Fabric Tuesday, link up!

How was everyone's Halloween? Good? Ours was fun. I just love taking 2 year olds trick or treating. In their head they have to think it is the awesome-est thing that ever happened to them. They must be thinking "why the heck don't we dress up and go door to door for candy every night??? LOVE it lots!

Okay, here are some of my favorite non Halloween projects from last Fabric Tuesday. Check out the cuteness! I must get sewing! It is driving me nuts! I want to  sew every day, and right now I am super lucky if I get to once every 2 weeks! SAD!

Basket Case from  Jibberish Designs. Love both of them!

Pretty quilt top finishes. I am thinking of rotating red back to my favorite color again. I am loving it lately! Maybe because Christmas is coming up? From KechQuilts. 

Gorgeous quilt to finish from Confessions of a fabric addict. 

Speaking of fabric addict, Megan just texted me some photos of her fabric organizing, holy moly, she has tons of fabric over there! I will make her do a post about it. Cute!

Fabric Tuesday Refresher here...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!

Just wanted to share some spooky creations from last week.

 I wanted to do them all, but I got too tired. I am sure you all have a busy day tomorrow like I do. Halloween parade at the school, class parties, store for

 last minute costume/dinner ideas, and the big night of trick or treating. 

Hope you all have a fun day and night!

Awesome spiderweb quilt. I want to make one of these one year! From Boys, Buttons and Butterflies.

Cute spooky spider mummies. Love them! From Flamingo Toes...

Haunting Halloween block from Sewingly along

Not really a Halloween quilt, but the colors are, and I think the quilt is great! From JAQ's studio.

Jack-o-lantern shirt from Craft buds.

And lastly, this scary ghastlie view from Quilting by the River.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bloggers quilt festival...our new quilt...

For those of you visiting for the first time welcome!  Stay a while :)  We are sisters who share writing this blog, design quilt patterns and are fabric nuts!  Every week we feature three different quilters and their finished quilts, and we'd love to feature YOU!  We also share our own quilts and projects :)  You can check out the sidebar on your left for different types of quilt stories or to see our projects.  

This is the reason that I go to my Mom's house all the time to craft! Seriously this view looks photoshopped! She lives about 20 minutes away, and she is a super clean freak. Plus she loves to take care of us, feed us, sew for us. We couldn't ask for a better mother or a better location for her to build a gorgeous house!

Fabric: Peacock Lane for Michael Miller       Size: 60" x 72"

Last time Megan was out here we sewed and sewed. We created this quilt for our super cute niece who just turned 20! We thought it would be a fabulous quilt for college. She loves it!

We did super soft minky for the backing. Just so nice to snug up in, especially since our darling niece lives in a nice winter town. Our wonderful Aunt did the quilting.  The quilt was a total collaborative effort, Megan and I each did half the blocks and our mom pieced the top :)  We just looooved some of the prints of Peacock Lane, it is perfect to fussy cut.

The pattern will be available in our shop shortly.  Let us know by email or in the comments if you would like a notification when the pattern is available. We will contact you..

Our Mom doesn't like the quilt!  She thinks we went a little out of control with the colors, that we should have been so much more unified. I was a little surprised just how open she was about not liking it! She is a little old school about color combination. Bless her heart!

We hope you love it! Thanks for visiting us here at Quilt Story. Again check out how you can be featured, find out more about us, join our weekly linky party and stay a while :)

Megan's got another quilt on Fresh Poppy Design (our other blog) so check it out, here's a sneak peak:

Thanks to Amy for hosting such a fun event!

A Quilt for Kelly

One of my best friend's mom, Kelly, was recently diagnosed with cancer.  At the end of July she was diagnosed with duodenal cancer which is very rare and serious.  Chemotherapy didn't offer her very optimistic chances, after doing research and help from family and friends she's decided to pursue a promising alternative treatment.  However, this treatment requires $25,000 upfront.  Her loving family has thrown her a fundraiser where she lives and they're throwing another this weekend  in North Salt Lake City, Utah.  (You can see more about her story HERE.)

I have felt so bad for my friend Ashlie.  She is one of my favorite people ever, and it's really hard to see your friend go through something like this.  Ashlie is the oldest in her family and she's only 27!!!!  She needs her mommy for many years to come.

