Coming up in 2012

Hey everyone, update on a couple of projects I have planned for this year. First of all I am going to finish the quilts I began last year during my participation is a few quilt a longs. Secondly I will be starting a couple of new projects one of which is not a quilt. Thirdly I will work on finishing the exiting quilt tops I have had for years.

Yes I know this is a lot for one year and I will soon be going back to work which will shorten my time but I find that if I give myself a timeline for something it usually helps me to get it completed. I love my sewing and wish I could make it my full time profession but for now I have to work it in where I can in between working an outside job.

Now on to the new projects. I am sticking to what I said last year in wanting to get pre-existing projects completed before I begin any new ones but these came up out of the blue. The first project is for my son-in-law. If you recall last year I made a tiger motif pillow at the request of my daughter. At the time he was on deployment and she wanted him to have something to hold on to at night until he came home. Well the pillow I made him last year was stolen from him unfortunately so he asked me if I could make him a new one. Of course I told him yes but I had one problem, I had purchased the material I used for the pillow years earlier and I can now no longer find it, however I was lucky enough to find a better one that he loves there only difference if the other was a small pillow and the new one will be a body sized pillow. This will not be a problem for him as he is now on shore duty and will not have to go out on a ship.

Well here is the pillow I made for him last year. If you’d like to recap the story you can find it here.


Here is the material for the new pillow. As you can see they both have the same feel to them only the one I made last year was a yellow tiger and the new one is a white. Well it turns out the white one is more significant to him and my daughter than the yellow one anyway.


I love this fabric. The panels have such a tropical feel to them. The particular piece I found is I’m sure for a wall hanging because it is very large. I was also able to find a coordinating fabric with small panels and a border. So now I have my front panel and my border but nothing coordinating for the back so I will be using a Kona solid.



The next new project I am beginning is a baby quilt or blanket. I young cousin and his girl friend are about to have a baby girl and I wanted them to have something special for her. I haven’t quite decided on the pattern or the fabric yet but hopefully soon because she will be here before we know it. I would have started this sooner but just had no time with my job and all.

So only 2 new projects as of right now this year and I’ll be working out a time management schedule for completing the others. Also I have come to a revelation that if I want to get my old quilts completed I will have to send them out to be quilted because there is just no other way for me to do it. I just don’t have the time to quilt everyone of my old quilt tops and still keep myself on schedule. I know this prospect is very scary because all of my quilt tops are special to me and I have never sent anything out for quilting so I don’t personally know anyone. It is like the first time I entrusted my daughter to her preschool teacher. You are sure the person is qualified for the job but your still scared of letting your baby out of your sight. We shall see. I will keep you posted each time I send out one to be quilted.

So until next time, happy sewing.

I'm Back

Hi everyone long time no see. I’m sorry to have been away for so long. You see I work for a very popular museum in the retail department. I began working there the summer of 2010. Within 3 months of being hired I was being trained to run one of the small stores within the complex. That training set me up for my bigger elevation in 2011 when I was given the responsibility of running a specified store to accompany the traveling exhibit on display at the museum. After that I was asked to do the same for the next traveling exhibit that arrived. You may ask well why are you tell us all of this, well this is the reason I was not blogging for so long. Sometimes life gets busier than expected and some things have to be sacrificed for the time.

Needless to say I am trying to get back into the swing of things and get back to blogging and sewing. Last year at this time I was starting in my participation in a number of quilt block-a longs. Well I was not able due to my busy schedule to finish the three quilts I began last year like I wanted to. However I have included them in my to do/to complete plan for 2012. With that said there are some changes that are coming in my life that is going to give me the opportunity to explore more with my sewing and textile exploration but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet.

I want to thank all the people who continued to follow my blog even when there was no new content for them to read, but I am back now and hope to have more for you in the near future. Please stay with me and thanks for your support.

Modern Solids Quilt Along: Block #1 & The Inspiration

Hi Everyone, well here it is the first block for the Modern Solids Quilt Along. At first I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out because I don’t normally work in all solids, in fact this will be my first all solid quilt top so this could be interesting. I love the color combo I was able to create and the construction of the first block works so well with it.

