Organized Chaos

For this round of Once Round the Country (a round robin quilting bee), I got to work on Adrienne's Organized Chaos. For her quilt, we're using some wonderfully bold modern prints. When I got the quilt from Anne, it looked like this:


After much indecision, I decided to do Amish diamonds around the outside contrasting the blue and pink/purple fabrics and echo the square design from the original block in the corners. In order to make the math easy, I just made a paper piecing pattern and did the diamonds that way rather than figuring out how big the pieces needed to be for a 5 1/3" block. :)

So this sketch...


Turned into this (note how big it is, that's a 5 foot wide rug)...


With my trash can evidence of paper piecing...


I hope she likes it!

Blocks of a Feather fun

I'm nearing the end with my Block of a Feather quilting be. Last round, one member asked us to make a "mini-me" for the back of her quilt and we all had so much fun with it, we decided to make mini-me's for everyone's quilts. Here are the 5 I made for the 4 other members and myself.



The ones with the skirt are particularly funny to me, since I made a skirt a while ago with that fabric, so I actually wear that outfit in real life. :)


The last round (November/December) is the month everyone's making blocks for me. As you might remember, I sent out Kaffe Fassett prints and some solids. Everyone makes two blocks and I asked that one be a star.

Ruthiequilts already made this one:


and I made this one this weekend. I'm having fun working through my own instructions/inspiration along with everyone else. Here's my star block (Florida star from Quilter's Cache):

Back in the Saddle

Wow!
It's been almost 2 months since my last post and almost as long since I've made anything. Between an end of the semester paper, end of the semester grading, wedding stuff and some family visits, the sewing machine hasn't gotten much love lately.

I also got behind on one of my bees. These blocks were due at the end of last month, but I just couldn't get to them until recently. I felt so awful, but Ruthie was wonderfully understanding. She asked for blocks for a spring garden and here's what I came up with.


This came from a free pattern at paper panache


This one is completely improvised (using the same method as my tutorial from a while ago). I really like how they came out but they're really different in style than what the other women made, so I hope Ruthie likes them...

Watch for more posts this weekend as I try to get caught up. :)

January Bee Round-Up

Here are the blocks are made this month for my quilting bees. It's been a busy month so I'm getting them in JUST under the wire!

For snip.sew.send, Robin is having us make blocks for a rainbow baby quilt. She sent each of us a different color and asked for wonky log cabin style blocks. I got purple! It's probably my favorite color, so I was really excited. I added some darker purple fabrics I had from my stash and here's what I came up with (sorry about the weird picture, purple is difficult to capture without natural light...)


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Cue Wicked Witch music... da d'da d'da da daaa.

This month, Ruth (aka RuthieQuilts) from Traveling Threads asked for a really fun challenge: Wizard of Oz themed blocks! I had considered all kinds of different blocks from Emerald City to a tornado to ruby slippers or Toto, but finally decided to modify some paper piecing patterns to make some blocks with the Wicked Witch.

The first is a modified version of Sonja (Artisania)'s witch pattern.


The second is a pattern that I've been working on for a while to get right. I took the patterns for Snape from Harry Potter and a crystal ball from this site (with tons of Harry Potter themed pattern) and combined them to be the Wicked Witch looking to her crystal ball. I think it turned out pretty well, although I wish the crystal ball were a little more round...

Sew Kid at Heart Round-Up

With a new busy semester about to start, I wanted to get the last of my Sew Kid at Heart blocks taken care of. This quilting bee had us all send our fabrics at the beginning last June and then we've been working at our own pace on each of the blocks (at least one per month for a year). I've kept up really well so far, so I had 5 people left and here are the 4 I did this week.


Solidia (aka Solihubb) wanted to make a bright orange and pink stripes quilt for her daughter. She had us use this paper pieced pattern: Ribbons Two block from Quilter's Cache. Is it pretty? I even got lucky with my corners and didn't trim the four squares so I actually ended up with a blocks that's 12.5" square.

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Jane (aka Tessophia) recently had a little girl, Lucy, who's fighting her way out of the NICU. She's doing well and Jane asked us to make string blocks for her. She sent great 30's repro fabrics and I added a few more from my stash.

The total block is 12.5". For each quarter, I just pieced together the strips and trimmed it with my 6.5" square ruler. I think it was a lot easier than paper piecing!

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Terrie (aka chocolate is the best medicine) sent a pattern for these little butterflies for her daughter's quilt. The prints (from Bubblegum Basics) were super cute and the complete block is 10.5" unfinished, and the butterfly alone is 6.5" unfinished. She sent a diagram but the pattern didn't have really have cutting/sewing instructions, so I wrote and posted some here.

