7 pondering fabric choices.

Just another pretty stack of fabric today, sorry for the lack of exciting content around here lately!  The last couple weeks have been packed full and I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit next week, and making something out of this stack just for fun.  Well, technically it's for a belated birthday gift for my sister really, but it counts as fun since it is exactly what I feel like making right now.  Thankfully my sister Gaby and I have very similar styles when it comes to colors and prints.

I posted this fabric pull on Instagram today and Anna commented that the colors we such "Holly" colors.  I do agree that this stack is very "me", but I don't really know why!  This is not the first time I've heard that and I think it's funny how everyone else can define things that are "me" so much easier than I can!  Is it the brights plus black and white combo that makes it "me"?  The text plus geometric print combination?  The addition of those pink-ish purples?  I do seem to add those to just about everything lately.

All I know is, if I could make a career out of just coming up with color combos and fabric stacks, I would be the happiest person on the planet!  Anyone want to hire me? :)

12 quilting, quilting.

I've been working hard on a new quilt recently!  In a new color scheme for me, which is kind of refreshing.  I never would have expected these colors to work so well together.

A lot of straight line quilting happening too.

Lots of lines left to quilt on this one.  I love and hate straight line quilting all at the same time :)

169 MicroMod His & Hers Sew-Along.

Welcome to my stop on the microMod His & Hers Sew-Along!  I was so excited when Alexia asked me to be a part of this tour.  I love microMod and had been hoping to get my hands on this versatile collection!

Before I show you what I made, here's a little Q&A, Newlywed Game style with Alexia and Rob.  These two are a successful couple, so I wanted to know what they thought was their spouse's biggest accomplishment.

Rob:  Alexia's biggest recent accomplishment is writing the book, something she did at the same time as we were buying a house and moving!
Alexia:  My biggest accomplishment is starting our pattern & design company with Rob and my mom, Michelle! It is something that was a dream for so long, and we just stuck with it and did all that we could to make it happen.

Alexia: Rob's biggest accomplishment is our house...we bought a 20's era fixer-upper last year and have been working on it since! He has done SO much to the house, all while having his first fabric line!
Rob:  My biggest accomplishment is wooing Alexia!

Okay Rob, that is pretty much the sweetest answer!  I think you win this round! :)

Now, onto the sewing!  I had been looking for an excuse to make the Around Town Tote from Alexia's book, Liberty Love, and it made perfect sense to combine it with microMod for this project.

For the girl version of the tote, I used the MicroMod Seaweed in Purple for the colored stripes, and my favorite yarn dyed Essex linen in Black for the gray stripes.  I used a thrifted gray leather belt for the handle, and opted to keep the buckle on because I liked the gold mixed with the gray and purple.

For the guy version, I decreased the size of the stripes to fit my husband's Macbook Air.  I added a flap with magnetic snaps to close it.  The blue stripes are Micromod Seaweed in Teal, and the gray is more yard dyed Essex linen.

The insides of both bags are the Vertigo print from Micromod, in Teal for the guy version and Purple for the girl version.

Now for the giveaway!  Alexia, Rob, and Cloud 9 are offering one of you a fat quarter bundle of microMod, and the Lots of Dots quilt pattern from the Green Bee Pattern shop!

To enter, simply leave a comment here!  Please make sure to leave a way for me to contact you in your comment, or you will not be eligible to win.  I'll pick a winner on Monday (4/15).

Update:  Congrats to our winner, The Bumble Girl!  Thanks to everyone who entered!

Make sure to stop by the rest of the stops for more microMod sewing inspiration and giveaways, and at the end there is an amazing grand prize. You could win a fat quarter stack of microMod by Rob Bancroft from Cloud9 fabrics, the entire Green Bee Patterns collection, a microMod sewing bag, and a Singer Heavy Duty Sewing Machine! (US only for the grand prize).

April 2 - Alexia & Rob Green Bee http://alexiaabegg.squarespace.com/
April 3 - Kelly at Kelbysews http://kelbysews.blogspot.com/
April 5 - Amanda at the Craft Junky http://www.thecraftjunky.blogspot.com/
April 6 - Rachael at Imagine Gnats http://imaginegnats.blogspot.com/
April 8 - Heather at alamode http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/
April 10 - Holly at Bijou Lovely http://www.bijoulovelydesigns.com/
April 13 - Alexia, Michelle & Rob Green Bee http://alexiaabegg.squarespace.com/
April 17 - Faith at Fresh Lemons http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/
April 18 - Katie at Swim Bike Quilt http://swimbikequilt.com/
April 19 - Deborah at Whipstitch http://whipstitchfabrics.com/blog/
April 20 - Jacey at Jaceycraft http://jaceycraft.blogspot.com/
April 24 - Jenny at the Southern Institute http://thesoutherninstitute.com/
April 25 - Amy from sukie don't ya know http://sukiedontyaknow.com/
April 26 - Jen from Betty Crocker Ass http://www.bettycrockerass.com/
April 27 - Sara from Sew Sweetness http://www.sewsweetness.com/
April 28 - Krista at Krista Withers Quilting http://kristawithersquilting.blogspot.com/
April 29 - Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey http://imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/
April 30 - Amber from One Shabby Chick http://oneshabbychick.typepad.com/
May 1 - Alexia & Rob Green Bee GRAND PRIZE http://alexiaabegg.squarespace.com/

22 quilting kites.

This weekend I spent a lot of time quilting my Clementine quilt!  I started it on Saturday morning and was finished by Sunday evening, with lots of breaks in between of course.

I started by quilting straight lines horizontally through all of the diamonds, and then turned the quilt and did vertical lines as well, so each diamond had a cross through the center.  

