testing

A couple of months ago I saw something online about the Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition  and before I knew it I had a trimmings pack in my cart and it was on the way to my house.   The trimmings are really lovely. I particularly like the flower print in the bottom left and the raindrop print in the upper right.  The colors are really nice, but not colors that I generally use so I was a little stumped about what I was going to do.  I have been wanting to make some big, squishy pillows for my kids to use in the living room so I thought I'd give that a shot. My first attempt was . . . a complete failure.  It was totally boring and it got folded up and lost in my sewing stuff for a few weeks because I had no desire to finish it.  Luckily I cleaned out my drawers, found the lost trimmings, picked out lots of stitches, and started over.  This pillow was . . . um. . . definitely a learning experience.  I won't go into the details, but there were some technical difficulties.  It

All I can say is wow!  I have loved all of the comments that my blog received over the last few days.  I am really going to miss not having an email every time I look at my phone!  I loved all of your responses about binding.  I normally cut my strips at 2.25 inches and I generally like the binding to stand out unless the quilt is really crazy :)  I also enjoy hand sewing the binding to the back, it is probably one of my favorite parts of the quilting process. Out of 518 comments, the winner is . . . . One of the very last comments was made by Nancy Sue . . . Thank you for visiting my blog and thanks for making me laugh with your comment!  I am sending you an email so send me your mailing info and I will get the fabric in the mail to you ASAP. And thank you everyone else for your comments, it has been fun having so many visitors to my blog :)

A couple weeks ago I was doing some late night blog perusing and saw that the Fabric Donkey was looking for pattern testers for their new Chalkboard Book pattern.  It looked perfect for my daughter so I sent off an email and found out that I was chosen to be a tester.  Woohoo! The pattern is adorable.  When I saw the photos I knew that this would be perfect for car trips, waiting at the doctor's office, and keeping quiet at church.  This would also make a great gift; I am planning on making a couple to keep around for birthday parties in the future. The pattern is very clear and has lots of photos.  It includes two different sizes, this is the smaller of the 2.  My daughter is usually all about PINK and PURPLE and, while I do love those colors, I wanted to mix it up a little.  I did include a little pink as the inside lining though. The only thing that I changed about the pattern was to use flannel for my chalkboard wiping flap.  I tested flannel and regular quilting cotton and th

A while ago I signed up on the waiting list for do. Good Stitches and I heard back last month that we would be starting a new circle.   Rachel  asked me if I would be willing to host the circle and boy did I ever say yes!  I am really excited to be able to work with this wonderful group of women.  Our circle is going to be called Wish and we will be donating our quilts to Project Linus . Since I am the host of the group, it is my responsibility to choose the design of the quilt for the first month.  I decided to go with kaleidoscope blocks  because I think they are gorgeous but I haven't been able to commit to making an entire quilt with them. I saw this quilt  on Pinterest a while back and totally fell in love with the colors so that is what we will be using for our color inspiration. Here are my finished blocks: I am so excited to get going with our circle and to put this first quilt together!

Welcome!  If you are visiting here for the first time, my name is Erica and I am happy that you took the time to stop by for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day !  I know you probably have about a zillion blogs to visit so I will keep it short and sweet.  Up for grabs: A Riley Blake Wheels fat quarter bundle How do you win?: Just leave me a comment telling me about what style of binding you like to use.  Do you like stripes? dots? solids? do you like the binding to blend in or stand out? Do you like a thinner or a thicker binding?  This is something I have been thinking about lately and I am curious what others think :) I will choose a random winner on May 25th after 5pm.  I can ship internationally so everyone is welcome! p.s. Make sure I have a way to contact you or you will not be eligible to win! Edit:  The winner of the giveaway was number 514, Nancy Sue!

I am going to share my Swoon quilt for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival .  I shared it fairly recently, but it is really my favorite quilt and I am excited to talk a little more about it. When I was visiting my Mom in Utah earlier this year, Denyse Schmidt's Aunt Edna line was released.  I was SO excited because 1) it is completely gorgeous, 2) my local Joann's rarely carries the entire DS Quilt lines so I had the opportunity to buy the full line, and 3) it was my birthday so I wasn't going to feel bad about buying a whole bunch.  I went a little overboard with the fabric buying; I made my entire swoon quilt, this bowtie quilt , and some pillows  and I still have quite a bit left. I had been planning on making a Swoon quilt using my Habitat stash, but I decided to hoard that fabric a little longer and make a Swoon quilt with my Aunt Edna just for myself.  I didn't worry about what anyone else in my house would like, I just used the fabrics that I loved. I really love th

A couple weeks ago I got a message on Flickr from Fat Quarterly asking if they could include my scallop quilt in their kids issue.  YES!  The issue features several different quilts that use kid-oriented fabric lines.  I completely loved Sarah Jane's Children at Play line (I just love all of her stuff, my daughter has one of her prints in her room)!  So go check it out, my quilt is on page 9 :)

I am really excited that my improv boy quilt was featured today on the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild blog!

Buying gifts for Mother's Day is always difficult for me.  My mom is really easy to buy for - she would love a gift card to just about anywhere.  But that seems so impersonal.  My mother-in-law is very practical, so I can never think of a non-boring gift to get her. My idea was to make reusable grocery bags.  I found this great pattern for the Jane Market Bag  which is kind of a resulable-grocery-bag-plus.  Sure you could use it for groceries, but it is also really cute and could also be an all-purpose tote bag.  The pattern is GREAT! These are a few of the things I love about it: It is very reasonably priced (only $6) and it is definitely the type of pattern that I would use again. It is very well written. It isn't difficult but it still taught me something new (my first time with pin tucks) It is a great stash buster It is really satisfying to make because it doesn't look homemade I made 2 bags for each of them.  My original plan was to make three, but I am glad that I st