Slow Sewing + giveaway winner

I'm spending some time this weekend doing some slow sewing.  It's such a therapeutic thing for me.  I'm not a fan of knitting or crocheting, but I do really enjoy english paper piecing.  

I've recently finished my pink hexden quilt, and I'll be sharing that soon.  I also have all of my red pentaring blocks done and ready to be made into a quilt top.  With those last two EPP projects finishing up I decided I'd better get a new one going!  So I started this new project shown above.  I'm using the One Room Schoolhouse fabrics which I just love love love (designed by Brenda Ratliff for RJR Fabrics - see more here.)

I decided to do a little larger hexagon - these are 1.5" on each side.  I like this size because it shows off a bit more of each print.  I glue baste my hexagons, and then I've been stitching them together into groups of three.  

I haven't quite decided what I'll do with them next.  I have a few ideas that I'm testing out, but I like what I see so far!  

Want to learn more about english paper piecing?  One of my favorite EPPers is Sue Daley and she has some great YouTube videos about English Paper Pieicing.  

Episode 1: How to Sew Hexagons

See all of her videos here (be sure to click on "load more" at the bottom to see them all)

If you're ready to get started, you can find the 1.5" hexagon papers here (my favorite source for EPP papers.)  One Room Schoolhouse fabrics can be purchased here at Pink Castle Fabrics, and here at Fat Quarter Shop.  

And before I sign off, I need to announce the winner of the Wonderland fat quarter bundle.  Congratulations to commenter #19 - Linda! 

Little Ruby Quilt Along week 2

Time for week 2 of the Little Ruby Quilt Along hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop.  Are you sewing along with us?  It's not too late to start!  Download the free PDF pattern here and grab a favorite jelly roll!

It's week two, so our fabric is now cut, triangles are ready, and it's time to begin putting our star blocks together!  

It's not as tricky as it looks, and the helpful video from the Fat Quarter Shop (below) takes you through the steps!  

Be sure to check out the progress from these other bloggers who are quilting along with us!  

Melissa from Happy Quilting

Angie from Gnome Angel

Erin Cox from Why Not Sew

Andy from A Bright Corner

Heidi from Buttons & Butterflies

Pat from Pat Sloan

Peta from She Quilts a Lot

Heather from Quilt Story

Megan from Quilt Story

Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl

Gerri from Planted Seed Designs

Sherri from A Quilting Life

Rebecca from Bryan House Quilts

Sherri from This & That Patterns

Jemima from Tied with a Ribbon

Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts

Stephanie from Modern Sewciety

Brooke from Silly Mama Quilts

Carrie from Moda's United Notions

The next installment and video will be on Monday, June 27th when we'll work on assembling the quilt!  

Little Ruby Quilt Along with the Fat Quarter Shop

Hi everyone

I'm excited to tell you about a fun quilt along that's happening over at the Fat Quarter Shop.  It's called the Little Ruby Quilt Along.  The quilt is designed by Camille Roskelley and in the process of making the quilt you'll actually make enough blocks for TWO quilts.  Sweet.  

You can find the (FREE !) pattern here on the Jolly Jabber blog, and find kits for the quilt along here in the Fat Quarter Shop.  Or you can choose your own supplies from the shop like I did.  Here's what you'll need:  two jelly rolls, two white jelly rolls and a background fabric.  For my jelly rolls I'm using Little Ruby, and instead of the two white jelly rolls I'm using this gorgeous Moda Crossweave in grey - which will also be my background fabric.  

You'll also need the Creative Grids Hexagon Trim Tool and the Creative Grids 60 degree Double Strip Ruler.  If you don't already have those two rulers, you can order them from the Fat Quarter Shop here and here.  

I've already gotten started on my cutting and I quickly became a fan of the Hexagon Trim Tool.  It's new to me but I'm glad it's now in my collection of rulers.  I'm already thinking of other fun uses for it. 

With each installment there will be a link to a helpful video that walks you through each step.  Here's the video for week #1:

There's a whole group of us who will be sewing along and sharing our progress.  It will be fun to see what fabrics everyone has chosen to use.  

