So Many Stitches

Before rampant holiday sewing set in, my older daughter’s school hosted a craft fair as a fundraiser for the school.  Local artisans were invited to come and sell their goods as well as donate one item to be auctioned off.  I was thrilled to participate.  I worked like mad to be able to produce a decent offering.  I started with baby and kid quilts.

This is a small, hand-tied double hourglass quilt made of vintage reproduction fabrics.  I made this with wool batting, creating a nice and lofty quilt.

Then came the castle quilt.  I think this one is my favorite.

This is how it looked before quilting.  Obviously, this design is borrowed heavily from Lizzy House, the wonderful fabric designer behind Castle Peeps, which you can see in the border.

Here we are, all quilted.   Can you see the quilted “grass” and “stones” that make up the tower?  I had a lot of fun with this one.

Then there was this one:

I imagined a little girl who likes pink, but likes other colors too.

And then I really started having fun.  A bunting quilt made with “Hullabaloo”

I really wish I had a picture of this one washed and crinkly.  I really loved these prints.

In the middle of all this, I started thinking about how so many girls at Suzannah’s school talk about their American Girl dolls.  I realized that these dolls need their own quilts and that they’d be a good thing to offer for sale.

I really had fun making such small quilts.  All that fun color made me so happy while stitching.  This was my first dresden plate, and I loved every minute of making it.  Above, you can see a simple doll’s quilt made from Sarah Jane’s At Play border print.  I quickly stitched over the balloon strings and bound it.  Lastly…

Far, far away, tiny laundry line, Snow White, and a few fabrics to frame it.  It was the first to be sold.  I will look forward to many more doll quilts in the future.

 

 

Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders – We Have a Winner!!

#28 is the winner for a copy of Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders.

 

• 28.Anne Sullivan  |  December 21, 2011 at 3:14 pm

  Great picture! I would adore a copy of this book! Thank you for a chance to win.

  Edit Comment

Anne Sullivan, you’re the winner for my giveaway.  Thanks for visiting my blog and your copy will be sent to you directly from the publisher.  Please email me your address.

 

Thanks to everyone for coming here and lurk, comment and read.  I love all of my readers!

 

Fabric-by-Fabric One Yard Wonders Blog Tour & Giveaway!!

Hey you guys!  Did you love One Yard Wonders, the book that showed you what great projects you could make out of one yard of fabric?  And now, the sequel is here.  More projects for you, using one measly little yard of all different types of fabrics.  AND…if that weren’t tempting enough, there is a project included in the book made by moi.  (invoking Miss Piggy with the “moi” bit)   I fashioned a  pattern using one yard of double gauze, some ribbon, crochet trim and wide elastic to make a high-waisted skirt.  I see cute versions of this skirt everywhere, but with high price tags.  Here’s my version….

You can make this skirt in about an hour.  So, if you’re going out and have nothing to wear, you can sew up the finishing touches while your date fixes you a drink.

Convinced that you must have this book?  I thought so.  Well lucky you!  You could win a copy for your very own self in my giveaway.   Here’s the particulars…

1. For one entry to win, leave a comment here up until midnight on Christmas eve, the 24th.

2. For another entry to win, sign up to follow my blog.

3. AND, if you blog about my giveaway…another chance goes to you.

Good luck to everyone and if you get a chance, take a peek at the other lovely and talented bloggers who helped make this book amazing.

 

12/12/2011 Becka’s Project Journal

12/13/2011 Craft Buds

12/14/2011 Patchwork Duck Designs

12/15/2011 A Spoonful of Sugar

12/15/2011 Nifty Kidstuff

12/15/2011 Becka’s Project Journal

12/16/2011 Nom Nom Nom Nom

12/16/2011 Quaint and Quirky

12/17/2011 ikatbag

12/17/2011 Two Brown Birds

12/18/2011 Sharon Sews

12/19/2011 LBG Studio

12/19/2011 Carolina Fair Designs

12/19/2011 Under Construction

12/20/2011 Little Blue Cottage

12/21/2011 Craftzine

12/21/2011 Neuroses Galore

12/21/2011 Emily Steffen

12/22/2011 Jenna Lou Loves You

12/23/2011 Spincushion

12/27/2011 One Inch World

12/28/2011 Sew Sew Etc.

January ‘12 Lu Lu Carter

January ’12 Fiberosity

January ’12 Zuhause

January ’12 Obsessively Stitching

 

Stitching with Loulouthi Needleworks

After I made my Big Quilt, three things happened.

It got a bit colder.

Wool batting came into our local shop.

Loulouthi Needleworks arrived.

