Summertime sew-cializing

Where to begin? I've been such a bad blogger lately.  Sew many projects have come and gone i hardly know where to begin.

Let's start at the end and work backward.  The most exciting sewing event of the summer was the Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild meetup which took place this past weekend in Portland.

What a blast!! That's my synopsis, but here's the long version.


The girls of the Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild  (yes there is one now!!) headed up on Friday.  We started with sewing classes at Modern Domestic.  I took the binding class with Heather which was very interesting and I would dearly love me a binder attachment - hello Santa are you listening.

Next up was a Publishing class with Susan Beal - super informative - the best class of the day for me personally.  Thanks again miss Susan!

Finally, there was FMQ class with Christina   - she's the best teacher and the sweetest gal! A totally low key, do your own thing, no rules,  go for it lady - totally my kinda gal.  Plus she has the best FMQ patterns I've seen - and I got a peek a her new book - which was awesome! I am totally going to buy it.  Love her designs.

CMQG Girls ready for FMQ class

My practice FMQ

In between all that learning, we were socializing with other MQG members from the PNW.   It was a blast. I got to meet so many bloggers in person which was totally cool (hello Sonja!) and lots of new-to-me bloggers as well. Of course Portland is ripe with famous fabric-y/quilty peeps (Violet Craft, Mo Bedell, Monica Solorio-Snow, Jen Carlton-Bailly). I can go on and on, but I shouldn't be all name-droppering – so I’ll stop.  It was still pretty rad though ;)    

CMQG Banner quilt on the wall at Modern Domestic

Modern Domestic is the best sewing studio.  If you’ve never been go check it out next time you are in P-town.  Way ultra modern and hip and oh yeah, there are cool modern quilts on the wall. But if you are more of a garment sewer then that is the place for you, since that is their focus – or so I learned. 

Anyway, I can go on and on but yeah it was a way cool experience.

So then we did a bit of socializing and a bit of shopping while socializing and some eating and drinking and socializing ~ you get the gist!  And as if that wasn't enough - there was a cool tote bag swap. 

Jane Market Bag I made for swap

And pouch

This was sponsored by Robert Kaufman who supplied the denim chambray to all the MQG's.  My tote went to Kim  and this lovely tote (below) is the one I picked, made by Jennifer of the PMQG.  I love this thing.  It's currently going to work with me everyday 'cause it's just the right size to throw all my random stuff into. 

Fun times.  I tell you.

CMQG Members, Christina, Lisa, Connie and myself.

Saturday we had the choice to go to a charity sew event at Modern Domestic or all day sew at Fabric Depot.  So some of us Corvallis gals headed to the Charity sew event and proceeded to make lots of urban chicken blocks (designed by PMQG Leader Michelle).  Very fun block and easy to sew.

Here's what the quilt blocks looked like when we left:

After lunch and maybe a little bit of shopping at Bolt, maybe, we headed off to Fabric Depot for the open sew, where we proceeded to chat and socialize and oh yeah, maybe sew a bit and possibly some more shopping, possibly.   Whereupon I managed to win a little goody bag from Fabric Depot. "Way cool!" I said – "I never win anything I said".  Ha ha ha ha ha.    I laugh because as Jessica (EMQG) pointed out, for a girl who never wins anything, I struck gold.  At the end of the sew day, guess whose name was chosen to win the baby lock machine they were giving away? Yup, it was yours truly.  So I guess I can’t say I never win anything.  Crazy I tell you.  And apparently after that there was some goodie bag fabric from Bolt that I won after I left.  Yea, I struck gold.  I should've bought a lottery ticket - why didn't I?  My apologies to all the meet-up attendees that were disappointed - you can still cross your fingers for the Bernina they are giving away. 

Introducing Molly ~ 

Montevilla Sewing Center , PMQG, Fabric Depot and whoever else was involved, I thank you over and over again.


Finally, it was time for dinner at Cartopia on Hawthorne and I headed home to my peaceful dwelling.
That's my wild sewing adventure for this summer!


