QFTRuS' 2nd Podcastiversary Giveaway! (Updated!)

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 33x39". 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!

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:

 

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)

National Quilting Day Weekend Wrap-Up

I got a fair amount done this weekend, including 4 more blocks for the Purple Swoon quilt and my two Saturday Sampler blocks.  Here are the Swoon ones first:

And here is the next block for Grandma's Garden (if you click it to enlarge on Flickr, you'll see the words of wisdoms are in fact, just a single word: Dude). Not a lot of white space on this block for more words, and I find that particular words can convey many meanings.

 And here is the latest block from Memories of Provence:

 

Only 3 more Purple Swoon blocks to go! And three for the Grandma's Garden quilt.

HtbaS: Episode 71

 

I talk about a lot of stuff! I run down the Sewing & Quilt Expo, my appearance on the SeamedUP podcast, National Quilting Day, the Purple Swoon quilt, a buffalo quilting finish, the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild BOM, and a pinwheel quilt for Wellspring Living.

Don't forget to join (or follow) the conversation tomorrow for #NQDSI!

AMQG Modern Block of the Month

The Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild is doing a "Modern Block of the Month" program to encourage our members to get comfortable with 1) different fabric than they are used to and 2) different block styles than they are used to. I'm coordinating the program, and the four blocks are being designed by four of our officers.  At the end of the project, members can either donate their blocks if they don't want them, or use them to make a table runner that I'll be providing a pattern for.

The fabric we are using is the Jay McCarroll Habitat line, which was donated by the Free Spirit fabric company. We're a bit late in getting around to our challenge for this fabric, since most of the other MQG's did something with it last year. All the blocks are 12" finished.

I designed the first block, which I named "Stardust".

Our guidelines were that we could only add a solid fabric to the Habitat fabric, so I chose a brown. After I made the block, I thought it needed something extra, so I had the idea to make a wonky version, which is WAYWAYWAY outside my comfort zone.

 

And you know what? I actually like it better. I'm not sure if it's the Kona Snow and the wonky star shape I like better, but it works with this fabric line (which admittedly is not my taste).

Block 2 was designed by our President Andi, and it's called "Modern Strings". I went back to the brown because I had more of that in my stash.

As the official pattern tester, I get to see all the block patterns ahead of time, so I've already got block 3 (designed by Lynn) queued up. Can't reveal it until after our April meeting though!

Lucky / Bloom Bunting

I finished this a while ago, but forgot to post pictures of it. Since St. Patty's Day is coming up, we've got the Lucky side hung up:

And here is the flip side for Easter, which says "bloom" (and needs better contrast in the letters):

Purple Swoon - Block 2 and Pressing

Here is the finished Block 2 for the Purple Swoon quilt, with bonus kitty toes:

Lori asked how I was doing the pressing for these blocks, since I like to nest my seams on blocks like this - it's one of the ways that I get those points to match up so well. So here's an annotated tutorial on it.

The first step (for me anyway), is to make all the HSTs and flying geese units.  On these, I press the HST seams open and the flying geese units to the wings.  Random tip: I marked my pressing directions on my pattern for an easy reference. 

The next subset I call the "side" units. I press this section so the seams go toward the flying geese units.

Now the corner units are a bit trickier. My best advice is to follow the rainbow! Before the corner unit together, I press the red arrow towards the background fabric and the orange arrow away from the HST with the background. I chained piece this block together so after they are stitched, the yellow/blue arrows get pressed "in" (which will nest with the side flying geese units which are pressed "out"), and the green/purple arrows get pressed "out".

And you sew that last seam on the corner unit.  That is then pressed to the larger part of the unit. The yellow areas are the two parts that will nest with the flying geese side units (pressed "out"), so those should both be pressed "in".

And then it's time to stitch it into one unit! In this picture, I did the vertical seams first and pressed per the arrows. Then I did the horizontal seams and pressed them open.

Purple Swoon - Block 1

Purple Swoon - Block 1
Originally uploaded by Pantsfreesia

Voila! The background fabric is a Kona Liliac instead of a white variation. I wasn't sure the contrast would be enough between the lighter block fabric and the background, but the visual texture of it makes me happy.

Waves Pillow: A Buffalo Quilting Finish!

Meet the Waves Pillow:

"Waves" (or "Mr. Pillow" if you're nasty - Janet Jackson holla!) should look familiar if you remember the Blue Swoon quilt.  Waves is made of the bits trimmed off the flying geese units from the blocks.

Waves likes lounging on the back deck, snuggles, and sunbathing. He's got a little surprise on the back side (always a good statement in a personal ad, no?):

Lime green Kona! Buttons!

Waves will be listed in my etsy shop once I get his friend finished.  I had enough HSTs from the Blue Swoon quilt to make two pillows with some HSTs leftover, too.

Sunday Night Stash: Sewing & Quilt Expo Edition

• Used this Week: 11 yards
• 5 yards for scrap organizers
• 6 yards for Hooo, Baby!
• Used year to Date: 105.5 yards (holy crap I broke 100 yards!)
• Added this Week: 15.25 yards
• 5.5 yards in jelly rolls (one neutral and one orange)
• 1.5 yards in yellow gear print from Rashida Coleman-Hale's Cutebot line
• 2.25 yards in green gear print from Cutebot line
• 3 yards of purple fabric to build stash in that area
• 1.5 yards in tan for stash
• 1.5 yards in scraps
• Added Year to Date: 80.5 yards
• Net Used for 2012: 25 yards
• YTD Used for Charity: 38.5 yards (36% of total used)

HtbaS: Episode 70

 

I talk about making the "emergency" baby quilt named "Hooo, Baby!", organizing my scraps and making containers for them, and some thoughts on projects to use up those scraps.

Zoom is also a fan of the scrap organizers:

Zapper wishes she had thought of it first:

Scrap Organization: Complete!

I am ridiculously excited to have finished this project! As a reminder, here is the before picture of my scrap cabinet:

And here is the after...

  

... which doesn't look like all that much from here. But! Each of those white things is a drawer to organizer various sizes of scraps.

Shelf 1 (at the top), with 10" squares, 2" squares (my primary leaders and enders, and why the neutral 2" box is empty), and some miscellaneous trims:

 

Shelf 2, with 2 1/2" strips and some of the 3 1/2" squares:

 

Shelf 3 with 5" and 3 1/2" squares:

 

And Shelf 4 with a pantload of strings:

 

To make the various drawers, I made this type of basket (only without the center seam - my fabric cut outs look like giant plus signs). The fabric to make the baskets I had in my stash and was just languishing (and is from 1992, so it likely wouldn't go into a quilt because it's just not really my style). The dividers are "stuffed" with Peltex and stitched into the basket sides. The Peltex makes them a bit flexible which is good for a little bit of movement, but can also make them look a bit sloppy. I don't care because they are awesome. The sides of the baskets have either mat board (that you would use in framing pictures, and is fairly cheaper by the sheet at Hobby Lobby) or corrugated cardboard.  The bottom of each basket has a piece of mat board to hold it firm. I might sew some small stitches to secure the cardboard in the sides in place, but haven't decided yet.

Things I learned in this process:

1. I have a lot more scraps than I thought. And I'm not done cutting - I still have darks, neutrals, and the warms to sort through.
2. Clearly I need to do a string project sometime soon. I think it might be something like this one.
3. I'd like it if I had more room to break out the colors further than warm/cool in some of the sizes but I had to work with the space I have.
4. Throwing the pieces into these warm/cool piles is making me more amenable to scrappy projects, so it is working on my color sense. The real test will be when I finally make something with all these!