Monday, September 28, 2015

My Small World: The Disney Version

I'm kind of astonished that the Disney version of My Small World is actually completely done--quilted and bound! I'm usually way behind, especially things involving quilt-alongs.
I wrote more about my inspiration to do "a day at Disneyland" here. Fortunately, when I get obsessed with a scrappy quilt, it spurs me on to completion for the simple reason that I want to clean up the mess! Scraps everywhere. You know what I'm talking about, right?

I omitted all the specialty things in Section 5--the dresden, the rainbow, the hexies, because I felt that there was already so much going on with the sky. So I will make Section 5 as a mini quilt for my sewing room.

The day at Disneyland starts on the left side with the sunrise, Main Street and Fantasyland, with a hint of all the beautiful flowers around the park.
Be sure to bring lots of money. You'll need it. Do you have your autograph book handy when you spot one of the princesses walking around?
Take a ride on the teacups. Drink a Coke (although I hear as of 2015 they have switched over to Pepsi products. What??)
Say hi to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Offer to help poor Snow White wash all those socks she dries on the chimney of their house.

Head over to Tomorrowland. Some rides are closed down as they prepare to build a new Star Wars area. I must have seen into the future!
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

Ride the Jungle Cruise.

And then head over to the Haunted Mansion. Boo!

Go ahead and sing "It's a small world after all" for the rest of the day.
 

End your day with fireworks above Sleeping Beauty's Castle. And don't forget to look for Tinkerbell!

This has been such a fun quilt to make. Thanks, Jen Kingwell, for designing this fabulous and intricate pattern, and to Kerry for organizing all the tips and tricks to make this project easier to accomplish.

I was clueless when it came to choosing fabric for a finding, so I used my friend Elizabeth's tutorial on a faced binding--perfect choice. And I hope you notice what a great job Darby did by choosing mouse ears for the quilting!
I hope you have enjoyed your day at the Happiest Place on Earth. Come back soon!

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Good Neighbors Pincushion Party--and a Giveaway!

The giveaway is now closed.
Welcome to my stop on the Pincushion Party to celebrate Amanda Jean's beautiful new line of fabric for Connecting Threads, Good Neighbors.

Amanda Jean, well known as Crazy Mom Quilts, is a dear friend and I am fortunate enough to spend a few days with her every July at a quilting retreat in Minnesota, including a night at her home, always under one of her fabulous quilts!

I have already had a lot of fun playing with her fabric (here --scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post--and here). And it is just as bright and cheerful as Amanda Jean herself. You can see that there is a wonderful range of cheery prints, each with a touch of white.


After contemplating several different ideas, I finally decided to do a mini dresden block (pattern here) with some hand stitching. If you know Amanda Jean, you know she loves all things small and scrappy, so this seemed like the perfect way to use lots of the different prints. I used the X's print as the base. I love this print--the only way to make it better would be to have it in all the colors!
Connecting Threads has generously offered to give one of you a charm pack of this fun fabric line. So leave a comment and tell me if you are a scrap quilter and what is the smallest scrap you save.

Good Neighbors is available as yardage and precuts, as well as 108" backing from one of the prints.

Here is a list of all the participants, so if you love pincushions, you will get lots of good ideas. Which is great since the holidays are just around the corner and pincushions make great gifts for your quilty friends.

Date
Blogger Name
Blog URL
9/1/2015
Amanda Jean
9/2/2015
Anna
9/3/2015
Mary
9/4/2015
Svetlana
9/5/2015
Debbie
9/6/2015
Holly
9/7/2015
Carla
9/8/2015
Faith
9/9/2015
Vanessa
9/10/2015
Anna
9/11/2015
Krista
9/12/2015
Erin
9/13/2015
Lee
9/14/2015
Alex
9/15/2015
Cheryl
9/16/2015
Penny
9/17/2015
Amy
9/18/2015
Debbie
9/19/2015
Anne
9/20/2015
Melissa Corry
9/21/2015
Amber
9/22/2015
Nettie
9/23/2015
Adrianne
9/24/2015
Cindy
9/25/2015
Amy
9/26/2015
Chase
9/27/2015
Rene
9/28/2015
Erin
9/29/2015
Nicole
9/30/2015
Teri

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Sweet Tweets

The giveaway is now closed. 
I was beyond thrilled when Erin Cox of Why Not Sew invited me to be part of the blog hop for her new book, Sweet Tweets: Simple Stitches, Whimsical Birds.

