish it up Friday, week 1

2011-10-14T09:14:00.006-05:00

Welcome to week one of the finish it up Friday linky party! My hope is that this challenge helped you finish up some (or any!) of those WIPs and UFOs into finished projects.

I know this challenge kept me on the straight and narrow this week. I so badly wanted to start something new (every single day!), but I buckled down and focused on finishing rather than starting. I hope I can keep on that trend! :)

Technically, I finished Mary's quilt last week, but I still had to wash, dry, label, wrap, gift and blog it. So, now it's done. :) And it's my finish for the week.

How about you? Did you finish anything? If so, please link to a specific post from the past week and share your fabulous finish!

Mary's quilt

2011-10-13T20:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I was hanging this quilt up on my rain gutter on the side of my house (for my third round attempt at a decent photo) and a lady was walking by with her young children. She stopped to ask me if I made the quilt. It turns out she is a quilter, too, and new to the neighborhood. We chatted a little bit and I invited her to our little neighborhood quilting group next month! What a fun surprise to meet yet another quilting friend on my street. So, maybe it IS good that I am the crazy quilt lady in the neighborhood trying to get that one decent shot of the quilt for the old blog. :)

I made this quilt for my friend (and yet another neighbor) Mary, with the help of my lovely Two's Company Bee members. Thanks so much, ladies!! I couldn't have done it without you! It turned out to be such a bright and happy quilt, don't you think?

I requested red, aqua and white maverick stars, and I got such a beautiful variety of blocks back. Each bee member so graciously added a few of their own fabrics in their block, which helped make this a scrappier quilt. Just what I was after! If you ask me, this is THE PERFECT bee block. It's easy, it doesn't use a ton of fabric, each person can add their own personality, but the blocks are still unified with all the others in the end. That's just my 2 cents. :)

I pieced the back, of course. The center print was in my stash and it was wide enough to cover the width of the quilt with a few inches to spare. There was just enough leftover after trimming to add a strip or two to my scrap bucket. Sweet! I added a solid aqua and a white and blue dot for the rest. I LOVE this back!

I stippled the quilt in white thread and machine bound it (yay!) with this leaf print. Instead of using my normal warm and natural batting, (I didn't want the flecks to show through all the light fabrics), I used some Fairfied 80/20 batting that I had on hand. It has no flecks, but it has a higher loft. That made me nervous, because I was afraid of puckers. (Been there, done that!) All went well with the quilting, thankfully, and after washing, the loft settled down just a touch so it is the perfect thickness. Unfortunately, one of the stars bled (boo-hoo), but with all the variety of reds, I guess I wasn't surprised. (Yes, I did use a color catcher, but it didn't help.) It really didn't bother me too much. Like we say a lot in our house, "It is what it is." :)

The quilt measures 60" x 72", which is a perfect lap quilt. I gave it to Mary yesterday, (which was so fun!!!) and she loved it. Hurray!

rag rug wip

2011-10-12T16:55:00.001-05:00

I love to reuse/repurpose things. I also have an unhealthy love for rugs. Handmade rugs? All. the. better. This one is pretty zany, I'll be the first to admit it. But so far, so good!

I started with this stack of previously worn knit shirts. Some were pilled, some were slightly stained and some of them shrunk up funny in the wash. (Hate that!) I deconstructed them and cut them into approximately 3" squares. Thank goodness for my rotary cutter!

I selected a few upholstery samples that I had in my stash (these are 18" square). Then, I basically used this tutorial (thanks Vanessa!) for attaching the knit squares to the upholstery squares. Working with 18" squares made the process pretty manageable at the sewing machine. Any larger and things would have gotten awkward fast!

These totally remind me of those little tissue paper flowers we used to make in grade school. The ones where you used little tissue papers wrapped around a pencil eraser and you dipped them in white glue, then attached them on a background piece of paper. Remember those?

So far I have two squares done and four left to go. Once all 6 squares are made, I plan to zig zag them together in a 2 x 3 layout. (Now THAT should be fun. Heh.) If all goes well, this will be my new entryway rug.

I started this back in May (oh, my!) and I'm blogging about it now in hopes that it will motivate me to finish! Because I really, really could use a new entryway rug. In fact, I could have used a new rug a few months ago. :) I'm also linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday.

quilting

2011-10-11T16:10:00.000-05:00

I just finished quilting my (20!) blocks for my machine quilting sampler quilt.

A few reasons I love this project...

You get to play with all kinds of different quilting patterns, not to mention thread colors! I love to machine quilt, especially when things are going well, LOL!

You get to use up leftover batting pieces. Who doesn't have a plethora of those lying around?

You get to use stash. I have plenty to use....and solids? Twist my arm!

Then, when you are all done, you get to wrap up in a beautifully textured quilt. This one is going to have a LOT going on. I can't wait to wash and dry it and see how it feels. Maybe I'm getting a little (just a little) ahead of myself. I still have to trim the blocks and then join all these babies together.

The downside of this project...

Too much time to think of new projects to work on, or shoot, even variations of this one! Can you imagine a quilt like this done will all pebble quilting in cool colors? Mmmmmmmm. Sign me up!

These two blocks are new-to-me quilting designs. They are my favorite of the bunch, at least at the moment!

If you are looking for some free motion quilting inspiration, Christina at A Few Scraps has a LOT of fun ideas to try. They really helped me out when I was down to the last few blocks. Thanks so much, Christina!

fuddy is not duddy challenge quilt

2011-10-10T12:04:00.004-05:00

This is my entry for the fuddy is not duddy challenge. The guidelines were to use brown, green and burgundy and add only one additional color to make modern looking mini quilt. Of course I chose to add white! What a shocker, I know. :) I had a few different ideas when I started cutting my fabric, but in the end I went with wonky crosses. The are so fun to make! I still debate about whether I should have added more white sashing in or not, but then again I like the blocks all smashed together. The crosses are machine quilted and then I added some hand quilting in all the white squares. I love what the hand quilting added to the quilt-it really helped finish it off. It measures 15" x 14.5".

This challenge was right up my alley...given my history with wanting to rescue fabric and all. I can safely say that I am not about to use these colors all the time, but I think that they CAN look pretty good. It's all about what you add to it. Thanks for the fun challenge, Cheryl! If you are interested, you can see the other challenge quilts here.

Happy Monday to you!

finish it up Friday

2011-10-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

I have so many WIP's it makes me frantic to think about them. I wish I were kidding and/or exaggerating. I am not.

My two newest are fun, but WIP's nonetheless.

This is my fabric pull for the Fuddy is Not Duddy Challenge. Have you seen/heard about it? It's a fun concept for a challenge...too fun that I just couldn't pass it up. The deadline is Monday, but it's just a mini quilt, so why not? So far I'm liking what I came up with....just the binding to go!

This is the very beginnings of my class sample for the quilt retreat that I'm teaching at next month. I'm quilting each individual square (there are prints on the back of each block) and they will be joined together at the end with a quilt-as-you-go method. I am at the "oh-boy-I-sure-do-hope-that-this-turns-out" phase with this quilt, but I do have high hopes. Each quilt is an adventure!

So, getting back to the overwhelmed thing. I think it's finally time to launch my new series that I've been thinking about for months. I love what Lee at Freshly Pieced does with her WIP Wednesdays. So, it's going to work something like that. (Thanks for the inspiration, Lee!) I'm calling it "finish it up Friday". I will host a little linky party each week here at my place. :) You can post about your finished project on your blog and link up here, and we can all encourage each other as we finish! The first link up will be next week. I might get all official and make a button, or I may not. We will see. My hope is that this series will motivate me (and you!) to finally turn some of those WIP's into finished objects. Anyone care to join me in? Or are yours all under control? (HA!)

thank you!

2011-10-04T14:38:00.002-05:00

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your excitement about Cheryl's and my upcoming book! It feels so very good to finally be able to tell you about it! I am a terrible secret keeper and I have a little story to prove it. A few years back I went shopping for my husband's birthday. I came home and he and I were talking and at one point in the conversation he simply asked "so, what did you get me?" (Yes, he is a stinker!) I opened my mouth and was just about to tell him. I managed to stop one second before I spilled the beans. I almost told him right then and there! It's pretty pathetic, I know. So can you imagine how hard keeping this secret was? It was a doozey!!!