I was really excited when I found out there would be a silent auction at her mom's fundraisers, and a real way I could help.  This quilt is in honor of Kelly:

I settled pretty quickly on the design.  Simple but more interest than just squares.  Bigger than I originally planned, it's a good size at 51" x 78".  I went back and forth about colors. I wanted to appeal to the broadest crowd.  I ultimately went for a bright and cheery fall palette.  I started with my Robert Kaufman Metro Market prints and began pulling from there.  There's a lot of different collections in this quilt, Going Coastal, Peacock Lane, Sanctuary, Veranda and Michael Miller Solids.

Simple quilting, about 2-3 inches in on each block. Straight-line.

Although I love the back, I hope I didn't make a mistake!  I hope it isn't too modern for some.  I really just love to piece my backs and have a lot of fun tying all the prints together in a non-traditional way.  Looking back I probably should have kept it more simple.  Oh well :/

I threw in a couple more things that could be auctioned off.  One of our Oh Baby! patterns, that is great for beginner sewers.  I included all the necessary fabric as well, again Metro Market and coordinating Groovy fat quarters.

Then a little set of fabric flowers.  You can never go wrong with these right? :)

Here's the whole lot.  Hopefully these can help bring Kelly closer to the treatment she needs.

For those of you who live in Utah you can attend the fundraiser!  

It's Friday October 28th in North Salt Lake.  

There will be dancing, food, costumes and an auction  

If you want more information see HERE.

There is no denying we like Kate from Swim, Bike, Quilt.  She turns out cute thing after cute thing, always a treat to see what she's up to!  And to top it off she's all nice and charitable..what the heck?!! :)  She hosts 100 Quilt for Kids not only encouraging quilters to donate quilts to needy kids but organizing a slew of prizes if you do!  Make sure to see her blog and her projects from this year...you won't be disappointed!

cxcxxxcxHmm... What kind of quilt do you make for one of your favorite people in the whole world, who is having baby number four, but her first girl; who doesn't particularly like pink or purple but lets you decide on the colors, and is due in the fall? Enter the lovely Little Apples fabric by Aneela Hoey.  I bought a fat quarter set at Sample Spree last May, swapped some of it, and saved the rest for something special. I just wasn't sure what. [I'm guessing I'm not the only one who does that...]

A few months ago, when myquilting buddy Tricia and I started brainstorming on a quilt for D's baby girl, this just jumped out at us.  It was a team effort--she picked the pattern, I cut the squares and started sewing all of those lovely half square triangles. She pieced the top and sandwiched it, I quilted it and bound (half of) it. Buried way too many threads, went to the Sewing Summit, came home, finished burying knots, put it in the mail, took forever to get there, and voila! The quilt actually made it to Colorado before the baby... if I had been smart I would have taken it with me to the Sewing Summit, since I had a three hour layover in Denver and D was kind of enough to meet up with us and hang out! I kicked myself when I realized I had left it at home.  We hope baby girl comes soon!!!


[The pattern is the Mosaic Block from Lee @ Freshly Pieced, part of the Summer Sampler Series. We started with five inch blocks, and  loved the secondary pinwheels the block creates.  The border is one of the prints from Sherbet Pips, and the quilt matches the laundry bag I made and bedskirt Tricia made. Sneaky, no?  The back is a little bit wacky, I just couldn't be predictable for some reason that night. I decided I HAD to get some pink in there, and this print from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom fit really well, or so I like to think. ] 

I love charcoal binding. It's one of my favorites!

Fabric Tuesday Party and Gift Idea!!

I have a pet peeve, and I'm about to commit the crime.  I have a really hard time when people post a project, whatever it may be, but don't give a good full shot of it.  I am all for artsy and creative shots, the more photos the better.  But I just need one great full shot so my brain understands.  It's like an itch I can't scratch.  Well get ready to be scratchy.

When my nieces were here a month ago and we made these darling messenger bags we decided to make a gift for their older sister who was returning to college that same week.  Then we came up with, what I think, was a pretty good idea!

Fabric: Metro Market by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman

I took an existing apron of mine for the shape and then I added ruffles wherever possible.  I love this fabric, I am adding these strawberries to some of my dish towels this week---of course in a ruffle!

