March Recap

Two posts in two days may sound a little too crazy, but here goes nothin'...

In March:

I KNIT A SWEATER!  I don't mean to holler but I LOVE it.  I really really really do.  It isn't finished in this picture but you have to believe me that it is done, ends weaved in, blocked, and I wear it in all of its squishy, yummy, colorful glory.  I have a big crush...on my own sweater.  (Now I just need to gather the courage to take a picture of me wearing it.)  The pattern is Practically and is available on ravelry. 




I finished my last bee block for the Ringo Pie Bee and this one was for Penny (sewtakeahike) who was the one that taught me how to design my own bee blocks in the first place.   No pressure or anything.  I am very happy with how this one turned out.  I used a crapton of different techniques on it.  That seems to be my thing.  My little odd person niche in the world is to use a crazy number of techniques in order to realize the vision of the block in my head.  And that works for me.




We've been working a lot in our new community garden plot on warm days

and then we get a few more snow days.




I'm trying out sewing hexies by machine.  There is a big plan in the works for this piece!




And I've had a few secret gift projects up my sleeve this month.  My first gift reveal gets it own post...very, very soon. 

Number 5

Yup.  This is blog post number five for 2014.  (Henry likes counting in Spanish so he would say, cinco).
I could apologize for my absence, but I won't.  This is a place I come to with things that have inspired me and stories that I want to share.  And I have no regrets for how I've spent my time so far this year.

But how do I catch up to the current inspiration?  Thankfully flickr and IG remind me.

I wove a scarf on my loom.  I'm delighted that I found a good place for two of my favorite stash yarns and super duper glad that a good friend was willing to give this scarf a home.




I gave up knitting one sweater.  But selling the yarn and some hoarded fabric allowed me to buy...




...some Madelinetosh yarn to knit another sweater.




I had to rip that sweater, too.  But when I love a yarn that much, I don't mind knitting it all over again.




We took a road trip with the boy...to Wisconsin...in February...with the added fun of a polar vortex. We had a great time on our trip, but I swear that we should meet up with my family in a warmer locale next time.




While in Green Bay, I helped my mom quilt her Farmer's Wife quilt.  It was a huge job but definitely satisfying.




Lastly, I finished some ancient bee blocks.  I feel like ancient is the primary adjective I use when describing bee blocks here.  I think I need to keep up on my bee block calendar a wee bit more for the rest of 2014.  Do you agree?





Whew!  That was all January and February.

Stay tuned for my next update.
I'm totally serious.  I will be back very soon.

Sparkling Pond

Over the weekend, I had a wonderful opportunity to sew with some friends from the DC Modern Quilt Guild.  We had a retreat at Mary's Quilt Shop in Bedford, Pennsylvania.  Bedford is the cutest town and Mary is a wonderful hostess.  Her retreat space is gorgeous!

I love an unscripted retreat.  I brought along three unfinished projects and all were made better with great company, amazing food and ample uninterrupted sewing time.

Mari, Jessie, Linda, myself and Anjeanette of the DC Modern Quilt Guild

I'm showing just one project today because I finished my Sparkling Pond quilt!!  I cut the fabrics for this in December 2010 and the last of the binding was stitched on August 2013.  That is a long, long time---but so worth it.

As usual, it is hard to capture the colors of a quilt in photographs. 

This photo was taken on the side of the Espy House in Bedford.  The building is notable for having been the headquarters of George Washington and his forces in 1794.  I like the texture of the stone wall and the texture of the quilting in one photo.

The brick wall is just on the other side of the alley and it makes a pretty great backdrop, too. 

I made a selvages string block for the bottom corner of the quilt.  I want to make a label to include all of the sewists that contributed a block to this quilt from the It's Sew Easy Bee-ing Green Bee.  I'm debating between printing fabric with a computer, stamping or making a screen print.  I definitely don't want to embroider that many names.

Tomorrow I'll post some progress photos of the other two projects I worked on during the retreat. 

Miscellany

I'm getting caught up in Ringo Pie bee blocks.  This one is for Charise's Paris theme.

This one is for Marit in Ringo Pie with her butterfly theme. (Inspired by Anna at Life Sew Crafty)

I took a picture of the bee blocks I've received from my Ringo Pie bee friends.  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!  These will end up in a very special quilt for Henry. (Blocks left to right starting with the top row are by Amber, Penny, Leila, Charise, Anna and Kerry)

And, lastly, here is a picture of Charise and me from my recent visit to Seattle.  It was so much fun to hand off her block in person and it was even more fun to go fabric shopping with her.   I guess I have no shame when it comes to fabric.  I bought 48 fabric cuts!  Thank goodness that a lot of those were 1/4 and 1/8 yard cuts.  

So, there is a lot of little bits of progress over here. Well, except for any stash minimizing. I can't seem to manage that at all.

Inspiration

As you know from my last post, my Hexie quilt is in Blogger's Quilt Festival  (in the Wall Hanging category).  

But I'm also delighted that two(!!) of my other blocks ended up in some really, really amazing group quilts quilts in the Festival.

