Singing Squares - Quilt Now issue 15!

This month's issue of Quilt Now magazine includes my Singing Squares quilt and pillow. This is probably one of my very favorite quilts I've made in a long time. It's no surprise that I adore Anna Maria Horner's fabrics, and her Folk Song line is one of the best fabric lines in a long time. It speaks to me. Much more than just that, the line of fabric splits so easily into warm / cool stacks. That was my inspiration for this quilt - playing with scale and negative space, warm and cool. I also wanted to make this quilt very charm square friendly. I have already used my stack of AMH charms (so sweetly gifted to me by a friend who participated in the AMH Charm Swap a few years back), but I know so many people still have those charms and are waiting for the perfect project to use them! This project is the one! 

This quilt comes together quickly, it uses about half a FQ bundle (or a bunch of charms / scraps), and paired with linen the colors really pop!

The pillow was a bit of an extra - and I backed it with some scraps of Anna Maria Horner's velveteen. It's so cozy! 

If you make a quilt using this pattern I would love to see it.

Social Tote

This week I made a Social Tote!

Social Tote

I had picked up this pattern at Quiltcon. I always get it into my mind that I want to make a thing, but then I waffle on buying the pattern - thus I don't make it. In truth buying this pattern was an impulse buy. I saw it at Alyssa / Pile of Fabric's booth, and I love Alyssa's shop and wanted to buy something. So impulse had me, and I bought this little pattern. 

Social Tote

I really love how this turned out. I love sewing projects with a bit of a challenge. Once I decided to sew the Social Tote, I was directed to some links online to make it easier. First and foremost, Carolyn Friedlander has step by step photos for sewing the lining. Also, an instagram friend directed me to the tips over here on this blog. Once I got down to sewing, it really wasn't too hard. The best tip is to follow all the instructions!

As an added bonus, my existing pin cushion fits in the pincushion section. 

WIP - AMH Love Quilt

I have an obsession, and it's nothing new. I am in LOVE with Anna Maria Horner's fabric designs. 

Way back when I started quilting the first designer fabric I ever purchased was from her Chocolate Lollipop line. I was hooked immediately, and I've been hoarding bits of her fabrics ever since.

For the past few months I've been (intermittently) working on a quilt I call AMH Love. It's all my tiny bits of AMH fabric, and I'm hoping it comes together just as I envision it. 

To ensure that I don't screw it up - I made a maquette - a practice mini. (I learned this term from Jacquie Gering, what an inspiration!) So while I'm not sharing my full project just yet, here are some snaps of the Maquette.

I'm loving the dense quilting (what? I haven't taken pics of the quilting yet). I'm loving the paper pieced letters ("my first alphabet" pattern by Diane Bohn)

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!

Mini Quilts: Mug Rugs

I've always been a huge fan of mug rugs. They're tiny, fast, and useful. It has only been recently that I've begun to really think of them as mini quilts though. I can put some intense piecing and quilting into a 5" x 8" mug rug - so why not recognize it as something more than a coaster?

I'm rambling.

What I'm trying to say here is that I made a mug rug recently. But I haven't been able to bring myself to use it yet. Actually I considered giving it away - I have the intention of making a mug rug soon for a friend - but this one isn't quite perfect enough. 

I love this little guy though. Scraps of some favorite fabrics, bound in the most perfect orange fabric (my last bit of it!)

Then there's the back. The back!! I wanted to test out my skills after long arm class, but the mug rug top didn't want fancy quilting... so I quilted the back separately. These are the best flowers I've ever made! Now I need to work on getting some consistent swirls! 

All this rambling, for a sweet little mug rug. I love it though, that's what matters. 

Michelle's Celebration Quit

My friend Michelle has been in town all week. She's decided to take up quilting, and wanted to learn some basics. I'll share that part of the story another day, but for now I'll share the quilt I just finished for her!

I've known Michelle for years, we met at Mass in college, and became instant friends. 

About a year ago Michelle asked me if I'd consider making her a quilt to celebrate 10 years since she quit a bad habit (one that she quit just before we met). I won't go into what that habit was, but quitting was a pretty big milestone in her life. So, we agreed to decide on a direction for the quilt, and she'd buy the materials. 

We had chosen Anna Maria Horner's Love Emblem quilt pattern. I decided that I wouldn't mind following the pattern, but it became a bit of a chore - I hate following patterns. I pushed through though, and the pattern came together really easily. The only real annoyance was having to enlarge all those pattern pieces - we took them to Fed Ex and printed them ourselves on a large size paper. 

