Did I mention my quilt will be in a calendar?

I don't think I remembered to share my news! My Chicago MQG Calender Challenge quilt was chosen by a guest judge - and it will be included in our 2014 calender! This is really exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing my little quilt again this fall at the Tinley Park Sewing Expo, and then seeing it in the calender for the rest of the year! :) I guess I know what my family members are getting for Christmas!

The icing on the cake? The sweet comments offered by the guest judge Sarah Nishiura (she's a local Chicago quilt artist). I love how she really understood my quilt!

AMH Love

Last week I started a new quilt!!

Yes, I haven't been sewing as much as I would like to recently, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been dreaming up zillions of new quilts! So - this quilt has been marinating in my mind for a couple months. 

My idea is to use all the Anna Maria Horner fabrics. Ok, not ALL of them, but in packing up my fabric when we moved, I realized that about half of my (tiny) stash is beloved AMH fabrics that I'm not always willing to part with for small projects. So a huge quilt it is! 

It's been a while since I did lots of precision piecing -- I'm glad to report that I can still piece squares!

I've started out with a stack of 5" charms from the AMH charm swap (I didn't participate in this swap, but my friend Sara generously gave me hers). That means I started with about 70 different AMH fabrics - and I ended up cutting a few more to round out the number for my BIG quilt. 

I pieced the squares in like-colored pairs - then gradually pieced from one color to the next. There were moment of, "This is not going to work!" But in the end I think the colors flow pretty well. (pardon the weird shadows in the middle and on the bottom - I swear those are purples and dark blues down there in that shadow!)

This is the beginning of something awesome. I've got a lot of ideas for the rest - but it'll have to wait -- I'm out of Kona Curry! Yes, I think Curry needs to be a key color in this quilt. It's a risk, but I think the colors will all pull together! 

A new pretty scarf!

Don't mind all the crazy going on in the background!

Several weeks ago Shruti posted pics of some infinity scarves that she was listing in her shop... and you would know that my mom follows Shruti on facebook too (that makes me smile!). Well, my mom called me right away saying she wanted to order one, and asking which one I wanted. The delivery was very prompt - but I didn't get mine until my mom visited last week! 

Branding: Shruti adds these cute ribbon loops and a little elephant charm to each one!

I'm so excited about this!! The colors are perfect, and I love the zigzags! Also, check out Shruti's tags. That's the most adorable branding I've ever seen!! 

I can't stop wearing mine! Thanks mom and thanks Shruti!!

(Shruti also sent an extra tiny one for Allie - but I can't seem to catch a picture of her in it!)

CMQG September Meeting: Jane Sassaman!!

You guys might have caught my blog post over on the Chicago MQG blog last week. We were so lucky to have Jane Sassaman join us for a trunk show and lecture last week! 

Jane was an absolute joy to have with us! Her style is fun and crazy! She does a lot of applique - which isn't my style at all, but I really enjoyed hearing about how she goes about designing and balancing her designs. Not to mention that she's just as sweet as can be!

It's always so inspiring to see so many beautiful quilts too! Jane brought a ton to show us!!

And... Happy birthday To Emily! I hadn't seen her since her birthday so I made sure to bring her gift with me. The Quilts of Gee's Bend won't disappoint (even if the handmade portion of her gift isn't finished yet)!

Lastly, for the sake of making Elaine smile -- a snap of my fabulous notebook holder that she made for me! I use it for guild related activities and planning meetings. Thanks Elaine! (note the fun doodling that happened during Jane's talk!)

Hello old friend...

Today I had a day off. 

(I've been so behind on blogging recently that you all don't even know that I'm working full time again now. No more 2.5 days a week. :( but on the plus side that means we have an easier time making our bills!) 

Part of my new sewing area! Bigger table, tiny stash shelf, drawers of notions. I also kept my old wardrobe for big storage.

I shouldn't blame the lack of sewing / blogging on the increase in work hours... but I guess that contributed. 

Sewing table! My new table is so much bigger -- that's an 18" x 26" mat. Whew!

Also - we moved! Whew - I'll be glad if I don't have to do that again anytime soon!

Today while Allie was at school (a new, fabulous, awesome school -- the major reason we moved)... I finally sorted out my sewing space. It's a shared space with our bedroom - which luckily is a nice big room with lots of sunlight!

Jelly Belly's help with FMQing!

So. I sewed today. 

I grabbed a "project bag" of scraps that I'd sorted by color palate way back before the move, and I set off to make a doll quilt. No sense in trying to tackle any huge project right off -- it had been more than two weeks since I'd sewn, and never before in this house -- so simple and non-thinking seemed about right.

I really wished I had had more of the Moda Bella Strawberry, but those little bits were literally the last bits I had on hand! Other than that I love how this turned out. I used only what was in the project bag, and those were tiny scraps! 

I managed to finish the quilt with enough time to take pictures before Allie got home from school! This little one finished at about 11" x 15" 

Hopefully this is the start back to quilting several times a week, and blogging just as often! :) Thanks for bearing with me while I got my stuff together!

Last days of summer, first days of school, and moving across town!

WOW where did this month go?? 

Yep, these are all mug rugs!

We have completely finished moving - all the boxes are moved (not unpacked just yet), and the keys to the old place have been turned in. Whew! What an adventure!

The sad thing about moving is that I've had no time for sewing. None. I sewed a bit at the August Chicago MQG meeting - but I didn't get any pics of the HST's since my camera battery was dead. Yep, that happened. I lost my camera battery charger and cords... for almost two weeks! (thankfully they turned up!)

So here's what I have to show for my month. Pics from the local farm, boxes and stacks of fabric to be packed, a cousin's wedding, allie's first day of kindergarten!! (Kindergarten!!)

I can say that my new sewing area is cute - not a whole room like my last place, but it'll do just fine. I do have to buy an ironing board though -- that's the only reason I'm not sewing right now! For the past few years I've used a folded towel on my hard wood tabletop... it worked great so why mess with it?? Well, now I'm using a different (nicer) table so I'm going to need an ironing board.