What could I do but make a throw quilt made from Anna Maria Horner’s incredible Loulouthi Needleworks prints.  Printed on wide goods (thanks girl!) these prints are adorable on their own, or made sublime when you add your own stitches to it.  I purchased quarter yards and sewed them together along the  widths.  This was for sure a quick quilt to piece together and it looks very happy alongside its big sister.

I wish you could feel the perfect amount of loft of the wool batting.  It’s incredibly warm and snuggly.  Isn’t this why we make quilts?

Using perle cotton, I sprinkled cross stitches all over and some straight line hand quilting as well.

I can’t get enough of Anna Maria lately.  What a luscious color palette.

The Giant Innocent Crush Quilt (With a Little Loulouthi Thrown In Too)

Seriously people, it’s big.  I’m not even sure you can call it a quilt since it’s more like a bed spread.  (And what is the actual difference?)

At 100h x 188w, she’s the biggest quilt I’ve made by far and I knew going in that  this puppy would not be quilted by me.  I enlisted the help of the very friendly and talented Karen, of Karen’s Quilted Creations to stitch these delicious loopy-loops.  I really want to give props to Karen for her professionalism, courteous and prompt emails, and for her obvious care that went into the quilting.  She listened to my preferences and finished in a short amount of time, which is no easy feat given how big this project was.  Thank you Karen,  you will be helping me more in the future I’m sure.

Here you can see the quilting on the back.  I used Kona Muslin,  118″ wide in natural.    It has a high thread count and the feel reminds me of Art Gallery Fabrics.  I know. Soo soft!

This quilt is the simplest of designs so I figured we’d better have some good pillow action.  My friend Jo who is sassy and awesome, made the Amy Butler Midwest Mod pillow to sit here on my bed.  It features the same Innocent Crush print in both cotton and velveteen.

See those petals?  I just love it.    And little Isabel and I did some serious stitching with perle cotton on the Loulouthi pillow.

I’m not even kidding.  Isabel did the blue stitches you see here and other bits on this guy.  I was so excited to see her, hoop in hand and being incredibly precise and careful.  Until this was finished, she asked to stitch every day.

Lots of stitching.

Free-form hand quilting on the white part.

I believe I will be making more pillows because you really can’t have too many pillows on your bed.   I think rectangle is next.

Ok….you gotta see this…

I can barely handle the cuteness.

 

Two Fat Quarters & Some Scraps

Occasionally I like to take a break and make a blouse or dress for one of my girls.  Suzannah is getting older and unwilling  more particular about what I sew for her.  Isabel showed an interest in some of the Just Wing It range of fabrics and I thought a little blouse would be just the thing for her.  I love the unusual color combination here with eggplant, deep salmon (dark coral?) tomato red, and a fresh green.  I had lots of fat quarters from this line and shortened this pattern to make an a-line top.

I cut out some scenery and did some raw-edge applique, added some bias trim and cut out a flower.  In about 2 hours I had made this top and she was twirling in it.

Local Modern Quilt Guild

Not one to keep secrets very long, there it is.  My news!  I’ve started a local chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild.  I’m so excited!  I have been inspired by Alissa who along with Latifah started the Modern Quilt Guild in Los Angeles in 2009.   Alissa’s blog was one of the first I discovered ever since I started quilt blog stalking back in 2008.  Local guilds started popping up everywhere and I longed for one locally.  I did visit the closest one to me, but after a long day of work, I really just wanted to cocoon at home with my kids and my fabric.

We held our first meeting earlier this month and 12 people came and showed great enthusiasm.  It was exciting to talk about what we might do in the way of quilting together, sharing ideas, shop hops and group challenges.  Here are a few pictures from that night.

This incredible quilt is made by Carolyn, on the right, made from Amy Butler’s pattern and fabrics.  Completely paper-pieced, my hat is off to her for sure.

This is  Adrianne’s fresh and bold plus quilt.  This would look good in my girls’ room.  You know,  just in case you’ve run out of storage space. 

Here is Dana’s Single Girl Quilt.  Oh be still my heart!  Putting Joel Dewberry Trees in the middle is  a stroke of brilliance.  What you can’t see is the incredible hand quilting she’s doing.  I continue to love the combination of mustard and greys.  This is really more incredible in person.  Dana wants you to know that the kona background color is Meringue.  Karen made this quilt as a gift for a couple who are getting married.  I wish you could see her piecing and the obvious care she took in making this beauty.   What an heirloom!

We will be meeting at the very fun and vibrant SueDee’s shop in Scotts Valley.    If you are in our area and are interested in the Modern Quilt Guild even a tiny bit, please join us for a meeting.  There is much silliness and  inspiration to be had here.  You can visit our facebook page here.

 

Half Square Triangles & Stuff to Mention

Hello there…anyone still out there visiting me?  I’m so grateful that you do check in on me.  Lots of goings on in my sewing room here this summer and so I’ll have lots of posts in the near future.  First, I did finish my half square triangle quilt for my living room and it’s new color palette.

