Goodbye 2010 (and a quilty finish)

What a year!   I think I quadrupled the amount of quilts I made this year.  I learned how to free motion quilt and got an awesome new machine.  I’m sad to say goodbye, but I can’t help but feel like 2011 is going to be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

I didn’t do so well updating the blog and my stash is WAY out of control.  2011 is gonna see some changes coming, but we’ll save that for the new year.

I’m so excited I can finally post pictures of this quilt.  I feel like I’ve been working on it forever and didn’t want to ruin the surprise for the recipient!

I started this quilt sometime in August…I think…for a Christmas gift for my mother in law.  Fabric is Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Fig Tree for Moda and Moda Bella solids.  It’s constructed entirely of half square triangles and is a 64 inch-ish square.  I saw the arrangement of half square triangles online…somewhere… and really loved it.  I love half square triangles but I think I’ll be taking a small break from them for just a bit :). 

Backing is Kona solids and a few blocks that didn’t work out so well in the front.  This was the only quilt I made as a Christmas gift this year and the timing worked out perfectly.  It was pieced, quilted, and washed with out any stressing over getting it done on time.  As for my mother in law….I think she liked it :)

I also made a gathered clutch ala Noodlehead.  It was my first time using the tutorial and I LOVED it.  I had to re-read one step a couple of times….but eventually it made perfect sense.

Fabric is Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda (Love this line!).  I made it for my god daughter for Christmas after going into every store in the mall searching for a wristlet.  Nothing was age appropriate (she’s 11 and all the wristlets said let’s go clubbin’!) so I made my own.  She loves it and so does her mom; so I’ll be making another one this weekend. 

Pretty Patchwork

I started this during the Philly Modern Quilt Guild's November Sewing night at the Little Shop in Haddonfield.  This pattern is from the book Jellyroll Quilts.  It’s coming together pretty quickly and is actually alot of fun to make. 

The pattern comes with 2 size options.  The larger size quilt (the one I’m making) uses 1.5 jellyrolls.  There is also a smaller size which uses less than 1 jellyroll.  The fabric is It’s a Hoot by Momo (LOVE it!) for Moda.  The blocks are almost done.

I did have one dilemma before the project even began.  I was planning on using white as my background fabric and thankfully Julie suggested maybe white was not the best idea.  I normally use white in everything and am starting to learn it doesn’t go with everything.  Since we were sewing in a fabric shop the problem was quickly resolved when I found a nice dark brown solid to use instead.  It gives the quilt a totally different look and I’m loving it. 

I finally did find a use for some of the white Kona cotton I’ve been hoarding….more on that later!

Just in time for fall…errrrr

When I first saw the Poppy line by Laura Gunn I knew I had to buy it to make an Amy Butler birdie sling with it…unfortunately that was months ago.   I was hoping to finish it in time for the fall, but honestly as  I started cutting the fabric and miles of interfacing I just lost interest.  Then all of a sudden, it was fall (now winterish)!  I pulled the pattern and fabric back out of my stash and was determined to finish that darn bag…a little cutting here and there and I was finally finished. 

Construction of the actual bag was pretty simple…but some how I screwed it up.  I sewed the gussets in the wrong direction so my bag is more box shaped at the bottom.  I was mildly distracted while sewing with Julie and Candi (but this is in no way blame!!) and didn’t really realize it until Candi very gently pointed out my error….We all had a good laugh and I finished the bag, errors included since I had already cut the fabric at that point. 

I seriously have to say the cutting took me longer than sewing the actual bag.  I’m so sure, next time I’m going to time myself! 

Oh, and here’s the fabric for the next birdie sling since I’m so determined to construct this bag correctly. 

Welcome, December…

Where did November go? 

Been crazy busy here…sewing a ton and doing some renovations on the house.  Since my last post….sooo long ago….I finished this quilt.

Project time:  Hmmm… mid July 2010 – Nov 20, 2010.

Designed by Julie and published in the Summer 2010 Quilts & More magazine. 

Pieced and quilted by me.

Fabric (including backing and binding) is Frolic by Sandy Gervais for Moda.  White solid is Robert Kaufman kona.

I had started this quilt with a recipient in mind but then realized how wonderful it would look on the bed in my guest room. (Don’t worry, the intended recipient will receive an equally awesome quilt….someday!)  This quilt is currently on the guest bed….and I may or may not have slept under it last night because someone was snoring…..shhhh!

Part of my lack of posting is the state of my house.  We tore our living room and dining room apart during November, pulled up the old carpet….a layer of tile and ply wood, sanded the floors, and stained them.  We had lots of help from family but it was exhausting.  The floors are {finally} done and look great. 

