Ornaments and News

Welcome to so many new followers!  I feel a little overwhelmed with how many comments I have received on my two SMS Giveaways.  I hope you will enjoy visiting my blog and seeing what I have been creating.

My time to sew seems to be rapidly disappearing.  Even though I have been in denial, I am finally coming to terms with my two year old's change in schedule: she is done taking afternoon naps.  I am squeezing in what I can, but I really do better with a solid chunk of time rather than a few minutes here and there.  So I've realized with any of my holiday sewing, I need to keep things simple and try not to overdo it.  I recently participated in an ornament swap and I found this adorable and simple tutorial on Wild Olive to make a nativity ornament:

I also have been churning out these cute stocking ornaments to be small gifts for various people like MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) members and school and church teachers.  Last year I made lots of zip bags for people, but these are much quicker and still cute.  Tutorial is at Stumbles and Stitches.

On a personal note, I would like to share that I am expecting our third child on May 23!  We are excited and my other children are thrilled.  I won't be finding out the gender ahead of time, I love having the surprise at the end.  I feel like this explains my lack of productivity for the last several months although many people have been telling me that I have been accomplishing plenty.  I will make some things for the baby soon and I probably should get going on that before my energy really disappears!

Thanks for reading.  Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Mini Mueller State Park Retreat

Last weekend, several people from the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild got together for a retreat in the mountains.  It was a one hour drive from my home in Mueller State Park.  I had no idea what to expect and I'll admit I was a little nervous.  But how could anything go wrong when this was the view from the back of the cabin we rented?

I think I was nervous about the retreat because I thought it would be a very primitive setting.  I was so wrong!  The accommodations were easily some of the nicest I've ever stayed in.

It was such a busy weekend, I didn't take a lot of pictures while I was there.  But here's a quick shot of the main living area where we spent the majority of our time sewing and talking. There wasn't a ton of sleeping, and I will admit that it was tiring!

I spent the whole week beforehand cutting and preparing my projects. Quilting retreats tend to be a little crowded and cramped in my experience and I didn't want to monopolize a "cutting station."  I also just wanted the cutting to be done, so that I could just concentrate on sewing.  I came prepared with three projects.  One I cannot share yet because it is a Christmas present for a loyal blog reader and friend.

I finally made myself a Sew Together bag and I am in love with it!  This was my third stab at the pattern and I think it came out the best so far.  I used a few adorable prints from the Sew Yummy fabric line, a collection that I've been drooling over for months.  I love that it's rainbow without looking super juvenile.

I also worked intensely on my daughters quilt.  I plowed through 15 of the 30 blocks at the retreat, here are a few of my favorites:

I know it's going to sound a little cheesy, but I really don't care that much about all that I was able to accomplish. Spending time with like-minded, down to earth ladies was so refreshing.  I will admit that I have really struggled with homesickness lately and this was just the boost I needed.  A huge thanks to Melissa for organizing this fabulous weekend.

(I'm the one in the red hoodie on the left).

If you have a chance to attend a retreat, do it!  It's so hard to get to know guild members if you only attend meetings.  Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day: Four Tula Pink Fat Quarters

Welcome to my blog!  Please leave a comment, telling me what your favorite sewing book or novel is to receive a chance to receive these four brand new Saltwater fat quarters, designed by Tula Pink.  There is something about the "tulatroops" that just amazes me, avid fans of her fabrics are dedicated and put other designer groupies to shame.  When I saw these at an LQS a few months ago, I knew they'd make someone very happy.  I used bits and pieces of her Prince Charming and Saltwater collections to make the City Sampler recently:



International entries are welcome.  Followers of my blog, old and new, are welcome to leave a second comment for a new entry.  To give you an idea of what kinds of projects I share here, here's a small sampling:

Good luck!  Comments will be allowed for this giveaway from now through December 15 until 6 pm MST.  A winner will be chosen randomly that evening and will be notified via email.  Please make sure you are not a "no reply blogger" so that I can contact you.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day: Quilted Pillow

For Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, I am sending one lucky commenter this quilted pillow cover.  It is made from leftovers from a quilt I have been working on this year.  It is a very traditional Jacob's Ladder block and the the color scheme and pattern are borrowed from this tutorial at Blue Elephant Stitches.  It measures 18" square and I've used a 20" Ikea pillow form.  (To save on shipping, the winner will only receive the quilted pillow cover, not a form as well).  It is a whopping 212 pieces, which were aided by strip piecing and Thangles.

I quilted this with some simple straight line quilting, echoing the pattern. It has a dotted fabric on the back with a zippered flap closure.

 

Here's what the quilt top looks like, made of all of these blocks.  I am in the slow process of hand quilting it with perle cotton.

