Monday, September 23, 2013

By the numbers 2, 10, 25, and 40

Today's post is a little of this and that all brought to you by the numbers 2, 10, 25, and 40 :)

Yesterday was a special day for our sweet little girl ;)  No more babies in our house, she practiced telling everyone that she was 2!!  So now she has decided she is a Big Girl.


She seems pretty happy to be growing up.  Or maybe it is just the cake :)


October is the 10th month in the year and my month for the Bees Knees group.  So today, I plan to slice up this Fat Eighth bundle of Blitzen by Basicgrey and package it all up to hopefully go in the mail tomorrow.  I can't wait to have another quilt for the 25th!!!!  I love Christmas Quilts!!  More on the plan tomorrow ;)


And lastly, I totally forgot to pick a winner on Saturday for these 40 fantastic Soho jelly roll strips!!  Sorry about that.  So let's pick  a winner now :)
The winner is . . .    So fun #1 . . . . Cynthia Brunz Design.  Congrats Cynthia, I sent you an email ;)



Well that just about wraps all of our numbers up for today ;)  See ya tomorrow and have a Happy Quilting Day!!!


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Friday, September 20, 2013

In Your Neighborhood - A New Quilt

Okay, I know I always say my newest quilt is my new favorite, but this one really, really, really is.  I am just so thrilled to share this new quilt with you today.  The design was inspired by a lamp I saw in home good store a while back.  It took a little while to get the design to play nice, but I stuck to it and I am so glad I did.  So , here it is . . . In Your Neighborhood, my newest pattern!!   It is available at  my  Etsy shop and once again, I listed it on sale since it is all kinds of brand new and I am just so happy about it :)


Oh my, I just can't say how thrilled I am about this finish.  It is just so fun to see a simple little concept take shape into a beautiful quilt.  I love the big blocks and all of the movement they create!!  It really just grabs your attention ;)


The fabric is Road 15 by Sweetwater by Moda.  I just love this fabric, and it has a special little treat for me as well.  When the gals at Sweetwater were designing it they asked for people to submit their street address to add into the design.  And yup, my street address is printed in the texty fabric.  So fun!!!

And a bit about the pattern.  It is suitable for beginners and up.  It really is pretty easy to piece as there are not a whole lot of seams to worry about matching up.  Love that about a floating layout ;)


And yes, there are size options !!!!  In Your Neighborhood has options for a Baby, Picnic, and  Queen.  The quilt I made is the Picnic size :)  


And I am so excited to share some of the quilting detail ;)  I quilted this on the long-arm and I tried out some new things and they turned out so great.  So happy!!  

In all of the print squares, I did a echo repeat rectangle pattern moving inward.  And yup, I used a ruler for the first time on the long-arm.  It was so wonderful.  It really helps to have the right tools for the job. I just love how nice and straight they are and the little diamond effect it creates ;)


In the background, I used a super fun "tile" quilting pattern that I learned from Angela Walter's Machine Quilting Negative Space  Craftsy class.  It worked perfectly with the pattern as it added to the feel of the "neighborhoods".  And more importantly, it was so much fun to quilt!


And lastly, in the "roads"  or at least that's what they seem like to me, I did a little back and forth wiggle.  These were a little harder then they looked for me.  It was difficult to keep my wiggles the same distance apart and the corners were a little tricky.  But they got better the more I practiced :)

  
All in all, super happy with the overall effect the quilting added to the quilt.  It really just finished it off perfectly :)  And now, I get to take this fun quilt and run it down to my LQS, Stiching it Up, as I will be teaching a class on it in October ;)  I also get to teach this quilt to another class at Quilt St. George in January.  I can't wait!!!


  I hope you like In Your Neighborhood.   I get a huge grin every time I walk past it on the table.  It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful it is to see an idea translated into a quilt.  I just love the process!!

And speaking of the process,  Jennifer Overstreet of Gable House & Co. did a wonderful little interview with me on being a pattern designer and it posted this morning.  You can find it here :)

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 Etsy Shop.




Have a Happy Quilting Weekend.  I know I plan to ;)

Linking this  finish  to Amanda's and Sarah's
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Thursday, September 19, 2013

A Visit From Christa :)

I had the loveliest visit from this afternoon.  Christa, from Christa Quilts stopped by on her way to the sewing summit.   And oh my, what fun we have had for the last 2 1/2 hours!!!


We started with a tour of the house to show her all of the quilts that are piled on all the beds and corners of rooms ;)  And of course, my little one was just so excited to show Christa everything in her room :)  


And then we ventured down to my sewing room where we couldn't help but get a little silly with some picture taking of picture taking ;)  Good Times :)


After the "tour" we sat and chatted about all things quilting for 2 hours.  I feel so inspired, invigorated, and just happy!!  There is nothing quite like getting to chat with someone who shares your passion.   It really is so incredibly enjoyable.  Thanks again Christa for taking the time to stop by :)

And now that I have enjoyed my afternoon, it's time to start some laundry :)

Until next time, Happy Quilting!!

