Look, Mom!

Today my friend Jenny came over to play.  We stuffed our faces, saw a dead possum, and I taught her how to make a quilt!  Well, sort of.  I taught her how to make a quilt block.  A Sawtooth Star to be exact!

We dug into the old stash (which is really just large pieces of fabric leftover from finished projects, since you guys know I don't stash) and chose some cute fabrics, including some Amy Butler and a nice batik.  I showed Jenny how to use the rotary cutter and grid ruler, and I also taught her about 1/4" seams and pressing seams between steps.

 

The whole thing is only 4.5" square.  What a tiny block for a first-timer!  She did a great job, and I was quite proud of my teaching, too (I should be good at that, though, right?).   Next time I'm going to have to teach her how to do binding.

Here's Jenny and her finished quilt.  Don't you love this picture?  She looks pleased as punch!  Actually, Jenny looks like this pretty much all the time, except when she's really furious.  She's the happiest, smiliest person I know.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

This year, I decided to enter my piece de resistance, my modern opus, my masterpiece-- my hand pieced grandmother's flower garden quilt. I was inspired to create this quilt by an enormous patch of coneflowers that blooms in front of the Virginia Fine Arts Museum every year. The museum is just down the street from my apartment, so I get to enjoy the flowers all season, every year. The flowers are so colorful and full, and I get sad when they burn up and wilt each summer. Now I can have those flowers all year long!

The quilt measures approximately 93" x 67" finished and unwashed. I used a cotton-poly batting had it professionally quilted by Rebekah Richardson of Kept In Stitches Quilting (Richmond, VA).

The center of the top is entirely hand pieced by me. I followed the English paper piecing method seen here. Each piece is whip-stitched together using waxed or glace thread. For the flowers I used batik cottons, and the path is created with my favorite pink fabric ever, Lakehouse Antique Dots in Berry.

I created a pieced back using leftover pink squares and Cufflink in the Leaf colorway from Summer Soiree by Paula Prass. The quilt is bound with a really cool dot designed by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics. It's super black, and it turned my fingers grey while I was finishing the binding.

I love this quilt and can't wait to use it for many years to come!

Serious Conversation!

Serious Conversation!

Originally uploaded by McAzadi

I love this photo. There is clearly some serious conversation going on here. She looks absolutely crazed with purpose! What she is saying is clearly important.

I patched Disqus (a commenting management tool) onto this blog to help me reply to everyone's comments. Those no-reply bloggers really bug me, because sometimes they have awesome contributions but I can't respond. Disqus allows us to discuss in threaded comments, which will be super helpful.

You don't have to have a Disqus profile to comment; just fill in the info and comment as a guest, just as you would have done before. Hopefully it works!

Aunt Millie's Flower Garden

So far, I have completed one of twelve Aunt Millie's Flower Garden applique blocks.  One lone block.  I started it over a year ago.  That's pathetic!

I will finish appliqueing all these blocks before September 1, 2010.  That gives me three and a half months to finish.  This means I will have to complete 3.14 blocks each month.  Quite a lofty goal.  Check my progress in the blog sidebar.

HEN Swap

I signed up for the Hand Embroidery Network swap a month or so ago.  Apparently I hate deadlines because I didn't even start until this weekend (which is way late, let's just say).

The swap's theme is spring time.  My favorite part of spring time is how everything is so full of blossoms, fresh, clean, and green.  So, I let that feeling take me away while stitching.  And of course, I got inspired by beads and fabric.

Hopefully my partner likes this.  I still have another to make for my partner, since we agreed over email to make two.  I don't know much about her; she only uses facebook (and I don't!) so I haven't seen any of her work.

Gnome Homes

I finally sat down to sew Sharon's block for the Shrinking Quilters' Bee.

Sharon's month was April (oops!) and she asked for pink, wonky gnome homes.  She sent a bunch of cute pink fabrics, in addition to a lot of white fabric, and a little bit of Heather Ross's pink gnomes print.  I added in my favorite pink polka dot ever, and also a bit of green for the grass.  