I of course put off finishing the quilt - it wasn't exciting. Following a pattern is so different then creating it yourself. I'm not used to it. I knew it was worth it to finish... but it took a lot for me to come around to it. Finally this week I basted the quilt before Michelle came to visit, with the intention of getting it quilted before she got here.... That didn't happen. I did manage to quilt it up in the morning this week, while Allie was at school and Michelle was sleeping off our long night of sewing (apparently I don't require much sleep). 

It's completely finished now, prayers in the binding, pictures taken, and Michelle took it home with her! 

In the end I'm glad I pushed through and finished it. It feels good to make something for a friend, and it's nice to have it finished! :) 

Next time maybe Michelle can make me a quilt - she's well on her way!

Quilting friends are the best!

This is a recurring theme here on my blog: the kindness of friends. Quilting friends really are the best - who else knows exactly what you love without asking? And who else jumps at the chance to brighten your day with some fabric? 

Yesterday I got an envelope in the mail - filled with the yummiest voile - just because, from my bloggy friend Shruti! Can I tell you how crazy awesome that is? It's awesome. This voile is perfection! :) 

It's completely adorable that she sent along a spool of cording for a sewing project for Allie too! 

Also adorable? The note that Sew Mama Sew sent along. While ordering Shruti wrote a little note for them to pass on to me, in the comments section of the order page. :) That made my day. Too cute!

Thanks Shruti! I promise to make something fabulous with them!

How to buy a gift for a quilter:

Note: add prices to your pins so that it's easy for a gift giver to choose based on what they want to spend! 

As a quilter (or any sort of artist really), it's hard for people who aren't quilters to understand what exactly we'd like for a gift. In the past it seems that the gift card to Joann's is fairly standard. While that's a great gift it lacks the "You got me something absolutely perfect" that every gift giver would love to see. (Essentially a gift card to Joann's will buy needles and rotary cutter blades, possibly a ruler... usually not super exciting things, but super necessary things!)

So what is the spouse (or friend, or family member) of a quilter to do? Well I personally love the surprise of not knowing what my husband is going to get me for Christmas or birthdays etc. No matter how big or small it is, it's fun and exciting. So here's what I did. I started a pinterest board for that! 

I know, I know, that's a little forward of me to do such a thing. Truthfully, this board came about by me wanting to do some online shopping, but needing to wait for my bonus from work to do so... I wanted to make sure I didn't forget about "that website that sells this..."etc. So I made myself a list. This also helps since I end up deleting products from the list after reading enough reviews saying that it's not necessary or that another product is better!

These came for my birthday, straight from AMH's studio!

Last summer, my birthday was the first time Wally used this to shop for me, and it was a wild success! It was crazy when the mail came and it was from Anna Maria Horner's studio! I knew it was going to be something great (and it was!). That's the reaction a gift giver loves! 

Of course this idea isn't for everyone, but I like it since it's personalized. It allows Wally to surprise me without the surprise being that he picked the wrong fabric or paid way too much for something because he didn't know where to buy it. Also, it's really fun making and curating my little list. My someday purchases.

I'm not sure if Santa is watching my pinterest board this time around, but if he is, he should keep in mind that it's cutting it close on shipping for those things to get here on time! (That reads as though it's a reminder to Wally - but he doesn't really read my blog so I suppose I could say anything without him noticing). 

What's the most thoughtful sewing/quilting related gift you've ever been given? Does anyone in your life just "get" your sewing style enough that they can just pick out the perfect yard of fabric for you? 

Michelle's Love Emblem Quilt

I have to be brutally honest here - I've been putting off this quilt for about a year. I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't feeling very inspired to put it all together.

It probably starts off with the fact that I don't typically follow quilt patterns for anything. I design my quilts myself, and create them as I go. This project is different from my normal in so many ways. First it was requested by my best friend from college, Michelle (Schell). I don't usually accept requests for quilts, I make what I want to make in the order that I feel inspired. But, if anyone deserves a pretty quilt it's Schell. She quit a bad habit (which we won't go into here) about 10 years ago (just before I met her). That was a life changing thing and it's still hard and emotional. So - with that considered I agreed to make Schell a quilt.

We'd come to the agreement that she would buy the fabric and batting, and I would make the quilt. We decided upon Anna Maria Horner's Love Emblem quilt... and worked on pinterest and fabric.com to pick  out fabrics.

Here's the thing, if I would have started this quilt right now it'd be so much different. 1) I don't think I would go with a pattern at all - I would have sketched out a couple ideas and let her pick. 2) I have a much more defined sense of color and balance... these fabrics are not exactly having the balance I want.

But it's going to work and it's going to be beautiful!

Last weekend when Michelle was in town we went to fed-ex to enlarge the templates... then I cut them all out and we chose which fabrics would go where. Today I cut the pieces and assembled the center panel. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Next up is adding the heart in the center and borders to bring it up to a usable size!