This is the best I got, so hard to take pictures of yourself wearing something!! :)

We also included some of the recipes we'd been trying out together.  And then gave her the ingredients for one of them.  What more could a college sophomore want?  When she called to thank me she told me she was just wearing the apron around for fun!! :)

Fabric Tuesday Linky Time!

Do you have a fabric project to share?

First time or can't remember specifics?  See here.

Also we want to encourage you to link-up any Halloween projects you're working on that include fabric.  Next Monday (on Halloween) we're going to feature some of the projects you've linked!  Remember, you can link more than one thing to our party :)  

This is my mantel, in all it's fuzzy glory, to give you an idea of what you can link!  My wreath is made from Tulle and a fabric banner.  Plus I love to tie fabric scraps whenever possible :)

The Quilted Fish DELIGHTED fabric launch party...

Last week Amber and I went to this fun fabric launch party by Amanda Herring of "The Quilted Fish."

Megan and I LOVE Amanda, she has been a big help along the way for me and Megan.

When we first started writing patterns, Amanda worked at Material Girls by my house. She was super helpful in encouraging us to start writing patterns. Way nice.

Last spring was our first time at Market.  Meg and I were all sorts of nervous. Amanda had us over to her house for over 2 hours. This was while she was super busy preparing for market too. We are always amazed at her kindness and generosity...

On to the party...the fabric line she just released is called "Delighted" for Riley Blake. 

It was so super fun and over the top decorated (that is how Amanda likes to do things!)

Cute little displays all over the place...

How cute are these little dress forms???

Yummy candy station! Fun make and takes! Fun evening out!

Thanks Amanda!

Sweet gift for a family who lost their baby girl...

We received this wonderful submission from Mary's blog "Mary Merrily Quilting Away".  She made this darling quilt for a special friend who lost a baby. Make sure to read the post, she made it for the family in honor of their lost baby. There is some special parts in the quilt for the kids who lost a little sister. Just a sweet and thoughtful gift. I just don't know of a more special thing Mary could have done for this family...

Being a quilter, when someone has a grand occasion or someone hurts, I tend to run to my fabric and machine to celebrate or console.  Sewing not only gives comfort to the person receiving the quilt but to the quilt maker as well.  Sometimes you do everything right, and everything is going right, then there is a moment when it all goes tragically wrong.  When someone loses a baby, it is the worst tragedy, you can't imagine what they are feeling or how to console them, there are no words.  All I could think was that they needed the warmth and comfort of a quilt to honor their daughter.  I made this quilt using the Sherbet Pips line because even though this family member of mine lost their daughter, they also have two older daughters and I didn't want them to think of tragedy.  I wanted the parents to think of the the pure innocence, the sweetness, the abandoned joy of childhood.  I had bought Sherbet Pips fabrics months before, but had been reluctant to use it before this.  Who would be worthy of this wonderful treasure?  Sherbet Pips was perfect for this family.  I wanted them all to use their quilt and when they did know that I made it to honor their lost daughter.  I pieced the back making large Dresden Plates (I found the pattern on Lily's Quilts), they reminded me of The Circle of Life, so I made three, one for each daughter in the family.  The Dresden's are machine appliqued on pieces of solid Kona.  My goal was to use all the fabric that I had in the line in this one quilt, it was especially made for them, and I won't feel right putting it in anything else.  I was very specific to the family that they should use this quilt.  It was an honor to put this together for the family and I did it with sorrow and joy and love.  For Lily.

 

In honor of Lily

I have been talking about this quilt for a few months now.  It is on it's way to a special family, wrapped up, weather protected, insured, sign for delivery. 

Ever have something happen that sends you reeling and makes you re-evaluate everything?  You want to comfort but there are no words? 

I first quilted from the back, around the large dresden plates, this showed up on the front fabulously.  I love the way Kona  krinkles after washing.

My hope is that this family will use this quilt with their two daughters, for snuggling, reading, when they're sick, for a picnic, anytime.  And be reminded of the specialness, the uniqueness of each and every life we are granted to steward.

Our lives are like Quilts, bits and pieces, joy and sorrow, stitched with love.

For Madison - A quilt will warm your body and comfort your soul.

For Alexa - Those who sleep under a quilt sleep under a blanket of love.

Listen for my footfall in your heart, I am not gone, but merely walk within you.

Snawder Sherbet Peeps 2011