I've never done wonky before; I'm not sure if I like what I came up with.  I tried to recreate my neighborhood here in Richmond.  The final product is quite different than my idea drawing, but that's because there were certain elements that I just couldn't bring myself to attempt to create (like stairs, porches, and columns).

Compared to others, my block seems like a failure!

Mail!

Look what Reba brought!  I immediately stopped talking with Conky about the Secret Word of the day, sat down in Chairry and opened this package.  Lo and behold!  My very own copy of EQ7.  (Holy @#$#%!)

Thanks Sarah and all the folks at the The EQ Blog.  I'm so utterly lucky.

And don't forget you can still pre-order at an awesome price until May 21st!  

The giveaway is over!

I've been receiving a lot of comments asking to be signed up for the EQ7 giveaway.  Maybe new visitors missed the last few posts, but the giveaway closed a while ago and a winner has been chosen.  I love your comments, but please do not leave any more asking to be signed up for the giveaway (it's over!).

Instead, feel free to read about my quilts and leave comments there!

EQ7 Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone for participating in this awesome contest.  I really enjoyed reading all of your comments; so many people are unlucky like me, and others have won (or know someone who has won) amazing prizes!  Some people were just plain thankful for another day on this beautiful creation (those comments made me smile).

Without further ado, the lucky winner!  Congratulations to #39, blueberrymoon, who said: "Wow, Awesome win Girl!!! I won a case of Foldger's coffee when I was eight, In a raffle. How funny is that. Hmmmm.. Maybe that's why I am a coffee addict."





I'll be emailing the winner shortly.  If I don't hear back from her by Friday at midnight, then I'll choose another winner.

If you didn't win, you still have several chances to win the software.

Thanks for stopping by.  You came for the giveaway, but I hope you stay for the quilts. :)

MT Swap Inspiration

I love quilts!  There's something about all that patchwork that just makes me absolutely giddy.  My favorite quilts are bold and geometric.  Quilts that exhibit brights against a pale, neutral background are especially gorgeous.  I really love star blocks (couldn't you tell by my Round 2 picks?) of all types.  Flying Geese are some of the coolest traditional blocks I've ever seen; I love them en masse or just a few sprinkled over a solid background fabric.  Right now I'm really digging quilts that use the same block in multiple sizes, like these two.

There are no colors that I hate, but I'm not a fan of dusty colors or a shabby chic look.  I especially love chartreuse, magenta, and gray.  Prints, batiks, and solids are all acceptable fabrics in my book.

Perhaps the only thing I really hate is when a quilt isn't squared up properly.  I think it makes the overall piece look badly done, no matter how nice the piecing and quilting may be.  Any shape is fine, but I particularly love equilateral square quilts.

I can't wait to see what my partner makes for me!  I wonder if I'll be able to pick it out of the flickr pool...

EQ7 Giveaway

As you know, the Electric Quilt Company announced a contest on their blog offering 10 lucky bloggers the chance to win two copies of EQ7-- one to keep and one to give away.

Imagine my excitement when I got an email on my Blackberry stating I had won not one but two copies of EQ7.  I literally got out of my car and did a dance in the street!  

Normally this is where a blogger would post a picture of the flesh-and-blood object to be given away.  Instead, I have an email (Click on the picture to go to flickr and see the original size.).  Sarah from the Electric Quilt Company will be mailing the loot directly to the winner after the giveaway (I think she is trying to keep me from selling the software on the black market of quilting).

To get a chance at winning my extra copy of Electric Quilt 7, simply comment here.  If you need something to say, tell me about the best thing you've ever won.  I will use random.org to choose a winner at 9PM EST on Wednesday, May 5, 2010. 

(For the record, this is the best thing I've ever won.  Josh, however, won $400 on a Virginia Lotto scratcher ticket!  That was lucky.)

Foot in Mouth

Just when I said I don't stash...

They were calling out to me! Plus I had a coupon for a free yard at Quilting Adventures. What wonderful thing shall I make for myself?