Here’s the flimsy, all ready for quilting.  I need thoughts on how to quilt this.   Normally, I’d just be very happy with an all over stippling or loops, but this one wants something a bit more orderly.  Hmmm…feedback please.

The precision of getting the seams nested together rewards you with nicely lined up triangles.  Just when I think that I don’t need anything to be balanced and precise, and that improvisational piecing is the thing that I love the most, I fall in love with all the nice clean lines here.   I do apologize for the less than stellar pictures.   Here in Northern California, we have had the foggiest summer I can ever remember and I waited and waited to take this picture and a bright, sunny day never came.

Some of my favorites from Anna Maria Horner appear here, along with a little Cake Rock Beach, Alexander Henry, Parisville from that fab girl Tula, a Japanese print with an apple…

and do you see right here…below the apple?  Yep, it’s something that doesn’t often come up in contemporary quilting.  It’s a Civil War Reprint.   I absolutely love it for the color and the little squiggly lines.  I think it looks right at home here with the other prints on this quilt.

Other Exciting News!

I joined a virtual quilting bee with some fabulous peeps!  This quilting bee is unique in that we’re only using two colors; orange and aqua.  Accordingly, it’s called  To Bee Orange & Aqua.  I was happy to make some blocks for my quilting pal IRL Beth who is an incredibly talented quilter.  She used to come visit me at Hart’s when she lived here, but now she lives away and I can’t chat with her about fabric or her fab tattoo.   With the fabrics she sent, and requesting maverick stars, I made these…

Gotta love that grumpy owl!

I have more to share, but I think I am going to save it for tomorrow.  School has started and the early morning routine means no more sewing until 1 a.m. like I did all summer.   Speaking of the kids being back in school… the always lovely Katy wrote this bit about that very topic and I think she speaks what many feel, but don’t say aloud.  I appreciate these kind and honest words about needing one’s own quiet space and time for creativity as moms.  (Or mums in her case…thank goodness I speak U.K.)

Now…off to bed.

 

A Chair is Nice

The other day, I took a good hard look at my living room.  I looked at what I liked and what might need some help.  My reading chair really needed help.  As usual, when presented with an idea or opportunity to start a project, I did so and straight away.  So, in my usual haste, I do not have a “before” picture here.  Let’s just say that it would be pushing the limit to say that the covers on these cushions were shabby chic.  Maybe they were shabby, not so much chic.  Anyway, this is what can happen when kids are in bed early and you have a few movies sitting around waiting to be played.

So I had a fresh chair just like that and I liked it.  I had that back pillow from Pottery Barn from a few years ago.  It’s a wood-block print from India.  The little pillow is a lovely Kaffe Fassett shot cotton with a wide strip of an Amy Butler print.  The bottom is a large-scale Anna Maria Horner print from her Innocent Crush fabric line.  They all play well together I think.

Then the inevitable happened.  The bright and new cushions made the rest of the room look sad and neglected.  “A quilt for the couch and some throw pillows” was my very next thought.  Never mind my idea of not starting any new projects until the old ones are done.  I started thinking of my color palette and what would look nice in this room.  I looked around the room and looked at this:

And this:

This:

And these:

I thought about the colors; pale aqua, ruby, even bits of pink, garnet, pale grass greens.  I started pulling fabrics and made many, many half square triangles.  They look like this:

With any luck the cushion and the future quilt here will live on my couch very soon.

 

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway – My New Pattern + Lots of Fabric!

Tic Tac Toe, three in a row!  Introducing my first pattern!  I’m excited to finally be able to show you a pattern that will be showing up at your local fabric and quilt shop soon.

This pattern is debuting today which coincides with the annual giveaway
day from the great folks at Sew, Mama, Sew!  The pattern includes fabric requirements and instructions on how to make this floor game quilt.  This is a perfect beginner’s pattern and a great gift to give little ones.  In my  giveaway, you’ll receive the pattern along with this lovely stack of  “treasures and tidbts” fabrics courtesy of Robert Kaufman. 

It’s quite a nice stack and certainly enough to make your own tic tac toe game for the kids in your life.  To enter to win the pattern and fabrics, just leave a comment, telling me who you might make this game for.  You have until the 25th to enter!  Good luck to everyone, and thanks for stopping by

Edited to add that comments are now closed and that the winner is…..

Kristy – Hopeful Threads |  May 23, 2011 at 11:11 am

LOVE this pattern! What a great giveaway! Can you email me a link where the pattern can be purchased in case I’m not so lucky to win? I didn’t see one. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one, my kiddos would love this and it would be safe for them to play around baby…unlike the beads they are working with right now! ugh!

I’ll be emailing you!!!