Patchwork and Quilting Blog List

Do you love reading quilting blogs as much as I do?  If you do, head on over to Red Pepper Quilts!  She has a very cool new page on her blog with a linky feature for quilting bloggers to share their blogs!  I've added mine to the list, and plan to go back and click through all the rest in hopes of finding some new blogs to add to my already crazy list!

In other news -- apologies again for the long break!  I've been super busy with work and life!  I did get a very awesome day of sewing with my modern quilt guild ladies, and that was fun! I finished the purple baby quilt top, I just need to get the quilt finished up as the baby it's for was born last week -- eek!

Also in exciting news, at the last modern quilt guild meeting I was selected as the new vice-president, and some very cool ladies were selected as our new president and secretary, and I think the three of us will plan some awesome things for this next year of the guild.  First on the list is a meet and greet for new members this Saturday.  I'm also going to start making a little newsletter after each meeting to send to our members to sum up what's been going on and what's coming up.  So that's fun!

I also have been buying fabric.  I know, when do I NOT buy fabric?  Fabric.com is having a very good sale right now, through the 14th, and I scored some awesome Robert Kaufman Metro Living Circles for a STEAL.  Less than $6/yard.  Plus some other fun stuff!  I'll come back with some pictures soon, I promise!

All right, time to get to quilting...I've got a bee block I've got to get done!

Quilt show wrap-up

The quilt show last week was a lot of fun! I met up with several of the ladies from the local modern quilt guild and we wandered around together, looking at the quilts and shopping.  It was a bit overwhelming, how much stuff there was to see! I think next time I'd actually plan on two days...one to see all the quilts, and one to shop.  It was a lot to take in at once!

There was a lot of good fabric to be found. I told myself ahead of time that I wasn't going to buy randomly, that I was going to be very good, but that all flew out the window.  A couple of vendors had some really good stuff and I just couldn't resist.  The best vendor, hands-down, was Some Art Fabric.  She had tons of great Japanese prints plus lots of other yummy stuff. I got a bunch of Heather Ross from her plus some japanese prints.  A couple of other vendors had nice selections of fat quarters and I picked up a bunch of cute ones, including a bunch of Urban Chiks, which I was excited about.

First, my Heather Ross and japanese prints.



Next, random fun fabrics (including some Flea Market Fancy! The vendor actually had several prints and all of us in our group very quickly snatched them all up!)



And finally, the various Urban Chiks prints I picked up from a couple different vendors. I have a 1974 jelly roll so I grabbed those prints to use with that, plus of course I couldn't resist the Summer in the City prints.



I also bought some batting, which I don't have a picture of. It was a great price! They had 18"x18" square 'sample' pieces for $0.50! I bought a couple of those in different types (soy, bamboo, cotton), as well as a queen sized bamboo/cotton, just because it was sooooo soft, and at only $20, I just couldn't pass it up.

In other news, this past Saturday the modern quilt guild has a sew-in. We had a bunch of fabric given to us by a local charitable organization, and we used it to sew some baby items to donate to the organization. It was so much fun! I completed one baby blanket and am nearly done with another. I'll be finishing that one up to send off for donation as well. I also handed out my bee block fabrics, and can't wait to get those blocks back. I've seen a couple of girls post their completed blocks already on their blogs and Flickr and I am super excited.

It was a busy weekend, and on Sunday the family headed to Atlanta to Ikea to buy some more Expedit bookcases for my daughter's room and our living room, as well as a few other items. I came back with a few more pieces of fabric! A few Ikea fabrics (no picture), as well as these two from Whipstitch. I highly recommend visiting Whipstitch if you are in Atlanta, it's a very cute, nice store.



So, there has been way too much fabric acquisition in the last week. Yikes. Now I need to sew some of it up! I do have many many projects in various planning stages, and I need to get to them.

Stash, Squares, and Shows!

Gosh, I just can't manage to get myself over here to post on a regular basis, can I.  So lame.

I have a few pictures and some exciting things to share.

First, some recent stash enhancement.  Moda's Hunky Dory line. I freaking love this fabric.



I just feel compelled to buy it. I already have some more yardage on its way to me as well.  And if I can find some more yardage of that blue flowered print on top, I'm going to snatch it up. I just love it!  I am planning on using the layer cake to make a quilt top using this technique from Oh Fransson!  I have been wanting to try the crazy 9-patch tutorial, and I've been wanting to make something with this fabric, so I'm going to dive in. Soon!

But first, I've been working on getting my fabric ready for my upcoming month in the local modern quilt guild's quilting bee!  Our next meeting is this Saturday, and I've got to hand out my fabric.  So I've been a busy little bee cutting away.

I've decided to ask the members to make me this block:



Isn't it awesome?  It was fun to make, but it takes a while. I hope the ladies in the quilt guild don't kill me because it's complicated.

