As Seen in QuiltNow magazine!

Guess what?! I'm in issue one of QuiltNow Magazine! See that pretty little pencil pouch? I made it!
I'm super excited to be a part of this publication, it's sure to be a great source of inspiration in the quilt world.

I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my copy -- so far I'm impressed by everything I've seen. For those of you in the UK - run out now and buy a copy and check it out! If you're in the US, you can order it through Pink Castle Fabrics.

AccuQuilt Studio - Die Cutting at the retreat!

Hexagons in two sizes - all cut from one charm pack!

This post has been hanging out in draft form for a while... it's time to polish it up and post!

For those of you who don't already know, I've met some pretty cool people in this quilting community. One of these people is Ebony, owner of LoveBug Studios, as well as about eight million other awesome sites/projects/etc. Ok I'll get to the point, Ebony has an Accuquilt Studio Die Cutter - yes that's like the Accuquilt Go that people talk about - but in giant awesome proportions - and she brought it with her to our guild retreat last month so we could all play!

For being a blog post about the Studio cutter, you'd think I would have taken a picture of it... lol. I guess I didn't. I did take pictures of the zillions of ways we used it though. 

For those of you who aren't aware of the awesomeness of the Studio - it uses various dies to cut fabric into precise pieces quickly. This is especially useful for shapes like circles and hexagons, as well as cutting down massive amounts of squares, strips, etc. 

Throughout our retreat weekend many of us made use of the cutter (it has a name by the way, Mr. T). I cut a ton of circles (with fusible already on them - so I just have to iron them in place and topstitch!!). I made tiny hexagons with fusible too, as well as regular hexies.

Emily chopped down a ton of smallish scraps into perfect squares. Her stacks were towering by the end of the night!

Beth cut down a huge amount of solids!! Isn't this stack so lovely??!! She's already finished the quilt from this stack! 

Isn't the Accuquilt Studio pretty awesome? Also awesome? The fact that Ebony is pretty much the expert in die cutting for quilting! Fantastic! Thanks for sharing your time and your machine with us Ebony! :)

PS - To anyone who might be on the fence about future guild retreats - they're fabulous and you should put your deposit down now! :)

Worrying...

I have a question for those of you who do flickr swaps.

Do you worry? 

Finished DQS quilt top.

I'm usually not a worrier. I stalk my partner's photostream and blog until I have a list of ideas and then run with it from there. I occasionally worry and mostly about color or fabric likes. I don't have a big fabric stash and sometimes don't have the ability to drop everything and buy more fabric. 

But this time I'm worrying - my Doll Quilt Swap quilt is spectacular (if I may say so), but what if it just isn't my partner's style. It's not entirely her colors but the fabrics were begging to go together. 

Drafted by hand flying geese.

It's technically the hardest/most complex piece I've ever worked on (and that says something I think). Between the miniature NY Beauty block, plus the tiny plus blocks, then the giant set of 48 flying geese in a circle - that I drafted by hand.... and learned a new way to paper piece. I think I've executed it very well so far... and I do still have to quilt it and finalize the "framework" (hehe... how else would I expect for a circular quilt to be hung on the wall?) oh yeah, and it will finish as a circular quilt. 

So I'm worrying. Will my partner like it as much as I do? I couldn't bear if she didn't like it. Sometimes it's ok for a swap partner to not absolutely be head over heals over something... but this one, they've got to love it. What if she doesn't? 

Optional hexies - I haven't decided yet.

I've never felt such angst over sending a quilt to a swap partner... eek! 

Here's hoping she loves it!

(linked up for Fabric Tuesday)

DQS12 - in progress!

I've been making some progress on my Doll Quilt Swap quilt. I've got some lofty goals for this one, and I hope my partner likes it! Here are my initial sketches:

Starting with a small NY beauty block in the center, I'll then start adding borders. Finally ending with a larger circle of flying geese. I think I'd like this quilt to end round, but we'll see what the quilt tells me while I'm working on it!

So far the center is a 7" NY Beauty. It could have been a bit smaller if you ask me, but I didn't want to fiddle with trying to reduce the pattern any more than by 75% If you're wondering, I printed the pattern from this site. I used the first block on the page, and printed 4 pages per sheet (thus reducing it to 1/4th of the original size). I used freezer paper ironed to the wrong side of the small middle sections to control them while sewing the arcs together. I didn't do it perfectly ... there are a couple tiny puckers... but I think it'll come out in the quilting. 

Here are the hexies I made in preparation for the later rounds of the quilt... there are quite a few of them. I hope my partner likes bright fun colors with a splash of grey!

I am excited to work on this more tonight!

Hexies...

I think it's safe to say that I've revisited them. If you've been following my ramblings for years then you may remember this. The post where I swore off hexies (at least ones made by me). Well, my mind has been changed. I went on vacation and needed a fun little project to add a bit of color to my days (and the 14 hour drive there and back). I expected to make a half dozen or so... but that ended up being 30! I used every bit of fabric that I'd brought with me. 

And then today I decided to make some more... this time to be added to my {modern} Robin piece. I whipped together another 13 while watching Beauty and the Beast this afternoon. 

If you're wondering where I got my papers? I'm too cheap to buy the packaged ones... so I printed mine out here. I printed mine at 1" and black ink. That one inch is the measurement of each side. I just printed the sheet and cut them out. Using just plain computer paper they've held up pretty well - I've used each paper about half a dozen times. 

Hmm... who knew that I'd eventually come around to liking hexies!

Linked up for Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory.

Hexagons?

So I finally gave in and tried the paper pieced hexagons everyone is blogging about. I love the end product, but I've decided (after just an afternoon) that it's not for me. Is so beautiful, but I know I'm going to end up with carpel tunnel anyway (from sewing and working at a bookstore) so why irritate it more? lol. I'll leave those hexagons for everyone else.

Here's what I accomplished though:

Someday I'll have something that matches (lol...) to aplique it to. Until then....