Monthly Archives: March 2012

QFTRuS’ 2nd Podcastiversary Giveaway! (CLOSED)

Quilting...for the Rest of Us
I’m going to be participating in Sandy’s 2nd Podcastiversary Giveaway! The official giveaway starts today!, Sunday, April 1.  Any comments you leave before then on this post won’t count, and you’ll have until midnight Friday, April 6 (Eastern time).  I’m happy to ship internationally, too!

Don’t forget: Your email address needs to be in the comment itself or visible on your profile for me to be able to get back to you to tell you you’ve won! If I don’t have an email address, I’ll have to award the prize to someone else.

I’m giving away this Halloween applique pattern, called 13 Raven Hill from Seams Like Home.  It finishes to 33×39″. I have a duplicate of it, so apparently I liked it so much I bought it twice!

And I’ll also be giving away these four FQs:

A black tonal., red tonal. white with little black circles that look like Death Stars, and a red with white vine print.

I’ll run these as two separate giveaways, so there will be two winners! If there’s one prize you really want (read: there’s one you don’t want), say which one you really want.  Otherwise, I’ll assume you’d like to win either.

HtbaS - Episode 73

I talk a little bit more about the Lavender Kiss Swoon quilt, the Atlanta Shop Hop, the Tiger Show quilt, and Lavender Kiss’ offspring quilt (cuz’ it’s a baby quilt! *rimshot*).

I have totally forgotten what I said I’d post a picture of with this podcast, so if someone hears it, let me know in the comments. Sheesh. Must be getting old!

Play

Hey girl, I love that project you finished.

Do you know about Handmade Ryan Gosling? Take a few minutes and enjoy that link.

At the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild retreat, we are having a caption contest for this photo (Helper Cat not included - Zapper is laying down because, DANG, he is fine):

And this notekeeper I just finished is one of the prizes!

Inside is a a notepad, pen (in special pen pocket!), and two handy pockets to put stuff in. You know, important stuff. Stuff like a picture of Ryan Gosling.
It came together really quick, but turning it inside out with that Peltex inside is a real pain in the you-know-what.  You can find the pattern for it over on GinaBeanHandmade.

Tiger Show: FINISHED!

So I snuck this one in on you guys. I had purchased a FQ assortment from Stitch ‘N Quilt of a fabric line from Maywood Studios called “Stripey Tiger” a couple months ago.  It’s not on Maywood’s website any more, so I think it’s fairly old (2010 ish?), but I thought it would be a good line to use for a quilt for Good Mews for a donation quilt for a raffle or auction item.  It’s been sitting in my stash and taunting me and after browsing my MIL’s pattern library and the SeamedUP pattern catalog, inspiration finally struck with the “Slide Show” pattern on SeamedUP from Atkinson Designs.

I was a little leery of Atkinson patterns since Yellow Brick Road is so popular but when I tried it, the experience was less than pleasurable (it was maddening!). I am quite happy with this pattern, though, so I will definitely use it again.

Anywho, here is Tiger Show!

When looking for the right fabric to use for the sashing, I was thinking of using Kona White because I was just not inspired by anything else. Then I remember my Kona Orange jelly roll purchase from the Sewing & Quilt expo! The orange in the Stripey Tiger fabric is a little milder but there are touches of this vibrant shade in the tigers. Admittedly, when I was piecing the center, all I could think of was “AUBURN TIGERS ACK” because of the blue and orange combo.
For the border I just used Kona black (and had Halloweeny anxiety), and did straight line stitching in orange, blue. and yellow.  I think the different thread colors keep it from looking too Halloween-y.
Here’s a shot of the FMQ. I used black thread because my orange thread is a thicker weight that doesn’t play well with FMQ.
The back I pieced out of leftover FQs (the bundle had 20 FQs, and I used 10 for the front and 8 for the back, and put 2 into the stash). I also had 4 orange strips leftover to stick in there as well, and a piece of black from the stash to finish it off.
Another 8.5 yards from the stash! Wooo!

Sunday Night Stash: Shop Hop Edition

  • Used this Week: 14 yards
    • 14 yards for the Lavender Kiss quilt
  • Used year to Date: 123.25 yard
  • Added this Week: 11.5 yards - Shop Hop!
    • 7 yards of pink/brown florals, purchased as a kit. Might be used for Project Linus quilts, or might be sold on etsy.
    • 4.5 yards from Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket (a 10 FQs assortment and 2 yards for a border)
  • Added Year to Date: 103.5 yards
  • Net Used for 2012: 19.75 yards
    • YTD Used for Charity: 38.5 yards (31% of total used)

Lavender Kiss: FINISHED!

And now I present “Lavender Kiss” (formerly known as Purple Swoon)!
Here it is dappled in sunlight:

Here’s a close-up on one of the blocks - it’s just an overall meander for the quilting:

I need to re-do the label for it because the Pigma pen bled on the label after washing (not on the quilt - just the label). Never had that happen before, but I suspect it’s because I sprayed the label fabric with Mary Ellen’s Best Press before writing on it and perhaps it wasn’t quite dry when I started writing on it?

HtbaS - Episode 72

Good times ahead! I laugh a lot about early sewing projects, talk about feedback, Swoon quilts, and Zapper says hi!

Bonus Helper Cat pictures! With all this helpering, I got the Purple Swoon quilt basted in no time!

Zoom was clearly exhausted from her long day of helpering:

Play

From the Way-Back Machine

Perhaps you’ve heard that SeamedUP is having a contest for National Quilting Month, and it has spurred me to dig up photos of earlier sewing and quilting projects. Since I figure not all of you are on SeamedUP, I thought I’d throw a couple up here as well.

These things were made in 1998ish for a co-worker from Canada. She missed her homeland, so of course it perfect sense to create fleece jackets and buntings for a 2nd generation Canadian baby that lives in the South.

I also used to make couches for cats. Models below are Dixie (on the plaid, who lives with my aunt) and Aggie (on the tan, who was one of my cats growing up). I’ve made several more that went to Good Mews for fundraising purposes.

And here is an early Halloween costume for my daughter:

I have found more embarrassing examples that I have *not* posted, but these made me smile.

Purple Swoon Blocks 7-9

Voila! I finished up the last block tonight, and since there’s a backlog of photos, here are the last 3:
The contrast is a little low in that last one (with the special model), but it’s got visual texture if not contrast. I’m looking forward to getting the top pieced.

Sunday Night Stash Report: The One With the Contest

  • Used this Week: 1.5 yards
    • 1.5 yards for the Waves Pillow
  • Used year to Date: 107 yard
  • Added this Week: 11.5 yards
    • 8 yards from the Maywood Studios April Showers line to make a Blooming Nine Patch quilt.
    • 3.5 yards from the Timeless Treasures Plume line for an entry into the “Timeless Treasures Stitch Star” competition (eep! I usually don’t like to enter contests like this, but I’ve been eying the Plume line since it came out, so if I’m going to make a quilt anyway, I might as well enter it.)
  • Added Year to Date: 92 yards
  • Net Used for 2012: 15 yards (hmm, need to finish some things to bring this back up! And stop buying fabric, obviously.  Too bad Shop Hop is next weekend…)
    • YTD Used for Charity: 38.5 yards (36% of total used)