testing

I have never even been to Boston, but the events surrounding the bombing were upsetting to all of us.  When I saw flags of support popping up online, I wanted to make a contribution, especially after reading my friend Morgan's post yesterday. The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild is collecting flags that will hang in Boston.  I spent last night making a couple of flags to contribute. I can't wait to see this project when it is all finished, just the thought of seeing support being sent from all over the world makes me emotional.   If you would like to find out more information you can find it on the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's blog and you can see more flags in the To Boston with Love flickr group . 

Things have been a little crazy around here lately.  Not that anything major is going on, just the same old stuff, sometimes I just feel like all of the days blend together and two weeks ago feels like yesterday and yesterday feels like tomorrow.  Does that make any sense? I got very behind on blog reading.  It was a little overwhelming so this morning I just marked everything as read in attempt to try to catch up with things.  I am sorry if I missed some of your blog posts!  Reading blogs is one of my favorite activities I just need to get out of this funk. I have been sewing a lot, but they are projects-that-can't-be-shared so those will have to wait for a bit.  These types of projects are fun (I have loved doing stuff for Moda Bake Shop ) but I also love blogging my progress so that part is a little hard.  I did get this little gem in the mail yesterday. It is a Moda Bake Shop ad on the inside cover of Quilts and More magazine. In case you have no i...

I spent the last few days finishing up my Bangles quilt (pattern is from Sarah Fielke's amazing book ). I know I was a little disparaging about the quilt last time, and it certainly isn't an fast and easy quilt to make, but I am glad that I made it and would definitely recommend it. If you are interested in giving this quilt a try, definitely check out Faith's y-seam tutorial . I backed the quilt with one of my favorite prints from Lotta Jansdotter's Echo (which I recently got on sale for less than $6/yard from Fabric Shack, though I think I bought the last of it). A couple weeks ago I saw this tutorial about quilting flowers and thought this would be a good time to give it a try.  It was pretty fast, fun, and fairly easy, so I will definitely be using this quilting design again. I used pieced batting for this quilt and it was the first time I have used Pellon batting tape to join the batting.  I have tried zig-zagging the pieces together in the past and while it worke...

1.  I spent the majority of the past week working on my most recent work in progress, the Bangles quilt from Sarah Fielke's great new book .  This quilt may look sweet and innocent, but it is a bit of a beast. There are so many y-seams it is getting a little draining, but I do really appreciate the practice and now that I am getting close to finishing the quilt top, I am actually enjoying piecing the blocks together.  It is just a little slow and tedious. Please forgive this terribly grainy photo I took with my phone last night. When I finish working on a quilt I like to ask myself whether or not I would consider making the quilt again, and I definitely still feel like I would make another one of these so I guess it hasn't been too bad :)  I do appreciate that it is on the smaller size for a lap quilt, the finished size is 53.5x57.5".  It is for my soon-to-be-8-year-old niece so I think the size will be perfect.   2.  Maple Leaf Rag quilt.  I prob...

I woke up yesterday morning and decided it was time for the polar bears to come down.  This past fall I made a maple mini quilt and hung it on the wall behind my computer.  When winter came around, I made a winter-ish one .  Now that winter is long gone, especially here in Southern California (where it was never really here in the first place) I needed a change. My husband has been working long hours from work and I wanted to let him sleep in yesterday morning, so the kids and I raided my bags of orange and low volume scraps.  My daughter is actually pretty helpful, my son just likes to make a giant mess. I have been loving orange lately.  It was so fun to involve my daughter in the process (she also helped me make her remixed geese quilt).  She insisted on using every orange and low volume novelty scrap I have so there are jack-o-lanterns, chickens, bunnies, elephants, etc. It is pretty small, around 20" square.  I went with orange peel quilting. ...

Pillow Talk Swap 10 signups are now open. I participated in the last round and had a blast, so I thought I would post this in case anyone is interested since spots in the swap are limited!

