NewFO linkup for May!

May was a busy month in the sewing room and I feel pretty good about getting some things finished that have been on my list, including all my Craft it Forward requirements! This cooking mitt and apron is one of my favorites, and since I never did share pictures, I think it fits perfectly for Barbara's linky party over at Cat Patches NewFO.

I have a hard time holding back once I get an idea, and since I had quite a bit of bias binding leftover after I finished the apron, this mitt just HAD to be added. If it's shape looks a bit odd to you, well, it is! It was on purpose though - I think it makes for better control. I may have to make one for myself to test that theory out..

Summer is here with a vengeance here in Nevada. We are talking hot! Have you fired up your Q yet?

Such a Staunch Finish - The Story of A Brave New Quilt

Now that this has been received by it's recipient, I am so happy to share this mini!

I have never been quite so compelled to make something for another quilter as I was with this one. When I requested some inspiration from Kelly O., two of the clues she shared were her love of Tula Pink and her love of inspirational mini-quilts for her sewing space. I also love Tula, but hmmph, I don't have ANY (I know, right?). Instead, I knew I wanted to share some of my favorite scraps.

Month's went by before I was quite suddenly hit with the inspiration for Sew Staunch.

Early this month, as we approached the week marking the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of Kathreen Ricketson, the inspirational Author and Blogger from Australia who, amongst many other things, founded Whipup.net. I was inspired to create this smaller version of Kathreen's quilt, 'Sew What', as published in her most recent book, "Brave New Quilts".

It has been some 14 years ago now since I was so fortunate as to spend several weeks Down Under.

While there, I frequently heard the term 'staunch' in casual conversation. Generally, it was used in appreciation of a 'mate', or in reference to something quite revered. This memory came to me as I reflected on Kathreen's work ethic, her devotion to family, sense of adventure, and her bold design style. She was so inspirational in the crafting community worldwide, and I have thought often of she and her husband's surviving children over this past year. My imagination tells me they are Staunch Aussie's, and I do hope they are faring well. These things were on my mind as I created this piece, and it is possible a tear landed here or there. It served as an inspiration to me while making it, and it is gratifying to know that it is likely to do the same for Kelly :-)

Linking up this inspirational finish, with appreciation for the hosts at several of my usual linky places: NTT with Kelly, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, LAFF, TGIFF, and Lets Bee Social with Lorna...

Looks like Kelly is giving NTT a break this week, but I found the link to IQuilt at her site and I will linkup with Gemma at Pretty Bobbins for the first time :-)

Looks like a fun place to party!

 

And check out this new Linky I found,
A Stitch in Time with Elizabeth over at Such aSew and Sew! 

A Fun, Vintage Find - Orphaned Quilt Blocks

Ty and I went to a few garage sales this weekend, and I found a quilter! She really is a quilter, so she was not parting with stash, but she did have a stack of nine old blocks that were sold for $1.00. These are from an exchange in the 80's. Some have the quilter's date of birth, like my favorite one, pictured above. Isn't it sweet? This next one is not signed, but oh, so cute.

I actually did a quick search online to see if I could not find any of these quilter's. I am not real great at detective work, but I do think I may be able to get an address for this one..

How would you feel about receiving a block in the mail that you made some 30+ years ago? And would it bother you knowing that it never was completed? I thought maybe I could make a pillow with it, or a quick wall hanging.
Here is one all the way from New Zealand:

And one from Washington State, my old stomping grounds:-)

And the last one from the swap is a Purple Hexie:

They are really great workmanship, although all the background fabrics are very very lightweight. I think one is muslin, which is a bit sturdier.

This next one I found interesting too. It is a bit 3D - the edges are folded over, not at the seam, but 1/4" from it so as to form 'flaps'. It was only partially finished, hand-stitched on a muslin foundation with penciled gridlines.

I do love a good save, so I added a two more rounds to make it 6.5", and will mail this in to the Add-a-Border Robin I participate with.

Sharing these today with those partying with Lyn for BOMs Away, and with Jen for Building Blocks Tuesday!

Thanks for stopping by and hope yours is a great & sunny week!

Scrambled Nines - It's a Wrap!

Ta-Da!
Oh, how I love a finish!
Especially when it fulfills a goal set for AYOLF! (May Party link #74!)

Scrambled Nines is my third finish using a Layer Cake of Nursery Prints from Quilting Treasures. It is my favorite of the three...
When I posted the May goal, it was stuck on Mr. Juki awaiting a quilting decision. I went with loopy quotation quilting.

I ran into some trouble with the yellow and grey checkered fabric from Clothworks. It is nice fabric, very soft with a bit of an organic feel to it. I found it shrunk more than average, and more in one direction than in another. Once I finished quilting the blocks, I realized it would look much better with blocking, since the center is quite heavily quilted. Blocking went well, and I was able to ease it all flat prior to binding. I was really surprised when it shrunk 1/2" more in one direction than the other during the blocking process, and I had to trim a bit more off the borders than I had anticipated. This shot shows a bit of hand-made waviness, although it looks worse than it is - the waves are enhanced by the wind, and by the folds of an all-cotton batting:

The backing is like a whole-nother quilt, eh?

I love the little chicks:

Now that I have done a half dozen or so machine bindings, I have found my favorite method. It is tight, and it looks almost traditional from the front.

