Box Exchange 2010

Monday night was my last Chelmsford Quilt Guild meeting for the calendar year. I received back 9 blocks from the block exchange. Most everyone followed my instructions but I was disappointed with 4 blocks that will require some seam ripping - one of which requires a major overhaul and one is not even usable. Here are closeups of two of them:

I am debating whether to do this next year. I am not trying to sound ungrateful or like a snob - but participating in this activity is definitely a commitment I am questioning: I have to make a block every month for someone else, using a style of fabrics that I usually don't have. And then to get back my blocks with 4 different significant problems- it makes me feel like maybe I should've just made my own blocks every month. Plus, half the fun of such an activity is to see what kinds of personal fabrics someone might incorporate into my project - but I cannot do that in this guild where everyone's style is so different from my own. So I honestly kind of feel bad making everyone else be a "work-horse" rather than encouraging them to exercise some design/creativity- as the approach I had to take this year was providing my own fabrics and telling people to please not deviate by adding their own country/traditional stuff (some did not do so, hence some of the imminent seam-ripping).

The funny thing is that some people who received the blocks I made for them might be scratching their heads too- as there were a few blocks that I made that definitely had a more modern twist than they were probably expecting.

P.S. FYI- things will be a little quiet around here as we have my husband's graduation from law school this weekend and lots of family coming in and out of town.... I do have a post scheduled next week that will finally showcase the purse I made for my SIL however.

Baby Quilt Take 3

So last week was INSANE because I couldn't make up my mind on which baby quilt I wanted to give my friend.... So I ended up starting 3 different ones, as you may be able to tell from some of the previous posts. Kind of ironic that I recently lamented having "no time" to sew but soon after that was all I was doing.... The first quilt I attempted turned out to be too big, the second one didn't feel like it would fit the recipient's style.... So last Wednesday night, I made this:

A very simple disappearing nine-patch quilt out of some fat quarters I bought a while ago. The fabrics aren't my typical color pallette, but they are nice and cozy and were well liked by my friend.

Even though the pattern was so simple and I've done it before... this quilt introduced some new things to me: actually quilting the said quilt and having a pieced back. I was very proud of the results- especially the quilting- which I really just kind of "winged it" (I know that's not a real word). The binding turned out horrendous- but I was way too rushed and it was my fault for trying to hurry it so much.

Sewing for girls IS fun though! Of all of my fabrics, I have the most pink..... I used to make fun of my mom for liking and wearing pink so much - but now I guess I am a hypocrite.

Vintage fabric and a quilt show

Yard sale season has begun and it's been a lot of fun so far. My husband and I frequent yard sales for the primary purpose of buying books, CD's, and DVD's to sell online. It's a tiny little "business" that managed to pay all of our utilities or 3 months of rent last year. So while it's kind of a pain to surrender Saturday mornings, cherished space in our apartment, and a fair amount of time dealing with and sending the inventory - it's really been very worth it for our family especially as we've had only one income for the last few years.

Anyway, of course I often buy items besides half.com stuff, but I rarely see sewing stuff. But when I do, it's often pretty great. For example, last weekend, I was able to buy all of this vintage fabric for less than $5. It was in great condition, with most of it still having sales tags on it. One piece was labeled 1 and 5/8 yards for 80 cents. Can you imagine? I belong to two quilt guilds, New England Modern Quilt Guild and Chelmsford Quilt Guild. The latter had their quilt show on Saturday and our family went together. Most quilts on display were very traditional, but there were several that caught my eye.

Here's one of my faves, this woman actually dyed a lot of these fabrics herself.

Now I know it's not very "modern" to like commercial character fabrics/quilts- but who can argue with Muppetts? I actually have the book that has this pattern but I don't know if I will ever get to it.... but the applique on this is impressive and the artist did a great job.

This photo is a little blurry, but you can still get ths effect of the gorgeous colors and scrappy effect.

And what's this? Here's one of the quilts I had entered into the show. It's my son's quilt - but he didn't miss it for the two days it was gone. No, of course, he has become mightily attached to a store-bought blanket a friend gave him.

Yep, there's my hubby holding our son. He is such a good sport about all of our visits to quilt shows and fabric shops. He actually insisted that he attend this show because I had quilts on display there- I really was fine with him skipping it.

