Thursday, May 30, 2013

Japanese x&+ Blocks

Since getting back from Portland, and finishing Mod GeoCruiser, I've finally been working on some Japanese x&+ Bee blocks.  Finally have the May blocks ready to mail off.  Now if I could only get my BOMs for May done before June 1st I would be back on schedule!

Here are the x&+ blocks that I have done so far:


These bee blocks are finally turning out the right size b/c I have FINALLY figured out the scant quarter inch seam!  Am I the last person on the planet to figure that out?  No wonder all of my blocks have always been smaller than they were supposed to be!  So relieved to catch on finally! ;)

I think this one should be an homage to the Centers for Disease Control, don't you? ;) hehe



Playing in my scraps for these blocks has been fun, but also mind blowing b/c I don't know HOW they multiply so fast.. they are so out of control right now..






It's driving me a little crazy, and ever since I made some crumb fabric for the bird on my MIL's "The Bird" quilt, I have been dying to make some more, so that's what I did this afternoon for about a half hour.  So fun!  Definitely will be doing more of this.  I'm envisioning a quilt called "Taking Out the Trash". Not trying to match or anything.. just grab and sew.




The time is getting closer for the Make it Right Challenge projects to go up on the Art Gallery Fabrics Pinterest boards.  If you're as excited as I am about seeing all of the projects, be sure you are following Art Gallery Fabrics on Pinterest.  You can follow them by clicking HERE. I caved the other day and posted a pic of my project on FB and Twitter if you want to see how it turned out. I have only shown little peeks on the blog but you can see the whole thing there.  But I will still wait to post the photos here until the contest goes live on June 7th.

Let's see..other randomness.. KG end of year program was last night.. I got emotional but didn't want to be the crazy bawling mom in the second row so choked back my tears the whole time and then ended up with a headache b/c of it.  Maybe I should have just let the dam burst!



You see, when I signed the consent form for chemo as a 19 year old, they told me the poss. side effects one of which was that I may never have kids..but that if they didn't treat me, I wouldn't be around to find out if I would or not.  So when I see him in moments like this, my heart overflows, and it all threatens to spill out of my eyeballs in the form of happy tears.  Joy.  Kindergarten went by so fast!!

Gonna link up with Really Random Thursday as this post is actually kind of random, and TGIFF, as I have finished my bee blocks for May! And Mod GeoCruiser (see FB or Twitter).  But I'll be posting all about it on June 7th. Oh, I'll be in Nashville, TN on June 7th.  Another random fact.  Visiting my bro and SIL and their new family member, Maude the Old English Sheepdog.  We are very excited to play with this big ball of fluff.



Thanks for dropping in to visit! Happy Thursday and if it's almost the weekend where you live, have a great weekend!

xoxo



other links: confessions of a fabric addict, keep calm, do something crafty, shine on, chic on a shoestring, weekend wander, sew many ways, freedom friday, craftionary, sew crafty angel
a crafty soiree, show & tell
Monday, May 27, 2013

Ric Rac Designs by Jodie~More Market Fun!

One of my favorite parts of going to Quilt Market was getting to meet Jodie from RicRac.  Remember Reubenita the Fashionista?  Well, that was Jodie's Reuben pattern, and that was when I was first exposed to Jodie's awesomeness. I was so excited to see the original Reuben, from the pattern cover. :)




She and her daughter traveled all the way from Australia to come to Quilt Market.  And they were so much fun to talk to..  telling us about the little quirks they find in our American culture and how they differ from those Down Under. Here they are setting up their booth.. just wait until you see it all done!




Before I go any further, I should say that I have drooled over this one particular google-famous selvage dress for a really really long time.. 



I had never put two and two together re: who made the dress, I have just always admired it.  Don't remember where I first saw it.. it might have even been this post on Jodie's blog back in 2008..I can't remember.. but I still didn't put it together that SHE was the one who made THE DRESS!! Such an amazing piece of artistry. 

Well, imagine my utter shock when I went back the next day to say hi to Jodie and her daughter (recognize the girl in the dress?) and saw it in the booth!!  In PERSON!  My jaw hit the floor!! I was so excited to see it in person, and to find out that it was Jodie who made it!  Truly one of the best moments of the trip!


Of course the rest of her booth, and seeing all of her other creatures in person was lots of fun too.  Her patterns are great, and easy to follow, and oh so sweet!! I kind of wanted to stay there and play all day. :)




Really, they are so sooo cute!!





So many to pick from!
























I realize now that I never made Reubenita a boyfriend, like I had planned to, maybe I should work on that.

Or try a different one of Jodie's patterns.



