5 saturday stash.

Thank goodness it's the weekend!  Glad to have a day to recover after a crazy week, but it starts again tomorrow since we're hosting Easter dinner for our families.  The weather here the past couple days has been beautiful (almost 50 degrees, finally!) which is giving me a bit of spring fever!  I can't wait for the snow to melt.

Speaking of spring, my most recent stash addition is so perfect for the season!  This is Clementine by Dear Stella.

So many awesome prints in this line!  I especially love those cute little birdhouses and the large scale floral.  The chevrons are pretty great too!

I'm in the process of sewing up a quilt with these now, which will be displayed in the Dear Stella booth at Quilt Market!  Fun!  I hope to share some of my progress with you soon.

In case you are in the shopping mood today, I've got some sales for you!

Pink Castle Fabrics is doing a flash sale of sorts, get 20% off of everything with the code SPRING20 (not sure how long the coupon will stay on, so don't wait if you've got some things in your cart!).  Brenda also has a bunch of $6 voile right now, which means its actually $4.80 if you use the coupon too!  There are also a ton of great collections like Flea Market Fancy, Loulouthi, and Hope Valley on sale.

Stash Fabrics is having a spring cleaning sale, including some great lines like Simply Color, Field Study, and Lucky Penny!  Save 20 - 50% off in the sale section.

Quilt Sandwich just received some new Alexander Henry prints, including a couple I've been coveting from their Mecca for Modern collection.  I just love that Urban Garden print.  I also want the scallop print from Maritime Modern, what a great spin on the chevron!  Check out the sale section too while you're there.

Little Pink Rose is offering 20% off all precuts and bundles this weekend, which includes Textures, Luxe in Bloom, and those Riley Blake Chevrons.  Shipping is free when you spend $150, and only $6 for any other order.

ChristaQuilts has Line Dance by Kaffe Fassett for 20% off this week, and a huge Clearance section including tons of Amy Butler prints and patterns.  Shipping is always free in the US and 20% off internationally.

Fat Quarter Shop has a ton of good stuff in their sale section, like Sew Stitchy and Chicopee for $5.38/yd.  There are a bunch of great patterns and books on sale too, including Pillow Pop!

78 Welcome ChristaQuilts!

Today I want to introduce you to a new sponsor, ChristaQuilts!  The shop is run by Christa Watson, and her shop specializes in an eclectic mix of fresh, modern and fun fabrics.  I was lucky enough to meet Christa at QuiltCon, she's awesome!  Christa started off making traditional quilts, but over the last year has focused more on modern quilting.

ChristaQuilts offers an extensive mix of Kona solids, along with several popular modern fabric lines including Pearl Bracelets!

Christa also offers free quilt-alongs and tutorials on her blog, where she guides you through the process of making a quilt from start to finish.  One of her tutorial quilts, Charming Chevrons, was even hanging at QuiltCon in the modern traditionalism category!  She's got kits to make this quilt and lots of others in her shop too.

Christa also offers free US shipping and 20% off international shipping on all orders, which is pretty amazing considering how much shipping costs are lately!  And every order over $25 includes a free gift called "Christa's Candy", which you can choose yourself!

Today Christa is offering one of you a $20 gift certificate to her shop!  You can stock up on Kona solids or anything else that catches your eye.  

To enter, simply leave a comment here.  If you'd like, take a look through the ChristaQuilts shop and tell her which fabrics are your favorites!  Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment!  I will pick a winner next Tuesday (3/26).

If you'd like to stay up to date on ChristaQuilts, sign up for the newsletter or subscribe to Christa's blog!

Thanks so much for your support Christa!

Update: This giveaway is now closed.  Congrats to the winner, Barbara Woods!

11 cosmos butterflies.

My Cosmos Butterflies quilt is finally finished!  Honestly it's been done for a couple months now and I just kept forgetting to photograph it.

It would've been nice if there were any signs of spring around for these photos, but we still have a ton of snow and 30 degrees is considered warm lately.  So just pretend there are pretty tulips and green grass around, okay? :)

The butterflies in this quilt were made out of charms of Cosmos Collection that Laura Gunn sent me last August.  I used this tutorial  to make the blocks, and paired them with some low volume squares to spread them out a bit.  The inner border was made with Laura's Painter's Canvas along with some Kona Ash.  The Coastal Flowers print from Lotta Jansdotter's Bella seemed like a perfect match, so I added another border of that, and then Laura kindly sent me some of the Blue Skinny Plaid print to finish it off!  I truly went into this quilt with no real plan and just made it up as I went along.

