Journey Of A Quilt : Part 2

The stars aligned (which rarely happens)

 and I was able to continue

working on my scrappy quilt.

I have decided to name it SNIPPETS

since it is made out of my leftover scraps

from a previous project.

The journey towards becoming a quilt

continued with this:

For some reason

joining the (80) 2 1/2" Half Square Triangles (HST)

took longer than I thought.

(It must have been all of the distractions.)

Then I married the blocks together

and created (40) 4 1/2" blocks.



Now I just have to decide on  a layout

for the blocks

but that will have to wait until tomorrow

because motherhood is calling.

Until Next Time ... Happy Quilting!



Journey Of A Quilt: Part 1

I thought that it would be nice

to show the journey that

my leftover scraps took toward becoming

a quilt.

It all began by turning

my scraps into small Half Square Triangles (HST).

Then came the dreaded task of getting rid of those

pesty "tails" .

When all was said and done,

I had 80 HST.

Now all I have to do is

pin them together, sew,

and press them open.

Wish me luck!

Until Next Time... Happy Quilting!

A Healthy Appreciation

It is no secret that I have a healthy appreciation

(AKA-Obsession)

with

Print, Paper, and Pattern!

So it was no surprise when I was walking

down the aisle

and noticed/gravitated toward these:

Maybe it was the bold colors,

or the paisley print.

Maybe it was the fact that it reminded

me of fabric.

I think that the real reason why I bought them was because of this:



The tiny cross-hatching that is embossed

on the cover

which reminded me of

quilting!

So for all of the great marketing minds

out there,

I will buy ANYTHING that

reminds me of QUILTS!

Please tell me that I am not the only one out

there with this HEALTHY APPRECIATION.

Until Next Time ... Happy Quilting!

Hexagon Update

Since Project Runway is over (insert sigh),

I have been catching up on all of

my regular TV shows.

This means that I have plenty of time

to work on my hexagons.

(My last update was here and here.)

This week I sat down and completed

10 more Grandmother's Flowers.

I now have a total of

82 Grandmother Flowers

completed to date.

Total of 574 hexagons used.

Once I reach 100 completed flowers

I will begin to attach them together.

Maybe, just maybe,

I will be able to start attaching them together

before the end of the year.

Each flower is beautiful on its own,

but I can't watch to see how

they all look together.

Until Next Time ... Happy Quilting!

Photo Favorite

Another photo Favorite from around

my studio:

I love color

and I am always inspired by

BOLD, BRIGHT color!

After all, life is too short to live without color!

(And yes...my Little Person did bring these into my studio!)

I hope that color will inspire you today.

Until Next Time... Happy Quilting!

And We Have A Winner!

It is time to announce the winner of the

Pure Fat Quarter bundle

from Melanie at Above All Fabric.

And the winner is:

Nancy at With Thread in Hand!

Nancy please email your information

so that we can get your prize in

the mail to you!

________________________

Don't forget that

Melanie is still offering

the 10% off your total purchase

until Thursday, November 4th!

Use code: PATCHWORK

She has lots of stuff on sale

and you can't beat the $5 shipping!

Until Next Time... Happy Quilting!





Guest Blogger and GIVEAWAY Time!

Today I am so excited to be hosting

a special guest blogger!

I would love to introduce you to

Melanie Thornton.

Melanie is the owner of the fabulous

web store, Above All Fabric.

For those of you who are new to her store,

Melanie carries a wide variety

of fabrics, patterns, trims,

notions, and ribbons

that would satisfy the taste buds of

any sewing enthusiast!

If you hop over to her store,

you will see that shipping in the US

is never more than $5 !

Above All Fabric also has a perks plus/reward points program.

(I personally love reward points

and I am so glad to be able to earn them on the

fabric that I purchase!)

In addition to running her online store, raising her family,

quilting, and sewing,

Melanie even found time to help start

the Tucson Modern Quilt Guild.

__________________________

So here is a little bit about Melanie in her own words:

Tell us about yourself and how you got started sewing/quilting.

