October is Full of Hops

It's time to mark your calendars!!!  October is going to be full of lots of great stuff!!!  And I am so excited!!!

First up . . .  The Moda Bake Shop is doing a Celebrations Blog Hop to Celebrate the release of Sweet Celebrations!!!  (Wow, 3 celebrate in 1 sentence, impressive :)  It kicks off on October 1st and it hops over here on October 2nd.  There will be lots of chances to win copies of the book as well as awesome Moda Pre-Cuts.  You can click here for more details and the full blog hop schedule :)

Next, Natalia Bonner will be doing a Blog Tour to celebrate the release of her new book Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting.  I am so excited to be a part of this tour.  I have looked over a copy of this book and it is incredible, perfect for all those dabbling in the world of free motion quilting!!  This tour starts on October 5th over at Piece N Quilt, Natalia's Blog, and will be hopping over here on October 7th :)  And yup, you will have a chance to win this incredible book!

Lastly, I get to be a part of the Glorious Autumn Block Party.  Have you been following along??  I will be posting my Autumn block tutorial on October 18th.  It's gonna be so cute :)

And then it will be off to Market!!!  And to say I am excited for Market would be a vast understatement.  I just found out that I will get to be part of a book signing at the Moda Bake Shop as part of the Sweet Celebrations book release!!  Squeal.  Totally excited!!!

TNT Thursday - Row Markers

Back in January I won these fun little row markers at a quilting conference.  I set them in the drawer and kept meaning to use them but always remembered I had them right after I finished sewing my rows together.  (And there are several times they would have been helpful.)  So the other day I cut out all of these crazy different size pieces.  I went to start piecing and realized that it was a bit of a pain to figure out which pile was what size.  And then I remember my row markers :)  And guess what, they work perfect as pile markers too!!!  Yippee Skippe!!  So not only did I try out my row markers I tried using them in a different way.  Bonus!!

What did you try out new this week??  Link on up :)

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Following the Bouncing Ball

I am currently working on 4 quilts.  And when I say working on 4, I mean I have sewn on all 4 in the last day.  It's kind of like following that bouncing ball that helped you read only you are bouncing from quilt to quilt.  So, why am I bouncing so crazy like??  Well basically because all of these quilts need to be done at about the same time, which is of course, ASAP!!  (although, even though it is a little crazy, I do like the variety :)

The first 2 are my Braided Irish Chain examples for the class I am teaching in January.  I didn't think I needed them until Jan. so they have been on the back burner.  But I got a a little notice requesting them to be in a quilt show to generate buzz for the retreat / class and so now my deadline has been moved way up :)  Like as in I scheduled to rent some time on a long arm on the 11th of next month to quilt them :)

So obviously, they are being moved to the front burner :)  Notice how my pin box is totally empty sans 1 pin.  That's because last night I pinned all of my seams on this huge stack of piecing. Nothing like a little pinning to unwind while watching old reruns.  This is becoming the norm around our house.  The kids go to bed, and we watch old reruns while he surfs around all the sports from the day and I either blog or do some pinning or ironing.  Time spent together, even if we are each doing our own thing :)

Next, is my little Indie project.  I finished piecing the back together yesterday and now it is waiting to be basted  and quilted.  Just a little sneak peak before the full reveal next week :)

And lastly, I am playing with some Mama Said Sew.  This project is turning out to be so much fun!!!  I am loving piecing it and keep working on a block or 2 in-between things because it just makes me happy :)

And lastly, the rundown.  I am not "working" on all of these, but they will be next up to bounce between as soon as these 4 are finished :)

Designing Stage

• Circle Meets Square Quilt
• Turnovers Quilt
• Modern Squares Quilt
• Baby Blocks Quilt

Piecing Stage

• Jessi and Me Quilt 
• WIC with MSS Quilt
• Braided Irish Chain - Queen and King 

Quilting Stage

• Solids Quilt for Free Motion
• Tetris Quilt-A-Long
• Indie Quilt

Completed Stage

• Sew Bee Create Quilt  - Spinning or Spiraling
• Ashlyn's Quilt - Dreaming of Paris
• Fab Little Quilt Swap Mini

Sheets for Backs??

