2015 Year In Review

11 quilts... 6 out of the UFO pile but 5 new ones added.

7 quilted pillow covers

3 bags

2 new tutorials

458  La Passacaglia pieces assembled.  I am loving this epic project from Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein.

13 box cushions with piping and zippers to slipcover my 2 couches and window seat.

4 fabulous days of sewing at the Boston MQG retreat

1 epic quilt fail.  Sometimes things go terribly awry!

5 fabulous and fun new techniques learned during my day with the adorable Vanessa Chistenson of V & Co.

1 inspirational afternoon with the amazing Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio

33 Spools of thread - no wonder I was constantly running to Quilter's Way for a thread emergency:-)

147 books read.  Top picks: The Kind Worth Killing, Ready Player One, The Martian.

I have to admit I'm kind of impressed with myself.  As usual, it feels like I didn't accomplish much but looking back I actually got a lot done especially when you consider I also worked 7 months this year.  I can't wait to see what's in store for 2016!

Quilt Fail

Keeping it real here!  If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you've watched this bit of drama unfold...  I was so thrilled with my Kate Spain Christmas collection I decided I also needed a wall hanging.  I still had plenty of Flurry scraps and I may have picked up a few pieces of Jingle on one of my recent trips to Quilter's Way:-)  After a hop down the Pinterest rabbit hole I decided to make the Moda Bake Shop Christmas Baubles quilt by Jen Daly.

I couldn't resist trying to squeeze in one last holiday project...  I had plenty of scraps left from my various Kate Spain Christmas collections to make this Christmas Baubles mini quilt by Jen Daly Quilts for the Moda Bake Shop.  I'm not sure I agree with the Easy classification on this pattern.  It's not so much that there are any difficult techniques and Jen's instructions are clearly written and illustrated but sewing 88 1 1/8" squares to the corners to make 22 snowball blocks is not for the faint of heart.

Also, 1 1/8" inch sashing?  That's just annoying!  I would definitely suggest that you not cut the 1 1/2" strips that go across the top of each ornament grouping until after you've assembled them.  My units all ran a 1/4" longer than the designated length.  I could have eased them in to the smaller length but it seemed better to cut the sashing to fit since they were consistently off.

If I did it again I would increase the size of the sashing between the ornaments to 1 1/4" and I would add a bit more white space around the tree.  I left off the pieced border and got right to quilting this.  I copied Jen and did straight lines to emphasize the tree shape.  On the bottom I did free form lines to look like snow drifts and I stole the idea to quilt snowflakes along the top from the awesome BettyCrockerAss.

Everything was going fine until I tossed it in my bag to tack the binding during the day's inevitable wait times.  Also in my bag was my almost empty travel mug of tea.  At some point the bag got tipped enough that my tea dregs leaked out onto my quilt.  There were some choice words used when I got home and saw what had happened.  I immediately turned to social media for help and got tons of sympathy and suggestions for removing tea stains.  I tried:

• Soaking in Oxyclean
• Dawn dishwashing liquid
• Vinegar
• Wisk
• Blotting it with Color Catchers
• Oxy MaxForce
• Resolve
• Zout
• Lemon Juice and Salt
• Spot Stop
• Hydrogen Peroxide & Baking Soda

I'd say the lemon juice and salt seemed to be the most effective but it's hard to say for sure given everything I tried.  In the end while I was able to fade the stains they are too obvious for me to want to use this.  I'm also a bit concerned about the integrity of the fabric after all the chemical treatments.  I will say that these Moda dark reds (which I didn't prewash) didn't seem to bleed a bit.  So have I learned the lesson quilts and tea don't mix?  Probably not but maybe Santa will bring me a travel mug with a top that closes:-)

With Christmas rapidly approaching it's a good thing the rest of my holiday making has gone smoothly though I will admit to some last minute applique on our flight down last night:-)  Have you finished all your holiday projects?  

'Tis the Season

Another better late than never post, when pulling out our holiday decorations I found this fun Kate Spain Christmas quilt I finished in January.  It's perfect for Christmas but really needed something to go with it.  I dug out the remaining scraps and decided a Swoon pillow would be the perfect accompaniment.

I love this block by the adorable Camille of Thimble Blossoms, it's complicated enough to look fabulous standalone yet is easy to assemble.  I did a little math to resize it to 16" and got to work.

Once I had it pieced together I decided I wanted to quilt it with 1/4" spaced lines.  I started with an X through the middle and then quilted each quarter.  It was a bit tedious but it goes faster the closer you get to the center and it was a great way to relax after all the holiday craziness.

Once the quilting was finished I went with a simple envelope closure for the back and a bound edge.  In no time it was ready for service on our couch.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas:-)

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow is 20" x 20"
Fabrics: Solstice, Flurry scraps by Kate Spain, FSDS Mist.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient Bamboo.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in Natural White (2021).

It's Not Too Late

How has a month passed since I last blogged?  This is such a busy time of year and between Thanksgiving and our annual holiday cookie decorating party it's been hard to find time to sew... and when I did find time to sew I didn't manage to find time to blog about it... but since I did make some really cute stuff I want to share and catch you up on what I've been making.

