Monday Monday

Another Monday- did you all have a great weekend?

What did you do for St Patty's Day? Something fun and green, I hope!









The last Project Quilting challenge was posted yesterday. If you are interested in participating, here is the link. I have no idea of what I am going to do for this one yet. Must think.

Meanwhile there has been a little bag making going around here...

happy quilting,
Kate

Project Quilting- Challenge 5- Print Publications

This was a fun challenge- grab a magazine, or a catalog, or any print publication and turn to page 28. Find something on that page to be the inspiration for your design.

Of course, it is tempting to sneak a peak at page 28 and then choose- but that is not cool!

I had three publications that I pulled from a stack, Coastal Living, Art Journaling and Where Women Create.

All great magazines- how could I go wrong?

I mixed them up in a pile, no peeking! and grabbed one.

Where Women Create, Autumn 2011.  Cool.



Now onto page 28- awesome! I remember reading this page and loving the chandelier! I think Heather Bailey is a lucky girl to have this! I love it!



Now what to do?

I was really hoping that for once, I would start this earlier in the week, but that would just not be my style.






So, I spent the week house hunting. And occasionally thinking about the project. Finally it was Friday night  and I was nowhere. Burned out from house hunting- FYI. real estate around here is flying off the shelves and you see a house and two seconds later, it is under contract! Craziness! Creates this heightened sense of urgency and anxiety.

Anyway, back to Project Quilting! So I showed dear hubbie my very tentative ideas, he made a suggestion and viola! An great idea started to form.

Saturday am- more house hunting, in the snow! It was wet and heavy snow but the roads weren't too bad. And we did not get the 8-14" that were predicted so that helped.

Finally I was back at the apartment and ready to begin.

A bin of scraps.

Trimming scraps.

Sewing scraps. A little hand drawing, fusible, machine stitching, quilting....


Done!

Spring on a Shelf

I had decided to use both elements that I liked in the picture- the swirls of the green chandelier and that shelf of fabric that just looked so pretty and spring-y.

I repeated the flower in the quilting in the upper arch of the shelf. 

FYI- I quilted with Aurifil thread- 50 wt white and a really pretty yellow. 

Lucky that I had them in my stash! Lovely thread.

Yea! I managed to squeak this one out. Happy girl. Loving how bright and happy this little quilt looks.

And if you get a chance to pop over to the Project Quilting Flickr pool- there are some truly amazing quilts over there! Check it out!

Have a great week everyone!

happy quilting,

Kate

Project Quilting Challenge 4

Project Quilting- another challenge and another quilt done!


This time I did not procrastinate quite as much, but almost! Hubby and I were scheduled to take a screen printing class on Sat (more on that another time) so I had to get the quilt done before that.


One of the things I am trying to do during these challenges is only use what I have. No shopping for extra fabric, no shopping for embellishments etc... I should have enough stuff!






This week's challenge was "Wish upon a Star".

I love stars. Pieced stars, appliquéd stars, quilted stars, star buttons.... so this should be fun! I pondered the quilt design all week- pieced stars? Appliqué? what to do?

I even printed out the words to the Disney song, Wish upon a Star for inspiration. Finally on Friday, I just started to go for it with a partial plan in place. Good thing I was not totally set on one idea as things did not go as planned.

First- no blue! My first three Project quilting quilts all had blue in them, so no blue!

Second- no sawtooth stars. They are my go to star so I needed to do something else.

Third, I decided to put words on my quilt and luckily I found some great fabric pens to use in my stash.

Fourth- the theme: Hedge Your Bets, Wish upon a Galaxy!

I did a cross between the Big Bang and a galaxy of stars. I made wonky log cabin blocks and then cut them on an angle.

The center of the log cabin is traditionally red to signify the hearth of the home- for me, it is the center of the big bang where all the stars were "born".

Then a ring of appliquéd stars. Then the words.





A little stitching around the stars, circular quilting, binding, more words and the quilt was born!



Side note- the challenges this week were not only the one issued by Project Quilting. My machine truly is not working well and so I could not embellish the stars with machine stitched blanket stitch. I was down to a straight stitch only machine.

 

Second, fabric pens do not last forever. I probably got the pens 6 years ago and they only lasted through a few words. I was going to put the words of the entire song along the border of the quilt, but the pen barely made the first two lines!










That's OK- I am learning to be flexible. The quilt is still adorable!

happy quilting,

kate

Gifts

Don't you love to get gifts in the mail?

