Monday Morning Star Count 2014/2

Did you get a chance to click around and see all the beautiful projects we linked up last week?  It's amazing, I love seeing what you are all working on.

For me, I finished the pink hex diamond pillow top front, and I'm trying to find the time to baste and quilt it.. this is what it looks like from the back:

This weekend I pulled out some UFOs and decided to try to turn this one into a sewing machine cover.  It's almost the right size, just needs one complete ring and the edges finished on the top two.

Unfortunately, the second yellow fabric is in my sewing cabinet at MIL's house in Athens, and the light blue.. I think I gave it away in my destash last summer.  It's alright by me though, I don't mind substitutions at all.
How do you feel about them?  If you find a UFO but can't find the exact same fabrics to finish it, will you fill in or abandon it?  Just curious.

Ok, now let's see who's been stitching this week..
Remember, Instagram and flickr pics are welcome too!!

What do you need to know?

I was at the library this week, browsing the quilt books (surprise, surprise), and I came across this one:

I've been talking with a non-quilting friend lately about what quilting is and the types of skills you need to know to make a quilt.  I picked up this book with her in mind (K, if you're reading right now, I'm sorry!), but when I started reading it I was shocked.  It's like looking into history.  Ancient history, it seems, yet it was published in 1998.
I was quilting in 1998, were you?
According to this book, there were so many rules!  Quilts weren't made of solid fabrics, templates were traced and rubber cemented to sand paper. The first fabric you should choose for a project is a large scale multicolored print...  (This sounds so bizarre and antiquated to me now, but I actually did start like that yesterday.  Then I added in a bunch of solids though.)  And she tells people to stay away from fabric with a one way design!  My, how tastes have changed..

In it's defense though, in the forward, Jan Burns compares quilting to "a quiet street you stroll along to savor solitude."  I totally get that. 

One of the things I love about the Modern quilt community is the freedom, the lack of rules and other quilters looking down their nose at you.  But you can't throw everything out the window.  This seems to be a topic I've addressed before, which rules still apply?  Today I want to take it further..

Are you up for a little survey?  If you've got the time, please comment and tell me:

1)  What are 10 skills beginning quilters need to know?
2)  What are the 5 quilting techniques you use most often?
3)  What are 5 quilt techniques you want to learn how to do?

Thanks for your help.  To show my appreciation, I made a little bottle cap pincushion which I'll sent to one lucky commenter next week.  I'll also tally the results and tell you my answers for #2 and #3. 
Can't wait to hear what you all have to say!

It came out cute, didn't it?  Such a quick and gratifying project, I may have to make more.

I am determined to turn K into a quilter.  She has a great eye for fabric.. now if only I can get her to cut it up and sew it back together...

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/1

2014.
A fresh year stretches out before us.  Full of time, full of possibility.  I don't know about you, but the beginning of January always makes me hopeful and optimistic.  It's time to start something new, but not too new.  Let's just resolve to make a new habit of working on something we started before.

Welcome to the Monday Morning Star Count~
Put on  your thimbles, find a comfy spot, open your sewing kits and let's move forward.

What is the MMStarCount?  If you were reading last summer (when the book came out), I invited people to a weekly linky party here on my blog to share our progress on English paper pieced projects.  Quilters came every Monday to show off how many stars (or flowers, or any other shape) they had finished that week, and then visited all the other links and encouraged each other to keep going.  I'm starting it up again and hope to run the party every Monday in 2014.  Imagine the quilting we can get done in a year!

So often English paper piecing projects stall, get tossed aside, or forgotten about (wait, maybe that's just me because I have way too many of them).  Let's see if we can't create some motivation, build up some momentum, and maybe get some of these projects finished.

You don't have to be working on a big quilt-- there are plenty of smaller projects out there.  Pillows, pin cushions, pouches.. And you don't even have to post about the same EPP project week to week.  (isn't this terrible, I'm making the rules up as I go, and I expect to break them along the way..)
This week I'm showing off my diamond hex pillow, but that doesn't mean I can't jump around and show you something else in a few weeks.  Like I said, I've got a bunch of EPP in the works.. if I stop and count, I can think of 6 projects at various stages of piecing that I'd like to work on or finish this year.  (and no, that doesn't count all the odds and ends left over from book production.. I have lots more of those). 

So how can you link up?  It's easy, all you need is the URL of your progress post.  It can be a post on your blog (or on a group blog, like your guild's blog, if you don't have your own), a picture on Flickr, a picture on Instagram, or even Facebook, though I'm a little unclear on how to go and get URLs for FB pics, if someone can advise us, please comment!

On Flickr, click on the photo you want to add and at the bottom right there is a button that looks like a box with an arrow jumping out of it.  Click there and choose the second option "Grab the link", then copy and paste that URL into the linky below.

On Instagram, go to your profile page, click on the photo you want to add and at the bottom right there is a button with 3 dots.  Click there and copy the URL into the linky below.

Wherever you link in from, just remember to add some information about the project-- tally up how many shapes you have and if you know, tell us how many more you have to go.  Some patterns easily fall into countable units like diamond stars, hex diamonds, GFG rosettes, Rose stars, and more.  Other patterns are more.. free, so just tally them up in a way that makes sense for you.  If you don't know how large you want to make your piece yet, that's ok.  Check out what other people are working on and maybe that will help guide your design.

Ok, so here's what I've got to show..

This is the majority of a pillow top, which will eventually measure 16" square.  It's the sample for the EPP workshops I'm teaching this and next month.  I am in the process of joining the diamonds with rows of beige fillers and I've got 24 hexies and 2 half hexies left to go~  My hexies are 1" per side, btw.  Haven't decided yet how I'll quilt it.. maybe by next week I'll have a better idea. 

