testing

I would love to report that I had a productive quarter, and I think I did, I just din't finish much on my list.  I have been pretty busy so I am not that bothered by my lack of finishes this quarter, but I would like to get these finished up soon. 1.   Maple Leaf Rag quilt - I spent a couple hours here and there hand quilting this one, but it still has a long way to go. 2. I did finish the Bangles quilt.  Yay for one finish! 3.  My Echo/Bella/Glimma patchwork quilt is still sitting in the back of my closet so that one definitely isn't done. You can read my original Q2 FAL post here. Linking up with the Finish-A-Long at She Can Quilt .  

Thank you so much to everyone who commented with paper piecing suggestions.  I tweaked the pattern a little bit to spread the seams out to reduce the bulk. Apparently my head is still not quite working.   Last time I made all 4 quadrants the same but didn't take into account that they aren't symmetrical.  This time I thought I had solved the problem by using two blocks but nope, I need to do 4.  Oops.  Well, at least I solved the problem with the bulky seam, flipping the blocks is easy enough. Just pretend it looks more like this. Here is my entry into the contest. If you haven't checked out the Threadbias Wallflowers contest, you can enter and view all of the entries here . And just a reminder that Google Reader is on its final days.  I have personally been using Bloglovin and have been pretty happy with it (although to be honest I really dislike the name).  But here are some ways that you can continue to follow my blog. Follow with Bloglovin Follow with Feedly Follow by

Things have been a little slow here sewing-wise. I have been trying to enjoy summer and get a little more balance in my life (i.e. going to bed before 1am and actually keeping my kitchen clean).  But let's keep it real, this is what my kitchen table has looked like for the past week.  My husband is so wonderfully tolerant of my sewing mess :) I did get some time to work on my postage stamp quilt this week.  It is going to be big so this one may not be finished for a while, but cutting these squares made a nice dent in my scrap bin. This quilt has been a therapeutic process as I have been having some life stress over the past few weeks. I will share more about this soon I hope.  In the meantime I have added this wallpaper to my phone: And when I see this it really makes me rethink whether I actually need to be spending that time on my phone.  Probably not.  I love my iPhone, but it can't take over my life. I have no real to do list right now, other than a Moda Bake Shop projec

I heard about the Threadbias contest using Allison's new fabric line Wallflowers and I knew I wanted to participate.  Most of the time when I have an idea for a quilt I use graph paper and a pencil, so I wasn't really quite sure how to sue the Threadbias tool.  It turned out to be pretty easy and after a little tinkering I came up with this. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, but I thought that since I have never made a paper piecing pattern I should try it out.  Ha ha ha. While I did figure out how to break up the block into pieces and print them out, I forgot to account for the fact that I needed to reverse the pattern for some of the pieces since they aren't symmetrical.  I also ended up with the most monstrous center seam I have ever seen and I would not wish that seam on any quilt! So I guess it's back to the drawing board.  Does anyone have any tips or tutorials on making paper piecing patterns?  I think I could use some help. In other news, I received m

About a year ago I pinned this great tutorial for a Crazy Star Block from Rashida Coleman-Hale .  May was my month as quilter for the Wish Circle  and I thought this would be a fun choice. I needed 36 total blocks and since there are 10 of us in the circle, I asked everyone to make 3 or 4 blocks using pinks, reds, oranges, and yellows for the star points and low volume prints for the background.  Despite being a little vague about how many blocks to send, I ended up with exactly 36 blocks.  Perfect.  The stars (which are made up of 4 blocks) are 20" finished and I really like how big and graphic they are. I quilted it with an all over paisley pattern.  This is the second time I have used this pattern and I really enjoy it. The finished size is a little under 60" square.   The backing and binding are both Sanae prints from Moda, but they are from different lines.  I think the backing is from Oh My! and the binding is from Oz. I had a little assistants give a trial run this aft

If you have been following my blog for a while you might remember the orange! mini quilt I made a few weeks ago with my daughter.  I am reposting this project to enter into  Ellison Lane's Modern Mini Challenge . I love that my daughter has an interest in sewing so this was a fun project to do together (she's 5).  I definitely did not have that interest when I was younger and I want sewing to be something that we can share.    My daughter helped me arrange the fabrics and we pieced them before she went to bed.  I quilted, bound, and hung it on the wall behind my computer while she was sleeping.  It was so fun to see how excited and proud she was.   Finished size: 20" square

