testing

. . . to shop apparently!  At least that's what my email told me this morning.  But I will admit that after the food is cooked and eaten and cleaned up, I do like to do a little shopping.  So if you are looking to shop for gifts or add to your stash or stock up on supplies, here are a few opportunities to check out. But first a little shameless self-promotion.  All quilts in my shop are 15% off through Monday.  Just use coupon code HANDMADEHOLIDAY . FabricCadabra  has 20% all orders Friday - Monday using coupon code BLACKFRIDAY20 . The Fat Quarter Shop is offering 25% off all orders through Saturday at Midnight, no code required. Lark Cottons has 25% off sitewide through December 2nd using code TURKEY25 . Fabricworm has 15% off sitewide, plus a clearance section with 30-60% with coupon code HOLIDAY until Monday at 5pm PST.

Over the last few days I have finished up this custom order quilt.  The woman who ordered it has bought a couple of my other quilts and contacted me asking if I was planning on making a quilt using Melody Miller's Picnic collection.  I wasn't planning anything, but after a few emails we worked out a design and I got to work. When I make a quilt I like to reflect on how I feel about the fabrics when the quilt is finished.  Before I started this project I really liked this collection and now that I am done I really love it.  I know that people love her typewriters, but this is definitely my favorite Melody Miller collection.   There are a couple of Cottton + Steel basics mixed in with the Picnic prints and the solid fabric is Kona Bone.  It is white, but just a little vintage-y. The backing is the blue picnic baskets print. I love all of the detail that was put into the baskets and bowls, especially the green basket with the flowers on it.   For the quilting I did crosshatching t

A few weeks ago a friend (who is a nurse) told me that a local hospital had a need for pouches to send home belongings with families.  I contacted the good people at Art Gallery Fabrics and they graciously donated a variety of their new canvas prints (and Pure Elements solids for the linings) so that I can make a big stack of pouches. They are gorgeous!  I am very impressed with how the canvas is simultaneously sturdy and soft.  They have a very nice drape and a great texture.  I actually already bought some more for myself to use for Christmas presents.   So I set out to find a tutorial to make the pouch, but I couldn't find anything that described exactly what I wanted.  Since I was able to work out a pretty simple method, I thought I would share it with you.  These are fairly large (8" x 13.5") since that is what I needed for my purpose, but you could make them any size.   Use a 1/2" seam allowance I'm sorry, I forgot to get a photo of the next step so hopeful

The winner of the RJR Cotton Supreme Solids bundle is . . . Jenny!  Who had some wonderful advice.  Jenny, I don't see an email on your profile so watch for a DM from me on Instagram. Thank you everyone for the love about the quilt.  I had a few people ask if I was going to write a tutorial and my answer is . . . probably not? It would be more likely if we could magically add a few hours to my day. I hope you all had a great weekend!

I have recently had the opportunity to work on a project for RJR Fabrics for the second time (first time here ); this time I primarily used  Cotton Supreme Solids with Cotton + Steel's Lucky Strikes collection mixed in.   Did you know that RJR manufactures Cotton + Steel?  That means that their solids match perfectly.  And they are lovely and soft and vibrant.  I used a color scheme for the solids that was inspired by Lucky Strikes and then mixed in a few of the prints.   Originally I was planning to use on point squares for the quilt, but decided to try something a little different.  Can you see the shape?  It's a half hourglass/half HST block (does this have a name?) and involved a little bit of trimming but I thought it was a fun way to make the quilt.   I quilted 4 diagonal lines, 1 inch apart along each of the stripes.  You might be wondering if that is enough quilting, and it isn't.  I am going to do some hand quilting in each of the squares which will take me quit

A few weeks ago I started spending some time with a women from our church congregation who is expecting her first child.  She has dealt with depression and anxiety in the past and is spending time with various people to help manage her issues while she is pregnant.  I thought it would be a fun project to work on a quilt each time she visited. We talked about colors and fabrics and picking a design that would have lots of contrast and ended up with a bright, scrappy combo which included lots of Ann Kelle prints.  Her baby shower is tomorrow, and her baby boy is due to be born in about a month, so I spent some time this weekend finishing up the quilt.   I decided to go with half rectangle triangles for the quilt which is something I have wanted to try since seeing Rita's quilt .  There are a couple of tutorials out there on how to make HRTs, but it is a little more complicated and annoying than I was willing to deal with so I went ahead and bought this ruler .  It is not cheap, and