Super(nova) News

I got the exciting news on Tuesday that my Supernova quilt was accepted into the Modern Quilt Guild Showcase 2012!! I am so honored (and still a bit in shock) that my quilt was one of only 33 quilts selected from across the country, and it will be hanging at International Quilt Festival in Houston.

After premiering in Houston in the fall, the exhibit will be traveling around to other quilt festivals for about a year. I really hope I'll get the chance to see it somewhere!

March Bee Blocks

March bee blocks are in the books! Here they are:

For the Stash Trad bee, Amy of During Quiet Time requested a Winged Square block. She asked us to use a two-colored print for the center, with the half-square triangles on one side in one of the colors, and the HSTs on the other side in the other color—plus Essex Linen in Natural for the background. All such great choices to freshen up and modernize a very traditional block! Amy's tutorial for this block can be found here.

For my center square, I used one of the cuckoo clock prints from Moda's Hideaway by Lauren and Jessi Jung. I just love the kitschy Alpine theme of this collection—hello, I'm from Milwaukee. : ) "Kitschy Alpine" is an official home décor theme around here. Hideaway is an older collection but there's still some available on Etsy—you can pick up the print I used from Pink Castle.

For {Sew} Beautiful, Elizabeth asked us for a "Squaretastic" block entirely in Little Folks voile by Anna Maria Horner. I've never pieced in voile before. While it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, it was definitely slippery and different. In fact, I found the most challenging part was cutting it without it slipping around underneath my ruler! And it's just not quite as crisp and precise as I'm accustomed to with quilting cotton. But other than that, I didn't mind it, and it's going to make an amazingly soft quilt!

Finally, for the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild bee, our fearless leader Amy asked for this wonky X block from the book Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers. The note included with Amy's instructions said, "For all the planners in the group, welcome to my chaos." LOL. But it's a bright, fun, scrappy chaos, isn't it? : ) I screwed up that top X a little—I forgot to trim the strip to make it narrower and more wonky. Then I tried to go back and do it later, because it was looking too fat compared to the other Xs, but of course, that meant that patch was no longer quite 4"! Argh. But I think it turned out okay in the end, and other than that little mishap, this was a fun and easy block to do.

Zakka Style Giveaway!

The Zakka Style Sew-Along is launching next week, and to celebrate, Sukie is giving away two copies of the Zakka Style book! If you want to join in the sew-along, you need a copy of the book, so here's a great chance to get it.

Head over to Sukie's blog to enter. And join us next Monday at Sew Fantastic for our first project!

Looking for WIP Wednesday? It's here.

WIP Wednesday: Whole Lotta Nothing

I'll be honest—between getting ready for a trip, being on a trip, coming home from a trip, and recovering from a trip, I barely touched my sewing machine this week. In these cases, I usually spend my Tuesday evenings scrambling to find or do something worth taking a picture of for WIP Wednesday, even if that just means pulling a stack of fabric.

But this week I'm not even going to bother with that. Because there's really nothing wrong with a week full of nothing, is there? From now on, if I do nothing, I'm going to say it loud and proud. I did NOTHING this week! There, that wasn't so hard. Nothingness is freeing. : )

So here we go with my listless list.

Completed Projects: 
None

New Projects:
None

Ongoing Projects: 
None

Back-Burner:

• New York Beauty QA

• Going Coastal

• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA

• Halloween quilt

• Farmer's Wife QA

• Figgy Pudding quilt

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

Currently in progress - 7

Okay, you all know how this works: Link up any post from the past week featuring a work-in-progress. Link back here and give your other linkers some comment love. Have a great week!

Tripped Up

So, how was my trip, you ask? Well, let's see. Last week, the hubs and I moved heaven and earth to find a babysitter, spent too much money on a plane ticket, and dropped everything to travel 1,800 miles on very little notice to see both our favorite basketball teams in the Sweet 16 ... and they both lost. No, they didn't just lose ... they got annihilated. Sigh. Sadness doesn't cover it. Thursday was officially depressing.

But. Such is the life of a sports fan, right? We knew we were taking a chance on this. And some college kids bouncing a ball around is nothing to lose sleep over. Besides, McLurky and I were on our first no-kids-allowed trip together since long before Miss C was born. We had two whole days left in Arizona—what to do? Hey, I know—let's go here:

We were just about as unprepared as two people can be for a trip to the Grand Canyon (okay, maybe with the exception of these two). All we had were flip flops and shorts and more college t-shirts than anyone should be allowed to own. The canyon would be a spur-of-the-moment trip within a spur-of-the-moment trip. But a quick stop for new shoes and outerwear at a mall in Flagstaff and we were in business. 