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Jelly Roll Jam & Giveaway

I am so excited to get to share these two little finishes from about a month ago.  These quilts are super simple and can be made with half a jelly roll each, so 2 quilts from 1 little jelly roll!!  The jelly roll I used is Soho Chic and I just love it.  I just love the combination of those deep purples with the blues and greens, it's so bold and so calming at the same time :)


And if you haven't seen them already around blogland yesterday (I had to miss the hop because of the Quilt-A-Long Parade) , these were made as part of the Fat Quarter shops kick off to Shortcut Quilts.  This is a whole new little ditty the Fat Quarter shop is starting where you can get this pattern as a free download on their website.



And as an added bonus, they also have made a 20 minute video tutorial on how to put the entire quilt together, start to finish.  It is fantastic!!



These quilts were so much fun to make.  They really do go together in an afternoon and turn out oh so adorable!!  They are perfect for a "go to" baby quilt when you are in a time crunch :)


I quilted mine with an all over swirl pattern.  I just love the motion it adds to the quilts ;)  And yes, I do still have it on my list to do a video tutorial of this :)  I promise I won't forget ;)



The Fat Quarter Shop  has graciously offered a Soho Chic Jelly Roll  for me to give away to one lucky reader.  Just leave a comment below telling me what you love about Jelly Rolls :)  I will choose a winner on Saturday :)
And if Soho Chic isn't your favorite, no worries.  To celebrate the release of Jelly Roll Jam, The Fat Quarter Shop has their entire stock of Jelly Rolls marked 20% off until September 20  Trust me, that is a lot of Jelly Rolls to choose from :)  Happy Shopping!!!

Linking to Quilt Story :)
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Monday, September 16, 2013

Star Surround QAL Parade and Grand Prizes!!!

**Note - If you are looking for the Jelly Roll Jam posts, I promise to have it up tomorrow, but today was all about the QAL parade :)

I am just so excited!!!  What an amazing Quilt-A-Long this has been and now we have reached the big finale :)  I would like to say Thank You to all of you who quilted-a-long with me.  It was so much fun to read about you trying new techniques, learning a new little quilty pointer, participating in your first ever quilt-a-long, and for a few of your, finishing your first ever quilt top!!!  Just fantastic!!  I loved seeing each of your individual creativity weave its way into this pattern and now you all have a beautiful finishes to show for all of your hard work.  And that is something to smile about :) 


And speaking of finishes . . . Did you happen to see how many there are.   98, yes that was 98!!!!!  (if we count mine, that is 99 and that is just a cool number :)    I am just excited beyond words at that.  This quilt-a-long actually grew from week to week with new friends joining in the fun and the original friends keeping up.   Just amazing!!!  You all are the greatest to Quilt-A-Long with!!!  To see these 98 quilt tops just pop on over here and check out the links at the bottom of the post.  They are amazing!!!     And if you want to see everyone's progress along the way, you can check out the  Happy Quilt-A-Long Flickr Group.  It was so much fun to watch these all come together :)

One more thing before we get to the parade, if you are just popping over and finding the Star Surround Quilt-A-Long for the first time, or just want an easy reference for the future, you can find all of the Tutorial Posts for the Star Surround Quilt-A-Long at any time under the Quilt-A-Long tab at the top of my blog.  You can also reference the following links here :)

Teaser Post
Schedule, Fabric Requirements, and Prizes
 Cutting
 Half Square Triangles
Flying Geese
Building Block Centers
Building Block Surround
Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky
Parade and Grand Prizes - You are Here :)


Alright, Let's get to the Parade!!!!  I am so excited with how many of you got your projects quilted and bound in time for the parade.  No work in progress for these ladies, their projects are ready to be loved!! And they come from are from all over the world!!  Yup, we have 6 countries represented.  Ireland, Italy, Greece, 2 from Australia, 5 from Canada, and 23 from 17 different states here in the US.  That makes a total of 33 finishes, Yippee Skippee!!!   So here they are, you can click on the picture or the name to go to that persons individual link site and see more about their project :) 

Abby from Michigan 







































Aren't they just stunning!!   Each one just ready to be loved!!!  Enjoy your beautiful Star Surround finishes ladies, and thank you so much for sharing them with all of us!!  

We have one item of business left . . . we need to pick some winners!!!  

A huge Thank You goes out to Julie at The Intrepid Thread  and Kimberly at Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring our Grand Prize Giveaway's!!!  All 98 of you that have linked up your quilt top are eligible for the grand prize!!  There will be four grand prize winners, and each will receive a $75.00 gift certificate to one of the shops below to have a little shopping spree with.  So fun!!! 


  


So, lets get to it!!   Good Luck Everyone!!!  Drumroll Please . . . . . . .

***The First Grand Prize Winner who will receive a $75.00 Gift Certificate to The Intrepid Thread is . . .

     


***The Second Grand Prize Winner who will receive a $75.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop is . . .




***The Third Grand Prize Winner who will receive a $75.00 Gift Certificate to The Intrepid Thread is . . .




***The Fourth Grand Prize Winner who will receive a $75.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop is . . .

  


Congrats Ladies!!!   I will be emailing you :)  Enjoy your shopping spree!!

Let me sign off with one last thank you to all of you who participated in the Star Surround Quilt-A-Long!!!  I am so excited to have so many wonderful friends to quilt-a-long with me!!  I had a wonderful time hosting and  I hope you had a wonderful time quilting-along!!!

Now to start thinking up a new Quilt-A-Long :)  Until next time . . . Happy Quilting!!!


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