Signs of Spring

Without a doubt, Spring is my favorite season. I love seeing the first daffodils and tulips popping up and the redbud trees full of blossoms. My sweet girl picked out this strawberry plant and we have been enjoying tiny berries every few days.

Sharing these strawberries with Jenna triggered a childhood memory. As a very little girl there was an area with trees beside my house where we had a clothesline and a swing. Under those trees grew a patch of wild strawberries where tiny, tiny berries grew. I remember being so surprised to find them growing there.


Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio is hosting a Spring to Finish Challenge. We set our goal of items to finish by May 31 and reward ourselves at the end. I love having a deadline. It really motivates me to pick things up even for just a few minutes when normally I might think I don't have time to work on something. I plan to finish a Downy Quilts for Kids project, binding two quilts, and repair Jenna's beloved sock monkey (he has a dangling arm). My reward is going to be a little fabric shopping. I have in mind a pack of Basic Grey Eva fat quarters if my local quilt shop still has them at the end of this challenge.

Check out all of the details at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. If you haven't read Jacquie's blog yet, you are in for a treat. It's full of inspiring projects and some great tutorials. She's also contributing on Sew, Mama, Sew! this month with some great information for both beginning and experienced quilters.

Every spring for the last few years I've looked forward to the Kansas City Shop Hop and Jenna has helped me hop around Kansas City since she was one. This year I gave her a little pocket money in case she came across something she wanted. These were her selections along with a handful of buttons. She has a few ideas for what she wants to make with them and I'm so excited that she is enjoying fabric and taking an interest in sewing.

This spring day has brought a great deal of rain so perhaps I'll get a little sewing in today. And I can't wait to share my finished Project Plume.

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!

Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild

Last Wednesday evening, I attended the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild's second meeting and had a wonderful time! It was so exciting to visit with so many quilters who were absolutely as nice as could be. The show and tell was so inspiring. We saw quilts from beginning quilters, very experienced quilters and everything in between and they were all beautiful. In fact it was SO inspiring that I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was so excited.

Tula Pink was at the meeting and gave us all a challenge. She brought charm packs of her new Plume line of fabric that Moda donated to our group. The challenge is to use the charm pack and a half yard of fabric, along with any fabric for the backing and binding. I love so many of the designs in this line as well as the colors but it's really out of my comfort zone to use some of the colors in the charm pack together. It took me several days to finally figure out what I wanted to create.

I made three Disappearing Nine Patch blocks using Rachel Griffith's wonderful tutorial on p.s.i quilt. I then framed them with a chocolate brown solid from Moda. I'm considering an attempt at free motion quilting with this project. The challenge participants will share their creations at the April meeting. It'll be fun to see what everyone came up with.



The pink feathers on the pink background is a favorite.


And so is the large scale floral which is surprising since I usually don't care for large scale prints.

I have a thing for keys so I'm really in love with the keys dangling from the vines/trees. You can see the pink and green versions here.

Edited to add: See finished quilt here.




It was fun to branch out and try something new which is exactly why I was interested in joining a guild. The Modern Quilt Guild is popping up in many areas around the country so check to see if you have a guild near you.

Ribbons

I love ribbon. I save it from wrapped presents, pick up a yard or two at the scrapbook store, and clip it off of store bags. But where, oh, where do you store those loose yards of beautiful ribbon? I've found that if I put things out of sight I forget to use it. And I love the little memories that they trigger. See the detail pink leafy vine? I picked that up at a wonderful little shop called Grace and Company Paperie on Bainbridge Island west of Seattle. Great memories of spending time visiting with my husband's family.

So here's my solution. I found this darling antique at a consignment shop called Now and Then in Overland Park, KS and fell in love with it. The shop is across the street from a quilt shop I was visiting during a shop hop. I managed to talk myself out of getting it but couldn't stop thinking about it. A month later I made a trip back knowing it would be gone but I was so lucky to find it still hanging in the back of the shop. So I've put a color group on each clip and can clearly see what's available to put on a scrapbook page or around a package. I still have some unopened ribbon on cards in a drawer and little scraps in a jar but I'm enjoying seeing this practical but pretty organizational solution on the wall.

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!

Splat!

Have you seen the laminated fabric that several designers have come out with? I went shopping for some to make a table cloth for my daughter's little table. After having our carpets cleaned I changed my mind and decided it would be better used as a splat mat under her dining room chair. I just turned it over to the back side and used a bowl to trace scallops. I was surprised to find the fabric very pliable and it is soft enough to have some drape. Love the fun design on the floor rather than just a white plastic sheet. The print is from Amy Butler's Love collection in Paradise Garden Mint.

I just finished piecing this table topper for our dining room table. I started it at the retreat this fall and had a few borders to put on. The piecing quality is improved from my last project. I really focused on trying to get the points (corners) to match. It's better but still not as accurate as I want. I found I was overcompensating at first when I was butting my seams together and causing problems. I also discovered that I wasn't making quarter inch seams. They were a little bigger. It didn't really matter on this but I'm working towards being very accurate so I can try some more complicated patterns.


The pattern is "Christmas Cookie Crumb Catcher" by Chick-a-dee Hollow. The pattern calls for holly applique on the center and the corners of the light border with embroidery. I decided not to add those. I really liked the simple design and the center would be covered by a centerpeice on the table anyway. I just love the fabric and want it to stand out. It's Peppermint & Hollyberries by Nancy Holversen (Benartex). I love the swirls and little peppermints.

I'm contemplating how to quilt it. I could try to stipple or do some other free motion quilting on it (after I practice quite a bit). Or I've thought I could have someone with more skills quilt it and quilt a neat design in the middle. I think I'll do some practicing first and see how it goes before I decide.

Gingerbread House

I've had such a fun December with my little one this year preparing for Christmas! I took her to a local gingerbread house tour to introduce her to the concept and that in itself was so fun. There were so many imaginative creations. A few days later I brought out a Wilton kit to try. I was hoping it would go smoothly and walls would stick together. I'll say, she was very patient with all of the waiting in between steps. We did the piping hand in hand and she had fun putting all of the candy in place.

My mom sent her an apron which she loved working in and she also wore it while we baked cookies with her other grandmother. It felt like my mom was involved in the festivities just a little bit, too!

She told Santa that she would like and Achoo Baby and a blanket for her baby. Santa asked if I could help out so I dashed off today to find some flannel fabric and hopefully I can put together a quick blanket in time to give Santa to give to her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I took my daughter to the zoo recently and the fall color was just beautiful! I'm ready to set the mood for Christmas but before I do, here's a few photos of the leaves I took that day at the zoo.

Sunset

I got to visit my family in Tennesse recently and had such a great time. The best part was celebrating my niece's 2nd birthday. I snapped this photo of the sunset when I was almost home. We get sunsets like this quite often and I love them!

My sweet Mom offered to quilt the two quilt tops I had finished and she took this picture of it on her long arm. I'm so excited to see it in person!