Here's my stack of all the printed fabrics I'm giving out, nicely cut and waiting to be divvied up:



I can't wait to hand it all out, and see the blocks I get back!

In other exciting news, the AQS quilt show starts here in Knoxville tomorrow!  And I am going! I took the day off of work and will be meeting a group of the modern quilt guild members tomorrow morning for a day of fun shopping and quilt gazing.  I can't wait! I've only been to a small, local show, never a big one, so I am very much looking forward to it.

Also, this Saturday's meeting of the modern quilt guild isn't a regular meeting, it's an all day sew-in! We are going to be working mostly on charity projects with some donated fabric, and I am really looking forward to an entire day of sewing with like-minded people!

What a fun, fabric-filled week!  Hopefully I'll be back soon with a report from the quilt show and maybe some nice things I found while there!

Actual quilting in progress!

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been MIA yet again.  I just get so darn busy, that whole going to work, having a small child thing is definitely getting in the way of sewing and blogging. :)

But there has been a little bit of sewing going on!

First, I want to show the pictures of my swap item that I teased you all with last time.

For the last meeting of the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild, we decided to swap a friendship bag.  We decided we'd use this tutorial from P.S. I Quilt for the basic idea and dimensions.  I decided to tweak the tutorial a little and add a band of solid fabric around the top and change the size of the fabric strips on the side.  I think it came out super cute!





Unfortunately I haven't yet taken any pictures of the bag I received, but trust me, it's super cute! I'll try to get some pictures soon.

I also finally decided on how I wanted to quilt my Perfect 10 quilt.  I had picked out a backing a while back (from Hobby Lobby), got it all basted a few weeks ago, but have been procrastinating because I couldn't decide what kind of quilting to do or what color thread to use given all the different colors in the top.

I finally this last weekend, after some trial and error, to use a clear thread for the top.  I tried white, and brown, and they both just stuck out too much on some of the fabric colors in the top.  The clear, while a pain in the butt to work with, looks the best.  I'm using a dark brown on the back.  In the pictures below you can see what I chose for backing, the dark brown with the simple floral in white.  I also decided to just do straight vertical lines for quilting.  I'm not confident enough yet in my stippling, especially to do a quilt this large (it's about 60"x70"), and I couldn't think of any other pattern that wouldn't fight with the design of the top.  As soon as I started quilting, I knew this was the perfect choice, as I LOVE how it's turning out! I can't wait until it's done.  Right now I'm a little over a quarter of the way through, and it's taking a while with that many lines close together.  But hopefully I can finish it up over the next week or two.





Now I've got to get back to it!

Potholders!

Today we had another meeting of the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild chapter.  For today's meeting, we decided last time that we would do a potholder swap.  I've never made a potholder before, but I had fun making this one and I think I might make some more in the future.

I almost didn't give this one away, I thought about keeping it and making another one to swap, it is so cute!







And here's the one I received in the swap...isn't it cute? I love the color combination.




Isn't that fun?  Next month we're going to swap little quilted tote bags.  Can't wait!

(I realize I never came back to post about the quilt show I went to last week...hopefully I'll get around to it!)

Modern Quilt Guild

Yesterday I attended the first meeting of the Knoxville chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild. 

It was so much fun!  We discussed quilting, favorite shops, did a show-and-tell of our projects, had a fabric swap, talked about philanthropy projects we could get involved in, and came up with some ideas for future swaps and bees.  It was so nice to get together with others who share my love of fabric and sewing and crafting!  I don't know anyone else who enjoys all these crafty pursuits like I do and so it's great to find others to share this hobby with!

We will be meeting every month, hopefully, and I already can't wait for next month's meeting.  I think we are all going to have so much fun.  If any of my Knox Mod girls are stopping by, a big HELLO to you, it was a great to meet you!

If you would like to join a Modern Quilt Guild chapter, check their site for a list of chapters that have been formed and find one in your area, or if one isn't there already, start one up yourself!  It's so worth it!

Speaking of modern quilting, I purchased this pattern this week:

I purchased the pattern from the Blue is Bleu Etsy shop.  It arrived super fast! Audrie, the proprietor of Blue is Bleu, has a great blog, too, check it out!

The pattern looks a little intimidating, but I really want to try it.  It requires 31 or 36 different fat quarters. I think between my Flea Market Fancy fat quarters, and a fat quarter set of Katie Jump Rope that I purchased recently, I'll have enough. I think that will make an awesome quilt! But I'm so indecisive, I'll have to think about it some more before I jump in!

Also, I wanted to mention, I am approaching my 50th post, only a couple more to go...make sure you come by, because I am going to have a giveaway to mark the occassion!