Back in the day, the hubs and I used to do a fair amount of hiking. It was one of the things we bonded over when we were first dating. Some of our favorite places that we have hiked are Shenandoah National Park, the Grand Tetons, and Switzerland. But then two sweet little girls came along and changed things a bit. So it was incredibly nice to have the chance to participate in a hobby we'd almost forgotten existed. If you had told me two weeks ago that I'd be hiking the Grand Canyon on Saturday, I'd have laughed. Hard. Spontaneity isn't in the vocabulary of a mother to small children. But yet, here we were. That alone was kind of awesome.

So we hiked about a mile and a half down into the canyon (and, more importantly, a mile and a half back up!). Of course, a mile and a half barely scratches the surface of that place, but it was a spectacular hike nonetheless.

We also got a couple of excellent meals in Phoenix—I highly recommend Matt's Big Breakfast (which has been featured on Guy Fieri's show) and Pizzeria Bianco. You will wait an exceptionally long time at both places (the wait can run up to four hours at Pizzeria Bianco), but you will get a meal that is so worth it in both cases.

This pizza right here? Was to die.

All in all, we had a great time, and you'll get no arguments from me about this trip. Okay, I really wish we could have seen a win. Other than that, no arguments.

But I'll forgive you for the devastating loss, Tom. One day. Maybe. : )

Yes, I'm liking Instagram these days. Come follow me—I'm freshlypieced.

WIP Wednesday: Out of Here

I didn't do as much sewing as I had hoped this week. It was a busy weekend full of kids' activities, watching basketball, and playing outside in the beautiful weather. I mean, who can sew when it's 80 degrees in Wisconsin in March?? It's hard to shake the feeling that there will be a blizzard next week. Gotta enjoy this while it lasts. : )

And this week isn't likely to be much more productive—the hubs and I are off on a last-minute getaway to Phoenix, to see even more basketball! Our two favorite teams (his alma mater and mine) are not only both in the Sweet 16, they're in the same bracket. What are the odds? We decided this was the perfect year to see the madness in person—and get a little kid-free time in the bargain. And it's all thanks to my wonderful dad, who agreed to drop everything and come stay here with the girls while we're gone. Thank you, Dad!

Completed projects:

AnneMarie's baby quilt. Blogged here.

New projects:

Scrappy Triangles quilt. I'm finally cutting into my stack of Going Coastal! I've had a plan for this stack for ages. It's so nice that I'm finally getting to it.

New York Beauty QA quilt. I finished my second Easter egg of a block and am looking forward to tackling the third. But once again this block isn't lying as flat as I would like. I need to work on ways to make my curved piecing more exact. Click here for more info about this fun quilt-along.

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 - 7

Your turn! 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. Have a lovely week!

AnneMarie's Quilt

As you may have already heard, my friend AnneMarie of Gen X Quilters recently added a new member to her family! She had a rough, uncomfortable pregnancy, so Elizabeth, Amy and I decided to get together and surprise her with a little something for the baby. I'm guessing her new little man has plenty of quilts, but you can always use another one made by friends, right? : )

We decided on some basic, bright-colored, fun log-cabin blocks. Each of us made three blocks, and I quilted it.

I put some of my favorite little-boy prints on the back—the brown and blue plaid from Katie Jump Rope, a Pezzy print, and a few others.

I've been wanting to improve my straight-line quilting, so I opted for straight lines on the diagonal across the quilt. I recently got a new walking foot that has this quilting guide on it—why didn't I know about this little doohickey before?? It makes straight-line quilting so much easier, no marking necessary! I just marked the center diagonal and used the guide to work my way out from there. The only problem with using a quilting guide like this is if you get a little crooked or curvy on one line, all the lines after that will be the same, because you're always using the previous line as your guide. In fact, the flaws might even be magnified as you stitch more and more lines. So I sometimes took the quilt off my machine, laid it out on the floor and inspected my lines. If they were looking a little crazy, I marked the next line in order to straighten things out again. But I only had to do that 3 or 4 times, I'd say.

And it turns out that I really don't mind straight-line quilting—as long as I don't have to turn the darn quilt! It's the turning that I despise. So you may see more edge-to-edge straight-line quilting from me in the future.

Congratulations, AnneMarie, on the addition to your family! Enjoy the quilt!

Zakka Style Sew-Along

So have you all seen the book Zakka Style by Rashida Coleman-Hale? It's a fabulous book full of small, cute, fun sewing projects—bags, pouches, pincushions, and more. It's definitely a must for my bookshelf! 

Even better: Lindsey of LR Stitched and Amy of Don't You Know Who I Am? are organizing a sew-along of every single project in the book, and I'm one of the participating bloggers! There are 24 projects and we'll be sewing right through the book from start to finish.

The sew along starts Monday, April 2, with the first project in the book and will continue through Monday, September 10, with a new project introduced each Monday.

