WIP Leapday + a Giveaway

Happy Leap Day! We've got an extra day this year to work on WIPs—I think that's worth celebrating, don't you? So today I'm taking part in the Leap Day Superior Threads Giveaway. Scroll down for a chance to win three spools of King Tut thread.

But first things first: I had a (mostly) productive week! Since I finished my solids quilt last week, I've been in the mood to check things off the list.

Completed projects:
Bee blocks. See my post here.

New projects:

Log cabin quilt. Nothing like some colorful, quick, easy blocks to raise spirits on a dreary February day, right? I cranked out five of these blocks the other day!

Ongoing projects:

Do. Good Stitches Asterisk quilt - I'm making four blocks for this quilt, and I've finished two of the four. I'd like to complete this top before switching my focus back to my Challenge mini quilt. (Note to self: Try pressing blocks before photographing them! Yikes!)

Challenge mini quilt - I'm sorry to say that this project is making me very sad right now. So I'm avoiding it by working on my Do Good Stitches Asterisk quilt. : )

No progress:
• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA
• Halloween quilt
• Farmer's Wife QA
• Figgy Pudding quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1
New projects - 1

Currently in progress - 8

The Giveaway!
When Cindy and Elizabeth contacted me about doing a Superior Threads giveaway, I was happy to take part. I have some experience with Superior's King Tut line, so I already knew it's good stuff. In fact, at the LQS where I've rented a long-arm quilting machine a few times, they actually require King Tut to be used with the long-arm (they say it's the brand that's easiest on the machine, which gets very heavy use, as you can imagine). King Tut is beautiful thread for quilting, and it comes in an amazing range of variegated colors!

Beyond King Tut, I didn't know much about Superior's offerings until recently. I'm impressed by the wide variety of threads they offer—they have a thread for every type of piecing and quilting out there. I also got a chance to try out Alex Anderson's Masterpiece thread, which I used last night for piecing my asterisk blocks. It's fabulous—no snagging, fraying or breakage here.

Want to try some King Tut for yourself? I've got three lovely spools of it up for grabs, in the colors shown above. Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll choose a random winner of all three spools on Friday morning.

I'm not the only blogger giving away Superior Threads today—you've got lots of chances to win! Visit the following blogs to enter their giveaways as well:

Elizabeth from Occasional Piece-Quilt!

Cindy from Live A Colorful Life

Sherri from A Quilting Life

Leanne from She Can Quilt

Thelma from Cupcakes 'n' Daisies

Jeni from In Color Order

Amy from During Quiet Time

Carla from Lollyquiltz

Jennifer from That Girl, That Quilt

Corey from Little Miss Shabby

Terri from Sewfantastic

And of course, don't forget to link up your WIPs! Just link up any post from the past week featuring a work-in-progress. Please link back here to my blog and comment on other links. Now go spend your Leap Day sewing!

February Bee Blocks

This will be short and sweet, since I only had two bee blocks this month. Whatever will I do with all of my free time? : )

For my Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild bee, Kristen gave us Sherbet Pips and asked us to make square-in-square blocks. She fussy-cut the centers for us, but we had free reign over the rest. I think the solid pink makes those little girls really pop! This is going to be such a fun quilt.

For Sew Beautiful, Emily asked us to make blocks with an off-center panel of patchwork—and the patchwork could be anything we wanted. I know Emily love love loves teeny-tiny piecing, so I decided to give her some of that with this block. For the design itself, I was inspired by this block by Faith, which Emily had pinned. I used Thangles to make the half-square triangles—they finish at just 1"! That's eensy for me. I really like how it turned out, and I hope Emily will too!

And this is my own month in the Stash Trad bee, so I've been able to just sit back and watch these gorgeous blocks filter in from all around the world. I knew the Stash Trad ladies were up for anything I could throw at them, so I assigned the Arkansas Traveler block from the Summer Sampler Series (tutorial here). I've got big plans for this quilt and will likely be making a whole bunch of these blocks myself to finish off the quilt, but here's what has come from my bee-mates so far. Those girls are a seriously talented bunch!

On to March!

Daisy Janie Giveaway

Hey, did you see? We're celebrating the beginning of the New York Beauty Quilt-Along with a giveaway of some real beauties!

A new Etsy shop called Lima Sews has generously offered a FQ bundle of Tilly by Daisy Janie. Lima Sews' owner, Linh, is focusing on smaller fabric producers and designers—a group I personally love to support. So check out her shop and throw her some love. Linh also has a blog with lots of inspiring projects—just look at her FMQ feathers, done on her home sewing machine! Girl has some mad skills. : )

This giveaway is open to anybody, not just those who are participating in the QA, so click here to enter the giveaway. And join us on Monday, March 5, at Kim's blog for the start of the New York Beauty Quilt-Along!

