WIP Wednesday: With Guest-Host Felicity

Hello everyone and welcome to WIP Wednesday. As you may or may not know, Lee is taking the summer off from WIP Wednesday and has enlisted some helpers to guest-blog each week.

I'm Felicity, and I blog at Felicity Quilts. I live in Vancouver, Canada. I'm Mama to G, my 4½ year old daughter, and I've been married to my husband Kevin for going on 12 years. A banker by day, quilter by night, I started quilting about 11 years ago, but discovering the online world of quilt blogs, Flickr and whatnot (heavy on the whatnot) re-ignited my passion. I try to stitch every day - those minutes add up, you know! - it's my "me time" when I can let my cares and worries take a backseat while I just create.

Okay let's get down to business, shall we? I had a great week so I'm only to happy to brag about it share!

Finished...

Nothing - I was resting on my pouch-making laurels. I was totally the Mayor of Pouch Town last week. Seriously: many pouches.

But That's OK Because I Made Great Progress On...

Heather's memory quilt.

That's 5'3" me on the left so you can get an idea of its size - about 80"x60" (ish).

It's all basted and ready for quilting. I will quilt in the ditch in the patchwork and do something interesting (TBD) in the wide borders. Then I plan to appliqué some large flowers in that centre area with fabrics that pick up the colours from the border. The back is pieced, and making it took up the whole morning of my full-day Krista/Poppyprint retreat this past Saturday. (You will see it when I do the Grand Reveal (hopefully soon)).

Charity/Siblings Together quilt.

(Learn more about Siblings Together here.) It started with some squares I cut up with the leftover fabric from Wonder Wheel (which, coincidentally, I won from Lee!). I pieced them all together in a nice orderly square arrangement.

And then I turned my mind to borders and realized that a square quilt isn't all that practical. Whoops! So I did a little surgery on the centre seam and inserted a strip of Kona Amber. Muuuch better!

I have a Layer Cake of Wonderland curing in my stash, so the cornerstones plus the two squares at the ends of the centre strip came from there. I am very pleased with the result (I had no idea the line included some cheater fabric)! Thankfully, I thought of the Layer Cake piece strategy before cutting the border pieces so I could make sure the full LC pieces fit. It's about 60"x70" (ish) so a good lap quilt for a kid.

No Progress On...

Stacked Strips (does taking it out and looking at it count? No? Dang.)
New Wave
Kaleidoscope
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

But I'm happy with what I accomplished - thank you, all day sewing retreat PLUS a bonus Mama Day today when my husband took my daughter to see his Mum and then to the swimming pool.

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 0
New Projects - 0 
Currently In Progress - 7


Thanks for letting me keep an eye on WIP Wednesday for you, Lee - it's been fun!

Christmas In July Block-A-Thon

Ready or not, here it comes—Christmas!

For real, you guys. I'm participating in not one, not two, but three Christmas-related blog-hops next month. Yeah, so if you're game for a little Christmas in July, I've totally got you covered. (And if you're not, well, you can always pin 'em and come back on December 15 or so!)

Today I'm excited to share more about the first of these off-season holiday extravaganzas: the Christmas in July Block-A-Thon with Free Spirit Fabric. If you've been thinking of making a Christmas quilt this year (and actually finishing it in time for the holidays), then this might be the quilt-along for you.

I'm one of 19 bloggers who contributed a block design to the quilt. I can't reveal much about my block or the finished quilt yet, but I can tell you that the quilt has a fun and unexpected design with a modern edge, and it's got holiday flair without screaming "Christmas" at the top of its lungs. The quilt-along will be hosted on Free Spirit's blog—so head over there and subscribe so you don't miss any of the tutorials. While you're at it, you can join the Flickr group as well. 

At the end of the quilt-along, there will be prizes (including two grand prize packages of all the fabric used in the quilt!), and Free Spirit will be putting the block tutorials together into a handy e-book for those who want to make the quilt later. And don't forget to check out all the other talented bloggers who are contributing. Enjoy making that Christmas quilt!

July 2th - Heather at Fiberosity 
July 5nd - Pat Sloan 
July 6th – Melanie at Melanie Dramatic 
July 9th - Pam at Pam Kitty Morning 
July 11th - Kelsey at Kelsey Creates 
July 13th - Katie at Swim Bike Quilt 
July 16th - Kim at Persimon Dreams 
July 18th - Amanda at Sasikirana 
July 20th - Jane at QuiltJane 
July 23th - Kristy at St Louis Folk Victorian 
July 25th – Kimberly at Fat Quarter Shop 
July 27th - Lee at Freshly Pieced 
July 30th - Jennifer at MJ and Co 
August 1st – Mishka at Quilting Gallery 
August 3rd - Tiffiny at Free Patchwork Quilt Info 
August 6th - Tacha at Fat Quarterly 
August 8th – Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations 
August 10th – Jocelyn at It’s Sew Emma 
August 13th – Final Quilt Reveal!