Then came the hard part, at least for me!  I am still not the greatest at free motion quilting, although I have been practicing.  I did some practice loops on a scrap quilt sandwich to get the hang of it before starting the real thing, and then quilted the loops through the sashing in both diagonal directions.  

The loops definitely aren't perfect, but thankfully the pattern is pretty forgiving from far away!

The goal was to make the diamonds look like kites.  The loops are what Kelly had used in the original quilt in the book, and I thought they would work to represent the kite strings.  Do you see it?  The quilting gives it some amazing dimension, it's almost three-dimensional when the light hits it.  The dense quilting in the sashing makes the diamonds really pop!

I'm really happy with how this quilt is turning out.  All that's left is binding!

137 Welcome Fat Quarter Shop!

Happy Friday everyone!  Today I want to introduce my newest sponsor, Fat Quarter Shop!  I'm sure you all have heard of this great online fabric store?

Fat Quarter Shop was founded in 2003 by an avid quilter, Kimberly Jolly.  The shop started as a side business run out of her house while Kimberly was still working a corporate position, and grew into a full time operation as the shop's reputation grew.  Her husband Kevin and several staff members have joined the team as well over the past few years.  The team is committed to delivering top-notch service for every single order and customer, and the shop continues to branch out to offer the best fabrics, exclusive kits, quilt clubs, block of the month clubs, and more.

Fat Quarter Shop offers an amazing selection of fabric, including a few new collections I've been coveting!  Indian Summer by Sarah Watson is so cute, perfect for a baby boy quilt that I need to make soon!

Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter is also in stock.  I am always a fan of her prints, and I really love the pinks in this line!

Fat Quarter Shop also offers tons of patterns and books, quilt kits and BOM clubs.  Their Designer Mystery Block of the Month program is filling up fast!

Fat Quarter Shop is offering a great giveaway to one of you today, a Fat Quarter bundle of Urban Mod by Art Gallery Fabrics in your choice of colorway, Downtown Vixen or Street Siren!  This is a gorgeous collection featuring fresh colors and lots of modern prints!

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post!  Tell me what you're doing this weekend, what you'd make with this collection, or what you're most looking forward to this spring (or really, anything else you want!).  Please make sure to leave a way for me to contact you in your comment, or you will not be eligible to win.  I will pick a winner next Tuesday (4/9).

You can keep up with the crafty happenings at Fat Quarter Shop on their blog, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter.

Thank you so much Fat Quarter Shop for your support!

Update:  This giveaway is now closed.  Congrats to our winner, B Greene!  Thank you all for entering!

10 clementine quilt progress and pin basting.

I finished my Clementine quilt top yesterday!  It's the Must Stash quilt pattern from Modern Designs for Classic Quilts.  After sewing the top together I decided I had to baste it before I went to sleep last night.  I set these silly rules for myself all the time, do you do that too?  I suppose it does help me get things done when I need to.

Anyway, I finally bought a Kwik Klip the last time I was at Joann's so I tried that out for the first time while basting.  I really like it!  Basting is so hard on my fingers, so it's nice to have a tool to help me do the job.  My manicures will probably last longer now too, although my nails weren't painted this time.

If you're wondering how the Kwik Klip works, basically it grips and pushes against the open side of the pin so you can close it with minimal effort.  You hold it in one hand and use your other hand to grab the latch part and close the pin.  You can use it for removing the pins as well.

I've had a few questions on how I baste my quilts, so this might be a good time to talk about that a bit.  I almost exclusively use pins to baste!  That is unless it's a tiny mini quilt and I'm feeling lazy, then I'll break out the spray baste and an old cutting mat to catch the overspray.  My preference for pin basting mostly comes from the fact that I don't want any spray residue getting all over the carpeted floor in my sewing room.  Plus I just feel like pins are more secure for me.

I baste on top of my sewing table, laying the backing down first and smoothing it out, then the batting and smoothing again, and finally the quilt top, smoothing out the layers one last time before I begin pinning.  I have a big table so I can baste a large portion of the quilt at one time, and I always start in the center.  If there is excess draping over the sides of the table, I just pull it up onto the table surface after the center is basted and smooth the layers out again before basting the sides.

This is a much easier method for me than getting down on my hands and knees on the floor.  My back hurts after doing it that way!  I've never had issues with fabric shifting or anything using this method.  The hardest part is making sure the layers are aligned properly if they are hanging off the edge of the table, but I think that's the hardest part of basting in general.

I use a lot of pins while basting (placing them at least every 4 inches or so), and try to be mindful of how I'm going to quilt when placing them.  In this quilt, I've basted only in the sashing since I plan to straight line quilt through the blocks first.  I will remove them after the blocks have been quilted so I can then free motion quilt the sashing without them getting in the way. 

I store my pins in a milkglass jar when I'm not using them, and just stick the jar near my sewing machine so I can easily throw the pins back in when I take remove them during quilting.  Functional and pretty is always a good combination!

I hope this helps those of you who have been confused by my table basting method!  Maybe someday I'll do a more in depth tutorial on the process, but since I usually baste late at night it's hard to get good pictures!

23 stitching by hand.

I've been working on a hand quilting project the last few weeks, quilting around each of the stars in my Lone Starburst quilt!

The idea to hand quilt this project has been in the back of my mind for awhile, and after the hand quilting class I took from AMH at QuiltCon, I knew it was meant to be.  I've been stitching up a star or two every time I sit on the couch to watch tv.

This is the perfect project to practice on!  I am getting much faster compared to when I started, and my stitches are getting much more even as I go.

They are starting to look pretty good from the back side too!

I've only got two and a half stars left to go, and then I can finally bind and donate this do.Good Stitches quilt!