Readers of this blog have already seen these two quilts. I tried to make life easy for myself by entering quilts that were finished rather than attempting to finish a quilt in time for the submission deadline.

Another girly quilt... the beginning or the end?

Thanks for the supportive comments on the last post. I've never been the kind of person who thinks that I can have it all and be it all.... There are seasons in life for everything.

So originally I was going to post about the weekend which included a quilt show and some great vintage fabric found at a yard sale. But I am too excited about what I worked on yesterday and today..... (when I should have been quilting the quilt pictured in the previous post), but anyway, I had fun pulling pinks, yellows, and oranges: to make this:

the whole process evolved..... I originally was going to do just one "princess and the pea" square, but I couldn't stop myself from continuing the process.

I used the "wonky log cabin" technique - and found myself really enjoying it. I took a very "improvisational" approach and just cut, sewed, and ironed as I went along with the project. There wasn't a lot of planning/design involved.

This quilt has a lot of my favorite fabrics in it: AB pink coriander, AB pink wallflower, Erin McMorris Park Slope birds, and Sandi Henderson orange apple dot. I counted 9 different fabrics in here that I have received from various online fabric swaps which I keep talking about.

Now, originally the plan was to make this for a future baby girl of a friend.... but I had so much fun doing this and have so many great fabrics to continue this process, I am thinking about continuing.... making it into more of a throw/lap/twin size quilt for myself? What do you think? Is it too juvenile? I just love it so much because it's a unique composition and truly speaks "modern" to me....

Awesome mail day and.... what happens when my kid takes a nice long nap and the house is already relatively clean.....

One night recently, when I couldn't sleep (I took too long of a nap that particular day: due to my son's latest nocturnal antics) I got on the computer and checked my fabric swap group. A woman from Australia had barely petitioned her fellow swappers to trade some Katie Jump Rope for her Paint-By-Number Birds. I had all 3 of the prints she was looking for and a few weeks later: 1.5 yds of the bird fabric arrived on my door! I am so thrilled! This stuff is so unique. I already have some paint by number deer, and there's a particular quilt on Flickr that has given me inspiration for what I can make with mine. Anyway- this package sent me over the top, as I was already in a great mood.... I had just managed to transform this:

into this quilt top.... in one afternoon!

It's so simple and goes fast thanks to chain piecing. I am going to quilt it soon, as it is due at a baby shower in just a week's time.

I have to confess I have been feeling a little down on myself lately because I have been comparing myself to other bloggers/sewers out there who whip out quilts and even patterns for quilts in a matter of days even as they're raising little ones. I know so many people out there think that stay at home mom's sit around and watch Oprah all day. My choice to quit my job and raise my son full time was met with some envy, a little skepticism, and a tinsy bit of derision by my coworkers. One guy asked if I was "bored all day" when I came to the office for a quick visit a few months ago..... I have honestly never been more busy in my life. I did MUCH more sewing and reading before Gregory was born..... I am not trying to complain but just vent a little. Many of you who know me understand that I waited a lot longer than I wanted to to have Gregory - so obviously I wouldn't change anything for the world!!!!! But I just have to say it feels really good to do something I love and enjoy once in a while.

I can see my pictures now!

Thank you to kanewoman for educating me on my mistake in navigating the posting in this blog! It is kind of embarrassing how simple it was to learn the mistake I had been making.... Now I will be back to more regular posting. I did just finish Missy's purse but will delay in showing a picture so that she can see it in person first (she's visiting in a few weeks and we can't wait!!!) Right now I am working on a baby girl quilt for an amazing friend from church who is finally expecting a little lady after 5 boys (her boys are so cute and well behaved- observing their family has really given me confidence when it comes to having a little son of my own).

And just for the heck of it, here's my score from my latest trip to Marden's. There is over 11 yards here for about $22.

Box Exchange

So when I am typing this post, the above picture is really just a scrambling of letters and symbolds, but when I "publish" the post, it's coming out as the intended picture.... I still don't know what's up.....