To enter my giveaway, please leave a comment. To make it interesting for me to read, please tell me what your favorite TV show or movie is (decent Netflix recommendations are especially welcome).  It is not a requirement to follow me to enter this giveaway but I will allow a second entry for current and new followers, simply leave a second comment telling me you are a follower.  To give you an idea of what my blog features, here are some projects I've made within the last year:

Good luck!  Comments will be allowed for this giveaway from now through December 15 until 6 pm MST.  A winner will be chosen randomly that evening and will be notified via email.  Please make sure you are not a "no reply blogger" so that I can contact you.  International entries are welcome.

When Hoarding Pays Off

We hosted Thanksgiving with my sister, Nick's brother Ben,  his wife Melanie, and their four year-old son Rivers.  For my little family, it was our first time being away from any parents for the holiday.  We dove in head first, making everything from scratch.  Luckily Ben was excited to do the turkey- I will admit that was a very intimidating task and I was happy to let him do it.  The whole meal was delicious and we had lots of fun together.

Just before they came from Denver, I told Melanie to bring a pillow she'd bought on Etsy ages ago.  I wanted to make her another pillow to coordinate with it.  This is her pillow:

And this is the pillow I made to go with it:

On Thursday morning, most everyone went on a little hike nearby.  I opted to stay home and make the pillow, finishing it just as they got home.  I really had a good laugh that I had everything I needed on hand: the out of print, very hard to find fabrics, a coordinating zipper at just the right length, and even some random (yard sale find) textured fabric that helped break up all of the busy prints.  It was an easy project and Melanie was pretty happy with it.  She helped me out by taking nice pictures of what I had made, the photo below is a quick iPhone picture, showing them stacked together.

Over the holiday weekend, I made another pillow for the upcoming Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day.  I will share it on December 8 along with hundreds of other bloggers giving away goodies.

Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday: DYO Sampler

You guys- I haven't touched any holiday sewing.  I claimed that would be my focus, but it's just not been happening.  This DYO Sampler project- something I started on because of a whim- has been an obsession.  It's so much fun.  I get to try things out without committing to numerous identical blocks.  

Here are a set of three feathers.  I have made a baby quilt out of this pattern but I cut half of the feathers wrong- so it was nice to visit this again with more correct piecing:

I also dug out my copy of Word Play Quilts and did some improvisational piecing to create this:

There are several reasons why I chose this phrase:

• It was a practical choice.  There are many quotes that I love but I didn't want to choose something that was quite long.  I want the stag to be the focus.

• It reveals my connection to New Hampshire, where I grew up.  It's the predominant phrase on NH license plates that makes me laugh: while so many states go with something light-hearted like: "the peach state," "vacationland," and "birthplace of aviation" - NH is all about making a bold political statement.  I am sure there is some interesting history behind this.  

• I identify with "Live Free or Die" - I feel pride for my country, I have lived in other countries and I am grateful for my freedom. Without getting into a long political discussion, lets just say that I lean towards the "Ron Swanson" type of feelings about government. (The irony of my husband working for the government is not lost on me!)

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Word Play Quilts.  I did this entire phrase in one evening- I'd say it took me about three hours.  It was easy and fun.  I found that "v" was the most difficult but it only took me one try.  Care had to be taken to have similar sizes for each word and I was also very attentive to my fabric choices- striving for high contrast so that it would be easy to read.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

Finish it up (Saturday): A New Baby Quilt and a Citrus Zip Pouch

I can finally share a project I've had to keep secret over the last month or so.  A good friend from Massachusetts is having a sweet boy after three girls.  Definitely a good reason to make a baby quilt!  She told me she likes bright colors - so I decided to go with a bunch from my stash with a bike print that I love and have had since my five year old son was a baby.  The pattern is from an older issue of Quilty: Nov/Dec 2013.

I followed the quilting suggestion from the magazine: wonky zig-zags, using my walking foot, all over the quilt.  It was pretty easy and was a welcome break from stippling or simple straight line quilting.

I used a transportation themed fabric for the back as well as leftover binding pieces from other quilts to bind the quilt.  The quilt measures 40 x 40.

I enjoyed making this quilt so much that I am going to do another one for my daughter, hopefully in time for Christmas.  Every time she sees me making something in my sewing room, she asks me, "Are you making a quilt for me?"  Of course she has about ten quilts already but I can't resist her enthusiasm.  I am going to use these adorable Ann Kelle Girlfriends prints as the focal points for the blocks:

Finally, here is another simple finish: a Citrus Zip Pouch from a tutorial on the Liberty London blog.  It's such an adorable idea but I was most intimidated by the curved piecing- which turned out to be really easy.  The part I struggled with was putting it all together and making the intersections near the ends of the zipper become somewhat neat: I did and re-did it three times before it was somewhat acceptable!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Purse Palooza 2014: My Own Design

The tedious task of paper piecing sixty 1"x2" flying geese has paid off:

I have always had a goal to create my own purse design, I have sewn so many and I thought it would be fun to incorporate the many bag making techniques I have learned over the years.  I also used knowledge from quilt and clothing making too.  It was quite the learning process to figure out appropriate measurements and the best methods and order to proceed with every aspect of the bag.  This experience has definitely given me a new appreciation for all of the many talented pattern writers out there.

