Friday, May 24, 2013

Becky teaches EPP

(This post could also have been called "why I have the coolest friends in the world")

This week my old college roommate was visiting from the UK and so a few of our old housemates got together for some girl time (and baby cuddling).  The baby was sweet and took a nice long nap, so after I popped dinner in the oven, we all sat around the living room and chatted about things.  Not surprisingly (or uncommon in my house and in my current circle of friends), Becky was stitching and chatting and talk turned to quilting. 
 Now Rachel and Trish aren't quilters (yet), so understandably they had a lot of questions.  Before I could answer any, Becky jumped down and started pulling out sprockets and templates... it was great.  Usually I'm the one going on obsessively about EPP, but not this time!
Becky is making a Sprocket quilt, from Christina's tutorial and quilt along.  She started it just a few weeks ago and already has 4 done, with a 5th nearly ready.

Her background is light light grey and the colored rings are monochrome but scrappy.  The two non-quilters were intrigued enough to follow us up to the sewing room for me to give Becky some extra 1.5" diamond templates, but when she and I started pawing through the scrap bin looking for more fabrics, we kinda lost them (oh well).  Still, it was really energizing to watch someone talk about quilting so passionately.  I can completely appreciate that-- she's in the thick of a new project and loving it.  I'm loving it for her too.
Oh, and as you can see from her blog, Becky's a veterinarian, so her stitches are immaculate!  I wish she had time to blog more about quilting (nudge, nudge), but until then, I'll do it for her, hehe.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Bloggers' Quilt Festival-- Tanuki Stripe

It wasn't any fun to miss out on the Bloggers' Quilt Festival last year-- I was making great quilts but needed to keep them under wraps, but now I'm happy to share!

This is my Tanuki Stripe quilt, one of the patterns available in my book.


I love this quilt.  I made it as a wedding present for my friends Amy & Jake, but since I got it back from the publisher I haven't had a chance to give it to them.  Maybe soon (though I almost want to keep it)?
You must forgive me for the less-than-glamorous cellphone camera photos.  The photography in the book is really lovely and I've gotten used to seeing my quilts either in person or in the beautiful clear and stylishly composed book photos.  I'm almost ashamed to post such low-quality pictures, but then I remember that I'm a quilter, not a photographer.  This is a real quilt, with blood, sweat, tears and wrinkles.  Made with love for a friend who is a part of so many of my most favorite memories.  I hope you'll understand.


The quilt measures 55" x 70".  There's a big bold strip of hand pieced English paper piecing flanked by panels of quiet neutrals (pieced by machine).   The EPP part is made of 4-piece units: two squares and two 60 degree diamonds.  This unit has so much design potential!  I want to play around with it some more if I get some free time.
I quilted it with wavy lines on my Janome and bound it in an off-white polka dot.  The backing fabric was a UFO that wasn't going anywhere and I'm happy to have finally found a place for it.


I'm entering this in the "Throw Quilts" category (I wish it could go in the "home machine quilted" category, but my photos don't do it justice).  I'm glad I could participate in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  Have you entered a quilt yet?

 (p.s. if you try out this pattern, I'd love to see it!)

Monday, May 20, 2013

Finding myself..

on other people's blogs today!  Thanks you guys!

Shannon (who quilted three of the quilts in the book) wrote a blog post on my book this morning and shares some details on how she helped with the project.  Read her post here.

And Jo at Sewing is for girls did up a real nice review of the book (full of photos and information) in a blog post last week.  (Oh, the things you find when you Google yourself..)  You can read it here.

I'm going to enter one of the book quilts in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival later this week, as soon as I can get some decent photos.  So pop back later for that, ok?

Saturday, May 18, 2013

I think I need a bigger design wall..

but that means we'd have to raise the ceiling a few feet...
I've been making steady progress on my Orphan Block Soup quilt.  This morning I finished the pink slabs (they measure roughly 16.5" square):
 Then I paired them with the taupe and made HSTs.  I haven't trimmed them down yet but just threw them up on the wall to see how it was going.  I pulled out the blue circle block from the bottom of a "I'll work on this when I have the time" bin and gave it a good press.  Only one of the circles is appliqued.  I really want to use that block, and I'd love to do up one or three more, but I know me and when I start to add on to quilts with hand appliqued plans, they usually end up back in the bin.
I have tons more of the taupe fabric (I bought some years ago, loved it and went back to buy the rest of the bolt), so I guess I could test out a bunch of options, but that's really not like me.  I think I'll look at it for a while longer, make a decision and dive in.  I'm liking it so far though.  Thoughts?

Friday, May 17, 2013

a quilt for Jason

Large or small, there's nothing frustrating about actually having the quilt completed.  A finish is a finish, after all..
It's tiny, 30 1/4" x 40"
Made with love for a little guy I hope I'll get to meet one day.
Hope to get this in the mail tomorrow~

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Pink

So today, with some encouragement from Frederick and Chase, I'm working on this quilt.  I stripped away some of the blocks and a clearer design came into focus..

