She'll Be Back!

I just went to AmandaJean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts to see if she had any new Flicker photos and saw the surprising announcement that she'll be blogging again soon. Sooooo happy to hear that. She's the first quilt blogger that I followed and I was so sad to see her blogging come to an end.

To celebrate this wonderful news, I'm sharing the red and aqua quilt top that I finished at my retreat in March. AmandaJean provided the inspiration for this one.

I had so much fun working with these colors and I love the layout. Not loving the block with stripes. I wasn't about to try to match the stripes but it still bugs me a little.

This quilt top was my big accomplishment at the retreat. You can see one of the sewing rooms here. We had a snow storm while we were at the retreat and enjoyed the view all weekend. We even saw deer running across the dam.

My sewing station was just down the sidewalk in the next building. It was kind of nice to get some brisk fresh air on the way to and from "The Big House". I'm so lucky to have such a nice group of women to get together with while we quilt. Looking forward to the next one in the fall already!

A little of this, a little of that....

I made my very first pinwheel the other day and it was so much fun! I never thought I'd be able to do triangles and pinwheels. Rachel Griffith is hosting a Pinwheel Samper quilt along on her blog p.s. i quilt. If you've never tried these before this is a great way to jump in. I hope I can get a couple more finished this week.

I'm using fabric from Moda's Three Sisters line called Aviary. I fell in love with it last spring when I saw it during the local shop hop. And when I say love, I mean LOVE. When I went to visit my mom early in the summer she had the whole line in her quilt shop and I was trying to figure out how to fit a fat quarter of each into my budget. Then I was trying to figure out which prints I could live without. I was so surprised when my mom brought fat quarters of the whole line to a family dinner for both my sister and I that I just squealed with delight! I had no idea what I would do with it but I had a lot of fun going through my patterns and trying to decide. When I saw Rachel's quilt along I knew that this was the project perfect this fabric. Never, never feel guilty about growing your stash (to a reasonable amount) because its so wonderful to have just the right thing to pull when you need it. Thanks Mama!

I am noticing a little puckering along some of my seams. I've been playing with my tension on my machine to try to fix it. So frustrating when you can't just sit down and sew. Hopefully I'll get it worked out.

I got started on a couple of blocks for my red and aqua quilt. So, so easy! I think I may save the rest for an upcoming retreat. It might be an easy thing to start on that first night to get me in my groove.


I picked this book up from the library a while back. I was drawn to it because I knew that my mom had submitted a couple of our family quilts to the Kansas Quilt Project back when I was in high school. It didn't really go into great detail about most of the quilts discovered in that project bu used some of the data collected to discuss the history of quilts in Kansas. I planned on just browsing this book but I ended up reading most of it. The excerpts of diaries were really interesting as well as the photos. "Kansas Quilts & Quiltmakers" is by Barbara Brackman, Jennie Chinn, Gayle Davis, Terry Thompson, Sara Farley, and Nancy Hornback.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more pinwheels!

Bring on the Steam

I started cutting into my red and aqua fabric today. It was such a thrill!

My little craft room partner was busy making her own crafts from a little stash of things I've collected for her. I had to stop occasionally to help her with a little gluing or to demonstrate how to give a pipe cleaner a good curl but she was nice company and I got 4 or 5 blocks cut.

I picked up this little magazine and DVD for about $10 a couple of weeks ago and watched it clear through last night. Waaay too late last night. I fell asleep about 12:30 am and when I woke up towards the end of the video, I had to check out what I'd missed and that made it even later. But...it was a wonderful video and perfect for a true beginner that's never been around fabric or people who sew. They explain basic vocabulary and take you step by step through every part of making the example quilt. I'm such a visual learner and I got quite a bit out of it. I can see myself going back and watching some parts again later. And I really like the pattern to as it offers a few different setting options. I highly recommend it and I think it is still out on the magazine stands.

One of the things I learned last night was to set your seam by pressing the seam that you have just sewen and THEN opening up your two peices of fabric to press the seams to one side. I have a great new tool to do just that. My old Rowenta was just hobbling along and I use it almost daily to iron clothes. No steam, no spray, just heat. I opened this new Professional Rowenta up last night (Christmas gift from my wonderful mother!) and tried it out on my red and aqua fabric. Can I just say, I'm in love!

Wishy Washy

Faded Glory and my unnamed bed sized square patch quilt are back from Tennessee. My mom did a wonderful job quilting both of them. I just SO appreciate her taking the time to quilt them for me, especially during her busiest time at the quilt shop. I really love the red thread on the Faded Glory quilt. I plan on starting the binding on the bed sized quilt this weekend. I'm looking forward to sitting and watching some movies in the evenings after little one goes to bed and stitching away.

Today was a preschool day so after singing some songs at circle time and picking up a rare latte at my favorite coffee shop, I dashed home to my craft room. I was itching to break into some new fabric. Just before I visited my mom in October, I discovered this beautiful quilt on the Crazy Mom Quilts blog. I just love Amanda Jean's quilts but the color combination she used to make this quilt really grabbed me and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So as I walked around my mom's shop I spotted these two fat quarter bundles and knew they were perfect to try with this pattern.

This is my favorite of the red prints. I love scrolly, swirly, flowery lines!

I have been asking around and reading around about whether I should prewash my fabric or not. I had pretty much decided I was in the no prewashing camp. I like the crisp new fabric to work with and like the little puckery look after it's all washed after it's quilted.

Then I happened to wash a big quilt that had red in it and I had a couple spots of bleeding occur. Luckily, there is a lot of red print on the cream background where it bled and you can't really tell unless you are looking for it. But it's scared me enough to prewash for this quilt. Here it is ready to iron with all of the strings and knots. I did wash the blues and reds in a seperate load. Hopefully that will take care of any issues.

I made a stop at Quilting Bits and Pieces today to check out some quilting templates for the Cookie Crumb Catcher and had to pick up these four fat quarters. Can you tell it's been dark and dreary the last few days and I'm craving a little spring? I'm loving the pink and orange together!