Hip to be a Square Podcast - Episode 23

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Today I talk about applique, and being okay with the list of things I'm not good at compared with the list of things I am good at. Also, fundoliers!

Layer Cake Quilt Along - Block 11

LCQA - Block 11
Originally uploaded by Pantsfreesia

Um... not a fan of this block. Visually I like it, but construction-wise I found it aggravating to use a super scant 1/4" on the vertical seams but a regular scant 1/4" on the horizontal seams (for the "E" part). At least, that's how I had to do it to get it to come to 12.5".

The designer also didn't really say that you need two pieces of the same fabric for the flower parts (on mine), and I find that sort of disrespectful. Participants have now had to do a mid-piece join to make it work, but it looks a little ugly.

Maybe I'm just cranky because my hamstrings are protesting moving up to week 2 of the couch-to-5k program.

Hip to be a Square Podcast - Episode 22

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Happy National Quilting Day on March 19! I forget to mention that in the podcast, but I do talk about wallhangings and do the giveaway drawing LIVE (sort of) on air!

• Winners! We have them! I've emailed two of the three winners (because I was tricky and snuck in TWO fat quarter assortments instead of just the one), but I don't have contact info for Bert. Bert, please email me so I know where to send them! info at hiptobeasquarepodcast dot com.
• Bestest recipe for Oatmeal Scotchies (but reduce the oatmeal to 2 1/2 cups, because I always get a giant pile of dry oatmeal in the bottom of the bowl when I use 3 cups)
• Here's the voice generator I used at the intro
• Pictures of the Aquamarine wallhanging:

• Pictures of the Seaside wallhanging:

 

Helper Cat of the Week:

Giveaway! 6 Fat Quarters

COMMENTS CLOSED

In honor of National Quilting Day, I'm giving away a collection of 6 fat quarters, which I currently cannot take a picture of because my camera is freaking out on me (ha! turns out I'm just a bad photographer!).

This includes 4 neutrals and two colors - all what I consider stash-building solid-ish  fabrics. From left to right:

• Cream background with some bronze dots (some of the dots have a metallic sheen to them)
• Brown-ish variegated in what would be an interesting free motion quilt pattern.  This fat quarter moves from a darker tone to a light tone, so it's not a consistent brown color all the way across, but what I'm showing is the darkest part.
• Stripe in cream and brown, with a smidge of plum in it.
• Golden crackle print
• Tomatoey red harlequin diamonds (this is part of the Connecting Threads fabric I bought but didn't use because it's oranger than I thought it would be)
• Light blue with a darker blue squiggle

So... not a cohesive collection by any means, but hey! Free fabric!

All you need to do to enter to win is leave a comment on this post before noon Eastern Friday March 18th, 2011.  I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner.

GIveaway! Kona Color Card

COMMENTS CLOSED

This Kona Color Card was generously donated by Robert Kaufman Fabrics to the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild, who generously allowed me to offer it as a giveaway in honor of National Quilting Day on March 19th!

Front!

Inside!

All you need to do to enter the give away is leave a comment on this post before noon Eastern on Friday March 18th. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner.

Hip to be a Square Podcast - Episode 21

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Woot! We're 21! Let's dance around our purses and then go for tacos at 2am. Or... maybe just piecing some quilt blocks and go to bed at 9:30pm.

• If you are not athletic and want to run a 5k, I recommend using the C25K app on your iPod.
• Here's my interview with Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting.
• Words to live by:

• I trembled in fear slightly when I look more closely at my latest paper piecing pattern (from The Designer's Workshop) ...

• ... and here it is all done (from the back)!

• And the front! Now to quilt it! And find some other punctuation besides exclamation points!1!

• Zapper appreciates the gift from Grama Eddie:

• I recommend Librivox for classic literature audiobooks.

Layer Cake Quilt Along Block 10

Layer Cake Quilt Along Block 10
Originally uploaded by Pantsfreesia

Woot! A flowerdy one with not too many points. Only two more to go!

Saturday Sampler Block 3

Saturday Sampler Block 3
Originally uploaded by Pantsfreesia

This month's Saturday Sampler house was apartment buildings. The windows were too small for any of my cats to fit in, so I had to improvise. I call it "Peeping Tomcat".

Hip to be a Square Podcast - Episode 20

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I talk about my paper piecing class, mixing hand and machine quilting, and working with one of the last quilt my Grama ever made.

My Mariners Compass block from my paper piecing class:

Here is the back, where I've started taking out the paper in the middle of the block:

The handprint quilt I talked about, when mixing hand and machine quilting (full photo set on Flickr):

Close-up of one of the handprints:

Here's what Grama Eddie's twin-sized quilt looked like before I started working with it to turn it into a lap quilt:

Here's the bandolier I made for my son out of my dad's old Air Force uniform: