red and white trees!

I made the first block for this quilt LAST year on December 20th, because I'm brilliant like that.....hahaha! Over the weekend I finished the last two blocks and assembled the top. It was a TREAT to have only 9 blocks to sew together to make that happen. Woohoo! The plan is to back it with the red and white polka dots (shocking, eh?) and one of the red fabrics shown will be the binding. I hope to finish it up this year yet and hang it in my entryway. The nice thing about the restrained color scheme is that I can get away with leaving it up well into February. Or all year round, really. The pattern is called Trees! and can be found here or here.

Are you doing any Christmas sewing? If you are, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. If you are already done, I'd love to hear your secrets to making that happen! ;)

Happy Monday to you!

broken dishes-a completed quilt

I've finished my broken dishes quilt! I started this at retreat in July, and here it is, end of September, complete. That feels great! All fabrics came from my stash, which feels even better!

 

This quilt is based on my Myrtle's Broken Dishes pattern, but this time I made 20 blocks rather than 12 and I skipped the borders. SO many half-square triangles in this quilt, but aren't they striking with the light background?

The background print is called "bedsheets" in the color butter, from my Emma & Myrtle fabric line for Connecting Threads. I did an all over "cinnamon roll" quilting pattern freehand on the baby lock Tiara that I currently have on loan. The quilting took a considerable amount of time (and concentration!), but I think it was worth it. After I got done quilting it, I thought, "I'm finally in the groove. I wish I had another quilt to quilt right away!" How crazy is that?

 

For the backing I used the red apron print, also from my Emma & Myrtle collection. I have to admit, it's pretty fun to back a quilt with fabric that you've designed! The red gingham binding is SUCH a happy finishing touch, isn't it? Initially I was worried that it would feel too light or too cutesy compared to the rest of the quilt, but man, I love it sooooo much!

The fabrics used for the quilt were bundles from Westwood Acres "I Want Her Stash Club" from a few years ago. They were curated by my friend Amy Smart and Denyse Schmidt. It was great to combine the two AND it was also a fun exercise to work with bundles selected by someone else. I would recommend it! :)

The quilt measures about 72" x 90", so a generous twin size. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  It actually has a lovely fall feel to it, doesn't it? Now I'm excited to wash it up so it gets that fantastic crinkle. I think I'll sleep under this one tonight!

This is my 11th quilt finish for the year!

gingham doll quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This gingham doll quilt, which is a mini version of my new king size quilt, was such a delight to make. After I had finished the king size quilt, I threw all the extra scraps into a bag and stashed it in a bin. (That's a bad habit to get into!!!) It felt so good to pull out the scraps and actually use them!

I made a teeny tiny little pillow case to match, because...cuteness!!! (I used my OLD doll bedding tutorial from 2008, which can be found here. Still works. Hahaha!) I haven't done much sewing with my Emma and Myrtle fabric since it came out, so it was nice to use it for this project.

I decided to quilt it on the baby lock tiara, which went very well. I had to snap a picture of it mid-quilting, because the scale of the machine vs. the scale of the quilt is comical. Turns out a lot of throat space is lovely, no matter the size of quilt. :)

Right before I was about to make the binding, I discovered some leftover binding from the king sized quilt. Guess what? I had enough left to bind the doll quilt with about 5" to spare. It was perfect!!

I'm going to give this to my daughter. (Either for her birthday in a few months, or sooner if she reads this blog post and finds out about it. Ha!) The quilt can be used for any one of her many, many stuffed animals....

....or she can use it for her favorite doll, Sage. (Isn't this vintage cradle just perfect? I picked it up at a garage sale for ONE DOLLAR several years ago. It was quite the bargain!)

Seriously, is this not squeal-worthy??? She's going to LOVE it!!!  

The doll quilt measures approximately 18" x 22" and it is scrap project #199!

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a GREAT weekend!

hello 2018

Happy New Year! 2017 was a big year for me and my family in a lot of ways. It was a good one!

This photo collage is a representation of some of my most liked photos on Instagram in 2017.

Looking back:

The two big things....