But anyway, this is a block I recently completed for my quilt guild block exchange. I had to add a dark blue fabric to the white print that was provided. I don't have a lot of dark blue fabric, so this polka dot print was the best that I could do. I really like this block- it was easy to do and I think would translate really well with modern fabrics.

Problems with Image Loading

Hi everyone-
It's been a while since I posted. The problem has mainly been that my son and I got awful colds at the same time and I could barely get out of my pajamas for a week.... Now I am trying to do a post and everytime I load a picture, it is just coming out as a bunch of words and symbols... any suggestions? I have tried other pictures and the same thing keeps happening.

A new book......

Life has been busy here with Gregory teething and my husband doing his full-time internship, approaching law school graduation. I joined a local mother's group and I am pretty excited to meet new people - they do some sort of get-together every day!

Gregory's bottom two teeth finally came up and now he is much happier. When he was crying and having such a hard time of it, I didn't get anything done (including sleeping). So the sewing has been a little slow lately. But now he is much happier and taking naps again and I am ready to get back to it.

I really do like quilting books a lot because they are so interesting to look through and I enjoy trying to visualize how I would interpret any kind of pattern. But it's been a while since I have bought any because now that I have discovered the modern quilting world and the hundred's of blogs out there - I approach quilting in a whole different way. I used to pick out the pattern, pick the fabrics, and sew. Now - I really like to start making a quilt based on the fabrics I have and like, THEN I start to compose a pattern -usually visualizing it in my head or drawing sketches, for weeks at a time. And lately I have been trying to do patterns that are more about individual blocks rather than strip piecing, for example.

So anyway, I saw this book Material Obsession: Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke at Barnes and Nobles a few weeks ago. I never buy books for full price at book stores, so I was happy to see it later at Joann's when I could use my 50% off coupon. A big reason why I wasn't fully willing to pay the full $25 for it is because I really want to make only one quilt in it, the one pictured here on the cover.

This quilt, in my opinion, is a real show-stopper. I love absolutely everything about it but am especially in love with the uses of red and white polka dots, the scrappy element, and the idea of using an overall dot print rather than a solid. Someone in my Chelmsford quilt guild made one like this with lavendar polka dots and it was one of the best quilts I have ever seen.

This quilt has a lot of challenging elements for me: applique and curves. But I really want to challenge myself and force myself to be patient. For a while, I was only sewing plushies and purses because I wanted the instant gratification of having a project finished quickly. But I know it would feel really awesome to tackle a difficult technique, learn something new, and hopefully become good at it. Look at what these amazing quilters are doing here, here, and here. These are the type of projects that take TIME but will be/are worth it.

I do have to say that it may be a little while before I can justify buying 8+ yards of fabric (the polka dots) for this quilt, but I have plenty of complementing fabrics to do the dresden plates.

So in the above picture, I had to throw in a daisy print from the Katie Jump Rope line. I received this half yard cut in a swap and have to say that I am in LOVE. I'd only seen this fabric online and wasn't that impressed. Seeing it in person - wow, the colors are so rich and vibrant and the daisy bunches are more dense than I thought they were. The fabric is amazingly soft too. I love to support local quilt shops and not buy so much online - but there are only a few in my area (none of them closer than 30 mins away), they rarely carry what I am looking for, and the prices are not terribly competitive. Buying online is a mixed bag - sometimes there are errors in your order, you risk losing a package in the mail, but the most annoying thing is that you can't really tell what a fabric is really like until you see it in person..... How do you prefer to buy your fabric?

Fabric swaps...

People in my online fabric swap group are "mad for Munki." What is Munki, you ask? Well, I had to get some education on the topic myself. A well-loved fabric designer, Heather Ross, designs adorable designs for a women's sleepwear company - Munki. Heather Ross fanatics actually buy cut up pieces of pajamas to put into their quilts and other homemade goodies. The p.j.'s are not cheap - starting at $70. You can get pieces on Etsy for between $7-$12. And rumor has it that these pajamas occasionally show up at TJ Maxx and Marshall's for $20 or under.

I am not going to get into this Munki craze, but gave in when I saw this print: For some reason, I am really drawn to fabrics that have "names" under the characters portrayed. (See a previous post ).

This picture what the above fabric really is, the back of a very large women's p.j. top.