Recently I received this-

I won $$ at Superior Threads from Project Quilting. 

Thanks to Superior Threads and Kim! I needed some piecing thread.

and this!

The bag is from Casa Crafty- I won it in a giveaway in January on  imagine gnats blog! 

Isn't it great? It is laminate. 

Thanks Kelley. And thanks to Rachael at imagine gnats!

Now that I have this cute shopping bag, it must be time to go shopping!

happy quilting,
kate

What's New?

So, what's new with you?

What have you created/played with/ enjoyed this week?

Are you in the Northeast watching the snow, all hunkered down for a long weekend of sewing/quilting/crafting?

Would I sound weird if I said I miss that?








As much as I love being outside, there is something so comforting about being inside on a snowy day, watching the snow fall, sitting by a fire, bundling up kids in snowsuits and hats and boots and mittens and watching them sled down the hill, shrieking with laughter.

Or going outside yourself, all bundled up, playing in the snow until your cheeks are red and stinging with the cold and then coming inside to heat up hot chocolate and make popcorn, snuggle up by the fire with a good book. Yumm. 
I think it just may be that my 8 year old self has never completely left the building and just wants to be able to say "Snow Day!"

What to do today? I have piles of unfinished projects- some involve sewing and some involve typing. Which shall I do????

Sewing? Sounds way more fun to me! 












I still have to figure out my Project Quilting quilt for this week. The inspiration for this week's challenge is the art of Annie Young, a blind artist who creates amazing pieces. You can go check out her blog here.

She has wonderful color and texture in her work. There is a video of her on CBS Minnesota using her hands to paint with so that she can create the texture. And she has these vibrant backgrounds but still, her images stand out.


She has this quote on her blog: 

if we make our goal to live a life of 

compassion and unconditional love, 

then the world will indeed 
become a garden where 
all kinds of flowers 
can bloom and grow. 
~elisabeth kubler-ross  

Off to create my vision of a garden where all kinds of flowers bloom and grow.
Wish me luck!

Have a great day!

happy quilting,
kate

Project Quilting

I have a guest post here from Kim over at Project Quilting:


Hello everyone! This is Kim from Persimon Dreams, www.PersimonDreams.com, and I’m so happy to be here sharing some exciting Project QUILTING news with you. We are currently in the midst of Season 4. The first two challenges inspired over 100 quilts to be created – so amazing! The third challenge went up on Sunday, February 3^rd and I can’t wait to see what comes from it (still time for you to join in!)

I personally love Project QUILTING because it has been extremely inspirational to me in my quilting journey. I know I only have a week for the projects but it’s a great opportunity to give ideas in my mind a try – see what happens, try new techniques. If it works…maybe I’ll do a bigger project that takes more time.


For instance – I tried out free form quilting for the first time in Season 3 of Project QUILTING to create ‘Barn Bones’.  I LOVED it…so later when I undertook a Scrap Challenge I created this…




The Amazing Technicolor Dream Quilt

Project QUILTING has me creating pieces I never imagined before and the Project QUILTING community has been such an inspiration and support.

I have heard from many that they love watching along with Project QUILTING and the projects created from the challenges but they just can’t fit making a quilt in just one week. That’s what my exciting news is all about today – a new *Bonus* Project QUILTING Challenge. I’ve teamed up with a fabulous online fabric store – The Fat Quarter Shop to bring you all the ‘Fat Quarter Shop Bundle Challenge – Tradition Times Three’.

Diane outlines what is required for this particular challenge. You must go to the Fat Quarter Shop to by the fabric bundle in order to participate in the challenge BUT the twist is – you have until May 30^th, 2013 to submit your challenge! At that point, one of my girls will randomly draw a winner of $75 to use at the Fat Quarter Shop.

I also wanted to share with you a few ways you can save on your fabric bundle. First – head over to my blog and enter in the giveaway I posted today: Bundle Giveaway!






OR if you want to save 20$ off your entire purchase of fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop check out this blog post to find the special code – good through February 10^th.

Thanks for having me and I hope to see you all with a quilt in one or more Project QUILTING Challenges. Have a great rest of your week!



~Kim Lapacek



So go ahead, and check this out! Looks like fun to me! And I have been having a great time trying to meet the Project Quilting challenges. Still thinking about this weeks challenge.

happy quilting, 
Kate

Project Monday- Challenge #2

Good Monday!

Sunrise off my deck this am

How are you?


This weekend I finished up the quilt for challenge #2 of Project Quilting. The challenge was "My Favorite Color".


