Green Tea and Sweet Beans Quilt (in progress)

Hi y'all!

I know it's been a hot minute. Or maybe even two hot minutes.  But I'm back!  My move is over, I'm (mostly) unpacked, and my sewing room is officially up and running.

phew.

I'm working on the Green Tea and Sweet Beans Quilt by the truly unbelievably talented Jen Kingwell (Amitié Textiles).

I'm just doing a block at a time on this bad boy. My goal is scrappy-liciousness, so I'm just kind of picking what I want to use on each individual block and seeing what happens. Here are a few that I've made so far:

I'm clearly all about the bright colors, but what else is new?   More to come on this project!

What are you working on? Any new projects have you all amped up?

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Giveaway - - Winner!

Hey there friends!

We have a winner in the Stitch Craft Create giveaway!  I'll be in touch to get your address, so watch for my email!

The Random Number Generator selected entry #25:

 crysm said...

Allow yourself to be 'good enough' so you have more time for the FUN things in life!

A huge thank you to all of you who participated - - thank you for the congratulations, and for all of the GREAT tips!  Seriously, that was some good, solid advice, and I definitely will be following it.

What have you been working on?!  New projects? Finishing stuff up? What's UP, folks???

xo

Kelly

Stitch Craft Create Giveaway!

Hi friendships,

I'm back after a bit of a lengthy absence. I have good excuses. I bought a house (my first!) and moved (for the second time this year {double sigh}), and as such, all of my stuff (including my sewing machine and my camera) are in boxes. So please forgive, and I promise to have everything back up and running soon. Because, frankly, I'm going nuts without my sewing stuff available.

To make it up to you, I at least have a giveaway for stickin' with me! I'm giving away a copy of the spring issue of Stitch Craft Create to one of y'all. The lovelies over at SCC were kind enough to do a feature on Modern Designs for Classic Quilts, and I have a copy to share.

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for participating!

TO ENTER: Just leave me a comment giving me a good tip for a new homeowner, or a housekeeping tip in general. One entry per person. 

This giveaway will close 11:59pm EST on Saturday, April 20th, 2013. A winner will be announced on Sunday, April 21st, 2013. 

Happy stitching!

Kelly

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BlogLovin' and Bee Blocks

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In other news, I finished up 2 blocks for the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild's monthly bee. This month is Alice's block, and she chose the "Pinball Machine" block by Jessica Brown from the book Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers.

Alice provided the white background fabric, and asked that we use a red/white print from our stash for the other fabric. A few of us are making 2 blocks, switching the background and red print for the second block, so that Alice has an additional design option when she lays out her quilt.

I love how these turned out —I can't wait to see this quilt all together!

What have y'all been working on this weekend? Were you stuck indoors with bad weather?

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Prism Quilt with FQS Blogger Bundle

So, I haven't blogged for a few weeks because, well, I've been sewing and I got distracted. A worthy excuse, right? Maybe? Anyway, one thing I've been working on is on the blog today.

A few months ago, Andie and I got to put together a "Blogger Bundle" of fat quarters for sale at Fat Quarter Shop. This was, essentially, a fabric lover's dream come true: we got to browse their online inventory and put together any assortment of fabrics (12 prints and 3 solids) for a 15 FQ bundle.

Due to my adolescent love of rainbows... (Seriously, this is a thing. Ask my Mom. I remember sobbing when I was 5 years old because the only thing I wanted in LIFE was to see a rainbow and I was convinced that I would never ever see a real one.) Anyway, due to my love of rainbows, I lovelovelovedoublelove putting things in ROYGBIV order. Soooo, we decided to put together a "Rainbows & Unicorns" bundle full of modern stash builder geometrics.

And then, I got to play with the fabric! I decided to remake the Kaleidoscope Quilt ("Risky Business") from our book, Modern Designs for Classic Quilts.

My remake is a bit different than the 2-fabric quilt that I made for the book, but the basic pattern is the same, and this bundle offered a lot of great playroom.

For the background fabric, I used a FABULOUS black and white text print from Ikea, a gift from the best Phoebe in the world.

nom

There's a lot going on in this quilt and, I'll be honest, as I was playing with the layout, I did NOT love it. But I kept going...

Playing with a random layout:

"meh."

