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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Fat Quarter Shop contest winner!!!

Announcing the Fat Quarter Shop winner...

Fat Quarter Shop button

receiving five yards of Quilted Fish fabric...



Teje said...
I would use the fabric to make my dream quilt!


We can't wait to see the dream quilt!!!  Fun contest, thanks Fat Quarter Shop!



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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mountain Quilt from Spotted Stone

 Welcome to a Wednesday feature!  Today we've got Krista from Spotted Stone.  Her blog is a fun mix of family, quilting and other fun sewing things.  She's got some impressive finishes!!  Make sure to see her Etsy shop with cute sachets and a ridiculously cute mini sailboat quilt!  Today she's sharing a special quilt she made for someone special :)

I just finished maybe my favorite quilt ever.



    Imade this abstract landscape for Rob, who has mentioned a few times that I make things for everyone else but had yet to do something just for him. It took me awhile to figure out what to do, but his love for the mountains inspired me. Anyone who knows us in real life can attest to the fact that Rob is happiest when he is out on a trail. It doesn't matter if there is snow, rain, mud. He's out there enjoying every bit. He has shared this passion for the outdoors with me and our kids, and for that I'm so grateful. Rob is the best husband, the best father. I'm lucky to have him.


Quilting details-- The quilt measures 28" x 27". I made it entirely out of shot cottons, save for the few pieces of Kona Snow and Aqua. Most of the fabric came from my scrap stash. I started the sky at my sew-in day last weekend but completed the rest in the last 24 hours. (Rob is away at a conference, so I was able to stay up extra late to get it done!) The mountains were pieced in sections and appliqued onto the sky, then the rest was improvisationaly pieced as I went along.  I took extra time with my quilting since there were so many starts and stops in the middle. I made sure to hold my thread ends and wove them into the quilt, so the back is as neatly stitched as the front. I also didn't square it up until the quilting was done, since the shot cottons are so thin and flimsy. Here's a photo of the top before it was quilted:


On the surprise part-- I'm 99% positive that Rob doesn't read my blog, and I just couldn't wait to post the photos! This is destined for his office at work, but I'll be hanging it up to enjoy here until he returns home.

Just a reminder, in case you've totally missed the memo, today is the last day to sign up for a fab giveaway from fat quarter shop, so check it out! :)
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Fabric Tuesday #29!

Hello!  Happy Fabric Tuesday :) Hope everyone has had a fabric-licious week, I certainly have.  A LQS had a major scraps/remnants sale, and although I have more project than I can handle, it is way too hard to pass up current gorgeous designer fabric lines for $2 or less a yard!  Ah!

So this week we got to most everyone who linked-up last week, but I know some where left out.  We had the most link-ups ever last week, by about 20!  We love doing Fabric Tuesday, you all have such great projects week after week.

Speaking of which, here are a few of my favorites from last week:

Ridge Top Quilts; disappearing 16 patch
loving these colors, can't wait to see how it turns out!!

Better shot - Finished MMM bookshelf mini-quilt
Don't Call Me Betsy; Bookshelf mini quilt
Love, just plain love.

Mama Roux; Mezzo Messenger Bag
Loving this bag and the color combinations!

KT Quilts 4 Fun; Tag Along Tote
I love how this is put together, and it looks so fresh!

Jane of All Crafts; Fabric covered eggs
Such a cute idea and tutorial, love the "scrappy" look!

And now for more link-ups, if you need a refresher or are new to the party, please review the guidelines to play.

PS do you have a quilt block tutorial?  We'd love for you to add it to our permanent linky for block tutorials!

Fabric Tuesday
edition 29

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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bloggers Pillow Party

Have you seen or participated in Rachel from Stitched in Color's Blogger's Pillow Party? (that was hard to say!)  Well I've been admiring for the last couple of months, and since I've been on this kick of making holiday and seasonal pillows, I thought I'd enter my spring pillow!

This is my Valentine's pillow (which I'm not entering) but I'd never posted about.  I was finishing up my Spinning Coins Quilt and I had leftover fabric (that I'm ridiculously in love with) and had to find a way to use it.


And here is my Spring Pillow


Originally I was thinking of an Easter pillow, and using a bunny instead of a deer.  But then I realized I like deer more, plus it will be Spring and I can keep it out longer!!