What an interesting world we live in where people are cutting up expensive pajamas to make blankets.....

Here's another awesome swap I received - purple Echino prints. The colors are just so rich.

Quilt Top Done!

Okay, so now I officially have 4 unfinished quilts hanging in my closet. Do I dare attempt free motion quilting on my machine? Take that long-arm quilting class? Or wait till we are independently wealthy and can afford a LAQM plus the space, so I can just do the quilting myself? This project came together pretty quickly and it was a lot of fun.

Missy, hopefully you read this soon and I can get going on your purse. I do like this combination- and these are all of the fabrics you mentioned liking. Let me know what you think.

Current Project

Okay, before I can get making the purse for my SIL, I am going to finish a simple baby girl quilt. Choosing the fabrics is often the most enjoyable part.

Here's the spread:

This is my favorite block so far:

I love the combination of pink and green. It's kind of ironic that I have the largest stash of pink than any other color and I am a mother of a young baby boy!

Which ones will she choose?

My SIL, Missy, will be surprised to see this post dedicated to her. She is the only woman in my family who has not received this purse yet. (Although there is the exception of my youngest sister who wouldn't be caught dead carrying any type of bag that wasn't black). She did admit that she was "kind of wondering" if she might receive one soon.... so I told her I would do something extra special for her and let her choose the fabrics. Feel free to comment and tell me which ones you think she should choose:

#1 Amy Butler green/gray Daisy Chain combo:

#2 Sandy Henderson Meadowsweet green/brown/orange combo:

#3 Amy Butler Love in the Heart Pallette combo:

#4: A mix of greens from my stash:

#5 Jessica Levitt's Timber in sky:

Cast your vote soon so I can get sewing!

Love,

Laurie

Blocks for a Charity Quilt and More Sock Monkey Love

Our NEMQG (New England Modern Quilt Guild) is striving to charity quilts on a frequent basis. Here are the blocks I was asked to do:

This is the first time in a while that I have stepped out of my "box" and made some quilt blocks out of fabrics from different collections/designers. I really love it. When I first discovered this world of modern quilting and fabrics, I initially thought that I had to make quilts consisting completely of one collection, but this thinking has left me with some disappointing results.

New topic: I bought a pair of red heel socks out on my trip to Denver and 2 weeks later, made this little guy for my son. Any suggestions for naming him? I am kind of leaning towards Jasper....


I made the pink/green/blue argyle version as a "practice" but found that the two different kinds of socks were quite different to work with. I can give everyone a few tips about making softies: break-up the stuffing/fiberfill into smaller chunks and this will lessen the bunching within the toy that creates the "muscular effect." Also, I ended up putting cardboard inserts into the other monkey's ears because they were really jagged, due to the stretchiness of the sock material. I opted not to do the cardboard inserts for this little guy because his ears are so big, I worried they would look like wings.

Is a blog post complete without a picture of my little one? He actually really likes this toy and has been sucking on the ear, leg, and arm. I have his quilt on the floor in the living room because he's too little to sleep with it but I couldn't wait to get some use out of it!

Girly Brainy Ball (aka Amish puzzle ball) for a birthday girl

Fabric Fun and Funnies

I recently bought a clearance quilt kit that had a lot of great fabrics, including discontinued Flea Market Fancy, Amy Butler, and Heather Ross. It also had some normal colored solids and a light green spotted print. But lurking amongst those useful items, was this: My friend thought it was a floral, I thought it might be some sort of psychadelic sunset, but instead, it was DUCKS!!!! I know there's a lot of ugly fabric out there, but this has definitely got to be one of the front-runners.

Here's a peek at the pretties I got at our last New England Quilt Guild Meeting.

I have to reiterate my excitement about this group. Everyone is just so nice, friendly, and down to earth. I volunteered to be an officer - just to make myself get to know people better and maybe share some ideas. I will be working with a few other ladies in the role as vice president. Not sure of what it all entails, but I am excited.

Intruder

This little gal broke into my parent's house over the weekend...... She took a ride on the tire swing.

She wanted to slide into the pool, but was disappointed to discover that it was covered up.

She took a little nap on the hammock.

She called me when she got up too high in the tree, so I saved her.

The End.