Friday, March 30, 2012

Some Are Easy, Some Are Hard

Kona Charm Challenge quilt
This one was easy!  This is my quilt for the Kona Charm pack challenge for my guild.  It's a relatively simple design, but with big visual impact
Close up of Charm Challenge quilt
I've been toying with the idea of teaching some quilting/sewing classes once I move to Franklin and I'm thinking I may use this as a sample pattern
Back of Charm Challenge quilt
I used a print from one of my favorite designers, Kelly Boyd of Ann Kelle Designs!

Mermaid Plus pillow front
This was another easy one!  This pillow was listed in my etsy shop for a few minutes until Kaelin bought it!  It is SO gratifying when people I consider very talented in the quilting/sewing community actually BUY something I made!  Thanks Kaelin!

Custom quilt for @sarahandaddison  p.s. it's hard to get a picture on a windy day!!!
This one was not so easy.  This quilt was a custom order baby quilt for a friend of mine locally.  Lets just say if I had to do this again, I would paper piece it!

Squeal!!!!! Thank you so so so much Hadley!
And I got a little surprise in the mail this week from Hadley!!!  I gushed over a few other keychains she made and she, very sweetly, sent me one of my very own!  It's even teal!!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Makeover!

My blog and etsy shop just got a little makeover thanks to my friend, Stefanie!  Did she come up with a cute design or what?  I'm also getting new cards AND fabric labels for my quilts and such!!!!!  She is just now starting to offer the labels and I'm excited to one of the first ones to try them out!  I'll post pictures as soon as they come in!  If you're in the market for any stationery, check out Stefanie's shop and email her if you have a custom request.  She even made our quilt guild cards!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Festival of Scrappiness!

Rachel is holding a Festival of Scrappiness contest over on her blog so I'd thought I'd enter a few of my recent projects made with scraps!
First up is this mini I made with some HST scraps my friend, Jen sent me!  Good Folks makes the best rainbow!  I added a little border to bring the size up to 10.5"x14"

A little hand-quilting just to make it extra special!

And we can't forget the voile backing!

Next up is this toddler sized quilt I made with the scraps of my Herringbone quilt:

I added some Quilter's Linen in gray around the sides and top of the patchwork, but I kept the patchwork off-center.  Then I used organic wavy quilting lines to create a super hip quilt for a super cool little boy!

Feeling frustrated with another project so I made this mini to clear my head.
I've shared this one before, but this mini was made with the leftovers from my Wonderland quilt, plus a few scraps of Half Moon Modern.  Even the binding is left over from another project!

So there you have it! My entries into the Festival of Scrappiness!  I love working with scraps!  They always seem to end up being my favorite projects!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

His and Hers

His and Hers AMH flannel quilt done (except for almost 400 yards of binding!)
Whoo hoo!  My first quilt for our bed is almost complete!  Yes, I said first!  I've made almost 100 quilts and I have never made one for my own bed!  Scandalous! Anywho, this is made entirely of the super yummy AMH Folksy Flannel line and I made a simple brick path pattern.  This allowed me to have a "his" and "hers" side--which was important because my hubby would not have slept under a pink quilt.  He has his standards.  :)  The back is ENTIRELY VOILE!!!  You heard me!   Almost 8 yards of delicious AMH Little Folks voile!  I promise to have more pictures soon!!!  I'm so excited for this one!  P.S. It was a freaking b*&$h to quilt this sucker!  Me + queen sized quilt + straight line quilting = misery!

UPDATE:  here a few other pictures
His and Hers quilt
His and Her quilt
His and Hers back

Thursday, March 22, 2012

French Kisses (and a Giveaway)

French Kisses pattern test
My sweet friend, Tracey, asked me to pattern test her first pattern and this is my finished quilt top! Cute, right?  The pattern is officially for sale in her shop!  So hurry on over there and get one!  Check out her blog because she is giving away a copy for free (if you've already bought the pattern she'll refund your money)!!!  She's also going to host a quilt-a-long for those who purchase the pattern!  Tracey's a busy, busy bee!
Top for Traceyjay pattern pieced just waiting on border fabric to arrive!
This pattern is so adorable and looks great in a lot of different fabrics!  Tracey shows FOUR different versions on the pattern itself and her blog has a 5th!  I love it when I can see what the pattern will look like in different fabrics, don't you?  So hippity hop on over to her blog and check it out!  Feel free to tell her Kelly sent you!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

A Stained Glass Weekend

A little procrastination on a Sunday afternoon!
Just playing around with some old and new Flea Market Fancy.  This will probably end up in the shop as a quilt as soon as I can decide on the final size.  