The bag measurements are approximately 13" x 15."  It features an interior zippered pocket, a recessed zipper closure, leather handles, and some fun fabrics from Cotton and Steel, Anna Maria Horner, and Juliana Horner.  It has some of the strongest interfacing attached to the exterior pieces but it's not a super sturdy bag that is really rigid- I think I hit that balance just right.

It was tough to get a good picture of the interior, I will try again tomorrow during daylight hours:

As part of sharing this process, I must confess that two days ago, the bag was a bit of a disaster for me.  What I had begun to create was a boxy tote bag (see picture below).  This was not my original intention and I felt that it didn't match the style I was aiming for.  I spent a good hour seam ripping it apart- I honestly didn't abandon it altogether only because those dang flying geese represented too many hours of precious sewing time!  I didn't want to let them to go to waste.

I am happy I persisted and created something much more to my liking:

Linking up to Finish it up Friday and Sew Sweetness for Purse Palozza 2014:

WIP Wednesday: Bags

I've been busy, I will have a baby boy quilt to show you in about a week (after the recipient receives it in the mail).  I made a super cape as a birthday party gift.  If anyone has suggestions for other handmade gifts for preschoolers- please let me know.  I know I've been predictable in this department:

I've decided to take the plunge and make the Weekender.  I've been braving endless lines at Joann's to get the supplies.  I've dug into my stash and am thrilled to finally be using this awesome Echino buck print.  I've also been dabbling in a some paper pieced equilateral triangles but I am not sure exactly what direction I'm going yet:

But before I am allowing myself to dive into the Weekender, I wanted to try designing my own bag in time for the wrap up of Purse Palooza over at Sew Sweetness.  The hardest part is over (hopefully!)- I assembled four pairs of fifteen tiny flying geese.  I've made so many bags- I am excited to use techniques I've learned to create my own design but it's not been easy.  I've heard lots of people say, "I hate following patterns," but I am definitely in the opposite camp: it's so much easier when someone tells you exactly what to do!

I know I really should be working on more holiday sewing- I need more bags like I need a hole in my head- but I just can't help it.  Sometimes I just need to be creative in specific ways and then I can get back to "to do's" and deadlines.  Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Book Club Door Prizes: Hedgehogs!

Since moving across the country, I have had to make a lot of effort to try and get to know people.  I've joined two guilds and two mom's groups.  One of the mom's groups is trying to put together a book club and I eagerly signed up.  I love the idea of a well functioning book club and I even volunteered to host the first meeting.  One of the advantages of our move is that I can finally have more than two people over at a time!  I've been dying to have a little party, so I decided to go "all out" for this event.

We all voted unanimously to first read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  I wanted to force myself to read fiction (I almost always read nonfiction for pleasure reading) and we'd all "heard it was good."  Well, I have to admit that the first half of the book was agony.  I procrastinated and read two other books.  I put in a library request to reserve a copy of the movie based on the Hedgehog book.  Luckily I talked to a fellow book club member and she encouraged me to press on and it did get better.   But as far as the ending goes, let's just suffice it to say that I threw the book after I'd finally finished it.  

So while I didn't enjoy the book very much, I had a lot of fun making these door prizes:

I had to order the green hedgehog fabric because although I do have a lot of fabric- I only had one fat quarter with a few hedgehogs on it in my stash.  Making this library tote happened in just one evening- mostly thanks to Nick taking over with the kids after work yesterday.  I didn't use a pattern.  I used wool felt to make the "read" on the front of the bag and I couldn't believe I had some apple-colored webbing on hand for accenting the handles.

I lined the exterior pieces with some thrifted pre-quilted fabric instead of interfacing.  This Stof red/white fabric is so pretty and added some grown-up charm to the project:

Finally, I made two pouches.  The first patchwork pouch was made using this tutorial.  I like how it turned out but I wish I had finished the zipper ends differently- there is no way to make the two top corners not look kind of lumpy.  The other pouch is the famous "Open Wide Zippered Pouch" by Anna - I am very late to that party but I love how it came out and can't wait to make more!

Book club is on Friday and I plan to finally break out my crepe makers for the refreshments.  Can't wait!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Purse Palooza 2014.