My new book, No Scrap Left Behind, came out in February. I travelled a lot this year to promote my book, including visits to Georgia, Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida. Plenty of stops in Minnesota, too. Many thanks to all of the guilds that invited me to speak and teach. I feel very lucky that I get to do this! Thank you to all of you who purchased a copy of the book. I appreciate it more than I can say!

My latest fabric line, Emma & Myrtle, came out in July! It's so fun to see what others are making from it. I don't think that will ever get old. (It looks like it's currently on sale, too!)

I had a few other highlights:

-In March I made it down to 4 WIPs!

-In July I did my one a day pincushion challenge for a second year in a row. I'm probably done with that challenge now, but it was fun to revisit it. I'm definitely NOT done making pincushions, though.

-In September I started a new series where I'm going to try to complete 10 quilts made from solid scraps. (I have yet to complete one, but I've got two quilt tops done and another few started.) I LOVE working in a series.

-I completed 14 quilts for the year. That's pretty low number for me....I think the last year that I completed that number of quilts was 2006. (I'm totally fine with that, though, because I'm not running out of quilts.) Out of those 14 quilts, 7 were scrap quilts and 7 were made from the stash or new yardage. It's interesting that it's split right down the middle. I'm quite surprised!

-I gave away at least 15 quilts last year. That felt great!

One goal that I did NOT make was to crochet a giant rag rug for my front entryway. I'm debating it now, because I think the puppies will just try to eat it anyway.

It was a big year for my family, too.

-My husband went back to school (while continuing to work full time) and finished his Associates Degree. Working full time and going to school is no joke. I'm proud of him for going back and finishing his degree after so many years.

-My husband and I celebrated our 20 year anniversary!

-We went on a spring break trip. My youngest started middle school. My younger son started high school. (How on earth?) My oldest son got his driver's license and his first job. We got two puppies! It was a BIG year!

Looking ahead:

Usually I have a whole laundry list of goals, but this year I really don't. (I'm trying not to freak out about it. Hahaha!) I plan to do more speaking and teaching this year. And as cliché as it sounds, I want work on reducing my stash this year. I want to sew MORE and sew for FUN! That's about it! Sounds sort of anti-climatic, but then again, it sounds really, really nice, doesn't it?

How about you? Do you make New Year's goals? If you do and you care to share, I'd love to hear about them.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my blog. I really appreciate it! Happy New Year to you and yours!

gingham quilt complete

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Last Saturday evening I finished my gingham quilt!!!! I waited until I completed the coordinating pillowcases (all 6 of them!) to put the quilt on the bed. Otherwise I would procrastinate for at a least a year or two to actually sew them up. Ha! I put everything on my bed last night and I'm soooo pleased with how it all came together!

The quilt uses only 5 fabrics: White, Pink Flamingo and Pearl pink (all Konas) for the top. The binding (lotta dots in coral reef) and backing (apron in coral reef) fabrics are from Connecting Threads. That coral color is super hard to photograph, but trust me, it's really pretty!

It was pretty fun to back an entire quilt with my fabric. :) This is my largest quilt to date, finishing at about 108" x 102". I'm very happy that this quilt, which features the Kona color of the year, is actually finished before the year is over. Woohoo!

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!

Emma's sitting room quilt

Emma's Sitting Room is another quilt that I designed to showcase my new Emma & Myrtle fabrics. This one has kind of a crazy twist to the story, though, which I'll share at the end of this post.

This pattern comes in two different sizes...this version is 40" x 37", which makes a nice baby quilt or wall hanging. The larger size is 80" x 75", which is a generous lap size. I have a scrappy version in the larger size to show you, but I plan to share that in another blog post.

I wasn't exactly sure how to quilt it, because there are a lot of bulky seams from all the HSTs, which makes it a prime candidate for distortion. Eventually, I came up with the idea to quilt it using wavy lines. I first tried to quilt the lines with my walking foot, but the waves weren't pronounced enough, and there was a lot of drag. So, I switched to my free motion foot and quilted this in a relatively short time. It was quick to quilt AFTER I ripped out my first few rows of quilting, that is....but, it was totally worth it!

I used a sweet lamb print from my stash to back the quilt, which is from an older line by Riley Blake. The stripe (which is part of the collection) makes a great binding, I think.

