20 pattern testers?

3.30.2012

Update: I think I have enough people now so I'm going to close the comments.  If you responded, you should hear from me this weekend!  Thanks!

Hi friends!  Happy Friday!  I'm looking for a few people to test my Colorblock Quilt pattern to make sure everything is right before I publish it!

If you are interested, please comment below or send me an email with a little bit of background about you:

1.  Have you made a quilt before?  If so, how many? (Does not have to be an exact number... one, a few, or too many to count are all perfectly fine answers).
2.  How long have you been sewing?
3.  Have you followed a quilt pattern before?
4.  What level of sewist (sewer?) do you consider yourself:  Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced?
5.  When do you think you could have the quilt finished by?

I'm just trying to get a good range of people to make sure I didn't miss anything!  Looking forward to your comments! :) Thanks!

2 festival of HSTs.

3.26.2012

Do you love half square triangles? Looking for some, fresh ways to incorporate HSTs into your next sewing project? Then you are going to love the Festival of Half Square Triangles!


I'm really excited to be participating in the fun going on starting next week, hosted by my friend Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations!  I've got a bright and springy quilt and tutorial to share next Thursday.  I can't wait to share it with you!

Starting Monday, April 2, we've got two weeks jammed packed with all sorts of half square triangle tutorials and projects from some of your favorite modern sewing bloggers! After all of the creative inspiration, you are invited to link up a HST sewing project of your own -- bags, mini quilts, home decor, you name it. Then our fabulous group of bloggers will choose 10 finalists, at which point it's all up to YOU to choose a winner! That's right, we've got some fabulous prizes up for grabs -- stay tuned for more details!


Here's the schedule:
Monday, April 2 -- Sara from Sew Sweetness
Tuesday, April 3 -- Amy from Amy's Creative Side
Wednesday, April 4 -- Faith from Fresh Lemons Quilts
Thursday, April 5 -- Holly from Bijou Lovely 
Friday, April 6 -- Katie from Swim, Bike, Quilt
Monday, April 9 -- Erin from Two More Seconds 
Tuesday, April 10 -- Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations
Wednesday, April 11 -- Jeni from In Color Order
Thursday, April 12 -- Heather and Megan from Quilt Story
Friday, April 13 -- Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey
Monday, April 16 to Sunday, April 22 -- Linky Party featuring all of YOU over at Canoe Ridge Creations!
Monday, April 23 to Wednesday, April 25 -- Viewers Choice Voting

Friday, April 27 -- Winners Announced!


 
So grab a button, check out the Flickr group, and join us for the Festival of Half Square Triangles -- starting Monday, April 2!

3 flea market fancy.

3.23.2012

My Flea Market Fancy bundle arrived this week!  I've been looking forward to getting this in my hands for quite some time.  I wasn't quilting when it came out the first time (and I'm not a fan of paying crazy prices for out of print fabric), so once I knew it was getting reprinted, I knew I had to have it!
As you can probably tell, I didn't buy a standard FQ or 1/2 yard bundle.  I knew there were some prints that I would use a lot more than others, so I bought different amounts of each.  The leaf and posie prints are cute, but not something I see myself using much outside of quilts made with the whole collection, so I bought a 1/2 yard of each of these.
I bought a 1/2 yard of each of these more geometric type prints, primarily because they have multiple colors in them, and I tend to use more one color + white prints than multicolored ones.  Again, I doubt I'll use these much outside of quilts with the whole collection.
I bought a yard of each of the flower and dot prints, because I love dots and use them a ton and they are all one color + white prints (even if there are different shades of each color in each print, they still read as purely green, red, and blue).
I bought a yard of each of the bouquet prints as well, because I love the print and the color combinations in each and I think they'll be great as pouches or bags, as well as in quilts.
Last but not least, the beloved seeds!  I bought 2 yards of the green and pink, and 3 yards of the gray.  I don't want to run out of these anytime soon, and because they're really basic (and essentially one color + white prints even though they have a tiny bit of brown in them) I will use them all the time.
I can't wait to cut into this collection!  I bought mine at Hawthorne Threads (and the green seeds are from ricrak on Etsy), but you may have to search a bit to find all of the prints!  It seems to be flying off the shelves everywhere.  

Happy Friday!!

10 productivity.

3.21.2012

I've been pretty productive lately when it comes to sewing.  I don't know what's gotten into me but I am so determined to finish up all the projects that have been pushed aside for so long.  Whatever it is, I like it!  It feels so good to check things off the list of remaining WIPs.  You can tell by the state of my sewing room that I've been doing a lot of making lately (and umm...not a lot of cleaning)!
I definitely need another system to sort my scraps.  This basket always seems to be overflowing no matter how much I try to use them up!
I finished the top of this puzzle quilt this week.  I gave this to my husband for our anniversary in September, which is embarrassing to admit.  Thankfully he doesn't mind waiting.
 I just need to figure out what to back it with so I can finish it now!
I've also got two quilts with binding attached to the front, just waiting for a little TV time to stitch it to the back, along with about a million other things going on!  Hopefully this productivity thing lasts a little longer :)

10 bright stripes.

3.20.2012

Nothing new here today really, just another brightly striped quilt for a baby boy.
I make these a lot, I know.  But sometimes simple is best.  This one is very similar to the mustache quilt, but without the mustache!  The back is different though, it's really cute!
This print is by Suzy Ultman, in her Critter Community collection for Riley Blake.  It's on sale right now on fabric.com.  I think it would make an adorable whole cloth quilt as well, with echo quilting to outline the blocks!
I quilted it with wavy lines (I filmed the wavy quilting tutorial while making this one) and bound it in Kona Medium Gray.
 Here it is all folded up and ready to be shipped off to its new home.
I'm still a fan of simple stripes, so it's safe to say this won't be the last one of these you'll see around here.

