testing

This past year has been wonderful and really hard all at the same time.  Living in a hotel for a month while we waited to find out if my husband's job in San Diego was going to work out was not my favorite part, but I have lots of happy memories from this year and we are so happy where we are that 2013 was definitely a great year. This past year inluded opportunities that I didn't even know existed and it has allowed me to push myself into trying new things.  I am so grateful for everyone who reads and comments on my posts.  I remember when I started this blog and I thought that if one day I could reach 500 followers that would be amazing.  It seemed unattainable.  Thank you so much. I don't want to set goals for myself for this coming year because I want to leave myself open to new projects.  My main goal is just to keep starting projects that interest me and then (and this is the important part) finish them.  I am finishing off this year without any WIPs on the sidelines,

I generally like to finish my do. Good Stitches quilts quickly so that I can get them donated but this was a tough one for me.  I talked a little about my reasons for choosing this block and just thinking about working on this quilt was a little upsetting. My inspiration was this quilt and I had intended to have my half square triangles on point as well but when I played around with the blocks I really liked this layout.  In the end working on this quilt was therapeutic and I'm glad I pushed through and finished it up. The quilting is an all-over swirl pattern.  I forgot to get a photo of the back of the quilt but it is a black and white print with an extra block pieced into the backing. I am really glad that this quilt will be donated and I hope that it helps someone.  

On Saturday I opened my mailbox and found something very exciting. And inside is someone that you might recognize. Having this quilt published was a very long process.  I won't bore you with the details, but basically I was asked to make this quilt for a different magazine, but before the quilt was published the magazine stopped producing new issues. Luckily the editor of the magazine was extremely kind and helpful and was able to get this quilt (along with 2 others)  picked up by Fons and Porter.  It all worked out well in the end.   I made the quilt using Denyse Schmidt's line Florence.  I really love this collection, especially the teal prints.  It might be my favorite Denyse Schmidt collection along with Chicopee. This issue should be available in stores soon.   You can find Florence available online here and here .   I hope that you all have a Happy Holiday season!  I am off to finish wrapping presents!

I made exactly one handmade Christmas gift this year and it is for Harper's kindergarten teacher.  I had planned on making her a Super Tote  but I ran out of time so we went for a mug rug because according to Harper she "really likes coffee." Taking these photos gave me a chance to test out the new lens that my husband bought me as an early Christmas present.  It is one of those things that I didn't even think I needed but really love having.  It is similar to the lens I was using before but it's an upgrade and I love it :) I backed it with this Denyse Schmidt County Fair print.  Between that and the linen on the front it is pretty heavy duty. Also, isn't this guy just the best? Don't forget that Lark Cottons is offering 20% off through Monday December 23rd with coupon code 13kitchen.

I am incredibly excited to welcome a new sponsor, Lark Cottons , to my blog today. Lark Cottons is located in Portland Oregon and offers a variety of fun modern fabrics.  The owner, Heather, has a background in architectural design and I think it is totally evident in her beautiful fabric choices. The shop started out on Etsy and has grown into a beautiful, user-friendly site with lots of ways to shop - by collection, designer, color, theme, etc. Some great perks to shopping with Lark Cottons: 1. Heather offers a wonderful selection of the newest fabrics ( Charley Harper! ) as well as some beloved collections that might have already disappeared from other shops ( Architextures! ). 2.  If you buy more than 3 yards of one print, you get a discount which makes it a little easier to hoard your favorite prints. 3.  Lark Cottons has a customer appreciation rewards program.  For ever $200 in accumulated purchases, you receive a $20 coupon code. 4.  There is a  remnants  section. 5.  You can b

Ok I know you are probably sick of these posts, but I found the energy to remake my November block so I thought it deserved it's own post. When I have a zillion things going on it is SO HARD to find the will to do something that I have already done once. And here are the finished blocks.  They are only 6.5" square and I will be making them into a wall quilt (hopefully) soon to hang in our guest room. I am still pretty unsure about layout for these, but I have a few ideas so hopefully I can narrow it down before the new year. In addition to having Old Fashioned Day , my daughter's kindergarten class has been learning about quilts.  Amazing!  Apparently my daughter mentioned to her teacher that I am a quilter and she asked me to come in last week to talk about quilts.  It was amazing and the kids were so interested and had so many fun questions.  This is a wall with some of the "quilt blocks" they have made.

