Who's Going to Quilt Con?

So who else spent their morning frantically refreshing the Quilt Con website, waiting for registration to open? : ) I'm all registered, and so excited to head to Austin in February!

I got the four-day lecture pass, and one workshop, "Quilting the Negative Space" with Angela Walters. That may not have been the most practical workshop choice, seeing as I don't actually own a longarm. But it just sounded like so much fun!

Who else is going to Quilt Con? Can't wait! See you there!

WIP Wednesday: With Guest Host Michelle of CityHouseStudio

Happy WIP Wednesday!

My name is Michelle, and I blog at CityHouseStudio. I'm delighted to be guest hosting WIP Wed this week! Thanks so much for having me, Lee!

I have found that summer is not my most productive season for quilting. Summer in Minnesota is short; we spend every possible moment enjoying the pool, the parks, and our backyard! While I'll really miss the kids after they start school (the Tuesday after Labor day), I'm giddy thinking about a whole day to myself to sew!

Here's what I have finished recently: 

a Baby Quilt for my cousin's new baby

(9 blocks of wonky stars, using this tutorial)

My helper, Holly—she loved helping me lay out the design!

She also requested that we make a fish to go with the quilt, but this didn't go so well. I just couldn't figure out how to get the tail to look right!

Another "Read" Library Tote—pattern available here.

I need to make a few more of these! Each of my girls has requested one, along with a friend with twin girls, too. Luckily the letters are really fun to paper piece!

I'm close to finishing up these projects:

Asterisk Quilt (tutorial for the scrappy asterisks is here). This was my choice for my last month as "quilter" for the Peace Circle of do. Good Stitches. I quilted this with FMQ loops, but still need to sew on the binding.

I'm working on pattern testing a bag for a friend—more to come on this project soon!

Just started project: Vintage Holiday QAL with Fabric Mutt

I've finished 2 blocks so far, and they were QUICK! The QAL is officially on blocks 7 and 8 (out of 12, yikes!), but I don't think it will take too long to catch up.

These are such fun blocks to make! I'm using red and green fabrics that aren't necessarily "Christmas" fabrics, with grey seeds from FMF for the ornament tops and binding.

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?

WIP Wednesday: Guest-hosted by Rebecca

Hi there! My name is Rebecca and I blog over at Pieces and Cream. I’m delighted to be guest posting at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Lee and I are friends from the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild.

I live in Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I mostly spend my time tending to my two sons under 4 and trying to be a good wife. I teach science at a small college part-time and in my leisure time I sing at my church, ride my bicycle and make things, mostly quilts. 

Summers in Wisconsin are very short, therefore we cram all our festivals and fairs into about 3 months. That means I’ve been outside enjoying the weather, have all sorts of things in progress and am way behind on BOM’s and QAL’s. Oh well, got to enjoy the sun whilst we can.

I’ve been working on this quilt for a year because it’s been put on the back burner a lot. I thought summer was a good time to bring it back out and finish it. Some of you may remember the Dead Simple QAL at Lily’s Quilts. The idea was to learn how to use a color palate, then match up the colors to a fabric color palate, such as Kona Cotton Solids. I wasn’t overly excited about the finished top, which is probably why it stayed a WIP for so long. Well now that it’s quilted, I totally love it again. I tried “organic straight line” quilting and it really added a ton to the finished quilt. I am half done with the binding and hopefully will have it finished by next week.

 

I am a huge Malka Dubrawsky fan and used her Stitched in Color line to make her Whirligig quilt from her book Fresh Quilting. I recently basted this quilt and have decided it will be used to teach myself to free-motion quilt. You’ve probably seen that Angela Walters wrote a book called Free Motion Quilting. I picked up a copy after seeing a review and it’s got awesome pictures that will really help me visualize how to start/stop and which direction to go while quilting. I’ve just got to get over my fears and try it!! This might remain a WIP while I give myself breaks from tackling such a huge new skill.

Another project that is going to take me a long time is a hexagon quilt. I FINALLY cut into my Echo by Lotta Jansdotter and what better way to show off the large-scale prints than with 6.5” hexagons right? Even though I won’t be hand piecing these together, I have to cut out around 150 whole and 50 half hexagons. That’s going to take me forever, making it another one of those projects that remains a WIP for several months. If I try to do this all at once, I’ll go crazy. I’ve been drooling over hexagon quilts and Echo for a long time so this quilt will be well worth the wait.

Besides some bee blocks, the only other WIP that I have lying around that I haven’t made progress on is the BOM over at Sew Mama Sew. I’ve got 3 blocks done and have 3 more cut out. Even though I totally love my fabric choices, I always forget about this before making plans for another quilt. Speaking of that, there are no lack of plans for more quilts and there really never are enough hours in the day, especially hours spent quilting! I bet most of you can relate.