I love my deer friend.  I'm still playing around with her name.  Any thoughts? :)  I played around with how to design it, considering a white background and patchwork deer.  Ultimately I liked how the deer stood out in white with the pink embroidery stitches.


I wanted the background to be scrappy, but in the same color palette so nothing really stood out.  I believe there are 12 different fabric prints used.  I just started with one square and started sewing and trimming!  Came together really fast.

There you go!  Check out the Pillow Party for plenty of cute pillows :)

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We'll see you tomorrow for Fabric Tuesday and a great feature on Wednesday!
  
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Saturday, March 26, 2011

We interrupt...

We apologize to be interrupting your (hopefully) super crafty weekend for a couple little things to say!  As you can see to the left there, we are trying to annoy you in every way possible...and coming from a family with 7 kids, Heather and I are pretty awesome at that.  Oh the stories we could tell... well we've had our facebook fan page set-up all week and thanks to everyone for "liking" us!  We have two more fun little adventures to tell you about.

Flickr
We've created a group, QuiltStory Inspiration.  (You can access it by clicking on those little blue and pink dots to the left) This is a place to share your photos of ways in which QuiltStory has inspired YOU!  Whether you were inspired by a feature, us or one of our tutorials, we'd love for you to add it to our very lonely Flickr group!  Also, if your quilt was featured here, we'd also love for you to add it :)

hang in there...just about done...

Block Tutorial Link-Up

Fresh Poppy Design
We've started a permanent link-up for Quilt Block Tutorials!  We have a button on our sidebar so you can always access it.  We wanted to create a central place to find and share block tutorials.  This linky is very lonely!  We'd love for you to add as many tutorials as you have, it doesn't matter how long ago you made them.  Also, multiple entries of the same block is great, there are so many different ways to do things.

We'll see you on Monday for another great quilt feature!
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Friday, March 25, 2011

Over the river and through the woods....


When Jeanene submitted this project, we were blown away! Look at all the detailed hand embroidery, look at the intricate quilting! What an amazing quilt and fun story to go along. Make sure to go say hi to Jeanene at the queen bees hive


Finally, here’s my latest project:
my “Over the River and Through the Woods” Quilt
(The pattern is by:  Crabapple Hill)
This was actually my summer project. I fell in love with it last spring when I saw it hanging in a shop in Logan. Loved it immediately, but looked at all that detail and embroidery and decided ‘no’.
Then I saw it again, in one of my favorite little  shops near home, and knew I had to get it!
You remember the song don’t you? “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go, the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh….(finish it up);)
We had a few road trips last summer, and I stitched all the way, over the hi-ways, and through the bi-ways!
I usually machine quilt them myself, but this was was extra special, so after I got it pieced together I had Kaylene  at ‘My Little Quilting Shoppe’ do it. Look at that detail work!
Then I had to bribe my little nephew to come and hang it over the stairs for me.
Her new home!
She likes it there! :)


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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fat Quarter Shop GIVEAWAY!!

Shhh...don't tell me what happened on Idol, I haven't got to see it yet.  My evening that I was planning on squaring up some double hourglass squares ended up with me desperately taking a crash course on facebook---and I failed.  Oh well, I have a QuiltStory fan page set-up and I'm about to bribe you into liking us :)  But if you have any ideas or suggestions for us regarding f-book, we'd love to hear.  *sigh*

We've got a fabulous new sponsor, Fat Quarter Shop.  As if you haven't heard of them, they're so great!  It's one of my go-to places, especially if I am wanting something specific, because they have everything!!  They have so many designers and fabric lines, it really is a destination place for fabric!!

Fat Quarter Shop button

They also have a fabulous blog, the Jolly Jabber where they have a lot of quilting tips, latest fabric deals, contests and giveaways.

Today they've got a giveaway just for us!!  Check it:

5 yards of Sugar and Spice-winner's choice
*gasp*


We loooove this line, I'm especially smitten with the argyle and the aqua and red colorway?  Come on! In fact, Heather just finished a DARLING quilt with these fabrics.  More on that later...