Top for Traceyjay pattern pieced just waiting on border fabric to arrive!
I'm pattern testing for my friend, Tracey.  I'm still waiting on border fabric and I have plans for the scraps leftover.  More to come on this quilt soon (including where you can buy the pattern!)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Hot Town!

Summer in the City quilt
Hot town, summer in the city....ok, that's all I know of that song!  Unfortunately, I kept singing that line over and over again when I was making this!  That song always reminds me of that Sex In The City episode where she dates the comic book store guy and they eat fried chicken on the balcony of his parents' apartment.  Sidetracked, sorry!  I bought some Summer in the City scraps from a Flickr friend, never really knowing what I would do with them since I didn't own any more of the line!  They had already been cut into rectangles so I was a bit limited from the outset.

(I'm trying to remind myself to take real pictures and not just rely on Instagram, but it's so darn convenient!)  Anywho!  My quilt addicted friend, Sara, loved the colors in this line and left the design up to me--love that girl!

Go simple or go home, right? :)  I quickly sewed all the rectangles together, added a border in a Free Spirit solid (sorry, I don't recall which one), and bound in some Just Wing It.  Ta-da!

The quilt is small (around 34x27), but it's the perfect size for all those cutie pies Sara takes pictures of!  Can't wait to see my quilt in action!  Speaking of which, you all can check out some of the work I've done for Sara HERE.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Bleh!

Feeling frustrated with another project so I made this mini to clear my head.
I have been super frustrated with a project I've been working on (sorry, I can't show pictures!) so I just pushed it all aside and made this.  Rainbows make me feel better...the butterfly doesn't hurt either!  Do any of you have any special tips/tricks/habits you use when a project feels stalled?  I HAVE to finish this one, but all I want to do is *gasp* burn the fabric and forget it ever existed! 

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Serendipity

My Flickr friend, Karen, posted a picture of some key-chain supplies and I asked if she'd make me one.  She quickly agreed and I told her I'd make her something in return.  I knew I wanted to use Wonderland because Karen was first person I didn't know to buy one of my quilts on Etsy (it happened to be made with Wonderland)!  She holds a special place in my crafting heart!  I decided a mug rug to match her quilt would be perfect!
Karen sweetly agreed to make me a new key chain so I made her this mug rug!
This is truly of case of serendipity!   I had the tiniest scraps left from my Wonderland double hourglass quilt and they were the perfect amount!  The squares finish at 1.5" and the whole thing measures 7" square.  Even the binding and backing were leftovers from the Wonderland quilt!  I've been wanting to try the granny square craze, but I don't have time to start a whole new quilt right now.  This was fast and satisfied my craving!  Now if only this method would work for me with food!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

My Totally Inspired Birthday

Came home to a yummy chocolate-orange-hazelnut-marscapone cake made by my hubby!!! I'm SO lucky!

Saturday was my 32nd (yikes!) birthday and I spent the day in Nashville attending a workshop with a group of SUPER talented women.  More on that in a bit, but I came come to this awesome cake handmade by my sweet hubby!  It's chocolate cake with orange mascarpone frosting with hazelnut brittle in the frosting!  Yummo!

Picking out shades, drapes, etc in my new house!
I also used this trip to schedule an appointment to order shades/drapes for the new house!  I managed to pick out all the shades and I know which rooms I want drapes, but I didn't have a lot of luck picking out fabrics--shocker!  All of the fabrics were either too plain, too fussy, too metallic, or too old.  There wasn't a large selection of modern designs.  I did manage to find some for the bedroom, but they still haven't quoted a price on those so I may be shopping for my drapes somewhere else.  

Now to try and summarize the workshop.  I apologize in advance for my lack of pictures, I was too busy paying attention! :)  I've been struggling the last few days trying to articulate what the workshop meant to me, what I learned, and who I met, but I'm not sure I can do it justice.  This gathering was the brain child of Amber Housley.  To give you all an idea of what this workshop was about, I'm going to quote Amber a bit, the workshop was for
 "creative women who currently have or are looking to start their own business. Our content will be applicable to most creative businesses with special emphasis on aspiring or current designers, crafters, photographers, stylists, bloggers. But of course, we welcome all creative businesses! Everyone is sure to go home with a heaping truck-load of applicable information and action items for their business."