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?

Aurifil Winners!

Here are the winners of the Aurifil thread packs from my Zakka Along giveaway:

#55, Kim


#101, Nat at Made In Home


#65, Kate


And the winner of the Aurifil pack AND the Aurifil color card is #28, Kelsey.


Congrats, ladies!

WIP Wednesday: Guest-hosted by Cindy

Hi! I'm Cindy from Live a Colorful Life and I'm so excited to be guest hosting for Lee this week. I have an almost-weekly series called The Name Game where bloggers share how they chose the name for their blog, and just recently started Really Random Thursday where you can link up with anything random that you come across during the week, sewing or non-sewing. I hope you will stop by and say hi!

I live in Central California, where the temp has been hovering around 109 degrees for way too many days. I'm self-employed as a medical transcriber, working out of my home. I have been quilting for over fifteen years, so my stash is a little, um, overwhelming at times. And I'm obsessively drawn to selvages.

This is what I've been up to the last week.

I participated in the "Picture Perfect" Polaroid Block Swap and made 22 really cute little blocks. And then forgot to take a picture of the group before mailing them off. Considering it is a swap that consists of blocks made to look like photos, that's kind of funny, right? I saved one little block for me. Isn't he cute?

This block is for Amy's "Texting While Sewing" contest. I may have taken the theme a little too literally...

Last week I was working on the backing for a quilt, and sewing together strips of leftover solids. I tried to be really careful when sewing, but when I put them on the design wall, there was a really awful curve. I took them apart, made sure everything was nice and straight, sewed them together again, and it didn't make a bit of difference. So I started from scratch and the second time everything was nice and straight. But what to do with this strip?

I chopped it off where it started curving and added black on each side. Since we were in the midst of track and field events during the Olympics, it kind of reminded me of the lanes on the track with hurdles. So I'm calling it Hurdle Jump.

I was considering a short tutorial because it is a great idea for leftover jelly roll strips of all different lengths so here it is: you just sew some strips together and add some "hurdles" here and there. Sew two long strips together side to side, from top to bottom, then add the next strip by sewing bottom to top, and keep alternating, sewing the next strip from top to bottom, the next bottom to top, until you have sewed as many strips together as you like. I think that is what helped the second set to come out nice and straight.

And finally, when I'm in avoidance/procrastination mode from other projects, I continue working on these Crown of Thorn blocks, each with Kaffe Fassett fabric. And just because I sometimes amuse myself with naming quilts, this one is called Kaffe'-O-Lait.

Okay, it's your turn! What have you been working on this week? Here are the rules for linking up to WIP Wednesday:

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?

Little Patchwork Pillowcase and a Giveaway

Welcome to this week's Zakka Sew Along project: the Little Pocket Pillowcase, designed by Meg Spaeth of elsiemarley.com.

When Lindsey asked me to be part of the Zakka Along, I basically begged her to let me do this project. It has my kids written all over it—they love cute little animals, and they especially love cute little animals that come with their own homes, beds, and/or carrying cases. So, a cute little animal that can be stowed in its own pocket on a cute little pillow? Three-year-old-girl heaven, I'm telling you.

This project is from the book Zakka Style, compiled by Rashida Coleman-Hale, so you'll need the book to make it. Lindsey of LR Stitched has spent the last several months running a sew-along of all the projects in the book, and this post is part of that series. Click here to catch up on all the posts.

This pillowcase might be more involved than the average Zakka Style project because of the diamond patchwork, but even so, most sewists should be able to make it in a solid evening or two. I used Essex Linen in Putty by Robert Kaufman for the body of my pillowcase, winter-white felted wool for the bear, and an assortment of pink and green scraps for the patchwork.

The first thing to tackle: The diamonds, which are used for the patchwork pocket, the bear's tummy, and the patchwork piping. The book provides a template for cutting out the diamonds, but that is a lot of template cutting. I found it much easier to cut the diamonds from strips. Here's how I did it:

1. Cut strips 1 9/16" wide. Yes, that's a crazy measurement. No, my ruler doesn't have 1/16" marks. I just lined it up between the 1/2" mark and the 5/8" mark. Trust me, it'll work. : )

2. Line up the 60-degree mark on your ruler with the bottom of the strip and trim off the end of the strip on an angle.

3. Measure 1 7/8" over and cut another angled line using the 60-degree mark on your ruler. Ta-da, you have a correctly-sized diamond.

The most challenging part of this project for me was the piping on the pillowcase—I've never made piping before, so this was all new to me. The book says to use 1/4" piping cord, but that seemed awfully chunky to me for such a little pillow, so I went with 1/8". Even the 1/8" cord seems wide to me, but that might be because I have no idea how to make piping, so I didn't get the fabric casing very tight around the cord. LOL.