Want to win??  Here's how:
please leave a separate comment for each, it's so much easier for us! thanks :)

  1. comment on what you would use the fabric for should you win
  2. become a follower, or tell us you already are :)
  3. "like" Fat Quarter Shop on facebook
  4. "like" QuiltStory on facebook
Ready, set, GO!
Edited to add: I always get so excited about giveaways I forget to add when they end!!  This giveaway will run for a week through Wednesday March 30th, we will announce the winner Thursday March 31st!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Super cute Heather Ross quilt....


Sara from Sew Sweetness created this super duper darling Heather Ross quilt I am SO jealous of! I love it. She has so many of Heather Ross prints that are super hard to find, and if you do, you will have to sell an arm and a leg to get them. Make sure to check out Sara's blog, really cute stuff!





I just finished my Heather Ross quilt and I couldn't be more excited! A small group of us banded together for a Heather Ross Quilt Along. Some people used other fabrics than Heather Ross, which was just fine! Everyone in the group was so supportive of each other...it was amazing! The tutorial used was the Boxed In quilt pattern by Freckled Whimsy. I also used this McKinley quilt tutorial from OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder for the sashing and the lovely band near the bottom of the quilt.


So, first of all, I could not have made this quilt without my friend, Kim, who sent me pieces of her entire Heather Ross collection, including bits of Munki Munki pajama pants. Kim is so generous and selfless, it's unbelievable. She sent me both of the goldfish prints and some dots for Christmas, and the rest later when we decided we were going to make this quilt. As a matter of fact, her grandson is due any day now, and look at the cute little Heather Ross outfits she just made for him!


Outfits that Kim made for her new grandson!

And as a matter of fact, Kim's daughter-in-law joined the quilt along, too, and she started on a Heather Ross play mat for the new baby! Isn't it the cutest?!


Heather, the mother-to-be, is working on this quilt top! Isn't she amazing?!

Oh man, I've got the warm and fuzzies now. :-) Anyway, so my quilt, I just finished it. I used Heather Ross fabrics for the inside of the squares (no print used more than once), for a total of 42 blocks. For the outside of the squares, I used a variety of Kona solids in really bright colors. Along the way, I hemmed and hawed about the use of these solids, but seeing the finished quilt, I think I made the right choice.


Spray basting the quilt in my grandmother's living room, because she has the space for this, lol!


For the back of the quilt, I used a polka dot cotton shower curtain that I got at Target on clearance for only $7! The shower curtain was 72" x 72", so I made it a little bit bigger by cutting it and adding strips of Heather Ross Mendocino prints in pinks and orange.


The back of the quilt: mermaids and octopi and seahorses, oh my!

This was a very easy quilt pattern to assemble. Easy, but beautiful, and the added tutorial from OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has a great impact, I think. If you're new to quilting, this would be a great quilt to start out with. I like that the blocks are wonky, but if you are more of a symmetrical girl, you could also make one like Heather did for her baby's play mat. I quilted it using wavy lines, 2 inches apart, thanks to Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations, who helped me out and answered all my questions after I saw her Sliced Coin Quilt. Wow, thank goodness for those wavy lines, I only had to quilt in one direction. The one part I hate about making quilts was accomplished much faster! Yay!





I bound the quilt using four different colorways of Heather Ross dots from the 'Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries' line. I didn't have enough to do the binding in one single color, but I think it's sort of cool with the alternating dots.


My daughter, Violet, and I enjoying the quilt.


The best part about this quilt is that I used so many different tutorials to make it...it just goes to show what an inspiration all the blogs out there in blogland are! Everyone is so creative and individual!





I'm so happy that this is finished...now on to the next quilt!!


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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Fabric Tuesday...come link up!

Morning all, happy fabric Tuesday. Again, Megan and I have been so busy crafting, that we haven't taken photos or posted about them. Hopefully that will change soon.

Come back Thursday for a super fun giveaway, I think our biggest giveaway yet from our sponsor Fat Quarter Shop...
Love this cute pillow from last week...cute doggy and bunny from Nero's post and patch.

This cute quilt from the Q and the U. Cute mendocino mermaids!

Isn't this a great Irish chain quilt from Not so plain Jane?

Alright, link up, make sure to check out the rules if you forgot them...can't wait to see all the projects!
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Five generation flower garden quilt...