WIP Wednesday: A Happy Week

Ah, it's been quite a week around here, in more ways than one! Lots of exciting things are afoot, but here's what I've got for you today.

Completed:

Solids quilt. This is my first finished quilt of 2012—and I can't show it to you. How annoying. But I'm very pleased with it, and even more pleased that it's finished!

New projects:

Challenge mini quilt - Mark Cesarik was nice enough to send me a little preview of his upcoming line, Cosmic Burst. These vivid colors practically leaped out of the envelope all on their own–they're so fabulous! Can't wait to finish this mini and enter it in the Modern Mini Challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts.

No progress:
• Hexy mini quilt
• Do Good Stitches Asterisk quilt
• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA
• Halloween quilt
• Farmer's Wife QA
• Skill Builder QA
• Figgy Pudding quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1
New projects - 1

Currently in progress - 9

Your turn—link 'em up!

What You Are Making

The Freshly Pieced Flickr group has been up and running for a few months now, and I love seeing what you all have been doing with my patterns and tutorials! If my graphic design career has taught me anything, it's that creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum. So the innovative twists that people have put on my designs very often inspire me right back.

Here are just a few of the beautiful things that have popped up in the Flickr group recently. If you've made something inspired by a project you saw here on my blog, please join the group and add your photos!


UllaBee's Ribbon Star block really sings in solids


Very cool hexagon quilt by CraftyJak, using my Hexing Around block


Brooke's version of my Supernova quilt using Castle Peeps


Mosaic block quilt by Debbie of Esch House Quilts


One of Ara Jane's fabulous Arkansas Traveler blocks


Sew Crafty Jess's Herringbone pillow


Hand-quilted hexagon mug rug by Sarah of Fairy Face Designs


"Kissing Koi"—Patti (Retired to Quilt) made this take on my Kissy Fish pattern

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your creations!

New York Beauty Quilt-Along

Kati's New York Beauty mini

On Sunday I showed you my New York Beauty mini quilt, and on Monday you probably saw this unbelievable New York Beauty masterpiece from Kati. Now I've got a challenge for you: Make a New York Beauty quilt of your own! And make it along with me—and lots of other talented quilters. Sound fun?

I am beyond excited about the New York Beauty Paper-Piecing Quilt-Along, which starts March 5! Ten bloggers (including me) will take one of the New York Beauty blocks shown here, and we'll give you step-by-step instructions, photos, and tips for making that block. By the time we're done, you'll have 10 unique New York Beauty blocks for a stunning quilt.

Each instruction post will show you how to make one 8" square block—you can either make four of the same block to create one large 15.5" square New York Beauty block, or you can mix and match the 8" quarter-blocks to create your own unique design. And of course, keep in mind that these blocks are all paper-pieced. If you've been wanting to give paper-piecing a try, this quilt-along would be a great way to jump in!

Here are the approximate fabric requirements to make ten 8"-square blocks:

• 10 fat-eighths for main fabrics (or 5 fat quarters or scrap fabric)

• 1-1/2 yards background fabric

I'm planning to make 15.5"-square blocks from nine of the ten block designs, making a quilt that's around 45" square. To do that, my approximate fabric requirements are:

• 36 fat-eighths for main fabrics (or 18 fat-quarters)

• 5-1/2 yards background fabric

Here is the schedule for the block tutorials:

March 5 - Kim from My Go-Go Life {Block 0}

March 12 - Sara from Sew Sweetness {Block 5}
March 19 - Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations (Block 1}
March 26 - Kati from From the Blue Chair {Block 8}
April 2 - Jeni from In Color Order {Block 7}
April 9 - Amy from Sukie Don't You Know Who I Am? {Block 6}
April 16 - Katy from The Littlest Thistle {Block 2}
April 23 - Lee from Freshly Pieced {Block 4}
April 30 - Amy from amylouwho {Block 3}
May 7 - Lindsay from Lindsay Sews {Block 9}

Are you in? I hope so! Grab the button, join the Flickr group, and go pick out some fabric! 

<center><a href="http://www.sewsweetness.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Sew Sweetness" src="http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab257/bluemerleboutique/newyorkbeautybutton.jpg"/></a></center>

WIP Wednesday: The One With Elizabeth Visiting

Hi everyone, it's Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy! I'm enjoying some hospitality from Lee and her family this week, so I'm taking a chance and hijacking W.i.P. Wednesday this morning. Not that there's a whole lot to report. Shockingly, we haven't done a whole lot of sewing yet, but we have had a lot of fun. Does making a family of snowmen count as progress? I'm thinking not, but I can say that Lee has been making some lovely hexies and debating how to lay them out. Here's what she's been working on this week:

Ongoing projects:
Hexy mini quilt - making more hexies! Still don't know exactly what I'm doing with them!

