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Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Needle and Thread Thursday

Happy NTT, friends, and happy October!  I have been swamped around here with several memory quilts, and haven't taken any time at all to just sew for fun in the past week (still working on that balance thing).  I have an idea for a quilt using my scraps, and I'm hoping I get to play around with it a little bit in the next couple of days.  So, let's get right down to the highlights from last week's party!

This Gravity quilt by Myra at Busy Hands Quilts is just stunning (you know I love a rainbow)!


Jessie from Measuring Success linked up her Stacked Squares quilt and I love the color palette.  This is such a fun illusion.


and finally, I couldn't resist this pop of green and blue in this medallion quilt by Kate at Life in Pieces.


So let's party, friends!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!
2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.
3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  
4. Spread the comment love far and wide!
5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!



Wednesday, September 23, 2015

NTT and Swallowing My Pride

Happy first day of Fall, y'all, and welcome to Needle and Thread Thursday!  This past week, I've been working on my Truffles pattern, and if you missed it, I just released it yesterday.  It is now available in my Craftsy and Etsy shops!  I've also been working on a couple of quilts that really forced me to swallow my pride in a favor to a friend.

For the most part, I keep my blog a sports-free zone, but as some of you may already know, I am a huge LSU fan.  I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA just minutes away from campus, and that's where I earned my undergraduate degree.  Well, if you're a sports fan at all, you know that rivalries can be brutal, and Ole Miss is one of our biggest SEC rivals.  It just so happens that Ole Miss is only about an hour away from where we currently live, so it is practically a local school, and you can't throw a stone in the Memphis area without hitting an Ole Miss fan.  Anyway, a friend's son and his best friend just started at Ole Miss this semester, and she asked me to make two quilts for them.

Let me tell you- it was tough for this LSU girl to get these done.


Most of the red and navy blue fabrics came from the Metro Living line, which are really beautiful fabrics with classic geometric prints.  My favorite print by far though, is not from this line.  My favorite is the red commuter train map fabric that you can see in the bottom row of the above photo.  It is really cool!  There are several fabrics in these quilts that are small prints with both red and navy combined, and although they are showing up really muddled in the photos, they really don't look too busy in person.


The backings of both quilts are identical.  I used wide WOF stripes of all of the leftover fabrics, along with some chambray to widen them out.  The quilts finished at 60" x 60" square.


The first day I worked on these quilts, my son came home from school and was positively horrified.  He let me know right away that I should be ashamed of myself and jokingly wondered how working on them didn't make me physically ill (that kid cracks me up!).  Yes, these quilts were made with a small amount of personal shame.  Ah...the things we do for friends.  :)

So, without further ado, check out some of my favorites from last week's party, which incidentally gave me plenty of eye candy while I was looking all of that red and navy this week!

Patch the Giraffe's X-ceptional quilt is so fresh and happy!


The colors in this Urban Sunrise quilt from Ida Rather Be Quilting is absolutely stunning, and the quilting is just as amazing.  There are some close-ups of it on her blog, so check it out if you missed it.


and Janet at Simply Pieced modified a cathedral window pincushion pattern to create this lovely little baby quilt!  The pops of pink are just perfect!


I hope you've been creating something in your sewing space that you absolutely adore!  Let's party!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!
2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.
3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  
4. Spread the comment love far and wide!
5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!


Monday, September 21, 2015

Truffles Pattern!

Hooray!  My Truffles quilt pattern is finally released!  I've been working on a couple of quilts for a friend, which had me a little bit sidetracked on finishing it up, but I'm proud to say that this one is now available in my Craftsy and Etsy shops!  If you missed them, you can see the other finished photos of this quilt HERE.


This really has been one of my favorites recently.  I don't tend to love blocks that have a lot of pressing between steps, but sometimes you just can't get around it.  Well, this pattern has very little of that nonsense.  They go together pretty fast.  I really love patterns where I can put the whole block together (or almost) without pressing until the very end, so this pattern is right up my alley.

I just love all of the different fun shapes created in the pattern, but my favorite has to be the little cog/sprocket shape in the white space.  My eye is just drawn to it!  I hope you'll try this pattern out, and I hope you love it as much as I do!




Sunday, September 20, 2015

Giveaway Winners!

It's Sunday evening, and that means that I owe you not one, but TWO giveaway winners!  First up, the winner of the half yard bundle of three brand new prints from Denyse Schmidt's New Bedford line, sponsored by Fabric Please.

     

The winner of this awesome mini bundle is comment number 128, Ella and Nesta.  Congrats!

The ruler grips look very interesting, I've never seen them before. Thank you for all the tips and wonderful eye candy!
ReplyDeleteAnd the winner of the Pam Kitty Seed Catalogue fat quarter bundle, sponsored by Lady Belle Fabric is comment number 5, hiyacinth. 