I had this quilt mostly finished, except for part of the binding, when I was teaching at the Museum in Cedarburg, WI, back in May. I saw the weathered shed and thought it would be a good backdrop for quilt photos, so I quickly finished up the binding on my lunch break and snapped a few photos of the finished quilt before I taught class in the afternoon. Ridiculous, but true!

My original quilt mock up was a variation on the traditional bear paw block. I had the dimensions and the math all worked out for two different sizes. Connecting Threads had the fabric ordered for kits and everything. Then, (dun dun dun) my friend, Kristin, came across this pattern, which was already published. The pattern isn't EXACTLY the same, but way too close for me to feel comfortable to proceed. After panicking a little bit, I did a lot of playing around with different layouts and ideas....and eventually I came up with the Sitting Room Quilt. Some people have asked why it is rectangular rather than square. The reason for that it because I retro-fit the pattern to meet the previous quilt's fabric requirements. (Fun times!) The rectangular format isn't something that I wouldn't have thought to do on purpose, but I actually like it a lot. And now, you know the rest of the story. Hahaha!

The pattern is available here, or you can get a kit with the fabric and pattern here, if you care to make one of your own!

 

Happy Monday to you!



Myrtle's broken dishes quilt

This is one of the quilts that I made to showcase the prints in my Emma & Myrtle fabric line. I finished the quilt back in May, so that's why there is green grass and green leaves in my photos! :)

This quilt is based on the traditional broken dishes block pattern. I even added borders to this one....something that I don't do very often! It's good to change it up once in awhile.

The background fabric in this quilt is a solid Ivory by Connecting Threads. For a few of the blocks I used a light print from the line instead of the background print, just for a little more variety.

I found this cute (and oh-so-perfect) backing at my local quilt shop. I was tickled at how well it matched, and I was especially happy to find it the first day I went looking for a backing, since I was under time pressure to get it done. No time to shop around or wait for sales. Ha!

I quilted this on my Juki with a simple loop-de-loop pattern all over using cream colored Aurifil thread. I really ought to wash and dry the quilt now so it crinkles up nicely! The quilt is a nice lap size, measuring 66" x 88". Perfect for snuggling under with a good book or a knitting project. Or both!

There are kits available for purchase here, if you are interested. I have the pattern on sale here, for a limited time. (Sale price is $6.00, regularly $9.00.)

I looked back on my list today and the last quilts I finished were in May....I think that's a new record for me. Not one that I want to continue, either. I better get back to finishing some quilts....and quick!

show and tell bag in Emma & Myrtle fabric

My new fabric line, Emma & Myrtle, (available exclusively at Connecting Threads) has been out for a several weeks, so I suppose now would be a good time to share a little bit more about it!

The collection was named after two of my great aunts: Emma and Myrtle. Emma was my grandpa's sister, and Myrtle was my grandpa's sister-in-law. Their names should give you an idea of the era in which they lived. :) Originally, I wanted to design a line of fabric based on my memories of them, but the collection evolved into more of a nod to things from that time period. I think that's pretty normal-to start with one idea and land in another place. The prints were inspired by retro kitchen towels, radiator covers, vintage aprons, an ironing board cover, gardens, bed sheets and an old spool of thread. I love how the collection came together! Many thanks to the folks at Connecting Threads for their expertise in developing a line of fabric. There is a lot that goes into it!

Picking out the colors for the line is one of my favorite parts! This was the original color scheme that I selected when I was starting out. It's fun to look back and realize that we didn't veer too far from the original palette.

Along with designing the fabric, one of the parts of the process is coming up with quilts/projects to make using the new fabric. That part is fun, but also challenging for me, as I'm more of a jump into a pile of fabric and start sewing to see what happens. (I'm usually not much of a planner in that aspect.)

The show and tell bag (pattern available here) was designed for taking your quilts to show and tell at a guild meeting or for hauling projects to a retreat. When I wrote the pattern, the fabric was not yet printed, so I made all of my samples from different fabrics from the stash. You can see those bags in this post. The pattern comes with instructions for bags in 3 sizes: Medium, Large and Jumbo.

The bag shown here is the large size. I folded up a few quilts (a lap size and a twin size) and this bag holds them both easily.

The pattern is charm pack or layer cake friendly. There is a kit available here, if you'd like to make one of your own!

