Mommy's Nap Time

Friday, June 15, 2012

Teacher Gifts: Pencil Pouches!

Wednesday was Allie's last day of preschool for the year so a teacher appreciation gift was in order.

After much thought and some discussions with others on Facebook I decided to go with fabrics that match my Pretty Pleats Tote because they were fun and summery.

I grabbed the dimensions from this tutorial, but winged the rest - they're lined but with the bottom raw edges covered with ribbon.

Also - for the first time - I used my Mini Moo cards as a little tag. They looked too cute there (and we won't go into how long it took me to find the hole punch for them!)

Allie was super cute - and while she didn't exactly get all her thank you's out, she did graciously help with the gift unwrapping. lol. :)

I'm glad that Allie has had such a good experience for her first year in school - and that's all thanks to her teachers!!

FQS Bella Parade : Season 2 : Guest Post 4!

Today we've got a real treat for you guys! We've got Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy here to show you some color combinations that are great with this week's Bella Solids! I'm sure you all know who Elizabeth is, but for those of you who don't go check out her completed quilts here. (be ready for your jaws to drop in awe!) And feel free to take a look at her awesome list of quilt blocks and other tutorials here.

I'm pretty lucky and honored to be in a quilting bee with some very talented ladies, and Elizabeth is one of them -- I'm pretty much in love with her bee quilt from last year!

So please go on and take a look at her fabric choices, and stay tuned tomorrow for her super awesome tutorial!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

FQS Bella Parade : Season 2 : Post # 16

Bella Solids Wisteria

Here we are today with Wisteria! Wisteria is a calm light purple. It's very tranquil, soothing, and even has a little bit of a vintage feel to it.

1. A peek inside, 2. PLPS3 - side 1, 3. Plaid Quilt Top, 4. Circle Stroller Quilt, 5. Tangerine and Wine top, 6. Innocent Crush Rectangle Squared quilt, 7. Bee Imaginative Block for Ashley, 8. Pinwheel pillow, 9.Mini Patchwork Prism Quilt - Front

Wow aren't those so beautiful?? First off I want to say that Wisteria isn't my top pick out of all the gorgeous colors Moda produces... but this mosaic has started to change my mind! Terri and Michelle's pouches up there in spots #1 and 2 are fantastic! I love how sweet and pretty they are! Then there are projects like #5 by Linda - that brings a whole other light to this color! How perfect it is with a nice tangerine! Lastly, #9 is the coolest all solids patchwork prism quilt I've seen! And she actually used the bundle of the new Bella Solids for this quilt -- so it really is true Wisteria in there!

Now if I were to make a quilt with wisteria as a key component, I'd add in some peacock and boysenberry - It'd be mostly purples with some shots of blue. Light, airy and divine. As a true purple lover I'm pretty sure my daughter would love it!

For our FMQ design of the day we have a basket weave of sorts that is playfully freemotion quilted. You'll notice it's not perfect, I winged it completely (didn't even draw a grid). Also notice that all the segments are attached - this saves time and energy burying (or gasp! Cutting) those thread tails! It has a perfectly dense texture without all the headache of turning the quilt so much as you'd have to do if you used a walking foot for this! Go on and give it a try - it's so much fun!

Now to giveaway a yard of Bella Wisteria... you know the deal - here are the rules!

(PS - Did anyone notice that we didn't announce last weeks winners yet? We'll get that posted soon - Shruti is doing some fabric shopping in Dubai - and I can't figure out how to get the FQ bundle drawing to work. :) No worries -- you'll have your winners soon!)

Rules & Regulations :

1. Create a pinboard with the name "FQS Bella Parade : Season 2"

2. Pin at least one image with the "Color of the Day" onto the board. The image has to be sewing related. Notions, sewing rooms, finished products anything.

3. Leave a comment with a link to your board.

4. The winners will be selected randomly and announced in the weekend giveaway post.

5. All entries will qualify to win the Bella Solids 2012 Fat Quarter Bundle in the weekly giveaway.

6. Pin it! And you could win it!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

WIP Wednesday - and WIP's ignored....

Today's WIP Wednesday post is brought to you by the fact that I haven't really been working on my WIP's...

Oops.

Not to get too off topic, but I'm having a minor sinus surgery (the third one) on Friday, so I've got all sorts of things I'm trying to get done before then... knowing I won't have the energy to really do much for a few days after. Excuses... lol.

So - what have I been working on? What have I crossed off that list?

Finished:
Pencil pouches for Allie's teachers -- they turned out great! I'll be posting about these later in the week.

Pincushion guest post finished! :) You can go read it here.

Some Progress:

Quilting sample - "matchstick quilting" lines are about 1/8" apart.

FMQ samples for the Bella Parade - finished quilting them all plus the two extras to complete a 3x4 quilt from them. Now I'll need to trim them and join them together!

Quick curve ruler blocks

Quick Curve Ruler blocks - I made a couple sample blocks to test out my new ruler. They're awesome and inspiring... but I have no idea what they'll become!

