A thrill...
There's no denying that holding your book in your hands for the first time is just that. A huge thrill!
I'm gonna hold off on showing you the inside for now but you'll all see it plenty in the future...
The beautiful style photography in the book was done by Bethany Nauert and I had such a good time working with her to style all of the shots. I also hit up every single friend I have with a beautiful home (I'm lucky to have so many!) so it's fun to see their spaces featured in the book along with the quilts!
I can't wait to show you more!!
Partial seams
Thanks for all of your kind comments about the quilt top I just finished. After Googling around a bit I realized that I was using the wrong term - I didn't use a lot of Y seams (you can see what those are here), I used a lot of partial seams. Meaning that I had to inset pieced portions into other pieced portions. I put together a straight forward little tutorial to explain what I mean. A lot of you might already know how this works, but in case some of you don't...
One thing before we get started - it's key that you use a uniform 1/4" seam allowance for all of this piecing or else it won't all line up correctly.
So let's say you want to piece together this little bit of plaid:
It's pretty clear how you sew together most of it...
But what to do with the center bit that falls right in the middle of all four portions?
First sew it onto the lower corner of the upper left portion - but leave the top of the seam unsewn (hence partial seams!)
Then sew on the bottom left portion and then the bottom right portion. Three portions are now sewn to the center piece and now you'll use that unsewn part of the seam to sew on the final portion.
With the top right portion placed on the lower right portion, right sides together, sew them together. (BTW - think that it's time for me to get myself a new cutting mat?!?)
When you're done, your piecing will look like this.
Finally, finish up by folding your piecing down the middle, right sides together, and sew the remaining seam until you get down to the already sewn part of the seam. You're all done!
See? Easy enough! It gets more involved when you have a ton of these partial seams in your quilt top (there were a LOT in the top I just finished), but I find that having all the cut out pieces displayed on my design wall, thinking it through, assembling it piece by piece, and then portion by portion, works well for me. I don't think I could think it through if I didn't have it all laid out in front of me though. I'm a visual person. I need to see it to get it. This is just one more reason I think that a design wall is one of the most valuable things you can have in your sewing space!
First Quilt Top of 2012!
Just finished up this quilt top yesterday. I'm so happy that I'm feeling better and am wanting to get back into the sewing room again these days!
I went the extra mile with this top and sewed it up using Y seams. I only wanted pieced seams where it made sense in terms of the weave of the plaid ... Though I'm gonna go ahead and call it: Y seams are a pain! But I'm really happy with the end result
I also matched up the stripy fabric in the one place where it had to be pieced. And now I need to quilt it!!
Hello 2012!
Happy New Year everyone! Hope that you are all looking forward to all that 2012 will be. Here's a mosaic of a lot of the sewing I did in 2011.
Things that I realize by looking at it all in one place: I've really moved away from using white as the negative space in my quilts, and I'll never tire of improv pieced blocks that are just lotsa lil' squares together. Actually, I shouldn't say never. I used to sew wonky log cabins this often and I moved on from those! Makes me wonder what will be next!
In early 2011 I also finished sewing 20 more quilts that I can't show you yet because they are all in Modern Minimal. Can't wait to start showing them to you in the next couple of months when the book comes out!
2012 is going to be a big year for me! The next book comes out and I'm going to become a mother. Whoa. That last thing is a big one!
There are also big things in store for The Modern Quilt Guild! Did you see that we kicked off 100 Days of Modern Quilting? And there's more - much more - coming down the pike for The MQG! What a great year it's going to be. Hope that you're all just as excited about it as I am!
Some gift sewing
Only had to make one gift for Christmas this year. A set of place mats!
I went ahead and used my pattern that I posted a while back.
They sew up so quickly and easily! I used a Moda Crossweaves as the background and three different shot cottons for the lines. I'm addicted to these solids that have some added texture... I wish I had every color there is!
Janome's Friend-to-Friend Challenge
Have you guys seen that Janome is holding this big ol' challenge? They are working to build their sewing and craft community, and one of the ways they are doing this is by expanding their friends and followers on Facebook. Here's the challenge part: their goal is to hit 20,000 Likes on Facebook. When they hit that magic mark, they will give away an amazing Friend-to-Friend prize bundle: TWO great Janome Pink Ribbon machines plus a giant mystery bag full of patterns, books, fabric, notions and more from many of their featured Janome friends. Lots of great stuff for you and a friend to share!
I love my Horizon so I am super excited to be one of Janome America's featured friends and I’ve contributed one of my books to that mystery bag of goodies!
It's easy to enter. First, click over to janome.com where you can read a little about me and the MQG, as well as some of Janome’s other great sewing friends. Leave a comment on the article, and you are automatically entered to win. You can leave a new comment each day, increasing your odds of winning. Then, click to Janome's Facebook page, give them a "Like" and encourage your friends to do the same. There are almost 18,000 now and the sooner they get to 20,000, the sooner they'll draw a random winner from the janome.com comments for that amazing Friend-to-Friend prize bundle!
You can read more about it here. Good luck!!
Sew, Mama, Sew! Modern Block of the Month - December
It's up!
Also, thank you so much everyone for your kind comments about my last post. We're very excited!!
The news in my world...
...is that I'm pregnant!! Needless to say, we're very excited over here. Though it's been a rough couple of months. Boy did that "morning" (WTF with that term?!? it's all. freakin'. day. long.) sickness knock me out. I completely lost my sewing mojo and it has been getting me down. But things are getting better now! I've been feeling better and have actually been able to get myself into the sewing room a bit more. We still have to wait about a month to know if it's a boy or a girl and then the baby sewing is certain to start in full force!
