Weekend Warrior

Over the weekend I got a lot done due to having all day Saturday to MYSELF. What?! How do the stars align so this happens? My husband went to some car swap meet thing downtown and took the kids with him! Thank you Mark, you rock.

In between loads of laundry I sewed, went to lunch, sewed, etc. Mostly I just sewed! I started a quilt a few weeks ago using the fat quarter bundle I've had forever by Bonnie and Camille called Simple Abundance. It's so beautiful! I chose the pattern from the book Fat Quarter Five by Heather Mulder Peterson, because the patterns are obviously fat quarter friendly :) I have lots of white yardage too, so no need to buy anything.

The pattern is called Gypsy Girl. You like my design wall? I lay it out in my living room then go up on the landing and look down at it, it works okay if the kids aren't running around too much. This quilt was fun to make, and came together easily. I still have the border to add, but it'll get there. This quilt is going to a teacher...

AND I got another quilt top together from the book Jelly Roll Quilts. The pattern is Garden Trellis. I used the Jelly roll Martinique by 3 Sisters. Oh man, when I laid it out on the couch, it just matched my house so perfectly (except the pink).... and I am in love with this fabric. This still needs borders as well.

I just had to share, I was so excited to have a productive sewing weekend.

Stella Blue Quilt Along

I have been sewing, but life is getting busy for me right now, so I haven’t been able to post a lot lately. Dianne over at Suburban Stitcher and I have been chatting.

We both have the pattern from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company called Stella Blue.

We both have the fabric.

We both have the Fit to be Geese ruler to make the bazillion Flying Geese blocks.

So, we are doing a quilt along!

I’ve been eye balling this pattern for a few years now, and have always wanted to make this quilt. The fabrics I am using are Rural Jardin (a fat quarter pack) by French General for Moda. I love love love this fabric. It’s antique looking, elegant, and so beautiful. I typically don’t like florals on fabrics, but these floral prints speak to me. Obviously, as FQ bundles don’t come cheap. So, every Friday Dianne and I are going to post our progress on this quilt.

And this fabric was purchased last year while on one of my buying sprees. I am so excited to use it, this quilt is going to be awesome!

Also happening these next few weeks… we are building a deck off of the back of our house, Curren has the Pinewood Derby next week, Curren and Jessie’s birthdays are next week, it just never ends does it? Life is great :D

Quilting Notions to make life easier

Last week was the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting. It is always fun to go, and now that I've been several times, I am making some friends, and I enjoy that! I get so nervous when I first meet people, it's silly really. But everyone is so nice and chatty, you forget to be shy right away.

Jen taught us how to make zipper pouches, I've made some, but her tutorial taught me even more, thanks! And the meeting also had everyone share their favorite tools and notions. Oh man, that was great. I love hearing tips and tricks!

Here is what I shared. Jenn over at Quiddity Quilts showed me this, and I use this tool ALL of the time. It is made by Scotch, and it cuts wrapping paper. That in and of itself is very nice. BUT after you've sewn a long chain piece, with lots of thread to cut inbetween, you have to cut them apart right? The cutter is so easy you just slide your thread into the razor and it cuts it right in half, it works like a charm. I've seen these at Joann's, or Target. I am sure you can find them about anywhere.

Then I shared the Kwik Klip. I pin baste my quilts, and closing all of the safety pins can hurt your fingertips. I found this at Joann's as well. The tool has notches on the end of it, so it grabs the safety pin and you push it closed, it is so much faster and nicer to your hands.

Last, my friend Colleen told me about this next tool, she learned it at a class she took. Most of our husbands have an electric razor. On the razor is a pop up trimmer, for a beard or mustache. Well, if you have sewn a long seam incorrectly, and need to unpick that long seam using a seam ripper, it can take forever. You use the trimmer on that razor! You pick apart the first few seams, and then take the trimmer and open the fabric, cut the seams, it just zips right apart, it's so much faster, and you can't really hurt your fabric unless you press ridiculously hard. Just make sure you pick the threads out of the razor before putting it back or you get some weird looks from your man! LOL!

