Pillow Talk Swap beings

Pillow {Talk} Swap round 3 has just begun. I'm kind of excited about this because it's the first swap I've ever done and perusing the samples of previous rounds makes you realize you are in the company of some great artists over there. Heather and Kerri run this flickr group/swap and they are awesome gals and quilters not to mention the many other prominent group members. Should be a ton of fun. Partners have not yet been assigned but I'm already milling over possible design ideas. My own pillow inspiration picture

~ it was tough to narrow it down because I'm pretty much inspired by everything. I can't wait to get started on this. I'll keep you guys posted on my progress.

Meanwhile, over in hexie-land, some new block options have been posted. I have pretty much already posted all of mine and I'm pretty caught up at this point. I'm not going to do the rad-ar love block, so that just leaves the basic hexie which I like and am sticking with. I'll update progress on this as I go.

Until next time, happy sewing!

Ode to volumes

Happy Monday and welcome to my purse sewing turned garment sewing turned quilting blog. Ha! That just shows you the sewing journey I've been on over the past 2 years since I started this blog. If you are not a quilter, rest assured that I will eventually return to garment sewing, but for now you will have to indulge me while I get this quilting bug out of my system.


So here is my latest quilt. To the best of my knowledge, this quilt is representative of a string quilt except that string quilts are often paper/foundation-pieced and this type is not usually. Now, as you all know, I'm a newbie quilter and by no means an expert on anything quilty, so I could be entirely mistaken. But I've searched and searched and aside from just stacks of strips, this style of quilt is a string quilt. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, suffice it to say, that I have been drawn to this simple free-spirited style for quite some time and I thought it was time to tackle one of my own.


This quilt design, if you can call it that, is one of my own. I liked the stacked 'string' look but didn't want to go any further and cut the strips as you might do for a blocked string quilt. I wanted 3 stacks of strips with solid in between the stacks and I'm calling this my 'ode to volumes' quilt because it was inspired by Anna Maria Horner's volumes fabric which I adore and have used before.


The solid coordinate was Kona in Herb and the patterned fabric was a mixture of different blues and aquas that compliment my living room and include, Jessica Levitt's Timber, Amy Butler's daisy chain, Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley, and a variety of other coordinating fabrics.

The stacked strips actually repeat once in each 'pile' and therefore the quilt was sewn in 6 sections or very large blocks. The whole thing was bound in Amy's butlers daisy bouquet in forest and I used the Kona Herb on the back with some leftover strips thrown in to widen the backing.

(sorry about all the horrible lighting, it's raining in Oregon, again, and if I have to wait for a sunny day, I'm going to be waiting a long time)

I'm really happy with the result and I have enough Timber fabric left over to create something else... what to do? I guess I'll come up with something.

While I was researching what to call this design, I found quite a few lovely examples of this type of quilt, but no representative flickr group. I'm an organization junkie, so I decided this 'category' of quilts needed a group to call it's own. So we now have the Stacked Strip quilts flickr group. This is a public flickr group to which anyone can contribute. If you have or know of a picture that belongs in this pool, please add it. It's in the sidebar too, so you can find it at any time.

Happy Sewing!

Hexies week 2

... as part of the hexagon quilt-along hosted by Julie of jaybird quilts and the Old Red barn Co. Quilt along here is my progress on week 2.

I opted for this selection of aqua and green fabrics from my stash

and I made a few more than the 5 sets suggested by Julie.
That would be because I got a little over-excited with my color combos and pieced more than 5 sets of strips together ~ and also because I’m really bad about reading directions first. Directions - aren’t they optional? Well, the more the merrier right?

Here are my triangles…
(by the way, this ruler is way cool!)


…and then my hexies in a few different layouts.



I like the mixed layout the best except that the science geek in me says that this looks too much like a radiation warning symbol, and that’s not really the vibe I’m going for in this quilt – soooo, I’m going to go with classic hexagons. Actually I’m going to do more than just classic hexagons but I’ll reveal that later on. I think it will work well with the soft color palette.




spirals?
Now to sew them together. Only the halves so far…

Butterflies anyone?


...this time I read the directions before plunging ahead.


Happy Sewing!

Mod Blooms quilt complete and the hexies begin!

Woohoo - I finished up 2 more quilts ~ One for March and one for April. I have been unofficially trying to make one quilt every month of 2010. I'm not sure why I set this goal for myself and I'm pretty sure that it won't happen during the summer, but so far I'm on track.

I'm super thrilled with the mod blooms quilt - I really love that it turned out just like I envisioned it ~ doesn't always happen that way. I used Paula Prass' Woodland delight fabrics. I seem to love every line that Paula does even more than the last one. Kind of dangerous for me, but these colors were perfect for my family room and I love the mod vibe. Oh and the best part is they were a free fat quarter set that I won off one of her bloggy giveaways - so thank-you Paula once again :)


The print fabrics are paired with Kaufman's Kona in coal for sashing and blocks and coral and robin's egg blue for the block coordinates. The back is the large modern flora print and a few extra blocks to add some width. I'm still learning on the whole quilt thing. I think I should've cut the backing and put the blocks further into the middle, but live and learn.