To be honest, I never really thought I would try hand quilting.  It looks nice, but I was happily plugging on with my machine and didn't see any reason to change that.  Until I saw a couple of quilts by Patti and Svetlana .  Not only are they beautifully hand quilted, but they are quilted in a way that seems (to me at least) like the right choice for that quilt. Fast forward a couple of months and I am working on my Maple Leaf Rag quilt  (yeah, I know you're probably sick of it by now).  This is a quilt that I have wanted to make for a long time and it is one that I really wanted to take my time with.  While I was piecing the quilt top I spent quite a bit of time contemplating how I would quilt it and hand quilting just seemed like the right (only) choice. Disclaimer: I am no expert, I am a beginning hand quilter.  But I spent entirely too much time researching the process so I thought I would share what I found.  To prepare myself, I found a few...

I'm afraid that WIP Wednesday is going to be repetitive for a few weeks.  Both projects that I am working on are fairly slow and will probably take a while. Current WIPs 1. Maple Leaf Rag  - still hand quilting.  I decided not to count how many blocks I have done or how many there are total so I am not sure how far along I am. I just want to enjoy the process and try not to rush into finishing. 2. Bangles quilt - I have 24 blocks completed, which leaves 46 blocks plus all of the partial blocks left.  I appreciate the y-seam practice that I am getting while working on this, but it is a little draining. Projects that I haven't started but hope to start soon: 1.   Roller skate dress for my daughter - Harper is turning 5 in less than 2 weeks (crazy!) and I would like to make her a dress or a tunic. 2.  Mini quilt - in the fall I made this mini to hang behind my computer, then I made this one once it was winter, but I still have the winter quilt ha...

For Q1 I was pretty conservative with my goals, but this quarter I really want to push myself. 1.  This might be impossible, but I would like to finish my Maple Leaf Rag quilt .  I am LOVING hand quilting it, but I have carpal tunnel in my hand and don't want to injure myself so I'm trying to take it slow.  But I can't wait to finish this one up so I can use it.  This pattern is from Sarah Fielke's book Material Obsession 2 . 2.  Over the weekend I started a new quilt after seeing Amanda's posts on Instagram (are you on Instagram? my username is ericajackman).  It is the Bangles quilt from Sarah Fielke's amazing new book . 3.  I don't have a photo because this project is way hiding in the back of my closet, but a few months ago I started a simple patchwork square quilt for our bed.  Originally I was just going to use Lotta Jansdotter's Echo and Bella, but when I found out that Glimma would be coming out soon I put the project on hold.  I hav...

I have a busy month ahead so I wanted to take care of my Lucky Stars and Do Good Stitches blocks early. I intend to turn these into a wall quilt at the end of the year, so I want to work on making my blocks a little more colorful since I like wall quilts that are packed full of color :)  I may have gone a little overboard with the green here; I don't particularly like green and it is overwhelming me a little bit, so hopefully the rest of the blocks will calm it down a little. Steph, who has been a member of our DGS circle since the beginning, is now a quilter and this was her first month to host.  She chose a modernized D9P block  using shades of aqua, red, and dark brown. So now I'm just wondering, how in the world is it April already?

Late Monday night we got home after spending a week in Utah visiting family.  I am tired.  I did absolutely no sewing while I was gone.  While I was gone I didn't have a computer, so I got hopelessly behind on reading blogs and responding to comments (sorry!).  But it was nice to have a little break. I have been looking forward to getting my Maple Leaf Rag quilt basted, so that is what I did last night (no, I have not unpacked a single thing from my trip). And I started hand quilting.  It is going to take so very, very long, but I think I am going to enjoy it.  Hand quilting just feels like the right choice with this quilt.  Other than a couple of pillows and bags with a few lines of hand quilting, this is really my first experience so don't look too closely :) In addition to this quilt, this week I need to . . . get started on my April lucky stars block make April do good stitches blocks I may have to get started on a Marcelle Medallion qu...