Sunday Morning Quilts was a true joint effort right from the beginning. Cheryl and I both brought different things to the table and combined, we worked (very, very hard) on writing a book that we, personally, would love to read, study and make all the quilts from. We hope that you will, too! So start (or keep) collecting those scraps!

We do have just a few more details to share. It's being published by Stash Books and will be released sometime next spring. I know, I know, that's a long time to wait. (Trust me, I'm anxious, too!!!) It isn't available on amazon.com yet for pre-order, but we will let you know when it is.

Tomorrow, back to regular programming. :)

no longer a secret

2011-10-03T08:10:00.000-05:00

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

straight and narrow

2011-09-29T11:14:00.002-05:00

Back in March, when Cheryl came to visit, we brainstormed a bunch of quilt ideas. One of them was for an almost whole cloth quilt. We split two pieces of neutral solids and we challenged each other to make a quilt that really focused on the quilting. It was a fun challenge.

In my original vision for this quilt, I pictured something loud and colorful for the backing. But I had the ochre solid in my stash, and I thought it would be a good choice IF I could find that "just right" binding fabric. Some rummaging through my stash yielded this great squiggle fabric that matched the backing and went well with the front. Thrilled (and a little bit shocked) with my discovery, I pulled thread colors to match and I was all set!

Enter basting an a ton of straight line quilting, and here you have my straight and narrow quilt! [I reserve the right to call it that, even if very few of my lines are straight! :)] I started by marking quilting lines every 6", but then I went back and marked every 3". The rest I eyeballed as I quilted lines 1/4"-1/3" apart. A TON of lines. I changed thread colors randomly throughout the quilt. There was some (much) frustration with the quilting, but I worked through it. It's good to learn something with every quilt you make!

The quilt fell and landed beautifully when I was taking photos. I love seeing the contrast from the front to the back with the binding all at once.

The backing is fabric is an organic cotton that I found for $1/yard (!!!) at Hancock Fabrics. When I bought it I couldn't decide if it was ugly or so, so good. I decided it was deliciously ugly. :) I bought 5 yards that day and knew that someday I would use it for something! I'm so glad I did! My husband couldn't see my vision for it at the time (he thought it was straight up ugly!) but now he sees that it's not bad at all. The color scheme gives this quilt a decidedly fall feeling. Perfect timing! It was so fun to work in colors out of my normal color scheme.

This fabric is from my dear friend Linda. (Thanks, Linda!) I love, love, LOVE it as the binding. I attached it with my machine on both sides. That top stitching sure makes me happy. :) It matches the machine quilting so nicely.

I will admit that my quilt turned out quite different than I had originally anticipated, but the results are something I LOVE. I think it will be an instant favorite in our family. I wish you feel the quilt, because the texture is incredible! It measures 50" x 63".

Make sure to check out what Cheryl did with her quilt here. It's stunning!

setting seams

2011-09-28T16:30:00.001-05:00

I made this bee block for Bonnie yesterday and all the while I was thinking, 'boy, i sure could benefit from a precision piecing class.' Those little red blocks finish at 1" square! The block is 9.5" total. That leaves very little room for error. I love piecing tiny things, but I definitely have room for improvement in the accuracy department.

Just as I was finishing up this block, I recalled reading/hearing about setting seams. (There is a short video here that explains it well.) I was somewhat skeptical, having tried it in the past and didn't notice a big difference. I decided to give it another try yesterday (what did I have to lose?) and you know what? I really do think it helps. I just might be a convert.

So now I'm curious...do you set your seams? Do you think it helps? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

quilt camp

2011-09-26T09:03:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, I taught a beginning quilting class to some ladies at my church. I'm hoping to get several of them hooked on quilting so I have yet another sewing circle of ladies in my life. (So far I have two circles that I'm a part of. One more wouldn't hurt!) Actually, I did the "one day quilt camp", as we called it, to teach the basics of quilting, but also to work on a few community quilts to donate to Margaret's Hope Chest. It was such a fun day!

Here's a shot of the set up. My husband had a grueling week at work, but despite that, he went along with me on Friday night to help me hang the quilts and set up the room. He's such a great guy!

I had no shortage of samples to pull from around my house to use for my class. :)

I made a pin cushion as a thank you for each person who attended the class. (They loved them. Yay!)

I squealed a bunch while I was making these...each pincushion finishes at only 3.5" square!

I taught how to make a 4 patch, pinwheel, log cabin block and string block. The ladies did fabulous at all of them!

Here's a group shot with the string blocks we made. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them play with colors/fabric selection. Everyone did so great, and they all had their own personality reflected in their block. It was so much fun to see that process taking place.

I decided all over again that I love teaching classes. It's so tiring, but as exhausting as it is, it is equally-if not more-rewarding! I also decided that the term "teaching" is a little intimidating. I'd rather think of it as "sharing my love of quilting" with others. Now THAT doesn't sound intimidating. At. All.

Happy Monday to you!

fraternal twins

2011-09-22T18:17:00.002-05:00

These two lovelies are made from the brand spankin' new Cabbages and Roses fabric from Moda. I believe that the fabric was officially released today. This fabric could. not. be. prettier! I started by cutting 9" squares (from a fat quarter, so there was virtually no waste) and then I made half square triangles. I didn't want to chop up the fabric any more, because I wanted to show off the lovely large prints. I debated long and hard on the layout, because with HST's there are so many possibilities! Too many, really. I was going to make one twin sized quilt, but in the end, I just couldn't shake the idea of separating the colors and making two quilts. So, two quilts it is!

For the back of the blue and green quilt I found this vintage fabric in my stash that had belonged to my Grandmother. I couldn't believe how well it coordinated with the front and I had just the right amount for the back. Serendipitous! I was giddy at this discovery. Ok, maybe was isn't the right word. Maybe I still am.

For the binding, I used a navy dot from the Children at Play line by Sarah Jane. (Yes, I am completely obsessed with these dots!) I love how the navy frames the quilt and pulls out the dark blues in the quilt top. You can't go wrong with dots on the binding! The navy is just so crisp and classic.

To quilt this one I made large loops following the diagonal lines in the quilt top. It went smoothly and quickly. The not-so-dense quilting coupled with the weight of the backing makes it a soft, smooshy and cozy quilt that will only get better with use.

For the back of the pink quilt I was going to use a cream sheet, but at the last minute I changed my mind and pieced the back. I used fabric that Cindy had so generously sent me this summer (thank you, Cindy!) and I worked the pieces like a puzzle until I came up with this layout. I love how it makes this an over the top girly girl quilt. The addition of the yellow is especially sweet, I thought.

For the binding, I chose this Denyse Schmidt dot. It's not a predictable choice for this style of quilt, but I like that unexpected twist. The red dots pull out the red accents in some of the florals, and the pinks don't match perfectly, but close enough, which I actually kind of like. The binding is a little bit sassy and it makes me smile.

To quilt it, I did an all over stipple. I thought about doing loops again, but I wanted to change the quilting and see what it did to the look of the quilt. I like the results of both quilting styles, really.

When I was debating layouts, as mentioned earlier, I really wanted to make one twin quilt, because it could be used either on a bed or as a lap quilt. But now that they are both finished, I'm so glad that I made two smaller quilts. There is something so special about a pair of quilts, you know?

Both quilts were finished in a jiffy thanks to my new found love of machine binding. Hurray for that!

Each quilt measures 48" x 64".

I'd like to say a big thank you to my friend, April, for letting me use her clothesline for the photo shoot today.

paradox

2011-09-21T18:19:00.000-05:00

I have completely fallen in love with hand quilting. Thanks to many of your suggestions on this post, I made myself use a thimble. It's getting easier with practice, and my finger feels so much better. I love the look of hand quiting, and the process is so soothing. I'm happy to say that I am over half done with this quilt. Yahoo!

(A slightly hilarious side note...my thimble is turning my finger green...just like a cheap ring would. So much for what I thought was my heirloom thimble!)

I have also completely fallen in love with machine binding....on both sides. This is the 4th machine bound quilt that I've done, and I think it looks pretty darn good! I love how the top stitching is visible on the front. I love how QUICK it is. This afternoon I was able to start making dinner, wrote out a class outline AND finished the binding on this quilt completely. Sweeet! That is good, no, great, news for my WIP pile!

favorite

2011-09-20T19:07:00.000-05:00

This is my family's favorite quilt. It is also the one and only store bought quilt that we have in our possession. (Can I just say, "Ouch!"?)