Dumpling Pouch - Some Tiny Sewing To Fill The Gaps

Last weekend we were out of town, and it always seems like I go through such withdrawal from my sewing machine while I'm away. It may be that I spend so much time before the trip packing and planning that I don't get to sew - then can't sew while I'm away. Maybe it's that when I'm out and about with friends and family I'm just more inspired - and thus want to interpret that inspiration into quilts? 

Whatever reason, I find myself working on tiny, quick finishes the week before a planned trip. This time it was this cute tiny dumpling zip pouch. 

I'd had my eye on the tutorial for quite some time - it's been there on my pinterest board waiting (yes, I do have a pinterest board dedicated to zip pouch eye candy!). Thursday night, while I should have been packing, I sewed this little guy (I made the smaller/harder version it measures about 4" x 2.5" x 3"). 

The tutorial was very straight forward and I didn't have any problems with it. I used one layer of fusible fleece inside of mine. It's nice and sturdy without being stiff. A touch of hand stitching really makes it shine!

Here are a tip in case you make one yourself - baste the zip to one layer of fabric first - using a smaller seam allowance. This keeps the wiggling to a minimum when sewing it in, as the curve is a little tricky.

I'll leave you with a question: What should I put in it?? It's been riding around in my purse all weekend without anything inside! 

Mini Shop Hop!

Rolls of fabric at The Needle Shop!

Today Emily and I went on a little mini shop hop - as a reward for making it through the week.The Chicago school teachers were on strike for a week and a half (ending mid week this week) which means that I went from settling into "back to school" routine (having some time to myself) back into craziness and uncertainty at home. Finally we have that all sorted out, the teachers have returned to school and Allie is so happy to be back. On top of that I'm happy to finally have one free morning off! So today Emily and I made use of it by wandering around a couple fabulous fabric shops!!

First up we went out to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. Emily had never been there before so we took our time and checked out all the different areas of the shop. We had fun playing with tulle, helped another customer pick out replacement fabric for a skirt (for a messed up dress for a wedding that's tomorrow!), and we fell in love with silk. 

Tulle!!!

Vogue sells Dupioni Silk - in a couple dozen colors. It is radiant and vibrant and the texture is great! We were pretty much in love. After drooling over the bolts and the color card that the sales clerk was using to cut orders... she mentioned "we have a box..." lol 1/2 yd pre-cuts of the discontinued colors. We picked out a couple to share. I can see these finding a place within some quilts. I wonder how it washes though. I'll have to test it to see. :) 

After we spent an obscene amount of time in Vogue (there's a lot to look at!) we made our way to The Needle Shop. Now The Needle Shop is really the destination on this trip for me. I love that place! The owner Rachael was there while we were in and I have to admire her since she picks the best fabrics for the shop - very "me" fabrics! We spent a long time in The Needle Shop too - it was really fun shopping for fabric with another quilter. I don't think I've ever shopped with anyone else before - lol. We checked out the various fabrics/patterns/books. Snagged a couple swatches, and came home with lots of pretty fun fabric! 

Another note about The Needle Shop - they have a deal going on on Yelp this week where you pay $15 for a $25 gift certificate. Pretty awesome. So we both went in there with a gift certificate in hand - it was fun spending some money on fabric "just because." I'm usually a project buyer - I'll go buy only what I need. Instead this time I came home with a yard each of two colors of shot cotton (I wish I could get a good picture of the color variance here - it's amazing), some Anna Maria Horner Field Study, and another print just because it spoke to me. lol. On top of all that, it was nice to shop locally, in person, and with a friend. 

A box full of yummy!

We were going to stop in at Quiltology too... but we ran out of time. We rushed back to my neighborhood and stopped at Superdawg on the way! Yum! Just enough time to get home and eat before Allie got off the school bus! What a life! :)

My purchases: AMH Ribbon, Dupioni Silk, Kona Curry, Michael Miller "put a lid on it," AMH Field Study, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons.

Figuring the 8 Scarf @ Retreat!

(I wrote this post for my Threadbias page... but it turned out to be cool...so here it is)

Last weekend was the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild's fall retreat - and it was a blast!!! Emily and I decided to bring our Figure 8 scarf kits with us to make together Friday night. 

So the long version of the story is that this year for my birthday (june) my husband got smart and looked at my "things I really really want" pinterest board and shopped for me there! He ordered me a scarf kit (72" x 18" cut the long way so no extra seams) for my birthday... and when I blabbed about it to Emily she was like "What the heck, that's what I was getting you!" lol. (no fear, she made me an awesome project bag instead!!)