{Sew} Beautiful Bee - I trimmed down the blocks, pressed the scraps, cut binding strips (entirely out of the scraps that were sent back!) and prepped the binding. There's still so much more to finish on this one... but it's a start to the progress!

RATZ Magnets - yes that's a 1.5" magnet with 9 HST's... Insane and awesome!

RATZ June Magnets Swap - I made a couple practice magnets, but nothing for real yet.

No Progress:
{Modern} Robin Quilt
My Precious QAL
Bella Quilt
DQS12 Angel quilt --- (oh man I need to send that soon!)
(lots of things I'm probably forgetting)

There's my week - maybe I'll have some time to sew tonight? I need to do something big before friday.

Linked up for WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.

FQS Bella Parade : Season 2 : Post # 15

Bella Solids Petal Pink

Head on over to Shruti's blog to see some fabulous petal pink!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Checking in on my 2012 goals!

Here I am crossing things off my 2012 goals list! I'm not doing bad considering we're halfway through the year!

Swoon finished and FMQ'd on my Juki!

~~Finish my Swoon quilt - free motion quilting it by domestic machine (even though it's huge!)~~

{Sew} Beautiful Bee 2011 quilt finished and FMQ'd on my Juki

~~Finish my {Sew} Beautiful Bee quilt - drunk love with AMH. It's even huger than the swoon quilt!~~ Done!
Try a mid-arm or long-arm machine. Just to say I did. I know it's been offered before but I'm still a little shy about it. I need to give it a try (maybe on that ginormous bee quilt?)

Summertime Sewing Adventures Tutorials

~~Do a bit more designing of quilts and tutorials. As in actually record the how and what. Maybe put together a quilt pattern? Three new tutorials this year... and some stuff yet to come.~~
Sell, swap, etsy, or commission. I'd like to sell something this year to make money for more fabric. I feel like I suck a lot of money into quilting... obviously. I'd feel better about it if I had a little cash coming in.

I met Sally!

Meet local bloggers (specifically ~~Sally~~, Sara, and Angela. Speak up if you're from the general Chicago area and want to meet up for some coffee or something and chat about blogging/sewing/quilting! ~~(I met Sally at the CMQG - she's just as lovely in person as she is online!)~~

My favorite quilt ever, made for Mona during the Doll Quilt Swap 12!

~~Continue with swaps and bees. Pushing myself each time to learn something new and challenging myself to work on more and more difficult blocks. Finished PTS, DQS12, and RATZ -MAY.~~
~~Work on making connections within the sewing industry community~~. There is so much growth happening in the are of modern sewing that I feel like I should have an idea of how it all happens. Maybe contact a book or magazine editor, or see if I can write a pattern for a new fabric line. Who knows I just find this to be pretty interesting. Oh also under this topic, I'd love to take a class on sewing machine repair.... anyone have an idea of where one learns such a thing? (working on it!)
I'm toying with the idea of trying to get published somehow. Is it worth jumping through hoops to do so? (working on this).
~~Go on the quilt retreats offered by the CMQG - continue getting to know those fabulous ladies!~~ Done!

Emily & I's {Modern} Robin quilt tops finished!

~~Co-host a new swap with Emily (Pretty awesome!)~~ The swap is over and it went great!

Quilts to make this year

Michelle's Celebration Quilt

A quilt for Lindsey (I wonder if she reads this blog??) Haha... it may be a surprise to her. Still working on these.

FQS Bella Parade : Season 2 : Post # 14

Bella Solids Mauve

Today's color of the day is Mauve! I'm really impressed with this one because aside from anything else, it's great to see some purple colors available! For a while it had been quite hard to find anything but a stark, harsh purple - but not anymore! This mauve is really a great color!

1. For the love of solids swap, 2. Ula Lenz star, 3. OShinyBee: HSTs for Kelly, Twelve Triangles, 4.FTLOS sent, 5. DHWQ Week 49 - Star Jumps, 6. Doll Quilt Swap 12 Received, 7. This should be in someone's mailbox very soon. @bijoulovely I promise it's straight; I guess I took this at an angle. Blog post soon., 8. New Wave Front, 9. dqs11

See, doesn't it look fabulous! We have free reign to use pretty mauve with every project! Look how perfectly Elaine (photo 4) has paired it with aqua and other purples - it really makes those colors shine! The use of a bright or mustardy yellow really adds a lot to it too, such as Jane (photo 5) and Raven (photo 8) did. And don't get me started on Jen's wonky star quilt - it's the perfect mix of organized chaos - and it surely must have been intended for me!

Now for a look at some fabrics that go well with Mauve. I'm very impressed at how nicely this bundle pulled together. Mauve blends really well with Tula Pink's new Nightshade line - it's got the same richness to it - deep and mysterious! Any yet you add a bit of a pink and orange zebra stripe and it's somehow more lighthearted! I paired some other solids (eggplant and plum) as well as some more whimsy black and white - with a touch of aqua. It works. I'm actually a bit surprised at how well mauve plays with all these other fabrics!