Sewing again!

Last weekend, I got back to sewing. I did a couple of blocks for the ever-talented Lucinda (LucyEllen06 on flickr). She requested spikes and circles and I posted my first block a while ago.

Here's the second block. I made it before the wedding, but I just wasn't that happy with it... I think it's growing on me, but I wanted to do another one that I felt really good about.



For the final block, I did my first "6 minute circle". It took more than 6 minutes, but worked really well and I could definitely see getting much faster if I did a few more.



November/December is my turn for Blocks of a Feather and here is the selection of fabrics I'm sending out. The colors are so me and I'm really excited to see what these ridiculously talented ladies come up with.






And just for fun, here's a photo from when Jon and I were hanging out in Minnesota.

Paintbox Help

I wrote this post last weekend and completely forgot to upload the photos and post it! Don't you hate when that happens? Anyway...

A friend of mine, Whitney, is an amazingly talented knitter and I've helped her over the last couple years learn to use her sewing machine. She recently started up a quilting bee for other newbie sewer/quilters appropriately named The NewBee. For her month, she wanted to do a Paintbox Quilt using Oh, Fransson's pattern.

Since her stash is full of yarn and not very much fabric, I invited her over to raid my stash for prints that match the Kona roll-up she bought. It was an explosion of color!


I have to show you this photo she took of the stack at her house. Isn't it pretty?


originally uploaded by zigeunerweisen

I also agreed to do a couple sets since I can't resist the clean lines of square in square blocks. :)

Done and done!

I apologize in advance for the number of exclamation marks in the post, I'm entirely too excited!



After 2+ months of reading, 4 days of writing, I finished and PASSED(!!) my comps/quals exam! This means I've earned my Masters and I'm officially a PhD candidate. All that's left in my grad school career is my dissertation and that'll definitely take at least another 2 years.

In honor of the occasion, my parents sent me the most wonderful gift that they purchased on a recent trip to North Carolina: Kaffe Fassett books, fabric and some of the Gee's Bend solids.





They ran into someone who recommended that they visit the Quilt Shop in Boone, NC and I guess they have an amazing selection of Kaffe Fassett. My mom had never seen his fabric before but thought it would be right up my alley (which of course it is!). Can you believe how great the fabric she picked is??!



And to top it off, after I finished my exam, I found out that I got reassigned to a new office this year and it has a window! I've been without a window for the last 3 years in grad school and I'm hoping the natural light will really help through the drab Western New York winters.

I've been sewing a few Bee blocks, so watch out over the next couple days for a post about that and some wedding stuff (it's less than 6 weeks away!).

Spoiled Rotten!

Blogland and Flickr have really spoiled me recently. I'm always in awe of the generosity of this community.  First, I won a giveaway from Anne at Film and Thread and got this really cute cowboy fabric. Whoever is having a baby next should expect a quilt with this! I can't get over how cute the cowboys are!

As if the giveaway wasn't enough, she also sent this great embroidery pattern and thread! I'm just starting to try out embroidery and these patterns are perfect! I love the colors (could it be because they're so similar to the Neptune fabrics??)

 

I also won a giveaway over at By Small Means! April made coasters and was giving away the winner's favorite. I picked these ones and I'm really excited for them to come in the mail.

For Traveling Threads, I sent out Christmas fabrics and I've received almost all of my blocks! I need to make a couple and there's one set that's coming soon. I'm going to post more about that soon since I want to get some feedback and since I'm committed to finishing it for this Christmas season. I also joined LauraJ's Christmas Quiltalong to encourage me to keep at it.

The set of blocks I received from Leslie had an unexpected and wonderful extra! She made Jon and I ornaments for our tree. I think they're really cute and so thoughtful. I'm excited to put them up!

 

 

Thanks Blogland!! You've really spoiled me rotten!

A New Friend and a Mail Tragedy

I'm still out of town but thought I would share some news.

While in Chicago, I met up with Jennie (aka SunflowerQuilt). I took the train out to the 'burbs and we went shop-hopping. It was a lot of fun, but I forgot to take any pictures of the amazing shops Jennie took me to. She commented today that it's funny that two people who know each other from flickr didn't take any pictures while hanging out. :)

But I do have pictures of the great fabric that I bought. The stripe is for the binding for my Spooktacular Swap quilt and the brown paisley is going to be another skirt (it was half off!). The rest is just for my stash but I have a new quilt color scheme I'm thinking about it. It's probably really obvious from the color choices.



By the way, she could have set up a bed and left me for a week (or more!) in Tammy Tadd's Designs. It was just featured in Quilt Sampler as being one of the best in the country and I can see why! I walked in and I just thought she had read my brain about color and prints and the store is beautiful. sigh. I need to find a quilt shop near me that I love this much.


And now for the mail tragedy. I got a note this morning from someone in Traveling Threads that this is what arrived at her house:

...an empty envelope. I have tons of extra fabric to send her but the tragedy was that these bird blocks were lost too. I offered to re-make them since I loved them too and new fabric is on the way, but boy was that a lesson learned. I didn't tape over the adhesive flap and I guess the thing popped right open. I feel so awful, and I really hope the other 10 fabric packets arrive safely. Cross your fingers for me?