WIP Wednesday - Sukie Style

Hey everyone, Lee's decided to taking a little well-deserved R&R from WIP Wednesdays this summer, and today I'm up to bat as this week's guest host.

Here's a tiny intro, if you don't know me:
Real name - Amy (I like to go by sukie because there are just too many Amys in the sewing community) 
Here's a link to my blog
I've been sewing for a little over 2 years
Married 
Two kids (Pepper, 2, and Lucas, 13) 

I officially met Lee at Sewing Summit last year and we've been chatting with each other ever since.  I credit her for taking one of the best profile pictures I have out there:

Everyone in the sewing community has WIPs right? Yeah, so here's a little glimpse into my world and what I'm working on.

First off, I'm trying harder to be better organized ... meaning I have a notepad portfolio that holds a planner, notepad, and pen.  This is "suppose" to keep me from over committing to projects and it's small enough to keep in my purse.  I really tried to go to my phone for keeping dates and things but I must be hella ole' skool cause I'd rather do the caveman method and write it down.

Another thing I do is try to keep my WIPs in one bin ... and when I say "try," I really mean it—ha!  

I keep each project in ziplock baggies so I'm not losing pieces here and there.  Bigger projects like finished blocks, I just keep in the tote.

So what's taking my attention this week?  Well, I'm working on my Sophia bag for Purse Palooza. Make the bag and review the pattern ... that's not hard, right?  Yeah, I've only made one other bag in my life—eek!  But so far the cut outs look so promising, right? (sarcasm)

I've got 20 bee blocks to make ... um, yeah, that's insane ... 

Gotta finish quilting my Prince Joel Small Plates quilt ... 

My Dresden Challenge quilt needs a back and then I'm sending it off to get quilted ...

Gotta put together my Carpenter's Star quilt (tutorial can be found here) ... 

Yeah, I don't over commit at all! So what are ya'll working on this week??

Now it's your turn to link up! Here are the rules:

1. Link up any post from the past week that features at least one unfinished work-in-progress (WIP)
2. Somewhere in your post, link back here to my blog. (Or grab my WIP Wednesday button for your sidebar.)
3. Comment on at least a few of the other links—because what fun is a linky party without comments?

May Bee Blocks and a Winner

I had some fun bee blocks in the month of May, though it took me a while to finish them. (And post about them!)

For the Stash Trad bee, Felicity asked for colorful churn dash blocks. This is the bee where we make traditional blocks from our own scraps and stash, so I really busted out the color for this one. Churn dash blocks are so easy to make, very beginner-friendly, so if you're looking for something like that I highly recommend it.

For the Sew Beautiful bee, Angela sent each of us a charm from fabric she purchased on a trip to Hawaii. She added some other colorful prints and solids and asked for this improvisational pineapple block (a pineapple block for a Hawaiian quilt, of course!) I can't wait to see how this one comes together, it's going to be fabulous! And what a wonderful souvenir from her trip. I especially love the wicker-look print from Tula Pink's Nest collection.

And finally, for the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild bee, Corinne asked for the Planetarium block from Elizabeth Hartman's Practical Guide to Patchwork. Corinne gave us some lovely Art Gallery prints to work with, and asked for borders in bright solids. Another fun one!

And speaking of Art Gallery, I owe you all a winner of the Rhapsodia bundle from my Fat Quarter Gang post. The winner is #47, Wendy, who said: "Oooh, I would love to win. Going to look at the tutorial now. Thanks!" Wendy, I've sent you an email. And if any of you missed my Ruffled Zipper Pouch tutorial, go check it out!

WIP Wednesday: School's Out!

Today I feel like a kid who can't pay attention on her last day of school, because she's daydreaming about summer vacation. Why? Because today is my last WIP Wednesday until September!

That's right: I've decided to take a vacation from Work-In-Progress Wednesday. I've been doing this linky for more than a year and a half now. It's a huge part of my blog—people tell me it motivates them to make progress on their unfinished projects, and I love that to pieces. But writing about my WIPs week in and week out gets a little old sometimes. And what better time to take a break than summer?

But no worries, I'm not leaving you hanging! I would hate for WIP Wednesday to go away entirely, even temporarily. So I've lined up a fabulous slate of guest bloggers who will be here at Freshly Pieced, posting about their own WIPs and hosting the linky, every Wednesday. Not only will I get a little WIP vacation (a VIP—vacation-in-progress?), but you'll get to see some different projects and maybe even meet a few new bloggers you'll love as much as I do! And I'm certainly not going away entirely—you're still stuck with my usual ramblings every other day of the week. : )

Here's this summer's WIP Wednesday Guest Blogger schedule, so you can see who's going to be the hostess with the mostest each week.