I've had my eye on those seed packet prints for a long time! ReplyDelete








I'll be contacting you soon to get your shipping info, ladies!  And to everyone else, even if you didn't win one of these amazing prizes, don't forget about all of the fantastic coupons that are still going on.


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

NTT and Truffles

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, y'all!  Before we get into today's post, I want to make sure you know that I have two giveaways going on right now, and several coupons, including a great coupon for quilt labels from Finer Ribbon!  You can enter the giveaways HERE!  Alrighty then, now that that's taken care of, let me share my newest finish, Truffles!


I settled on the name Truffles because the round, overlapping shapes remind me of little treats piled on a plate, and the colors just look so sweet!  I really loved working with these colors.  As much as I like them, it's not a palette I've used very often.


The backing is pieced simply with scraps from the front, and although I wish I had a little bit more red fabric on the back, when you're working with the leftovers, you just use what you have!


Kona Rich Red is the perfect frame for this quilt.  It blends with the deepest red beautifully and really pops.  I don't buy a lot of solids just for my stash because I prefer to coordinate them with each project as I go along.  This is one of the few solids I happened to have in my cabinet though, so I was thrilled that it worked so well.  That means that other than the white, every bit of fabric for this one came out of my cabinet- winning!

Can you tell that I'm really making an effort lately to make quilts entirely from stash?  Snatching up fabric when I find a great sale is fantastic, but unless I actually make a concerted effort to use what I have, it doesn't do much good.

By the way, I'm still putting the finishing touches on the Truffles pattern, so be on the lookout for it within the next week or so!  It's a fun one to make, and pretty quick, too!

Soooo...let's get to last week's party highlights!

Amanda at Material Girl Quilts shared this delectable blue and green Oakshott HRT.  That's a Half Rectangle Triangle, in case you're wondering.  I've only worked with HRT's once, and even though I liked the finished result, they were a bit of a pain (and it was a small project).  So, my hat's off to Amanda on this beauty!


This mini from Lori at Crossquilt is super adorable.  I love that text print background!


and Katie Mae Quilts shared this stunning Shivaun Place finish.  So lovely!


Wow.  just wow!  I seriously could have chosen at least five more to share with you from last week.  There was certainly no shortage of awesomeness.  Of course, that's true every week, it seems.  I'm on pins and needles (pun intended...maybe ;)  ) to see what you have going on this week!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!
2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.
3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  
4. Spread the comment love far and wide!
5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!


Tuesday, September 15, 2015

September Fabric Deals and Giveaways!

Happy mid-September, friends!  Can you believe that another month is slipping by so quickly?  Of course, around here, the middle of the month means that it's time to fill you in on the latest happenings and deals at some of my favorite shops!  This post includes TWO giveaways as well, so read on!

Rita at Fabric Please! has lots going on right now.  She has just received yardage of three prints from Denyse Schmidt's newest line, New Bedford, with full fat quarter bundles arriving soon, as well as prints from the vibrant and fun Salsa collection.

                                Fabric Please

One important thing to mention regarding Fabric Please! is that prices on the website are listed in Canadian dollars, which means that although they may look a little higher, when you convert to US dollars, they really are quite reasonable.  Rita is working on getting all prices listed in both CAD and USD, but in the meantime, one CAD equals .75 USD, so just multiply the price per yard by .75 and you have the US price.  Easy peasy.



Fabric Please! is sponsoring the first giveaway of the month!  Up for grabs is 1/2 yard of each of the prints in stock from the New Bedford line!  These prints are sure to blend well with other fabrics in your stash, and they are just a little sampling of the collection.

     

EPP seems to be all the rage lately, and even though I don't enjoy hand sewing myself, I fully appreciate all of the hard work that goes into some of the amazing creations I see floating around the internet and Instagram.  Did you know that Fat Quarter Shop is hosting an EPP Sew Along?  Get all of the details, supply list, etc. HERE!


At Fort Worth Fabric Studio, they do a LOT of cutting.  Of course, if you put together custom mixed bundles each week for your customers, cutting is just all part of the game.  One of FWFS's favorite little helpers are True Grips Non-slip Rings for Rulers.  They stick to your ruler, and create a little bit of friction against your fabric so that while you cut, that ruler stays put!

Jodie at Fort Worth Fabric Studio is having a sale on these little gems- just $3.75 per pack!


                     Fort Worth Fabric Studio

And just because I think that Jodie's bundles are the bomb, I can't help but show you her latest.  Every single week, Jodie mixes several fabric lines to create a perfectly coordinated bundle of 8 prints.  She calls it her Friday Bundle Batch!
               