Now a little about my inspiration for this block. As I wrote in an earlier post I learned quilting initially when I went to an adult Girl Scout camp program for quilting. The second year I went there was a mix up and I was not able to going to the in town meeting so even thought I knew which book we were taking the quilt pattern from I had no idea which quilt was picked for the weekends project so I just picked one only to find out that it was the wrong one. The quilt book we used was Quilting Season by Debbie Caffrey but I can’t remember which quilt the group picked but the layout I picked is called Cinco de Mayo. Needless to say I never finished that particular quilt but I did later make a wall hanging from the same design for my daughter’s bedroom you can see below. She picked out the fabric herself. She liked the brilliant colors and I fussy cut the fish fabric to make it look more like a fancy fish bowl.

You can see the components I used for my block.

Well that was it, that’s is where I got the idea for my block. As I don’t have permission to publish any part of the book I made the decision to not post my step-by-step photos or any part of the book. If you are interested in checking out the book or any of Debbie Caffrey‘s other work please check out the her website.

My block is currently posted to the Flicker group for the Modern Solids QAL. So go check it out along with all the other fabulous blocks posted by the group members.

So until the next block, happy sewing.

Playing Catch-up: Quilt-along Project Review

Hi everyone looks like I let time get away from me again. I meant to have my update on my block-along blocks as I went along but I had other things, called life, change my direction. So here is my follow up post for Bloggers’ Block-a-palooza and the Cherry House Quilt-along.

First off I have to say I had a ball with these block a longs. It was so much fun waiting in anticipation for the next block/instructions to come out so that I could work on it. It was also fun to see everyone else’s interpretation through their choice of fabric and the little changes to design. It is always good getting feed back from others about how they saw my blocks or their reactions to how I saw their’s. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I want to thank John from Quilt Dad for hosting and arranging the Bloggers’ Block-a-palooza and for all of the quilt artist who took the time to create the block designs used for this quilt along. I was able to learn a few things, perfect a few techniques and get to know a few others within the quilt world. So I am very grateful for this experience.

I also want to thank Cherri from Cherry House Quilts for hosting her quilt-along. The design was very interesting even if it appeared to be very simple. I understand that creating a quilt like that is not easy but her instructions were straight forward and easy to follow. So I am also very grateful for this quilt along experience.

Neither of my quilts are finished at this point, because of budgeting reasons, but I will surly post them up as soon as they are so stay tuned.

I have recently begun a new quilt-along with Ryan and Charley at Patchwork2 called Modern Solids Quilt Along. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to participate because I knew I didn’t have that many solids in my stash. As I’ve written in past posts I haven’t been quilting for a while so my stash is filled with fabric from the past and at that time I did not use a lot of solids. I am trying to use to use these quilt a longs not only to help me hone certain techniques but to help me dwindle down my stash before I allow myself to by any new fabric unless it is absolutely needed for a specific project.

I have to admit I am finding this modern quilt movement very interesting. I was not sure how I felt about it at first because I have never been a fan of solid fabrics, however I am finding that solid fabrics have improved since the last time I bought some, so we shall see what my quilt outcome will be. As I said above I am trying to work only with my current stash of fabric and luckily I was able to find a group of solid fabrics in my stash that work very well together in my eyes so we shall see how they work out in the end.

Now head over to the Patchwork2 Modern Solids Quilt Along Flicker group to see what everyone else is doing. See you there.

So until the next block, happy sewing!

My Block #5 for Bloggers’ Block-a-palooza Quilt-along

Here is the next block for the Bloggers’ Block-a-palooza. Block #5 Geesey McNinePatch was created and presented by Kaye of Miss Print. I think this block has been MY most challenging block to day in this QAL. Kaye brought us a block filled with flying geese as well as another technique for creating them which I always welcome.

Let me first clarify why I felt so challenged by this block. Well it was the geese. Even though I have been doing geese in almost every block so far I have not had so many in one row till now. I have to say that I like Kaye’s technique for making them, I’m just not sure where I went wrong. In the end my geese did not fly straight so it left my block very crooked.

Rest assured though this block has not beaten me. I will be redoing this block when I have a chance to before the end of the QAL. I love a challenge and this definitely is one for me. I will get those geese to fly straight.

I have to just stop and say here that I really appreciate this and other quilt-alongs because they are giving me a real chance to grow as a sewist and quilter. Learning new techniques and block layouts is always fun. I think that is what has inspired me to make some of my own variations on these blocks. As you will see I didn’t do a regular nine patch in the center but ended up with what looks like a snow ball from a distance.


I’m not sure if I will be going back to the regular nine patch in my redo or not we shall see, it all depends on how I feel at that time.

Ok I present my finished block #5.


Note this picture was not taken at an angle. You can see how truly off my block is.

Now head over to the Flicker group to see what everyone else is doing. See you there.

So until the next block, happy sewing!