Melissa from Happy Quilting

Angie from Gnome Angel

Erin Cox from Why Not Sew

Andy from A Bright Corner

Heidi from Buttons & Butterflies

Pat from Pat Sloan

Peta from She Quilts a Lot

Heather from Quilt Story

Megan from Quilt Story

Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl

Gerri from Planted Seed Designs

Sherri from A Quilting Life

Rebecca from Bryan House Quilts

Sherri from This & That Patterns

Jemima from Tied with a Ribbon

Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts

Stephanie from Modern Sewciety

Brooke from Silly Mama Quilts

Carrie from Moda's United Notions

Will you be quilting along with us?  Grab your favorite jelly roll and some background and get cutting!  The next installment / video will be on Monday, June 13th so you'll have time to order your supplies and get everything cut.  You can also follow along with everyone's progress on Instagram with the hashtag: #littlerubyquiltalong.

A New EPP Project

I was digging through some of my scrap bins the other day and decided to liberate some of them.  I realized that I had some really good red scraps and that they needed to be used and not just stored away.

So I started a new English Paper Piecing (EPP) project to work on while I sit at karate classes, wait in Dr offices, and watch tv in the evenings. 

 

My last project was these pink hexdens.  The hexdens have been stitched to a background square and the blocks are just needing to be sewn together into a quilt top.  For this next project I chose to make pentarings.  It's a ring shape made up of 10 pentagons.

These are the pentagon pieces I chose to use (I purchased them here).  

What do you think?  Cute, huh?  I love the little pair of scissors.    

I made a tester one, and decided that I love it.  I've now ordered more papers and cut my favorite red scraps into 2.75" squares - ready for basting!  

Chatterbox WIP

So I have a crazy goal.  I want to get all of my current WIP (Works In Progress) done by the end of the year.  That’s a whopping 24 quilts.  Sounds a leeetle bit crazy, right?  Well, to be honest, most of the quilts are done and just waiting to be quilted.  So it’s not as impossible as it may sound. 



This quilt is one of the few that are still in the construction phase.  Aaaand it’s a recent addition to my WIP list.  The pattern is called Chatterbox (from Vanessa Goertzen / Lella Boutique) and it was just begging to be made into a Christmas quilt!  I already had a jelly roll of Holly’s Tree Farm (Moda) which was perfect.



So as of today, I have all but two blocks done.  They’re pressed and stacked and ready to be arranged into a quilt top.  While I’ve sewed these over the past two days, I’ve been catching up on a new series on PBS called Home Fires.  Have you seen it?  I’ve watched the first two episodes and I love it so far! 



So off I go to whip up those last two quilt blocks!  You can find the Chatterbox pattern here.  Oh, and Vanessa is doing a fun giveaway – it’s not too late to enter and you can read all about it here on her blog. 

Little Pink Hexden Project

In my travels around town this last week I stopped by a couple of local shops and picked up some lovely pink fat quarters to help add that scrappy feeling to my pink hexden project.  I've been feeling like it's needing a little more variety.




I love that there’s so many great pinks out there right now! 



I’ve been making good progress on my little hexdens – I have 36 flowers made and they’re ready to be appliqued onto a background square.

So I’ve been on the hunt for a good background print to applique each hexden flower to.  This week I found this print and I think it’s perfect!  Like, perfect to the point where I'm excited to start working on it NOW.  We're talking Christmas-morning excitement here.  Weird, right?



The print is from the new Modern Background- Paper line by Zen Chic for Moda.  There are some really great low volume prints in that collection.  Click on the link and scroll through the page and you’ll see what I mean.



In addition to working on this fun paper piecing project, I’ve also been putting the finishing touches on two new quilt patterns!  Stay tuned for sneak peeks of those :)

A Little Hexie Project + giveaway winner

Over our Spring Break last week I decided to start a little english paper piecing project (say that 3 times fast!)  I was out of town, up in Spokane WA and had forgotten to bring my current epp project with me.  So I stopped by one of the quilt shops and picked up a few supplies – enough to get me started. 



While I was there, one of the helpful employees pointed me in the direction of this thread:



She said it’s the best thread for epp and it’s the ONLY thread she uses.  With a glowing recommendation like that, I figured I’d better try it out.  Even after using it just for these few hexies, I’m sold.  Normally my stitches are completely visible from the front, but as you can see below, the stitches barely show.  I’m a believer.  The woman recommended this particular color of thread too – she said it pretty much blends in to everything.  So there you go!  I’m passing along the tip to you!

 
And now, for what you’ve been waiting for – the winner of the Home Executive Planner giveaway is….

Heidi [Banks of Frog Creek] !!  Congratulations Heidi!  Thank you all for entering.  Now I've got to get back to that pile of laundry.  For me, that's the WORST part of taking a vacation - all of the laundry that needs to be done once you're home - ugh!

Rainbow Dash Quilt Top + Fabric Stack Friday

Remember back in January when I talked about this rainbow project?  I'm sharing it again today for my Fabric Stack Friday post - but also because...