Isn’t it pretty?!

Next up:  an apron pattern review, finishing the blocks from my latest jelly roll quilt, and my solids challenge for the Philly Modern Quilt Guild.

Progress…

Finished the blocks for this quilt….now if only I had a design wall! 

Blogger’s Quilt Festival

 

Better late than never!  My entry for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival is my Charisma four patch quilt…basically lots of four patches sewn together on point.

This was my first time stippling a full sized quilt!  The tiny blocks led me to do tiny stipples no matter how hard I tried to make bigger stipples.  I still love how it turned out and am so glad I took the plunge into free motion quilting.

This was also the first quilt I got to keep!  I made so many baby quilts over the past year and a half and even gave away my first full sized quilt to my parents for Christmas last year.  This one’s for me! 

Now that the weather is getting colder I’ve actually had a chance to use it.  This pink backing makes me smile every time I use it!

Thanks for visiting!  Go check out all the other entries over at Amy’s Creative Side!

Potholder Pass 5

 

 

I joined in for a second round of Potholder Pass over on Flickr.  This round’s theme was Holiday.  My partner left it pretty open about what she wanted so I struggled a tiny bit.  I tried a few things that didn’t work (for me) and finally settled on playing with some very small half square triangles.

I used a variety of holiday themed fabric – including some Robert Kaufman and 12 Days of Christmas by Moda.  I still have tons of it left, including this cute cupcake print!

My creative juices weren’t flowing so I had a hard time coming up with an ornament (especially after receiving my ornaments and potholders!).  I found this cute tutorial online and made my first ever ornament.

Isn’t he cute?

Hope you like them partner!

…is this thing on??

Well hello blog!  I’ve missed you!

Sorry for the longer than planned hiatus! 

Things I’ve been doing while I was gone:

• working on secret projects….nothing super secret but Christmas is around the corner.
• not following clear as day directions while constructing my AB Birdie sling (post to come soon!).
• making Itty Bitty Poochie bags (ala Moda Bake Shop) for a PMQG meeting I never made it to (DARN YOU TRAFFIC!!!).

 

• working on another set of potholders for Potholder Pass 5– the holiday edition on Flickr.  I received my potholders/ornaments already and they are seriously awesome!  Thank you Mandy!
• procrastinating from basting a quilt top or two…mainly due to lack of floor space.

Double Hour Glass Quilt

Oh wow….I love (LOVE) this quilt!  It’s my favorite…for so many reasons.

First, just look at the awesome-ness that is Wonderland….it’s my absolute favorite fabric!

This jelly roll has been in my stash for a year and a half…actually it’s the first “designer” fabric I ever purchased when I started quilting a year ago  and it’s still my favorite.

Backing and binding is also Wonderland….both purchased from Etsy.  I quilted with a larger stippling pattern to make the quilt feel softer and I’m so glad I did, because it’s incredibly cozy.  This is the third quilt I’ve stippled…and I have to say it’s so much quicker than straight line quilting. 

My favorite part of the quilt…well, besides my love of Wonderland…the cute green/brown dot binding.  I really like how it frames the quilt…and it’s just so adorable.

Ok enough gushing about this quilt…time to go cuddle under it!

Project time:  May 7th - September 22th

Size: 56” x 64”

Fabric: Wonderland by Momo for Moda

And I’m sure you’ve figured out, this quilt will be living with me!

I’m thinking about posting a mini tutorial on how I made this super easy quilt.   We’ll see!

Sunday Stash

A little retail therapy...after a bit of a stressful week.

  A half yard bundle of Pop Garden (yum!) by Heather Bailey and some Tufted Tweets (5.5 yds total)

Taken with my iPhone...so please excuse the poor quality!

Tomorrow I'll be receiving another 5 yards of (Frolic) backing for my Circle Around quilt :)  

Lots in, lots out, but I'll save that for next time!

Ready, Set, Swap

And they’re off!

This weekend I finished up the hexie potholders for Potholder Pass 4 on flickr.  My partner left it pretty open so I combined her color preferences with 2 things I never worked with before: linen and hexagons. 

I enjoyed sitting on the couch, watching Season 1 of Pushing Daisies on netflix and hand stitching the hexagon flowers together.  At first the process was slow, but after the first one was assembled it started going much faster.  Then I hand stitched the hexies onto the linen following Part 3 of Julie’s hexagon tutorial.  Sandwiched with a few layers of insul-bright, a little straight line quilting, and I was finished.  Backing/binding was left over from the Bliss (by Bonnie and Camille for Moda) fat quarters.

