Mini Amy Butler Quilt

Tonight I enjoyed some hand-sewing for the binding on this mini quilt. I have been enjoying this more lately, which surprises me, but once I slow down a bit and stop thinking about my next project, the one after that and all the ones I need to finish up in the mean time, I can actually relax and just stitch away.

I made these using some Amy Butler scraps I inherited and Kona Bone for the background. I quilted it with straight lines using either side of my walking foot, which made it go quickly!

It's bound in Kona Coal and now I just have to figure out what to do with it! Man it feels good to start and finish small projects!

Thanks for looking!

Feeling thankful

This is the end of a rough week for me and knowing this, my friend Laurie sent me this bag she made me! It arrived on the gloomiest day weather-wise in Seattle and is sure to brighten up this whole city! I love it!

It reminds me how special it is to know someone was thinking of you and went out of their way for you. It's definitely time for me to pay it forward!

On Friday night the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild had a sew-in, which was awesome! Every time I go to a sew-in I meet new people and get to know others even better. I have heard that some guilds can be competitive and that's definitely not the case here. People are so supportive and getting positive feedback from people who also quilt makes me feel really, really good. I laid this quilt out at the sew-in and then sewed the blocks together on Saturday. I'm LOVING it! Not my usual color scheme, but that's what makes me love it even more. I also did some therapeutic fabric shopping in person and online on Saturday - yikes - and got the backing, so hopefully I'll be able to finish up this beautiful bad-boy soon!

No, you're not seeing things, that is a bit of blue sky above my house!

Any thoughts on how I should quilt it?? I'm not sure yet and am glad I have a little time during the shipping process to decide...

Thanks for looking!

Long-arm Sunday!

Right now I'm at the binding stage for 2 quilts, the "figure out the best layout" stage of another one, the "I wish I was better at geometry so I could figure this out" stage of yet ANOTHER one, and all I want to do is start something new! But I have quilter's block and can't decide what type of project (design/technique) I want to do and what fabric I want to cut into! Does this happen to anyone else?

So it worked out well today that I got to try something new and entirely different! Thanks to my fellow Seattle Modern Quilt Guilder, Sandie, I got to try long-arm quilting for the first time! This quilt was a combined guild-effort and is a gift for one of our members. I think it came out great, and felt spoiled to have had this experience this afternoon!

We each did some of the quilting, and she totally handled the tricky parts! Thanks for taking these pictures, Sandie!

I love making bee blocks!

I finished my friend Laurie's bee block last night! It is based on Oh Fransson's Mod Mosaic pillow tutorial and got rave reviews around my house! I had a lot of fun making it, but I have to say it was a little challenging getting the size of the block right, and balancing the different colors and values. On both blocks I thought I was done and the block was about 12 inches square, so I had to add on more, but then trim down so it would be 12.5"square. A little tricky, but so worth it. I like how they came out and I am LOVING the color scheme and fabrics Laurie chose. She really has an artistic eye and knows her fabric!

I hope you like them Laurie! I'll mail them to you soon! :)

This is not the greatest picture, and it's sideways, but this is a sneak peak of my next project... :) I'm excited to work on the layout and piece this together at this weekend's Seattle Modern Quilt Guild meeting!

Thanks for looking!

workin' on my WIPs

I'm super motivated to finish/keep working on some projects I started awhile back (mostly so I don't feel as guilty about starting new ones! haha). I made these paper pieced squares awhile back with scraps of Amy Butler fabric and decided to stitch them all up tonight. Now I'm trying to decide if I want this to be a pillow or a wallhanging... suggestions?


I also have these on my "design wall" and have been adding to it bit by bit. It's Kathy's Block it's from Liberated Quiltmaking 2. I saw this block shortly after seeing a similar one paper pieced by my friend. To me, the "liberated" version seemed more enticing (I'm way lazier) but her quilt is BEAUTIFUL! (I'm talking about you Rebecca!) I think if the background fabrics were all the same color it would be really awesome too. Maybe that's what I'll end up doing in the end, but these are part of the trial run I guess...

Thanks for looking!

I quilted the biggest quilt I ever quilted!

Sounds impressive, but all the while I worked on it I couldn't help but hear my dad's voice saying "never do a job half-assed!" I started this project about four months ago and was getting tired of looking at it folded up, not being used. And I was sort of getting tired of looking at it in general. I want to move on to new things but also not let my WIPs (works in progress) pile up unfinished.

Somewhere in the middle of all that jumbled mess I sat and wrestled this beast!

I chose to do a large meandering quilting pattern, but I can't help but wonder if it was more of an effort to be done with it and not have to look at it anymore than to enhance the project itself. Overall I'm happy that (once bound) it will be be used and appreciated for actually covering the whole bed (unlike the quilts we use now), but I just don't feel as excited about it now as when I first started it in September. I've been thinking about the relationships that we have with the quilts we make. You invest tons of time and money into it and sometimes the relationship loses its spark and sometimes it turns into something better than you imagined! Has your relationship with a quilt ever grown, or diminished, with time?

At least someone likes it! :)


Thanks for looking! (and sorry for such poor lighting in these photos!)

New year, fresh start

I got the urge when I returned home from Christmas to get organized and start the year off right. No, this does not mean I have actually unpacked from my vacation, it means that I reorganized all my fabric, ironed and refolded all of the Kona fat quarters I got for Christmas, and organized my scraps. Buddy came home and I felt like a deer in headlights sitting in the middle of fabric chaos. When you go through it you realize how much you actually have... That's okay, I'll use it all. It doesn't go bad!

My kona drawer. Mmmm....This is my current project that I started right before I left for Christmas. I picked up some Meadowsweet at my LQS and mixed it with a lot of different fabrics and scraps from my stash. I love how the blocks turned out, but when I tried to sash the blocks with Kona Bone, I realized it was just too bright. Luckily with my new kona cotton card, I was able to determine that parsley will be a much better fit. What a nerd!

Happy New Year!

Thanks for looking!