First off, thank you to everyone who left wonderful insightful comments on my post from yesterday on whether to change my header or not.  You sure know how to help a girl out.  For the moment, I will be sticking to plain and clean.  Because like so many of you pointed out, when it comes down to it, that is what I like, and for the moment, that is what I like :)

So what do you do when you get to the back of your quilt??

My backs are usually decided by what type of fabric I have on hand.  If I have large scraps left over then I normally do a pieced back with all sorts of fun random piecing.  I do this because I like to use up those prints.    If I have just a little bit of scraps leftover, I usually do a fabric WOF back with maybe a strip of the leftover scraps in it, if I am feeling up to it.  (Although, mostly I do this if my quilt is over 80" and I just need a few more inches to baste it, this happens mostly in twin size quilts :)  And my little baby blankets are almost always just a piece of fabric that is a yard and a half making a 44" square, mostly because it's easy.

Here is the pieced back I put together this afternoon.  It falls into that large scraps left over category so it got turned into what I think is a pretty fun pieced back.  (These prints are from Pat Bravo's Indie collection and there's a quilt underneath the back that I will be sharing soon, yup, tutorial coming your way :)

But when I am finished this quilt, I am then moving onto finishing my King Size and Queen Size Braided Irish Chain quilts.  I didn't order backing fabric for them at the time I bought the fabric for the front.  And the last few days I have been thinking about what I wanted to do for the back.   And I admit, the thought of piecing those huge backings made me cringe a little.

So this morning, when I got my little Daily Steals email and they had King Size Sheet sets on for $15.00 (screaming deal) I had a little light bulb moment.  I thought to myself, the last time I was down at the little long arm shop, I saw 2 ladies who had used sheets as backing.  And then I thought some more and realized lots of quilters use vintage sheets for backing.  So I went for it. (It was one of those timed deals so it's not like I could dwell on it for days.)   I bought 2 sets and am planning on using the straight sheet for backings.  And I suppose I will have some extra pillow cases.   (The deal lasts for about another 6 hours if you want to grab some for yourself :)

So here is my question for you today???  Have you ever used a sheet for a quilt back??  If so, do you have any pointers for me??  Any help would be appreciated as this is totally new to me :)

Changing the Header???

So I have noticed lately that a lot of the fabulous blogs I follow have been changing their header's to add pictures of some of their favorite projects.  It's becoming quite a trend!!  So I am wondering, should I jump on??  What do you think???  Do you like the header clean and crisp or would you like to see a few photo's with it.

OR

(Of course, I would make this second one look a little nicer.  This is just to give the idea as I didn't want to throw a whole lot of time into it if you prefer the first :)

So, basically I can't decide, I love the nice clean look, but I worry that it doesn't show a whole lot about what this place is about.  Then again, I have a hard time deciding on "Favorite's" as about everything I make is my new favorite, and I don't want to be editing the header every other month.  So basically I am just going back and forth :)   So what do you think??  Throw out your opinion and help a girl out :)

Love It, Pin It, Win It! with the Moda Bake Shop

Alright, for all of you Pinterest lovers out there, The Moda Bake Shop has cooked up a special little contest!!!  It's called

And here's how you play!!!

LOVE IT
Browse through the Moda Bake Shop recipes and choose your favorites.  (I can't believe in browsing through just how many MBS tutorials I have made over the past 2 years, kind of like a little trip down memory lane :)

PIN IT
Pin and re-pin photos of your favorite recipes on Pinterest with the tags #modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin. Be sure your pin is linked to the recipe itself, and not the MBS home page. You can enter as many times as you like, but the winning pin must have the three tags {#modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin}.

