and I'm back...

Yes, it's been awhile. Let's just pretend that it hasn't been almost 5 months (!) since I blogged, and that I did the all-important 2013 recap, posted pics of everything I sewed, told you about my fabulous retreat at Loon Lake in November, and all of that. Truth is that it's just been very busy. With 4 busy kids, moving, and just living life, it's been hard to keep up here.

But I have been sewing. My latest finish was a wall hanging version of Ingrid. Seen in baby form here. It's a quilt that I love to make every time.

 

I've also wanted to learn how to make boxed pouches for a long time, so when Bonnie of Pink Stitches posted this tutorial on her blog a couple of weeks ago, I gave it a try. I loved it! So much easier than I thought it would be.

So there we go! Hopefully I'll be back more often. (And with photos taken with a real camera, that are not grainy and taken off of Instagram. Sorry about that.) I've missed this place.

spring cleaning-- 25% off to clear out the shop

In an effort to clear out the last of the Christmas inventory in my etsy shop, I'm having a sale! Enter in the coupon code SPRING25 for 25% off the item prices. I've got some zip pouches, scarves, tote bags, Baby Ingrid, and more ready to go!

cyber monday (and tuesday!) sale

Phew! I've finally listed all of my leftover craft show merchandise here in my etsy shop!

I've got Echino scarves:

Eye pillows:

Pouches:

and a few other goodies.

Use the coupon code HOLIDAY10 to get 10% off anything in the shop! Since I'm a bit late to Cyber Monday, I'm extending my deal through this Wednesday, November 30.

Fat Quarterly

I'm in serious re-entry mode after an incredible 4-day quilting retreat. More on that later! But I wanted to pop in and say that I've got a pattern for Baby Ingrid in Issue 7 of Fat Quarterly!

If you've purchased the issue, I'd love to know what you think. Have a fabulous Tuesday!

swoon

I finished up baby Ingrid this afternoon.

The backing is a red polka dot Bliss flannel, found at my LQS. I was nervous about bleeding, but prewashing with a Shout color catcher took care of it no problem.

The binding is Kona Butterscotch. I bought it to use on my big orange wall quilt, but once it was auditioned for this quilt, I fell in love. I'll just buy more!

It's hard to give this up. But I'm thrilled that it's going to be gifted with a lot of love.

baby Ingrid

A local woman contacted me on Monday asking if I could do a modern baby quilt for some special friends in time for a shower this weekend. Luckily, it's a mellow week for us. After chatting with her a bit, we decided to do a baby-sized version of my favorite quilt, Ingrid!

This was the original stack of fabrics. I added a few other shot cotton bits and a sweet white pindot.

And here is the completed top.

This has been SO MUCH FUN to make! I'll have it quilted up and ready for more photos on Friday.

(Oh, and I received a link to the professional photos from the marathon. After initially whining about my appearance (I imagined myself looking more buff and graceful, and it ends up I still have cheesy arms and feet that don't appear to lift off the ground), I remembered to be grateful for my healthy body. If you want to see proof that I actually did run the thing, here they are.)

Bloggers' Quilt Festival- Spring 2011

I'm sneaking in at the end of Amy's fabulous Bloggers' Quilt Festival this year to share my favorite (for now!) quilt. Meet Ingrid:

Ingrid is a quilt I finally sewed up earlier this year. She's made of bee blocks from the talented members of the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee group on flickr. I asked everyone to make blocks inspired by an incredible Ingrid Press quilt that I saw here. They are each sewn out of various cotton and linen neutrals, a piece of shot cotton, and a print (mostly Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks). (Click on the photos to see them more clearly.)

I chose blue and green shot cottons and a strip of more Good Folks for the backing, and quilted a basic loose grid to keep Ingrid nice and soft.

Although I think she's absolutely beautiful, I really love Ingrid because she is a family quilt. She spends her days crumpled up amongst legos and dog hair...

... and is well loved by all of my kids too.

Thanks for visiting! And make sure to check out the rest of the entries in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival too. There are so many inspiring quilts posted!

midweek mehs

Why is it always so hard to come back home to reality after vacation? My brain is mush and I have little motivation to do anything. To top it off, it's been a crazy week for the kids and for Rob. Avery and Claire are both performing in the school talent show tonight.

Cooper is really keeping me busy too. After almost being weaned when we were in Hawaii (he only wanted to nurse first thing in the morning-- bliss!), he now follows me around all day crying, "Up!" and signing milk over and over again. I'm back to nursing him four times a day. He also stopped sleeping through the night again. He won't play with toys. But of course the good outweighs the bad. He turned 15 months old on Monday. His vocabulary just keeps growing (Dada, Mama, Sissy, Claire, puff, pat pat, cheese, hi there, bye bye, woof, honk honk, beep beep, Casey, Bubba (his blankie), diaper, Grandpa, etc.) and it's really fun to see him communicate through words and sign (unless it's about milk of course). I love watching him stand up on his own in the middle of the room and clap. He's so proud of himself! He finally took his first steps too on Sunday night, so we're just waiting for more confidence to follow and he'll be walking pretty quickly.

I did manage to rearrange my sewing room the other day and get everything in order. I didn't expect it, but I have so much more room now! I can even iron in there while I work instead of setting up in the laundry room/pass through down the hall. Score!

I've got lots of WIPs (over the couch quilt, patchwork quilt, quilts for the girls' beds) but until I get more free time, I'm starting back slow with things like bee blocks. As a whole, I'm creatively stumped. I know it will pass though. It always does!

Oh, one more thing. While we were gone, Ingrid was featured on Modern Day Quilts! Take a peek.