 Playing with an organized layout (1 color per block):

"double meh"

And then it hit me. The reason I love this bundle is because of my ROGBIV-lovin' obsession with rainbows. Once I started arranging the blocks with a rainbow in mind, I started to like it a lot...

"RAINBOWS!!!!!!!!  GIMME!"

And here's the finished top, all together and ready for some quilting!

The circular optical illusion is less pronounced than in the kaleidoscope quilt I made for the book, but it's still there.

I'm calling it "Prism" because it reminds me of a refracted rainbow. (That was probably self explanatory...)

Now, quilting it! Any suggestions? I'm thinking a large circular motif to enhance the hidden circles, but I'd love suggestions!

The basic pattern for this quilt is found in my book, and you can get the blogger bundle at Fat Quarter Shop. So if you've got a nickel burning a hole in your pocket  . . . . . . . .

    

Hope you're all having an excellent week! Please leave me some quilting suggestions, and just let me know what you're up to in general.

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Winged Square Quilt Block

I saw the Winged Square Quilt Block on Made During Quiet Time and I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it until finally I had to drop everything and go make one myself.

I love how Amy arranged her fabrics, with the center square a blend of 2 main "wing" colors. Super cool and graphic. I chose peach and pink as my two main colors, and used my beloved Sweetwater sewing dictionary fabric as the background.

I'm not sure how large Amy's blocks are, but I decided to supersize mine. My finished block is 24.5" square, with each finished half square triangle measuring 4.5" (unfinished).

I'm really drawn to pale colors right now, and I love the combo of pale pinks, salmons, peach and lemonade yellows with the creamy background. A fussy-cut Snow White scene from Heather's Ross's Far Far Away II seemed to fit perfectly in this soft block.

I'm envisioning mounting and framing this block as a piece of wall art. Thoughts? I'd love some suggestion on this! Have you ever framed a quilt block? Is it hard?

Happy stitching,

Kelly


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Scrappy Tripping Alonging

Some more progress on my Scrappy Trip Along Quilt! (Here's the block tutorial, FYI.)

Truth: When I started on this sucker a few weeks ago, I figured I'd make a few blocks and then get over it. But I got fully sucked into the fun, and now I'm planning on a queen size bed quilt. A few more rows to go!

This is my month at my MQG's bee, so all my gals are making me one of these blocks. I gave them a strip from my scrap bag and a strip of the center newsprint, and the rest they're pulling from their own scraps. 

I should have about enough to finish up once I get their blocks back, and then we'll start playing "Help Kelly Pick a Layout"!

I'm running out of floor space - - this sucker's getting BIG!

Happy Stitching!

Kelly

Rainbow Single Girl Quilt

I've been in love with Denyse Schmidt's "Single Girl" quilt pattern forevah.  Which is a good thing because you need a timeless, endless love to keep up the motivation on this one.

My Rainbow Single Girl quilt is truly going to be a prized possession. If I can ever finish it!

Yeah, I have a thing for rainbow order. And polka dots.

The templates are cut!

A bit of a sneak peak of what it will look like.

One quarter of one block all done! I love the colors against the white background.

 What's your current quilt obsession??

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Scrappy Spiderweb Quilt

Do you remember this super-fly quilt from Modern Designs for Classic Quilts?  This beauty is Andie's creation, and I have been drooling over it since the first time she showed it to me.

Effie's Web from Modern Designs for Classic Quilts

Rather than create a distraction, grab the quilt and run (because I really don't like to run), I decided to use my handy skills and make one of my own. 

Some super delish strings, all ready to go!

My first block was made with a really pretty, floral fabric center...

But I decided I'd rather make all the centers consistent using Essex Linen in flax. Here's some progress!

 Have you ever done any string piecing?

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Modern Dear Jane Week 13

A lot of paper piecing this week, and I tackled another appliqué block. I'm getting the hang of it, but definitely going to be relying on some good quilting to smooth over the rough parts...  This is a learning process, though, and I'm definitely learning!

D2 Mouse in a Mirror

E13 Moth in a Web

D3 Jason's Jacks

L7 Town Square

M5 Mother's Point

After 13 weeks, I'm up to 65 Modern Dear Jane blocks. 65 down, 104 to go!

Happy stitching!

Kelly