A Little Tutorial Help

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.   Guess what came in the mail the other day . . .   My market badge.  Yippee!!!  I am so excited.  I can't believe Barbara and I will be on a plane in 2 weeks and on our way.  So fun!!!

I have been working on some market projects for wonderful friends and just about have them wrapped up so it is time to turn to a little market project for myself.  Remember how my sweetheart got me a DSLR camera for Christmas??  Well, I think it needs a little strap makeover before I take it to market, cause lets face it, the black one is boring!!  And it scratches my neck as well and that is no good.

So I am wondering . . . Have any of you ever made a strap cover??  Did you maybe use a  tutorial that is super and you might want to share the link, you know save a friend a little surfing time??

 Thanks in advance and have a Happy Quilting Day :)

Not Quite Morning

I said I was going to pick a winner for The Quilter's Applique Workshop Book Giveaway on Tuesday morning.  Well, Morning has pretty much come and gone around here.  Sorry, I was actually cleaning my house and time got away from me.   But you all don't mind a little later announcement, right :)

So, let's not wait any longer . . . The winner of The Quilter's Applique Workshop by Kevin Kosbab is 

.#124

   

Who just happens to be . . . . Kristy

Congrats Kristy!!!  I will be emailing you soon!!

And if you didn't win today, stay tuned.  I have a some special plans for Mother's Days and there will be lots of giveaways.  More on that on Thursday :)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Making a Flock Over the Weekend

Remember that lovely stack of beautiful yellow fabrics I showed last week . . .  Well I spent the weekend using my favorite No-Waste Flying Geese technique to turn that stack into quite the flock of Mellow Yellow Geese.   Aren't they just so great! I love flying geese, and flying geese in stacks, fantastic!!

Now I just have to turn the flock into a quilt top.  This is going to be fun!!!

Back to ABC's :)

Yesterday I finally pulled back out my ABC Blocks after setting them aside for a little market sewing.  I love making these blocks.  They are so fun and easy and provide instant gratification.  I was able to sew up E and F, two awfully easy letters to make as there are no angles ;)

I actually finished them up so fast I decided to work on a little off shoot project I had been thinking about.  Ever since I made this block, I have been thinking how fun it would be to make a Crazy Patch letter.   So I grabbed some green scarps and started slashing and sewing.  Before long,  I had an adorable Crazy Patch A.   Yippee Skippee!!!  I plan to quilt this up and make it a cute mini for a special friend.  Any suggestions on the quilting??

Oh, and another quick question, would any of you like a tutorial on how I do this crazy patching??  It is a little bit of a anything goes kind of method of piecing, but I can share some of the ways I go at it.  Would that be helpful??

Linking up these fun finished letters to Sarah's, Amanda's, and Fort Worth Fabric Studio

The Quilter's Applique Workshop & Giveaway

I was super excited the other day when I received a copy of The Quilter's Applique Workshop by Kevin Kosbab from Interweave.  It is no secret that I love applique and use it a lot of my projects.  It was so nice to be able to take this on our little family vacation and have some time to go through it.

And can I just say, I am loving it!!!  Kevin Kosbab does such an amazing job with the technical writting, explaining each and every little detail with fabulous illustrations.  There is no way you can get lost and  I learned so much!! The book is broken down into an applique basics section followed by sections on raw-edge, prepared-edge, and needle-turn applique.  I spent a lot of time reading in prepared-edge and needle-turn as I tend to stick mostly to raw-edge applique.

And of course, I couldn't get through the book without adding a few more "to do's" to the list.   First off, these fantastic All Seasons Pillows from the needle-turn section.  They are so stinking cute and of course, some hand sewing practice would be vastly helpful to me, you know, the non-hand binding gal.

And then from the prepared-edge section this stunning counterbalance quilt.  I think this is calling to be a new master bedspread.  And I am so excited to try out some prepared-edge applique, I have never done that but Kevin's instructions seem to make it seem like a piece of cake.  Here is hoping ;)

To see more fabulous reviews of this book, check out the official Book Tour.  You can find all of the links at Kevin's blog here ;)  

Not only was I happy to be able to review this fabulous book but Interweave has graciously offered to giveaway a copy of The Quilters Applique Workshop to one of my readers.  Want to win this fabulous book??  Of course you do.   