My husband and I bought it from a discount store a few years before I learned how to quilt, so it's probably 13 years old. It certainly has seen better days, but it remains everyone's favorite. We've had many picnics on it, and spent countless summer days with it spread out on the lawn, just hanging out together. It's big (king size) and super soft and smooshy, so I really can't blame them for liking it so much. :)

The fabric is worn on both the front and back, and on the sides, too. The worst parts are shredded, as shown above. I thought about trying to repair it, but I wonder if it's beyond hope. I thought about saving the batting, but it's just polyester, so it's probably not worth it. I thought about making a new front AND back, and encasing the whole thing inside a "new" quilt (after I trim off the dangling bits) but I'm afraid that it would end up being a big lumpy mess. Again, probably not worth the trouble. On the other hand, just the thought of throwing the whole thing away almost gives me hives. I mean, it's a quilt! Throwing it away just doesn't seem right.

So, what do you think? Should I try to save it? Or toss it and just start over?

merry minis quilt top

2011-09-19T17:35:00.002-05:00

I had the chance to sew more than I expected to on Saturday, which is always a pleasant surprise. I started playing with the 4 patches I had made from the merry mini fabric line from Connecting Threads. The fabric is cute and sweet and has a very vintage flavor to it. I knew I wanted to put the blocks up on point, so I started there. I'm so used to using 2" finished blocks, that the 4 1/2" blocks felt HUGE to me!

They looked decidedly, um, old fashioned. I was stuck for a bit, until I decided to add some setting squares in the blank spots. I added a few dots from Children at Play line (LOVE THOSE DOTS!!!) to help update things a bit. I also added a few other basics from my stash and a few prints from this line, too, even though they aren't Christmas prints. They work so well together! It's funny, because without intending to, I ended up making a variation of this quilt. You can find the measurements here.

The background fabric is a sweet, sweet polka dot print, also from Connecting Threads. (It's picnic dot in mint.) It's so good that I had to stock up...I think I bought 5+ yards. :) I love that the background is something other than plain ol' white. I branched out and I LOVE it!

The quilt top is about 55" x 66".

Now it's sitting on the "to be quilted" stack. It has plenty of company there. Heh.

Also, I want to thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post. You guys are the best!!!

Happy Monday to you!

half way done

2011-09-16T13:17:00.000-05:00

I. am. smitten.

better

2011-09-14T18:11:00.001-05:00

Thanks so much for all your tips and suggestions on my straight line quilting problems. I found a variety of things from the comments helped. The main thing that helped was slowing down. It's hard to slow down! Beth knows all about this. :) I also found that guiding the quilt from the sides helped immensely. I had been pulling the quilt from behind the walking foot and rushing things. Not good. Letting the walking foot do the work is really hard, but really important. One last thing that I observed is that the stitches pulled worse on the white fabric, (which is quilter's only solids from JoAnn's) vs. the tan fabric, (which is a Wendover solid from Hancock Fabrics). All those little factors added up and contributed to my quilting mess. I did some stitch ripping and requilting and things are better. Not perfect, but better. Next time I will be definitely trying some 505 spray baste. Thanks for weighing it-it really helped me through!

Now, on to a new-ish, but not completely new WIP....

I started piecing all these little snippets into strings months ago, and today I finally got back to them. I had a fun time assembling the first block. So far, it looks better than I imagined. Here's hoping the rest of the quilt follows suit. I'm super excited about this one! Probably because it combines two of my favorites...little scraps and solids. I can't wait to make a few (or a LOT) more!!! Thankfully, I have NO shortage of scraps. :)

Happy Wednesday to you!

problems

2011-09-09T16:52:00.008-05:00

Yesterday and today I've been working on machine quilting an almost whole cloth quilt, using organic line quilting. It's not going well and I'm quite frustrated. I'm having a lot of pulling and distorting, especially on the front of the piece. I'm using my walking foot (obviously) and I pin basted every 2-4", so I shouldn't be having problems. I'm not sure what's going wrong.

These are the ends of the quilting lines. I quilted the lines with the X's underneath first, then filled in the empty space afterward. See how the fabric bows at the end? Any suggestions for avoiding this? Or is this pretty common? I know it is for me, but I wonder if there is anyway to avoid it?

I know people suggest quilting in both directions. I did that, but look at the mess that came from it! (Cringe!) I have a very unsightly V shaped texture in the quilt. UGH! Maybe I'm looking too closely at it? OR maybe a perfectionist should not attempt this type of quilting in the first place-especially on solids? There is absolutely no cushion for error. Any suggestions or help (or shoot, even empathy) is appreciated! I'm so frustrated with all of this, but I'm too stubborn to give up. Sigh.

Ok, moving on...I had a few requests for some photos, so I thought I would oblige.

a photo of my closet. (following up from this post.) It seems a little...revealing...to post this, but really, I have nothing to hide. This is as organized as I get. It's pretty full, eh?

And another request...

a photo of my jarred salsa. (following up from this post.) This one's for you Suzanne!

I also had a few requests for my salsa recipe. Unfortunately, I don't follow a recipe-I just make it up as I go. I get different results every time, and they are mostly good. :)

That's all I have for today. Have a good weekend!

bartering

2011-09-08T17:39:00.005-05:00

You probably all know, but I love a good barter. This may be the best one ever.

I traded this quilt....

for all of this! :)

You see, this spring I made a new friend at church, and she lives out in the country. She a large garden space, but since her kids are grown and gone, she doesn't need all the space. I have a small garden in my backyard, and I was looking for additional space. My children are all still at home and are always very hungry. :) Anyway, she and her husband graciously hosted my garden this summer. That whole counter full was what I picked just in one day! It's not surprising that I'm making salsa again (the third batch this year so far). I'm so thankful for a bountiful harvest!!! Gardening sure satisfies the farm girl in me and it was fun to work with my kids and my friend, too.

The quilt was something that I was just finishing up this spring about the time we were planning our gardens. When I saw her super cute house for the first time (blue with red shutters) I knew I was going to give the quilt to her as a thank you. It was a perfect match for her and she was delighted. So was I. :)

You know the best part? We both think we got the better end of the deal. Just the way a good barter should be!

juggling act

2011-09-07T17:50:00.003-05:00

I've decided that for me, quilting is like a juggling act. The 3 items that I try to juggle are stash, WIP's (works in progress) and scraps. Today I'm going to do a little rundown of each area. It's no accident that this post comes on the heels of my craft room remodel. I don't want things to take over and spiral out of control again any time soon! Thanks for all your sweet comments on my new room, by the way. I'm thankful for each and every one. It was so fun for me to share it with all of you!

Ok, getting back to the subject at hand...

Stash

In the early part of the year, I was doing pretty well not feeding my stash. (key word: was) At one point, I actually saw a dent in my stash. I even took a photo to prove it.

It was a happy, happy event, albeit short-lived. August came and I had very little sewing time, but I had a lot of stash acquisitions. (Funny how that works!) Here are some of my new additions....

Children at Play fabric purchased from the lovely Thimbleanna from her little shop. This is such lovely fabric! I can't wait to play! This is a mere 16 of the 50 fabrics (!!) in the line. I love how cute it is, and still so versatile. The colors are right up my alley! Lots of good basics!

I bought this stack at Craft's Direct in Waite Park, MN. The argyle fabric (by Robert Kaufman) was a mere $3 yard!!! How on earth could I not stock up?? I bought enough for a few quilt backs, trying to think ahead to what I would most likely need/use. These are my colors, so it should be no problem! The top two fabrics were deeply discounted as well. Hurray! This trip set me back 19 yards. I learned a valuable lesson...it's better not to tally up the yardage.

These are from my favorite quilt shop ever, which closed last week. I'm soooo sad. I only bought a few things...this was actually from 2 different trips! So, at least I showed some restraint there.

I was gifted some fabric, which is always lovely! These are from my BFF Tara, for my birthday. This is some of the new Denyse Schmidt line from JoAnn's. I must be living under a rock, because I didn't even realize that she had any new stuff out. I LOVE IT! Blue and green. Mmmm, good!

My dear friend Cindy heard I was lacking PINK fabric in my stash, and she sent me a generous care package to help me out in my plight. She sent so many gorgeous things-so many different prints! It's so nice to have friends take care of you! Thank you Cindy and Tara!

There was more fabric, but that's the bulk of it. I guess all in all, not terrible. But still several quilts worth!