To see how to do this you can visit my Love It, Pin It, Win It board here.  And if you like a few of those tutorials you can simply repin them, tags already done,  easy as pie :) 

WIN IT

Six random winners will be chosen from the tagged photos. The grand prize is a set of the ingredients to make your favorite recipe (fabric will be from what is currently available).

And

You can also write up a blog post explaining why you've chosen your favorite recipe and link it up here. Five winners will be chosen from the linky party to win current Moda pre-cuts.  (perfect for those that want to participate by might not be "pinners") 

The contest runs from September 14-22 (closes at midnight CST).

*Caution - some photos on the MBS can't be pinned due to the Chefs' copyright settings. Just choose another!


And since no post is complete without a picture, I thought it would be fun to make up a little mosaic of my MBS tutorials.  You can find all of these recipes here, at the Moda Bake Shop.  Now go get pinning!!!

Crocheting

So here's the deal,  I am not a big fan of hand stitching.  In fact I pretty much detest it.  So much so that whenever I have to hand tack down a binding for a quilt to be published I ask my Mother In Law to do it for me.  (Yes, I just admitted that, and yes, I have the most amazing Mother In Law!!)  But I am torn because I love seeing on everyone's blog that they have a little hand project to do while waiting for buses or watching kids play sports.  Then, last week my amazing Sister-In Law, Charlotte, was visiting and we were chatting away and she pulled out her little bag of crocheting and proceeded to crochet while chatting.  And I thought, hey that can be my hand project!!!

So I have decided, the next time Charlotte is in town, I am getting a 101 crash course on crocheting.  I figure I can start small.  Like dishcloth small.   Charlotte has made me dishcloths in the past for Christmas and now I can never go back to the dime a dozen ones.  I love the crocheted dishcloths, so maybe it is about time I learned to make them instead of always hitting up Charlotte :)  Fortunately for me, (and you) Charlotte has just produced a new PDF pattern that has not 1, not 2, but 3 of my favorite dishcloth patterns and the pattern is only 3 bucks.  (I bet you didn't see this little plug coming, what can I say, I love my Sister :) 

Ya, notice these from the picture above.  They were a gift to me.  Lucky me!!!  And I am determined to figure out how to make these on my own!!!

And who knows, maybe one day I will be able to make something a little more fancy, like this beautiful blanket Charlotte made for Jocelyn at her birth.  (And can you believe, Jocelyn will be 1 next week!!!  I will be sure to post about her on her birthday :)  

And if you aren't into learning how to crochet, you can always just pop on over to Charlotte's Etsy Shop and see what she has :)  I'm just saying. (okay, last plug, I promise :)

I am off to work on a new quilt :)  It will be for a tutorial in a little over a week, and since I am currently pressing the fabric to cut, I best get going :)  But I will leave you with a little sneak peak on what to expect :)

Guest Blogging at Fave Crafts!!! (and TNT)

Today I am hopping on over to Fave Crafts, a part of Fave Quilts, to do a little guest blogging in honor of National Sewing Month!!!  For the special occasion I made a series of video's on how to finish your quilts.  You can check it out at Fave Creafts or see below :)

Do you ever find you get to the end of a tutorial or pattern and it says something along the lines of "Finishing It Up - Baste It, Quilt It, and Bind It".  I know I have written it several times at the end of my tutorials.  Well, today I am adding a little more!!!  I have created a 3 Part Video Series on Finishing Your Quilt!!!  The first part is 10 minutes dedicated to basting your quilt, the  second, 10 minutes to quilting your quilt, and the third, 15 minutes dedicated to binding your quilt!!!  I hope you find these video's helpful to aid you on your quilting journey.  (And if you laugh at some of my silly stumbles or tripod filming that is great too :)

BASTING YOUR QUILT

(Just remember, always smooth from the center out :) 

QUILTING YOUR QUILT

(Practice makes perfect, just keep stitching :)

BINDING YOUR QUILT

(Yup, a little bit of math :)

I hope you enjoyed the videos and found some helpful information from them.


