A Catch-up Post and Some Randomness

Lots going on here, but nothing really too exciting - ever have that problem?

My son finished his first year of preschool, he's changed so much in the last year, I'm a bit emotional about his first school year ending.

My Dad came from Buffalo for a visit and stayed with us for 3 weeks. 'Nuff said.

My Mom is coming next week and staying for 10 days.

My daughter slept through the whole night and stayed in her crib until 8am this morning - this has NEVER happened before, she's 2. I haven't slept for a whole night in 2 years.

My husband is working on 4(!) projects at one time, which is relatively equivalent to 4 full time jobs. He builds architectural models and he's been a bit dry on work for awhile, so this is good, but I miss him.

My sewing machine is a bit dusty. So sad.

I have completed a few things though. The Portland Modern Quilt Guild had a block swap/challenge with all solid fabric. So we each brought in a 12.5" square block made of all solid fabric, and did a blind swap. Then we made a project (pillow, mini quilt, etc.) out of the block adding our own (solid) fabric and returned it to the original block-maker. I received Cherri's block, and made her a pillow out of it, here it is:


Cherri's block ended at the blue/purple edge, and I added the gray and everything outside of that. It was a super fun project.

My block was turned into a darling little pillow by Michelle, unfortunately I can't take a picture of it now, because my son (who doesn't nap) is napping on it right now.

We also had to bring in a 6" block each to be added to the PMQG banner for the Sisters quilt show, where several members (including me!) will have quilts on display. I used my leftovers from Cherri's pillow to make a simple block.


I received my pouch from the Pretty Little Pouch Swap! It was made by the lovely Naomi (linen&string). Look at all the sweet goodies included in this fabulous bag! I adore the fabric covered magnets which live on my magnet board in the kitchen (where greasy little hands can't touch them).

Just look at the gorgeous little details she added. I LOVE this bag, I've already used it several times to carry sewing essentials to meetings - and I've gotten tons of compliments on it. I intend to use it as a toiletry bag for travel, but it's so pretty, I don't want it stashed away when we're not traveling.


I did actually make a whole twin sized quilt top out of sherbet pips... just haven't gotten around to taking pics of it. So stay tuned!

An Orange Pillow and a Cool Class

Last weekend I had the chance to attend a Freestyle Quilting workshop at Modern Domestic (our local sewing studio). The class was taught by none other than Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Frannson!. There were some other ladies from the PMQG there too, which made it extra fun! Joan, Amber, and Katie were all in the class.

We started off the class cutting and making 12 mini quilt sandwiches. Elizabeth then went over the walking foot and we all did a bunch of practice quilting with the walking foot using different methods. We did some 'wonky' straight lines, some random diagonal lines, some offset outline stitching, and a continuous geometric design which I ended up using in my mini Castle Peeps quilt.

Next we put on the darning foot and worked on practicing some different styles of free-motion quilting. We worked on stippling, long loopy lines, and pebbling. Elizabeth had us first draw these patterns on paper to get the hang of it. Then off we went. It's a lot harder to get a nice even stitch out of these patterns, but I'm surprised at how quick you can fill up a 12x12 area. The pebbling took the longest, but seemed to be the most forgiving. The stipple went quick but was the hardest to make look good. I have a lot more practicing to do before I use these methods on a whole quilt, but I really like the look, and enjoy doing it.

Thanks to Elizabeth for a great workshop and giving me the confidence to jump in to free-motion quilting. Here is Elizabeth's example pillow, and here is the one I came up with. Covered in a baby:

Quilted Hexie Pillow

Well I got my hexagons onto a pillow finally, and I think it looks cute. It's for the kids playroom, to go on the fold out couch/bed thingy. I need to get a proper pillow form for it though, this one is pitifully under-stuffed and rectangular. Which isn't working for the square pillow cover. Hexes are Heather Ross, background is Kona coal and binding/accent is Tula Pink Hushabye. I think it's really cute for the playroom which has dark gray walls and a light tan couch. My son likes the gnome with the wheelbarrow the best.