Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

(We actually get to use finished stockings this year!)

Awesome and easy stocking tutorial from Fabricworm!

travelling baby quilt

I don't know if you remember back when Babylouwho was born, but several of my awesome blogging friends collaborated on a little quilt for her.  You can read about it here.

One of those sweet friends had a baby this year and we reprised our roles except this time I got to help in the making and Natalia got the quilt!!

I received a partially pieced top with fabric to add the rest including borders.

These are the blocks I added.

And here's what the top looked like completed.  I thought it was pretty cute, but after Rita worked her magic, it's even cuter!

Once again, Candy hand dyed some fun fabrics and we used a (scaled down) pattern from Amy's book.  Amy E. and I pieced the top, Rita appliqued his name on and Vicki quilted and bound it!

It was so fun to see the evolution of the quilt as the others shared their progress.

Amy was able to hand deliver to Natalia last week so we finally get to share our parts in the process!

I don't have pictures of the finished quilt, but if you visit the links below, you can see it's progress and final destination!!

I love making handmade gifts for new moms.  And I love working on them with friends.  The collaboration is almost as fun as reaching the finished product!  Plus then I don't have the pressure of finishing something from start to finish! I need to work on that.

The links below will take you right to the post about this quilt:
Candy - Candied Fabrics
Amy E. - Amy's Creative Side
Rita - Mochi Studios
Vicki - Sew Inspired
Natalia - Piece N Quilt

the bee's knees quilting bee

One of the things I've been working on lately is some bee blocks.  I'm a part of The Bee's Knees Quilting Bee and we have a blog and everything.

I think I already posted about some of these, but I thought I would share better pictures of them along with some others that I hadn't shared yet.

Nedra sent us fabric and the pattern for Alison's Cluck Cluck Sew Spin Cycle block. I love the color combo and this pattern went together easily.

Amy E., Amy's Creative Side, sent us some gorgeous Echino and crossweaves for some log cabins.

I love the bright floral on this one.

And fussy cutting the cheetah was fun here.  I need more Echino in my life.

Amy S. sent some lovely prints and color choices!  I think you all know about my obsession with aqua/turquoise.  She asked for 12.5" or 6.5" log cabins.

I started with this 12.5" block. Love that aqua and red Flea Market Fancy.

Then I had enough scraps for this bitty 6.5 incher.  Add that to the list of things that are cute when tiny.

Here's a photo for scale.

I really love being in a bee and getting to use fabrics not in my stash and do blocks I might not otherwise do.  I've been getting a lot of my string blocks back too.  I need to get a photo of them together!

tap, tap, is this thing on? anyone there?

Hey friends!! Sorry I have been so MIA. Remember how I told you I had some exciting news? Well here it is: 

YES! He's home! We're all back together again!

I didn't really talk about it much here, even though I know a lot of you knew he was deployed.  I took a security class shortly after he left and then got paranoid about how much information I put online about him and his work.  I figured it was safer to err on the side of caution.  So it was a long 7 months and I am so glad he's back.  I'm starting to feel more normal again due mostly to the fact that I am getting some sleep now!

So I have been sewing.  Quite a bit actually. I'm going to try and get some more posts up here soon.

I've seriously slacked on sew & tell.  I'm not sure I have it in me to do it anymore.  I'm trying to reinvent it a little to make it fun for me again.  Maybe less often.  Maybe more constest driven? I don't know, I'm mulling it over.

How are you?  Anyone still there? Thanks for always being awesome and so supportive!  Blogging friends rock!!

giveaway winner!!

Hey Friends! I'm a little late on the announcing but our winner is...

Thanks for playing along! I loved reading your comments!! I have something exciting happening soon that I can tell you about next week. No, it has nothing to do with sewing or blogging, but a lot to do with why I'm so disorganized!! And no, I'm not having another baby. See you soon!

Instagram round up from yesterday

I've been documenting on Instagram what I've been doing since I'm #notgoingtosewingsummit ! I thought I'd share here in the virtual sewing room! It's super fun to check out the #sewingsummit feed too! There is so much fun going on over there!!

I love seeing what all of you are working on this weekend! Keep linking up! I've put the same linky at the end of this post too, so you only have to link up on one post, it will just carry thought the weekend!
*****
Instaclass of the weekend.  If you are working with something slippery or stretchy, pin the heck out of it!

baby blanket for a soon to be niece!

botched hem job getting fixed

And here is the finished hem.  It looks way better than when I got it.  The mom was happy too.