Let me know if you try any of these out! They have made my life much easier. What are your fave tools you can't live without??

Happy Art

Back in December we went to Utah before Christmas to visit out friends. In order to stay sane I was reading my blogs on Mark’s IPhone during the 12 hour drive. I ran across a post from Lizzy House saying she was having a studio sale. It turns out she lives in Salt Lake, about 10 minutes from where we were staying. When we finally got there, I took Jessie over to her studio to check it out. Lizzy was very sweet, and had some really nice art, fabrics and ribbons for sale. I walked out with a print she had made and a quilt pattern. I finally framed the print last week, and had to share it with you, I think it’s adorable, and I love the color. I found some scrapbooking paper that I liked and put that as the background to the print.

While blog hopping I found a fantastic artist. Katie Daisy make the most beautiful paintings, the colors are so happy. That’s the only word that comes to mind when I see her art HAPPY. I bought this print. Her etsy store is: thewheatfield.

Then I went to Craft Warehouse and found a standard frame, and had them mat it so it’d fit in the frame. I chose the turquoise mat, I know it’s dark, but I think it lets the colors in the painting shine. I walk in my house and see it hanging on the wall and smile.

Nothing like new art to freshen up the house.

Lazy weekend

What a weekend! The weather was pretty miserable, so we spent a lot of it running errands and lounging around. I thought it would never stop raining last night, sheesh! You have got to love Oregon… or not LOL!

So, due to the weather I’ve been lazy and slothful. Gray cloudy rainy days tend to do that to a person. I did have some friends over on Friday night to sew, and that was fun. I made slow and steady progress on my Single Girl Quilt. Many of the people doing the Quilt along are flying! I am not however, and I’m okay with that. I have two “test” blocks I’ve done now with the curved piecing. I just pin it like crazy and that seems to work okay.

Another thing I did all weekend long was watch Downton Abbey on Netflix. It is a pretty good show, I think the acting is awesome, and I kept laughing out loud in some parts. It is along the lines of a Jane Austen movie with the intrigue and characters. Kind of slow and subtle, I like it. Has anyone else been watching that show? It is put out by PBS.

This week is the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting! Is it just me, or did a month just fly by and I didn’t even realize it??

Rectangle Squared Quilt Finished

The pretty Rectangle Squared quilt is all done. It is going to a new home this summer. How lovely are these colors?? I really do enjoy this quilt, it's very happy. While I was in Montana in October, I stopped at a quilt shop in somebody's home called 4 Winds Quilting. She had some gorgeous bright fabrics. I fell in love with the Amy Butler print you see on the border, it is from the Love collection. I like the dark purples, and the flower print on it has many different colors to match to. I then went through my stash and pulled out lots of lime greens and purples to go with the Love fabric. By the way how do you like my cute quilt models?? Adorable kids! I like that my kids and my neighbor kids are unfazed with my quilting, they are all involved in it, whether it is ironing, helping me choose colors, or just watching me. I have an audience all of the time LOL!I stipple quilted the quilt using a lime green thread on front and back. On the border I used a dark purple thread so it'd blend in better. The pattern is called Rectangle Squared and can be found at Film in the Fridge.
I am trying so hard to use up my stash and not buy a lot of new fabric this year. The back of this quilt shows that. I had about 2 yards of that green flannel in my stash, the purples on the sides were used in the Trip Around the World quilt you see on my side bar. I've had them forever!
It looks good in my living room right?? I may have to make another quilt using these colors. See that painting on the wall? I just hung it this week, and it is soooo pretty. More on that print to come soon.

