Stash busting!

I completed the apron that will go with the coffee table runner that I made earlier. Once again I am using my favorite apron pattern. For those interested in the pattern the main reason that I love it is because you cut your fabric based on yardage NOT from a tissue paper template like you do with some other patterns. It makes things go together so much nicer. The only thing that you cut from a template is the cute little pocket. Using directional fabric was a challenge for me in the beginning but the pattern spells out exactly how to cut your fabric in that instance so it went really well :)

Four Corners Apron - Vanilla House

 While I was working on the apron I got a bit distracted by the mess of my fabric stash. I have looked at a lot of ideas on what to do with your scraps but I thought that the best thing for me would be to make my own jelly roll pieces(2.5 inch pieces x whatever fabric length). From there I thought I would piece them all together and have my own jelly roll race. The Missouri Star Quilt Company has an awesome YouTube video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEJLnaZQOU&feature=plcp


Here is what I started with straight out of my stash bag...all of the fabrics here are from the first sampler quilt that I made at Heirloom Creations.

BIG MESS

All pressed and looking good.

All fabrics cut into 2.5 inches by whatever length

Completed "jelly roll" quilt top!

I had planned on using the tan/cream fabric as a backing but my quilt top is now too big! I guess I will just use it as a border for now and see how that goes. The top is currently at about 30"x48" or so. I will give an update on the exact size once I add the border but I was very surprised at how much fabric I had!


I did more stash busting with my leftover Lorax pieces. These pieces ended up being 1.5 inches I believe. I had some leftover green fabric from my Kermit bag and was able to make a liner and handles from that. Isn't it just too cute! I am loving making my own "jelly roll" pieces and actually using them.

I finished up my long weekend by making my blocks for the Sioux Falls Quilters Guild block exchange. This is the second exchange that we have done this year.The Guild encourages everyone to participate so that we get lots and lots of blocks. The Guild provides the background fabric and then quilters add in their own personality by choosing the additional fabrics. This is something that we are doing quarterly so once the quarter is up they will count out all of the blocks and give them away to lucky guild members. I think at the last drawing there were 6-8 winners and everyone got 22 blocks. That is a lot of finished blocks for only having to make two!

Last thing for today is just a picture of the fabric that I had leftover from my 5 Yard Quilt - Coffee Cats. Maybe someday these scraps can become something interesting as well! I did find that the cat fabric and the blue fabric had the largest amount left. I think that the cat fabric had so much left so that you could fussy cut your pieces if you wanted to.

Whew!! What a weekend!


Have a great week!


Angela

A Lorax in Progress and a Fat Quarter Runner

I started the weekend by working on my Lorax quilt. I switched a few of the borders around and this is the arrangement that I decided on. I am planning on putting two borders around this quilt in order to bring it to a better size. The first border will be a brown pattern in a 5 inch length and then a 3 inch pieced border will go around that. I need to pick up the brown border and a backing fabric so this is probably going to make an appearance again at a later date once its all quilted and pretty :)

 

I had picked up a few cool things when I was shop hopping last weekend and I put together the table runner this morning. The pattern I used is called Fat Quarter Table Runner V from Out of The Blue. This pattern is labeled as "Quilt-As-You-Sew" which means that now I only have a binding to put on and it will be complete! I would advise new quilters against using directional fabrics. The coffee fabric that I was using ended up working out fine but I did adjust the pieces a few times so that they all went the same way.

You make several different cuts of each of the fabrics. Post-it notes would be helpful here.

After piecing together the fabrics I wanted to make sure that they fit properly on the backing/batting.

All trimmed up and looking good!

Close-up of the great fabric :)

This afternoon I plan on putting together the apron to go along with this runner. The apron will be the coffee fabric along with the red-dot fabric and that will be one wedding gift off of my list!

I am going to try and work on a casserole carrier today as well so we'll see how that goes. The pattern that I will be using for the casserole carrier is from Brenda's Quilts and it's called Home Cooking Casserole Carrier & Table Runner. I am thinking that I will make the 8x8 carrier instead of the 9x13. Depending on how that turns out it may end up being a gift as well. I think it would be really cute to give the carrier, a pan and then a few recipes or a baking mix as a shower gift.


Happy holiday weekend - I hope that you all get to spend your extra time quilting like me!


Angela

5 Yard Quilt - Coffee Cats

The 5 Yard quilt top, that I am calling Coffee Cats, is now finished. I put the final borders on last night so now it's time to figure out a backing fabric and a quilting design.  I am thinking that I will probably be purchasing a stitch-in-the-ditch foot prior to quilting this so that I can just make straight lines but we'll see. Overall I think that the top turned out great and I really like the green in the quilt. I had thought about swapping the blue and green but the use of so much green gives it a really fresh look. 


I will be working on the Lorax quilt this week so more pictures to come!

Getting closer to the weekend!

Angela

Shop Hop Results

I was able to stop in three different quilt shops on my short weekend trip.