Electric Quilt 7

Okay people. The Electric Quilt Company is getting ready to release Electric Quilt 7!




I covet this program! There are so many excellent tools that I really wish I had. I love that you can print blocks in any size and that you can test layouts and import fabric swatches. I also love that this doesn't include doing math by hand or drafting on graph paper.

Martha Washington Star

Check out my Martha Washington Star Tutorial at Modify Tradition. It's the last block tutorial for Round 2! Don't worry-- there's still one more project left this round.

Bow Tie Quilt

This has been finished for a while.  Sorry it's taken so long for me to blog it!

The Bow Tie Quilt was originally supposed to be my sister's birthday present.  However, I fell in absolute love with the fabrics and the quilt during the construction process and decided to keep it for myself.   Good thing, because Katie says it's a little too shabby-chic for her.

She's a bit right; I didn't realize that until after she'd said so.  It's not normally my taste either, but I just can't help myself this time.  The whole thing is very sweet.  I love it!

Fabrics are mostly from Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt, but there are some favorites from Freshcut by Heather Bailey as well as a brown print that is recent (but I can't remember where it comes from).  Bound with the Prairie Rose print in the Piney Woods color way.  Backed with a pink damask from the Promises line.

It measures 70"x70" and is perfect for napping on the couch.  I quilted it in mostly evenly-spaced mostly-straight lines.  Try not to notice those incorrectly placed blocks in the corner... I didn't notice them until after the whole thing was basted, quilted, and bound. Too late to fix, otherwise I would have done so.

Magic Cross

I've got a new tutorial over at Modify Tradition.  This week's block is the Magic Cross.  Very easy to prepare for and very easy to make.  Not to mention, very cute!

Shrinking Quilters - March

I'm a bit behind, but today I made my bee block for The Incredible Shrinking Quilter's Bee.  March was Suzanna's month.

We made an off-kilter Shoo-Fly block inspired by a project in Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston.  Suzanna sent jewel-toned fabrics and requested that we use a black background. My final block has a pretty Amish look, which I'm digging.  I couldn't resist the light blue blender fabric that she sent and so I decided to use that as my focus fabric along with some funky purple print for the border.  I love my block!  I have plenty of scraps left over and so I think I may make some extra blocks for Suzanna to make up for being late.  I'd also like to make some of these for myself! If you'd like to know how to make this block, surf over to Modify Tradition to learn how to view the Shoo Fly block tutorial.  Then, add some borders and trim at an angle.  You're done!

Engaged!

Engaged!

Originally uploaded by jenamoured

Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got, I'm still (I'm still) Jenny from the block.

Hexagons

A few people have been blogging about paper piecing with hexagons this week. I know I'm not widely read, but I figured I'd chime in with a tip of my own, since I recently finished my full-sized quilt top made of 3" hexagons.


Instead of cutting your paper pieces, purchase them from Paperpieces.com. They use a die-cutter and heavy card stock to cut their paper pieces. You can order all different sizes, all different shapes, and all different amounts.  Their customer service is great and they have super-fast shipping.


The great thing is, you can reuse your shapes since they are cut from such heavy paper. I ordered a package of 300 3" hexagons and spent around $20. This was plenty of hexagons and I still have them for the next quilt!

Hmmm

Hmmm Originally uploaded by jenamoured
Something is happening! Sorry for the radio silence, folks. We should be back to regularly scheduled programming. Anyone interested in a quilt pattern?

Corner Star

Hi!  I know it's been quiet around here, so I thought I'd direct you over to Modify Tradition, where most of my sewing is being posted. This week you'll find a Corner Star tutorial written by me.  It's such a cute block.  Give it a try!

Valentines!

I decided to stitch up some Valentines for my sisters.  These photos were taken after the embroideries had already been framed.  Each valentine has a combination of embroidery and bead embroidery.

Eight Hands Around

Check out my Eight Hands around tutorial at Modify Tradition.