The bear was very easy to make and turned out so cute. You'll want to have a chopstick on hand for turning and for jamming stuffing into those little legs and ears.

As you can see, my daughter really loves this bear—she named him "Barry." (Well, I think she meant "Beary," but we won't quibble over spelling.) All in all, this was such a great project! And based on my daughter's very positive feedback, I recommend it as a gift for the little girl (or boy!) in your life. : )

As part of the Zakka Sew Along, I'm giving away some variety packs of lovely Aurifil thread, which you probably already know is the bomb. Three winners will get an Aurifil thread pack, and one lucky winner will get an Aurifil thread pack and an Aurifil color card! Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win.

And finally, don't forget to check out Lindsey's post for her Zakka Along giveaway—this week, it's a fat-quarter bundle of the Le Femme line by Robert Kaufman. Plus, link up your own Little Patchwork Pillowcase for a chance to win even more prizes. Enjoy your pillowcase!

WIP Wednesday: Guest-Hosted by Bethany

Hello! My name is Bethany and I blog over at Make Me A Quilt. I'm so excited to be the guest for this week's Work In Progress Wednesday—a big thank you to Lee for having me! :D

I live in Holland, Michigan with my fiance and our two cats. I work full time as an industrial designer for an architectural company. It's a fun job—some of our buildings are even manufactured with (huge) fabric roofs. It isn't quilter's cotton, but it's still pretty cool!

I made my first quilt two years ago, and it was kind of a disaster so I took some time off. Eventually I figured it out and I've been quilting away for about a year now. :)

WIP #1
I love patchwork. I started a patchwork quilt a couple of weeks ago and decided to try something different. I've always loved The Sometimes Crafter's Retro Flowers pattern.  Put those two together, supersize it, and this is what I came up with. Halfway done, and I'm loving how this one is turning out!

 
WIP #2
I made some elongated/half log cabin blocks without knowing what I was going to do with them. This past weekend I added blue fabric, with the intention that I will have some more elaborate than usual quilting with colored thread in that area. I have more half log cabins to add to the right side, but I'm not sure how to finish it. Maybe repeat the design, but with a color other than blue (maybe orange?).

WIP #3
This crazy mess is my EZ Dresden challenge quilt. It's a really tough one to photograph - it's nicer in person, even if it does look like I've spilled my stash all over the floor! I'm glad to say the top is finally done. :)  I'm planning on straight line quilting it in the shape of an 18 degree wedge. It's going to need a bright color for the binding to balance out all that dark gray.

 No progress

• Mario Quilt-a-long
• Paper pieced animals
• Liberty of London wall hanging

Okay, it's your turn! What have you been working on this week? Here are the rules for linking up to WIP Wednesday:

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?

Bee Blocking It

In this month's bee block round-up:


I made this Crown of Thorns block in June for Tiffany in the Stash Trad bee. She asked us to create an "explosion of color" in the outer HSTs, with the color from the inner ring carrying over into the fabric used in the outer HSTs. You can find the block pattern here, and go here to see the finished quilt top that Tiffany made with these blocks! It's so beautiful and colorful!

Next up, I made two paper-pieced yellow and gray paper-pieced stars for Kati, who had July in both of my bees.


So here's my Stash Trad block for Kati, using my own fabric. The pattern is from the book 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars by Carol Doak. This is probably my all-time favorite paper-piecing book—all the stars in the book are done in very traditional fabrics, but if you can look past that, the patterns are, well, fabulous! This is the Pennsylvania star.


And here's my {Sew} Beautiful bee block for Kati, made with fabric she provided. This is also from 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars. It's the New York star.


And finally, here's a bright, fun Swoon block that I made for Erin in the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild bee. Would you believe this is my first Swoon block? I love it in these super-bright colors!

My Summersville Pillow

Hey, look! I made a pillow out of Summersville. And now it's in Fat Quarterly. It's a little ray of awesomeness, to wrap up a week that was a bit short on that commodity. : )


I participated in the Designer Challenge for Issue 10 of Fat Quarterly. I don't think you can go wrong with Summersville, but for this I wanted to do something different than my usual solid white backgrounds (which I know I tend to fall back on a little too easily!). Enter the Essex Linen Yarn Dyes, which I'm just a tiny bit obsessed with right now. Sooooo much texture in these! I did the whole pillow in a double-monkey-wrench block, which is basically a more-condensed churn dash, and set the blocks on point.

 Head to the Fat Quarterly website to pick up Issue 10 of Fat Quarterly—this time they're celebrating all things British. Plus you can check out the details on my pillow and see what everybody else in the Designer Challenge did with their Summersville.

Looking for this fabric? Pink Castle has one color of yarn-dyed linen in stock, plus the entire Summersville line on sale!