Decisions...

It's decision making time.  I'm itching to make another quilt (quilting is way more addictive than I had previously thought!) actually, I want to make (2) baby quilts for boys.  One is for my cousin who just had a baby back in Minnesota.

Anyway... I want to make my own pattern ~ so they are truly me, and I have about a million different ideas in my head.

When I was at this point last time, I just started sewing and made a quilt, my spring quilt:

While trying to use up extra fabric I had laying around, this is what I cam up with.  I was going for the contrast of bright green and mahogany red that I was seeing everywhere on my daily walks a few weeks back.   I still had to buy more fabric to finish it... and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet.  I like it... but I can't say I LOVE it.  Here's the back:

It's just all the pieces I didn't use on the front.  The finished quilt is approx. 55"x70" and it's my third quilt that I free-motion-quilted.  BTW... a great site to get pattern ideas is here. 

Anyway... after making this one, I am dead-set on creating a pattern first and going from there.  At the last open sew day that the PMQG sponsored, I watched a "tute" by Cherri on how to make a version of flying geese.  Jenn posted the tutorial here.  Ever since I saw this I've had "geese on the brain".

So I guess what this means is I have to spend some quality design time on the computer before getting all tactile.  Since I work on computers, I tend to shy away from them for anything personal... yet here I am... for the love of quilt.

An Etsy Kind of Day

So I got a little crafty the other day and made this cute little octopus appliqué for a shirt and just posted it on etsy.

 

Again, my daughter played Miss Model for me:

I haven't been to my etsy site for a while!  A lot of listings have expired, so I'm going to make an effort to refill my shop with some fun stuff.  While I was there, I also made my first treasury:  For the LOVE of CHICKEN... because I really do like chickens. 

Check it out and leave a heart if you like something :)

Book Review Blog Tour: Stripped Down Patchwork

I met Erin Gilday from Patchwork Underground a few months ago at a Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting, I was busy working on my squid quilt and we started talking patchwork... one thing led to another and now I'm so happy to be writing a review on her new book for her blog tour: Stripped Down Patchwork; 12 Modern Projects featuring Seminole Patchwork.

I have to start by saying that this is my first book review, and since I'm not so good with words, I decided to make a project from the book, and report on my experience.  I'm pretty much a beginner in most respects of sewing, even though I sew a lot.

When I received my copy, I was immediately smitten with all the crafty ideas Erin shares... especially the super cute "Toe Zone Ballet Slippers" on page 49.  I also noticed a pullout with patterns on it for tracing ~ how nice!

Before I ran to my fabric stash to start a new project... I read the beginning of the book about how the Seminole Indians came up with this style of patchwork, and was impressed by their ingenuity even through terrible times.  Sometimes having the background information is very motivational and after reading some history, I was even more anxious to get started on a project!

For those who don't know, I like soccer... and I live in Portland, OR and we are becoming huge Timbers fans.  When I was leafing through the projects to pick which one I wanted to do first, my hubby was looking over my shoulder and when he saw the "Icicle Scarf" he was like:  "You HAVE TO make Timbers scarves!!" Decision made.

The instructions in the book were very easy to follow.  The hardest part for me was finding the right  fabric colors!  These are what I ended up with:

 Once I had the fabrics lined up, I just made long strips and sewed them together:

Then this long pieced strip is cut apart at angles, and sewn back together again to make the blocks.  The book is great because the math and measurements are all figured out for you, the math all works well ~ even for me and my math-challenged brain!

Once I had the blocks made, I made two more blocks with a raw-edge axe appliqué from the Timbers logo.

Then I just pieced up the blocks and backed it with bright green micro-fiber fleece and added some fringe (which I love)... and they turned out GREAT!!!

Now we're ready for any game.  This was such a fun and fast project!  Erin's instructions were very clear and easy to understand.  This book is full of little tips and tricks for patchwork and sewing in general that I found very useful.

Thanks for modeling, Z!

All in all, I would have to say: Great job Erin!  If I can follow through on one of your projects, I think anyone can!  Thanks so much for including me in your blog tour ~ I'm loving my new book, and I'm excited to get to those slippers soon! (and the wallet and the headband... and... and... and...)

Follow the rest of the tour:

• Leisure Arts Blog – Monday, May 16
• Sew Daily – Tuesday, May 17
• Craftzine – Wednesday, May 18
• Craftypod – Thursday, May 19
• Whipup.net – Friday, May 20
• Burdastyle – Saturday, May 21
• Pink Pinguin - Sunday, May 22
• A Green Banana – Monday, May 23
• I Think Sew – Tuesday, May 24
• Happy Zombie – Wednesday, May 25
• A Mountain Hearth – Thursday, May 26
• Sew News - Friday, May 27
• Pat Sloan’s Blog – Saturday, May 28

Social Time

This Thursday is the monthly PMQG meeting and we've all been asked to make a 6" block for a banner they are going to make.  I decided to use some pretty scraps I had, and this is what I came up with:

It should be a great meeting, as always.  For me, it's some good social time ~ I meet at least one cool new person every time I go.  Plus EVERYONE there is creative, and the energy that is created in a room full of crafty-types is palpable.  I think we all leave full of ideas and motivation ~ yep, looking forward to it.

I've started following a few blogs too ~ this whole bloggy thing is fairly new to me and I'm totally amazed at how many people are quilting and writing about it.  What a plethora of information!  It's actually a little overwhelming, it seems there is a whole set of blog etiquette I need to learn, and maybe another language to learn as well!   There also seems to be some antagonists out there too ~ I guess they are everywhere.  Oh well!  ... I'm happy to have a meeting where we can physically meet and have some fun social time.

It's Quilting Time...

Just keep quilting, just keep quilting, just keep quilting (think Dora in Finding Nemo)!  It's not that bad though, I picked a pretty simple free motion pattern to quilt my spring quilt with so it's going quickly enough.   This quilt just ended up being much larger than I had expected.  I think it's almost a double... I'll take a measurement after all the quilting is done.

Now I just have to work on taking photos in the daylight instead of in the dead of night.  You just can't see the colors correctly with these photos.  Oh well, I've never claimed to be a photographer!

I'm hoping to be done later tonight or tomorrow so I can bind it and get started on my next project:

Spring Has Sprung!

Okay... well, at least it's trying to.   Here in Portland, the sun has been peeking out here and there, but there's still quite a chill in the air.  The bright neon greens of new buds are starting to turn to deeper greens and all sorts of colors are popping out everywhere.  Basically, it's gorgeous out there!

I've been using these spring colors as my inspiration for the quilt I'm currently working on.  Here is how the top turned out:

There was no pattern here (obviously).  I've had some of these fabrics for a while and wanted to use them up... so I just started piecing them together.  The colors represent spring to me.  I've recently learned that these blocks are called courthouse steps, thanks to Susan Beal and the presentation she gave at the last PMQG meeting.  She recently published a book called Modern Log Cabin Quilting and she had a lot of information on the history of this block and log cabin patchwork in general. She also showed many examples of this style and I was really inspired... and surprised that there was a name for what I was doing (other than "patchwork mishmash" as I had been calling it).

The back is turning out much more mishmashed... BUT I've used every scrap of these fabrics I had! That makes me feel good ~ and now I can purchase some newer fabrics that I've been drooling over without feeling like I'm a hoarder.