This was my first time really free motion quilting a large quilt.  I used Elizabeth Hartman's dogwood pattern for the low volume blocks, and alternated with loops down the center of each butterfly.

The Bella print got some FMQ squiggles and outlines around each flower.  I straight line quilted the inner and outer borders.

I used up some additional Cosmos yardage that Laura sent for the back, along with some more Painter's Canvas I had in my stash.

The quilt is bound in more Painter's Canvas in Lime, which ties in with the bodies of the butterflies and the cornerstones of the inner border.  The quilt finishes at about 61" square.

This quilt was a lot of fun to make and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!  Being my first attempt at FMQ on a large scale it's definitely not perfect, but that's how we improve our skills, right?  I will be giving it to my grandmother this weekend and I really hope she loves it!

8 wiksten tank and a few updates.

I made myself a Wiksten tank this week! I had to justify the massive amounts of voile headed my way from Sew, Mama, Sew's $6 sale by saying I was going to make some new shirts for myself, so I made this as a wearable muslin from some thrifted fabric I had found last week.

World's worst picture of myself, sorry!  Was trying to take this fast this afternoon and my dog was jumping at my feet the entire time.  He's high maintenance.  This tank fits nicely with my jeans-tank-sweater uniform!  I feel like I wear the same thing every day.

I wish I knew what this fabric is.  It's woven and pretty flowy/silky like voile, but I don't think it's voile!  It was an awesome find though for $2 for 2.5 yards.

In other news, I've updated my blog design again.  Still a work in progress but I think I like it!

I also finally was able to buy bijoulovely.com!  So both bijoulovely.com and bijoulovelydesigns.com will lead you here now.  I've been trying to do that for about 3 years now, glad the squatters finally gave up :)  And my twitter name now matches my instagram name: @bijoulovely.  Victory on all counts this week with branding!

11 color me retro pincushion.

Just a quick post today with a cute little project!  I made this pincushion last week when I was in need of a finish.  You know how sometimes you just want to start something and finish it all in one day?  This was one of those projects.  I'm finding that if I add a few of these in among the bigger quilts and such, I feel more productive and therefore want to sew more!  Fast projects are just so satifsying.

I bought a stack of Color Me Retro (available at Pink Castle Fabrics and Stash Fabrics) as soon as it came out, and I've been having a hard time resisting cutting into it!  I just needed a tiny strip of most of the prints for this project, but those little strips make a lot of impact here.  I added a few coordinating solids here from my stash, all Michael Miller Cotton Couture (available at Pink Castle Fabrics and Stash Fabrics).

The pincushion pattern is another one from Alexia Abegg's Liberty Love book.  I know I keep raving about that book, but I just love it!  Making two projects from the same book is a record for me, and there are more that I want to try.  (Note: if you make this pincushion, there is a minor error in the cutting directions, so check the Liberty Love flickr group for the correction before starting!)

The pincushion is backed in Florette in Crystal, and I added some teal crochet trim around the edges.

I quilted the front in straight lines, which took all of two minutes on such a tiny project!  

This pincushion is headed off to its new home with a sweet friend.  Jeni should have her own Color Me Retro pincushion, don't you think? (Surprise, Jeni!)

12 Marcelle Medallion.

Since I had so much fun making my x plus quilt during the #xplusalong on Instagram, I decided to join in on another informal quiltalong this month, the #medallionalong!

We're making the Marcelle Medallion quilt from Alexia Marcelle Abegg's new book, Liberty Love (the pattern can also be found in the new UK magazine Love Quilting & Patchwork)

This quilt is meant to be really scrappy, so I pulled a bunch of different fabrics in six colors - coral, citron, light grays and whites, magenta, teal, and navy.

 I made the center square last week and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I'm being extra careful to make sure all my seams and points match up on this one.  It's a good pattern to practice piecing accurately, especially with those Y seams!

This quilt grows gradually with the addition of each border.  I'm having fun working on it in little chunks of time between other projects.

I finished adding the third border yesterday and have all my pieces cut for the flying geese in the next one.  I'm really enjoying playing with all the little scrappy bits!

If you want to join in, tag your photos with #marcellemedallion and #medallionalong on Instagram!