(Now that I blogged about them, I can let these babies mingle in my stash. Anyone else do that???)

WIP's

Oh, mylanta. I'm drowning in this area right now! I don't know how I let it get so bad.

I have 5 quilt tops done.

2 nearly completed tops.

I'm hand quilting one.

I have one basted, ready to machine quilt.

Then, I have several in block stages. I store them in donut containers, which works very well. (Don't worry, I don't eat all the donuts. I get the containers from church.) The sad thing is, this isn't all of them. Really, it's frightening. I'm not even counting anymore, which is even more frightening. I'm not counting partly because I have a few projects that I'm not sure if they qualify as WIP's or not. They are kind of in limbo. Or I'm in serious denial. Either way, I'm in deep!

I'm determined to start digging myself out of the hole this month. I'm a finisher...at least I always used to be. It's time to get back on track!

Scraps

And then there are scraps. Oh, how I love them! In fact, Penny gave me a tag line at the April retreat... "no scrap left behind". You know, I couldn't even begin to argue. :) My scraps are quite plentiful. Earlier in the year, I was on top of this, too, but things have spiraled downward. It doesn't take long! They are on the verge of needing an overhaul. I think I have too many categories and I have such a hard time parting with them! It's good that I use them as much as I do, or they would overrun the place!

This is just one of many baskets.....these are just my strings! I have big plans for these...just as soon as I finish up some other things, if I can resist that long! I just had a great idea for a string quilt last night. It's so hard not to start something new when inspiration strikes! Maybe that's how I got in the WIP mess in the first place? Heh.

SO, I'm curious to know...what is your weak point? Stash, WIP's, or scraps? What area are you doing the best in? Or are you a horrible juggler like me??? ;)

new and improved

2011-09-06T17:00:00.004-05:00

22 days ago, I started my craft room remodel. Today I'm excited to proclaim that it is D-O-N-E, done! I don't know that I've been this excited about a finish. Ever. It was a TON of work, just like I had expected. But the final outcome of the room exceeds my expectations about 100 times over.

Overall, my goals were to keep things simple, clean and light. Of course I wanted to do all of this without spending much money. I bought paint and hardware and hinges, which set me back about $40. Sweet!!! I only used furniture and storage items I already had. My hubby wanted to take me to IKEA and buy a new desk, but I love my little "grandma table", as we call it.

Painting the wood work was the most time consuming thing. My husband is a gem. He's in the 1-5% of men that actually prefers white trim over wood. I am actually working on painting the trim throughtout my house. (My brother-in-laws are aghast that I would do such a thing!) It's a HUGE pain in the hinder, but the results are AMAZING!

The closet was cleaned out and organized, too, but it isn't very photogenic. It holds my stash, my WIP boxes, my quilt tops, scraps, more stash, more scraps, remnants, and various supplies/projects.

This is a little shelf I made years ago and it holds most of my pin cushion collection. I love how sweet it looks tucked up above my closet doors.

I really debated about hanging my thread storage on my wall. I also debated painting the shelf white, but I we (husband and I) decided to hang it and keep it as is. Hurray! One less thing to paint! I had so much fun arranging the thread in color order last night. I'm such a geek. And because I know someone will ask, I did a whole post about thread here.

I'm using a lid from an IKEA storage box as a tray to hold all my tools and gadgets. Keeping things tidy and in control is the goal. I think the tray will help! The little tin cans are screaming for fabric covers. It's on my to-do list and it has been for quite a long time. The coil pot was made by my son and it makes the best seam ripper holder ever.

I'm looking forward to spending many hours planted here. I'm also dreaming of making a quilted cover for my very blue chair.

My thrift store chair used to look like this. It had gotten quite grubby since I refinished it, so a new cover was in order. I used some ticking that was my grandmother's. (My stash knows no bounds!) I love how easy it is to change the look of this chair. I've done it many times over the years. It's currently holding a few WIP's, but it's ready for a visitor at any time. :) The huge green bowl is something that I picked up from Target several years ago.

I placed a few containers on my desk to help keep me organized. My cutting scraps will go in the box to the left. I will sort it when it gets full. The container on the right is for ticker tape pieces. I may end up moving these to my cutting area, if I have room. I haven't fully broke in my new space yet, so we shall see!

The pattern for the circle box is from the book Scandinavian Stitches. It is such a cute and fun project! I should note, I made the sides a bit taller than the pattern calls for. After I made it, I just happened to discover that a recycled food container fit inside it perfectly, which helps hold the shape. Such a happy accident!

The buffet was my grandmother's, and it's going to be my cutting station. I wish it were deeper, but I'm going to make it work. If I have to do some larger cutting, I plan to use a bigger cutting mat on the floor.

My red polka dot "hold everything boxes" have been used in 3 different rooms of my house now. LOVE that! Currently, they hold my pre-cuts and fabric bundles.

The little drawers on the left hold some fabric scraps and little things...snaps, tools, all kinds of stuff.

The mini quilt was made by Anne Day, and I received it in a swap her and I did. I just love it and love how it fits in here so well!

The buttons on the top of the buffet are color coded. It's a sickness.

The jar on the right holds fabric scraps. (Imagine that!)

It was a huge PAIN to paint the french door, but it sure looks pretty white!

This is probably the only time my desk will be this clean. I love, love, love having my desk beneath the window.

Here's my floor to ceiling design wall. I used a king size flat flannel sheet and I attached it to the wall with thumb tacks. Previously, I had attached it with staples, which worked, too. This looks cleaner and neater. When I took the sheet down to paint, I washed and dried it, so it's almost thread free again. Yay! What a nice side effect to this whole project.

Here's one last shot. I was going to try to be brief, but that was an epic fail. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tour. ;) I'm excited to see the results of all my hard work! Now it's time to get busy and mess it up again! Speaking of messes, I still have a bunch of stuff that I took out of the room that I need to toss/donate/find a new home for. I don't want to appear on the show hoarders anytime soon!

I was telling my husband last night just how thankful I am to have this room. So very thankful! I love having a place where I can leave everything set up and waiting until I have a chance to get back to my work, because we all know how many interruptions a mama has. :)

Just a few more details...

I used Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3 primer for the walls to cover the red (and the woodwork, for that matter). That stinky stuff does wonders! I had no trouble covering the red at all. Oh, I am so thankful!

The wall color is woven basket (B22-3) from Ace Hardware. I chose flat paint for the first time ever and I loved it! It only took 2 coats, which is pretty normal, from my experience. I LOVE Ace paint!

The trim color is macaroon cream. I had it color matched from an old paint chip. My daughter likened it to the color of cream cheese, which made me laugh and laugh, but she is exactly right!

Ok, now I'm done now.
For real.
I'm gonna go sew.
Happy Tuesday!

big day

2011-09-02T10:47:00.002-05:00

today is a big day. all my kids are in school, all day, for the first. time. ever. (insert big sigh here.) i'm on my own during the day for the first time in 11 years. (11 years!!!) back when all 3 were underfoot all day long, i remember dreaming about this day. often! now that it's here, it sure is bittersweet.

my boys were ok with starting school, but not particularly excited, or so they say. my daughter, on the other hand, was bursting with excitement. that helped, but i still can't help but feel a little sad at this milestone. thankfully, i have plenty of quilting (and housework-oh my!) to keep me busy. who knows, next week i may be doing cartwheels. :) or maybe i'll finally catch up on some of my WIPs. wouldn't that be nice?! i guess it's good to keep dreaming.....

fall 9 patch quilt

2011-08-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

Some very good friends of ours got married this weekend and it was such a lovely wedding. I was excited to finally able to give them their quilt!

The pattern is from my one a day 9 patch quilt along that I did a few summers ago. (The links are on my sidebar.) Since my friend requested fall colors for the quilt, I used 2 jelly rolls of Kona cotton, in the dark and dusky color ways. I had a few leftover strips from the jelly rolls, but I made a few blocks from other solid fabrics from my stash, due to the color scheme. The sashing is bella solid, from Moda, which is completely lovely to work with. I'm not sure what color it is, though.

I quilted it with a simple grid on the diagonal in natural colored thread. I must be weird, because I enjoy that type of quilting...at least once in awhile. It only took me a few days to quilt it. I did a lot of praying for the couple while I was working on it. I love doing that if I have a specific recipient in mind when making a quilt.