 My first two stops were in Mitchell, SD. The Pincushion is a wonderful little shop with lots of samples hung all around. Many of the samples hung up had kits available. They have lots of precuts available and had a great selection of fabric. They also had quilting stencils which you don't see around very much. The shop is fairly large and the ladies there were very helpful.I had been looking for more of the Hometown and Grand Finale fabrics but could only find them online so I was very happy to see them in the store.

Grand Finale Charm Pack, Hometown Layer Cake and Roll Play quilt pattern

 

 

The second stop in Mitchell was at the Fabric and Textile Warehouse. This is just on the opposite corner of Main Street in Mitchell so a very quick walk :) This place had tons and tons of fabric. Not all was quilting material but that's just fine with me. They did have a variety of quilting patterns including things from Vanilla House and Atkinson Designs. I did not see many samples hung up but the store is very large so I did not get to see everything. I am planning on making an apron and table runner for a family member that is getting married and I thought the below fabrics would work really well together. I bought 2 yards of each so that should leave me plenty of room for both projects.

2 yards of each fabric

The Quilt Shop in Chamberlain was the last stop on my route. This shop was once an old house and has since been converted into a quilt shop. The whole main floor was jam packed with fabric. There were a few samples hung around for table runners and other small items but I did not see many quilts hung around. There were plenty of books to choose from as well as fat quarters. Due to the area that they are in they also had many different kinds of hunting and fishing fabrics around. There were a few kits available but most did not appeal to me. I picked up this fat quarter pack and table runner pattern to go with my previous coffee material purchase in Mitchell. The table pattern is a quilt-as-you-go type of thing so I think it will work very well for me.

Fat Quarter Table Runner pattern and fat quarter pack

The Pincushion

320 North Main Street  

Mitchell, SD 57301

http://www.thepincushionquiltshop.com/

 

Fabric and Textile Warehouse

401 North Main Street (Downtown)

Mitchell, SD 57301 

http://www.fabrictextilewarehouse.com/catalog/index.php

The Quilt Shop

315 N. Main
Chamberlain, SD 57325

http://www.southdakotaquiltshop.com/index.html 

Have a great week!

Angela

B Blocks and a Quick Shop Hop

Last night I finished up the B Blocks to my 5 Yard Quilt. Once all A & B blocks were complete I trimmed them up. They were supposed to be 8.5 x 8.5 squares however I made mine 8.25 x 8.25 since my quarter inch seam is a little over what it should be. I couldn't really get this quilt in my head until the B blocks were done. It's really amazing how cutting up fabric can change the look completely. I posted a picture below of how some of the quilt top should look when finished. There will be two borders to this quilt. I believe that there is a small green border and a large red border. The binding for the project will be green.

 

B block - prior to trimming

Trim, trim, trim.

  

I'm not sure how much more I will get done this weekend, as I am heading out of town shortly. I think that I will be able to hit two quilt shops this afternoon so I will let you know my findings. These are both shops that I have never been to so I'm excited to see what they have.

Have a great weekend!

Angela

5 Yard Quilt and the Lorax

I started piecing together my 5 Yard Quilt last night and I love this pattern. It is so simple to put together and the instructions read very easy. I had said earlier that I purchased this as a kit from Always Your Design when they were at the Brookings Quilt Show but I forgot to mention how many different kits they had. I love getting kits because I feel like there is less fabric waste and less going into the twilight zone of my fabric stash. 

I have not made it to this store in person yet however they are definitely on my list. They are consistently updating Facebook with new fabrics, new kits and other general goings-on in their shop. At the quilt show I also picked up a fabric book panel from them which I am hoping to get to soon. Another thing I have noticed with their kits is that they provide several different kinds of kits for the same pattern. I saw a few girly/teen kits, some brights, batiks and then neutrals so it’s a nice mix that they provide. Now that I have this pattern I think it would be very easy to pick out my own 5 yards of fabric and make another quilt. I will take photos of how much I am fabric I am left with as far as scraps go.

Last night I was able to finish all of the ‘A’ blocks for the quilt so tonight I will be working on the ‘B’ blocks. Also I got a hair last night so I decided to start working on my Dr. Seuss ‘The Lorax’ panel quilt. I have cut out each of the quilt pages and now I’m working on giving them borders. I think  I am going to make each block 12x12. There are 10 quilt pages so I’m not sure yet how I will end up arranging them so I will have to do some brainstorming. I have several baby quilts to make and Target has some Lorax baby clothing so hopefully I can get some cute things put together.

SPOILER ALERT: If you get a baby gift from me within the next few months, you can pretty much bet it will have something to do with Dr. Seuss. However with as much shop hopping as I will be doing this summer – who knows!

Fabric: Coffee Cats by Henry Glass Fabric

Fabric: The Lorax by Robert Kaufman Fabrics

Angela

June Quilting Events

  What's that you say? You want to go quilting every weekend in June? Well then here are my suggestions for activities! Get out there while the weather is nice!

Crossing Borders Spring Fling Shop Hop 2012
Saturday, June 2 through Saturday, June 9, 2012

Visit 10 great quilt shops
in Minnesota & South Dakota

FREE table runner pattern and
pewter charm at each shop!
(While supplies last)

Prize drawings for hoppers
visiting all shops!