I have been a fan of Erin for many years and had emailed her in the past for more information on how to recreate a charming drawing that my granddaughter had made. And then the project got pushed to the side in favor of other things. So I knew this was the perfect opportunity to finally make this mini quilt.

This is the drawing that Charlotte made for me over 2 1/2 years ago. I love all the details--including the fact that we are each wearing our favorite colors--orange for me and purple for her.
I will admit to having a few technical difficulties--my Juki is completely unfamiliar with free motion quilting and she was very uncooperative when it came to learning a new technique--broken thread multiple times, broken needle, etc. I switched over to my Elna and after a massive amount of thread nests on the back, we both finally settled in to something that worked. I was able to relax and enjoy the process. I realize there are still some tension issues, so please ignore the puckering--I might try hand washing and then machine drying to see if the whole thing will pucker.

I added some hand embroidered details, and decided against any quilting in the main portion of the quilt.

Every Christmas, I deliver holiday quilts for their beds--there are four kids in the family and I have more storage space.  I copied the note that is on the back of the drawing, exactly the way Charlotte spelled all the words. It warms my heart the way she said they "wore them so many times."


I hold on to these special memories, as she is turning into a young lady, no longer a little girl. She is so sweet and thoughtful, and I feel blessed to have her so close by.

Erin's book has so many charming projects and I'll be trying one of those next. But I'm thrilled to have made this little memory quilt using her techniques. Thanks, Erin!
Martingale is generously letting me give away a digital copy of the book to one of you. So leave a comment and I'll choose a winner on Thursday at 5 p.m. PDT.

Don't forget to check out all the other stops along the way. Erin will be having a big giveaway at the end so mark that on your calendar!

Tuesday, Sept.8 - Erin (Introduction post) Why Not Sew?
Wednesday, Sept.9 - Heidi Fabric Mutt
Thursday, Sept.10 - Debbie A Quilter's Table
Saturday, Sept.12 - Jacque Brown Dog Prims
Monday, Sept.14 - Amy nanaCompany
Tuesday, Sept.15 - Svetlana s.o.t.a.k handmade
Wednesday, Sept.16 - Renee Sewn With Grace
Thursday, Sept.17 - Martingale Stitch This! The Martingale Blog
Friday, Sept.18 - Heather Vintage Grey Handmade
Saturday, Sept.19 - Clara and Jennie Clover & Violet
Monday, Sept.21 - Amanda Jean Crazy Mom Quilts
Tuesday, Sept.22 - Cindy Live a Colorful Life
Wednesday, Sept.23 - Carla Grace and Favour
Thursday, Sept.24 - Mary Molly Flanders
Saturday, Sept.26 - Erin, Big Giveaway Post!!! Why Not Sew?

Monday, September 21, 2015

Get Quilty

Have you every received a Quilty Box? I was a member when the subscription was first available in 2013 and enjoyed each box I received.

Then the service shut down but has now been revived by Patrick Claytor, the son of a quilter. So when he offered to let me review the box that will be going out in October, naturally I jumped at the chance!
Ooh, what could be inside?

If you aren't familiar with Quilty Box, it is a monthly subscription where you received a box filled with lots of great items. Here are a few more details.
  • Quilty Box is a monthly subscription box. We offer plans from $44-48/mo.
  • 5% of the profits of multi-month subscriptions are donated to Quilts for Kids - a non-profit which donates quilts for children in need
  • Each month we have 4 or more products (Fabric, patterns, thread, or notions)
  • Our retail value of the products in the box is always more than $50
  • The next Quilty Box will ship around October 11th. You will need to purchase before October 10th to receive this shipment.
The October box includes all these items--and I will use each and every one:
*Two charm packs of Riley Blake small dots
*A needle threader--I have been wanting one of these forever.
*Wonder clips--you can never had too many of these.
*A package of Foot Magic--small pieces of tape to make your presser foot glide over difficult-to-sew fabrics such as plastic, leather, etc.
*A 45 mm rotary replacement blade
*A seam presser--handy when you don't want to get up and down for pressing a seam
*A package of flower head pins

So please check out Quilty Box--you can find all kinds of useful information at their website.