Re-Arranging

I sew on my kitchen table, aka "the sewing center" my husband is less than thrilled my machine is set up here 365 days a year, I will take it down if we have company, but only if they aren't family haha! Our house isn't very big, we don't have an extra room. So, this is how we have to live with it. Plus I like having the big table to spread my quilts and blocks on while I work. This does mean I have to clean it up every day, or stack it and put it on my sewing machine.

My fabric storage is all in rubbermaid bins, in my bedroom closet, and under our bed. We have an unused entertainment center sitting in our bedroom. When we got one of those big tv's we had to get a different entertainment center, and we just drug this up to our room for temporary storage. It's been there for over a year now, I pulled everything out of it, as in VHS tapes, boxes of photos, albums, random knick knacks, and threw most of that away. Not the photos :P

Anyways, I then pulled out the bins of fabric from my closet and re-organized them. I was able to get one huge bin out of my closet and one bin out from under my bed. They are now dwelling in my "sewing center" no longer called the entertainment center. I love it!

In my quest to continue using my stash in 2011, I pulled out the super cute fabric I bought last year. My sister in law is having a girl this summer (yay!!!). So, this will be the backing fabric, and I pulled out pinks, yellows and greens from my stash to make the top.

I am using the tutorial on Crazy Mom Quilts called the Ragged Squares Quilt. Easy, cute and not too big. I cut out the squares this past week, and plan on whipping this together soon. Gotta use that stash!

Holiday Happy, a few months late...

Back in September Randi over at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics was having a giveaway, and I won! Woohoo! So, I started making the quilt pattern and fabric that she sent me, and finally I have finished the quilt top. I am in love the red and aqua color combination along with everybody else. It's so clean and fresh.

The pattern is called Skipping Squares by Cluck Cluck Sew. Great pattern, it used up those 10 fat quarters so well, and the quilt went together quickly, that is whenever I would sit down to work on it. The fabric is called Holiday Happy designed by Miss Monica over at the Happy Zombie. *hi Monica!!*

I have some Bliss flannel for the backing fabric. I hope to get it quilted in the next month or so. We shall see. It will be a nice looking quilt when it's done!

Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt DONE

This little quilt was really fun to make, I finished stipple quilting it and binding it over the weekend. All of it was from my stash, and it really isn't a big quilt at all, like a crib size. So, all of you should go out and make one.

There were 4 blocks leftover which I pieced into the backing. I've had that big piece of green solid in my stash forever, so I figured now was a good time to finally use it.

I stipple quilted it using a cream colored thread, it really stands out on the back, but blends in well on the front.

I used the tutorial from Oh Fransson! called Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt.

February days...

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting last week was so much fun. Barbara and I rode together, it’s so nice to have somebody to drive with! We saw a lot of gorgeous quilts, learned all about color, and had a good tutorial using glue basting, which I am going to try soon with my Single Girl Quilt. It is always great to go to these meetings, so those of you who live in the Portland area should really come to them!

In other news, Jessie and I are working on an “I-Spy” quilt for her little cousin. I bought a package of 6” novelty squares from The Center Diamond in Cannon Beach about 3 years ago, and they have just been sitting in my stash waiting patiently. Jessie laid out the squares by herself, and pieced and ironed everything, look at her go! I am going to quilt it for her, she said she wants it to have the squiggly quilting with rainbow thread on top. How cute is she? So, we basted it the other day, here she is hard at work.

I started working on a new quilt, I always like having a dozen things going on at once to be creatively happy. So, I pulled out my Martinique Jelly Roll and started the pattern Garden Trellis in the Jelly Roll Quilts book. It’s the first time I am actually using this book, I’ve been drooling over the patterns for a long time now.

Martinique is an amazing fabric line, the colors are gorgeous. There are aquas, pinks, reds and a nice gray color. It was fun putting this together. I am halfway done getting the blocks sewn together.

It is supposed to snow today, you know Portland, it just rains most of the time, so snow would be fun.