I dug out all the brown scraps I could find for binding from my scrap bins. They are all the same color...I had plenty of pieces leftover from making my boys' star wars robes, among other projects. I had more than the usual amount of seams in the binding, but I didn't mind...it was nice not to have to buy additional fabric. This is one case where it's a good thing that I throw very little away!

The back was pieced from the stash. I had these colors set aside for a quilt top, (I had a pattern picked out and everything), but I was delighted to use them for the back instead. It's a lovely way to burn though 5+ yards of stash! And that's one less quilt on my list to make. Yay!

The quilt measures about 66" x 90". I made it a twin size so they could use it on the back of the couch or on a twin bed in their guest room. I finished it back in July, but I took photos and added the label on the morning of the wedding. I'm such a procrastinator sometimes! I'm glad this quilt is compete, that it's off to it's new home. I actually enjoyed working out of my normal color scheme and I'm pleased with how it came together.

Happy Monday to you!

hand quilting

2011-08-27T14:45:00.003-05:00

I started hand quilting my apple cake quilt last week. I am not a proficient hand quilter. Shoot, I'm not a hand quilter at all, but I'm attempting it on this quilt anyway. I think it suits the quilt very well. I have been plugging away at it a little each day. It has been such a nice project to sit with and work on amid the chaos that has been going on in my house as summer is drawing to a close. I even took it along to my sister's house when we went to visit this past week. I have 62 leaves done and there is only a small hole in my finger. :)

flying with your sewing machine

2011-08-24T08:38:00.001-05:00

It seems like every time I post about a retreat, I have questions about flying with a sewing machine. I thought it would be a good time to talk about my (limited) experience with this. Last November, when I flew to Colorado, I did take my JUKI with me, since it would be very hard to teach machine quilting without my own machine.

The first thing I did was to call and ask the airline about it. The airline I flew with said they had no regulations against carrying on a sewing machine. Phew! I certainly didn't want to check it! Who knows what it would go through until I could pick it up in baggage claim. I made sure to take out the needle, just in case that would cause any issues. I put my needles in my checked bag.

I called my sewing machine dealer to ask the ideal way to travel with my JUKI. The man I spoke to told me that they aren't ideal for transporting. (Something I had already realized.) I asked about what kind of case and such, but he didn't have any recommendations.

So, I went on the hunt for a suitcase for my sewing machine that would fit my machine and also meet the size requirements of a carry on bag. I found a regular soft sided suitcase at Target (yay Target!) that fit my needs. My sewing machine fit fine and dandy, but with little room to spare! I put a few small quilts around the machine for padding, since I was transporting them anyway. I also put a quilt over the machine, just to be on the safe side. I have to say, it was NOT easy to lift up the machine into the overhead compartment, but I managed. (It's a good thing I lift weights. Ha!)

On the flight there, security did take my bag, open it and inspect it. On the flight home, they didn't. Overall, it wasn't so bad flying with my sewing machine. I was pretty nervous about it beforehand, but thankfully all went well. Here's hoping I can say the same this year!

I'd be curious to hear if you have had any experience flying with your sewing machine. If so, how did it go?

36 patch quilt along, week 7

2011-08-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the final week of the 36 patch quilt along! Today is assembly day.

The first step in assembling the quilt top is to lay out your blocks. Generally, I like to rearrange the blocks as little as possible, because it seems like once I start moving things around, things get worse rather than better. Random is good! Take a digital photo and view the thumbnail. This helps you get a good overall view of how the quilt will look. I do this almost all the time, with nearly every quilt.

When I viewed this photo, I did notice a problem area. In the second row, the second and third blocks from the left bothered me. I didn't like the pink and the red blocks next to each other. I shuffled a few blocks and took another photo.

This arrangement looked much better to me. Once the blocks are in a pleasing arrangement, the assembly is as simple as sewing the blocks into rows and then sewing the rows together.

If you pressed all the strips toward the dark, and all the rows in each block toward the top, then the assembly should be pretty easy. Take every other block and lay it right side up (so the seams point up) and every other block upside down (so the seams point down). I'm showing the backs of the blocks to illustrate this.

Pin the blocks to each other and sew the seam. All the seams in the two blocks should nest together, making it easy to join the blocks. Repeat for all the blocks in each of the rows.

After you have the rows together, press every other row to the left. Press every other row to the right. Pin the rows together, sew and press well. I pinned at each intersection when joining the blocks together and at each intersection when joining the rows together. It's a LOT of pinning, but it helps the blocks line up nicely, so it's totally worth it. Press the entire quilt top well. Stand back and admire it!

Here is my finished quilt top! It's pretty busy, but I must say, it turned out better than I had imagined. I LOVE it! It measures about 72" square. It was all from my stash, and boy, does that feel GOOD!

Now, I just need to figure out how to quilt it! I've been thinking about it, but haven't settled on anything yet.

Also, I wanted to let you know, Tara and I are planning our 3rd annual quilting retreat/workshop in Fort Collins, CO. The dates this year are November 11-13. I can't believe this will be year 3! (Woohoo!!) I'm very excited to be a part of it yet again. I will be teaching machine quilting, both free motion and walking foot quilting. We will have a workshop segment, where you can bring a quilt top or two for input on how to quilt them. I am also going to teach a quilt as you go option for joining all your quilting samples/blocks into one quilt. So, ideally, you should be able to leave the weekend with a finished quilt. There will be great fun, lots of sewing and amazing food! You can read more about the details and registration here. I know from experience that Tara throws an awesome retreat! Hope you can join us!

Happy Monday to you!

time for a change

2011-08-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

This is what one corner of my craft room looked like at about 4 pm yesterday afternoon. (Pardon my one not so willing model and the blurry photo!)

This is what it looked like at about 9 pm yesterday night.

And this is what it looked like at about 4 pm today.

Boy, I'm tired!

I've been wanting to revamp my craft room for months, but I could never pull myself away from my 101 projects long enough to do it. It has been in quite a state of disarray for some time now, so I finally bit the bullet and decided to jump right in. As I've been priming the red walls (hate THAT job!), I'm thinking about what I want it to look like. I think I need LESS storage. Sounds crazy, but the more storage I have, the more I'm going to fill up. I'm thinking yellow walls. White trim. Full design wall. I'm excited about seeing it come together! I have a prediction...being that it's my craft room, I bet it comes together in record time. At least that's the hope!

36 patch quilt along, week 6

2011-08-15T14:37:00.002-05:00

Welcome to week 6 of the 36 patch quilt along! We had a CRAZY weekend here. My husband hosted a groom's shower/cookout on Friday night, and I had a garage sale on Saturday...both at our house. The garage AND the house needed to be cleaned for the weekend. What poor planning THAT was! We cleaned for hours upon hours, days upon days. Never again will we attempt that in one weekend again. But it's all over now, and I was thrilled to wake up and have time to sew this morning. Hurray!

I had made a few blocks earlier in the week (I don't know when I had the time!), and I finished the final 5 this morning....so here are my last 7 blocks for the quilt along. Yippee! I can hardly wait to start playing with layouts!

Next week I plan to give brief assembly instructions for the quilt top and that will wrap up our QAL. I'd like to thank all of you who are quilting along with me! I've really enjoyed it and I have heard from MANY of you that you have enjoyed it, too. So glad to hear it! Please remember to add your photos to the flickr group so we can all see what you are making.

Happy Monday to you!

cartwheels quilt

2011-08-12T11:07:00.001-05:00

I've had several emails asking me for a good pattern for a jelly roll quilt. Well, today I have your answer. :)

I finished this quilt up back in April, but I drug my feet writing the tutorial for a few months. All that to say, I'm so excited to finally be posting this quilt! It's made with Strawberry Fields fabric, designed by Joanna of Fig Tree Quilts. I LOVE THIS FABRIC! In fact, I think this quilt may be one of my top 5 favorite quilts I've ever made! (Even though it is strip pieced, which is NOT my favorite technique.) But, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! :) Actually, strip piecing made quick work of the top.

I love the pieced back! The strip of coins breaks up the repeat of the fabric. Plus, it made the backing just long enough AND it used extra pieces from the top. There is very little waste and just a few extras. I love maximizing my fabric! But you already know that, right? ;)

One of my favorite parts of the quilt is the little 2" blocks at the top and the bottom of the quilt. Aren't they so sweet? I like having borders on only 2 sides.

For quilting, I stippled it in cream thread. The red binding fabric is the cherry on top...the icing on the cake...my favorite binding ever!