Disclaimer: The above post is a sponsored post but the opinions are my own.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Finish It Friday: !!!

Awhile back, I received an email from a good friend, asking if she could share my name with Cloud 9 Fabrics as someone to sew a quilt with her daughter's new fabric line, Typography, that daughter being Jessica Jones of How About Orange fame (her blog is no longer active, but there's still lots of cool stuff available on it, and now you can follow her on instagram at @howaboutorange).

Of course! Soon after, this arrived in the mail.

The colors in this line are so pretty, and I'm a total sucker for all things texty and font-related.


Cloud 9 asked me to make a quilt that I believe will be a free pattern available on their website, so I didn't even have to decide what to make. While I had a graphic of what the finished quilt should look like, there was no formal pattern at this point, so I figured it out and made extensive notes.

The block finishes at 14" and is an easy one to make. It involves a simple paper piecing component for the main section that is the body of the exclamation point. Beyond that, the construction is simple and fast.
Next, the quilt top went to quilter extraordinaire, Darby from Quilted Squid, for machine quilting.
The black "helvetica" font print was perfect for the binding.

And it is now on its way back to Cloud 9 Fabrics.
 
It might be in the Cloud 9 booth at quilt market. If someone sees it, I hope you will take a picture and send it to me. :)

It's a great fabric line for bags and other items as well. Look at these awesome projects made by Jessica's mother, Grandma G, a bag making expert!
Get pattern details here. Photo used with permission
I'm linking up today with Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Really Random Thursday, 9/17/15

Welcome to the middle of September.

The air here in Fresno is finally clearer, breezy and a bit cooler. We actually had a bit of rain and it cleansed the air. Last week this was my windshield, covered with soot. Horrible air quality.
The week before, Mark and I went to San Francisco, where the weather was sheer perfection. We went to spend the day with two couples from Minnesota--they all went to the same small high school in southern Minnesota, and because I have attended several of Mark's high school reunions, I already knew one of the couples too.

We stayed in a little boutique hotel, basically an older hotel which has been updated and modernized. I felt right at home, as the main accent color was orange. They gave us a goody bag when we checked in--water, bars, chips, and a bottle of sangria!

This is what I brought along (my tote bag, ipad, and hand sewing pouch). See what I mean about feeling right at home? #orangelover
We met our friends at their hotel on Nob Hill. Loved these cushions in the lobby.

We had tickets to Beach Blanket Babylon (which I highly recommend) and it was close enough that we could walk.
 We stopped at the cable car museum on the way (also highly recommended). It is free, and you can see the cables actually working in the wheelhouse.
They have a couple of vintage cable cars, one of them with the number 54, Mark's football number. So naturally, a picture was in order.
While waiting in line for the doors to open to the show, I saw this in a window. Our son's name is Aaron, so naturally I texted this to him. And he texted back, "I approve this message." Haha.
This was on the wall of the bar across the street from the theater.
 We had someone snap a picture after the show. That bright guy in the background is actually a statue of the founder of Beach Blanket Babylon.
Then we went to a great Italian restaurant, Calzones.
And I ordered roasted cauliflower. Yum.
It was kind of weird traveling on the new Bay Bridge, with parts of the old bridge still in the water.

My San Francisco purchases: a great duvet from IKEA that was on sale which will make a perfect quilt backing, and a new mug from Starbucks. It's a great size and I've been using it every morning.
So I guess we're all caught up.

Oh wait. We bought a bag of these because, um, really? Biscuits and gravy potato chips?
Oh, and this warms my heart. A future scrappy quilter. At this point she mostly loves grabbing handfuls of scraps and throwing them over her shoulder. But, hey, it's a start.
Your turn.