June 20 - Amy from Sukie - Don't You Know Who I Am?
June 27 - Felicity from Felicity Quilts
July 4 - Jessica from SewCraftyJess
July 11 - Kati from From the Blue Chair
July 18 - Taryn from From Pixels to Patchwork
July 25 - Colleen from The Busy Bean
August 1 - Katie from Katie's Korner
August 8 - Bethany from Make Me A Quilt
August 15 - Cindy from Live a Colorful Life
August 22 - Rebecca from Pieces and Cream
August 29 - Michelle from City House Studio
September 5 - Emily from Mommy's Nap Time
September 12 - I'm back!

So keep those WIPs coming! And while you're at it, go ahead and link up this week's. Here are the rules:

1. Link up any post from the past week that features at least one unfinished work-in-progress (WIP)

2. Somewhere in your post, link back here to my blog. (Or grab my WIP Wednesday button for your sidebar.)

3. Comment on at least a few of the other links—because what fun is a linky party without comments?

Have a wonderful week! (P.S. - don't forget to enter my Art Gallery Fabrics giveaway and check out my Ruffled Zipper Pouch tutorial! Click here!)

Ruffled Zipper Pouch

 Today's the day—my first tutorial for the Art Gallery Fat Quarter Gang is live! 

I'm showing you how to make this little ruffled zippy pouch. You can always use another one of those, right? And this one's a little bit tailored, because you know, Art Gallery fabric is just too posh for a scruffy one. : ) And it's easier to make than it looks—you can throw one of these babies together in about an hour! (Trust me, I'm the original bag-ophobe).

Click here for the full tutorial on Art Gallery's blog.

I used fabric from Art Gallery's Rhapsodia collection. I fell hard for the big hexagon print that I used for the exterior of the pouch, and then of course couldn't resist echoing that with the little hexies for the lining.

Want to win a stack of fat quarters from Rhapsodia's "Sweet Journey" color palette? Of course you do! To enter the giveaway:

My rules: Leave a comment (any comment) on this post

Art Gallery's rules:
• Subscribe to the Art Gallery Fabrics blog
• Follow Art Gallery Fabrics on Pinterest
• Like Art Gallery on Facebook (optional)

The giveaway is now closed.

WIP Wednesday: Almost There

Hey, remember how one of my goals for 2012 was not to overcommit myself? To say no to things, like blog hops and swaps and such? Well, we're about halfway into 2012, and: Ha ha ha ha ha ha! That was a good one, wasn't it? Ahhhh, so funny.

Okay, so yes, I'm overcommitted. But I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. This week I knocked several things off my list, and I'm about ready to polish off one more. Then I get a whole month or so in between blogging commitments. During which I can work on non-blogging commitments. Awesomesauce.

Completed Projects:

Bee blocks - post coming tomorrow.

New York Beauty Swap - blogged here.

EZ Dresden project - blogged here.

New Projects:

Art Gallery Fabrics Fat Quarter Gang project. I'm so excited about my first tutorial for the Gang, which is running this Monday! You'll just have to hit the AGF blog on Monday to see what I'm cooking up. And while you're there, don't forget to check out the Gang's first tutorial, a body pillow by Rachel from ps I quilt.

Back-Burner:
• Gen X Quilters' Charmed Prints QA
• Halloween quilt
• Farmer's Wife QA
• Figgy Pudding quilt

This week's stats:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 3

Currently in progress - 5

Now it's your turn to link up! Here are the rules:

1. Link up any post from the past week that features at least one unfinished work-in-progress (WIP)
2. Somewhere in your post, link back here to my blog. (Or grab my WIP Wednesday button for your sidebar.)
3. Comment on at least a few of the other links—because what fun is a linky party without comments?

Have a wonderful week!

Swapping and A Winner

Even though I swore off swaps a while back, I couldn't say no recently to a little New York Beauty swap among friends. Sukie (Don't You Know Who I Am) organized it and apparently that girl can talk me into anything (including 3 a.m. breakfasts at Quilt Market, after I had already tried to go to bed not once but twice).

(This photo courtesy of Elizabeth)

But I'm glad she did, because looky what I got from Elizabeth! Those are Oakshott shot cottons, people!

Check out Elizabeth's stellar quilting. And those itty-bitty HSTs around the edges. This little beauty is headed for my inspirational wall of mini quilts that hang above my sewing machine. Elizabeth was also nice enough to send along some extra Oakshotts to play around with myself, and I'm really looking forward to that.