I finally have the quilt top done!  The pattern is called Dashing and it’s from the Vintage Vibe book by Amber Johnson (I first talked about the book and pattern here and you can buy your own copy of it here.)  Here is a photo of the top before I added the border-



I finished this top at a quilting retreat with friends in January.  You know the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”?  Well, it took a whole room full of quilters to help me lay out this quilt top!  I was so grateful for the help, and I love the result. 

I’m not sure you can tell in this photo, but the appliqued little circles go from a light  gray on the top left of the quilt, and grow darker down to the black circles on the bottom right.  I love the effect. 



I used my favorite black and white swiss dot print for the border.  Now I just need to decide how to quilt it.  I have to admit, I’m kind of stumped.  Any suggestions? 

Taking Stock

I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolutions type of girl.  In years past, the thought of setting a few goals that would apply to the entire year was just too overwhelming.  Either I would aim too high in my goals and then never reach them, or reach too low and achieve them by March.  Neither was an effective way of using the whole “resolution” idea, right?  So now my goal writing happens on a weekly basis.  After searching and searching (and testing and trying) I finally found an app/website that helps me keep my to-do list and goals organized.  And I must say that it has helped me tremendously!



It’s called Todoist and it’s an app AND a website – so I can access it from my phone and my computer.  My favorite part about it?  There’s these little check boxes by each item so I still get the satisfaction of checking something off when it’s complete.  So.  Satisfying. 

I also love that I can break down a larger project – say for spring cleaning the house, or writing a new pattern – into smaller, more approachable tasks. 

Here’s what else is great – I can put things in categories.  For instance, I have a “sewing & piecing” category.  So if I set aside an afternoon for some sewing, I refer to that category for the things that need to be done.  And likewise, if I decide I need to sit at the computer one morning and get some design work done, I can take a look at my “design” category to see the design tasks that are waiting their turn.  Pretty nifty. 



Alright.  So I didn’t intend for this blog post to become a commercial for Todoist.  I just wanted to show you my pile of quilts and backings that are waiting their turn to be quilted. 

This week I’ve been making a complete list of my WIPS (works in progress) and stacking them together depending on the state they’re in.  These are all 6 of the quilts & backs that are ready for quilting.  I have another small stack of quilts waiting for their backings.  One quilt needs a binding, and a few quilts are just a rough stack of blocks right now.  It helps me to have projects grouped like that- similar to the categories I use for Todoist.  So now if I decide one day to get some long arm quilting done, the quilts and backings are right there ready to go!



Time to get some of these projects done! How’s your WIP stack coming along?  Do you set quilty goals for yourself?

How Delightful!

So I gave myself a couple weeks off.  I slept in.  I read a lot.  I did sneak in a little pattern designing here and there.  We spent a lot of time as a family just hanging out and playing.  We celebrated Christmas and New Years and did so with all of our fun family traditions (except making gingerbread houses.  That one just did not happen this year.)  It has been delightful!  And now it’s time to get back to reality, right? 

Everyone heads back to school and work on Monday and we adopt some sort of schedule once again.  Confession time: I’m looking forward to it. 



In the past couple of weeks I’ve started a just-for-me project and I’m really excited about it.  I’ve been working on it slowly here and there.  It started with pulling this stack of fabrics from my stash.  That’s 49 different prints to be exact.  I was a little lacking on the red blenders but a quick trip to my local quilt shop fixed that.   



I’m pairing these rainbow prints with some low volume prints – each colored rectangle gets one little low vol square in each corner.  I love the bright colors/low volume combo!   
 


Alright I’m off to enjoy the last couple of days of our vacation (and fold laundry).  Someone has to do it, right?

Christmas Quilt WIP + giveaway winner

 I’m so behind on Christmas prep this year!  And now a nice bout of Strep Throat has come to visit us here at our house.  At least our tree is up and decorated finally.  So that’s something.  And I do have this quilt which I started LAST YEAR.  I pulled it out of its storage bin this week and tried to remember what my original plan for this was.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this!?!

Here’s what I figured out - I’m using a charm pack of Cherry Christmas (designed by Aneela Hoey) and adding in a few coordinating fabrics for all of the circles. 

This 5” circle ruler (by Lori Holt for Riley Blake) is perfect for cutting circles from charm squares. 

Then I’ll raw edge applique each circle to a 7” background square.  These are the prints I’m using for background squares, along with a little bit of Kona Snow too. 