*****
My quilt partner is crime came over to sew and she worked on some snowballs...

 

And I spray basted this quilt (that she pieced).  Quilting to happen shortly.

Keep calm, and sew on! (and get a drink!)

And party on!!

the (virtual) sewing room is now open!! {linky party}

Welcome to the #notgoingtosewingsummit pity party!  I kid, I kid! Not a pity party. But a way to connect even though we couldn't all make it there!  

I've been super busy today and just acquired another sewing project for the night!  I've become the homecoming dress rescuer!  I took in my neighbor's dress (the dance is on Saturday) and a new friend tonight asked if I could repair a HORRIBLE hem job that a shop did on her daughter's dress!  So that's what's going on in my sewing room tonight.

I'm hoping to get to work on my stars (that I showed in the last post) and a quilt top that needs to be quilted.

I won't bore you with too much, but feel free to link up and show us what you are working on in your sewing room this weekend!  Since we're #notgoingtosewingsummit.  I'll have a link up in each post I put up this weekend and leave it open until Sunday night.  Feel free to link up any sew & tell finishes you might have too! Remember you can use the #notgoing.... on Twitter and Instagram.  If you don't have those then that's what this link up is for! Or you can do both!  Let's have some fun!!

Join the party!

#notgoingtosewingsummit

I was so lucky to attend sewing summit last year. What an awesome weekend to meet up with all of my blogging sewing friends and make new ones!

Last spring when quilt market was going on I got a little envious of all the market posts on Instagram. So a little tongue in cheek I started a little #notgoingtomarket party! Hehehe all in good fun.

Sooooooo, why not have a #notgoingtosewingsummit party this weekend!? (There's another tag started on twitter: #sortasummit)

If you aren't able to go either, join me for a virtual sewing fest! Pick a few projects to work on this weekend. We'll have our own virtual sewing room! The sewing room was the happening place during last year's event.

Share your photos on Instagram and twitter and tag them #notgoingtosewingsummit. I'll open up sew & tell on Thursday night for our opening night mixer! Edited to add: If you don't have instagram or twitter the link up will be up all weekend where you can share what you are doing!! Link up as often as you want!


I need some motivation to get back to some sewing! Who's in!? And of course I'll be checking in on all the real #sewingsummit posts too!

Maybe I'll finish up this little lovely.

book review: beginner's guide to free motion quilting = {a giveaway}

I was so happy that Natalia asked me to be a part of her blog book tour! (all photos courtesy C&T publishing)

If you have followed her blog at all then you know that she does some amazing work.  Between the quilt designs (many with amazing applique) and the actual quilting, she is one talented mama!

Natalia has written her first book for the beginner home machine quilter!

As Natalia said in her kick off post, quilting does seem to be a family affair! I learned to sew and quilt from my mother.  We didn't have formal lessons, I just learned as we worked on projects and as questions arose.  I love that at the beginning of the book she lays out simple instruction with photos of the different aspects of quilting: the type of feet you might need, thread selection, basics of basting, etc.  I love having all of that information so handy in one place!  I'm always learning something new!

Lately my littleslouwho are my reason for quilting.



I've made and am working on many quilts for them and me and the mrlouwho.  I wish I had Natalia's book when I free motion quilted my first quilt!  It's a good thing no one inspects each little stitch!!

The book has great step-by-step photo instructions to achieve many basic quilted patterns!

There is also valuable information on achieving something more than just an all-over pattern of stipples or loop-de-loops.  Which as a beginner is mostly what I do these days!

I am finding that I really love doing the actual quilting part, but I need more practice.  I can't wait to dive a little deeper into the book and try out some of the techniques!  I have some more placemats to make, they are the perfect size on which to practice! I'll show you when I finish them.

Natalia, thanks for including me!  There will be a giveaway on each post during the tour and a grand prize on her blog at the end of the tour!! All winners will be announced 18 March!

Would you like to win a copy of Natalia's book?  Just leave me a comment here telling me who or what inspired you to start a current project you are working on!

sew & tell v4.4 ~ a nursery

Oh my.

Did you notice I didn't post sew & tell last week? Or earlier today?

I'm a mess!

I do have a good excuse for last week, we were out of town and I'm clearly not on top of everything enough to have written a post early and schedule it to magically appear Friday morning.

And yep, didn't do that again for this week.  The only difference is I wasn't out of town!! I'm just mourning the fact that my mom had to go home after a lovely 5 week visit!! And now my kitchen is a mess because she's not here to do the dishes for me.