(Full disclosure: in my version I took out the 4 fabrics shown above, which were included in the kit and I still had enough to make the bag as shown.)

I thought it would be fun to do a pattern giveaway today! If you'd like to win a PDF copy of the Show and Tell Bag pattern, please leave me a comment in this post. In your comment, tell me about a friend who you would like to win a pattern for. If I pick your name, you AND your friend will each win a PDF copy of the pattern. International entries welcome! I'll pick a winner in a few days. Please make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you win. Thanks!

I hope you are having a great week!

Emma & Myrtle market bag

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This project has been on my list for a long time, and I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to it! I ended up making this bag the same weekend that I made my range backpack.  It was a pretty intense weekend of sewing, but the feeling of accomplishment was outstanding! :)

The pattern for the Market Bag is in Anna's book Handmade Style. I used my new fabric line, Emma & Myrtle, for the patchwork pieces. I thought it was a good pairing, keeping with the vintage style of the pattern. The background fabric is Essex linen. I've had it in my stash for many years, so it was great to finally USE it!

I used leather straps in medium brown (available here) and Anna was kind enough to help with the rivets. (Thanks, Anna!) I love those extra touches like the leather and rivets. It gives the bag a professional look.

I also love all the quilting on the exterior of the bag. It takes awhile, but it's definitely worth doing. For the interior of the bag, I used leftover gingham backing fabric from this quilt. PERFECT pairing and I had it on hand. Yay!!! I hand stitched the binding down rather than machine stitch it, because I knew that I would get better results. It's totally a personal preference.

I love this bag and I definitely recommend the pattern! Many thanks to my friend Holly for helping me style the photos for this post!

I think that's it for me today! Now it's your turn to link up your finishes for the week. Remember that I am leaving the link up open for 2 days rather than 1. Hopefully that gives you a little more time to post something!

Thanks, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday. I really mean it! :)

pincushions 21-31, the finale and a blog break

Well, it's the end of July and I completed another month of pincushions!!! Let's catch up, shall we?

 Day 21--simple hand embroidered hearts on "notebook" lines

Day 22--twin pincushions made from a sweet little floral print that I adore. (even if it is polyester. ha!) The tabs are made from a tape measure that would no longer retract. I love re-using things like that!

 Day 23--morning--a tiny Jacob's ladder pincushion

day 23--evening--another version of the Jacob's ladder block, but this time in red and white. I had it in my head all day long, so I had to make another one in a different color way.

 day 24--simple bias solid stripes with a tiny metallic polka dot tab

day 25--fronts--These were made from scraps that were leftover from my friend Mary's fabulous owl blocks that she was working on at retreat.

day 25--backs--the backs are quilted, too, and are made from more scraps from the same project. Don't they make a fun set?

day 26--I showed these on Friday already, but I had to include them in the line up. Fabrics are from my new collection Emma & Myrtle for Connecting Threads. :)

day 27--a simple cube pincushion, again from my new fabric line!

day 28--the front--I really didn't feel like making a pincushion on day 28, but as usual, red and white polka dots were the answer! This pincushion measures about 2 1/2" square. It's tiny!

day 28--the back. I love how the back turned out, too. I'm glad I pushed through and made something, even if I didn't feel like it. That's all part of the challenge!

 day 29--A simple design made from the leftovers of day 19

 day 30--ticker tape pincushion that uses teeny tiny Liberty scraps

day 31!!! And the last one....a happy flower block, inspired by my friend Rene's wonderful blocks. I feel like this was a fitting way to end the month!

Thank you ALL so much for your kind comments and for cheering me on as I made a pincushion (or more!) a day. I appreciate you following along on this crazy journey. It's been a lot of fun!

Here's a picture of them all together:

 There are 44 in all!!!! It wasn't easy to get them all in the frame. Ha!

 And here they are in calendar order. :)

It's been a fun month! Thanks again for all of your encouragement!

It has been my usual practice in the past few years to take a month off social media, and I've decided that August is going to be my month off this year. I'm tired and I need a break! I need to soak up the last few crazy weeks of summer with my kiddos. I also have plans to take a trip with my husband to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary! (How can I be that old??) I'm looking forward to catching my breath and returning at the beginning of September.

Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of this. I appreciate it more than I can say. xoxo