My first sewn clothing!

I've been sewing for about 20 years now, and pretty much all of it has been quilting.  I really don't think I've ever made a piece of clothing (I have made a few purses).  I picked up the most recent issue of Stitch, and I just fell in love with the Ruffled Halter top from Oliver + S.  I knew I had to make it for my niece, who will turn 1 in about two weeks.  I was also reorganizing my fabric yesterday, and came across Meadowsweet.  So I jumped in and made this:

It's super girly, I know!  I feel like I can't do it justice until she's wearing it.  I hope she (and my sister) likes it!

Paintbox Quilt finally finished!

I started quilting this baby last weekend, but I ran out of thread, at around the same time that I also realized I had gone ahead and used the binding fabric for something else! So I had to wait on getting more thread and more fabric for binding. I got home from Texas (work trip again) to find my packages waiting for me. I got to work and finished the quilting and the binding!

My DH was kind enough to hold up the quilt for me to get a picture.

Here are some detail shots of the quilting--it's just stippling, because I was lazy.

Thanks to Elizabeth for hosting the quilt-a-long! I had a lot of fun with this one.  I definitely had the moments when I thought I hated it, but now I love it again.

And for Jacquie's Spring To Finish Challenge, this is my last one! I made all my goals.  I am super happy about that.

Finished!!! Here is the link to my post with my original goals.  

What next? I feel like I have so much free time....ha!

Giveaway day was good to me!

Giveaway was great! I won a giveaway from Katie.  I didn't even go to that many sites--I had a pretty tough week for work (lots of flight delays to and from Baton Rouge) so it sort of made up for my week.  I got the package yesterday. Thanks Katie!

It's a bunch of charm squares of Hope Valley, and a honey bun of Wonderland by MoMo. Not sure what to do with them yet, but super fun to look at!

And the winner is...

Number 124! Nadescha, from Hungary! I'll have to figure out the customs forms and everything, but I'll be sending you an email shortly for your address.

Thanks everyone for playing along!  

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Whew! It's been a busy week in quilting/crafting blogland! There was no way I could get through all the giveaways for Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day.  I did what I could!

Now you're probably here for the Blogger's Quilt Festival! A big thanks to Amy for organizing, as I really do love it!



Here's my entry (which my followers have already seen):


The pattern is called "Out of Line" and it is from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  I had a lot of fun with it.  Those strips are really small though--some have a finished size of .50"

Here's a detail shot:


You can see the black ones are the thinnest strips.

And here is the pieced back:


The turquoise is "Proud" from Keri Byer, and the red is Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley.

The quilt was a barter with my friend Peter. He is an artist and traded us one his paintings for a quilt.  I really love the painting, so I'd say it was a fair trade!

Enjoy the rest of the festival!

Giveaway Day!

Today is Giveaway Day at Sew Mama Sew!  Today I've decided I didn't have time to make anything, so I am giving away fabric! Who doesn't love more fabric?

I went with a little Asian-themed fabric.  Each is about a fat quarter, except for the black, which is a full half yard.  Also, each of the fabrics has some gold in it, which makes the whole thing a little bit shiny! I really love the white flowers--the outlining is in gold and it is super beautiful.

Everything is pre-washed.  To win, just leave a comment telling me what you are working on in your crafty life.  I'll draw a number at random (using Random.org) on May 20th at 9pm CDT (approximately).

ICE at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild

YAY! Today is our monthly meeting at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  We have a color workshop by Ebony, and the beginning of our ICE challenge.  I think it stands for "Inspiration Challenge Event" so it probably doesn't need the "Challenge" at the end.  That's me and my redundancy meter going off!

So the idea with the ICE is that we make a block with four fat quarters.  We include the block and the leftover fabric in a bag.  At the meeting, anyone who brings a back gets to take a bag home (from another person).  Then in July we bring back the mini quilt we made with the block and the extra fabric.  I'm excited to see what people come up with!

Here is the block I made.  I used the tutorial at Modify Tradition.  Of course, I didn't follow directions and cut my blocks too small--so I ended up cutting all the blocks to fit.  It seems ok now but those triangles are going to get lopped off.  Oh well-I am not trying to win any prizes here.  Speaking of prizes....come back tomorrow for Giveaway Day!

Why I don't mind traveling for work all the time

This has been a big travel month at work.  This week I was in New York, next week I'll be in Baton Rouge, and the following week in Arlington, Texas.  Certainly I have to deal with all sorts of travel delays, airport food, etc.  But there are a few perks (besides the frequent flier miles).  I get to visit my friends in other cities who I probably wouldn't see as often.  And sometimes, I get to stop by an awesome fabric shop.  I've always drooled over the fabric at PurlSoho.  They just moved to a new space, and I got to check it out.  It is gorgeous--very light and spacious.  And the fabric was so lovely!  I held back, and only came home with this:

The blue on the bottom is Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks Voile.  The teal dots and the purple print are Echino, and I am not sure what the little fat quarters are--I think the purple is a shot cotton, because it's got a cross-weave of another color.  No plan for them all, they just looked too yummy to pass up!

Can you believe it?

Because I hardly can.  I finished the disaster quilt.

This quilt has been haunting my UFO pile for a long time.  It gets its name from the fact that it used to be a disaster.  I think I started and pieced it sometime in 2007.  It's from a book by M'Liss Rae Hawley about fat quarter quilts. I can't remember the name of the pattern, and I am away from home right now--I'll have to update later.  Anyway, for anyone who has done quilts with LONG pieces like this one, you know that you need to cut them just right (and not WOF).  Once you are ready to sew all the rows together, I paired them up, then paired up the pairs, and so on.  This would all be fine, but I sewed them all from top to bottom.  This means that when I finished, there was a weird curve to the entire quilt.  You can't just trim an end to fix it either.  I got super discouraged and put it away for awhile, thinking that I would just cut up the whole thing and re-piece it into something different. Instead, I came back to it in the fall of 2009 and took it all apart. I measured each column and made sure they were all the same size. Then I sewed them back together, this time alternating the direction of sewing, which stabilizes the whole thing. I was much happier with it this time.  But I still didn't quilt it.  So I finally found some fabric in my stash that is a sort of shiny red fabric (I think it may have some sort of taffeta in it?).  I quilted it with soft zig zags down the long striped sections, and then just straight lines to frame it.

I actually really like this quilt now!!!!

The quilting really makes it much more interesting. Anyone got better names for it than the disaster quilt? Because I think it might stick around for awhile.

And that makes four of six items off my list for the Spring to Finish Challenge! Woo hoo!

Hip 2 Bee Square May

I got fabric from Kerry and immediately went to work! She asked for wonky log cabins.  I made two--she gave us so much fabric I still had a bunch left over.

I really enjoyed the fabrics she sent, as they were super fun!

I realize that they are not super wonky, but I tried cutting without a ruler, as well as wonking things up a bit.  They certainly are colorful!

Hip 2 Bee Square April

A little late, but I sent off Stacey's blocks today.

She asked for wonky stars, or houses, or trees. I went with houses and trees.

I hope she likes them! They are for the baby she is expecting (her first).