Happy  Sewing!!!

Doctor Who Along Block 8 ~ Weeping Angel

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

Are you ready for block 8 of the Doctor.Who.Along? It's a Weeping Angel. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, either way they're scary. This one is at least weeping so we don't have to see the scary angel face staring at us from our quilt! Ha!

Soma designed this block and it comes in 2 formats depending upon your skill level. We realize that some of the blocks in the Doctor.Who.Along are very challenging. This one ranks among the toughest in the QAL for sure - if the angel has you scared in more than one department, try the easier block. If you are up for a challenge, go for the harder one. Either way, you'll end up with a cool new block for your quilt or project

Pattern and instructions available HERE.   Don't forget to share your finished blocks in the Flickr pool.  Doctor.Who.Along



Happy Sewing!!

Iconic Sonic Screwdriver Doctor.Who.Along block 7

Welcome Whovians!  With the extra days in July, we've had a bit of a longer break from the last block.  Hopefully you had a bit of a chance to get caught up and are not in withdrawal!  Are you ready for block 7?

It's pretty iconic I think ~ The Sonic Screwdriver - of course no Doctor would be caught without it!

Pattern pieces and instructions download here

As always, all the Doctor.Who.Along patterns are available through the Craftsy website as well.

Did everyone see there will be a new Doctor? I'm not sure what to think of this just yet.  It's so hard to let go of a Doctor.  Don't you think?

Happy Sewing!

Doctor.Who.Along block 6 ~ Werewolf

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

It's time for block number 6 of the Doctor Who Along quilt along.

This weeks block is brought to you by Soma, my paper-piecing partner in crime.

I hope you like the block. It was a fun one to put together and actually went together much more quickly than some of the other blocks in this QAL which I know you will be relieved to hear.  I will rate this one as intermediate. 

Here is my version of the block:

Pattern and instructions can by found on Soma's blog.
My background is more of Lizzy House' Constellations fabric which is truly tailor-made for this QAL.  Thanks Lizzy!! Also included are kona solids and tonal mosaic from Michael Miller.

Happy Sewing!

Who is Badwolf?

Ah yes the endless Badwolf references. We spent a whole season (or more) wondering who Badwolf was? Remember those? Pretty iconic Doctor Who I think.  That's this weeks theme for Block 5 of the Doctor.Who.Along.



Yes I know it looks complicated and to be honest, it is one of the toughest blocks in the QAL but if you go slow and do small sections at a time, I know you will get there! This block took me approximately 2 evenings to piece - that's about 6 hours.  So keep that in mind. Take your time and roll with it!

The pattern can be found here and on Craftsy.

I chose a brick print background for my block but since it's directional, it adds another layer of complexity to the piecing, if you are a beginner, stick with a non-directional or even a solid print for your background. Follow my piecing guidelines here for those tricky diagonal seams and all will be well.  A glass of wine might help also :)  After all, it's supposed to be fun, right?!

Don't forget to add your finished block photo to the Flickr Doctor.Who.Along photo pool.

Happy Sewing!  Geronimo!!!

Doctor.Who.Along Block 3 ~ K9

A Time lord's best friend ~ K9.

I've always been fond of K9 - all the way back to the Tom Baker days.   Maybe it's because I'm a dog lover.   So here he (or she?) is in block form.

I've added some"K9" stitching on the side to jazz him up but that is totally optional. He looks good without too!  See?

This block is probably the easiest block to piece so far. So you can breathe a sigh of relief!


The pattern can be downloaded here or through Craftsy.  In case I didn't mention it earlier, 'cuz I often forget stuff like that, Soma and I are posting all these patterns on Craftsy, so they'll be in one easy to find place.  But if you don't like to have to login to get stuff, then you can always find these patterns on our blogs for as long as they are around.

