Trunk Show and Workshop with Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

Is Canceled.  :(

How My Husband Got Me To Try Applique

When we visited family this summer I snapped some pictures of some of my first quilts.  

When I first started quilting I swore I would never applique.  Too tricky, time intensive and tedious.  When my sister-in-law was expecting her second child, my husband got it into his head that we should make a quilt with appliqued clouds and a kite in the center.  I don't know why he was so determined to have a kite quilt but I couldn't talk him out of it.  I told him I would do a pieced border but if he wanted an appliqued center he would have to do it himself.  

And He Did!  He drafted the pieces and got to work on it.  He stitched while we watched TV in the evenings and even worked on it in the airport while traveling for work.  He got some really funny looks.  Not very many men applique - much less at the airport.  :)  But he got it done in time for the baby’s birth.  

It wasn’t perfect - neither was my piecing or quilting!  - but He Did It!  And what's more, it has held together through multiple children!  I decided that if my husband, who had never picked up a needle, could applique then I could too.  And it turned out that applique was a relaxing end to the day, not a tedious chore.  Who'd have thought?

We aren't going to like every quilting technique.  I hate piecing apple cores with a passion!  But not to try things because we are afraid?  Well, that's just wrong.  Try new things!  Overcome fears!  If my husband can quilt so can you.  :)

Keepsakes Fabrics Giveaway - A lifetime Supply of Fabric

So I just heard about Keepsakes Fabrics' Giveaway and wanted to pass the info on to you.  The Grand Prize is a lifetime supply of fabric! How sweet is that?  I looked up the details and a lifetime supply means you get 52 yards of fabric a year for 20 years!  But what makes it even better is that the winner gets to pick out her/his own fabric four times a year.  No ugly fabrics!   There are also prizes for two years supply of fabric up for grabs and 50 magazine subscriptions.  Not too shabby.  You can click here to enter. 

In the interest of  full disclosure, I get an extra entry every time someone enters the contest from these links, but I promise I will have some really, really great fabric giveaways if I win.  :)  Once entered you can also share a link on your favorite social media and receive extra entries.  So click on over and enter.  :)  Contest ends on 2/28.

Orphan Blocks For Street Children

     

Quilts for Mexico City's street children. Shamelessly stolen from littleislandquilting.blogspot.com

At the beginning of the year Alison blogged about how her family went to Mexico City over the holidays and visited a home for street children.  Click on over and read more details about her visit here.  Let's just say that the plight of the homeless children in Mexico City is overwhelming and appalling.  (Google Mexico City Street Children for tons of stories.)

Alison decided to do what she could and find quilts for as many of the children as possible.  To be able to help more children she has been asking people to send her 12.5" square quilt-as-you-go blocks which she will make up into quilts.  (Details here.)  I absolutely love the quilts she has made so far.  They are a happy riot of color and patterns.

So I finally got my act together, rummaged around in my sewing room and found 5 orphaned quilt blocks.  I layered them with some scraps of batting and used some fabric that I wasn't in love with anymore for the backing and quilted them up.  So Easy & Fun.  There was no stress basting because the blocks are so small they just about stick together on their own.  The quilting was a breeze because the blocks are small and easy to maneuver.  As an added bonus I was able to practice some new free motion quilting designs.  A win-win-win.

Find a good use for extra blocks?  Check.
Use up batting scraps?  Check.
Get rid of that less loved fabric?  Check.
Practice free motion quilting?  Check.
Do a bit of good in the world?  Double Check!

Before going to the post office I checked postage rates online and my jaw dropped.  Umm...it's kinda spendy to send packages overseas.  So here is my plan.  If you would like to send me your quilt-as-you-go blocks and a dollar or two for shipping, I will put together a large package of blocks and send them to Alison.  Win-win-win.  :)

So dig out those orphan quilt blocks that you know you aren't ever going to use, quilt them up and send them out into the world to do some good.  Shoot me an email or leave a comment and I will send you my address.

Leader and Ender Convert

It took me a long time to figure out what "leaders and enders" were.  

(Leaders: patches of fabric you sew together before you begin sewing your main project and Enders: patches you sew together at the end of chain stitching which you keep in the machine until you are ready to sew another batch of blocks thus turning them into Leaders.)

It took me even longer to figure out why you would ever want to do that.  It finally came to my attention that some people use much more expensive thread than I do and using leaders and enders does save thread by eliminating the tails of thread at the beginning and end of pieces.  But still....

 Well, I decided to try it anyway.  I had a stack of vintage inspired eye-spy patches that I had been meaning to sew up into a quilt for at least 3 years that I dug out and started using as leaders/enders.  It turns out that I really like using leasers and enders and have made significant progress on the eye-spy patches.

Some of the remarkable progress is due to the fact that I kinda cheat and regularly sew more than one patch together as an ender.  They are just so dang cute and much easier to piece than the foundation paper piecing I have been working on.  Another unforeseen benefit is that I don't have to trim threads.  Since I am always chain piecing there are never any tails to trim off.  Score!

So do you use leaders and enders?

Christmas in January

So it turns out that I forgot to share these pillow covers I made for Christmas.  

The first pillow is an orphan block (made from this tutorial) turned beautiful pillow.  I think this was the second block I had ever paper pieced.  It is a great block for those new to paper piecing.

I love, love, love this one.  To make it I simply drew a triangle on the fabric and sewed on a bunch of buttons.  I was able to sew on the buttons with my sewing machine by turning the stitch length to 0 and adjusting the width until it was the width between the holes in the button.  Then I just put the pedal to the medal and stitched back and forth about 20 times.

 It's hard to see, but I tried out quilting swirls for the first time.  I spiraled in and then paused and spiraled back out again.  I have wanted to try this design for awhile, but was scared it wouldn't turn out.  Yet again, my fears were unfounded.  Isn't that usually the case.  It seems the more I worry about something the less of an issue it turns out to be.  Some of the spirals weren't total perfect but overall it was a success.

 Leah Day has a great tutorial on quilting swirls here on YouTube.  In fact, she has a ton of quilting tutorials there.  I think I am going to have to work my way through them.  Do you think my husband would watch them with me instead of Almost Human in the evenings?  ;)

Double Star in Thirteen Color Combinations

Over two years ago I made this Double Star block as part of the Skill Builder Sampler and last week I thought that I would revisit it.

This is the block I made.  Much lighter and more open than the original.  Before I came up with this coloring I played with quite a few others.  You see, I bought myself EQ7 as an early Christmas present and had to make it earn it's keep.  ;)  (I love that program!)  After trying a few different color combos I kept coloring to see how many different color/value combinations I make. 

The first time I saw this block the quilter used this rainbow fabric placement.  I really love the look.  I might have to make another block.  :)  Here are the other designs I came up with:

  "Fire Star" blocks for my 4 year-old super hero girl.

 

I love the navy and blue color combo! 

 I grant you, there are probably easier ways of piecing some of these variations, but wow!  Pretty amazing what differences color placement and value can make.  You can find the tutorial for this block here.  

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy Sewing New Year!
Keep warm!  The high here tomorrow is going to be -8F/-22C.  I'll be staying inside (and hopefully sewing).  :)