A truck load is right!  I still don't feel as if I can streamline the amount of ideas, inspiration, and practical tips I received!  I have been toying with the idea of making my quilting/sewing into a business, but I haven't fully decided on a direction.  I'm leaning toward teaching newbie quilters, doing a some custom quilts (like for nurseries), and selling the random things I make like I do now.  I wanted to attend the workshop to help me figure out how to best accomplish my goal.....as soon as I figure out what my goal is. 

Can I pause for a minute to say how *cute* the table was decorated?  Flowers, goodie bags, orange Crush bottles with swirly straws, and a journal to write down all our notes for the day!  

Eeeek! Guess who I'm sitting to? Kelle Boyd of Anne Kelle fabric fame!

I knew the day was going to be amazing when I realized who I was sitting next to--Kelly Boyd of Anne Kelle fabric/stationery/etc.  Remix or Urban Zoologie anyone?  Yeah.  I pretty much flipped out.  Everyone else is cool, calm and collected and I'm totally freaking because I'm a fabric groupie and I'm sitting next to one of my favorite fabric designers.  In all fairness, only one other person attending was into sewing, most of the ladies do party planning, custom stationery, graphic design, etc--I'm trying to justify my nuttiness, or the lack of nuttiness of the other ladies.  She was completely delightful, sweet, and even a tad shy.  I, in my attempt to make polite conversation and seem casual, mentioned that I just saw on the Pink Chalk newsletter than her fabrics came in laminate and how I didn't realize that before.  Then, I said how it would make such a cute shower curtain for a kid's bathroom (I had my new, undecorated house on my brain).  She then proceeds to ask if I'd be interested in doing a tutorial for that.  I couldn't scream "yes" fast enough!  I then completely ruin any façade of sanity by pulling out my iPhone and showing her the quilt I made using her fabrics--this one

Child of the 80s quilt complete

and proceed to gush like a complete idiot.  Then, she about gives me heart failure when she exclaims, "Oh!  I remember that one!  It was like you were in my head!  We should work together!"  Goosebumps literally rise on my arms as I try not to hyperventilate!   I-am-such-a-dork.  Even if she was simply saying it to be kind to the crazy fabric junkie, it made my day.

There's Amber getting us started!  She told us her 20 top tips--one of the greatest was "Your friends and family aren't going to understand what you do."  This was huge for me, to realize that I wasn't the only one.  Other people have significant others, friends, and family that are completely clueless about why they love to do what they do.  I think coming to terms with this and not EXPECT them to get it will be liberating.  They don't have to understand what I want to do in order for me to be successful.  Genius! 

This is Courtney Dial who is a party planner, blogger, and author.  This girl needed a day unto herself!  She is the twitter queen and knew SO SO SO much about how to maximize the benefits of using the social media for your business.  It was incredible.  I felt as if we were all sitting there with our jaws on the floor when she was done.  Learning about WiseStamp alone was awesome! 

This is my sweet, sweet friend, Sara Rose.  I apologize to her for the sad picture, but I was really far away and she cried through a good bit of her talk, as did I.  She is the purchaser of, um, lets say a number, of my quilts.  I think she's a tad addicted, but I don't mind because she has great taste in fabric and I get a thrill over seeing my quilts in her pictures.  Sara is a FANTASTIC photographer and is such a sweet, supportive friend.  Not so surprisingly, she spoke on family and mentors.  She is passionate about the love for her family and her work (hence, the tears) and grew her business by leaps and bounds in three years!  Have I mentioned she's booked through the end of the year?  Yeah, she's that good.

The adorable Jessica Bishop of the Budget Savy Bride also spoke, but I didn't snap a picture!  Jessica is a media whiz and has done tons of TV work for retail-me-not.  Cool, huh?

This post has gotten a bit long so I'll share more about the wonderful women I met in later posts.  Get ready to add to your blog lists, I met a bunch of creative and talented ladies!  I'll leave you with the inspirational quote on our goodie bag journals:






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