Ingrid

She's done! I was able to stitch the binding on yesterday afternoon while the kids played around me. Cooper would crawl up to me every so often and tug at my loop of thread so I could say, "Boink!" and then would go play with toys. Pretty awesome and unexpected.

I loved the idea of hand quilting Ingrid, but reality kicked in and I did some loose machine quilting in a grid instead. I backed the quilt with shot cottons and a strip of Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party fabrics. This combo of minimal quilting and the shot cottons makes the quilt soooo soft. It's bound in Kona Snow with a little strip of purple shot cotton on one side.

Ingrid is staying with us as a family quilt. I'm going to pretend that all of that white is a great idea in a home with three kids and two dogs!

plugging away

Ingrid is only a thousand or so hand stitches away from greatness. I may be a week behind, but I'm excited to get the binding done in the next day or two and get her all washed up!

Have a great weekend!

table runner for Rita

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again-- when I married Rob, I not only got the best husband, but I also got the best set of inlaws that a woman could ever hope for. They are truly wonderful to spend time with and help us out so much whenever we need it. I'll never be able to repay them for all that they do. So when my mother-in-law, Rita, put a table runner on her birthday list last month, I thought it would be much more fun to make her one than buy one.

And it was fun  (although it took me longer to decide on a design than I thought it would). Rita gave me some color choice requests, which really helped. I had 3 of the middle blocks sewn up and on my design board for a few weeks, unsure of where to go from there. When I was using scraps of essex linen to make blocks for Ingrid*, I realized that those shot cottons needed to be sashed. Then it all came together. I used four colors of shot cottons-- pine, pea soup, ginger, and nut. The backing is a Kaffe Fassett woven stripe that I just happened to have in my stash.

The binding wasn't sewn down all the way when I took the photos. I finished that up this morning as I sat in the orthodontist's office waiting room. This was possible, of course, because Cooper (aka Destructo Baby) was with his wonderful grandparents instead of tearing up piles of magazines like he would have done if he was with me. I was very happy to hand this gift over, albeit a month and a half past Rita's special day, as I went to pick him up.

What I was not happy about after I got home was this:

It seems that one or both of our dogs are experiencing a bit of separation anxiety any time we leave the house. Today it was the sippy cup (pulled off the counter). Yesterday it was a can of frosting and a pack of diapers (also pulled off the counter). Two days ago it was a plastic bag of pocket folders and a pack of velcro that were covered in tooth marks. Nothing is safe. Have I mentioned that my sewing room doorknob jammed so I removed it? I think I need to stop at a hardware store this afternoon before the dogs start eating my sewing supplies again.

* I decided that I'm going to give all of my quilts that I make an actual human name. I unofficially started calling the Aqua and Orange Mermaid Quilt "Trudie," after thinking of that stupid Sting song "Fields of Gold" every time I would sew on it. And fittingly, the Ingrid Press inspired quilt is now simply "Ingrid." I've always hated naming my quilts, so this is the path I'm going to take from now on. Dorky? Maybe. But easy.

bee blocks for February

First, thanks for all of the nice comments about my Ingrid Press inspired quilt in my last post! I'm going to start the quilting tonight, so we'll see how it goes! I originally wanted a flannel back, but since I couldn't find one I liked, I've pieced together some green and blue shot cotton. It will be yummy.

I made two very different sets of bee blocks yesterday. First, some very bright frame-in-a-frame blocks for the Fussy Cut Love Bee. I loved the colors that Vickie chose! All of the fabrics were bright and beautiful.

And in contrast, a very mellow set of blocks for Sorrel's month of Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee. I love the simplicity of the two fabrics in each block, and it's fun for me to try blocks like these from a pattern. Sorrell assigned everyone a week from Crazy Mom Quilts' Star Quilt Along (mine was week three) and asked us to do a setting block as well.

Both very different, but very fun to do.

a new favorite

I sewed up my Ingrid-Press-inspired quilt top from the blocks I received from the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee. I received 20 blocks from the members and made 10 of my own to finish it out.

I love it.

A special thanks to Avery and Claire for being my quilt top holders, keeping it off the dog haired floors while I searched all over for the camera. Even though it made their arms tired. I love them too.

My goal is to have this one quilted up before Friday, and get the binding sewn on over the weekend. I can't wait!

WIPs- bee quilts

Okay, I was disappointed to read the comments from my last post saying that no one else had experienced my unfortunate urp in the mouth. Rob admitted it happened to him. But on to the quilting...

First up-- my quilt top for my Fussy Cut Love Bee. I got some incredible wonky blocks from the members of my group, and I was happy at the time that I was using a very limited palette. But when I put the blocks together, each individual one was lost. White sashing, not practical. Adding more green made things, well, too green.

So last night I decided I would sash it in this incredible raspberry shot cotton. It's crazy, but I like it!

Next up, my quilt for the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee. I'm still waiting on a few blocks, but am loving where this is going. I'm planning to make extras and make it really, really big. It's based on this quilt by Ingrid Press. The woman is amazing.

And last but not least, I'm gathering blocks up for Rachel's do.Good Stitches charity bee. She has gathered a group of amazing quilters who are putting together blocks in a green and blue square-in-a-square style, which are being sent to me for finishing out into the final quilt. I'm only showing a sneak peek because I have other blocks received that eluded me in the sewing room. I should have all of the blocks by the end of the month, then it will be on my priority list of finishes. It will then go out to a special kid who really needs it. Awesome stuff, and I'm so glad to be a part of it.

This weekend I'll be attending the first sew-in for the Anchorage Modern Quilt Guild. Five hours of sewing, away from distractions? I'll take it! We'll see what gets done. Have a great fall weekend!