new york beauty quilt along

I'm very excited to announce the New York Beauty Quilt Along! This quilt along is all about paper piecing. If you've never done paper piecing before, it might sound a little bit scary, but trust me, you can do it! The quilt along will feature step-by-step photos and instructions for each block by some very talented quilters, to give you the confidence to get off and running!

New York Beauty block from Kati of From the Blue Chair

We will be working with 10 New York Beauty blocks, and you can get a preview of the blocks here. Each block instruction makes one 8" x 8" block (as shown in the graphics); you can either assemble 4 of the same block to make one large 15.5" x 15.5" block (as pictured above), or you can mix and match to make something beautiful! Here are the approximate fabric requirements if you are planning on making all ten 8" x 8" blocks: - 10 fat eighths for main fabrics (or 5 fat quarters or scrap fabric) - 1-1/2 yards background fabric

<center><a href="http://www.amylouwhosews.com/2012/02/new-york-beauty-quilt-along.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Sew Sweetness" src="http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab257/bluemerleboutique/newyorkbeautybutton.jpg"/></a></center>

And here is the schedule for the block tutorials:
March 5 - Kim from My Go-Go Life {Block 0}
March 12 - Sara from Sew Sweetness {Block 5}
March 19 - Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations (Block 1}
March 26 - Kati from From the Blue Chair {Block 8}
April 2 - Jeni from In Color Order {Block 7}
April 9 - Amy from Sukie Don't You Know Who I Am? {Block 6}
April 16 - Katy from The Littlest Thistle {Block 3}
April 23 - Lee from Freshly Pieced {Block 4}
April 30 - Amy from amylouwho {Block 2}
May 7 - Lindsay from Lindsay Sews {Block 9}

 If you are thinking about participating, please join the Flickr Group!We'll be sharing fabric choices and help along the way!

(This announcement brought to you by Sara of Sew Sweetness!)

finally a block

I had a few battles with this - mostly because I haven't done many of these and I'm the planner type and these are definitely not planner-type blocks.  But it's okay.  I think I actually like it!  I figure I can get one a day done for the next couple weeks and have enough for the top!

I'm pretty sure i need to sash this in white too.  For brightness' sake!

Remember sew & tell tomorrow! (I guess I have to get something done since I already showed you the block.....)

some quilting stuff

Do you ever have a week where you realize it's Tuesday and already you feel behind? Well, welcome to my week!

I did finally get my strips cut for my wonky log cabins for the quilt-along.

I tried to get a nice artistic shot of them all laid out  - but this is the only one I got before the wind blew them all over and I didn't have time to do it again!  You can see a better picture of all my fabrics here.

I think I'm going to do the wonky squares-in-squares log cabins.  Quilt Dad wrote us a great tutorial here.

I'm feeling like I have one too many projects going on right now.  Not to mention the friendship bag I have to get done for the swap!  I think that will be my sew & tell for Friday.  What are you working on for Friday?

I would LOVE to have one of my big quilts ready for the Blogger's Quilt Festival that Amy is hosting!  Are you all ready?  It's in just a couple weeks!  Click on the button for more information!

another quilt-along! round 3

I missed out on round 2 of the Old Red Barn Co. quilt-along.  I have it bookmarked to do later. . . . but I'm afraid later won't happen.  So when round 3 started abuzz with a wonky log cabin quilt, I decided to get on board, do it now so it will get done.  I've found I work better with deadlines.

So I was straightening up and organizing my fabrics to see if I had enough fat quarters to throw together.  I didn't realize how many I did have!  I've just bought a few here and there because I liked them, not sure what I would ever do with them.  Then I realized that they all looked pretty good together!  So I think this is going to be one bright scrappy quilt!  I'm excited to get cutting. 

But first I have to finish up a couple things for sew-n-tell tomorrow!  Don't forget to come back and link up your week's finishes!  We had a lot of fun last week!

sewing-fest 2009 comes to an end.

My mom left today. It was very sad. I thoroughly enjoyed having her here. We were so productive!! And the kids loved having someone else to read them bedtime stories. I'm boring now. My daughter kept saying, "but we want Grandma Suzie to stay with us!" Amen.

Between stories and outings and eating and trips to the fabric store, we managed to get a lot of sewing done! I got my quilt-along top put together. I really like it! I sent a picture of it to my husband and his comment was, "it's really colorful. And it looks like a lot of work." Well, it was! Thank you for noticing!

I'm sure he will love it come winter and we are watching a movie on the couch and he gets cold.

I finally got a bag made for my mom - It was about time!! Part of the problem was fabric selection. Once she got here and saw this in my stash it was a no-brainer. Chez Posh by Moda. If she hadn't chosen it, I might have used it for myself!

And because she's my mom, I let her design a second set of interior pockets specially sized for her doo-dads.

You know you have a fabric problem when you load some to be washed and think, Hey! I need to take a picture of that! It looks so pretty! On second thought, maybe it's just a blogging problem I have....

I also made some delicious blueberry scones from Cook's Illustrated. They are delightful! Here are the blueberries ready to be shaped into the triangles of joy. There's some lemon zest in the dough, just in case you were wondering.

My mom loves to bird watch and so I thought I would get a feeder to see if I could get the cardinals to come and visit. The first cheap feeder I bought was destroyed by a squirrel within the first week. This is a squirrel-proof one that is really cool! The cage on the outside of the feeder is spring loaded so that when the squirrel gets on it his weight lowers the leaves to cover the feeding holes. Nifty!! And look at all the fun birds that I didn't know were my neighbors.

And this picture reminds me of the idea I had for my Notion or Two quilt!

More Sewing-fest 2009 pictures to come. You have to see the apron she made! (but I have to upload the pictures first.)

weekend sewing and gardening

Do you ever get so many projects going on in your head that you can't keep organized the projects you are actually doing - not to mention fixing meals, keeping the toys picked up, the kitchen cleaned and children happy? Oh man, I've been feeling a little more than disheveled lately. It's gardening season and I have all these sewing projects I want to finish too. But I find that I really can only do one project a day - and I have to figure out how to squeeze that in the middle of being a mother and homemaker. Does anyone have the secret? In the meantime, until I get it all figured out, I guess I'll just continue on in my happy creative messes!

And really, aren't these just happy fabrics!? I keep checking my reader for Week 3s instructions for Dana's Quilt-along. I finally got the strips cut out last night. Can't wait to start putting them together!

*****

A friend of mine asked me to help her make a bag for her oldest daughter who just had her first baby. I love the fabric they chose.

We spent a nice afternoon together chatting and sewing. And she made a beautiful bag! I love working with other people on projects. The way everyone sees things differently I get to do things I wouldn't have typically done myself.

You may have noticed that I'm drawn to bold patterns and bright colors - but I love this simple polka dot in a subdued turquoise and brown. So classic.

I have a bag problem. I really do want to keep every. single. one.

*****
Lastly - the garden. I was really tired of looking at this when I came home.

It used to look even worse - with clover and NO plants. I'm looking forward to those hydrangeas, gladiolas, and dahlias blooming.

But I needed some instant color. So one trip to the nursery and I came home with this!

And now that sad little patch looks just a little bit brighter. And who knew plants went on clearance? I got petunias for 25 cents for a 6 pack! Nice! And only because they were OVERwatered. I've let them dry out a bit....

This is my favorite spot. I love the bright orange and pink zinnias!

I can't wait to see it all as it grows and fills in! It's making me happier already.