I was asked to add a block to the Baby Pink Penguin Quilt organized, sashed and quilted by Krista of Poppyprint.  Most participants made two blocks, but I just made one since the blocks were due during my move.  The finished quilt is here (Ayumi's photo).  And Krista's Festival post is here.

And my potter's studio block was part of Amy's (of During Quiet Time) fabulous, fantastic Artist Studio quilt.  Amy's Festival post is here (seriously, my favorite quilt of the year by far--go click NOW!)

I'm so proud to be a part of both of these amazing finished quilts. In recent days I've been saddened by some of the, in my opinion, hideous changes to flickr. But these finished group quilts help me to remember why the flickr community has been so great.  The inspiration that I get from working with uber talented people and building off of their ideas is invaluable.

So, with that said, if you haven't had inspiration overload already, go check out more of the entries in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

I'm off to do some quilting, quilt back sewing and more basting.  I'm working on three quilts right now and I just finished my first sewn shirt for me!  When I get a minute to take some pictures, I swear that there will be a lot of posts happening here.

It takes a village

I am so so pleased to show this quilt.  Mommy Neighborhood is my first ever bee quilt finish.  It is also the first that I have mixed hand and machine quilting. 

The texture of the hand quilting portion is pretty amazing.  I only wish I was a better photographer to capture the white on white.

But this Mommy Neighborhood quilt is so much more than the fabric choices and the quilting.  I am grateful to my friends that made some blocks for me:  Rachel, Sarah, Jessica, Anna, Keri, Karen, Vanessa, and Veronique.  These and other online knitting friends (Katie, Laura, Suvi, Jennifer, Sindu, Charity, and Sheryl) were there for me during my pregnancy and ever since Henry was born.  They all have children Henry's age and we've become friends through sharing our trials and joys in raising our kids.  They were there for me through insomnia, severe infection, postpartum depression, anxiety attacks and Henry's diagnosis of autism.  Their commiseration, humor, acceptance and encouragement have helped make me into the mom I am today.

Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village to raise a child.   
This quilt will hang on my wall and remind me of the village that it takes to raise a mom.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friends.


.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

Notes about this quilt:

• the green strips of lawn were inspired by this quilt,
•  I have two tutorials posted for making tiny house blocks if you are interested:  one and two.

Flitting like a butterfly

Henry has recently fallen in love with The Very Hungry Caterpillar all over again.  And now we play "cocoon" twenty times a day.  I ask him to "lay down like a caterpillar" on the couch, cover him completely in a quilt and then flip the quilt back as we declare the he is a "beautiful butterfly!!"  We are still working on the graceful sweep of the arms to mimic wings flapping.  I think (at nearly four years old) that this is his first pretend play and I am so proud.

Anyway, I was thinking about that as I flitted between sewing projects today.  I was trying to decide what I should work on next.  I could continue my progress on my rose star blocks.

Or I could finish Charise's Paris-themed bee block for the Ringo Pie Bee (those darned y-seams have me procrastinating).

Or I could decide what solid to use to put a border on this long-overdue quilt top.  (You'd think I could be bothered to iron this quilt top before taking a picture and sharing it here, but no.) 

Or I could work on piecing some blocks for my husband's quilt.  (It sure was fun to come up with the new fabric combinations.)

Well, this butterfly will settle on something soon. Maybe some more hand piecing tonight and continue to procrastinate on the bee block? Hmmm...

 How do you decide what to work on next?

I should learn my lesson

I basted my Mommy Neighborhood quilt yesterday.

I ran out of basting spray.  I couldn't use pins because I am hand quilting it with my frame.  And I have no flippin' idea why I stretched it out on the floor.  It took me the whole. darned. day. to complete.  My plan is to densely quilt this with perle cotton, so I thought I had better densely baste it.  Well, crawling around on the floor all day has done a number to my back and my hips.  So, please don't follow my lead.  If you decide to thread baste something and you have any option at all to put it on a table, please do.  This has been a public service announcement.

Other notes I want to add about this quilt:

• the houses in this quilt are only about 4",
• the green strips of lawn were inspired by this quilt,
• I made four of the blocks, but the other thirteen were made by the ladies in this bee,
•  I have two tutorials posted for making tiny house blocks if you are interested:  one and two.

Something is in the air...

I don't know how else to describe the sewing productivity over here.  Maybe there is something about Maryland, or the lack of local friends to visit or the fact that my sewing studio is no longer in a damp basement....  Either way, I'm grabbing this energy and running with it. 

This one is called Mommy Neighborhood.  The blocks were made by myself and my mom friends from ravelry.  I twisted their arms to form a quilting bee and then asked them to piece some wonky house blocks so I could make a quilt where we all lived in the same neighborhood.  Since the group is spread throughout the states plus two in Finland and one in Australia, this is the only way that we could all live in one place.  

I also have a finish from this week.  I made this Baby Bliss quilt from some prints of the Domestic Bliss line and a few strips of solid aqua.  I adapted my Four Corners tutorial to make this smaller version.  This whole quilt is made with fabric, batting and thread that needed a good home.  I think this summer quilt will get donated when I find the right charity. 