30 art student tote.

After a year of procrastinating after buying the supplies in Atlanta last year, I finally made myself an Art Student Tote in time for QuiltCon.  I've been in need of a larger laptop/carry-on bag for awhile now, and thought that with a few modifications, this bag would be perfect for me.

I had bought yardage of my favorite Melody Miller vintage flower print from her Ruby Star Rising collection from Whipstitch last year with the intention of making this bag with it.  I decided to use it for the handles, accents, and lining rather than as the outer panels because I like to wear bags without a ton of prints on them.  I bought some additional yardage of the print from Miss Matatabi and ended up having just enough to use for the bag. The main panels on the outside of the bag are made of yarn dyed Essex linen in Black, another of my favorite fabrics.

My favorite part about this bag is all of the hardware, which makes it look really professional!  I used denim zippers and gold d-rings on mine.

I made the Option B version of the bag, which features a top zipper panel to close the bag and make it larger if necessary.  I made my panel about 4.5" tall, which is about half of what is recommended in the pattern.

 The inside has lots of pockets for my laptop, notebooks, pens, etc.

Most importantly, it has a zipper closure on the top so I don't have to worry about my stuff falling out when I'm traveling.  It's the perfect size bag to fit under the seat of an airplane, and holds my laptop, small purse, notebook, knitting or hand sewing project, water, and more with plenty of room to spare.

Most of the modifications that I made to the bag were to make it more durable as a carry-on tote, since the original pattern seems to be more intended as a purse.  I made a list of all the interfacing information in case you'd like to replicate this durable carry-on version of the Art Student Tote.  It was pretty simple to make aside from all the cutting and interfacing, but make sure to use a heavy-duty needle and go slow when sewing all the layers together, it's a lot of fabric to get through!  

Outer panels: I used Essex linen for the outside with light woven interfacing (Pellon SF-101 ShapeFlex) fused to it, and then a layer of Pellon 987F Fusible Fleece fused to that.

Straps:  My straps are made of a Kokka linen/cotton blend with ShapeFlex fused to it, and a layer of fusible fleece fused to that.  When the straps are folded in half and sewn, this means each strap has 2 layers of woven interfacing and 2 layers of fusible fleece.  I topstitched twice along each side of the handles for added durability, and stitched Xs on the top joint of each side of the handle.

Lining:  Linen/cotton blend with canvas interfacing for added durability.

Inner Pockets:  Linen/cotton blend with canvas interfacing so they stand up better on their own.

Extension Panel:  I used linen with ShapeFlex fused to it for the outer extension panel, and linen/cotton blend for the inner panel.

Pull Tabs:  Linen/cotton blend with ShapeFlex fused to it.

Cross Straps on top of outer zippers: Linen/cotton blend with ShapeFlex fused to it, plus a layer of canvas inside.

Bottom Support:  Two layers of Peltex between outer bag and lining.

I highly recommend this pattern if you're looking for a stylish large carry-on bag for traveling!  I've traveled with it twice so far and I know it's going to get a ton of use!  

20 QuiltCon workshops.

One of my favorite parts of QuiltCon was definitely the workshops.  It's an amazing opportunity to sit in a room with some of your favorite artists and have them teach you new techniques!  I took two half-day workshops, Every Last Stitch with Anna Maria Horner, and Textile Printing with Lotta Jansdotter.

In Anna Maria's class, she showed us some of her beautiful hand stitched projects, talked about her philosophy on the hand stitching process, and then broke us into smaller groups to show us her hand quilting technique.

One of my favorite things that she said during the workshop is that she doesn't worry about how many in-process hand stitching projects she has going at one time.  The point of the projects isn't to finish them, but instead to enjoy the slow process of hand stitching.  The projects get finished eventually (hopefully) but the goal is the stitching itself, not the finishing.  I found that a very refreshing way to look at these types of projects since I too always have several WIPs at once and feel like they never get finished!  I tend to feel guilty about unfinished projects, but not anymore! :)

One of my favorite projects that she brought with her was this adorable little hand-tied baby quilt with tassels, called Flying Goslings.  It's made completely out of voile and was so soft!  I immediately bought a bunch of voile when I got home just to make something similar!

Since I had never tried hand quilting before, it was really nice to watch someone else demonstrate it in person.  Anna gave us lots of tips and tricks and then we got started stitching our little quilt sandwiches.  She has a post on her blog explaining her techniques in case you're interested in learning too.