 

They turned out pretty big….close to 10x10.  Next time I’d make them slightly smaller.  I’ve got a Bliss hexagon flower left over so you know I’ll be making one for myself…someday ;)

 

Now, here’s hoping they arrive safely and that my partner likes them!

Pure Challenge

I finished my Project Pure quilt for the September meeting of the Philly Modern Quilt guild.  Project requirements were 1 charm pack of Pure and 1/2 yard of any coordinating fabric…backing and binding were up to us.

From the beginning I envisioned creating an quilt with “on point” quarter square triangles.  Here' is what I came up with….

Close up of the stippling and backing (Authentic by Sweetwater for Moda)

Quilt top close up (stippling over the seams was difficult!)

Project Time:  August 8 – September 4

Fabric:  Charm pack of Pure (by Sweetwater for Moda), 1/2 yard Kona white, and backing noted above.

Completed Size:  Approx 28” square

For:  Me!  I plan on hanging it in my sewing room.

Hexie Love

I’ve been bitten by the hexie bug…I blame blog land, the Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild, Candi, and Julie for posting an awesome tutorial for paper piecing hexagons.

I especially love the hexies in Bliss (who wouldn’t??)…which are perfect for my partner in the Potholder Pass 4 swap on Flickr.  I’m thinking of putting them on linen and hand stitching around the outside of each hexagon…I have a feeling these are going to be hard to part with.  Might as well make a set of 2!

I love hand sewing….it makes me feel less isolated from my family since my “studio” is in the attic, plus it’s portable for long car rides or even to take to the Phillies games.  I’m hooked. End. Of. Story.  Except, I think I’m too ADD to try and make an entire quilt out of hexagons. 

So many projects…

So little time!

I’ve got so many things in progress, it’s hard to focus!  The beginnings of a Birdie bag that I just can’t bring myself to cut out all of the darn pieces (stupid interfacing!), two quilts tops needing basting, quilting, and binding, a wedding quilt for a friend, and Siggy blocks from the Modern Siggy Swap 2.

Two weekends ago I got together with friends and spent the afternoon cutting up my pure charm pack and piecing my blocks for Project Pure.   Hoping to piece the top this week!

                     A sneak peak at my blocks…. 

This past weekend I was on vacation at the beach and as much as I wanted to pack my sewing machine, there just wasn’t room in the car with 2 dogs, a dog crate, an assortment of linens and clothing.  A quick trip to JoAnn’s and I had a few templates for hand sewing hexagons instead.  I brought a fat quarter bundle of Bliss and got to work.  Unfortunately I ran out of templates faster than I would’ve liked and those plastic templates are expensive.  Time to switch to paper piecing I think!

Stitch & Pitch with PMQG

Tuesday was a Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild event – Stitch & Pitch with the Phillies.  Picture this…a sell out crowd at Citizen’s Bank Park with a 1,000 or so women (& men) knitting, crocheting, or in our case quilting!  It was awesome, but hot…so hot and humid.  Everyone with a Stitch & Pitch ticket got a cute Phillie phanatic bobble head.

Who knew the phanatic could knit?  Yet another reason to love him! 

It was a pretty horrendous game with lots of fielding errors and not so good pitching, but we still had fun.  Trust me!

The Philadelphia Chapter of Project Linus was collecting blankets.  I donated a baby quilt…and completely forgot to take a picture of it.   It is exactly the same pattern as this Happy Campers quilt though (fabric & all)…the only difference is it was stippled.

Julie posted a full recap over here, so go check it out!

Surprise Package!

So about a year ago I signed up for a pay it forward gift from Angela @ Moda Home Mom.  I completely forgot about it.  I was having a particularly crappy week (sick car, work stress, the usual) so coming home to a nice and completely unexpected package from Angela made my day.  First, I had to explain to Hubby that no I didn’t order more fabric…but in the back of my mind I’m going…oh crap, what did I order now? 

Check out the goodies sent to me by Angela.  Love them!

Cute little bag with my initial.

Set of notebooks, a little zipper pouch, and some swedishfish that may or may not have disappeared…

Thank you Angela!!!!

So on account of all the good things that have come my way lately through the blog world, I want to give some back…..  So stay tuned for a giveaway in the near future!

Crazy about Circles

So I started the Cherish Nature quilt with a solid, that may or may not be Kona solid, and ran out.  I thought I had 5 yards…but it was definitely a different color Kona…so I’m forced to put it aside until I figure out what the heck fabric it was. 