The blocks are sort of inspired by classic blocks with a wonky twist, then sashed with the solid gray. Hmm, maybe the whole thing needs a matching pillow...



And then, my 60 degree ruler arrived! Yippee Skippy - so without further adieu, here are my hexies for the hexagon quilt-along

Happy Sewing!

Some progress

Nothing like a productive weekend to really put a dent in your to-do list. I love weekends like that - sad but true. The best weekends are the ones where we get a lot done. Why is that?

Onto the good stuff. I managed to get 2 quilt tops done. One for the new wave quilt (oh Fransson). This one is straight from the new wave files - I even used a fat quarter pack from Fabricworm that Elizabeth designed. Not very original of me I know, but I love the fabrics she
chose including the Anna Maria Horner voile in there that is so so soft.

The next quilt is and one of my own design that I'm calling the Mod Blooms quilt. It's done in Paula Prass' Woodland delight in the grey colorway and paired with Kona coal, coral and sky blue. I really love how it's turning out. Now to bind it...

The hexagon quilt along is going to have to wait for a few more days since I am still patiently (not) waiting on the arrival of my 60 degree ruler. I did get my strips cut and sewn. This hexie quilt is a bit of a stash buster which is always good news. No new fabric purchased for this one. Yay!

And the best of all ~ happiness is a new ironing board and iron. This is kind of funny because I really dislike ironing. If you have a shirt that needs to be ironed you might as well do it yourself, because if you wait on me it will never ever get done. The irony here is that I'm always ironing when I'm sewing, just not anything else. Weird how things work sometimes. My old one was spitting and spurting and generally in disagreement with my ironing projects. Thanks to hubby for this fantabulous anniversary gift ~ I love my shiny new iron.

Happy Sewing!

Project overload

Project overload-itis ~ I suffer from this disease a lot as most who know me well will attest. But I have really outdone myself this time. I currently have no less than 3 quilts going and that doesn't include the hexagon quilt along which is due to start in - ack - 4 days!! Eeek. That's just quilts people!
Here are some snippets of the QIPs
The new wave quilt (Oh fransson)

Mod blooms quilt

Stacks quilt


All this activity may have been spurred on in small part by this SMS blogpost. Beth of SMS asked me if they could feature my quilt for quilt-of-the-day for Quilting month II and I was totally blown away and humbled to be in such good company over there. A million thanks to you girls! Go check out Quilting month II if you haven't already - lots of great tutes and give-aways happening.

Ok, and then there are the purse patterns and doll clothes patterns that I'm currently working on - not making, developing. Yes you heard it here first, I'm going to sell patterns in the near future. At least I hope so - more on that later.
A sneak peek of the goods...


Pillow Talk {Swap} 3 is going to start soon and I'm really hoping to take part in this one. Luckily that one hasn't been announced yet - phew! I'm safe for at least a few more days...

Then there are the other WIPs on my list. Let's see, PJ pants for hubby and myself (partially done), Robe for dear daughter (patiently waiting for my attention, the robe, not the daughter), and tablecloths for the kitchen table.

Also on my to do list in no specific order:
Boyish quilt for my son
soccer embellished ID tag for my daughter
soccer embellished towel for my daughter (can you tell she likes soccer?)...
Short sleeved tees for the kids
Cotton hoodies for work for moi

...Really I'm going to quit here because the list is endless and if I really think about it I'll add 20 more projects easily ~ but these are the priorities. Oh and summer is coming which means more time in the garden and less time sewing. But that's ok 'cause it's Oregon and I'm sure it'll rain again sometime.

Stay tuned for occasional updates from this madness - that is, if I ever come up for air. I guess I'ld better get back to sewing...

Happy sewing!

Commitment

This post is what we'll call a little contract. I've committed some pixels so I guess that's the same as writing it down. Julie of Jaybird Quilts is having a hexagon quilt-along. This is my first ever quilt-along and if you've been following this blog, you know that I'm still a newbie quilter. But what-the-heck, I'm sure I can hex. Right? I guess I'll find out.

If you want to watch the drama unfold, you can keep your eye here as I'll be posting about the hex progression. Want to join me? Point your browser here


I think I'm going to use this jelly roll

~ although this may and will likely be subject to change without notice. I'm still undecided at this point.
Here's another possibility

I bought the fancy 60 deg ruler though, so rest assured that I'm committed to hexing something. Let's hope it isn't the neighbors dog. No just kidding! It's not that kind of hex. All the same, it's a good thing we are in the year 2010 and that neighborhood bonfires are prohibited! Phew!

Ok on a completely different note, lookie here what lovely goodies arrived in the mail today


Really fabulous japanese fabrics. I can't wait to make something with these.

Stay tuned and happy sewing!