The tutorial is posted over here on the Moda Bake shop! If you make a quilt using this tutorial, I'd love to see it.

Happy Friday to you!

36 patch quilt along, week 5

2011-08-08T16:09:00.001-05:00

Welcome to week 5 of the quilt along. I am so glad that I am hosting this quilt along...because I'm afraid that without it, my quilting would be very minimal this summer. (How did life get so busy???) I'm still finding much less time than I would like, but at least I'm making progress on something!

This week I managed to make 4 blocks. I hope I have time to squeeze in a few more tonight? Then again, that may be wishful thinking. This is a no pressure quilt along...so I'm happy with my 4!

I said last week that I was going to add more yellow/gold. Check! Next week I need to move on to another color. :)

It's been fun to see all kinds of 36 patch blocks popping up in the quilt along flickr group. If you are quilting along, please remember to add your blocks to the group!

So, how are you doing on your blocks?

Happy Monday to you!

oh my stars! progress

2011-08-03T12:39:00.002-05:00

I've been working slowly and surely on my oh my stars! quilt. My husband thinks this would make a good king size quilt. I totally agree, but I'm not sure my arms can handle it. :) For now I'm just taking it one row at a time and I'll see where it goes.

I sure do love it so far! The way the white fabric pops just makes me smile.

The specifics of the quilt can be found in this post.

36 patch quilt along, week 4

2011-08-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

Hello there, and welcome to week 4 of the quilt along! I hope you are still plugging away at your blocks.

I managed to make my 6 new blocks this week.

I also changed the two large polka dot blocks out of my pink thrifty block (see last week's post) and used the same type of fabric as the rest of the block. (on the bottom left.) It'll blend in better now, but it's still thrifty!

And here are all 21 blocks I have done. I'm liking it more and more! Only 15 blocks to go. I think I'm going to add in a few more yellows/golds next, then more reds. Then, who knows? I still have plenty of fabrics to choose from! :)

So, how are you doing on your blocks?

Happy Monday to you! and Happy August, too!

cabbages and roses

2011-07-29T18:34:00.003-05:00

Phew, I've had a busy week! Today has been (somewhat) free, so I decided to treat myself to a new project. I sooooo don't need a new project, but this stack of Cabbages and Roses fabric for Moda has been calling my name. (It's due to release in September, I believe.) I couldn't fall asleep last night because I was thinking of all the possibilities.

This morning I set up my tripod, took a quick photo and then cracked it open. Part of me really hates to open such a pretty stack of fabric! It's just so perfect when it's all intact. But as you will see, apparently I managed. :)

After much deliberating on a pattern, I decided to make large half square triangles. I cut 9" squares from the fat quarter and then made huge half square triangle blocks. The 9" square is dandy, because there is virtually NO waste from side to side (since a FQ is 18" x 22"), just a few strips of extra fabric and then the selvages at the end. I LOVE to maximize my fabric like that!

I also tried a super smart tip that I got from Tara earlier in the week. She told me that when she cut out her strips for the quilt along blocks, she cut them in pairs, right sides facing each other. Then, when it comes time to sew, the pairs are already lined up, no rearranging necessary. I tried that technique with these triangles and it worked like a charm. Thank you, Tara!

I started with the blues and greens.

Then I moved on to the pinks. They are my favorites! But really, all of these fabrics are just. so. sweet.

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the colors separated, or perhaps put them all together? I'm going to have to do some playing around before I decide for sure. Either way, I know it will be pretty!

36 patch quilt along, week 3

2011-07-25T13:01:00.004-05:00

Welcome to week 3 of the quilt along. How are your blocks coming along? I hope you are having fun making them! I know I am still enjoying them, even after making half a quilt's worth. I sure love me some 2" squares!

Here are my 6 new blocks for the week. I went on a bit of a pink bender, as you can see. :) And my blocks continue to be QUITE busy.

This block is kind of a "thrifty" block. I only had 16 squares of the small pink polka dot fabric, but I REALLY wanted to use them, so I substituted in two blocks of a large pink polka dot fabric to fill in the holes. It's my little testement to "making do"...and in the mix of the whole quilt it shouldn't stick out too much.

Here are all the blocks I have made so far playing together. I like it quite a lot!

-----

Have you ever fancied yourself a fabric designer? Did you see that Connecting Threads is holding a fabric design contest? My husband has been telling me for years that I should turn some of my drawings into fabric. I'm not sure if I have the guts to put my stuff out there, but I'm thinking about trying to work something up. (you know, it all my spare time, ha!) Maybe you need the nudge to do the same? Just thought I'd put that out there for those of you who may be interested!

Happy Monday to you!

moving on

2011-07-23T16:25:00.000-05:00

First off, thanks for FLOODING my inbox with your encouraging comments and emails. They mean more than I can say. Thank you ever so kindly. I'm feeling so much better and I'm ready to put all that behind me and move on! So I will. :)

I am so excited about this quilt. I love, love, LOVE it. It will always have a special place in my heart. You see, I have a super sweet friend that sent me all the pieces already cut out! What a gift! Thank you so much, Penny!

The fabrics are so lovely and many of them are so unlike any that would come in my stash, but I love them just the same. (Don't you wish that you could have someone else go fabric shopping for you once in awhile, just to increase the variety of your stash? I know I do.) Anyway, the quilt top was super quick to put together. Now I'm thinking about hand quilting it. Sounds like a great idea in the heat of summer, huh? But after seeing how great this one turned out, how on earth could I not?

i'm blue, too

2011-07-21T14:46:00.000-05:00

After coming home from the retreat last week I was going to write a blog post about how much I need to regroup, as far as my blog is concerned. I wrote several versions in my head but none of them made it to the page. When it comes down to it, blogging is a whole lot of work, and to be honest, I'm burnt out. Again. The difference this time is that I'm not (quite) ready to give it all up yet. I have so many ideas, so much I still want to do and so much that I want to share with you.

This week, after several comments surrounding my current quilt along, I feel like I just got kicked while I was down. Let me tell you, it feels horrible. Don't people realize that I am here to share my love of quilting with others? That's why I started blogging in the first place. I draw no salary from my blog. When people are demanding of "their" free stuff (who don't even bother to say thank you), and when people feel free to criticize my approach, it makes me think, "why on earth am I doing this anyway?!?" It makes me feel foolish for sharing so freely.

I've lost way too much sleep over this. I've shed some tears over it, too. I know people say you need to have a thick skin, but I don't buy into that. I think that is just giving other people permission to be mean and rude.

I've been debating all week whether or not I should blog about this. I've never written one of "these" type of posts before. I could have written plenty of posts throughout the years concerning people using my photos without permission, rude (and a few downright mean) comments. I could have ranted about people using my patterns to teach classes or lead quilt alongs without asking permission, or about people stealing complete tutorials and reposting them on their blog. I could go on and on. I've bottled it all up until this week. I feel if I don't write something at this point, I'm just being a doormat. I realize that compared to some other friends, I have it easy. But still, I needed to lay this all out here before it ate away at me any further.

I've had some great friends and a neighbor check up on me and see if I was ok--they were very concerned for me. (Which also gave a lot of validity to my feelings.) One friend was downright outraged for me. I can not tell you just how much that means to me. So, if you are one of those kind people who offered concern and encouragement throughout this, thank you. You know who you are. I am so thankful that I have you in my life. It gives me a glimmer of hope that there is still some worth to blogging.

how to make a 36 patch block

2011-07-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

Welcome to week 2 of the quilt along! Do you have your fabrics all picked out? Today begins the fun of sewing!

To make a 36 patch block, you will need 2 pieces of fabric that measure at least 8" x 18". They should contrast enough so you can read the pattern of the block.

Cut 3 strips 2.5" x 18" from each fabric, for a total of 6 strips.

Take one of each of the strips and sew together in pairs, using a 1/4" seam allowance. I'm using my handy dandy 1/4" foot. I love that thing! Since we are strip piecing, set your machine on a very short stitch length, so when you cut your pieces from the strips, they won't unravel. Me and strip piecing have a very rocky relationship. A short stitch length makes things better. I won't tell you how many attempts it took me to learn that! The dial on my machine goes from 0-6, and I set the length at 1.5. Sew carefully, because those little stitches are a bugger to rip out. I know this from experience, too.

After sewing the strips together in pairs, press the seams toward the darker fabric.