I've been reading (actually reading, not just looking at the pictures) Sunday Morning Quilts this week and I finally felt ready to build up some slabs of pink with crumbs and strings, in hopes of making giant HSTs (not unlike Lori's quilt, here) and turning this into a cheery medallion of a sort.

The crumb piecing is slow and the kids are needy interested in hanging out with me in the sewing room, but the idea is clear in my mind, so I'm determined to work on this as long as the mood keeps me.
 It's turning into a pretty beautiful Mother's Day-- the big guys are outside gardening, the little guy is asleep.. so it looks like I may get in a blog post AND sewing time this afternoon.  Hope you're just as lucky~
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there~

(Btw, I finished the baby quilt, it will get it's own post once it's out of the wash.)

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Small Quilts

I'm a bit frustrated that I've only made small quilts so far this year.  I have big UFOs, and I have big ideas, but my time in the sewing room is still limited (though Jack did like it when I set up his floor mat play thingy in there), so I shouldn't be too hard on myself.


I am making this quilt for my cousin's baby, born just 6 weeks before Jack, way far away in Illinois.  I haven't seen this cousin for a long time, and I don't know if our sons will ever get a chance to meet each other, but I care, and want her to know that, so I'm making a quilt.  I don't quite know how else to bridge the distance between us.

It's a simple sashed four-patch, wavy line quilting on a diagonal this time.  Judging by how fast Jack is growing, little Jason probably won't be small enough to use this for more than another year or so, but I hope he likes playing with it anyway.
Oh, and I'm finally getting the hang of Instagram.  It's awfully fun and a heck of a lot easier to post progress there than it is to sit down, edit photos and write a blog post.  If you're on IG too, come find me.  (Don't worry, it won't make me stop blogging.  It's too hard to type the entire story behind a quilt on my phone anyway.  It's just for fun in between..)

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Happy Easter!!

It is not always easy to combine cultures and traditions in regards to holidays in our house (especially when said holiday falls right at the end of a busy semester).  Easter was much easier last year when we were actually in Greece.  But as a mom it's my job to try to find fun in anything we do, so this is a peek at how we did Easter this year..

A little crafting..

Some egg decorating..



Easter baskets..

Family time..

No church, candles, visits to or from any bunnies.  No lamb on the spit, no family party.  It's tough, pulling it together on your own.  Easter is such a social, traditional holiday, aside from the spiritual religious part.  But we're doing our best.

There's an egg hunt planned for this afternoon and Greek food for dinner.   (and maybe quilt binding during nap time? but I won't get my hopes up..)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

May 2

My sister Theresa would have been 27 today.  Tea, we miss you.

This pic was taken in June 1999, at the Irish Dancing competition in Chicago's Gaelic Park.  I didn't know much about Irish Dancing, but Theresa liked it, and I loved listening to the music.  So today I'll be watching Solas on youtube and thought I'd share some here too..

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Hexie Pillow

I'm so happy to share a finish today~
This is the first sizeable project that I started and finished in 2013. 
(I have been working on a bunch of long-term big quilts in my poorly lit sewing room that I'd love to post about, but the window of opportunity to get good photos is so small... I'll keep trying)
This is the Hexagon pillow project from my book (see below) and I made this one to be raffled off at a promo event my publisher is going to next week.  The pattern is amazingly simple and a great one to start with if you want to give EPP a try.  I also think pillows are a good option when you want to try out a new EPP shape or pattern but you're not ready to commit to a whole quilt (or just end up with another UFO).  I'm itching to test out some other pattern ideas myself..
For this pillow I chose a color palette and then pulled fabric from my stash.  It may seem a little "patriotic", but you've got to forgive me, I was watching West Wing on Netflix at the time..
 There's a mix of new and old-- Salt Air, Laura Gunn, old Japanese import whales, a blue floral I bought at Joann's in college, and some vintage florals (the white hexie in the bottom right of the above pic must have been a shirt or something-- silky cotton but a really tight weave-- hell to stitch through!). 
I quilted intersecting diagonal lines in blue perle cotton, with 1/4" tape as a guide.

And in related news,


it's here!!

My advanced copies have arrived and I'm in the process of packaging them up and shipping them off to the lovely quilters who contributed to the project.  (Earamichia, Bernadette, Clare, Lesly-- check your mailboxes soon~~).  I've also been showing it off to anyone who will listen, isn't that terrible!?  But I piece at the local library while George is at StoryTime, and the librarians are always asking me about what I'm making so... it's great to finally be able to show them.
(The receptionists and nurses at my OB's office were happy to see it too, they'd heard quite a lot about it during my pregnancy..)

The book cover has hexies, and there's a hexie pillow project inside (along with a couple other hexie projects), but I want to reassure you-- the book is not just about hexagons!  I know it's just a tease, but the quilt the book is lying on-- my Travel Quilt #3, that's in there too, as well as some combo-shape projects.  Can't believe it will be on shelves next month already (and sooner in the UK!).  If you see it out there, please let me know~

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