So, you'll have to forgive me and I won't blame you if no one wants to link up this week.  But you'd better link up next week to distract me from the fact that I won't be at sewing summit!!!

And now to a short and sweet finish.

And by short and sweet, I mean once I buckled down and did it, it didn't take long at all.

I have three words for you:  ORANGE CHEVRON CURTAINS

photo courtesy Kristen Hassell

My super stylish (and talented) friend Kristen took some photos of babylouwho for me a few months ago. And by a few I mean 18. (You are going to want to click on that link. And if you want to cry you should check out the rest of her blog and look at all the military homecoming shoots!!)

We swapped services, she took photos and sewed some curtains.  Hmmmm, I think I might need to make her some more stuff.  In fairness I have hemmed 2 pairs of pants for her hubs too.  And I helped Brynn with that cute quilt there on the crib. I still think I got the better end of the deal!

Anyway, the nursery is all her and I'm so pleased the curtains turned out so well!

What have you finished recently?




Linky Rules.  Please follow along for a fun party!

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button (HTML on my sidebar).

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

Please put your (blog)name instead of your project name, it helps us get to know each other better!

sew & tell v4.3 ~ bee block extravaganza!

I guess you could say this is the month of the bee block at my house.  I was able to get my fabrics sent out this week and have finished 3 more blocks with one more to go so I can get caught up.  Can anyone say disorganized!  It's going to feel so good to be caught up!!

I loved making this sweet block for Amy (Diary of a Quilter).  She has the best color choices, always!  I love how bright and fun it is.  I wanted to make her 2 but I didn't stretch out her prints enough and only had enough for one block.  But I love it!

I like the spontaneity of log cabins, but if you don't really plan it out a little ahead of time you might end up tearing out a round like I ended up doing so more of the blue would show once it was finished!

I also finished up two blocks for Amy (Amy's Creative Side).  These Echino prints with the crossweave solid is so fun!  I've never actually worked with any Echino and now I want to find a bunch and buy it up!

Her quilt is going to be so fun! I can't wait to see all the blocks together.

My mom is here visiting and all of our plans to get a ton of stuff done hasn't really worked out like we thought.  We have managed to take care of the littleslouwho and keep the house picked up, so there's that! She did help me get my packets mailed out.  She had never done string blocks before so she offered to sew mine up for me!  She did a fantastic job of course.

#1

#2

She discovered that the 12" scrapbook paper that I sent out was actually too thick for paper piecing.  She did the second block with a 12.5" square of newsprint and that was much easier.  I'm so excited to put these together!

So I'm planning on finishing up the last of my bee blocks today and then maybe I'll have something new to show you next week!

What did you finish this week?



Linky Rules.  Please follow along for a fun party!

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button (HTML on my sidebar).

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

Please put your (blog)name instead of your project name, it helps us get to know each other better!

string blocks!

I mentioned that I am in another bee right?  Yes, I love bees!  I'm not the promptest bee member but I really enjoy the collaborative work!  This is my month and I decided that I wanted to have some string blocks made!

blocks I made for my first bee

I already had a bunch of fabric cut and decided that these strips would work really well.

Since I wanted to ease the workload on everyone's part I thought it would be fun to make BIG blocks instead of a bunch of tiny ones. So I asked for 12" blocks.

My favorite string block tutorial is from Film in the Fridge.  Makes it so easy.

If you want to read more about what we are doing you can check out the Bees Knees blog!

sew & tell v4.2 - a bee finish ~ of sorts

Hi!  This is going to be short and sweet because it's late going up because Blogger was having issues this morning, blah blah blah.

PS - Don't forget to check out my post for the Craft Book Blog Hop - and giveaway info!

Anyway,

It's my month for The Bees Knees Quilting Bee that I joined up this year!  (Such a fun group, I couldn't say no!)

It snuck up on me and I wasn't totally prepared.  But I found a bunch of strips I cut over 3 years ago for a wonky log cabin quilt along.

It's just a collection of strips cut from some fat quarters and fun fabrics that I had just because I liked them! I made one block and it didn't turn out like I envisioned so I tucked them away.

I think it needed some solids to break up the prints.

So anyway, I got them back out and divided them up into sets and cut some Kona snow strips. I'm going to have my friends make me some large string blocks! I think it's going to be great! I also added some darker prints for contrast. We'll see how it goes!

So here's my finish - packages ready to mail! (I'm totally stretching for a real finish this week!)

Can't wait to see some of your finishes!