I am completely overwhelmed by all of the comments on on my SMS Giveaway Day post.  Thank you for all of your kind words and for visiting my blog, and welcome to my new followers!  I am so grateful for all of you. The winner of the Anna Maria Horner True Colors charm pack: The winner of the Joel Dewberry True Colors charm pack (the comment counter restarts after 200, so number 138 on the 2nd page is 338) : Congratulations!  I will be sending you an email shortly to request your mailing address and I hope to get these mailed out Monday morning.

Lucky Stars This was definitely my favorite Lucky Stars block. You might remember that I wasn't a huge fan of my November block and I have decided to give it another try so I will wait to post a photo of all of the blocks together.  I loved participating in this block of the month this year and I would definitely recommend participating next year if you are looking to learn a little more about paper piecing or if you just want a fun project.   I debated participating again next year, but I have decided to try something else.  I am going to be working on a Farmer's Wife quilt which is currently at the top of my quilting bucket list. If anyone wants to (very informally) quilt along with me I would love that!  There are 111 blocks so I will be making 10 blocks per month and then finishing the quilt top in December. do. Good Stitches This is Caitlin's month in the Wish Circle this month and she chose a cross block with a yellow cross and white background using this tutoria

Hello and welcome if you are visiting through SMS Giveaway Day ! My name is Erica and this is my little blog. You can see a few of my recent projects below. 1.  Maple Leaf Rag Quilt , 2.  fall table runner , 3.  striped chevron quilt , 4.  Roller Skate Tunic front , 5.  scrappy postage stamp quilt , 6.  Rocky Mountain Puzzle Block But I know what you are really here for so let's get down to business. What is the giveaway? I am giving away two charm packs from Free Spirit's new True Colors collections.  One charm pack is Anna Maria Horner's collection and one is Joel Dewberry's. The prints not only look fantastic together, but they are all versatile blenders that mix well with other collections.  They are fantastic! How to enter: Since there are 2 prizes I thought I would have 2 ways to enter. 1.  Leave me a comment.  Tell me something interesting or just say hi, all you have to do for the first entry is leave a comment. 2.  If you want a second entry you can become a fo

For the past couple weeks my daughter's kindergarten class has been learning about "old timey" things.  We got a note earlier this week saying that Friday would be Old Fashioned Day and the kids could dress in old fashioned clothing. Of course Harper's closet is full of skinny jeans and glitter and nothing she owns even relatively resembles something old fashioned.  Even though this was an optional activity, I thought it would be fun if we picked out some fabrics and made her something to wear.  Good thing that old fashioned clothes are pretty simple to make because I was totally winging it.  The entire project took about 90 minutes and I am not a quick sewer, especially when it comes to clothes, so this was really easy (I did not make the shirt). Can you tell she was super excited to have her picture taken? But she was excited to wear her clothes.  She chose this Alexander Henry cherry blossom print for the skirt.  We didn't quite have enough so we added a hot pi

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving (or a wonderful Thursday if you aren't in the US).  We left last Sunday to make the drive to Utah to visit my family and made the long drive back home on Saturday.  My family is BIG and we had 3 Thanksgiving dinners and I got to see cousins that I haven't seen in ages. On Thanksgiving day we ate dinner with my Mom's extended family and then sat around my aunt's living room for hours just chatting and catching up.  I sat under my Maple Leaf Rag quilt with my Grandma while I finished hand quilting the last stitches.  It was a very special way to finish the quilt. The pattern for this quilt is from the amazing Sarah Fielke's book Material Obsession 2 .  The pattern asks you to piece the scraps onto muslin, but I didn't want to have the bulk of the muslin in the quilt so I did mine a little differently which I posted a little about in an earlier post . The quilt is hand quilted with perle cotton and this is my first rea