And as an added bonus, I have made an embroidery file for those with embroidery machines, that has the K9 embroidery.  If you would like a copy, please download it here.  Format is .exp but can be converted to other formats in your embroidery software depending upon your machines format.

Happy Sewing!

Oh yeah and this other stuff happened...

I swear, since I started Instagram-ing everything I completely forget to blog about it.

Sorry about that.  So these other baby quilts were made by me over the past month or so.  Completely forgot to show these off here.



Another Low volume scrappy Trip (aka trip around the world) quilt made with inside voices bundle 3 (I think) from Amanda at Westwood acres and then a bunch of other prints that I had on hand.
I love the low volume scrappy trip combo - a lot!
Totally channeling my inner-Rita copying (Red Pepper quilts) on the binding.

Then there was this chevron quilt which follows this moda bake shop tute from Jeni (in color order) except that I did it with a jelly roll so everything is exactly half the size of the measurements in the tute.
 

Fabric is Little Red from Tasha Noel, Riley Blake fabrics


So yeah.  Since then both of these babies have been born and quilts gifted. Yaaay!

Happy Sewing!

Spring Quiltmarket - the wrap up

On a whim, I decided to go Spring Quiltmarket.



Met lots of bloggy friends, none of which I apparently took any pictures of.  Ummm???  I must've been in a daze at this point.

The whole experience was overwhelming.  The phrase "sensory overload" totally comes to mind. 

I went there with clear expectations and an agenda.  This is where you should commence your hysterical laughter. That pretty much went out the door the second I entered. Umm yeah. That place is overwhelming, an assault of the senses? Not in a bad way, but you have to rest your eyes every now and then - take a break from the constant onslaught of color and texture and all things sewing-related. So i'll just let the pictures do the talking shall I?

Melody Millers fabrics - huge fan of her stuff.
 New Echino offerings

Heather Bailey's amazing booth complete with larger than life embroidery wall
The first day I walked into the Free Spirit section, I saw Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Valori Wells, Tula Pink and Erin McMorris all in the Free Spirit section all at the same time. Whoa. Talk about design stars!

Of all that was Free Spirit, Erin McMorris' new line Astrid stole my heart. I love this fabric and can't wait to sew with it.
 

The always amazing Tula Pink's Booth

 Did I mention that Belle is making a comeback?

New Denyse Schmidt
 

More Beautiful booths over by Michael Miller including the lovely Mo Bedell - she was such a sweetie!
 

And another Pacific Northwest gal, Violet Craft, who I didn't meet sadly, but her new fabric line Waterfront Park is one to watch out for! So gorgeous. Her booth was fab as well but I stupidly didn't take a picture of it.
 

And a new fabric to watch out for, Cocca by Kokka.  

Some Riley Blake offerings,

Josephine Kimberling - I have a fondness for Xmassy fabrics, and this one struck my fancy.


Doohickey Designs cuteness. Check out those phones? And that large graphic medallion print will be fab as well.



Graphic Kona Booth from Robert Kaufman fabrics.

And while that is by no means all of it, I think I'll end there for today. There are more market photos on my flickr feed if you just can't get enough.

Happy Sewing!

Doctor.Who.Along Block 2 ~ Timelord

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

Welcome back fellow Whovians! I know you are all anxious to find out about the 2nd block, but before I get to that I wanted to say how thrilled Soma and I are about the enthusiasm for our little quilt along. We now have close to 200 members and lots of active participation on the group. So a huge shout-out to all our members - and a big Thank-you! We are so thrilled you could join us!

We have gotten some feedback about the blocks now that we are 2 weeks into the QAL. I wanted to let everyone know that although the first block might've been a little tough for some, many of the blocks will be quite easy to do and suitable for beginning paper-piecers. Soma and I really wanted to challenge you guys! So bear with us. There will be easier blocks, but there will also be some challenging blocks for those of you who feel like you are up for it! With 20 blocks, I think we have something for everyone, so don't worry about having enough blocks to make a quilt even if you don't feel like you can do them all - I don't think that's going to be a problem.

