Going Round and Round

Am I blowing you all away with my renewed blogging vim and vigor?!! Now that I'm ensconced in my new home and not driving cross-country or living out of my mom's house (which we did for weeks waiting to get into our house—thanks mom!), I'm actually able to sit down a little bit every day to blog. Yay! I've missed chatting with you all!

One of the project I started with my friends back in Utah was a round robin. We each made our own 18 inch square medallion center, then passed it along to the next person on the list. A new talented person every month. I thought I took a picture of my center before I passed it along, but now I can't find it. Sigh. So picture this: I made an extra large spool using selvedges from favorite fabrics. I then waved it goodbye and handed it over to the ever-talented Ella to work on before she passes it down the line. Each person adds at least a 3 inch border, so when we get it back (sometime at the end of the year), we'll have a finished quilt. I'm not sure what size. It'll be so amazing to have a quilt collectively made by such special and talented friends. Oh wait! I already have a quilt like that (see my Gratitude post!), but now I'll have another!

I've been so so amazed and humbled by the incredible talent of the women in this round robin! I don't want to give anything away about what others have done, but let's just say that everyone has set a high bar and I'm a bit freaked out about keeping up with the quality and creativity!

I totally want to write about what I'm doing on this round robin, but have to find a way to do it without giving it away for anyone who might be involved and reading this . . . any ideas? I'll at least show you some of the centers that people have done, editing out the borders that have been added.

Here are two that I'm about to work on:

Aren't these just gorgeous?! So different and each so creative!

Gratitude

Alright, no house updates in this blog, I promise! I'm taking a break to talk about my wonderful quilty friends and wonderful quilty things!

So, because I was a bit preoccupied with my packing up and getting out of Utah (which was quite a feat, given the 28 foot long truck we filled!), I have neglected to tell you all about the most amazing group of friends I have.

Almost two years ago I began to sew, learning most everything from blogs and the internet in general. One of the blogs I was following was Pamela's French Knots, which I found charming and full of great information. One day, I read about a retreat that Pam was hosting about 45 minutes away from where I live, and I decided on a whim to go. I didn't know Pam, and didn't know anyone going to the retreat. In fact, I had never even gone to a sewing retreat before and was still fairly self-conscious and nervous about my sewing skills—or lack thereof! Nonetheless, I gathered up my sewing things (feeling like I was packing to run away from home, I brought so much!) and headed to Utah County for the several day retreat. It was so great! I met the most amazing group of women and learned so much in the few days I was there! Pam threw a great retreat, with yummy food and a terrific class on appliqué.

It was at that retreat that I met Ella, Pamela, Kristen, Sue, April, Emily, and Amy. I'm not sure how it developed, but next thing I knew we were getting together regularly for sew days and retreats. At those days I met many other great people, including Marion and Jenny. Now it's been almost two full years, and I regard these women as great friends who made my time in Utah so special. I think I may have shared this story before, because last time I moved—then it was "just" across town—they showed up at my door with mop and pail (and wearing cute little bandanas) and cleaned our house from top to bottom with us. What a special gift it was!

When it came time for me to move east, I knew that the hardest part would be to leave my friends. I plan to return for retreats and such, but it's still not the same as being in the 'hood! Sweet Ella hosted a lovely farewell party for me the week before I moved, and they surprised me with the most wonderful, gorgeous churn dash quilt. So amazing! Just look at it—here's the front:

And here's the back:

Do you see? It has my first initial in the middle! The pink fabric is puppies from Ella's amazing stash. I had admired it once, and she generously gave me some of the fabric with a blue background. I was so delighted to have that fabric then, but to then discover the same fabric in pink on the quilt . . . so wonderful!

Everyone contributed a square, or binding, or quilting, and then signed it. What a special gift! I always think about my friends back in Utah anyway, but this is a particularly dear reminder. In fact, as I write this post I'm snuggled up in this great quilt.

April, in addition to her contributions to the quilt, made me an amazing, ever-coveted weekender bag. We had talked about making one, but I never dreamed she'd make one for me! I've been wanting one for so long, but they're such a project to make that I was a bit too daunted to try it myself.