Once the squares are sewn together (probably 10 rows of 9 blocks each) I’ll have a nice sized Christmas throw quilt.  And if I get the circles cut out this year, and the background squares cut out next year, then I figure I’ll have the quilt done and ready to use by 2019!  How’s that for planning ahead?

And now for the winner of the Simply Strings book giveaway – Congratulations to Jenny L!  

I loved reading everyone’s comments and was surprised that so many of you have  mostly blue scraps like me!  You can purchase copies of Rana’s book here in her shop, and if you make a quilt from the Simply Strings book I’d love to see it!

A Head Start

Happy Friday everyone! 

My plan for the morning was to work on some quilt ideas that needed to be done in the next few weeks.  However, I’m not so good at setting aside time for the “thinking” types of projects projects.  I tend to procrastinate those.  I much more prefer the “doing” kinds of projects!  So today instead of finalizing design ideas for those future projects, I pulled out my scrap bins and started making some small string blocks. 

I thought maybe I'd make 4 blocks and then do other things, but I started up a movie and before I knew it, I had 18 blocks done.  It was a delightful way to spend the morning!

So now I’ve found that I’ve gotten a great head start on my next project, but still need to work on those “thinking” projects.  Or maybe I’ll go make cookies.  Or vacuum.  Or clean up the stringy mess from this morning.  Or…..

Scrappy Susannah quilt tops

Back at the beginning of September I had a tutorial here on my blog for a quilt block called the Scrappy Susannah.  I’ve recently gotten some questions and emails about what a full quilt would look like.  Well now that I’ve received all of the blocks from my Do. Good Stitches group, I can show you what it’s starting to look like!

First of all, here are all of the 12” blocks laid out randomly.  The group members could choose to use either navy, royal blue, green or yellow for their blocks. 

I’m still trying to decide if I want to add sashing between the blocks, which would look like this:

About mid-September, I pulled out all of my favorite navy blue prints and made this quilt top (it’s still waiting to be quilted).  With this version I think I’m really liking the no sashing look. 

And just to show you kind of a different look, here are the same Scrappy Susannah blocks but using the fabrics from Mirabelle (designed by Joanna Figueroa for Moda). 

And then the same quilt, but without sashing. 

And then here’s one more because I was curious what a Christmas version of Scrappy Susannah would look like!  This one is made using Solstice by Kate Spain.  And again, I think I prefer the no-sashing look.  What do you think?  Sashing or no sashing??

Making Progress

So this project is one that I started about four months ago and have been working on it slowly (SLOOOOO…WWW….LLLLY)  since then. 

These solid fabrics were sent to me by the lovely people at American Made Brand and I’ve enjoyed creating with them!  I just love the combination of vibrant solids with scrappy low volume prints so that’s what I’ve gone with for this project.  (You can see my first post about American Made Brand cotton solids here.)

 

Each 8.5” square has four (2.5”) squares of low volume inside.  Last night I was playing around with the layout and I think I’ve finally settled on this.  Whaddaya think?  Anything stand out to you in the picture above?

The next step with this project is to create the sashings that will go between blocks.  I’ll be using more 2.5” squares of low volume along with some longer strips of low vol.  If I’ve done my math correctly (fingers crossed) I should have all of the low volume cut.  Now I just need to put in a good movie and get sewing!

A Little Inventory

I’m heading out of town in a few days for a fun sewing weekend with friends and I’ve been making a pile of projects to take with me.  I’m hoping to get all of these at least started, and maybe a few of them finished.  Wishful thinking?  Perhaps.  It’s better to take more projects than you’ll need, right?  I wouldn’t want to run out of things to sew!

First off is this stack of navy prints.  I want to make a whole quilt of the Scrappy Susannah block using just navy prints and maybe a yellow or mint in the center.  So these are the navy prints all cut to size and stacked.  Any input on what color I should use in the block centers?  I'm still trying to decide!

Next up is this fun stack which will be used to test the throw size of one of my upcoming patterns.  I’ve made a table topper size and loved it, but I’m still playing with the size of the sashing and posts. 

I’ve had this stack of Art Gallery prints for about a year now and I’m suddenly itching to put them to good use.  I’m considering using them in a quilt from Amy Smart’s book, Fabulously Fast Quilts. 

And this is the one I’m most excited about!  My friend Amber recently released this Cross Stitch pattern and I’ll be making it with these Story Book Classics prints.  You can find a PDF version of the Cross Stitch pattern here, and a paper version here.

Anyone want to place bets on how many of these I can get done in 3.5 days?