Sweet Surprise!

After working a 12 hour day, I was delighted to walk in to my house welcomed by the squeals and cheers of my daughter and a lovely package with my name on it.

My partner, Holly, in the {Urban} Home Good Swap made me four gorgeous napkins and cross stitched (in linen!) an adorable button motif wall hanging. She even took the time to include some sweet treats for Olivia - Canadian maple syrup candies.

I can tell that Holly took time and care to make this a very special swap. My sincere appreciateion for her diligence to capture something I would enjoy - she nailed it!

Her embroidery is superb - every stitch perfect. What a talented lady!

Everything looks fantastic in my house. Now if only I can keep said daughter's sticky fingers off these pretties! :-)

Video from Spring 2010 Quilt Market

I mentioned in Episode 6 of my podcast that I'm SO jealous of those who got to go to quilt market in Minn this weekend.

The gals from City Craft Boutique already posted video on You Tube of their adventures at market so we can live vicariously through them.

To date, there are 5 videos, one of which was posted about 20 minutes ago. So this is HOT news off the press!

I cannot wait to buy the new Anna Maria Horner and Joel Dewberry lines! Joel Dewberry also debut a book, Sewn Spaces. And the new Pink Fig patters look darling - I'm practically squealing over them. Oh, and Oliver + S have a new line of fabric. So much crafty goodness to look forward to! My stash is growing just thinking about it. :-)

Stash Resolution Episode 6 Show Notes

on my needles

-9 Patch Lattice Quilt modification from Oh Fransson!

-Zig Zag Quilt

-Jessica Levitt Timber

-Carina's Craft Blog Embroidery Pattern

-Tallgrass Prairie Studio Kitchen Set Tutorial

-Grandma's Flower Garden Hexagons

-Hexagon Template - Free

-Connecting Threads Hexagon Templates

-1930s Repro Fabric

-Sirdar Snuggly DK 1762 Cardigan Pattern

-Knit Picks Sport Shine

-Pendent Banner Tutorial

-Dresden Plate Tutorial

-Anna Maria Horner

-Cupcake decorations

bad stitches happen to good people

My worst quilting fear comes true.

tip

Why the pressure? Crafting should be fun right?

review

Fat Quarterly

episode 6

Click to Play

new and current projects, why crafting should be fun again, and a review of the first issue of Fat Quarterly

Long Time, No Post

Sorry for letting a whole week go by between posts. I can't believe how busy my life has gotten recently...

Though I've barely been in my sewing studio this week, I managed to finish my mom's tea towel for mothers day (yeah, mothers day 2010. the holiday that was 2 weeks ago. told you I am behind!).


The embroidery pattern is Parterre du Feu by Carina Envoldsen Harris.


The tea towel structure is a pattern called Kitchen Gift Set by Tallgrass Prairie Studio.


I'm pleased with the outcome and think my mom will be too.

This weekend is podcast weekend. I'm struggling to come up with topics because of the lack of crafting going on in my world over the last few weeks. Will most likely post something, though it may be shorter than past episodes. Please email or post comments if you have a topic idea to contribute!

Prost Step Four: Binding Your Placemats

Yeah! Last week! We're going to add the binding by machine attaching to the front and hand binding to the back.

first

Using solid (or coordinating color of your choice) folded selvedge to selvedge, cut 2" strips. Trim off selvedge. You should need 2 strips per placemat. Therefore, cut EIGHT strips for FOUR placemats.


second

Attach your strips to make long enough to go around one placemat. Place edges together perpendicular. Draw a line from corner to corner, diagonally. Pin in place and stitch on line.


Cut off excess 1/4" from stitched line. Press open.




third

Press strip in half. Then fold one corner on the diagonal. Press. Then repress end in half.





fourth

Pin along first edge of placemat. Start stitching about 2" from folded binding corner and end about 1/8" from first placemat corner. Mitering the corners, stitch around the placemat 1/4" from edge until you are able to join where you began.


fifth

Hand stitch the binding to the back of the placemats.

That's it! I hope you had as much fun as I did making this project. Looking forward to seeing your completed projects on in our Flickr group!

Finally!

The Nine Patch Lattice Quilt from Oh, Fransson! that I'm sizing up to twin size is almost finished. Well, the top piecing is almost finished. This is good progress for me.

All that is left to do on the top is add a few borders. Print fabric is Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane. Solid is Kona Snow.

If my calculations are correct, the finished piece will be 82"W x 112"H. I have all the fabric needed to finish this project. Need to dig deep and push through. Wouldn't it be great if I could give this to my daughter at her third birthday party in June?

Another hurdle in my way is needing to put new leaders on my quilt rack. The bed sheet I have on there now is not doing the job; it's too thin and keeps sliding out of place. My best bet is probably broad cloth. Dreading this project, but I can't quilt this project until I have fixed the leaders. It won't take more than a couple of hours, but it's simply an annoyance and, well, not fun. Listen to me whine! :-)

Question for my quilty friends: What is the best tutorial out there for squaring a quilt top?

How Could I Forget?..

To take pictures of the tea towels?

After my tea-towel extravaganza this weekend, I was in such a hurry to leave the house that I forgot to take photos of the pieced ones.