Non-traditional on the back, but nice and even, and close to the edge.

Linking this finish up with Kelly at NTT,  TGIFF hosted this week by Sarah at Georgia Girl Quilts (she is running a giveaway there too!), Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? , and Link a Finish Friday with Richard and Tanya, and Elizabeth at Such a Sew and Sew for A Stitch in Time!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - My Applique Entry!

Already, I am having too much fun surfing through the beautiful quilts popping up in the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. Well, it is time to buckle down without distraction, I have yet to enter my second quilt!
So without further ado,

Followers have seen my version of Hello Moon, however I have never shared PROPER photos due to weather conditions at the finish!

I am still relatively new to the online quilting community, having started my blog just one year ago. I was rather unaware it existed prior to that, and I still feel like I am fumbling a bit trying to better divide my time and keep up with y'all. Just yesterday, I commented on a blog post that I had only ever participated in one QAL. Well, it took about an hour later to realize I have actually done a few! For some reason, I wasn't really thinking of BOM as a QAL. And although I have far too many to-do's (& half-dones!), I really love participating in this type of thing online, especially if there is an active Flickr group sharing all the different variations.

I really enjoy the challenge each month of coming up with fabrics from my stash, without knowing future blocks, or any idea of the quilt to come. For this quilt, I pulled a lot of old vintage fabrics that I like, but would not likely use mixed with more modern cottons.

The Quilt Along was a 2013 Block of the Month led by April Mae Designs. The blocks finish at 6.5". If you are interested in the pattern, she still has the free downloads available at her site!

I purposely designed the yellow stars to fall short a bit so they would not actually connect. Then, I was inspired by an Angela Walters book that I happened to have checked out at the time (umm, renewed three times!) to do the bubbles connecting them. The perfect backing was also found in my stash. It is a poly/cotton blend, and therefore it is yet another fabric that I liked well enough to have kept all these years, even though it seemed unlikely to ever be used.

As each month rolled around, I wondered if this would be the month that would have us all sewing COWS.
You know, jumping over the moon!
Well, December came along, and it just didn't happen. And of course, I just couldn't get over it.
I had to draw my own.

 

A purple cow, of course!

 

Finished Quilt Size: 36" x 48"

Batting: Quilter's Dream Polyester

Fabric: A lot of OLD Stash! Scraps!

Backing: Vintage plaid

Thread: Coat's Dual Duty 40wt  (another stash-buster!)

Recipient: NYC (not yet conceived)

 

I am entering this one in the Applique division for the Quilt Festival!

 

Nominations are going on now, and voting begins May 23rd!

Time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

The 'largest online quilt show' begins today! Hosted by Amy, over at Amy's Creative Side, this show coincides with Quilt Market each Spring and Fall.

I finished this quilt last fall, for my husband, Ty.
It is very personalized, and quickly became one of my favorites while designing it!

I hoarded many different fabrics before beginning this quilt, so many in fact, I was tempted to enter it in the 'scrappy' category.


Things Ty Likes, (plus a few sentimental bits I snuck in!)

A bit hard to see, the quilting is straight-line through the white parts, and fan-line in the colored areas.

I am proud of the original design that Ty and I developed together in EQ6, so even though this is quite scrappy, you will find it entered in the 'Original Design' category! I hope you will visit the link, and take the time to vote for your favorites!
Here is the first sketch, before we added another row, and before we had decided on color placement:

I do love EQ6! I am so late to update to EQ7, I am hoping that EQ8 comes out soon so I can just skip it!  I played with scrappy fabric placements, to better visualize the 'real' result:

If you are interested in the pattern, you have our permission to make one of your own:-) I would consider it quite a compliment, and would appreciate any credits if you do, and I would love to see your work as well! I used 5" squares, so it would be easy to adapt this with charm packs!

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy the show over at Amy's Creative Side!

Voting begins May23rd!!

POST UPDATE, January 2015!
I was thrilled to recently receive an email from Romana Černá, from Prague, Czech Republic. She was inspired by Ty's quilt and shared this photo of her version!
I am so glad she shared this, it is so beautiful!

Time Flies when you are having fun!

Springtime brings friends and family visiting the Vegas area, and we are lucky to spend time with people we love, one after another, and often overlapping so that we are able to meet and introduce friends with friends and family, etcc ...
Spare moments in April were divided between sewing, preparing and listing fabric on my Etsy site, and launching a new "department" for patterns!

I took some time this weekend to complete the new Aurifil Designer Block of the Month:

I am linking this to Lyn's BOM's Away, my favorite Monday linkup!
The designer for the May block is The Amazing and Talented, Amy Smart, and the pattern link can be found at the end of her interview. I found it ironic that it is so similar to the blocks I have been using for my baby quilts. It is like a combination of Railway Baby and Scrambled Nines.

My official goal for AYOLF is to complete Scrambled Nines. This quilt is under a sheet, and still looks just like this:

So, these are busy days and I missed the NewFO linkup at CatPatches. I intended to update progress on my design wall, with my New FO from March, Flight Plan. I have the blocks done and it is looking so bright and gorgeous!

Hopefully I will get it together to post some pics this week, but a girl must have priorities and I am looking forward to a bit more resort-time!!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!