40 wavy quilting tutorial.

3.19.2012

A few of you have requested a tutorial on the wavy quilting I've been using on some of my quilts lately.  I'm not sure how else to do this other than with a video, so I made one this weekend for you!
Hopefully it makes sense.  If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them as soon as possible.  When you're finished, your quilting should look something like this...
I'd love to see any quilts you make using this tutorial!  Enjoy :)

16 bathroom update.

3.15.2012

I haven't really talked about the master bathroom renovation much lately. It's still coming along, rather slowly. Adam primarily only works on it during the weekends, which makes progress seem to crawl, but we are beginning to see it come together now. The floor tile is nearly finished, we're just waiting on our last bag of grout (we ran out and it has to be special ordered) so we can finish the shower floor, along with adding a few tile pieces along the edge of the bench that fell out and the tiling the edges of the cubbies.


 I am completely smitten with our herringbone floors!

All that's left is wall tile installation and grout, paint, board and batten, bringing in the fixtures, and decorating!  Okay, so I realize that's a lot, but the end is getting closer.

15 sneak peek.

3.14.2012

Just a little sneak peek of what I'm working on this week.

Full reveal and tutorial coming soon!

5 friday thrifting.

3.09.2012

It was a good day at the thrift store!  I've had several weeks in a row that were basically a bust, but today I found quite a few things!

First, some pretty flowering branch wall hangings.  They are an antique brass color and will look great in the guest room!
A couple oil lamps and an old Abraham Lincoln book for The White House.  I'm always searching for things like this to add to our little vintage collection there.
An old and shiny lipstick holder (I think) with some pretty details and an old copy of Wuthering Heights in the perfect shade of mint green.  Old books in pretty colors are a weakness of mine.
Lastly, some vintage fruit and veggie fabric in the brightest colors!  This will have to be made into something for the kitchen for sure.
Happy Friday friends!

12 from the mailman.

3.07.2012

My mailman delivered another stack of lovely fabric for me this week! I think I have enough for awhile, but I will allow myself to buy some FMF when I can get my hands on some, hopefully soon. My shelves are definitely well stocked for now.
A big stack of Kona solids to start off, with the following colors:  Peony, Melon, Salmon, Curry, Cactus, Mint, Pistachio, Fern, Everglade, Azure, Delft, Slate, Plum, Berry, and Charcoal.  The Salmon, Cactus, Slate, and Plum are 1 yard cuts, the Charcoal is 2 yards, and the rest are half yards.
A couple prints from Lourdes Sanchez's Botanica collection for Timeless Treasures (2 yards each) to make an ironing board cover and/or some pillows.
 Two colorways (Coral and Gray) of Michael Miller's Put a Lid on It to frame in my kitchen (1 yard of each).
Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow Herringbone in Pond and Lake, aka my most favorite print ever.  2 yards of each because I cannot bear to run out of these again.
Last but not least, 2 yards of this adorable Critter Community panel print by Suzy Altman for Robert Kaufman, which has already been basted to the back of my most recent baby quilt.
Sorry for the lackluster pictures today, the sun does not want to come out for me!

10 modern mini.

3.05.2012

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  I spent mine cleaning, sewing, hanging pictures, and listening to a wet saw cutting through marble floor tile!  Exciting times.

I was hoping to have a new finished mini quilt today to enter into Jennifer's Modern Mini Challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts, but that didn't happen!  So I'm entering the my last mini finish, my single girl mini!
A bunch of my favorite fabrics arranged in color order, on a background on Kona Medium Gray.
Bound in white and black Metro Living circles.
Quilted with white thread in the curved diamond that Denyse suggests in her pattern, which gives the quilt some awesome texture and dimension.

So there you have it!  Here's hoping a FQ bundle of FMF miraculously arrives at my door :)  Go check out the rest of the entries in this fun little contest here!

13 new fabric.

3.01.2012

Some happy mail arrived today!  A few basics I've been resisting that I couldn't hold out on any longer.
Such a colorful stack!  Can you tell I've been craving color lately?  I was thinking we might be getting an early spring, until we got 18 inches of snow yesterday, with more on the way this weekend.  Such is life in the U.P. I guess.

But back to the fabric.  These are Riley Blake's So Sophie Dots in Purple and Blue.
I bought all six colors of Running Stitch from Patty Young's Lush collection for Michael Miller.  It's such a great basic!
Four of Laurie Wisbrun's Modern Whimsy Circle prints by Robert Kaufman.
I often get asked how much yardage I buy when I purchase fabric, so I'm going to start talking about it in my stash posts.  I bought a yard of each of these.  They're all simple basics that I know I'll use a ton!  Especially the Lush and Modern Whimsy prints since they are one color + white prints that will go with everything.  And the So Sophie dots are perfect for quilt backs, so I was tempted to buy more!

I bought all of these from fabric.com since I had a coupon code (now expired) but I tried to link to fabric stores that have most of the prints still in stock.  A lot of them seem to be sold out most places right now, but I'm sure they'll restock soon!

I have a new project in the works this week and this new fabric is making me want to start sewing!  I'm hoping to spend most of the weekend in my sewing room!  Just need to get through work tomorrow first.
Related Posts with Thumbnails
 

Blogging tips