Finally I wanted to throw out some general paper piecing tips which should help a bit. But for those of you who can't wait any longer, here are the Block 2 links:

Block 2 Timelord designed by Soma Acharya
Here is my version of the block


 And here it is not quite assembled so you can see how it goes together:

Some handy tips for foundation-piecing:

• Foundation paper: First off I wanted to address the medium you are using to paper piece. Likely you are using printer paper to print your designs - logical of course. However, I strongly encourage you to consider a product designed specifically for foundation piecing. I cannot stress this enough. I know that it can be tough to stitch through 4++ layers of fabric and at least as many layers of paper. Here is what I use exclusively: Perfect Piecing - Transparent Quilt Block Foundation Sheets from June Taylor. I am in no way affiliated with this company, just a happy customer. This stuff is transparent which means that you can see the fabric through it which sure helps when you are trying to place your fabric on the lines. In addition, it's much thinner than printer paper, which means you can stitch through more layers of it with ease and it's more like fabric than paper, so it's easy to punch through. In fact, this stuff is so thin I never even bother to pull it off the back when I'm done, I just leave it on there and it helps to stabilize the block a bit. There are other products that you could also try, such as newsprint foundation paper which is thinner and therefore also easier to stitch through - it's not transparent though. Any of these will help with your construction quite a bit. 
• Fabric placement: start with a much larger piece of fabric than you think you'll need - at least until you have more experience. That way you'll be sure all your fabric covers the lines when you flip it over. 
• Seam stacking:  If you feel like there is just too much fabric/paper to sew through, especially on small pieces where a lot of the seam allowance overlaps, just trim the seam allowance back to 1/8".  Be careful not to cut the seam line, but you can certainly trim off more than 1/4" of the excess fabric and all of the paper.
• Angled seams:   Lastly, here is my handy dandy fabric placement photo tutorial for those pesky angled seams.  

Here's a piece that has a nice angle on it.  (This block is part of the cottage block by Kerry of verykerryberry)

See that piece between J1 and J3?  There's a pretty good angle there and it can sometimes be difficult to line up those pieces once you flip them over.  You don't want to end up short of fabric along the seam allowance when you trim so you end up cutting a huge wad just to avoid that. Right? However, there's a foolproof way to ensure that you have the right fit every time AND not waste fabric.  

Lay the right side of the fabric down on the pattern piece so that it fits over the section you need to cover.  In this case it's J3.  This way you can easily cut a piece of fabric that you know will fit. Now, fold the fabric back, finger pressing along the seam line between J1 and J3.  With me so far?  Now hold that fabric along the fold so it doesn't come undone.  With your other hand, flip over the sewn piece (the piece that has the pattern paper on it).  

 Hold it up to the light so you can see the seam line through the paper.  That seam line is where you will line up the fold line of the fabric you are holding.

Now keep holding that fabric in place and in the light it should look like this.

 Now unfold it.  It should look like this:

Carefully hold the fabric in place so it doesn't shift from where you have placed it, and flip the whole thing over and sew along the seam line on your machine. When it's done it will look like this:

And when you look at the right side, it'll look like this:

When you trim it will fit perfectly over the section you were trying to cover, J3.

Voila!! Works every time!  Give it a shot.

Happy Sewing!

Paper piecing - slopestyle

Yes I'm still at it.

Inspired by this bee and the ski-themed foundation pieced blocks one member requested, I decided to start my own ski-themed quilt because that would be the perfect addition to our ski-themed game room. Plus I love ski stuff so it would just be a uber-cool addition to our home.

So this is the first block for that quilt. Designed by Amy (During Quiet time) you can purchase the block in her etsy shop here.

More ski themed blocks to follow and since I can't find too many foundation pieced block patterns with a ski theme (I've found 1 so far), I guess I'll have to start designing my own.

Off to start drawing lots of lines as I embark upon designing a foundation block....stay tuned.

Happy Sewing!