My Sewing Space

Welcome! If you're stopping over via Gen X Quilters then grab a comfy seat, a cup of tea of coffee and visit with me! I'm especially happy to be featured for Follower Friday as AnneMarie has such a fun blog and I'm lucky enough to know her personally as we both live in central Ohio and attend the same Modern Quilt Guild! Yay for real-live sewing friends!

I wanted to show a few more photos of my sewing space, as I'm completely smitten with a new way of folding fabric, arranging In Color Order, and such.

Now, this is not a NEW way of folding, I know, but Jeni's series "The Art of Choosing" really encouraged me to get my act together, fold fold fold, and try to figure out if I'm lacking certain colors or fabrics in my stash. Her series also gave me great tid-bits of information when I am buying fabric, to know if it will be a good fit in my stash or not.


I have decided I have very few stripes, TONS of polka dots, and not near enough yellow, brown or purple... so there's my excuse to go shopping! I know, right?!

See my chair cover? That's my very first successful attempt at free-motion quilting! Its just stippling, but man I was a happy camper when it finally clicked!

And last but not least - McDonald's has an Iced Coffee to die for! See it occupying my mug rug? So yummy! Get it with sugar-free vanilla syrup and its virtually guilt free.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to stay and browse around!

WIP for Eli

What does a stack of scrap fabric, an Ikea flat sheet, and an Ikea duvet cover have in common with Eli?

It will soon be a quilt for him!
Well, really for anyone who needs a cozy blanket while they're in our home. For as long as I've been quilting, you'd think my house would be chuck full of quilts. Alas, its quite the opposite! Eli has his crib quilt in the nursery, and I have my SNTM VQB quilt on our bed. Thats it! Sad, I know! I've had a quilt like this on my mind for weeks now.... so I decided to just do it already!
Thus, it will be remedied soon! I'll be at my LQS tomorrow to quilt it on their mid-arm machine.

What have you just been ITCHING to sew lately?!

Simplified Rainbow Quilt - Completed!

Simplicity. Sometimes its a welcome thing. At least for me...
Just today I discovered the (apparently) huge debate amongst quilters regarding the "dumbing down" of quilting. I'm both fairly new to quilting AND love simple designs. I've gone out of my comfort zone and tried some crazy hard blocks thanks to a couple of Virtual Quilting Bees I was a part of last year, and I discovered I didn't WANT to make an entire king-sized paper-pieced art quilt. Its just not my cup of tea. I've definitely become more adventurous since I started quilting two and a half years ago... but simplicity is where its at for me. Partly because I don't have TIME to make 956 teeny tiny complicated blocks but mostly because I prefer to finish a quilt than have 97 started projects and never finish one of them.
I know for a fact there is an audience for fancy "complicated" quilts; there is an audience for simply designed quilts; and they may be two completely different groups of people.
But that's ok, afterall.

Maybe its not so much what was said, its the actual term DUMBING DOWN....

Moving on:This quilt is simple, and small, I admit!
But it hangs in my sewing room and it makes me smile every time I see it. Its my first wall-hanging!
Finished size: 24" x 28"
Inspired by Red Pepper Quilts
Fun to make: YES!
Quick to put together: YES!

Fabric used: 1 charm pack of Kona Brights plus Kona Coal grey
Quilting: Free-motion on my domestic Janome machine
Binding: Sugar Pop by Moda
Batting: Warm and White cotton

Now go sew something already! ;-)

Eli + Unexpected Awesomeness!

Random Story: I received an email from Angela at Fat Quarter Shop saying that I was the winner of their weekly giveaway! I was shocked because I've won one giveaway in the last 3 years... so this was a nice surprise! Its the Pure Elements Fat Quarter Bundle (by Patricia Bravo for Art Gallery) and can I just say the colors are genius! Very vibrant and deep... I'm thinking of pairing a print with each color to make a color block quilt. Although I'm sure I won't get to it anytime soon, as usual. The fun Munki Munki prints just came to mind but I only own one print (Pink ice cream trucks) so I'd need to do some major swapping to have 9 other prints.
OR
Do you happen to own some Munki that would match any of these colors? I'd be willing to chop these FQ's up and share, if you shared your Munki! haha
My wheels are turning now....

And then there's Eli:

{13 months)
His new favorite toy is the bakeware drawer under the oven. He looks comfy in there!
Eli also enjoys taking cookie sheets into the living room and sitting on them like a wagon, or sled. Creative little guy - and funny to no end!

It's about time...

It seems like its been ages since I listing anything new in my Etsy shop, so over the last week I've been able to whip up two (count em TWO!) mug rugs! For me, quite the feat! Why has my sewing time been so sparse?

Our townhome is officially:
- FOR SALE -
(and making it look spotless for website photos and showings takes a lot of time!)

(All of these photos were taken as soon as the realtor finished taking his photos for the listing website... no baby gates, toys, or clutter to be found!)


(the toilet has since been child-proofed!)
But now he loves to flush it... sigh.

My poor sewing space has been reduced to this... but still usable, and my projects are tucked away in boxes in the next room, so I'm ok with it. I kind of like it all neat and tidy... see that rainbow quilt on my cutting table? Its going to get quilted tonight! *huge grin*
... AFTER Eli is in bed!

Anyone have fun tips for making showings super special? I always make sure there are fresh flowers out, and a treat on the kitchen counter. What else can I do?
We've had 3 showings in the last 2 weeks. I consider that progress in a market like this!

Bright Contrast

I think mine was the most basic of basic quilt tops shown at the CMQG two weeks ago. I've only been quilting for a bit over 2 years so I don't feel too much pressure to be all complicated and fancy schmancy. (Ok, sometimes I do feel the pressure but I do not succumb! I have a 1 year old for goodness sake!) We were challenged to each design a quilt with the "Bright" Kona charm packs that RK so generously donated to our (and every) modern quilt guild.
This is what I came up with. Well, I didn't even come up with the design, I first saw this Zig-zag quilt on Rita's Flickr stream ... it was a more earthy colored quilt and I loved it and wanted to try it for myself. I LOVE zig-zag quilts, had never made one, and thought hey, I need to atleast try this! I do love how it turned out!

But I think I would have laid out the colors differently if I could do it again. I kept the colors in order from the charm pack, started at the top left, went straight across, then dropped down and straight left and so on.... I should have started in a corner and gone diagonal. Hmm, following the zag, if you know what I mean. Lucky for me I happen to have the other halves of all these Kona squares so I may just have to make another quilt and lay it out again, but better. That's what happens when you're crunched for time and just want a completed top to bring for show and tell!

To quilt it I'm mulling over some free-motion zig-zagging along the coal gray. I'm hoping for an organic design but still showing off the waves of color.

Sugar Pop (by Moda) will be just the ticket for the binding... colorful, but not too crazy or too big of a print. Yes I know, I never buy Moda but this collection just begged me to buy some! Plus how could I not add this and this to my stash?

The back will just be solid grey, maybe ash grey. I think this will end up being more of a wall-hanging so why fool with a fancy back? My first wall-hanging quilt!

The Babies {together again!}

Lucy, Lucy, my Eli, and Jolie

"Time flies" as the saying goes, and time flies especially fast when it comes to babies! Remember when they were this small and this small? Well I do! Now they're all over 1 year old already... sigh.

Us four mommas were able to catch up while the babies played then we all went out for lunch... fun was had by all! Then nap time was had by all babies :-)