It was such a pleasure to meet her in person and her booth was so colorful and adorable and amazing!!
















Love, love!!



I heard from my blog friend Sharon at Lillabelle Lane that Jodie has made it home from Market safe and sound, and if you'd like to see how some of Jodie's patterns make up, you should visit Sharon's blog b/c she sews up lots of RicRac patterns into the cutest things!!!

You can also visit Jodie at her blog, Vintage RicRac.  I will leave you with one last pic of the dress, which contains donated selvages from all over the world. It really is so amazing.  *swoon* My picture doesn't do it justice at all!



Thanks for popping over for a read. :)  Have a great week!

xoxo

Friday, May 24, 2013

Friday Finish! Mod GeoCruiser..

I finally finished my Make it Right Challenge project, as in "all" done. Binding on, picture taken, form filled out and emailed off to enter into the challenge. Yay!  I can't wait to see all of the other entries.  It was lots of fun using my Right Angles panels and my imagination to come up with something fun.

I have shared the name of it, in the title of this post, so maybe you can guess what it is now.. :)

Here is the binding.. I love a photo of a rolled up binding..


You can kind of see the plaid-ish quilting pattern I did on it.  It's almost twin size, so it wasn't easy to get through my machine but I got it done.  Wow, do I need lots more practice though!!

Pure Elements Light Citron makes up most of the back, except for a strip of the Moonstone, b/c I had just enough left over to splice them together and have a backing big enough.  



I wasn't being really really specific about the line spacing so I would call it "organic" plaid quilting, though if it got too far out there, I might have had to call it "wonky" plaid. ;)

Here's a photo of the back and the quilting.. I wish I was better with the basting.. Ugh.  Practice practice.



And here's a photo that I kind of "doctored" up to show the quilt a little, but I want to save the photos of the front for when the Challenge projects go up online over at Art Gallery, on June 7th.  So you might have to use a little imagination for this one..

But it's DONE, it really is!!  Now I need to catch up on some BOMs and Bee blocks. Whew!  A little behind with those but there are still a few days left in May.



Happy Sewing and Happy Weekend!

xoxo



links: TGIFF, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, crazy mom quilts, Keep Calm, do something crafty, anything goes, Friday Favs, LAFF, shine on fridays, weekend wrap-up
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Make it Right Challenge Project

Still riding a bit of a Quilt Market high over here, but at the same time, frantically sewing to finish my project to enter into Art Gallery's Make it Right Challenge featuring the Angela Walters Textures Right Angle panel.

Today I finished quilting it, and now it just needs binding and pictures before I fill out the entry form and email the photos.  Here are a few sneak peeks. (Angela posted one on her blog today too.) I drew out something fun on graph paper about a month ago, and set out to make it, a first for me but so much fun.  (Just don't judge if my points are perfect, b/c well, they usually aren't) ;)



Any guesses yet?



It's a very unorthodox way to use a panel..I chopped it up basically and sewed it all back together.




I will post all about it soon.  I have seen a couple of quilts on Pinterest using the panels and they are all gorgeous!

Last but not least, I have a request..  I have a friend in Moore, OK whose house was heavily damaged in the tornado there, and while their family is okay, the nine year old daughter of their family friends did not survive the storm..such a devastating tragedy..  please keep them all in your prayers.  It would be so much appreciated.

xoxo

Sunday, May 19, 2013

More fun at Quilt Market

The Hotness of Quilt Market.. and the Quilting Hottie button... who knew that passing out these buttons would be so much fun?!


Tula Pink, Tula's mom (I like to affectionately refer to her as "Mrs. Pink"--she was uber cool & so nice!), Angela Walters, Valori Wells, Scott Hansen, Rob Appell, were all wearing Hottie buttons.. everyone we met was so sweet and down to earth, and fun! It couldn't have been a better experience!  I wish I could have been there today for the show and for take down tonight. (Had to leave the show a little early Saturday, take the light rail to the airport and fly home last night..when you're flying standby for free you have to grab the flight that is open-ugh.) *sniff* But I really can't complain.

Beth was originally going to bring only 200 but I surprised her and ordered 400 more.. so glad I did! We started the show with 600 buttons and passed out almost ALL of them! (It wasn't a gimmick for QM either.. Beth has been passing them out for years at her trunk shows and lectures.) :)

In fact, Angela Walters WANTED a Hottie button, b/c she saw it on her friend.. so she came over to the booth, which was conveniently located right across from the Handi Quilter booth, where she did a demo, to get one. :)



Her demo was interesting and kind of made me want to try out one of those big beastly machines. :) It inspired me to try a little FMQ practice after I got home on my machine.. and I wasn't as intimidated.  Thanks Angela!  I might actually move on from straight lines yet!