If your love is appliqué, then the newest quilt kit, Blooming Butterflies, from Shabby Fabrics might be right up your alley.  This is available as a full quilt kit, as well as a pattern.




If you've never tried appliqué, but want to take the plunge, Shabby Fabric boasts that all appliqué shapes are pre-cut and pre-fused!  All you have to do is peel off the paper, iron in place on your background fabric, and stitch down.  It doesn't get much easier than that!  And what a colorful, happy quilt!



                             Shabby Fabrics





If you've kept up with the happenings around my blog for the last few months, then you know that over the summer, I designed custom ribbon labels for my quilts from Finer Ribbon, and that I absolutely adore them.

Well, three months in, I can say without a doubt- my feelings have not changed one bit!  I am still completely in love with adding such a professional touch to my quilts, and I love that the ribbons are soft, fully washable, and printed in full color.



                   FinerRibbon


I even designed the back side to have laundering instructions!  If you've been putting off ordering your own spool of custom labels, now is the time!  Finer Ribbon is offering 15% off of your order!  It is also worth mentioning that a spool of labels has 1000 labels on it, and even at full price, that's less than 10 cents per label!  That's a bargain in my book.

Don't worry if you aren't sure what you want on your labels.  Peter, and the entire team at Finer Ribbon will walk you through the process, and send you a printable sample for your approval to be sure that you love them.


The code for this amazing deal is MQI15, so hop over and get started!

Dragonfly Fabrics is also offering a fantastic coupon this month!  You can get 20% off your entire order with the code MQI20 through this Sunday, 9/20.


One of their newest lines is Isabella, by Penny Rose Fabrics.  This line is pretty with more muted tones;  and don't forget, Amy always pairs custom matched solids with each line, so there's no guesswork about whether or not the colors are true on the screen.

                      Dragonfly Fabrics

Last, but certainly not least, is Lady Belle Fabric.  Lady Belle Fabric is sponsoring our second giveaway of the month with this adorable fat quarter bundle of Pam Kitty Seed Catalogue prints.


Lady Belle is also offering 15% off on everything in the shop- including presale items, sale items, yardage, and of course, bundles!  What a great deal!

At checkout, just use the code sept15 through Sunday 9/20!



            Lady Belle Fabric



Okay, so I know you all want to know how to enter these two fantastic giveaways!  Just leave a comment on this post to let me know what most strikes your fancy from all of the fun happenings going on right now.  Please be sure you leave an email address so that I can contact you if you are a no-reply blogger!  I'll announce the winner on Sunday evening!

This giveaway has ended and I'll be announcing the winners soon!  If you missed this one, be sure to follow through email or on your favorite blog reader so that you don't miss the next awesome giveaway!

Good luck to all, and happy shopping!







Monday, September 14, 2015

Paint Chip Challenge Swap

In the spring, my chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild decided to have a Paint Chip Challenge swap for members and it was SO much fun!  In May, each member chose two paint chips/cards in coordinating colors they love, wrote our name on the back of them and then sealed them in an envelope.  Our task was to create a mini quilt for the person we chose using only the 8 colors represented on the paint chips.  We were allowed to add gray, black, or white, and a small pop of a third color if we chose (I didn't choose to do this).  Yesterday was the day where all of the minis were presented.  We were challenged to really represent modern quilting in our minis.


My partner chose shades of blue and purple.  When I actually got down to choosing fabrics that matched the paint chips, it was tougher than I thought.  There is real subtlety in these colors.  The purple is really a deep periwinkle, and the blue has more aqua in it than I initially realized. I chose to play around with snowball blocks in varying sizes for my swap partner.  The tiniest snowballs finish at 2 inches, with the corners at just half an inch.  That is by far the smallest piecing I have ever done, and I'm not entirely happy with the way the binding covered up part of the edges, but I like the finished piece nonetheless.  It's hard to tell, but the stippling is pretty tiny as well.

My mini was made by Nysha, of Studio Nysha.  He is a Zentangle instructor and really pushes the boundaries of modern quilting.  It's no surprise that I chose shades of blue and green, right?


The photo does not capture the artistry in this piece, called Intersection.  Although the green stripes are Kona Cotton, the print stripe at the bottom is organza, and the creamy background is silk.  In some places, the matte side shows, and in others, the shiny side.  The quilting is done in varying shades of blue, and with various thread weights.  It really is a work of art, and it looks amazing hanging above my quilt ladder (beside the window, out of direct sunlight).


This was my very first swap, and I really loved the experience.  I don't have a ton of room in my sewing space for minis, so I have to be really selective about participating in swaps, but I may just have to seek out others!




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