I skipped taking a picture of all of the blocks laying on my floor for another new quilt.  Those will have to wait for another day.  I did cut the fabric, mark, sew and trim them enough HST's for a throw-sized quilt all in one day.  But I don't think I'm completely crazy.  Do you?  Go ahead and be honest.  :)

Definition of Love

I call this quilt Love, Love, Love.

  

It has Amy Butler Love, Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy and DS Quilts, solids, some Japanese dot fabric, Lizzy House stripes and pearl bracelets, and Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush to bind it---all of my fabric loves in one quilt.   It is one giant log cabin block with dense straight line quilting, which makes me swoon.  It has lime and aqua--two of my favorite colors--combined with a pinky red that I adore.

 

But, perhaps the best example of love that this quilt shows is in the video below.  My husband willingly stood outside in a slush storm for me to get a picture. He had to wait and wait for the wind to calm down for even a second so I could get a shot.

That is a lot of love.

Happy Little Finish

My friends in the May Moms Bee made me tiny house blocks ages and ages ago.  I have another 17 of these blocks that I'm working into a quilt top, but it was getting unwieldy.  So these 4 houses get their own special place on this mini quilt. 

I used this mini as an opportunity to try a colored border and try quilting with 12 wt thread.  I know many people choose to use very thin thread so it disappears into the quilt but this one definitely doesn't.  You may also notice that the texture of the quilt is different.  I used a fleece interfacing because I originally was going to make this into a pillow.  Once I changed my mind to a mini quilt, I couldn't use my usual 100% cotton batting any more.  The combination of the fleece and the 12 wt thread gives this a different texture than I would normally choose.  I'll admit I didn't like it at first.  It took a day to get used to it, but now I'm very happy with this finish.  I'm so pleased, in fact, that I'm sending it out to a very special friend.  I think it will bring a smile to her face.

One year (plus) in the Cocorico Bee

My last block for the first round of the Cocorico Bee is another house block for Kerry.  (I made her one for the Ringo Pie Bee in June.)  She has received an eclectic mix of little houses.  I'm excited to see this quilt when it is done.

 

The Cocorico Bee started in September of 2011 and this round officially finished in December or 2012.  Round 2 is slated to start in June.  I'm taking some time to look back at all of the blocks I made over the past 17 months. Take a peek at the group if you'd like to see what the other members made.

j

Nearly a year in the making...

Ayumi had her month in the Ringo Pie Bee last year March.  And I let myself get intimidated.  Making a block for the queen of paper piecing can really affect your my confidence.  I got overly ambitious with the curved seams and y-seams.  And then I just lost a chunk of the block (still don't know where that went).

Finally it. is. done.

Ayumi's theme was the grocery store.  She especially wanted a cashier or cash register.  And, because it is for Ayumi, also the queen of cute, I pulled out the full force of my pink stash.

So, Gina wins the stamp guessing game with her guess of "teeny, tiny typewriter key."  I'll be sending you an email and then a scrap package, Gina.

........

On the opposite end of the piecing spectrum (from a block that was due 11 months ago), here is a baby quilt top (40x40") that I pieced in two days.  Granted the green is a jelly roll and I had sliced and diced my vintage sheets into various precuts a few months ago.  But going from zero to quilt top (and basted!) in two days is pretty impressive for me. 

And, lastly, here is Henry getting off of the school bus today.  He is rocking in his school shoes just like Pete the Cat (Please ignore the part where I didn't get his shoes in the photo.  Catching my guy looking at the camera is quite an accomplishment.)

the itsy bitsy spider

Erin asked for a nursery rhyme themed block for her month in the Cocorico Bee.   I have always wanted to make a spiderweb block and this seemed like a great opportunity.  For awhile I was stuck on the imagery of "down the water spout."  As soon as I decided to skip the water spout in the block, the rest came together. 

I had initially planned to do raw edge applique for the raindrops with some dark blue fabric and then embroider the spider. But then I decided to carve stamps for them both and I'm happy with how they turned out. 

 

The spider looks a little misshapen, but believe me when I tell you that it is hard to carve a realistic looking spider without it looking creepy.  Since this block is going in a new baby's room, I opted for blobby spider vs. spooky spider.

 

You can see that I carved a few other stamps for an upcoming block (on the right in the photo above). If you can guess what those stamps represent, you get bonus points and a fabric scrap pack from me.  Or, if there are no correct guesses by Tuesday at 5pm Maryland time, I'll pick a random commenter for the scrap pack.

Yes, I am crazy.

 After I finished my hexie quilt, I thought it would be a cold day in heck before I'd pick some up again.  But they are so comforting on a smaller scale.  And I have so many of them ready in cool colors and in neutrals.  I'd hate for them to feel lonely in their bin in my craft room....

I have been busy with some bee blocks, too.

I have a few other bee blocks in the works, too.  But those cute green hexies keep distracting me.