Oh, and this is the quilt I used as my demo :)  Thanks again to the wonderful ladies at Sew Bee Create for their beautiful blocks!!!  And if you want to see the tutorial for Spinning or Spiraling you can find it here :)

And don't worry, I haven't forgotten TNT :)  This week I tried something new in the wee hours between night and day.  (So I am not guaranteeing it is good :)  One of these video's was a a tad too long to upload onto You Tube.  So I searched around and found a program on my computer for editing movies.  I actually figured our how to cut out tidbits where I rambled because I couldn't think of the right words to say and then add some words onto the screen where my big shoulder got in the way.  Ya, video editing, totally TNT!!!


So what have you been up to???  Link on up!!!

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Fab Little Quilt Swap

Well my Mini for the Fab Little Quilt Swap is in the mail and on it's way to my partner :)  I am so happy with how it turned out :)  My partner really loves stars, rainbows, and lots of quilting :)  Do you think it hits the mark??

I quilted the star with mini stars and loops.  It is pretty dense quilting and I love the texture it gives the star :)

I did straight line echo quilting around the star alternating my thread color on each echo.  Ya, I had to change the thread in my machine a lot, but it was totally worth it :)  It really finishes it off, I think :)

So now I have the anticipation of seeing what comes in the mail to me :)  There are so many amazing minis in this group I can't wait.  Yippee Skippee!!!

Tetris Quilt-A-Long - Parade and Grand Prizes!!

It's Here!!!  Yippee Skippee!!!  We have reached the Finale of the Tetris Quilt-A-Long.  I am so excited with how many of you amazing friends quilted a long with me :)  I had such a great time!!!

So . . . do you want to see some finishes.  There are lots of quilt tops completed linked at the grand prize link up post here :)  But our parade today is of those quilt tops that were also quilted and bound.  No work in progress for these ladies, their quilts are ready to be loved!!  So here they are!!!

Erica from New York

Debbie from Minnesota

Sandy from Washington

Lisa from Kentucky

Sara from Oklahoma

Anne from Colorado

Sheila from North Carolina

Carolyn from New Jersey

Jana from Maryland

Shar from Utah

Amanda from Michigan

Carin from Minnesota

Alisa from British Columbia, Canada

Julie from Iowa

Each of you ladies did an amazing job!!!  Your finishes look fabulous!!!  Thanks for sharing them with all of us :)

And now . . . The parade is over but the fun certainly isn't.  We need to pick some winners!!!  And before I do that, I have a little extra surprise!!  I was contacted by Tetris, the actual game company and they wanted to add a little Tetris flare for each of the winners.  So now, our three grand prize winners will also be sent a Tetris Carabiner, which is basically a handheld Tetris game!!!  So cool huh!!!!  A huge thank you goes out to   Tetris for sponsoring these prizes for our winners!!!!

A huge Thank You also goes out to Julie at The Intrepid Thread for sponsoring our Grand Prize Giveaway's!!!  All those that have linked up their quilt top all eligible for the grand prize!!  The first winner will have their choice of the three grand prizes, and then the second, and the third winner will receive the remaining prize :)  So how about a quick recap of the prizes up for grabs!!!!

A $75.00 Gift Certificate that you can spend as you like!!

A Build your Own Bundle Certificate that you can use to create the perfect Fat Quarter Bundle for you!!

A Complete Fat Quarter Bundle of La Dee Da by Erin McMorris!!!

I know I would love to win any of these amazing prizes and I am sure you all feel the same.

So, lets get to it!!   Drumroll Please . . . . . . .

******The First Grand Prize Winner is . . .

     

******The Second Grand Prize Winner is . . .

         

  

******And the Third and Final Grand Prize Winner is . . . .

         

  

Congrats Ladies!!!  I will be getting in contact with you shortly :)

Thank you to all of you who participated in the Tetris Quilt-A-Long!!!  I had so much fun hosting it and I hope you had just as much fun sewing in it!!!  Until next time . . . Happy Quilting!!!