Milestone giveaway

Hey everyone!  My little blog has reached a milestone today ~ over 100,000 page views!  Kind of blows my mind actually.  So since it's a milestone day for me, and especially since I missed Giveaway Day @ Sew Mama Sew this time, I thought I'd offer up a little prize.  You might remember me showing these a few months ago....

I bought these two mini charm packs (2.5" squares) when we were on spring break, and since then they've been sitting here just looking cute.  A perfect gift to give to someone, I think!  Leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner in about a week's time.  Good luck, and thanks to all of you who have apparently visited me frequently!  I appreciate all of you.  :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2013 {bed quilt}

First off, to anyone visiting my blog for the first time, welcome!  And to all of my faithful quilty friends, thanks for coming back and continuing to support me (even when I fall off the face of the earth for a little while sometimes!).  And now, on with my quilt festival entry.....

Fussy Fairytales was my biggest quilting accomplishment since the last quilt festival, by far.  There are very few people that I think I would agree to make a bed-sized quilt for, but this family definitely qualifies.  The quilt was made for my little friend Eva, the daughter of one of my very good friends.

All of the supplies for the quilt were purchased by my friend, which was a first for me.  Usually I agonize over fabric choices, for weeks or even months sometimes, but this time I just got to enjoy using what someone else picked out.  It was awesome!

The blocks were a lot of fun to make, and they went really quickly using a stack & slash type technique, creating two blocks at a time.  Part of the fun was deciding which fabrics from the bundle to pair together, and which solid to use for the skinny frame in each.

The backing for this quilt was inspired by this photo on flickr.  It was a bit of a stretch for me as I'm used to doing very plain backings for quilts, but in this case of course the effort was worth it.  It makes the back just as fun and pretty as the front!

Quilt stats:

Finished size:  64" x 84"
Pattern:  Fussy Fairytales, by Kate Conklin

Fabric:  'Pretty Little Things' by Dena Designs for Free Spirit, a few Heather Ross prints and even some Echino, Kona Snow background, wide variety of Kona solids for skinny block frames, Kona Buttercup, Camellia & Petal for backing, Kona Cerise binding

Quilted by:  me, using off-white Aurifil 50wt cotton thread

Thank you all for visiting, and I hope that you'll go over and visit Amy's Creative Side to check out many of the other entries in the festival, in many different categories!  Just follow the link below by clicking on the button....

W.I.P. Wednesday

Last week I showed my stack of fabric, and this week I can show a peek of an almost finished Super Tote.  All that's left is the lining and zipper panel, which I have a good start on.  It's come together really nicely so far - I've been taking my time and going slowly and carefully since I'm nervous about messing it up!

So I've been enjoying getting back to the machine after a bit of a break, but I don't quite have the urge to quilt yet.  I have two different granny square projects on the go (one with small blocks, the other with jumbo blocks) which I haven't touched in ages, and this HST top...

....which would be the one that would be the easiest to pick back up since it's a completed top and the others aren't, but I'm just not quite in the mood yet.  I'm enjoying the bag project so much and I'm thinking that maybe a few more smaller sewing projects will be up next before I get back to some of these unfinished quilts.

Hoping you're all having a good, productive week.  Hopefully I'll have a finished tote to show before the end of the week!

May flowers

..... of a couple of different varieties!  I'm no gardener, but I have a few plants in my yard that need no love and yet every year, they do their thing.  This clematis surprises me every year.  It always grows and loads up with buds, then all of a sudden one day they just open!  Makes me happy.  :)

.... and flowers of a fabric variety .... I started working on my Super Tote yesterday (side note, I think that getting the pattern pieces ready probably took longer than the project itself will take!).  I'm skipping the interfacing on some pieces and am trying a bit of a modified quilt-as-you-go using a thin layer of batting and canvas backing for the bag front/back/exterior pocket pieces.  Here's a little peek at the first panel which I finished yesterday.

Back to the machine ....

W.I.P. Wednesday

Remember me??  :)  I haven't had much to show because I just haven't been sewing.  We've been busy, some of us have been sick off/on, I'd been having more regular work days (which have now slowed down again), we had company for a weekend and have been doing fun day trips as a family, and the weather is finally nice.  Need I say more!?  But lately my creative gears have been turning a bit more and I have some projects in mind.

Anna Graham of the Noodlehead blog released a new bag pattern this week, the Super Tote.  I really liked how it looked - the shape, the fact that it has a zip, exterior and interior pockets.....I was sold!  It took me two trips to the fabric store to decide what I wanted, but in the end this is what I left with:

The black denim (which I've decided to use the wrong side of because it's lighter in colour and more to my liking) will be the side gussets and the handles, the floral print will be the front, back, and front pocket, and the plaid print will be the lining, interior pockets and recessed zipper panels.  I'm rather excited about it, even though the woman at the fabric store said "that's an interesting selection of fabrics you have there".  Hmmmmm.  hahaha

Also, as you can see above I treated myself to a couple of books last week, both of Elizabeth Hartman's patchwork books.  I'm really drawn to her designs and am hoping to find some inspiration for what to do with my Notting Hill fabric. 

Hopefully I'll be around a bit more now, especially since I have some firm project plans and not just ideas floating around in my head!

Hope you're all well.

Guess what? I SEWED!

Yes people, I actually switched on the sewing machine this week!  I have done very very little in recent weeks, with spring break and nicer weather and some work days here and there, but this week I sat down and put together these two blocks for the Joy circle of do.Good Stitches.

Rebecca asked that we each make 2 Interlocking Seasons blocks, using pink, purple, and peach. These are intricate blocks, and I'll be honest that it was quite a challenge, but in the end I am quite thrilled that I figured it out and I love the result.

This block is made in 4 sections, but see that little white square in the centre?  That little square is added at the end and is not part of any of the 4 sections, and this tiny little square is what caused me problems.  It took a bit of trial an error, but in the end here is what worked for me:  instead of pressing seams to the side as suggested in the pattern, I pressed all seams open.  I don't know if this matters really, as usual it is a matter of personal preference and how you feel you can achieve the most accurate results, BUT I did find that the only way I could easily accomplish the last bit was to press the seams open for the final steps (if you're looking at the pattern, this is steps 1-4 of the "Combine the 4 panels....." part).  Once I figured that out, the block was really able to come together.

The white setting triangles are added at the end to set the block on point, and the size of triangles used gives you an assembled block that has plenty of wiggle room for trimming to size, so even if the interlocking centre part ends up a bit off-kilter, which mine did, the finished block can still end up a perfect 12.5" square.

Give it a try if you're feeling up for a challenge!  You'll be glad you did.