Awaiting quilting:

Solids quilt - made the back and basted, ready to quilt.

No progress:
• Do Good Stitches Asterisk quilt
• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA
• Halloween quilt
• Farmer's Wife QA
• Skill Builder QA
• Figgy Pudding quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 0
New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 9

Your turn—link 'em up!

Modern Mini Challenge Inspiration

Welcome to my stop on the Modern Mini Challenge blog hop, hosted by Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts. We're here to inspire you and get you ready to make your own mini masterpiece for the Challenge!

My favorite mini that I've made? Definitely this little guy, which I made for Suz of Patchwork and Play as part of Doll Quilt Swap 10:

Complexity. It's one of my favorite things about mini quilts. You can do things in an 18" square quilt that wouldn't be possible at a larger scale. A full-size version of this quilt would be stunning, no doubt about it. But would I have the patience for 30 or more 9"-square paper-pieced New York Beauty blocks? Hardly. : )

But in my opinion, what really makes this quilt special are the fussy-cut centers—the beautiful swirly circular motifs from Tula Pink's Parisville collection. Without that fussy-cutting detail, this mini would be pretty standard. But those centers give it movement and drama. Which brings me to another thing I love about minis: A small detail like this might get lost in a larger quilt. But here, it's the star of the show—as it should be! Fun, right? So many design possibilities in something so small.

Okay, so are you getting ready to make your own modern mini for the challenge? Don't forget what's up for grabs—gift certificates to the Fat Quarter Shop and bundles of Flea Market Fancy! Squeal!! You have until March 4 to sew your own mini to enter in the Challenge. Click here to learn more about the schedule, the requirements, and the prizes!

And don't forget to keep following along with the blog hop. Happy sewing!

Feb. 6 - Stitchery Dickory Dock
Feb. 7 - Fairy Face Designs and Amy's Creative Side
Feb. 8 - Lily's Quilts
Feb. 9 - Patchwork Notes
Feb. 10 - Don't Call Me Betsy and Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle
Feb. 11 - Sukie, Don't You Know Who I Am?
Feb. 12 - Freshly Pieced
Feb. 13 - From the Blue Chair and Poppy Makes
Feb. 14 - Needles, Pins, and Baking Tins
Feb. 15 - Mon Petit Lyons and Felicity Quilts
Feb. 16 - LR Stitched and Random Thoughts Do or Di
Feb. 17 - Life's Rich Pattern and Twin Fibers
Feb. 18 - Cut to Pieces and Sew Sweetness
Feb. 19 - Swim, Bike, Quilt

WIP Wednesday: Rolling Along

Unfortunately I don't have much to show this week. I accomplished a ton, but it's all on one project that I can't show here yet. So you'll have to take my word for it that I'm firing on all cylinders these days. : ) And that's a good thing, because this week I need to whip the house into shape for some really fun company! Yes, Elizabeth is headed up toward my neck of the woods—we're going to hang out, party with our kiddos, and of course, do some sewing. Which means that this time next week, her and I might just be working on some WIPs together! How fun is that?

Ongoing projects:
Solids quilt. The top is now complete! Woot! So it's not a finish, but it sure feels like one. Can't wait to get quilting.

No progress:
• Do Good Stitches Asterisk quilt

• Hexy mini quilt
• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA
• Halloween quilt

• Farmer's Wife QA (hoping to get back to this one soonish! gasp!)
• Skill Builder QA
• Figgy Pudding quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 0
New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 9

You know what to do! Let's see those WIPs. Link up, comment, and enjoy!

WIP Wednesday: Back In Business

Happy Wednesday! And it is happy, because I have my machine back! I no longer have to use "The Hulk," as the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild girls nicknamed my Hello Kitty back-up machine. So I'm finally ready to get down to business and knock some projects off this list.

New projects:

Asterisk quilt. November was my last month in Do. Good Stitches (at least for a while), and it was also my month as quilter. I asked the ladies of the Love Circle to make asterisk blocks in warm oranges and pinks and cool grays and whites—a color palette inspired by a winter sunset. Here are all the blocks I received, all together, looking fabulous! I just need to make my own blocks (I'm making four) and then I can get it pieced. I had considered adding sashing, but now that I see them all together, I'm really digging the haphazard feel. It really does look like a winter sunset in quilt form, doesn't it?

Ongoing projects:
Solids quilt. Made some really good progress here, even though I was using The Hulk! Wish I could show it to you, but not yet.

No progress:
• Hexy swap mini
• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA
• Halloween quilt
• Farmer's Wife QA
• Skill Builder QA
• Figgy Pudding quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 0
New projects - 1

Currently in progress - 9

You know what to do! Let's see those WIPs. Link up, comment, and enjoy!