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My daughter started piano lessons this past week which is exciting to me for several reasons and one of those reasons is that I get to make her a new bag for her piano books.  Not that we don't already have half a dozen handmade tote bags sitting around the house. So last night at around 2am when I was up with the baby who is a little congested and is not dealing with it very well, I took advantage of the quiet house and put the baby in his bassinet in my sewing room. I used the Inside Out Bag tutorial on the Purl Bee and I am very pleased with the result.  It was quick, easy, and different from anything I have ever made.   Painfully I used one of my absolute favorite prints for the pockets.  It is from Cotton and Steel's Cookie Book collection and it is just the right amount of girly without being pink (my daughter is not into pink these days, but this print does also actually come in pink).  The body of the bag is yarn dyed Essex linen in black (available he...

Have you seen Jeni Baker's new collection, Curiosities ?  It is adorable and so when Art Gallery asked me to make a little something with it, I was pretty excited.   I knew that I wanted to make a quilt that would really show off the fabrics so I thought it was a great opportunity to put together a tutorial for a beginner quilt.  And of course this quilt isn't just for beginners, it is also a great quick project.   You don't have to use a computer program to plan out your quilt, but if you do, I highly recommend EQ7 .  If you are more old school, this is a great graph paper notebook .   I didn't get a good photo of this, but you can actually cut one of the strips in half (see photo below).  It doesn't have to be exact, I just cut where the fabric had been folded. And press the seams toward the darker fabric. Piece your fabric into columns.  And then sew together the columns.  Baste, quilt, and bind as desired. I was excited to use a Cur...

These blocks have sitting on my blocks for entirely too long and I finally got some time this week to put them together.  They are the February do. Good Stitches blocks from the Wish Circle.  I requested double pinwheel blocks using  this tutorial  in pinks, yellows, oranges, and purples. I experimented with quilting clamshells all over on the quilt which went much better than I expected considering that I haven't done any free motion quilting in ages.   I also machine stitched the binding down.  I don't love doing it, but I have decided that for quilts that are donated, it is more durable.  This was my best attempt so far so practicing must be making a difference! This quilt will be donated to Project Linus .   School starts next week and it will just be this guy with me at home: I feel a little bad about how excited I am, except the kids seem even more excited. 

This weekend my brother and his wife came to stay with us which required me to do some tidying up in the guest room. And at the end of the tidying up process, I had this pile of never-been-used quilts on the dresser.  I love making quilts, and I love making quilts for people that are in my life, but sometimes I make something just to make something.   So I'm going to try something new.  I am listing all of the quilts that are available here , and if you are interested you can email me (kitchentablequilting@gmail.com) and make me a offer.   I know that some people rely on their income from selling their quilts, and that certainly does help me be able to continue making quilts, but the more important thing to me is that they go to someone that will love them.  Right now they are not getting used and quilts should be used.  

It's so funny how now that I have a new baby and the kids are home from school for the summer, when I have so very little free time, I have my sewing motivation back.  Even though I haven't been able to sew very much, I have been able to squeeze in a little this week while the kids have been at camp in the morning. This is actually exactly like a quilt that I made for Studio E that I will be sharing next month, only the colors are completely different, but the great thing about a quilt like this is that different colors make a completely different quilt. The colors are pulled from this Small World corduroy print which I am in LOVE with.  It is so snuggly and I love the texture of the corduroy.  The quilt top is made with Kona cotton. I don't know if the front is a plaid or a gingham or what, but it is fun to make.   I have used corduroy for a quilt back before (see here  and here ), but this is the first time I have used a Cloud9 corduroy and I was impressed. ...

The Fat Quarter Shop and Art Gallery Fabrics have teamed up again to create a free pattern.  Let me introduce you to my version of The Fractal Quilt using Happy Home Fabrics by Caroline Hulse .   One of the best things about this project is that it uses y-seams and there is a video tutorial with instructions on how to construct the quilt.  This is a great project for anyone who is wanting to try y-seams for the first time, they really are not that scary! The only change I made to the pattern was to alternate Fabric D and Fabric H (the yellow and green) instead of having them always in the same location.  I just felt like this helped balance out my fabrics and didn't require any additional fabric yardage.   The Happy Home fabrics are gorgeous and include several great blenders.  I saved my absolute favorite print for the binding. and my other favorite for the backing.  Okay, maybe they are all my favorite.   Finished Size: 56.5" x 61.5" Patter...

Earlier this year I designed a project using Kona cottons and submitted it to Quilty.  A few weeks after it was accepted, I found out that Quilty was going to stop producing new issues and my quilt wasn't going to be published. Soon after this the good people at Robert Kaufman asked me if I would be interested in making the quilt for them and having it released as a free pattern.  Yes I would! This quilt uses almost all of my favorite Kona colors and come together pretty quickly considering that it is a 60"x75" quilt.  You can find more details about the quilt here and the free pattern will be available soon. Since this guy is sleeping much better . . . this photo is from a few weeks ago but it's my favorite :) and I am back from my sister's wedding . . . my youngest sister Kelly with her new husband, my kids, and another sister's kids I think I will be back to posting more regularly.  I appreciate all of the support in my efforts to make my time here more m...