Feeling hot, hot, hot

Holy cow, it's been hot this weekend! After what has been a really cool summer, I was completely thrown off by the 90 degree weather this weekend. Without A/C, that is entirely too warm to turn on the iron and get much sewing done, but I did make quite a bit of progress.

Today I made a block for Marilyn (aka Spiced Coffee) over at Traveling Threads and managed to do while hardly turning on the iron! I didn't plan on making a second block since I am going out of town later this week and didn't think I would have time this month, but when I saw this pattern, I just had to make another block. I did the vast majority of the paper piecing with just finger pressing and only turned the iron on for sewing the sections together and didn't have any problems. I was really proud of myself for finding a stay-cool way of doing this for her and the block turned out really well.



My friend, Sarah, came over Friday night and we each worked on some sewing. She successfully made a pair of "pirate pants" for her boyfriend. He's going to wear them while playing on a pirate and ninjas themed ultimate frisbee team. She looked so proud I had to put her on the blog.



While she sewed and we chatted, I also got lots of cutting done (a much more weather appropriate activity). I cut a bunch of strips for the improv log cabin summer quilt I'm planning.



And I got my Traveling Threads packets all set to go! I'm sending out modern Christmas fabrics and I'm asking people to make scrappy blocks with square, rectangles and strips. I figure that the fabric is festive enough that it will be cheerful without being kitchy. I'm so excited to see what these amazing ladies come up with.

Color! In the Mail!

This has been a good week for getting awesome colorful things in the mail.

I won Upstate Lisa's giveaway and she sent this super cute package...



containing this amazing mini-quilt! I'm so excited to hang it on the wall. Not only is it fabulously inspiring, it's also wonderfully bright and cheerful. Lisa is also full of great advice and encouragement. Thank you so much!



I also got a Kona Color Card this week!



It's so big it hardly fits on my kitchen counter for a photo!



I was waiting on one from Hancock's but they've been on back order for a couple of months (and won't be getting more until August), but Pink Chalk Fabrics came to the rescue and had one in stock!! It looks like they have 30 in stock if you want one.



I'm already using it to plan out a summer quilt for Jon and I. We love our comforter, but in the summer, it can be a little much and a single sheet is too little. I'm thinking an ultra light quilt inspired by the ones below will be perfect! Click on the photo to see where these beauties came from.

Swaps galore!

As you may have noticed on my side bar, I've joined a virtual quilting bee. Ours is called Snip.Sew.Send.

The way this works is that 12 people commit for a whole year to make quilts together. Each month one quilter sends fabric to the other 11, who make a block for that quilter and send it back. The quilter then assembles them all into a quilt. My month isn't until February, thank goodness since I don't have my mind wrapped around what I want to do. It'll also give me a chance to see what other people send out and get some ideas.

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I've also joined another quilting bee, but this ones is just for kid-themed quilts. It's called Sew Kid at Heart and it's over on flickr. Although I don't have kids and am not planning on having any before I finish up grad school (which will be a while), I love kid fabrics and often the designs are so whimsical, so needless to say I'm excited. For this one, everyone is sending fabric at the same time (in June) and each quilter works on a block of their choice each month and all of the quilts will be complete by the end of the year.

I found a pattern I'm pretty excited about with "bug critters". They're super cute and I think they can allow for a bit of fun and creativity for my fellow quilters. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to put the group of them together, but this quilt by ...dotty... on flickr has me inspired. It has similar bugs and a great colorway. Don't you love it??


I bought these green fabrics for the bugs and I think I'm going to buy a black solid for the background. Once I get all the pieces I'll see how I want to sash the little buggers, but I'll probably end up doing something in really bright colors.


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Finally, I finished my mini quilt for my Swap Til You Drop partner. Here's a little preview.

I'll post more about after my partner gets it since I don't want to ruin the surprise. I'll just tell you that I tried out all kinds of new techniques and I'm ridiculously proud of myself for finishing my first quilt on my own!!

Holding Pattern

I didn't forget about my blog, but rather, my projects are all in a holding pattern. The pink and green baby quilt is waiting on a new presser foot (I should get it this weekend) and the Bots and Rockets quilt is waiting on having time to finish getting fabric. But I'm excited about what I have so far. I'm thinking that I'll add a lighter blue solid, a green solid and a yellow solid.


I joined a mini quilt swap on flickr (Swap Til You Drop) for May and I'm excited about the theme: alphabet mania. We'll see what letter I end up with. It will definitely be a fun project since it has to be smaller than 15" square.

I also got some fabulous new Michael Miller fabric that I'm thinking will turn out to be a new bag. I love the colors!


I was out of town last weekend visiting Jon's dad and I'm headed to Minnesota for my sister's wedding this weekend (which I'm really excited for), but I am itching to get going on these projects.