And as promised, here's my sewing kit.  Apparently I don't have a good daylight photo of this hexie sewing kit.  I thought I did, but it was from my *other* hexie project, sorry!  If I get a chance, I'll take a pic in the morning and edit the post.  Please do share pics of your sewing kits though! 

Little things to make me smile

Have you pulled your EPP works in progress (or UFOs) out of the closet yet?  Getting ready to start our Star Counts?  Make sure to put fresh paper clips in your sewing kits and stick new needles in your pin cushions!  You don't want to get stuck with a broken needle and no spare!

(This happened to me a few weeks ago at swimming lessons.  Thank god I had extras)
Speaking of pin cushions.. a few months ago my friend Eri made me this adorable tiny one from a soda bottle cap.  How cute!  And it hardly takes up any space in my sewing kit at all (1" hexies for scale). 

 

What does your sewing kit look like, anyway?  Maybe that can be our season opener-- for your first MMStarCount post, include a pic of your sewing kit so we can see what you see when you sit down to EPP.  (Yes, I'm nosy like that). First MMStarCount linky will go up Monday morning, New York time.  Hope you'll join the fun~

The sewing room transformation is coming along.. today I brought in a WIP from 2008!  Yes, that's what happens when you move stuff off of piles in the sewing room.  Buried in the bottom of the closet was this box of.. Economy Blocks!

I have been very tempted to join the Economy block along on Instagram but I felt funny starting something new with no purpose instead of working on a UFO or making one of the gift quilts I've got in mind.   I thought I could add another round to these signature blocks my old guild made for me and turn them into something.. I pulled fabrics and tried to lay things out, but then my "helper" came along and that was that.  Back in the box, but at least it's on the shelf in the new room and not in the bottom of the closet anymore. 

Another little cheerful addition I brought in is the January printable calendar from WildOlive.  I had George trace the numbers and taped it to the back of the laundry closet door.  I think this space could really become a good memory keeper/pin board.  There's tons of space and the doors are open most of the time to let the washer air out.  Let's see how fast it fills up...

 Hope all of you in snow-covered areas are either out having fun or tucked inside staying warm.  The high today is only in the teens so we're hunkering down with extra quilts, hot cocoa, and a few good movies.  Here's hoping we don't go stir crazy before it warms up again.

A new space for me

A while back I decided that moving the sewing room downstairs would really be the best for me.  I loved my upstairs sewing room with tons of space, a big design wall, and huge closets, but it was far from the rest of the family and unfortunately positioned just above both our room and George's bedroom.  That meant every nap time, every night after bed, I had to tiptoe up there and run the risk of waking someone with the sound of the machine. 

This room, on the other hand, had been set up as an office for C, but over time he stopped coming here to do work, preferring to work at work or take his laptop to the couch in the family room.  This became a cluttered storage space and its inefficiency drove me crazy.  The washer and dryer are here, this is our laundry room, so it just made more sense to have the sewing machine here too. 

(Look, plenty of space to fold clothes!  Eventually this is where the machine will go)

The transformation has started and I like where it's headed.  I can sit and type within earshot of the kids playing, and there's a big glass door to the family room so I can watch them too.  I'm hoping to be able to make this a functional part of the house again (and gain some organization in the process).

For the moment I've only moved in furniture and books, and I'm a bit scared to start bringing in fabric.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to sort fabric and destash a whole bunch as I move things into their new positions.  I've got some events coming up and I'd love to be able to sell off some stash/scrap packs.  The problem with going through fabric though is that I find things I forgot I had and then I get ideas for new projects and... before I know it the mess is bigger than it was when I started and I haven't gotten rid of anything.  I almost want to say NO sewing until the room is complete, (except for my current EPP, of course) but we'll see how that goes..

Out with the old..

2013, you brought immense joy.
I got a super cute baby:

 

A beautiful vacation with friends:

The elation of finding my book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble (and in the stacks at my local library):

And plenty of time to spend with the ones I love.

Thank you, 2013.

For 2014 I've got some plans, big and small.

The one I'm most excited about is moving my sewing room from a poorly lit upstairs bedroom to the nice and bright first floor laundry room (pictures coming shortly!).  I lose about half the space, but the location should allow me to spend more time creating.. fingers crossed.

I'm also planning to start up the Monday Morning Star Count again (an EPP progress linky party, like we did last summer), from next Monday.  Here's what I've been working on..  

It's going so slowly!  I really need the encouragement of some like-minded EPPing friends.

And if anyone wants to get even more EPPing done, please consider registering for the Greek Island Quilt Retreat.  I'd love to meet up and sew with some of you next June!

I hope 2014 brings all of us just what we need, and the attentiveness to appreciate it when it arrives. 
Happy New Year everybody~

Farewell little Lime

It's the 13th already?  So much for my cute attempt at blogging via Advent stocking calendar.
I left off on the 5th, my birthday, and was planning a grand post about the guys I live with and how much I love them..

Instead of blogging about it, I spent the day with them instead, basking in their attention.  It's good to be loved.
I also worked on the binding of the Lime quilt, finishing it later that weekend.  On Monday I took it to the post office, and now I'm just waiting to hear if it has arrived.

 

It's been a while since I had a finish to share, so I'm linking up today with CrazyMomQuilts. 
This quilt is huge, the biggest I've ever completed myself, so I had a heck of a time getting a good finish shot. 

(Laugh here, please.  Then feel sorry for my husband who was stuck in this position as I tried and tried to get a better shot.  He refused to go outside, it was too cold and I was in my pjs..)
You can see most of it in this basting shot:

Or check out the beauty shots in my last post.
And now that that's finished, I can work on our Christmas quilt.. it's coming along pretty well-- I've shared peeks on instagram but hopefully I'll have a post ready here in the next few days. 
Happy Friday, Everybody.  And enjoy the 13th~