I started sewing at a very young age because my mom sews. She would make us matching outfits and stuff like that. My grandmother (95 years old) is the quilter of the family. She still completes multiple quilts each year. In high school, I had made several jean/flannel quilts. Simple squares, tied with yarn ... nothing very fancy. Then after I went to college, I decided one summer to make a sampler block quilt. So I bought a book and learned about templates and 1/4" seams. I machine pieced my quilt (a queen size) but decided I needed to be true to the tradition of quilting and hand quilt it. On my! It was totally overwhelming! My grandma showed me how to do little stitches- and I was terrible at it! It took me forever to ... and so finally about 10 years later, I hired someone to finish it for me so that my family could actually use the quilt! Looking back at it, the quilt is no longer my style but I love that we can use it.

What lead you to open your own store?

Well, basically, I'm crazy! I started to sell my own items several years ago. People were always asking me where I got my fabric. Several things influenced my store- so when we sold our house, I used some of the money to start the store.

What types of fabrics are you drawn to?

I find that my fabric styles definately shift over time. I am usually an earthtone girl...love browns and greens and yellows (not sunny). I love sewing for my daughter and find I can use anything from tonals to bright prints for her clothing. For quilts, I love things that will switch from room to room rather than focusing on making something for a particular room. I've also done quilts for each of my kids first birthdays...that was fun. I want to do that for my nieces and nephews too!

What kind of projects are you currently working on?

Right now I am working on a few projects that aren't ready to be revealed yet! Isn't that mean! I am also trying to finish up a couple of outfits for a show that I have next week. I also have a Make Life quilt that is completely pieced and I just need to sandwich and do the free motion quilting!

What is your favorite fabric line and why?

Gosh, a favorite is so hard to choose! I love Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow. I am also excited about Patty Young's new line that is coming out... and Kate Spain is my favorite Moda designer right now (I love her new line that is coming out in January).

What project (quilting or non-quilting) would you like to tackle at some point in the future?

My goal this past year has been to sew more for myself, which has been great. BUT I have not made myself pants (besides PJ pants) and with the extra curves motherhood has given me, the whole idea of flattering pants is kind of  scary to me (I use my kids as an excuse, but let's be honest, the donuts don't help much)! So maybe 2011 will be the year of the perfect pants!

Thank you Melanie for sharing a little bit about yourself!

___________________

 

Now for the GIVEAWAY!

Melanie is giving one of my fabulous readers a

fat quarter bundle of

PURE by Sweetwater for Moda!

To enter the giveaway:

hop over to Above All Fabric

look around and come back and tell me

what is your favorite fabric line.

For an additional entry in the giveaway

become a follwer of my blog

or Melanie's blog !

Also leave a link to this post on your blog

for another entry in the giveaway!

_____________

In addition to the awesome giveaway prize,

Melanie is also offering a 10% discount

to all orders at Above All Fabric

for the next week.

You must use the code:PATCHWORK

in order to receive the discount!

The discount code is good until

Thursday, November 4th!

Thank you again Melanie for being our guest blogger,

for offering a great giveaway prize,

and for the great discount!

_____________

So let the giveaway begin!

Entries for the giveaway will be taken until

midnight Monday, November 1st .

The winner will be announced on Tuesday, November 2nd!

Until Next Time .... Happy Quilting!

The Scrappy Binding

I love to save every piece of fabric.

I have a small bucket that is filled with my

left over jelly roll strips. 

I have been saving them to someday make

another scrappy quilt.

However, for my Charming Stars : Fig Tree Version,

I decided to dig into my bucket and

make a scrappy binding

out of my left over Fig Tree jelly roll strips

 from a past project

Here is what they looked like once

I attached all of them together.

The Moda Bake Shop has a great tutorial on using

jelly roll strips to make binding. The tutorial

can be found here.

Here is a closer look at my scrappy binding:

I just love to see how the scrappy binding creates

a rainbow of yumminess.

Until Next Time ... Happy Quilting!