I also finished up my swap item for my own partner, and mailed it off last week. As usual, I hemmed and hawed and changed my plan eleventy-two times before coming up with this little pillow. Then, right after I finished this one, my partner favorited my photo of the fabric I decided not to use. Of course. But there was no changing the plan again, since I was already pushing it with the deadline, so ... hopefully my partner will like this one, too. Fingers crossed.

Those are some of the new Moda Bella Solids colors in the rays, and the gray background print is Lotta Jansdotter. I did wavy-line quilting again (last seen in my Lifesavers quilt).

And speaking of the Lifesavers quilt, let's give away an EZ Dresden ruler, shall we? Congratulations to #140, Marion, who said, "I have a serious Dresden plate crush! This challenge is going to be awesome!" Marion, I've sent you an email—enjoy the ruler!

A Summer Challenge

The dresden plate is my kind of block. Uber-traditional and perfectly beautiful in all its vintage goodness. And yet, so open to interpretation. There are an endless number of ways to make a dresden unique. And it's so darn easy to transform this block into something very modern. It never ceases to amaze me that something so traditional still looks fresh and of-the-moment, right here in the 21st century.

Enter the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild's EZ Dresden Challenge. Have you heard about this yet? The Salt Lake MQG is helping Simplicity and a boatload of other sponsors celebrate Darlene Zimmerman's twentieth year of designing rulers, by highlighting the versatility of the dresden. So you'll be seeing a lot of dresden quilts this summer—and there are some insane prizes on the line for the best of the bunch. Including a new Singer sewing machine!


So here's my take on the dresden plate: my "Lifesavers" mini-quilt. No centers to applique, no points to make—just stripey rings.

I got hooked on the idea of fussy-cutting my dresden wedges, but I didn't want to do something that required yards and yards of fabric just to make a few blocks. I thought about using chevron fabric, but the scale wasn't quite right. Then it hit me: Stripes! So easy to fussy-cut—I just cut my wedges from vertical strips of fabric, lining the ruler up with the stripes.

I ended up using one yard of Michael Miller's Bungalow Stripe in Citron (that one yard made all of these blocks). Since it's a variegated stripe, every set of wedges I cut looked a little different. I turned both the top and bottom raw edges under before I pieced the wedges together, which made it super easy to applique the finished plates onto the blocks—I just stitched them down with a straight stitch. I finished it by quilting with easy-peasey wavy line quilting. (I didn't bother cutting out the background fabric from behind the dresdens after they were stitched down. I know that might be technically "wrong," but it didn't seem to effect my quilting.)

So, are you up for this challenge? Just make a quilt using the EZ Dresden ruler (or any 18-degree wedge ruler). It doesn't even have to be a dresden—there are lots of other things you can do with wedges, too! There are three categories for entries: Mini-quilts, traditional designs, and innovative designs. You've got all summer to work on your entry—just link up your finished quilt on the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild website the week of September 1. The top three for each category will win some amazing prizes. Up for grabs are a Singer sewing machine, a photo of your project in Quilting Arts magazine, a quilt made by Darlene Zimmerman herself, and tons fabric, rulers, and thread! There will be three random-draw prizes as well. Click here for more contest details.

And to get you started, I've got an EZ Dresden ruler to give away to one winner right now! Just leave any comment on this post, and I'll draw a random winner on Tuesday.

Keep following the EZ Dresden Challenge Blog Hop over the next two weeks for lots more inspiration to get you started on your own entry! Good luck!

June 1 - The Sat Lake Modern Quilt Guild: www.slmqg.com/
June 2 - Lee: freshlypieced.blogspot.com/
June 3 - Katie www.fromthebluechair.com/
June 4 - Victoria: bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/ and Tanya: www.squaresandtriangles.com
June 5 - Val: howaboutpinkplease.blogspot.com/ and Leigh: leedledeedlequilts.blogspot.com/
June 6 - Amy: amyscreativeside.com/ and Elisa www.stitchoutsidetheditch.com/
June 7 - Katie: www.swimbikequilt.com/ and Emily: emsscrapbag.blogspot.com/
June 8 - Melissa: happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/ and Brooke: pitterputterstitch.blogspot.com/
June 9 - Nicole:  mamalovequilts.blogspot.com/ and Amy sukie.mt-wudan.com/
June 10 - Elizabeth: www.dontcallmebetsy.com/ and Colleen: www.thebusybean.com/
June 11 - Faith: www.freshlemonsquilts.com/ and Deonn: quiltscapesquilting.blogspot.com/
June 12 - Angela: angelaflicker.com/ and Barbie: thequiltingmill.blogspot.com
June 13 - Amy: www.diaryofaquilter.com/ 
June 14 - Jessica: sewcraftyjess.blogspot.com/
June 15 - Salt Lake MQG: Wrap-up www.slmqg.com/ 

And thank you to all the EZ Dresden Challenge sponsors!