Here's the bag in all her glory:

And here's the other side:

Here's the closeup on the front—the clothespin dolls are from my ever favorite Heather Ross:

And here's the closeup on the back—It's so so special, it even has a car pulling a teardrop trailer, just like we did driving across country!

Do you see the great Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy on the bottom? April knows I love my Denyse Schmidt, so she used her fabric throughout. This was my "to go" bag on my trek cross country. You can fit a small country in here!

I miss everyone so much, but I can curl up with my quilt and use my weekender bag and feel so close!

A Little of This and That

So I'm still working away on my Twisted quilt. I don't think I mentioned this in my last post about this fabulous pattern that it does require an awful lot of cutting! The pattern calls for layer cakes, so not having my fabric already cut down to 42 10" squares I had that to do, then I had to cut 32 2" strips, and then cut those strips into 2x14 1/2 strips and 2x6 1/2 strips. I was pretty satisfied (that is, ready to sew) at that point, but there was still more cutting to do! At that point I had to cut the 10" squares into four pieces--essentially 2 triangles and 2 pentagons. You do this by cutting an "X" through the center of the 10" square. After doing that 42 times, I had this:

Only after doing all that was I FINALLY able to begin sewing. Phew! Now, did I mention there's also a lot of pressing in this too?! The (very clearly written and most excellent) directions tell you to sew the shorter white strip to the top left peak of the pentagon (see picture below:

and then to sew the small triangle to that white strip. It does not come out as a neat triangle, however, and has to be trimmed down. 

These pieces are then sewn together to create one block, which when put next to another block creates this: 

Lining up the two pieces was a bit tricky at first, but once Sue showed me the trick of how to line up the two sides, my assembly time sped up considerably! All well worth it, mind you, but definitely labor intensive!!

12 down, 30 to go!!

On other fronts, I realize that I haven't ever really reported on my Christmas gifts. Part of that is that I was so intently focused on sending out holiday gifts in a timely way that I forgot to take pictures. Oh no!! I was hoping that folks might send me pictures of their gifts, but their lives are as busy as mine, so I'm giving up on that hope! Fortunately, some of the gifts never left the house, so I realized that I could report on at least those gifties!

Karen has been known to fling her iPad off the bed in the middle of the night, so at her request I came up with a solution: an iPad bed cozy! I had read a number of tutorials on iPad cases, and I bases my cozy roughly on those, but I added a long, reinforced strip of duck cotton that attached two cases to each other, so that a case could hang from either side of the bed for each of our iPads. I found this totally fabulous Julia Rothman fabric from Windham that I thought was just perfect for the project!

I also used Julia Rothman's fabric for the interior as well--typewriter keys! I had to go back and make the first case a bit bigger, because I realized that you really want to be able to get an iPad in and out of the case without struggling against the fabric--especially when it's late at night! You want it a bit snugger when it's a carrying case.

Now, for the cute shot of the day, a pic of my girl Sophie waiting for me to come home from Emily's fabulous retreat a few weeks ago!

Wednesday Works in Progress

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday! It's been a busy week, and I have a few things to share . . .

First, my finish for the week--my Happy Ironing ironing pad:

And be sure to check out my free pattern!












Next, in anticipation for my upcoming retreat, I've gotten started cutting and piecing my fabric scraps for the pieced scrap border quilt I found on Red Peppers' Blog.

The tutorial calls for a 45 x 45 quilt, but I'm planning on making this a queen size, so I've doubled the number of scrap blocks. The bright side of a bad week of insomnia is that I've cut out almost 450 scraps from fat quarters and sewn 120 blocks. Oy! I'm hoping to get my contrasting white blocks cut out before the retreat so that when I get there I can just put it together!

In addition to this project, I've started a cardigan. I have a favorite, soft cardigan that I found in San Diego a few years ago, and I've decided to try my hand at making another one in this luscious red color:

Here's the original I'm working from:

The back is almost done, and then I'm on to the front panels . . .





Thanks for stopping by!