Tiffany from Lower Columbia Modern Quilting and Crafting sent us this wonderful five generation quilt. Isn't it amazing? We love it!  Five generations of Women had a hand in this quilt! Isn't that amazing? I don't know many people who have a quilt like that! So much hand work put into this quilt. Be sure to go say to Tiffany at her blog...


Grandmother's Garden Quilt....5 generations!

Hexagon Quilt


I've wanted to show this quilt for a while now but I never had a decent picture of the whole quilt.  I went to my sister in law Connie's house this weekend and she has it on the wall and the lighting was pretty good for a rainy Washington day.

30's Hexagons

This is such an amazing quilt.  It has been touched by five generations of women in one family! The quilt was started in the 30's or 40's and was hand pieced using feedsacks.  It sat unfinished all those years until my mother in law, Joyce,  had it quilted in 2010.  The quilt was very fragile and we had many discussions about how to finish the quilt.  Should she hand quilt it, machine quilt it, or have it professionally quilted. 

We finally decided that having it professionally quilted which would ensure that it would last through another five generations.  Sue is a local longarm quilter and she has finished a lot of vintage quilts in this fashion and was just the person to take it to. 

It was important to keep the story with the quilt so my mother in law wrote up a label and my girlfriend Darci designed the family tree showing the names through the generations.

I am happy to have married into a family with such strong family ties.  I am very proud that my daughter will be part of the "strong stuff" that these women are made of.





Quilt Label


The label/story is:

This quilt was pieced by Minnie - probably in the 30's or 40's.  All piecing was done by hand and many of the fabrics are from feed sacks.  

Minnie gave the quilt to her daughter Loneta , who later gave it to her own daughter, Joyce.  It has stayed folded in a drawer for many years waiting to be finished.

Joyce had it machine quilted in 2010 as a 50th birthday gift for her daughter Connie. 


Connie is now "required" to pass it on to her young daughter, Jadyn.


Five generations of women have seen and touched this quilt!!!  
Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt Label

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Friday, March 18, 2011

A selvage quilt you must see!

If you've considered making a selvage quilt...or maybe haven't heard of one, you will be greatly swayed by this post.  Riel from the Q and the U does an amazing job with these quilts!!  If you want to see if it's for you try out this Selvage Snowflake Tutorial she offers...it's definitely on my to-do list!!
For my last tour stop at the KVQG show, I am posting again about my 2010 Selvage Sampler. Forgive me, but I did want to show close-up photos of the blocks in case anyone wants to try making some that are similar. (If you do, email me, I would love to see them! I am also considering posting some tutorials for a couple of these blocks sometime in the future.) As well, I wanted to share my Quilter's Statement and my judging results.
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So first the statement: "I am new to quilting but I think I'm already addicted. This quilt was inspired by both the traditional idea that a beginner quilter make a sampler, and the modern trend to use fabric selvages in sewing projects.
I also wanted to make a unique and personalised memory quilt to celebrate the start of my quilting adventure. The selvages are all from fabrics which I used (or plan to use) in other quilts this year. The fussy cuts in the quilt represent my family members and some of our interests.
This quilt is my own design and is free-pieced without a pattern. It was a lot of fun to make and I can't wait to gather more selvages to try another quilt. Thank you so much to Tina Hanson of Town and Country Quilts for the wonderful job she did machine quilting it."
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Now, for some of the details. In the 2010 section I used only the pieces of selvage that had the numbered colour windows on them. The little blocks making up the numbers are 3 inches square. Some of these little blocks only have 2 selvages on them, but some have as many as 4. I like the look of all the little numbers making up the big numbers.

This is the square representing my husband. The head is cut from a Mer-Man I found on a fabric called Mermania by Blank Quilting. I used blue and green selvages primarily here to keep his block masculine.

A crow is featured in this block because we enjoy feeding the crows at our house. Crows are so smart. In the mornings I throw them the toast crusts that the kids don't eat. I yell "Breakfast Crows!" and even if they are down the street they fly over to our yard as soon as they hear me.
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I really like the look of the triangle log cabin block. And it was very easy to make!

A butterfly block represents the love of nature that we share with my parents. Some of the selvages on this block say "Butterflies" and "Nest." There are also the "seedlings" from the Flea Market Fancy line in there, spiderwebs, bird tracks, leaves, as well as Woodgrain by Joel Dewberry.