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Susi (aka daveandsusi) is having us make blocks for her daughter's quilt. She requested a princess/fairy tale inspired block and I figured she needed a fairy! I got the pattern from Paper Panache since it was too cute to pass up. The whole block is 12.5" unfinished with the fairy part of the block just 6" finished.

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So, do you have any favorites of bunch?

Deja Vu

Since my first set of birds were lost in the mail and I loved them so much, I made Marilyn from the Traveling Threads quilting bee (aka Spiced Coffee) a new set this weekend.



She sent slightly different fabric, so they turned out a little different, but I think I might like them even better. I had even meant for this little bird to end up on top of the inner square but made a mistake the last time so I couldn't do it.



I'm hoping to get to some more crafting soon, but the beginning of the semester has been a bit hectic. I'm co-teaching my first undergraduate course and there's a lot of prep work, but I did have a great weekend and even went to the New York State Festival of Balloons, which was pretty darn cool! I have more pictures on flickr if you want to check them out.

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.

August Swaps Round-up

Since I'm going to be out of town for 10 days at the end of the month, I've been working hard to get my swaps taken care of early.

For Traveling Threads, Marilyn (aka Spiced Coffee) sent some really beautiful, soft colored fabric and hoped for a few birds. I went with something simple since the fabric seemed so calm, I didn't want anything too busy. I'm really happy with how the block turned out. It's 12.5" square.



For snip.sew.send., Zonnah (of Zonnah's Addictions) wanted us to do 7.5" curve/circle blocks. I've been loving the circles lately and was really inspired by this quilt. I pieced the circle and then used the fusible interfacing method to applique the circle. I figured that would be easier with all the seams around the edge. I also cut the back open to reduce the bulk and so I could re-press the seams.




and last, but certainly not least, I wrapped up my witches for Jane's Spooktacular Swap. It turns out that as much as I love the paper pieced witch pattern, I just can't make 12 of them. So, I made 4 of those, 4 witch faces and 4 sets of witch shoes. I think they're all fun in their own way, but I picked one of the sets of shoes to be returned to me. I can't wait to see what I end up with from the other ladies in my group!

It's Spooktacular!

After seeing Angela (at My Three Sons) and Allison (at Cluck Cluck Sew) both post this morning about frustrations with tearing the paper while paper piecing, I decided I need to stop procrastinating and write this post already.

I'm going to shamelessly plug a product that I just found for paper piecing (I'm sure there are others that are just as great, and I'd love to know about them, I just happen to have used this one). I would also love your helpful hints, since there are so many great ideas floating around out there.




For Jane's Spooktacular Swap, I decided to do witch blocks since I love this pattern from Sonja at Artisania. I was a bit nervous because when I did the gnomes, I hated pulling the paper off and it really pulled at my stitches. I decided to just buy a pack of "Perfect Piecing" and a tablet of tracing paper from Joann's and see if either helped. I hated the tracing paper because I couldn't get it to feed into my printer (but it's been useful for other things).

I loved the "Perfect Piecing" paper! I was able to easily print on it and it perforates and tears easily. I can also use my seam ripper along the edges and it just cuts away. It also didn't pull my stitches! I did my block for Adrienne this way and this witch without too much trouble. I still have another 11 more to go, so I'm glad I found a way to do the pattern I want without ripping my hair out. :)




I think you could also buy sew-on interfacing and cut it to 8.5x11 and it would work too. I'm going to try that next and see if I can save money that way.

p.s. Here are what my nine-patch blocks for the Spooktacular swap look like!

Another block and a new project

I made another block for the Sew Kid at Heart Quilting Bee. This block is for Adrienne (aka Arnden's Space). She's making a quilt for her next little one. I love how bright the fabrics she sent are!



I used a paper piecing pattern called Hawaii. It seemed perfect since I wanted to do a star-type block and I've had a bit of a Hawaii obsession lately... I just really want to go! The "Quilter Cache" site is an awesome resource and you can even search for patterns by the size of the finished block, which is great for bees.

I'll probably make a second block, but first I have to figure out something else fun for these great fabrics!

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Jon and I are planning a new project to make together. It's going to be a baby quilt for his sister. She's expecting a girl!



We're going to use the Alexander Henry 2D Zoo for the backing and the appliques from the book on the top. The plan is to do something that has a hint of pink, but is just generally bright and fun!

Gnomes (again!)

I finally got around to quilting little faces on these gnomes and binding them. I'm going to hang them above my sewing table next to the quail.



They make me happy.

Gnomes!

I saw this quilt last week on flickr and I knew I wanted to make my own gnomes.
(from mayaeloiseboutique)

I decided to give paper piecing a try today and it went pretty well. I followed the same tutorial from Artisania that mayaeloiseboutique did and I think they turned out pretty cute.



I'm not sure what I'll do with these little guys, but perhaps I'll bind them off and hang them somewhere in the apartment.