Each blogger will sew a different project and will be sharing their finished project and inspiration with you. I get to do my favorite project in the entire book, the Little Pocket Pillowcase. You won't want to miss it!

• April 2nd :: Zig Zag Tote with Sew Fantastic
• April 9th :: The House Pouch with During Quiet Time
• April 16th :: Zakka Pincushion with Pink Penguin
• April 23rd :: Sewing Kit with Monkey Do
• April 30th :: Patchwork Pencil Case with VeryKerryBerry
• May 7th :: Itty Bitty Quilt Block Magnets with Little Bluebell

• May 14th :: Raincloud Mug Rug with Quilt Dad
• May 21st :: Zakka Block Quilt with I like Orange
• May 28th :: Stem Messenger Bag with Sew Sweetness
• June 4th :: Zip Organizer with Spotted Stone
• June 11th :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch with Don’t Call Me Betsy
• June 18th :: Happy Couple Handwarmers with A Cuppa and a Catchup

• June 25th :: Patchwork Potholder with Sew Take a Hike
• July 2nd :: Water Bottle Holder with One Shabby Chick
• July 9th :: Elephant Bookmark with Cut to Pieces
• July 16th :: Patchwork Ribbon with {House} of A la Mode
• July 23rd :: Delightful Linen Bag with Sukie
• July 30th :: Bread Basket with Patchwork Notes

• August 6th :: Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack with BettyCrockerAss
• August 13th :: Little Pocket Pillowcase with Freshly Pieced
• August 2oth :: Sweet Memories Photo Frame with Noodlehead
• August 27th :: Pleated Coin Purse with Shape Moth
• September 3rd :: Happy Garland Message Board with Maureen Cracknell Handmade
• September 10th :: Nesting Boxes with From the Blue Chair

You will need a copy of the book to participate. It's available from Amazon and many other booksellers!

There will also be some lovely prizes offered each week by Stash Books, Robert Kaufman, Aurifil, Timeless Treasures, and ZipIt. So feel free to join in the flickr group and be sure to grab a button! Can't wait to get started!

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.lrstitched.com" title="Zakka Style Sew Along"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7183/6983168963_90a2f1aeca_m.jpg" alt="Zakka Style Sew Along" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

WIP Wednesday: Feel-Good Sewing

You might remember that one of my 2012 goals was to sew more things for family and friends. (And to complete the things that I have already started for family and friends.) This week was all about that. I love blogging about my sewing and quilting, but when you have a blog like this, it's easy to get caught up in projects for the sake of the project, instead of projects for the sake of the recipient or even just for the pure enjoyment of making it. The past few weeks have re-centered me in that regard, and it does indeed feel pretty good. : )

Completed projects:

Asterisk quilt for Do. Good Stitches. You saw it here.

New projects:

New York Beauty QA quilt. My first of nine NYB blocks is here, and my second block is well underway. (Both are part of the New York Beauty Quilt-Along, found here.) New York Beauty blocks offer so many design possibilities, and I love the idea of making one quilt with nine unique variations on the same theme. The recipient of this one: Well, okay, it's me. : ) But it's been a while since I've made something strictly because it was fun!

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 - 6

Your turn! 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 do some of your own feel-good sewing. : )

New York Beautifying

Okay, is there such a thing as an Easter quilt? Because if so, I think I'm making one. Yes, my New York Beauty QA quilt is all bunnies and lambs and jelly-bean-bright colors. It's either going to be extremely awesome, or it'll look like an Easter basket exploded. (Or maybe it could be both? I'm hoping for both.)

About half of my fabric stack for this project is from Laurie Wisbrun's adorable springtime-bright Modern Whimsy line, and the other half are prints I pulled from my stash to coordinate with the Modern Whimsy.

And here's my first block. Just to mix things up a bit, I decided that all of my blocks will have solid white centers, and the backgrounds will all be different-colored ring prints from Modern Whimsy. I am seriously in love how Block 0 turned out. Kim of My Go-Go Life wrote a great tutorial and I urge you all to give it a try, even if you do just one block. Click here for the tutorial.

One tip for those of you quilting along: Kim strongly recommends pressing your seams open if you're making a complete circle. Me, being the rebel that I am, decided to press mine to the side anyway. I thought it would make it easier to match up the curved seams. Bad idea. Listen to Kim! My ring seams do indeed match up well, but as you can see, the block isn't laying very flat. Had I pressed my seams open, I think it would have made the difference.

The tutorial for our second block is up today at Sew Sweetness. And while you're at it, go check out the quilt-along's Flickr group for more inspiring New York Beauty blocks!

Asterisk Quilt Complete

My Do. Good Stitches Asterisk quilt is done! This quilt is a little different—a bit more improvisational—than what I usually do, but I totally love how it turned out.