This is my son's block. He plays T-ball so he picked out the little ball player to represent himself. The outside of this square has robots on it for him too.

A heart.

The central scissors here are from the MoMo Wonderland line. The selvage right above the scissors says "Patchwork Fever." Guess who has Patchwork Fever? Hee, hee.

Our provincial flag. The flag of New Brunswick. The selvage above it says "In Love With" as we are proud New Brunswickers. Maybe I should have saved that selvage for my husband's square, but I didn't think of it until too late. Believe me, the selvages were flying around here as I was making this quilt, and they were hard to all keep track of.

My daughter's square. She is peeking out the window of the house. I think this was the trickiest square to make as it has seams that are both sewn together regular as well as those that are overlapped and top-stitched.

I am represented in the triangle here.

An owl fussy cut. Probably the biggest fabric trend of 2010 was owls, I would say. Plus we like birds. The star was really easy to make. If I made a selvage star block again I would make it bigger to use lots of selvages on each point rather than just one.
A simple zig-zag square.
An all-Halloween string block. I made two Halloween quilts this year and had lots of Halloween fabric.
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Then the butterfly. Not the hardest block, but I did tweak it over and over to get a decent shape.

A simple selvage rail fence block done by colour.
My name is here. (Read down from the top in two columns). This is placed at the end of the 2010 section.
The background fabric is "Rock Star Hero" by Henry Glass. Wow it is bright and awesome "in person!" The quilt is 67 by 92 inches, so twin-sized.
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It took me about a month and a half or maybe two months to make, just working on it here and there.
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It was quilted by long-arm with invisible thread (polyester). Tina Hanson, the owner of my local quilt shop, quilted it for me. She hadn't tried invisible thread before. I really wanted invisible though, because the quilt already had so much going on, I didn't want thread lines making everything busier.

Tina was more than willing to try the invisible thread and did some practice sewing on scrap fabric first to be sure it was okay. It seemed all good, but then on the actual quilt it was only about 95% good. As I was sewing on the binding I noticed the thread had caused her machine to skip in several places. And not just little skips, but a few were about 3/4 inch of missed stitches. Anyway, she was great at fixing it up no charge and you can't tell any difference now. We were laughing that she certainly will not be suggesting the invisible thread to her customers in the future.
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And, finally, my judges results from the show. My design, colour, general presentation, top assembly, and quilting all received "Good." My finishing received "Excellent." My comments "Design is fascinating. Colour is vibrant. Amazing. Quilter should be proud."
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So anyway, this was such a fun quilt to make and I was happy to have the goal of the show to motivate me to get it done! It was really nice to see it hanging in public and my kids were excited to see it at the show. I'm definitely going to enter something next year and I'm likely joining the local quilters' guild too.
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The KVQG show had about 300 entries and was attended by over 2500 people.
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Happy Quilting!

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Prairie Points of Interest Quilt, so creative!

I recently moved from Missouri to Arizona.  My mom visited me in both places...and they are very different.  The funniest thing is each time she comes to visit she asks me things like, "What kinds of vegetation grows here?" "What's the story behind that non-remarkable landmark?"  Um...I have no idea!  I've since told her that she's welcome to go to the visitor's center whenever she wants!   Makes me giggle. :)  Well Helen from RobinStar Quilting wanted to make a quilt that represents where she lives.  I love how she put it together, so creative!!  You'll love this quilt, especially you Texans, y'all love your state :)


I have wanted to make a quilt that represents where I live in the

Texas Panhandle.  For a while I have had images of quilt designs
floating around in my head and I finally bought some fabric and got
inspired to come up with my "Prairie Points of Interest" quilt.   In
this design the center focus blocks represent the wild vegetation that
is naturally treeless, the flying geese are representative of the
Canadian Geese that migrate to this area over the winter (they are
everywhere, and I love it), the circles show the 'Playa Lakes' that
abound in the region, the stripes are the furrows of the countless
fields that are planted in corn, cotton, sunflowers, or wheat, and the
open spaces convey the feeling of openness that surrounds the high
plains.  I intended for it to have a modern feel to it and the
vertical quilting maintains that feeling.  I am really pleased with it
and proud of myself for doing it.  I even put a label on the back,
yeah!







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