I didn't realize that Valori Wells' family owns the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, OR until I listened to her School House presentation.  I visited there about ten years ago, and that is where I bought my first FQ set! So I think I can blame her for my fabric obsession. ;)  hehe  She was so sweet when I gave her a hottie button.. see the booth in the background on the left, the brown one?  Ours was about three over to the left from that.  Handi Quilter was right out in front of us, in an island booth. Valori's booth was gorgeous.



We had the rather "loud" booth in an otherwise sea of neutral colors, lots of brown, burlap, wool, etc.  Which is great.  They had GORgeous things, but.. which one of these is not like the others? haha It wasn't planned to be that way, but there it was.  The pennants I made came in handy!



We had soo much fun!!

I sure would have liked to give Hottie buttons to Amy Butler and David Butler, too, but missed them on the first day.  Didn't see them again after that.  Did see David at Amy's School House though, the day before Market opened.. he was about to talk about his new line.. I would say he's def. a Quilting Hottie..



Here is a pic of his display..



Katie Pedersen, of Sew Katie Did and co-author of the book Quilting Modern with Jacquie Gehring (Tallgrass Prairie Studio) came by the booth..



..and we were giving her a button and admiring her patchwork skirt that her friend made for her.. it was sooo cute!



She was so sweet, we had no idea who she was as her name tag was flipped around, and Beth asked her if she had a shop, and she said she was an author. Further into the conversation she said that she co-wrote a book with Jacquie Gehring, and they were doing a book signing down the aisle in ten minutes and we should come, WHAT?  Okay!!! Beth stayed in the booth, but they were so sweet, they gave me a signed copy for her, too! Thanks Katie!  And Jacquie was soo nice, I LOVE her.  I still can't get over her gun quilt and when I mentioned it, she told me it was recently in the Wall Street Journal! They were soo sweet. Here is Katie telling Jacquie that she recruited me from down the aisle to come to the signing. :)



I had the time of my life.. the most fun any mom can have when she "runs away from home with her girlfriends" for almost a week! :) I have so many pics it's unreal.. it was so much fun to just wander and take photos of all of the booths.  

I will close with a couple of photos of display quilts that were amazing.




I have a couple of fun ideas for future posts but feel like I need to get permission first to post the photos. :)  I'll work on it.  Until then, I'll be working on my Make it Right Challenge project and hoping that I get it done on time to enter.  

Thanks for reading, hope you've had a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by. I am home, having Market withdrawals now.. :/ Have a great week!

xoxo

Friday, May 17, 2013

Quilt Market Photos..

It officially opened today.. Day 1 of Market, but day 3 for us.  Beth got lots of good feedback on her School House presentation from people who came by the booth, and we passed out brochures, and cards and buttons, and then this evening, Kathy drove us to her house for dinner. She cooked us such a wonderful dinner, and her and her husband are just so sweet!  Hard to believe we only just met her on Wednesday!

Then.. it had to happen sometime as we're not getting that much sleep and have been on our feet for the better part of three days, but we finally lost it and spent about 30 min laughing uncontrollably while trying to talk to each other when we got back to our hotel room. Yes, we are grown women. haha  

Here are some pics of the day..

Michael Miller had this gigantic swan paddle boat in the booth..

..and I loved these lines..



Jodie from RicRac is here from Australia (I told her Hi for your Sharon!) and she brought her amazing selvage dress!!  I was so excited to see it in person.  I have drooled over it online for a long time now, and it is just so amazing.

I think I just might do a whole post on her booth b/c there were so many cute things in it and she is such a lovely person. (and her daughter too!) :) But seeing the selvage dress in person was def. a highlight of the trip!!




Bikes seemed to show up a lot.. which is kind of funny.. b/c I've had them on the mind a lot lately too.. you'll understand why eventually. ;)

Here are some more colorful and fun booths..


..lots of tissue flowers at Kanvas Studio..


Another bicycle.. :)





Henry Glass was all about going places.

This one was fun..
















Tula Pink's booth.. again.. the amazingness of the butterfly quilt is unbelievable. She was signing books today and was so kind and accommodating, and witty, and fun with everyone she met.


This booth was sooo pretty!!




Everything in this booth is made out of batting, even the reindeer!


Here from Osaka..


Heather Bailey..















Off to sleep before another long day tomorrow.. I have to leave tomorrow to fly home, before the day is over.  Fortunately the light rail runs right past the convention center and straight to the airport, so I can leave from there.. This has been the most fun!  I hope Beth has lots of sales orders tomorrow.  Fingers crossed for her.

Thanks for checking in..
xoxo

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