You had to make your project using white and just one other color.






Favorite color. I know many people can state that color without hesitation, but I can't.


Some days, pink is my favorite color.

Some days it is blue.















Other days, I might actually think green is at the top of the list.

I have to admit though, orange is never the favorite and brown doesn't make the top 5 either though I like them both.

Ah, but look how pretty these are!
And yellow just brightens up the room!


Oh, wait, what about purple? magenta? fuchsia?



See my dilemma? How to pick just one?




So, I finally decided to go with the colors that represent my favorite place.

For those that know me, there is no guessing here.

(No, not Disney World- that is my second favorite place!)



The beach.

Nantucket

Color - done. Blue and white.

Design. A whole other dilemma. I was tempted to pop on over to the Project Quilting flicker site and see what others had done. Cheating! So I restrained. but it was already Saturday afternoon, the quilt was due by noon on Sunday. Time to get in gear!

I remembered a quilt that I had designed for a retreat in Madison CT many years ago called Seaside Retreat. It had these wave blocks and I thought that would be perfect.

Corner of Seaside Retreat

So I decided to do a bargello style top with wave blocks through the middle.

And then quilting... I am a straight line kind of machine quilter. My favorite is lines that start and end off the sides of the quilt so I don't have to worry about how to end or bury the threads!

But I wanted to experiment on this quilt- that is what this is all about isn't it? Trying something new?

So, Viola!

Wavy lines and a circle. (And yes, they did start and end off the edges of the quilt!)

Project Quilting Challenge #2. "The beach, baby! "

Ta-done!

happy quilting,
kate

Banner of the Month!

Happy Monday to you!

How are you all?

I have been spending a little more time online lately. Feeling under the weather means more computer time!

So, look what came in the mail today!

I won this stack of lovely solids recently from the Quilting Secrets blog hop organized over at MrsPickles.

It looks like I will have to come up with a project for them- they sure are bright!

Nice and cheery for spring!





Over the holidays, I sent my son and daughter in law a lovely Christmas tree wall hanging and a hanger from Ackfeld.  Recently I realized that they would need new banners to hang on their hanger- you can't hang a Christmas tree all year!

So, in honor of Rea's birthday, I included 2 more wall hanging in her birthday box.

This one is the January wall hanging. It is a pattern I designed a couple of years ago but we never published. Maybe I will revive it someday soon! It is called Winter Sunset. The banner is adorable and the quilt is in the pattern is really great. Hmmm...

The other one I sent is for February. It is from our pattern, Little Bits of Love. Perfect for February!






I picked up these fabrics recently and am thinking about making myself a new Little Bits with them- what do you think? Aren't they great?



But first, I have a few other projects to work on...










This is fabric for a bag that I am making for the monthly project over on Hopeful Threads. I plan to fill it with some goodies and send it to her for the outreach program called Water Angles. You can read about it over on Hopeful Threads.

Next I am making a few more table runners from our new pattern Row House. I love the runner and it is a great way for me to get a few samples done, test the pattern and have fun!

And then it is time to plan this weeks Project Quilting challenge project!

So many projects... so little time!

happy quilting!
kate

Project Monday

Hi everyone? How are you this week?

I wanted to share the block I posted on the Project Quilting site this past week. I teased you with pictures of sections of the quilt, but I wanted to wait to share until I was all done.

The Project Quilting challenge this past week was "Square in a Square".


I immediately thought of a block from our pattern Far East Holiday.

Here is a whole quilt using that block.

Then I thought it would be fun to use some of the hand dyes my friend Marcia and I have made. I had to keep the overall quilt small, as each hand dye is less than a fat eighth.

I showed this group to you all the other day. 

I tried a few other color combinations but just really loved this one. 

A good triadic color group: golden yellow, aqua blue and fuchsia.

I tweaked the block a little, adding more colors than the original called for- the original uses just three colors. But I wanted to get a shaded effect and the effect of more squares.

Then I made four blocks.

Once I had the four blocks together, I had to decide how to quilt it. I really wanted to keep the squares front and center and I was afraid that to much quilting in each square would take away from the effect.

So, I went with stitch in the ditch, except for the center.

After much debate, I decided to use a heavy thread to give it some extra pizazz since I was quilting in the ditch. I went with an variegated Aurifil 12 wt thread.

And that concludes my first Project Quilting Quilt. My Square in a Square challenge quilt called: "How many Squares do you see?"

Have a great week!

happy quilting,

Kate