Mermaids Riding the Wave

I've been hoarding fabric, nothing new really. The Mendocino Mermaids that Heather Ross designed are one of my all time fave fabrics. The colors are my favorite, it is ocean themed, and hello cute little girls? This quilt was started back in June of 2010. It took awhile to cut out, and then I didn't really get any further. This past month I finished the top up. It's really big, just the way I like a quilt!

The pattern is called New Wave by Elizabeth Hartman. The pattern had instructions written for all quilt sizes, which was great. I chose the twin size. I had enough fabric to do a king haha! I kept it smaller :)

I bought some really nice flannel at Fabric Depot for the backing, it's washed and ready to be basted now. I can't wait to get this quilted. And this quilt is staying at home with me!

We drove out to Sauvie Island again today to see birds and let the dog run and play. Mark took this picture of us, I loved it. Look at how big my kids are getting!

Beach Mat

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting is tomorrow night. I am so excited to go! They asked everyone to bring a "mug rug" to the meeting. A smallish placemat is what it is. To put your mug of coffee or hot cocoa and a treat on. There are some adorable ones floating around on Flickr.

My first thought was a "mini" picture. Then of course my thoughts drifted to the beach. That is where my mind is a lot, at the beach. We love it there. So naturally I thought of surfing, my husband the addict. He loves surfing. Anyways, surfing made me think of Heather Ross, and the AWESOME surfboard she put her artwork on. I want one so bad to hang in my bedroom. As if I'd use it for surfing!

The beach hut has it's very own Mermaid surfboard! Ha, see I got my surfboard after all. Awesome right?? There you have it, my very first beach mat. Sorry, can't call it a mug rug, it's made for the beach.

You all want this board don't you?? I know I do.

Single Girl Quilt

I've had the pattern to make the Single Girl quilt for over a year now. I've seen several made, and they are all just beautiful. Jenn showed me the one she started, and I loved it.

There is a group starting up to do a quilt along, and they'll have pictures and help for all of us who don't know how to sew a curved seam *raises hand* This should be perfect for me.

I pulled the fabrics I want to use, all from my stash. And of course they'll be blue and green. My favorite combination. It should be lots of fun.

My husband insisted we go on a drive this morning to get out of the house. We all kind of drug our feet, but once we got to Sauvie Island, we were all wide eyed and loving it. There were birds everywhere. My new camera with the zoom lens caught this big bald eagle in a tall tree, look at how pretty he is! I love it here.

These horses were pretty too, they scared that huge flock of geese up into the air. It was a perfect morning to go for a drive. Thanks Mark :)

Nine Patch Lattice Quilt Top

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has left such nice comments about the Hexagon Quilt on my last post. You are all so nice! I love that you can appreciate the work that goes into a quilt and how beautiful they are. Your comments make me want to go out and try more things, you all inspire me, so thank you. Blogging is sure fun isn’t it?

So, I am a month into - Stashpact11 - buying no fabric. *shock! gasp!* That’s pretty good I think. For one thing I’ve been pretty busy, so the quilting time has been cut back a bit, which makes me not want to buy anything anyway. When we get a few months into the year will be when it gets hard! Usually after I finish things I tell myself I deserve more fabric… pshaw! I do not!

I had pulled several greens, tans and orange fabrics from my stash last month. I wanted to make a smaller quilt with them for a boy. So, I remembered the tutorial on Oh Fransson! I have loved this quilt, and the wonky blocks, they are so cute. I’ve never made a wonky block in my life, so this was pretty fun to do. Her tutorial makes it very easy. And you really don’t use much fabric. So, I still have a large pile of leftovers :)

I wanted a nice tan solid for the background blocks on this quilt, I was worried I wouldn't have any. I didn’t want to buy fabric… Why do I worry? Of course I had some, not like I remembered or anything :)

The backing will have to be pieced, I have 4 blocks leftover I can use, and a solid green I found. The binding will be orange :) This is a quick and fun quilt to make, go give it a shot.

Next up?? The New Wave quilt I started forever ago using those sweet mermaids…