Cut 18 2.5" segments from the strips.

There will be a part of one strip leftover. I am planning to use these extras to make a coin quilt. Someday. :)

Sew three pairs of segments together as shown to make a strip. Make a total of 6 strips. Press the seams toward the dark fabric.

Pair the strips together to form a checkerboard pattern. One thing that I found very helpful is to keep a dark square in the upper left hand corner of each pair of strips.

Nest the seams and pin at each intersection. This will increase your accuracy greatly.

Sew the strips together and press the horizontal seams toward the top of the block.

Sew the 3 strips together, and again, press the horizontal seams toward the top of the block.

When the block is finished, a dark square should be on the upper left hand side. The block should measure 12.5". Easy enough, right?

I had several questions about how many blocks we are going to make each week. I am planning on making 6 blocks for the next 6 weeks. You can pick your pace....no worries! If you are making a larger quilt, you may want to make more blocks per week. Or else you can just work away at your quilt for as long as it takes. If you are making a smaller quilt, feel free to make fewer blocks each week. The point is to have fun, and to bust a little stash in the meantime!

As you can see, I am having so much fun making these, so I'm ahead of the pace I set for myself. I love working with just two colors at a time, mixing and matching fabrics as I please. It's been so enjoyable! It's going to busy, and it's going to be fun! When I had about 7 blocks done, I was doubtful about how it would look, but I'm seeing that the more blocks I make, the better it looks. I may do some editing, I may not. I'm going see how things go.

Please add photos of your blocks to the flickr group so we can all see what you are making!

If you have any questions, I will try to answer them in the comments.

Happy 36 patching! And Happy Monday to you!

retreat recap

2011-07-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

front row, left to right: Toni and Shelly,

back row, left to right: Doris, Michelle, Rene, Terri, me, Mary, Cindy, Stephanie

I was so fortunate to be able to spend last weekend quilting at Gruber's for our second annual quilting retreat. Man, was it fun. Seriously, I laughed until my abs hurt. (I finally found an ab workout that I LOVE! Hurray!) I feel like I owe these fine women for therapy. It was so wonderful to quilt together, to share ideas and stories and jokes. It was fun to EAT OUT and not have to cook for anyone for a few days. It was fun to browse the 10,000 bolts at the quilt shop, even if I didn't buy a darn thing. The side affect, though, is feeling like a slug this entire week. (It was still totally worth it!) I am still trying to get back into the swing of things, and it's Friday already! I am still trying to catch up on sleep! (Again, I repeat, still totally worth it!)

At the retreat, I hunkered down and got my fall 9 patch quilt top done. It took me all of Friday AND all of Saturday. And if you know me, I take my quilting retreat sewing time very seriously-I get down to business! This is just a time consuming quilt to piece, which also makes it the perfect retreat project. There was no shortage of great conversation and laughter to take my mind off the monotony. After I got the top done and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I also saw the fruits of my labor. Yay!

The quilt specifics: Most of the 9 patches are pieced from Kona cotton jelly rolls in the Dusky and Dark colorways. The cream sashing is Moda Bella Solid in the color snow. The pattern is from a quilt along I did a few summers ago. (Links are on my sidebar...one a day quilt along.) It is a twin size.

Anyway, back to the retreat....I was lame-o and took VERY few photos. And the ones I did take turned out all yellow. But thankfully other people did. And they wrote beautiful recap posts all about the retreat. Click on any of the links above to read more about the fun we had. I feel so lucky to be able to call these women friends. I can't wait to do it again next year!

36 patch quilt along-week 1

2011-07-11T21:44:00.003-05:00

Welcome to week 1 of the 36 patch quilt along! I'm excited that so many of you plan on quilting along with me! Today we will be talking about fabric requirements. For this quilt I'm "shopping" from my stash. I'm using fat quarters and other pieces of various sizes. There will be no sashing in this quilt. (Can you believe it???)

Each individual block finishes at 12" square. Each block requires two contrasting fabrics. Think about contrast when you are choosing your fabrics, and pick your fabric in pairs for each block. Pick one light value fabric and one medium value fabric. Or pick one medium value fabric and one dark value fabric. Or pick one light value fabric and one dark value fabric. I think you get the idea. :)

Like I said earlier, I'm using fat quarters, but there will be plenty of leftovers. Each fabric piece that you choose should be at least 8" x 18". Fat eighths would be perfect for this, actually, as fat eighths are typically cut 9" x 22".

Now, on to specific quilt sizes.....

Baby size=36" x 48" will require 12 pieced blocks.

This quilt will require 24 different fabrics.

Lap size=60" x 72" will require 30 pieced blocks.

This quilt will require 60 different fabrics.

Square lap size=72" x 72" will require 36 pieced blocks.

This quilt will require 72 different fabrics.

Skinny twin quilt**=60" x 84" will require 35 pieced blocks.

This quilt will require 70 different fabrics.

Extra wide twin**=72" x 84" will require 42 pieced blocks.

This quilt will require 84 different fabrics.

Queen size quilt=84" x 96" will require 56 pieced blocks.
This quilt will require 112 different fabrics.

King size quilt= 108" x 96" will require 72 pieced blocks.

This quilt will require 144 different fabrics.

Personally, I'll be making the square lap version. So, I'll be making a 36 patch quilt out of 36 patches! (Thanks Cindy for the affirmation that this was the way to go.)

72 different fabrics may sound like a lot, but it really isn't that bad. Now, if you are making a king size and you are trying to round up 144 unique fabrics, you MAY want to consider repeating a few here and there. Or maybe you don't need to. I'm not here to judge. :)

**My typical twin size quilt is about 63" x 88". Since I am working with 12" blocks for this quilt along, that isn't quite possible, so the twin size measurements are a bit out of the norm. The lengths are a little shorter than normal which is typically ok, especially if your twin bed has a foot board. As far as width goes, choose a skinny twin if you would rather have less overhang on the sides and an extra wide twin if you would want more overhang on the sides. You may want to measure the mattress you are fitting just to be sure.

Next week I plan to share a tutorial for the block construction.

Any questions? I know that's a whole lot of math, and I'm trying to recuperate from the retreat this past weekend, so if you see any errors, please let me know! For those of you quilting along, do you know what size you want to make? I'd be curious to know.

Happy Monday to you!

fancy block Friday #5

2011-07-08T06:58:00.001-05:00

This week for fancy block Friday, I broke away from paper piecing and did some improv piecing. This funky lady was inspired by this one on flickr. I LOVE HER! The fabric combo reminds me of Cath Kidston. (YAY!) I want to make 100 more. :) I just might.

Terri and Cindy stayed the night last night and we are headed to Gruber's for a little quilt retreat this weekend. We will be meeting up with several other fabulous bloggers to sew like crazy for a few days. I'm so excited at the thought of sewing to the din of something besides bickering children for a change! (Ha!)

Happy Friday!

a pair of super stars

2011-07-07T15:12:00.002-05:00

I made these quilts last spring/summer. It's really hard to quilt behind the scenes. It was for a good reason, though. This quilt pattern, (called Super Stars), is featured in the book Fresh Fabric Treats. I have to say, it's pretty fun to see your quilt in a book!! I was a little (ok, a lot) nervous, and a lot excited to see it in print. The book arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago and I was able to flip through it. I was pleased as punch. It was a happy day!

So, this quilt (on the left) was made with Punctuation fabric, by American Jane, which is from last year.

This one (on the right) is made from Snippets fabric, also by American Jane, and it's even older than the Punctuation fabric...so I'm sorry to say, it's out of print. :(

I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite between the two!

This is the back of the punctuation quilt.

This is the back of the snippets quilt. Can you tell that I made do with what I had in my stash for this one? I also made sure to include the extra block in the back. I love how it turned out.

Each quilt measures 72" finished. It's sooooooo nice to be able to (finally) blog about these!

yo-yo's!

2011-07-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

I joined in with Penny's Yo Yo quilt along last week. I've made 101 yo yo's already. My husband can't understand why I'd want to make hundreds of pieces that look like little French hats. :) If I make the coverlet as the quilt along directs, it will use 24 (!!!) yards of fabric. I have to say, that idea is quite appealing to me, as I'm always trying to do some stash busting.

On the flip side, did you see that Connecting Threads is having a thread sale? 30% off their single spool cotton Essential threads, which means the individual spools are only $1.74! I had to do a bit of restocking in my personal thread stash. And while I was there, I may have ordered some solids (some of those are on sale, too). Ok, now I'm just being a bad influence...
(sorry!)