Linky Rules.  Please follow along for a fun party!

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button (HTML on my sidebar).

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

Please put your (blog)name instead of your project name, it helps us get to know each other better!

technical difficulties

I don't even know if this will publish, but I'm having some issues accessing my blog this morning... so I will get the sew & tell post finish as soon as I can figure out what's going on!!

Material Obsession, not just the name of my OCD {Craft Book Month Blog Hop + giveaway}

Wow! That's the longest title for a blog post, EVER!

It's my turn to share for the Craft Buds blog hop!

(details for the giveaways at the end of this post)

One of my favorite quilt blocks ever is a chubby dresden!  I made my first one as part of my first online quilting bee over 3 years ago! It won me over!

The pieces were sent to me already cut and ready to go. That made it so much less intimidating!  At the time I didn't realize that it was from a book that I purchased shortly after that.  Material Obsession by Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty.

I remember buying the book because it was when I first got back into sewing and I felt like buying a quilt book would authenticate me! heheh!  This was actually the first quilt book I ever purchased. I didn't know that the cover pattern would be one that I would use over and over.

Because I would still be working on making the whole quilt featured on the cover I chose to make some minis/tabletoppers with this pattern.  I  made two (almost) identical table toppers:

I love polka dots, so I mimicked the small red dot on white for the background with these bright colors!  I love the way it sets it off.  And the pink on red sunspots from Amy Butler are always a great choice.

And a quilt block for another bee:

One of the secrets of these blocks is that I didn't applique the center circle down in a traditional manner.  I used a raw edge applique and just stitched it down!  The top one has a zig zag stitch, the second one is straight stitched with a pinked edge, and third is straight stitched on a straight cut.  I want to learn to really applique, so maybe I'll do that for my next one!

I don't always enjoy the cutting portion of quilting so I cut a bunch of plates out at the same time. I just used a cereal box to make the template.  It worked pretty well, but since then I've bought an acrylic dresden ruler and hoping that will work a little easier.

I also have an idea to reduce it in size to make some smaller dresdens! Won't that be cute!?

I think Dresdens have so much potential! Planned, scrappy, whatever! This past year I had a few people make me some Christmas Dresdens for my month of the bee.  I think a whole quilt of Christmas wreath dresdens would be amazing!

photo courtesy Rebecca's Rags

photo courtesy Darci - Stitches and Scissors

Dresdens are one of those things that can look so intimidating but once you try them they can be addicting!  I love the modern look of this pattern too.  One of the best things about sewing is that you can take any pattern and make it your own!  I hope you try one of these, they make me happy just looking at them!

*****
This post is part of the Craft Book Month blog hop at Craft Buds.

Week One

Sunday 9/2: Hopeful Threads / The Jolly Jabber
Monday 9/3: Stitchery Dickory Dock / Me Sew Crazy
Tuesday 9/4: Olive & Ollie / Sew Sweetness
Wednesday 9/5: Fabric Seeds / The Busy Bean
Thursday 9/6: CraftFoxes / Stitched In Color
Friday 9/7: Katie's Korner / A Prairie Sunrise

Week Two
Sunday 9/9: Sweet Diesel Designs / missknitta's studio
Monday 9/10: Sew Tara / Clover and Violet
Tuesday 9/11: Sew Fantastic / amylouwho
Wednesday 9/12: Projektownia Jednoiglec / Two More Seconds
Thursday 9/13: Ellison Lane Quilts / Don't Call Me Betsy
Friday 9/14: Live a Colorful Life / LRstitched

Week Three
Sunday 9/16: Fairy Face Designs / Canoe Ridge Creations
Monday 9/17: Inspire Me Grey / Freshly Pieced
Tuesday 9/18: Lindsay Sews / The Cute Life
Wednesday 9/19: The Littlest Thistle / Sew Crafty Jess
Thursday 9/20: Urban Stitches / imagine gnats
Friday 9/21: Sew Bittersweet Designs / The Plaid Scottie

Week Four

Link up your craft book project at Craft Buds from Sept 23-30 from your blog or Flickr account, and enter to win prizes. Winners will be announced on Monday, October, 1!

To participate in the month-long contest, just link up any project you've made from a pattern in a craft book. That easy! One entry per person, and all craft book projects must have been completed in 2012. Just create a new blog post or Flickr photo (dated September 1, 2012 or later) and link back to Craft Buds in your post or photo description.

No time to create a project? This month, just follow Craft Buds and comment to win some new craft books and lots of giveaways!