To enter for a chance to win simply leave a comment of your take on applique.   It can be as simple as "love it", "never tried it", "excited to learn", or you can share some of your applique experiences.  Whatever you like as long as it is about applique ;)  

The giveaway will be open until Monday the 28th and I will announce a winner on Tuesday morning.  Good Luck and have a Happy Quilting Day ;)  

Project Linus Opportunity

Fave Quilts is teaming up with Leisure Arts to help the children of Project Linus.  I know lots of you make so many amazing quilts for Project Linus.  It is incredible.  If you don't know about Project Linus or have been thinking about doing a Project Linus charity quilt this would be a great time to join in the giving.  There will even be prizes opportunities for those who donate a blanket.  To see all the details go Here ;)

I am sending in my Playing The Scales quilt.  It is one of my tutorials that is featured at Fave Quilts ;)  

I like to think of it being wrapped around a special little child.  I never cease to be amazed of how much love can be put into a quilt and how much love it receives in return.  I am so happy to be part of such an amazing community that uses their skill to give back :)

Mellow Yellow

Well, I am all unpacked, laundry is done, and it is time to get to my sewing room.  And just in time, this lovely bundle arrived from Art Gallery Fabrics yesterday afternoon ;)

I am doing a little Market sewing today.  Yippee!!!  Don't you just love Yellow.  It is so Happy to sew with ;)

Fabric Collections are from top to bottom are:
Minimilista
Meadow
Chromatics
Tule
Pure Elements
Chromatics
Oval Elements
Sweet as Honey

Our Spring Break!!

This weekend was Spring Break and we spent it in San Diego, California!!!  We had a wonderful time except for the 30 minutes I posted about yesterday ;)  Thank you so much for all of your kind thoughts and comment from yesterday.  I started to respond to them individually and quickly found myself in tears.  So I read through them all, had a wonderful therapeutic cry and am now writting thank you  here.  You ll are the best!!    But now I am getting off topic again.  Let's get back to the fun!!!

We spent 2 days at the beach enjoying the sun, sand, and waves.

My kids are beach babies.  They could stay here forever ;)

The family that plays together, stays together ;)

On Friday we went to Lego Land!!   The kids had a blast!!!  Mini Land was my favorite.  So cool!!

Dad and the older three loved all of the roller coasters!!  

And Kami had fun on rides a little more her size ;)

And this one and I just strolled around the park.  She did amazing, and I think enjoys people watching as much as her mom does ;)

And we finished the day off with the Aquarium.  So cool!!! No surprise that these little fishes loved seeing all the fishes ;)

 While in San Diego we also visited the Mormon Battilion Visitor's Center and San Diego Temple.  My twin sister served her LDS mission here a few years back so it was exciting to go see where she was ;)

The kids especially loved getting to dress up like the Battalion ;)

 And the San Diego temple is just stunning.

All in all, an amazing family vacation.  Here is hoping we can go back some day :)

Our Families Easter Miracle

I hope you don't mind If I get a little personal this morning and share our experience from yesterday.  It just seems so appropriate on this Easter morning.  Yesterday, while playing at the beach in San Diego for Spring Break we lost Kamryn, our sweet 5 year old.  It was a look away for 30 seconds and she was gone.   She was lost for just over 30 minutes and those were the worst 30 minutes of my life.

She was found way down the beach looking for us by the San Diego Life Guards.   I can not begin to express my thanks that she was returned to us with no harm.  I am so grateful to the San Diego Police Department and Life Guards for their diligent efforts to find her.  I was so incredibly touched by how many wonderful people saw our distress and stopped their vacation and began scouring the beach with us.  There are still so many wonderful people in this world.  I thank each and every one of them!!

Last night, when Kami said her prayers she thanked Jesus for helping her find her family.  I know that He was with her while she was lost and that he was watching over her and keeping her safe.  I am eternally grateful for that.   I know that His love was with us while we searched for her, keeping us calm and giving us hope. He is Hope!! Whatever your Religion or Belief, I hope that you have a Wonderful Easter Day spent with those you Love and that it will be filled with the Hope and Peace of Jesus.

Sewing Over Pins

Okay, I write in my tutorials all the time that you shouldn't sew over pins.  When I teach classes I tell my students not to sew over pins.  But I admit it, I sew over pins. Not all the time, but I do it.    I am one of those "do as I say not as a I do" kind of gal when it comes to sewing over pins.  And then this happens.

The pin was so lodged in there so tight I had to get a pair of plyers to get it out.  I am lucky I didn't break anything in my bobbin casing.  So ya, maybe I should do as I say as well ;)

Just thought I would keep it real this morning.  So how about you???  Do you Sew Over Pins???  Any of these type of experiences to share . . . Come on, tell us all, no judging here as obviously, I am the kettle :)

Cleaning Up

I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon and evening cleaning up my Sewing Room.  Things had gotten a little out of control in there :)  I figured I best take a picture of it looking all nice and organized because I am pretty sure it won't stay this way for to long ;)

Yes, I know I should have shot a before picture, but I "conveniently forgot".