Modify Tradition - Round 2

broken dishes quilt block
Originally uploaded by sonnetofthemoon
Modify Tradition Round 2 has started. We're still focusing on teaching you how to make traditional blocks, but instead of a sampler quilt, each block will feature a special project tutorial and a giveaway.

Head over to see how to make Broken Dishes now!

Black-Eyed Susans

I finally got the nerve to try to baste and quilt my finished grandmother's flower garden quilt.  So, I cleared furniture out of the dining room and painstakingly basted to back to perfection (I use spray baste, remember?).  Then I turned it over and painstakingly basted the front.  When I flipped it to check the back, there were wrinkles and puckers everywhere.  So I re-did it.  When I flipped it to check the front there were wrinkles and puckers everywhere.

So, I pulled it all apart, folded it neatly, and put it back in the closet.  Looks like I'll be sending that quilt out to Kept in Stitches.

Anyway, here's the finished top, if you're curious.

Merry Christmas!  On Christmas Day my family always awakes to Handel's Messiah and eats breakfast while listening to gorgeous music celebrating the birth of Christ.  Then, we get to the presents.

Here's hoping your day is more than you expected.  Maybe you'll even be as surprised and grateful as this kid.

Another Finish!

I finished the Go Navy! quilt today.  I hand-finished the entire binding today while watching endless episodes of Super Nanny.  Thank God for television marathons!


The Go Navy! quilt spans my entire mattress, which is queen sized, with no drop.  It's the perfect size for two people to cuddle up or for one to take a cozy nap.  






This quilt is made up of t-shirts that belong to my sister, Gretchen. For those readers who don't know, Gretchen graduated from the United States Naval Academy in May. She took her oath of office and accepted her commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. While at the USNA, she participated on the women's crew team, rowing on the varsity eight scull (that's an eight seat boat, each woman with one oar, for you crew newbies).

Participating in this varsity sport allowed her to compete in many huge regattas against various teams, including Australia's Olympic team! The top of the quilt incorporates some USNA shirts as well as many shirts of teams she competed against at Eastern Sprints-- tradition dictates that you trade your team shirt with those of competing teams, including the Army team (ew!). See my favorite block?






The front is cool and all, but I think the back is my favorite part. I included uniform t-shirts from plebe summer, which is like basic training for midshipmen in their first year at the USNA. This is an extra special quilt that includes memories from four years of hard work, lessons learned, leadership, and accomplishments. I'm so proud of my sister and I hope she loves this quilt!








***


Here's a picture of the finished Ugly Eye Spy quilt with Kelsey, the momma to be! She loved it.

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Updated List

Sorry,  no pictures.  I already wrapped up the French Braid (forgot to snap a photo) for gift-giving and I gave away Ugly Eye Spy yesterday.  I'm sure there will be some photos from the recipients-- I'll see if I can post those.

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Progress Pics

I haven't quite mastered the hidden art of photographing whole quilts. Here's the French Braid quilt artfully displayed on my bright red couch. It's all quilted and trimmed-- see the quilting?-- and I've just spent what felt like forever ironing about 500 inches of quilt binding. Now, I must attach it. Ugh! But I do love hand finishing the quilts, so at least there's something enjoyable in my future.


Sadly, I cut up about a half yard of one of my Amy Butler Daisy Chain prints into 2.5" strips. It was the wrong fabric-- not the one I had purchased for the binding. I figured I'd go ahead and use it, but I didn't even have enough! Oh well, I'll just save those strips for future binding or some other strip-necessary project.


Also, I picked up the Go Navy! quilt from the quilter on Friday. Rebekah Richardson, of Kept in Stitches Quilting, did a gorgeous job on this thing. Here's a sneak peek.










Most of what's gotten done are things I can't cross off my list. I have cut the binding strips for the Go Navy! quilt and the Ugly Eye Spy quilt. I'm going to sew those together after I attach binding to the French Braid.

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• make binding
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Getting There!

Today was a productive day in my workshop, which is actually the dining-room-slash-kitchen.