Dutch Rose Quilt Shop ~ Sioux Falls, SD
Lone Tree Legend Quilts ~ Lake Preston, SD
Always Your Design ~ Dell Rapids, SD
Canton Quilt Corner ~ Canton, SD
Dakota Quilt Shop ~ Watertown, SD
Rising Star Quilt Shop ~ Watertown, SD
Fabrics Plus ~ Marshall, MN
The Sewing Basket ~ Luverne, MN
Crafty Corner ~ Worthington, MN
Prairie Quilting ~ Windom, MN

Black Hills Quilt Show
Friday, June 8 through Sunday, June 10, 2012

Black Hills Quilts Guild Present the 38th Annual Black Hills Quilt Show

Located at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center
444 Mt. Rushmore Road N. 
Rapid City, SD

The dates for their 2012 retreat have been set as Thursday, September 27 through Sunday, September 30, 2012
More information is available at www.blackhillsquilters.org

MQ 2012 Quilt Show and Conference - Rochester, MN
Thursday, June 14 and Sunday, June 16

Mayo Civic Center
30 Civic Center Dr SE

More information is available at MQ2012 Quilt Show and Conference 

Quiltfest - Freeman, SD 
Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June 30

Friday Hours: 1-9pm
Saturday Hours: 9am-3pm

Quiltfest is held at the Freeman Academy campus. 

A quilt show and demonstrations will be some of the festivities
. 

Friday Demos: 2pm, 4pm and 7pm
Saturday Demos: 10am, 11am and 1pm

Admission is $5 for adults

Angela

Kermit Confessions and Grocery Shopping

So about the Kermit bag from this weekend. Let me be the first to tell you that cutting up your favorite bag is not really advisable and that I was very nervous about it. While the project did turn out in the end it was not without a little bump in the road. I purchased the Quilts and More  - Summer 2012 magazine right off of the newsstand and used the pattern that was printed in there. Turns out the pattern was missing an important feature that I needed. I ended up just estimating a measurement for the bag which turned out but I thought that the editors should know what was missing.

 I sent an e-mail to them not really expecting a reply and what do I find in my inbox this afternoon? An e-mail reply from Jill Mead, editor at Quilts and More saying that they are sorry for the error. She then sent me a pdf of the revised pattern(which is the one I linked to earlier) and offered to send a copy of the bookazine All Small. I don't believe that I have seen those in stores here so that should be a treat. All in all what an awesome customer experience!

If you are not familiar with either Quilts and More or American Patchwork & Quilting go and check out their website here. They have tons of free patterns, loads of pictures for inspiration and my favorite, a quilting radio show! The radio show is available live or you can get it as a podcast to listen to later. The host Pat Sloan is always interviewing interesting people and I have learned so much just by listening to other quilters talk about their passions.

I thought I would also show my latest grocery shopping trip with you all. Some of these are from a fat quarter bundle that I purchased off of clotilde and the rest I picked up at Heirloom. The grapes that I picked up must have somehow rolled off of the cutting table. All counted I have 22 fat quarters of this fabulous fabric. I am invited to a few weddings this summer so I am thinking that I will cut some charm sized(5 inch) squares off of each fat quarter and make table toppers but we'll see.

Happy Monday!

Angela

Weekend Update

I didn't spend as much time in my sewing room as I would have liked this weekend but we have to take advantage of nice weather when it comes our way. My husband and I also managed to get tickets to Sweeney Todd and it was wonderful!

I did cut all the pieces to a 5 yard quilt and make a new purse out of an old one. The 5 yard quilt was a kit that I picked up from Always Your Design when they were at the Brookings Quilt Show a few weeks back. The purse pattern is from the Summer 2012 edition of Quilts & More magazine but can be found here.

old purse

1 yard of each fabric - all cut up and ready to sew

Have a great week and more updates to come!

Angela

90 days to Quilts & Vines

Never heard of Quilts & Vines? Then let me introduce you!

Quilts & Vines is an outdoor quilt show held at Strawbale Winery in Renner, SD. For those who don't know, Renner is just a bit north of Sioux Falls and maybe a 15 minute drive. Parking is not available at the winery. When you get off of I-29 at the Renner exit you will travel east and park in the trucking company's parking lot. From the parking lot nice bus drivers will take you to the winery. When we went last year the bus schedule was very quick and if you missed one you only had to wait about 5 minutes before another one showed up.

Look ma - real grapes!

Heirloom Creations created a video of all of the wonderful quilts at the show and I highly recommend watching this in order to see what kind of fun you are in for.

Quilts & Vines 2011 video

Quilts & Vines Official Website

 With all that said I had better hit the sewing room hard this weekend and start getting some projects going. I have never entered a quilt show but I am determined to enter at least three in this show, hopefully five. (Read: Scary!!)

Are you entering the show? Have you entered a show before? I am looking for any advice I can get in order to be show ready!

Happy stitching!

     Angela