So I took that 5 yards of Kona and cut it up for my Circle Around quilt - designed by Julie.  I used the easy circle ruler and in my opinion…not so easy….at first.  I think it was a combination of being hot (sewing/ironing without air conditioning in my 90F dining room) and irritated from above noted mistake.  I managed to completely screw up 1 circle…that turned out to be 2 half circles (duh!) and cut 5 or so the wrong size…I’ll use those on the back.  I used my Frolic layer cake from Amy’s Creative Side SMS giveaway.  It’s so bright and cheery!!  As for the pattern itself, super easy and super fun.  The blocks come together so quickly, once all of the cutting is out of the way.

It’s so big, I couldn’t get it all in one picture!  Like I said, super easy and quick…all I have left is to sew my rows together and quilt!

Fabric Out, Fabric In

It’s been rather quiet on the blog lately.  Work has been crazy and I started class again, but this weekend I sat down in front of my Baby(lock) and finished piecing my Wonderland quilt top. 

      Sneak peak of the folded wonderland top.

I <3 it!  I even ordered my backing fabric from Sweet Pea Fabrics on Etsy (which arrived superfast!), but I’ll probably end up piecing my backing for something different. 

Right after finishing my Wonderland top, I cut into my stash of Cherish Nature by Deb Strain for Moda. 

                  Cherish Nature and 3 random prints from other lines.

I love this line…and from the moment I saw it, it reminded me of my high school best friend who now lives across the country.  She was recently married so this will make a nice gift. 

                A few of the blocks I have pieced…only 65 or so more to go! 

It’s a very simple design and I’m even incorporating other fabric lines into the quilt.  I’m planning for the quilt to measure 64” x 72”…for a total of 72 blocks.

Lots of fabric in lately including a fat quarter bundle of Bliss and a fat eighth bundle of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Thanks Julie!). 

 

I have no plans for Bliss yet (any suggestions)…but the Breakfast at Tiffany’s will most likely become many (many) half square triangles. 

PMQG Potholder Swap

Two weeks ago was the monthly meeting of the Philly Modern Quilt Guild…I’m only slightly behind here.  Allison hosted our get together.  Unfortunately, it was really humid with a threat of storms so we all crammed in Allison’s husband’s man cave (Thanks Allison’s husband!!).  Our activity this month was a blind potholder swap.  Mine were simple patchwork using Essence by Sandy Gervais for Moda.  They turned out super traditional looking but I was happy with how the quilting and binding came out. 

 Candi was the recipient of my potholders and these are the ones I went home with:

 

Sorry for the terrible picture…these were taken in my kitchen because I’ve already started using them. Love them!

My favorite though…for obvious reasons were Julie’s!  Go check them out :)

Modern Siggy Swap – Round 2

I couldn’t do it… I couldn’t hack up this piece of loveliness, Tufted Tweets.  Instead I used a little of this and a little of that to make my siggy blocks.

 
Is it normal that I measured each individual block?  No, really?  I kept moving my needle over to get my 1/4” seam allowance perfect but each time I moved my needle I still came out with the same size blocks.  What?!?
I’m really loving these blocks.  They are so easy to make!  Check out all the other combinations of modern quilters in the Flickr group!

Edited to add:  Info on Siggy Swap can be found here.

Hunky Hexagons

This marks another project complete…with only one WIP!!

Many thanks to Julie for inspiration and of course leading the quilt along.  I’m so happy with how this turned out. 

Project time:  April 20th – June 15th

Fabric:  Made with 1 jelly roll, a few charm squares and yardage (for backing/binding) of Hunky Dory by Chez Moi for Moda.  I pieced a few charm squares in the backing which I love.

This was made for and given today to a coworker undergoing treatment for cancer.  She didn’t believe I made it though…guess she didn’t see my signature on the back yet!

Sunday Stash

This week I received lots of goodies in the mail! 

I ordered some more Make Life from Fabritopia.  2 charm packs and some silly writing that I had to have….a Make Life quilt is in my very near future.  Also, the charm pack I won from Tula Pink….I love it! 

 

I won 2 Sew Mama Sew Giveaways….TWO!  So this week I received a roll up and yard of Tufted Tweets from Robert Kaufman, hosted by Julie of Jaybirdquilts.  The fabric is for the modern siggy swap lead by Julie….but I don’t think I can cut the Tufted Tweets fabric up so small.  Oh dilemmas!  I also won a layer cake of Frolic from Amy at Amy’s Creative Side.  I’ve got big plans for it so stay tuned!  Finals are Tuesday so I don’t anticipate much sewing in the mean time…the only good thing about finals is the 2 week break I get before summer classes start!  Wooo-hoooo!