Back in November, I asked the ladies of the Love Circle of Do. Good Stitches to make asterisk blocks based on this tutorial. I left the design entirely up to them—the asterisks could be any size within the block, they could be wonky or straight, the strips could be any width they wanted, etc. I asked for a color palette inspired by a winter sunset—warm oranges and pinks, and cool grays and whites.

I wanted a lot of design variety in the finished quilt, and I definitely got it! Some of these blocks are kind of genuius twists on the asterisk theme, don't you think? And Kate of Needle and Spatula was even kind enough to write this post about how to adjust the width of the asterisk strips and still keep the strips lined up. Thank you, Kate! Very handy.

I made four of these blocks myself. Of the four, this one is definitely my favorite. Too bad I miscalculated when I was making it, and the block ended up 1/2" too small! Darn that quilty math. So I added that weird strip of Kona Coal around two sides. It works with the improvisational feel of the quilt, but I still would have liked it much better without it! Oh well.

So this one is off to Wrap Them In Love. Thank you, Love Circle, for all of these fun blocks. I really enjoyed putting this quilt together. And this quilt concludes my participation in Do. Good Stitches for the time being—I'm taking a little break from that bee while I concentrate on other commitments. But I hope to rejoin it again soon!

Quilt Stats
Design: Based on this asterisk block tutorial
Fabric: Various scraps contributed by members of the Do. Good Stitches Love Circle
Back: Flower Garden in Jelly, from Momo's Just Wing It
Binding: Michael Miller Ta Dot Tangerine
Size: 48" x 60"
Quilting: Free-motion stippling done by me on my home machine
Completed: March 2012

P.S. I did something a little different with my quilt pictures this time—these were all taken before I washed and crinkled the quilt. While I love love love a snuggly crinkly quilt, I'm not sure they photograph as well—the crinkles tend to obscure the details, especially in pictures. So what do you think? Do you prefer to see quilt pictures like the ones above, pre-crinkled? Or would you rather see the quilt as it will actually look when it's in use? (Since I definitely plan to continue washing and crinkling my quilts—it's just a matter of when in the process I should take the pictures.) I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

WIP Wednesday: The Short List

Wow! I'm down to 6 projects on my WIP list ... and it's soon to be FIVE! What the heck? I clearly need to start 7 or 8 more projects to fill out my weekly WIP posts!

Just kidding. It feels pretty darn good to check things off the list. This is the lowest WIP total I've had probably since I started WIP Wednesday! I don't know how long that will last, so I want to enjoy it. : )

Completed projects:

Modern Mini Challenge quilt. Blogged here. And don't forget to go vote!

Ongoing projects:

Do. Good Stitches Asterisk quilt - I finished quilting this one today, and the binding is all made, so all I have to do is bind it. I should have this finish to show you tomorrow!

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 - 0

Currently in progress - 6 (and it'll probably be 5 by tomorrow! Woo hoo!)

Okay, link up those 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. Have a wonderful week!

Modern Mini Follow-Up

Woo-hoo! I'm a finalist in the Modern Mini Challenge! Thank you to Jennifer and the judges for selecting my quilt. I'm honored to be in such amazing company. The contest is now open for voting, so head over there to vote right now! If you'd like to vote for mine, of course I would be grateful, but all the finalists are phenomenal, so please vote for whichever one grabs you the most.

And Mr. Random says that the winner of my extra HSTs is comment #65, eamylove. Congrats, Amy, I'll send you an email. Thanks to everyone who entered. Although I have to say, the people who commented along the lines of "No way in HELL would I want those HSTs!" cracked me up the most. Can't say I blame you for not wanting to follow in my HST insanity! : )

Modern Mini Challenge Quilt: HST Extravaganza

Queen of the last-minute finish—that's me! My mini is done, with just a few hours to spare.

In the spirit of using what I already have, more than half of the HSTs in this mini were made last year—they were the "bonus HSTs," leftover from when I made my Supernova Quilt-Along quilt.  I trimmed them up, added a few more (mostly the greens), and ta-da, a mini was born! (But yes, it still took forever!)

The background and binding are Kona Coal, and I quilted it with simple straight lines along the seams. The completed mini measures about 20" square and the HSTs are 1.75" finished. I couldn't be happier with it! Thanks, Jennifer, for organizing this great challenge!

And one more thing—would you believe, after all of that, I still have more than 80 of these leftover HSTs? I think I've had my fill of them at this point, so would anybody else like to play with them? They're mostly blues, pinks, oranges, and yellows, and they need to be squared up (I squared mine up to 2.25" square). If you would like to give these HSTs a home, just tell me that in a comment, and I'll pick somebody tomorrow. (THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.)