The Boston MQG has been keeping us busy the last few months.  In November we had a zipper bag swap.  I dug in to my precious stack of Liberty prints accumulated from the Westwood Acres bundle of the month club and paired it with Essex Linen (Nautical & Navy).  If you don't recognize it, this is the awesome Open Wide Zippered Pouch by Noodlehead.

My original plan was to copy the marvelous CheleNGeorge and make a Modern Hexie bag but since I waited until the last minute I had to scale back on my grandiose plan.  I did still manage to add the little hexie pull tab.  It's all in the details!

In December we had our annual holiday gathering hosted by the fabulous Parsley is the New Black.  For my Yankee Swap gift I jumped on the adult coloring book trend and made this art portfolio filled with colored pencils and the Tula Pink coloring book.


Most of the fabrics are Cotton + Steel but I snuck in a bit of Lizzy House and Bonnie & Camille from my stash.  The pattern is loosely based on this awesome Art Journal Tutorial by LBG Studio.  I will definitely be making another one of these for myself:-)

Technically it's no longer Friday but there's just enough time to sneak this in for this week's Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.  How are you coming with your holiday making?

W.i.P. Wednesday: Bits and Pieces

Raise your hand if you're freaking out because you just realized Thanksgiving is only a week away and you still haven't ordered your turkey.  Things have been a wee bit busy around here the last couple of weeks which hasn't allowed for much (any) time in my studio.  Luckily I had prepped a whole bunch of La Passacaglia pieces before things got crazy so I've been able to put all those random wait times to good use...

Any given Sunday means football...

Cheer Competition

Pickup line at the High School

Star Wars Marathon in anticipation of The Force Awakens

And now that I've pre-ordered a bundle of the new Mendocino I'm finally ready to cut into this awesome pink seahorse print the amazing Teaginny shared with me.  This is definitely my favorite cog;-)

All those bits and pieces really add up!!!

Inching along with this week's W.i.P. Wednesday:-)

Shipshape

After finishing my Out to Sea Penny Patch I had some small scraps leftover so I decided to turn them into a matching pillow.

I picked 28 leftover squares and arranged them in to a box around an 8" x 11" white square.  I sewed together 2 chains of 5 squares for the sides and 2 chains of 9 squares for the top and bottom.  From there I attached the sides to the center rectangle then the top and bottom.  In the same way I added a 3" border to the sides and top.  Now that my top was together I made a quilt sandwich and quilted it.

I used PicMonkey to create the text.  In the past I've always been partial to the Loungy font but this time I decided script would be more elegant.  I used the Black Jack font and blew it up to page sized then printed it on a full sheet label.  You can use all those fancy adhesives but I honestly find stickers are faster and easier.

I did add double sided fusible to the back of my applique fabric and then stuck the sticker to the front of the fabric and carefully cut out Audrey's name.  Don't forget to cut all the interior holes.

From there I placed the name in the center of my quilted top and machine quilted around the name to hold it in place.

I decided to get a little fancy and added welting to the pillow and used a hidden zipper closure.  Haberman Fabrics has a fabulous tutorial on how to do this.

Now I can add it to Audrey's collection...  I love the way the border print turns down to complete the look!

 Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow cover is 15" x 18"
Fabrics:Out to Sea by Sarah Jane, Stash, Kona Snow.
Batting: Poly/Cotton Blend leftover?
Thread: Aurifil 50wt. in Natural White (2021) and Very Dark Navy (2785)

You Put a Spell On Me

So it's a bit of a stretch to call this a finish since it's really just a flimsy but it's just so perfectly Ghastly I had to share it for Halloween.  As usual my timing is a bit off...  I'm still hoping to get it quilted and finished this year so I can just pull it out of the closet (with all my other Ghastlies creations) and decorate.  

It's amazing how perfectly the new Cotton + Steel Spellbound collection coordinates with the Ghastlies!!!  I just love these metallic skull dots which perfectly coordinate with the Cloud Metallic Netorious print.  It's just the right amount of sparkle.

And I think I used up enough Ghastlies to justify buying more when the new collection comes out in April;-)

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

W.i.P. Wednesday: Camp Stitchuate

A few of my quilty friends and I have started a biannual tradition of sneaking away for a weekend of sewing.  Halloween is rapidly approaching so I packed my stack of Cotton + Steel Spellbound fabrics to work with.  I'd been stuck for ideas on how to use these until Aimee came to my rescue again  and suggested I mix in some other collections.  Once I pulled out the great big bin of Ghastlies it all came together.

My plan was to make fussy cut snowball blocks.  The center squares are 9 1/2" for no other reason than I had a 9 1/2" square ruler.  I cut triangles to the finished size for my snowballs to cover the corners so I could see how to center the motif before cutting.

Once I had all my squares cut it was a great mindless chain piecing project to sew all the corner triangles.

With all the blocks sewn I settled on the layout with some help from the peanut gallery

And from there it was more mindless piecing and excellent conversation to add sashing to the sides and bottoms.  Now all I have to do is sew all my rows together.  It'll be a stretch but we'll see if I can get it done by Saturday.

Did you hear the exciting news that Alexander Henry is releasing another Ghastlies collection this April?  Get a sneak peek at what's coming on Instagram...  I'm dying to get my hands on some;-)

Making ghastly things for this week's W.i.P. Wednesday:-)