Most of my time was spent rearranging the fabric.  I had to do a lot of refolding and then I switched things around a bit to make it a little more convenient to get to.  I am so happy with how it turned out ;)   (Sorry about the flash reflection, the joys of sewing in the basement with no windows ;)

Now I just want to get in here and start sewing but it will have to wait because today starts Spring Break!!!  It's going to be a bit crazy but I am sure it will be fun ;)

Happy Tax Day

Yes Indeed, for all of us here in the US, today is Tax Day.  We used to do our own taxes but I am happy to say that we now take some stress out of our lives and use a fantastic tax accountant.  And I had to smile this year when we got our taxes back and this is what was listed under Spouses Occupation.

Guess that makes it pretty official :)

Have a Happy Tax/Quilting Day!!!

High School Fun

So remember when I posted about how I was doing a little Quilt show for the local High School sewing class and how I promised to share pictures.  Well, I forgot, sorry, it has been a bit crazy around here.  But I remembered this morning so we are all good now :)

The class was so incredibly fun to teach.  The girls where just blown away when I showed them some examples of more Modern and Modern Traditional quilting. They loved all of the bright new fabrics and fun chic designs.  It really was so incredibly fun to open their eyes to all of the possibilities there are in quilting today ;)

When we got to the breakout design session of the class, the girls really started to get into the fun.  I gave them all a stack of HST's and told them to create ;)

They created some ever popular designs and quite a few of my favorite designs . . .

And created some fun new innovative designs . . .

And in the end, even broke out of the idea of a square and really got the design groove going.  How fun would a quilt of just lines made by bright HST's be.  Totally on my list to make ;)

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful experience!!   I can't wait to do it again ;)

Back To Basics - Quilt Pattern!!!

So after this quilt won 3rd place in the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge I promised several of you that a pattern would be coming soon.  And yes, that was clear back in February.  Hopefully some of you still count 2 months as "soon".   But Yippee anyways, because today I get to share my 12th pattern, Back to Basics!!!!  It is available at both my Craftsy and Etsy shops and once again, I listed it on sale since it is all kinds of brand new and I am just so happy about it :)

I just love the way the geometric boldness of the design creates an almost random look but that at a closer glance, you see all kinds of secondary patterns start to emerge.  So fun!!

The fabric are basics from the Riley Blake Designs gal.  I love how the basic collections really add to the basic geometric design.  They were the perfect compliment.  

And a bit about the pattern.  It is suitable for beginners and up.  And it includes some of the basic piecing units so you gets lots of practice with that.  Even though it looks a little complex, the blocks are rather simple and go together really fast.

And yes, there are size options!!!!  And I went ahead and sized up the block as the quilt got larger so you wouldn't have to make a million little blocks for the queen size :)   You can make a bitty baby, like I did, or a Lap, Twin, or Queen size.  I so want to make a queen size now for my bed :)

And just a quick note on the quilting.  I did a giant spiral, which is such a fun way to quilt. It just plays so nice with all of that geometric goodness ;)  I did a Quilting Video Tutorial on how to do a Giant Spiral and you can find it here if you are interested ;)  

 I have loved this design from the initial drawing on a napkin and I am so excited to know have it in my pattern line.  I hope you enjoy it as well :)

Alright, I will wrap it up now.  Here is one more link to the pattern.   I have listed them on sale for $5.00.  They will be $5.00 until next weekend (or when I remember to change the listing) and then be listed for the original price of $8.50.   They can be found in my Craftsy Shop as well as my Etsy Shop.


Have a Happy Quilting Weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by :)  You all are the best readers and make what I do so very much fun :)

Linking this finish  to Amanda's and Sarah's and Fort Worth Fabric Studio

Winner and Some GO HST :)

Today is the day :)  One lucky Reader is going to win this super adorable Storybook Fat Quarter Bundle!!!  Thank You to Green Fairy Quilts for their sponsorship of this fantastic giveaway :)

And the lucky reader is . . . .  # 5,   Congrats Karen!!!!  I have sent you an email :)

And in other news, I got my HST triangle groove on yesterday :)  I have never sewn HST's that were cut with a Go.  The sewing part is going a little bit slower but I know I am going to love it when I get to the no need for trimming part :)

These fabrics are Amy Ellis's first fabric line Modern Neutrals for Moda.  I was super lucky to be asked to do her a little market sewing so I get to play with these lovelies.  So fun!!!

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!