By the end of the class, I didn't even finish quilting around a single flower, but it was a nice relaxing way to spend the first day at QuiltCon!

Anna Maria had brought a bunch of books, patterns, fabric, and kits in case we wanted to buy some extra materials, so I took it as a sign to buy her new Needleworks book that I've been wanting anyway, as well as those pretty perle cotton sets!  

After the class she graciously signed our books for us, and I asked her if she would mind signing something else I had brought with me.  I was very excited when she said she'd sign my x plus quilt, since I had lugged it all the way to Austin just for this purpose!  

Since I don't belong to any local quilt guilds or anything, I've never had the opportunity to show and tell other than on my blog of course, so it was fun for me to get to show this quilt to one of my favorite people in the quilting industry!  She even took a picture with me and the quilt :)

My second workshop, Textile Printing with Lotta Jansdotter was on Friday morning.  I was really looking forward to this one as I've been really interested in learning more about fabric printing and design, and I really love Lotta's work.

We did block printing first.  Lotta showed us some examples of her work, talked about the supplies that she uses, and then taught us how to carve our block.  I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do for mine, so I got to work carving right away.  

We printed on paper first to test our blocks, and then moved onto muslin.  I found that the carving blocks we used were a little too soft for my preferences, so I struggled to get a clean print.  It was all just supposed to be practice though, so I kept going.

I decided to print a second color (neon pink!) of triangles in the opposite direction to nest the shapes together.  I really like how it turned out!  The pink didn't show up the best on the fabric but I think that might have just been the ink we used.

Next we moved onto stenciling.  Again, Lotta showed us her techniques and then we moved on to try it ourselves.

I didn't really have an idea for another print, so after doodling for a little while, I went with some arrows.  I mixed two different blue inks to get slightly different colors for each one.  I was happy with the design but wished I had made the arrows a smaller scale.

I preferred the block printing method over stenciling, I think it was just more fun for me!  I've stenciled before so maybe it just wasn't as new and exciting?  I definitely want to continue block printing, and plan to buy the supplies to do it at home soon.  I guess I thought there was a lot more involved than what it really is?  You just need ink, a brayer, blocks, carving tools, and fabric!  And ideas of course, which I always have plenty of!

I had to ask Lotta for a photo after class, she was just so nice, funny, and open!  I really enjoyed spending a few hours learning from her.

So those were my two workshops!  I wish I could've taken a bunch more, they were definitely one of the best parts of QuiltCon for me.

52 x plus quilt.

I am back and finally fully recovered from QuiltCon!  It was an amazing experience, and I'll be talking more about it this week, but first I want to share with you my finished x plus quilt!

This quilt was made using Badskirt's Japanese x and + quilt tutorial, but modified to make 12" finished blocks using Megan's measurements.  I used all of the prints from Field Study for the + and x parts, a mix of low volume prints including grays, text prints, and white on whites for the background, and a mix of black and dark gray prints for the ends of the pluses (this black and white bundle would be a good start if you're trying to replicate this quilt).  The intentional fabric choices give the quilt a very high contrast look that I love!  It feels sort of edgy and strong, and the + and x shapes are very defined and make sort of a lattice pattern when you look at the quilt as a whole.

The quilt is pretty large throw, at 72" square.  There are 36 total blocks, 6 across by 6 down.

I quilted down the edges of each of the pluses, and down the middle of each x, using black and white variegated Aurifil 28wt thread, with 50wt black in my bobbin so it would blend in with the back.  I had no issues quilting it other than how heavy the quilt was with velveteen on the back!  It's bound in one of my favorite text prints, from Architextures.

The velveteen on the back makes this quilt amazingly cozy.  I curl up on the couch under it every night!  It's so warm!

The back is super simple, but this Field Study print is one of my all time favorites.  I want to buy it in voile too!

My husband was a really good sport during this shoot, here he is rolling his eyes at me after climbing a snowbank in snowshoes to get these pictures :)

I think this quilt is my favorite that I've made so far.  I'm so glad to finally have made a quilt for myself!  

  
Oh, did I mention that it's signed by Anna Maria Horner?  I will tell you more about that tomorrow! :)

If you want to join in the #xplusalong, be sure to add the hashtag to your photos on Instagram, and upload your pictures to the flickr group!