I quilted the Ugly Eye Spy quilt in less than one episode of Law and Order. Daniel V, the new sewing machine, is wonderful! I tried free motion quilting on the Alexander Henry Cars quilt and did a not-so-bad job. Today, I continued with free-motion and did a pretty good job! Far fewer tension problems on the back, wonderful looking loops, and I only quilted myself into a corner twice! Having the extension table makes a huge difference, even though I'm quilting on a table the size of a postage stamp. I definitely need to get some of those grippy quilter's gloves!


Additionally, I made made the backing for the French Braid quilt and also made a pieced backing for the Black Eyed Susans quilt. Those items are hanging up in the closet waiting to get basted and quilted-- just gotta buy some batting for both. I also cut the strips for the binding on the Go Navy! quilt.

Getting somewhere!

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Joy in the New Year

I never posted on Jacquie's Joy in the New Year challenge post, but I have been keeping a mental list of the items I would like to have finished before the start of 2010.

Original List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

As you can see, there's a lot of quilting and binding that needs to be done.  I can finish tops with no problem, but I usually get paralyzed at the quilting stage.  I get nervous about wrecking my work in the quilting stage, and so the tops languish in their unfinished states.

I feel a renewed dedication to finishing these projects and have worked on things, finished things, and also taken things from storage so I can stare at them and feel guilty about not finishing them.  Feast your eyes on the updated list!

Updated List

• Black Eyed Susan
• finish top
• quilt
• bind
• Go Navy! T-shirt Quilt
• make top
• drop off for quilting
• make binding
• bind
• French Braid Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Alexander Henry Cars Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Ugly Eye Spy Quilt
• quilt
• bind
• Brick Road
• bind

Go ahead.  Congratulate me on some progress.

PS-- I went to the Handmade Holiday craft show, saw Krystal, bought some cute junk, and had a lot of fun.  I will definitely go again next year.  I love craft shows!

Crystal!

Crystal of Quilting Adventures is one of the indie crafters taking part in the Richmond Handmade Holiday.

While I was surfing the event website, I found a crafter spotlight post about Crystal! This means she is officially famous.

Yay!

I'm going to the Handmade Holiday with Katie tomorrow. I will report back about how awesome it is.

Tree Skirt

Tree Skirt
Originally uploaded by mamacjt

Absolutely wonderful. I would love to put this round my Christmas tree. I wonder if there's any chance of a pattern or tutorial...

Gorgeous

What a gorgeous dress!

Just something I wanted to remember.

Embroidery Scheme

Tonight was the Young People's Sit and Stitch at Quilting Adventures. I love going to this once-a-month meeting.

For a few meetings now we have been talking about doing some sort of swap, block of the month, or bee. Since most of us (at least, the ones that always attend) are hand embroiderers, we figured it should be an embroidery event.

Tonight we decided to do a block of the month (or something like it), but we can't decide on any patterns! We all love the Melly & Me Once Upon a Time BOM. It's only nine blocks, but each block costs $13. Kind of pricey, but they are so cute! I secretly wish we would do this one, and I think everyone else does, too.

But...

This Wee Wonderfuls Four Fairies Stitchettes Pattern is also really cute. Of course, there are only four real blocks, with some small additional designs included for each fairy.

I looked on Etsy and found tons of awesome patterns, including a couple I have seen around the internet and wanted to try for myself. Here's a run-down:

-1109 Poplar House Pattern from juneatnoon.

-Bird and the City and all other patterns from revi1001

-Christmas Embroidery Set from Badbird

-F Fox and all others from the Alphabet set at penguinandfish

-Princess and the Pea by kloin

-Tree of Life and others by polkaandbloom

-Little Houses, Cakes, and Cakes 2 by The Floss Box (plus These bunnies!)

-OWLSTRAVAGANZA by LaurenReeser

-Sadie and Oliver has some cute, weird patterns

-Acorn Cap Pattern by Cate Anevski

pastry.line.hues

pastry.line.hues
Originally uploaded by annamariahorner

Little folks. Delicious. Must have.

Read more here.

Exciting

Our first tutorial goes up today at Modify Tradition.

Go check it out!