I am beyond excited to welcome the Fat Quarter Shop as a sponsor today.  No quilt shop out there sends out better looking packages or has better customer service. Here are just a few of the things that I love about buying from the Fat Quarter Shop: They carry a great selection of Aurifil Thread .  One great thing about buying Aurifil from them is that if you buy 6 spools of the same color they give you a discount.  They also recently started carrying the huge cones and they are amazing!  If you machine is equipped to use a cone I highly recommend it.  They even have my 2 favorite colors in the cone size: 2600 and 2024 .  They have an amazing sale section . This is a great place to stock up on fabric for quilt backs at a great price.  Seriously, the sale section is HUGE.   They have just about everything.  Check out the " What's New " section.  I really need this and this and this .  And this too.   The Fat Quarter Shop is offering a fantastic giveaway to one lucky re

After last week's WIP Wednesday post I spent some time arranging, rearranging, trimming, and scowling before I figured out a layout for the princess blocks I made last week. If I were going to do something like this again I would definitely make a plan first.  I am still a little on the fence about how I feel about the finished product, but I do love the princess print .   I quilted it with loops which is one of my favorites.  This shape comes more naturally to me than most FMQ designs and it is pretty quick. I backed the quilt with another print from Alexander Henry's Once Upon a Time.  I love this floral, probably even more than the princesses. This quilt is going to my cousin for her baby girl (she is naming her Aurora so I thought the princess theme was appropriate).   Other WIPs:  I am in the process of piecing May's do Good Stitches quilt top.  Our circle agreed to donate this one to Moore (particularly since a member of our circle lives there) so I need to finish i

Head over to the Moda Bake Shop  to check out a quilt that I made with Vanessa Christenson's new fabric line Simply Style.  I absolutely love this line and I cannot wait until yardage is available.

I am excited to be participating in Beth's  Let's Get Acquainted Bloghop because I love reading blogs and this is a great way to find some hidden gems out there. My aesthetic is fairly modern, though one of the great things about quilting is that you can really do whatever you want.  Sometimes I like to follow patterns and sometimes I like to do my own thing, but I always love working with fabric and I love to make things.  If you have been reading my blog for a while you have probably seen these projects, so I thought I'd answer some questions that you might not know about me :) I am a 29 year old mom of two wonderful kids.  For the past 7 years I have lived in West Los Angeles, but before that I lived in Utah for several years and I actually grew up in a very rural community in Texas.  I am a bit schizophrenic when it comes to interests and I actually got my Bachelor's degree in biology while minoring in math and English.  During my time in college I worked as a lab a

After I finished this giant quilt for my husband, I wanted to make a quick and easy baby quilt for my cousin who is expecting her 2nd daughter.  So I just started cutting and sewing and just hoped I would figure out how I wanted to put it together when I was done making the blocks. But that hasn't happened yet.  I think I'm going to have to trim some down or leave some out or something because I couldn't find a combination I was happy with.  They are all different sizes so I need to do something to make them more uniform.  Also I think I need more pink. When that didn't work out I started another big giant quilt.  Oops.  I am making the "Make This Quilt" quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts .  I am scaling it down a little bit because I am going to back it with Folksly Flannel and I don't have quite enough to make the 80x88" version in the book, so mine will be a few inches smaller.  This is still going to require 800+ 2.5" colored squares and the sa

This weekend I started a baby quilt for my cousin's soon-to-be-born baby.  And then got really frustrated with it and hid it in a box.  I rarely do this, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do and I didn't want to think about it anymore. Instead I thought I'd get going with my blocks from June.  First I did my Lucky Stars BOM .  This block went pretty smoothly but I'm going to be totally honest and say that this is my least favorite block. I am making the 6.5" version and those little triangles around the circle in the center are just too tiny for me.  I don't dislike it, I just think that this particular star looks better in the bigger block Here are my blocks so far. They are so tiny! In my do Good Stitches circle, Alyssa asked us to make the Bijoux block that she had designed.  She asked for the background fabric to be black and then to use a light to medium gray fabric for the inner color and a mustard fabric for the square.   I had a hard tim