So... fast forward to last week. It's getting cooler and Emily and I need awesome bold fun warm scarves! We made the scarves following Anna Maria Horner's tutorial. They came together quite easily (especially since we had lots of table space available to lay out the fabric an pin it). We found that hand-stitching is the great equalizer -- I sew faster by machine - but Emily hand sews WAY faster than I do. We finished just about the same time!

Sewing with friends really is the best isn't it?? 

I'm pretty excited for fall now - armed with my cozy scarf! 

Oh so tiny!!

This is one of my favorite projects that I made last weekend. It's a teeny key chain, which uses some fabulous Pellon batting... :) This time around I was just double checking my instructions and it all turned out just perfect! It finishes at about 2" square and those prairie points? they're about 1/4" tall! 

I made this using the AMH scrap pack that Wally got me for my birthday! Note that even the ribbon is AMH! So cool! It will definitely end up attached to my own keys, but it's got a little bit of traveling to do first! :) 

I just love a quick tiny project!!

New lovelies...

Last week I broke down and ordered some half yards of a few prints that I have had my eye on. There's a mixture of Anna Maria Horner's Field Study, and Tula Pink's Birds & Bees, and a couple random prints thrown in too. 

I literally just picked the fabrics that I really loved the most. Incidentally, they all go pretty well together! 

Of course I had to sew something up immediately! I made this little feel-good coffee cup cozy. I used Jeni's tutorial. It came together perfectly - except I don't have any cups that size/shape! I must go out for coffee soon so I can use it!

Here it is flattened out. Pretty! I was deeply saddened by the fact that our paper coffee cups at work are too small for it. blah.

I have an idea floating around my head to make one of these fit for a regular coffee mug. Perhaps it would be a project to honor Rosemarie's doctors. It is Childhood Cancer month after all. If you want to hear some pretty depressing stats go do some research about how little national funding childhood cancer recieves. Yuck. Pray for a cure. Little Rosemarie has been fighting for her life for five years - since she was a year old!  Right now she has a little bit of peach fuzz growing on her head; it's adorable!

That was a bit of a tangent. No apologies, it's too close to my heart to apologize. If you'd like to see more check out Rosemarie's story (below). And consider donating even a dollar to St. Jude's. We're working toward a cure!

Bohemian Friendship - My Precious QAL Finished!

It's finished!! 

I'm so in love with this quilt! It's been hanging on my design board for months... waiting for me to be sure about what size I wanted it. I had decided on this size (about 37" x 37") but was frustrated since it's not quite  small enough to hang on the wall (I have no room for it!), and it's not quite big enough to use.

Last night I bit the bullet and left it this size. This is the size my drawings worked out to be - the size the quilt wanted to be. Emily came over last night to sew and talk about QuiltCon. We decided that it's a "Knee Quilt" it will lay over your knees as you're sitting in a chair. Perfect for admiring, not so perfect for warming. :)

I love it either way! It is backed in some lovely super-soft light weight fabric that I received in a swap from Shruti (DQS10? or 11? I can't remember now). And it's bound with some beloved Dobby Dots Pastry Line. Yum it's so soft and lightweight! 

Oh and I quilted it without my walking foot (which I had previously broken by going full Juki speed - apparently that's a no-no for walking feet!). I didn't have very much shifting at all. 

If you're wondering about the quilt's name? The prints in this quilt are all from Anna Maria Horner's first line of fabric "Bohemian" There's at least a partial star of each and every fabric from that line. How'd I manage that? By the generosity of sweet friends on flickr who shared the love! :) Thus "Bohemian Friendship." You can read more about the story here and here. Oh or you could read about the same generousity that Anna Maria herself witnessed - from one of the same sweet flickr friends! Thanks ladies for making this quilt possible!!

More "finishing"

Ok so not all of my "finishes" are truely finished... but they're finished for me- less a WIP and more waiting to be quilted. 

Today I bit the bullet and decided on a border size for my My Precious QAL quilt. It was going to be a mini quilt, but I increased the size of the pieced part to show off each of those precious Bohemian fabrics, so my original idea of an offset grey border seemed silly, it's no longer a mini quilt, yet not quite a usable size quilt (37" square). Logic lost this conversation, I went with my heart and made it the size that the patchwork wanted. It can be a newborn quilt should I get pregnant sometime soon (God willing--seriously!). I won't hold my breath for that since it's already been 3+ years... whatever that's not what this post is about. 

Sari fabric for the back!

Tonight I will search my "scrap batting" and find a piece (or a couple pieces) big enough. The backing fabric has been chosen. I'll be using some luscious sari fabric that Shruti sent me way back when she had me as a partner for DQS10. It'll be perfect! I'm unsure about the binding, but I'm sure it'll come to me! 

I'm not sure if I'll try to quilt this one by the end of Finish week, but either way I count the quilt top as being a finish! :) How are you guys doing?? Finishing some projects??