Eating junk and accuquilt winner

I am sick.  Sick of candy, Diet Dr. Pepper, donut holes, donuts, Reese's peanut butter cups, tootsie rolls (bleh) and the 16 cupcakes I think I ate….I can’t be sure at this rate.  Tomorrow I’m eating vegetables.  Remind me I said that in the morning and while your at it make me get up and exercise too.

The winner of the Accuquilt Go cutter is number 1026….Kati Mcregan.  I couldn’t bare to pick a winner so I made my husband do the random.org thing and do all the counting.  So you can blame him if you didn’t win.  :)

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

1026	

Timestamp: 2010-11-01 05:48:33 UTC

And then there was a pumpkin

He was really not feelin’ that hat.  Its way more fun to suck on.  Thanks for all your great pumpkin suggestions!  I whipped this up just in time for him to wear it for a whole 2 minutes before he was off to bed.  :)  Happy Halloween!  

Quilt Festival

Its that time of year again when Amy (thank you Amy!) organizes an online quilt festival. 

My entry is my Color Block Quilt.  It’s not a new quilt, more like a recently re-discovered quilt from back when I was beginning this whole quilting journey. 

I made this only a few months after I started quilting, with some of my prized scraps that I couldn’t part with.  I love it because its kind of wonky, its not square at all, and I like to think of all the loads of things I’ve learned since then.   Plus its just fun to look at.

This little quilt is a reminder that quilting should be fun, with less worrying about technique, and more about just going for it.   My past entries can be found here, here, and here.

To see all of the quilt festival entries visit Amy’s blog.  (click on the button below)

pumpkin in the making…maybe

I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to make a pumpkin costume.  Does anyone know of a pumpkin costume tutorial?  Because we have a Halloween party tonight and heaven forbid the baby should not have a pumpkin costume.  Like he cares.  At least my supplies were cheap….

and if it doesn’t work out he can always be a beaver like his brother 3 years ago.

Here’s to pumpkin making….I’ll keep you posted.

bright

This is the view from my computer right now.   I really love the way this top turned out, its really bright and fresh, and its going to be a wonderful quilt to get out in the middle of January when I’m sick of winter. 

You can find the fabric here, here, or here.  The pattern is this one (which will have this very bright quilt on the cover as soon as I get it done!)

 

Triangle Corner Trick

I was piecing these blocks with triangle corners (like the corners in this block) yesterday and thought I would share a quick trick. Usually a pattern (including my own) will recommend drawing a pencil line from corner to corner on the wrong side, and sewing along the line. Like this one:

But since I’m a hurried sewer and drawing little lines on 160 squares doesn’t sound like super fun, this is what I do instead:

Place a piece of tape so that edge is in line with the needle of your machine.

When you are sewing on your squares, start in one corner, and keep the opposite corner on that tape edge to keep the seam line straight.

When your done you’ll have a nice straight line from corner to corner, without having to draw gagillions of little pencil lines. Keep in mind though that the smaller the square the easier it is, it might be a little harder to keep a perfectly straight line with bigger squares.

After trimming and pressing the corner should look like this:

Tricky huh? I learned this from my Mom. I always wondered why she had painters tape stuck to the front of her machine….now we know.

Elephant March

  I have these blocks sewn up and stuck to my design wall (a.k.a.  a piece of flannel…classy).  After I was finished sewing up all the blocks and feeling all great about my quick quilt…I realized I had sewn 19 extra hourglass blocks, and cut 10 too few elephant blocks.  How in the heck I did that I have no idea…and to top it off I had just used up the rest of the elephant fabric making bean bags that my son will throw at me.

Luckily after some re-arranging and re-sizing it all got worked out.   I had two circles leftover from using the accuquilt cutter to stick in it….and I actually like the way it looks even more.   I’m taking this little "miscalculation" as I sign that I need more sleep.  A lot more.  :)

unpacking Halloween

The best part of decorating for the holidays is unpacking the decor that has been stuffed away for a year.  I’m embarrassed to say that I completely forgot about this table topper….but it was such a fun surprise to find!

This quilt I didn’t forget about...but it was still plenty exciting to get it out of its tub-o-crap and back to use.

I’m so glad I made these last year even though I was really big, sick and pregnant…in that order.   Too often I think that its a waste to make quilts that are only used for one month out of the year…but really it just makes them that much more special.   

Basket Case…the details

This quilt is made from one jelly roll, plus cream yardage and borders.  I wanted a woven look for each block without cutting the strips all into little squares with lots of little seams….so it took  a full night of staring at my silly drawings to figure out how to properly do it and make it simple.

The fabric line is Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda…just in case you live under a rock.  No offense.  Bliss can be found here, here, here, here, or here.

The back is the lovely aqua medallions….

and the binding is scrappy using the leftover jelly roll strips.

The quilt measures 61" x 71" .  The pattern is suitable for a beginning quilter with some piecing and seam matching skills.   Oh and did I mention I love this quilt?  Its the last pattern I have in the works and I love how it went together.  Even more than the whole bag of chocolate covered blueberries I just ate and now I feel like puking.  The dang Costco sample ladies lured me in. :) 

Snuggly Christmas

My Mom was visiting last week….which meant sewing….lots of sewing.  We whipped up this all flannel quilt top using this tutorial (except we cut the squares 9", and the corner squares 2 1/2").   I’m not sure what all those fabrics are, but I know the majority of them are Riley Blake flannels.  This is one snuggly quilt!  

Oh and this little guy got his first tooth last week….the problem is now he bites and it HURTS! 

Juicy Fruit

Its been such a long time since I’ve made a baby quilt for no reason at all!   Its so relaxing after doing lots of large quilts since they go together so quickly.  Especially when using an easy pattern that I’ve made before (this pattern).  Love that. 

The colors in this quilt are picked out of that Riley Blake Bloom and Grow fabric (the vines)…I bought mine here a while back, but you can also find it in other colors here.

The backing is an Amy Butler print with a strip of patchwork down the side, the binding is Sandi Henderson.  I quilted loopty-loops all over this one and its in the etsy shop.

The Chunky Version

  Follow the instructions from the fabric watch band tutorial:

Tutorial: Fabric Watch Bands

You’ll need:

I bought my watch face at a local craft store (Porters) but you can find them at craft stores in the beads section…or here, here, or here online. Mine was about $10.

For a CHUNKY watch band, see the updated version of this tutorial here.

If you want to make these for gifts but don’t know how big the recipients wrist is, make them a tad bigger and either use a larger strip of velcro, or a couple of D rings so it can be adjustable. I would make the strip larger and add 2 or 3 sets of snaps so that they can make it tighter or looser. I’m pretty sure every one of my friends/family is getting one of these for Christmas.

Peppermint Twist

Lots of couch time meant lots of binding/editing time last week!  This is such a fun quilt.  I already have my spot mapped out where I’m going to hang it for the holidays.  I like that its bright and cheerful without any “Christmas” fabrics, but is still very festive and whimsical with those pinwheels that look like candy. 

The quilting was done by Christina and is perfect as always, those tight swirls in each pinwheel totally make this quilt.  I quilted the table runner and hot pads…which means don’t look to close.

The quilt measures 45” x 45”, and the table runner measures 16” x 45”.  The patterns includes instructions for both and two hot pads.  This would be fun in non Christmas colors too…maybe like green and blues?  Or brown and oranges?  Hmmmm….like I need another project.

The pattern is available in the pattern shop in PDF or hard copy form.