Blueberry Buckle

Happy New Quilting Year!

I'm so thankful to leave behind the craziness of the past two years, and look forward to what God has in store for 2012. Our insane, delayed and complicated move (from our house in one state, our rental in another, and all our "stuff" in a storage unit, haha) is over and Eric and I are under one roof. We're making our new house into a home we hope to enjoy for years to come. Josh and Drew (now ages 15 and 16) have settled in and Julia is home from college, preparing for her wedding in April. The older kids are settled into their lives, and we look forward to many visits.

The studio is still a work in progress (a victim of the move), but every day brings it a step closer to completion. I find myself wanting to return to creating the things I love most, and I'm content to begin the new year with a hand-applique project.

Orange Peel Quilt from Remembering Adelia by Kathleen Tracy. Freezer paper applique (a la Alex Anderson) using my favorite straw needles and YLI silk thread. The straw needles are amazingly thin and the perfect length for stitching. Three neutral colors of the thread are all you need to blend with any colors of fabric you may be stitching. There are 64 blocks in this quilt, and I'm s-l-o-w at applique, but it's a great, relaxing, television project. I'm enjoying every stitch of this sweet little quilt.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I Joined the Single Girl Support Group

Yep, I did.

It's a group of us on flickr who are making the Single Girl Quilt, hehe.

 

I started working on mine last November, but with the holidays, I had set it aside. This groups is just the kick I need to get going!

This is a fun quilt, and really not difficult at all. I'm so inspired by the quilts everyone is making, and I love that even new quilters nowadays aren't intimidated by templates and curved piecing. 20-something years ago, this would have been considered an advanced pattern. Go young quilters! You're awesome.

I have lots and lots of Kona Cotton solids and Quilter's Linen in the shop if you need any for your quilt!

 

Single Girl Auditions

One quilt pattern that caught my eye earlier this year is Single Girl by Denyse Schmidt. I love that she's designed a funky, modern quilt that's a new take on a very formal, traditional design. That I kept going back to look at the pattern as well as all the Single Girl quilt photos on flickr meant that I was destined to make a Single Girl quilt, too.

For myself. Not a single girl, mind you. I'm very happily married to Eric, thank you very much, and I want this quilt for myself, haha. I saw the Free to Grow organic cotton prints by Nancy Mims for Robert Kaufman and knew they were the right fabrics for me. Girly but not froo-froo. =)

 

But what to use for the background? Initially, I thought Kona Cotton...in Ash or Coal or Snow.

 Ash

 Coal

 Snow


Really, any of these would work with Free to Grow.

BUT...

I just received the first shipment of Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman for the shop, and I lurve it so much that it's going in this special quilt. Quilter's Linen, which is actually 100% cotton, is cleverly printed to look like linen...subtle variations of shade that give the fabric a the look of texture and dimension. It looks so cozy and natural, and it's very soft and the colors are fabulous!

Let the auditions begin!

 Blue. Love this! Just not "me".

 Charcoal. Love this, too! But too dark for me.

 Cocoa. A contender. I love brown.

 Leaf. A very pretty color, but not right for this project.

 Taupe. Another shade of light brown would work better.

 Teal. Zing! This is it! The photo just doesn't do it justice, but I think I'm going with the Teal. It's actually more of a dark royal than teal, IMO. And it works. Lots of contrast so the prints stand out, and a color I can live with (a lot of). If I feel about it the same way when I pick up this project again, I'll go with it, haha.

In the meantime, I've got a craft show in less than 3 weeks and I've decided to focus on gifts for under $25. I'm searching the web for ideas and inspiration. They need to be things I can stitch up in quantity, using fabrics and supplies I have on hand, and do not involve zippers. Ahem.

Can you believe it's November, already? Seriously, though, this year is flying by.

Happy quilting!

Sue

 

Give Me Some Figgy Pudding and...Another Giveaway!

I told my husband this afternoon that it's a good thing I have Blueberry Buckle to keep me busy or I might be an unhappy football widow this fall. Eric and the boys watched all afternoon, and Eric's on his third game right now...I like football ok, but I lost interest after the first game...

So I finished squaring up all the Figgy Pudding (by Moda) framed squares and assembled them into a very pretty quilt top.

 
I'm going to have a hard time giving this one up, it turned out so nice. It's for the shop, though, and I am looking forward to playing with more fabric this week.

Like Shade Garden by Michelle Engel Bencsko for Henry Glass Fabrics. I took it out this afternoon, and I have to tell you that it is nice. It is lovely, surprisingly soft and I'm so impressed that it is a full 44" wide. Quality stuff.

 
Would you like to win some? How about 8 fat quarters, one of each print in your choice of the Coralbell or Bluebell colorway?

Ok, that's the prize for this week's giveaway. 

So what are the rules, you ask? This is a really good prize, in my opinion, so you'll have to do a little work.

1. Visit my etsy shop and click on Henry Glass Fabrics.

2. Leave a comment on this post, linking to a pattern, a flickr photo, a blog post, or what have you, that shows a quilt, garment, or other sewn item that would be nice for the Shade Garden Line.

3. Tell ALL of your friends to do the same, because (again) I will only award the prize if I receive 20 or more comments to this post that meet criteria of #2.

4. The comments will be closed on Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 8:00 am. If there are 20 (or more!) comments, I will randomly select one lucky person to receive the fabric.

5. The winner will be announced post-haste and the prize mailed as soon as we exchange all pertinent mailing information.

Have fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can come up with!

Sue

 

All Ziggy and Zaggy

I had completed a few Figgy Pudding (by Basic Grey) quilt tops that will soon be in my Etsy shop, and found myself with one more set of fat quarters from the collection.

What to do with them? Enter my friend Erin, who is an amazingly talented quilter BTW, who suggested making this zigzag quilt.

I thought the fabrics would lend themselves well to the design, but I needed to change it up a bit to (a) eliminate the use of a solid fabric for every other row (I wanted to stick with the pretty prints) and (b) use every possible square inch of the fat quarters because I am frugal and I didn't want any to go to waste.

I was able to make two tops from the fat quarters: one of the "light" fabrics that are primarily blue and white, and one from the "warm" fabrics that are red, green and brown. Each took 16 fat quarters and the finished quilts will measure approximately 57" x 62".

 

I love them both! What do you think?