36 patch quilt along

2011-07-04T15:05:00.000-05:00

I've decided that I'm going to host another quilt along. I realize that blogland needs another quilt along like it needs another debate on which type of quilting is superior...modern vs. traditional. (HA!) However, I thought it would be fun to host a 36 patch quilt along to celebrate my 36th birthday. If you want to join in the fun, I'd be happy to have you quilt along with me. I'll plan on starting with fabric requirements and size options next Monday. Care to join me? C'mon...what's one more WIP?

Happy Monday to you!

fancy block friday #4

2011-07-01T16:37:00.001-05:00

I'm probably the LAST blogger in the world to make this block. In case I am wrong about that, you can find the template for this block here. ;) Christina has a great tutorial on how to make it here. I've seen so many beautiful versions of it around blogland and flickr, it was only a matter of time before I had to take a stab at it myself. You know what? It was actually easier than I thought it would be. Hurray! Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of paper piecing. :)

I used various solids in blues and greens from my scrap bin and Kona white for the background. When I printed out my templates, they didn't print at 100% (which I didn't realize at the time), so my block was just shy of 11". I decided to add a border to the outside and it's about 15" now. The borders are actually nice, because it encloses all the bias edges. It took almost a whole fat quarter just for the background (gasp!), and that's before I added the borders. Paper piecing sure eats fabric! But, I do love my block. I'm planning on turning it into a mini quilt. Someday.

Did you see the block Melinda made last week for the Fancy Block Friday challenge? I LOVE it! (ha!) I really do!

rebound

2011-06-30T11:45:00.001-05:00

Have you ever rebound a quilt just because you found a better binding fabric in your stash?

I may have done something like that last week. (On a KING size quilt!)

Isn't it so much better?

I just LOVE red gingham bias binding. And I've found that I actually LIKE making bias binding. Doesn't sound quite right, does it? Oh, well, I guess I never claimed to be normal. :)

You can see the entire quilt here.

the ugly duckling quilt

2011-06-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

This quilt top was made by my sister. She didn't like it, but I did. When she asked me if I wanted it, I said "sure." So you see, I rescue not only fabric, and quilt blocks, but you can add quilt tops to the list, too. Are you noticing that this issue runs deep? Really deep.

The quilt top came home with me and it sat in the "to be quilted" stack for awhile. When I finally got around to finishing it, it went quick. Love baby quilts for that reason. I did a simple stipple all over in neutral thread.

I backed it with a brown dot from JoAnn's from their nursery collection, which has GREAT dots, by the way.

The binding is David Walker robots. I LOVE that fabric! I love how the binding completes this quilt so nicely.

My husband was going to give it to a co-worker, but I love it so much that I might stash it and keep it for someone that I actually know. It never hurts to have an extra baby boy quilt on hand. It seems like a lot of my friends are pregnant and someone is bound to have a boy.

The quilt measures 40" x 50". I'm so happy to see this finished! So, Clair, what do you think?

Go! baby winner

2011-06-27T10:35:00.001-05:00

And the winner of the GO! baby cutter is A Dilettante of Fruition. Thanks to everyone who played along. I loved reading your thankful lists.

Happy Monday to you!

fancy block friday

2011-06-24T14:15:00.001-05:00

I've have been thinking of incorporating a ladder pattern into a quilt for years now. Since I wasn't quite sure what to piece this week for my fancy block Friday challenge, a ladder it is! This block could easily be pieced improvisationally, but I love the precise results that come from paper piecing. The block will finish at 8" square. I have a stack of blue/aqua/purple/green fat quarters (purchased from Connecting Threads) that I plan to use to make more of these lovely blocks. And so another WIP is born.....

On the flip side, I did finish this quilt top this week. It measures 44" x 53". I blogged a bit about the process here. I love how it came together! The red and white polka dots are a fun addition to the quilt. But then again, you really can not go wrong with red and white polka dots, if you ask me! Since I need another quilt like I need a hole in the head, I'm pretty sure that this top will be headed to MHC.

Happy Friday!

9 patches

2011-06-22T17:42:00.000-05:00

Some friends of mine are getting married in August, and I'm making them a quilt. Rather than try to guess what they would want, I asked for their (her) preferences. She said "think fall". I LOVE fall, but fall colors aren't my normal go to colors for quilting. I spent a few days (weeks?) mulling over a pattern. I decided to make yet another 9 patch quilt. I'm using Kona jelly rolls in dusky and dark. It's been so fun mixing and matching the colors. So far, I'm loving it! I have 7 9 patches left to make, then I get to assemble the top. I am enjoying watching this one take shape!

If you haven't entered yet, the giveaway for the GO! Baby is still open. :)

GO! Baby giveaway

2011-06-20T10:55:00.001-05:00

I'm sooooo excited to be hosting this giveaway today. The fine folks at AccuQuilt are allowing me to giveaway a GO! Baby cutting system and 3 dies (your choice!) to one of my readers. To enter, please leave ONE comment on this post. In your comment I'd like to include 3 things that you are thankful for.
Here's my list:
1. I'm thankful that my kids are playing reasonably well together today. That means mama gets some time to sew! Yipee!
2. I'm thankful for a great weekend with my husband, kids and good friends.
3. I'm thankful that we are already enjoying fresh veggies from the garden. What a treat!

Happy Monday to you! And good luck!

edited to add: the giveaway is now closed.

asterisk block

2011-06-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

This block is for my dear friend, Tara, for the brand spankin' new Two's Company Quilting Bee. The red and white quilting bee was the brainchild of my friend Andrea, and I'm so happy to be a part of it! The block was actually designed by my friend Penny. This also doubles as my Fancy Block for the week, a paper piecing challenge that I am doing with my friend Melinda. I LOVE my quilting friends and I love quilting WITH my friends, even if it is virtually most of the time. :)

Hope you are having a happy Saturday!

progression

2011-06-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday I was playing with my "uglies". (See this post for reference.) I sewed together a bunch of half square triangles that will finish at a measly 2". I knew better than to throw them in a WIP box. If I did, chances are I would never want to touch them again. So, up on the design wall they went.

Then, I thought, "hmmm, my reclaimed stars would look good with these". I added them in. I like it!

Just for kicks, I added some Kona 9 patches I had laying around for the outside border. Now I LOVE it!

So, 3 WIP's are now ONE! See, it's not about working harder, it's about working smarter. :)

I love that this quilt is progressing nicely and all quite by accident, it seems. I love the traditional feel of it. The goal is to make it into a full size quilt for my brother in law.

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On a side note, this is my 777th post! It seems like a great time to say thank you for stopping by, reading and encouraging me through your comments. It really does mean so much. THANK YOU! xoxo

flirt skirts

2011-06-13T19:28:00.001-05:00

I recently had the chance to review the book Flirt Skirts by Patti Gilstrap and Seryn Potter. I'm not normally a fan of sewing clothes, but if I were to sew anything for me, chances are it would be a skirt.

I loved this book! It has instructions for 3 basic skirt types: A-line, Pencil and Flare, in sizes 2-14. It takes you through how to determine your size & fit, it shows you how to draft a pattern in your size and how to alter it, if needed. It also shows you how to make each of those three basic skirts, step by step. Then, it shows you how to use those basic skirt skills and kick it up a notch. It has 20 different patterns for customized skirts. It also has a section at the back of the book about how to putting your look together. That was a neat addition, I thought.

The authors made it look easy enough, but I wanted to see if I could do actually do it! I'm a simple girl, so I tried sewing a basic A-Line skirt pattern. Overall, things went very well! I did a bit of seam ripping, but that's to be expected.

The fabric I used is Flora and Fauna by Patty Young for Michael Miller. I bought it with the sole intention of making a skirt. (7 months ago) :) I LOVE the border with the 2 toned dots. Anyway, back to the skirt construction. I made this skirt from start to finish today! I pre-washed and ironed my fabric. I drafted my pattern (not a big fan of the process, but it wasn't too bad), I sewed an invisible zipper for the first time ever in a garment (feeling pretty great about that one!), and also used single fold bias tape for the first time. The instructions were easy to follow and very accurate. I LOVE my new skirt. It fits very, very well and I'm sure I'll wear it a ton. I give the book 2 thumbs up!

Happy Monday to you!