Fat Quarter bundle giveaway! from Intrepid thread!

Today we have a FABULOUS fat quarter bundle giveaway from Intrepid Thread!

Intrepid Thread is a family owned and operated business. They named their shop after their father, intrepid meaning fearless and brave. They have recently taken the leap to their own online shop and are  having a grand opening sale. Everything 10% off with this coupon code GRNDOPN10

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THANKS!

This gorgeous fabric could be yours!

The Intrepid Thread specializes in high end, designer quilting cottons. Carrying modern fabrics including Amy Butler, Kate Spain and Ty Pennington. They also carry Free Spirit cottons in a variety of colors and shades arnd are always kept in stock to compliment your quilting and sewing needs. THey also have a great blog featuring new fabric lines they are carrying and fun projects they are working on. 

Grand Openig sale everything 10% off with this coupon code GRNDOPN10

A few ways to enter...(leave a separate comment for each)

"like" them on facebook

go the Intrepid Thread and tell us what you want to buy...

visit the Intrepid Thread blog...

Don't forget the Grand Openig sale everything 10% off with this coupon code GRNDOPN10 

A quilt from Diary of a Quilter

Another obvious intro for you today! :)  Amy from Diary of a Quilter is sharing a quilt that she made for her husband's grandmother.  Great story and great quilt!  Amy is an excellent quilter and one of the nicest people ever.  She is seriously so sweet, we love her! :)  Make sure to stop by and see her many fabulous tutorials (quilts and more!) and stop by her shop for some one-of-a-kind patterns.  Thanks Amy!!

This weekend my husband's grandmother turns 87! When I looked up how old she would turn this year I was shocked by the number. For as long as I've known her (14 years) she has been such a goer and doer. How on earth did she get to be 87?  We visited 'Grammie' this past summer in New Hampshire and Maine.  It was the first time we'd seen her in a few years and it was bittersweet to see her in decline for the first time since I've known her. So we (and by 'we', I guess I mean, 'I') decided to make her a quilt. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. 

Adding to the feeling of urgency, we had planned to visit my husband's other grandmother while on the same trip this summer and she suddenly passed away 2 weeks before we came. Sadly, she had been suffering from dementia for years and probably didn't remember us, but we would have liked our kids to see her one more time so that they could remember her. I also feel bad that I never made something similar for Nana Jean. That experience was a good reminder not to wait when Grandmas are concerned. Because you never know. So I feel relieved that this quilt is on it's way. 

I made the label using AmandaJean's tutorial. It was SO ridiculously easy. I am finally committed to doing this for every quilt. In the past I have been terrible - I never do it. Honestly.  I am finally getting my act together. 

Grammie decided when she became a great-grandma that she wanted to be called Nonna.  Both her parents and her husband's parents were Italian immigrants to the United States in the early 20th Century. So even though she grew up in Maine, her family was very proudly Italian.  (See? You can tell by the tomato harvest.) I'm glad she has passed that heritage on to her great-grandchildren and glad that they will always remember their Nonna.

This quilt has a good backstory.  See how the 9-patch blocks are rectangular? Well, that wasn't on purpose.  These blocks were part of a kit we sold at American Quilting. One afternoon I was working alone and a lady who'd purchased the kit called to ask for help and I (really helpfully) gave her the wrong measurements. As a result, her blocks ended up as rectangle instead of square nine-patches.  So I remade all 80 blocks for her. And in return I've had these rectangular blocks hiding in my fabric mess collection for the past 7 years or so.  

I came across the blocks again this summer, right before our trip and halfway thought of trying to pound a quilt together in a couple of days while trying to get ready for the trip itself. Then I came to my senses and decided to take my time and put it together for her birthday.  Good decision.  I pulled all the fabrics from the stash and was happy to use some patiently-waiting fabrics that have been sitting around for a long time, and finally give them a good home.

Two quilts finished in the past two weeks - one modern and one that's more traditional. It's been good to have quilts to bind recently so that I have a good excuse to just sit still and watch Downton Abbey. :)

Fabric Tuesday and winner!

Thanks to Natasha from Skye Reve Fabrics for her fabulous giveaway!  And thanks to everyone for participating in our giveaways, we appreciate your support and supporting our sponsors :)  And now for the winner:

Melinda said...

Already like Sky Reve on FB!

MARCH 8, 2012 6:07 AM

Congrats Melinda!!

I have been fast at working designing an apron for the next part of the Moda Sliced Competition!  So fun and so nerve wracking!!  If you haven't seen any of it visit Moda Bake Shop...thumbnail version is I'm part of the final three in a sewing competition.  I have a new project each week and this week it's aprons!  I just really really want to win...is that so bad?

So you won't get to see what I've been working on until Friday, but let's see what you've been up to!  First some projects from last week:

Nesting Quilt from SewSara

Rainbow Lake by From Blank Pages

Parasol's from Nero's Post and Patch

The Big Easy from Midnight Creations

Fabric Tuesday #77!!  

What have you been creating?

See here if you're new.

Math Facts from Crazy Mom Quilts!!!!!!!!!

Although I am sure this is the most obvious introduction I'll ever write...we are thrilled to be featuring Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts today!!!!!!  We, like many of you I'm sure, have admired her for so long!!!  She may be a crazy mom but she's also crazy nice and crazy talented ;)  She recently finished an amazing project, HER BOOK!  I for one cannot wait to get my hands on it.  Among my favorite projects of hers is her round and round quilt-a-long which is on my oh-so-long to-do list :)  Also make sure to stop by her shop to get some goodies!  On to the story:

The inspiration for this quilt came to me while I was watching an old episode of Oliver’s Twist on Netflix. There was a throw over the couch that was brilliant, simple and fun. It was full of white plus blocks on an orange background. (You can see it here....isn't it FAB?) I knew immediately that I was going to make something like it. I have no idea who made the original quilt/rug/throw (???) but I was smitten. I wanted to add a twist to my version, so I sketched a bit and I decided to add an x block in place of every other plus block. That changed it just enough to make it "mine", while still retaining the simple and fun feel of the original. I used various background fabrics, but I chose to keep them very close in value and color. I started with oranges from my stash but had to actually supplement by buying fabric. Oh, darn! ;)

I absolutely LOVE the results!!! I know I say that a lot, but this one, oh boy! I want to make at least three more versions of it. It would look good in lime green and white as a baby quilt. It would look fun scrappy! It would look good with one single orange background. And...well, you get the idea!

I pieced the back using 3 different 1/4 yard cuts of orange and plenty of cream fabric. I really like the way it turned out.

I LOVE the scissor fabric! It's Half Moon Modern, by Momo for Moda. I think that it's funny that they are "fiskars orange". That's not the official name, of course, but that's what they remind me of. 

For the quilting....I started stippling it, but it looked horrible. I ripped out the stitching and switched gears. I decided to echo quilt around each x and + with my walking foot. That worked SO much better. I had to turn the whole quilt in my machine at every corner, but it was so worth it. At that point, I was so glad I hadn't made the quilt any bigger!

For the binding I used these fabulous dots...Mingle in Tangerine by Robert Kaufman. Mmmm. When I saw them I knew they were going to be perfect to finish off this quilt. They make me smile.

My youngest son came up with the name for this quilt. He saw the sketch I had done and said "that looks like math facts". I loved it, so the name stuck.

The quilt measures approximately 60" x 76". I wrote up a pattern for this one, which is available for sale in my shop.