Here is the embroidered towel I gave my mother in-law. Don't you love the finger prints on my oven? Now you can see the evidence that I sew in lieu of cleaning house.


Pattern is from doe-c-doe, design 820.


I'm still finishing a second embroidered towel to give my mom this Saturday when I see her to celebrate mothers day late. Maybe I'll have my act together and will take photos of it!?

Have a great week!

Stash Resolution Episode 5 Show Notes

Please find show notes for episode 5 below. Happy listening!

What I'm Working On

Spring Birdie Quilt in Dolche fabric

Tea Towel Tutorial by Tallgrass Prairie Studio

{will post pics later this week of finished projects}

Zig Zag Quilt by Bee Square Blog

Jessica Levitt Timber

Kona Snow

Nine Patch Lattice Quilt

Hour Glass Quilt Tutorial by Red Pepper Quilts

Heather Bailey Nicey Jane

Venezie Designs

{Urban} HOME Goods Swap

Spool Bird Pattern

Spool Mobile

Quilt Dad

Pillow Talk {Swap}

Pinwheel Tutorial

Amy Butler LOVE

Quilted Cupcake

Knit Picks

Cardigan Pattern SIRDAR 1762

Tulla Pink Plume

Listener Comments

Thanks you to those who have taken the time to post a comment to the blog!

Modern Quilt Guild

Tips

Donate quilts & supplies to Bumble Beans Basics

CogKNITive

Quilting... for the Rest of Us

Reviews

Fat Quarterly

Applique Your Way

p.s. Sorry for the mic problems! Yikes! Thanks for putting up with me. :-)

episode 5

Click to Play

stash organization, tea towel extravaganza, new crafty zine, and book review

Spool Bird Mobile

Completed project for the {Urban} HOME Goods swap. Packaged and sent to my partner on Tuesday - should arrive soon!


Bird pattern by Spool.



Group on Flickr dedicated to the awesomeness of The Bird.

The pattern is simple to follow. Sewing is the easy part of this project. Collecting the right twigs and assembling the mobile so it balances proved quite challenging. However - I think totally worth the effort, no?

Before & After

I was inspired this weekend to spend some of my precious "quiet time" sorting and refolding my fabric.

This is everything spread out before the organization was completed.


This is the after - colors organized by ROYGBV.


I folded using my 6" x 24" ruler as a guide to get each piece in a uniform size.

Now that I look at this, I see that I did not quite get them in rainbow order, but it's close enough, right?


Realizing I have a LOT more fat quarters than half and yard cuts. Look at this pitiful drawer - only 5 pieces of fabric in a half or more yards.


Also, I see how much I lack in neutrals. Need to invest in this area a little bit too. Could use more true whites, tans, and grays... Maybe some linen too?

Here is my scrap bin. Seriously in need of some scrap projects to use up some of this - really good stuff in here.



Anyway, how does your sewing studio look? How do you organize your creative space?

Spring Birdie Quilt - Finished!

The first of my May goals is accomplished - I finished the Spring Birdie quilt!


May Goals:

1) Finish piecing my daughter's Nine Patch Lattice quilt and quilt it
2) Finish binding the Spring Birdie quilt
3) Finish the embroidery on my moms' tea towels
4) Finish piecing the Zig Zag quilt
5) Write a tutorial and post for a sew-along


Fabric:

• Dolce by Tanya Whelan
• Kona Cotton in Charcoal
  

I love how the pieced back turned out. The pieced look makes the quilt almost reversible.


Still not sure exactly what I'm going to do with this quilt. I talked about making it a wall hanging but ended up not adding the hangers. Perhaps it will just hang out waiting to be given to someone?

What are you working on this weekend? Finishing up any UFOs?

Prost: Supplies

Prost is the German word for "cheers." My husband and I were lucky enough to live with a German family in Bavaria for a week when we were first married. Some of our fondest memories of that journey are slow meals gathered around the dinner table with our host family. Through the language barrier, a tap of the glass to wish good health and happiness translated without the need for words. This project is inspired by those wonderful times we had in this foreign land and the reminder to take the time to meet at the dinner table and share good times here too.

Project makes four 17"w x 15.5"h placemats.

All seams are 1/4".

Supplies:
1 Charm Packs (I'm using Moda Plume by Tula Pink.)
3 Yards of Kona Cotton (I'm using Snow)
4 Yards of Ric Rac (Mine is about 7/8" wide.)

neutral colored thread to piece

coordinating thread to quilt (opt.)

straight pins

safety pins

low-loft batting (I'm using poly-fil cotton classic)

disappearing ink marking pen

I'll post an update each week showing the next step in the process. The whole project will take us through 4 weeks. Join in the fun, and be sure to post your progress and finished projects in our Flickr group!

GIVE AWAY!

To celebrate the launch of my first tutorial, I'm giving away a charm pack of Moda Plume by Tula Pink! Winner will be selected by a random number generator.

Three ways to enter:

1) Leave a comment on this post. One per person, please.

2) Join the Stash Resolution Podcast Flickr group.

3) Link to this blog from your blog.

Please email a summary of how you have entered to win. stashresolution@yahoo.com.

Deadline to Enter: Saturday, June 12

Winner Announced: Sunday, June 13

Good luck!