And because I can't post with no photo at all... Here's a couple of ornaments I recently sewed up for an LAMQG swap.
Happy holidays to each and every one of you!!
Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway day!
Update: the giveaway is now closed - the winner is Stephanie and I've emailed her! Thanks everyone for entering! Figured I'd would join in the fun of Sew, Mama, Sew's giveaway day!
I'm giving away a fat quarter each of this rainbow of fabrics! And yup, the purple has to be a solid because I have no purple in my stash at all.
Leave me a comment and you'll be in the running to win. I'm happy to mail internationally and the giveaway is open through this week. Check out all of the other giveaways over at Sew, Mama, Sew!
Sew, Mama, Sew! Modern Block of the Month - November
Posted in early December!
Getting started...
A few years back I made these quilts for some twin baby girls...
Not much like what I'm doing these days, huh? Well the twins are lucky enough to have welcomed a younger sister into the world, and their parents requested a new quilt in the same colors. I don't have a lot of those fabrics anymore, but I have some... so I pulled a bunch of pinks and greens.
We'll see what I come up with!
For those of you in the States, hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll be busy cooking and spending time with family for the rest of the week. See you next week!
Some new fabric
My mother was in Japan recently and was nice enough to bring me back some fabric! I didn't even put in a request - she just knows me! (I did inherit my love of fabric from her after all...)
My favorites are these cats, bunnies and owls.
I mean that lil' grey striped cat?? Seriously! These are definitely going to be used in some baby quilts!
The winner of the Little Bits Quilting Bee book is Vicki! Congrats and look out for an email from me.
Little Bits Quilting Bee blog tour
Today is my stop on the Little Bits Quilting Bee blog tour!
First off, this might seem odd, but I have to just comment on the actual physical feel of this book. It's hardcover and has a pocket on the inside holding all of the templates you need for the included patterns. it's just a solid, pretty book. Rare to come across a hardcover quilting book like this and I have to say, I really like it.
The focus of the book is patterns to use precuts with. Now if you read my blog and keep up with my quilting, you'll know that I simply never use precuts. That said, any and all of these patterns can be used with your stash - either yardage or scraps!
There's also 20 pattern in the book - a lot! There's definitely something for everyone considering just how many patterns are included.
The book also contains loads of important info - all you need to know to make a quilt and so many resources and references as well. Along with being super informative, if I had to use one adjective for the book, it would be cozy. There's just something about the photography and the great hand drawn illustrations that make reading the book a comfy way to spend some time!
Do you want to win a copy? Chronicle Books have been nice enough to donate one! Just leave a comment here and I'll pick a winner on Thursday. U.S. shipping only (sorry!).
And follow along with the rest of the tour:
Tuesday, November 15 – West Coast Crafty & Foxy Art Studio Wednesday, November 16 – Patch Andi Thursday, November 17 – In Color Order Friday, November 18 – Kristin La Flamme & Camp Follower Bags & Quilts
Monday, November 21 – Quilt Dad Tuesday, November 22 – Pat Sloan & Pleasant Home
Habitat Challenge quilt
The LAMQG had its November meeting last night. It was time for the reveal of our projects for the Habitat Challenge. You can see all of the projects here if you'd like. We Skyped with Jay McCarroll and it was a a ball...He is a total crack up.
Then he hung out with us as we all showed our projects. He was so great about giving individual feedback to everyone!
Here's the quilt I made. It's similar to the other one I recently made.
For the challenge we were allowed to add all the solids we wanted, but only use the Habitat line otherwise. I took these pictures after washing the quilt so it's nice and crinkly!
I used more of the line on the back, along with my go to Kona Coal.
On to other things! The winner of Quilting Arts' Quilt Scene magazine is Janine - keep an eye out for an email from me!
And finally, Action Kivu gets 50% of the proceeds from sales of jewelry from Ember Arts through Dec. 7th. They have some really beautiful jewelry - maybe you wanna do some Christmas shopping AND do a good deed?
Fall Market & a giveaway
Market is HUGE.
This photo shows less than half of it... It's absolutely enormous and it takes a long time to walk the whole floor. Anything you can imagine that is related to quilting is there... From long arms to notions to fabric to embellishments. It can be overwhelming. I got home and realized I didn't take enough photos and besides, I'm sure you're seeing recaps on other blogs (and if not Katy took loads of great photos) and check out True Up for pictures of all of the new fabric lines coming out. There were the usual handful of booths I found pretty but it's a big blur of STUFF.
Along with that, and less of a blur, are all of the people! It's sorta like summer camp for quilters - all of your friends you saw last time are there again this time and you don't get enough sleep and you have a ball. It's really just so much fun. Everyone is also working hard, (it's a trade show after all) but it's a really good time to catch up with everyone in person.
Also released at Market is Quilting Arts' Quilt Scene! A big ol' magazine with lots of content.
I have a place mat project in there...
...and I knew my sewing space was being featured too but I was surprised to open up the magazine and find a two page spread on it!
So who wants a copy? Leave a message here and I'll pick a winner early next week!
Modern Circle Pillow
I'm just home from Quilt Market and it was an amazingly fun whirlwind. I'll post a bit more about it later this week but meanwhile, I have a pillow pattern up over on Janome's site.
Busy quilting
Making big progress on my Habitat Challenge quilt!
I don't know when I'm gonna move on from the straight line quilting... so in love with it these days!
Sew, Mama, Sew! Modern Block of the Month - October
It's up!
Modern Minimal: 20 Bold & Graphic Quilts
So guess what? I have another book coming out! The title says it all really... 20 modern, minimal quilt patterns. Check out the cover:
Stash Books is releasing it and it comes out early next year. You can pre-order it now and see a little bit more here!