Crinkle-icious Spare Change!

Happy Friday everyone!

It's a finish with one big project and a start with another one. I hit one major goal of mine this week: I finished a "big girl" quilt! That is, I made an closer to full-sized quilt! It's about 50x65 inches and I couldn't be happier with it! It's a version of a stacked coins design that I saw on Cluck Cluck Sew's website and adapted from her baby-sized quilt. I loved the white space she put between her "coins," different from a lot of the stacked coins quilts I had seen elsewhere. I made this with fewer than 12 fat quarters, 3 different tones of red, aqua, orange, and green. I used those same fabrics in my binding. For the backing I used my current favorite Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy Polka Dots & Flowers in turquoise (which I also used as one of the coin fabrics on front). For the quilting I got my very first try at real machine quilting on a Gammill longarm machine, thanks to Ella. It is far far far from professional, but so much better than the FMQ'ing I would do on my little Brother! Thanks so much Ella for that trade! ;-)

My most recent quilts (besides this one) were baby quilts I made as gifts, and I so loved the crinkly goodness as they came out of the dryer that I just wanted to cuddle up with them myself! I vowed that the next quilt I made was going to be for myself! I hope that doesn't sound to selfish, but as someone who has been knitting for 15 years and who has only made one sweater and one pair of socks for herself (and countless socks and sweaters and goodies for others), I take it as a sign of progress that I wanted to make something for myself for a change!! I have an antique bowtie quilt from Ohio (1904 or so) that I used to cuddle up with, but now I have only on display because it's become a bit fragile, and we have a beautiful quilt Karen's mom made for us, but I wanted a quilt that came from my own hands as well. So now we do! Yay!! Cuddling in my crinkle-icious Spare Change quilt full steam ahead!

The next project on the block (so to speak!) is a quilt for my mama. I've been holding on to fabric from old Lilly Pulitzer golf skirts of hers for ages and ages, and I'm finally ready to do something with them. For those of you who may not be familiar with Lilly Pulitzer, she's a prominent fashion designer whose vibrant floral prints have been popular since the '50s. As the story goes, she originally ran a juice stand in Palm Beach, FL and began designing bright, colorful dresses that would cover the stains from the juice! And boy did her crazy fabrics ever do the trick! Her clothes became emblematic of the preppy generation, but when being preppy went out in the '80s, so did her clothes, and I must confess I gave my mother endless grief when she continued to wear her golf skirts!!

This is one of her current summer classic fabrics:

Fun, isn't it?! And this is actually one of the more subdued prints. I can't really begin to describe what she had going on in the '70s!

In the '90s, however, Lilly Pulitzer made a comeback and I hung my head in shame when my mother proved me wrong as her golf skirts stood the test of time and became vintage Lilly Pulitzer--worth more than even the pricey new lines of fabric that Lilly Pulitzer began to release in the 1990s and 21st century. Who would have guessed?!

Nevertheless, as my mom gave up her golf game, she relinquished her precious Lilly Pulitzer golf skirts to me, hoping that I, with my crafty ways, might do something to commemorate them. So that is my current project! In addition to the great golf skirts my mother passed along to me, I also scored a fabulous Lilly Pulitzer cocktail dress--usually about $250, but I found it at DI (the local thrift store) for only $10!!!!!! Can you believe it! It didn't fit me, or else I would be wearing it around town, so instead I  took it apart at the seams and will be integrating it into the quilt. Nice score, huh?! I've become a DI junkie, I have to admit! The Lilly Pulitzer prints are impossible to miss, so I pretty much recognized it from across the room!

This is one of the blocks from one of the two skirts:

Yes, it's a purple and green tiger! Typical Lilly Pulitzer! No, it's not going to be an ordinary quilt! But it's an homage to my mother, and her love for Lilly Pulitzer . . .  and her golf skirts! What I haven't mentioned is that my mother is an extraordinary golfer. She would be the last one to admit it, but she has a great swing and low handicap and a true love for the game. I've wanted to make this quilt for a long time as a way to honor all of that.

Seeing Double Rainbows!

Happy Wednesday all! Linking up again with Lee's WIPs at Freshly Pieced.

No, I'm not showing old photos--I've decided to make another Rainbow Sprout quilt, this time for our friends' baby. I had started (and finished the top of) a quilt ages ago (last summer!), but I was really unhappy with it. I so so loved this rainbow quilt pattern that I decided to make another. And it's such a quick project! I pieced the top together yesterday and I'm ready to quilt it today. Last time I used a wonky-style geometric quilting, but this time I think I'm just going to to FMQ all the way. I used many of the same charm squares I used for the last quilt, although I did change it up a little, using the fabulous sailboats from Emily Herrick's new line that I got from Sue (thanks Sue!). Goes perfectly with the bits from Going Coastal that I had already put in!

As for other projects, I'm still working away on my sock: one foot done, one more to go! Actually, truth be told, I have about 3 feet to go, as I tend to start new socks without finishing old sets that I had previously started! It's just that new projects are so much more exciting!!

I'm making headway with the granny squares: 17 down, 7 to go! The only hang-up in my progress is that I ran out of white, and while I'm 99.9% sure that the white I have in my stash is Kona White and not Kona Snow, I don't want to be wrong. Anyone out there know how different they are -- would I be able to tell if I put them up against each other? They look pretty much identical to me!

And on the non-crafty front, wish me luck: I'm embarking on 30 days without sugar, dairy, grains or processed foods! Okay, so I'm not giving up my diet coke, but other than that I'm eating clean!

May Update: Quilting Edition

Joining in on Lee's Wednesday WIP! Happy Day Everyone!

I've done it! My very first official quilt! Now, I've made quilts before, but not quite official quilts. The difference being in the quilting. I've done tied quilts before, but never a fully quilted patchwork quilt. I pulled up my BGP (Big Girl Panties), took a few deep breaths, relied heavily on the kindness and continued encouragement of my sewing ladies, and I did it! And here, without further ado, here she is, my Rainbow Sprout quilt:

First of all, let me acknowledge officially how cool it is to have the friendship and support of a very cool bunch of sewing ladies, especially when you're starting out in the sewing/quilting world. Ella hosted an amazing retreat last weekend, and it helped push me over the edge into finishing this quilt. All I had to do was finish the binding over the weekend! The combined humor, advice, wisdom, friendship and encouragement from April, Ella, Jenny (needs a blog!), Marion, Pamela, and Sue (get a blog!! :-)) has been such a true godsend! Thank you! There's so much more to report on the retreat, but stay tuned for that in another post . . .  I'm on the road and couldn't take photos of all the goodies that came out of the retreat!

I discovered the marvelous tutorial for this quilt from Hooked on Needles. And when I say it's an entirely manageable tutorial, BELIEVE IT! It's a great first-timers' quilt. I think it's a great go-to quilt for a baby gift. I'm kind of all raring to go to make another. I made this for our nephew, Cameron Derek, and I was a bit teary packing it up and sending it off yesterday, as joyful as I am to have this wrap him in love and blessings! Most of the charm squares come from Emily's swap I did earlier this year, but I did throw in a few I Spy squares. I even cut into my beloved Heather Ross Munki Munki--both the gnomes and the VW vans (Cameron's dad is a VW fan)!

For the quilting I did what I'm calling a wonky geometric design, essentially square-ish, but deliberately not perfect squares. I guess we officially call those rectangles (from what I recall of Geometry?). I was originally going to just do straight line quilting, but I wanted to do something with a bit more movement in it.

So this, is my proud photo of work accomplished! I also, with TONS of guidance and inspired help from my dear friend Sue over our fabulous retreat weekend finally finished my pincushion/scrapbag (photos to come).

As for works in progress, Oy! So much in the WIP line! I still have miles to go on:
- My messenger bag
- The valance for my mother's house
- Dare try to make a scrapbag/pincushion for my mother-in-law
- Finish the baby quilt for our friend's almost year-old baby (should I just scrap it and do another Rainbow Sprout quilt?)
- There's so much more I can't even remember anymore!