flowers with quilty fun

I picked some flowers this week with the the Bee In My Bonnet Quilty Fun sew along!

It's week 18 already! I cheated and started to work on these blocks a few days early. I definitely knew that I wanted pink and blue flowers. It took a few days of fabric auditions before I settled on these two combinations. These fabrics are lucky that they just need to sit on my cutting mat and look pretty for their audition. Can you imagine if they had to sing and dance?!

We have just two steps left. First, next week is a bumblebee that will be framed by four patches, flying geese and quarter square triangles. And then the following week is finishing and a label. I have already started to work on the bumblebee.

Want a sneak peek? I was so exited to start this block. All along I've known that I wanted to customize my bumblebee. Instead of one 12" bee block, I would like to have a collection of 6" bees! Here's why. Every summer I love to visit the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I follow the garden on Twitter, and when the roses are in bloom I make a BEEline over to the garden (hee hee). The roses are always beautiful, and they're always BUZZing with activity. The colors and scents are very inspirational. And that's how my idea was born. Here's the start of the bee bodies with their bright Pam Kitty Morning fabric that you can find here or here. 

The bees still need wings and heads. I've been cutting fabric as needed for for each step instead cutting it all at once. This extra-large calculator helps to ensure that each piece is downsized correctly. See those rectangles? They may become wings.

In one of those strange moments of synchronicity, last night I watched a B movie from 1940 called "Dr Cyclops." I'm a big fan of vintage horror and sci-fi movies. In this movie, Dr Cyclops uses his ray gun to miniaturize a horse, and then he turns it on a group of scientists and miniaturizes them, too. The tiny people are terrorized by the house cat. It's completely dumb fun. But I wonder if I am similar to Dr. Cyclops as I miniaturize my bees!

Thanks for stopping by to see my flower garden. Now buzz on over to the Quilty Fun Flickr group to check out what everybody else is cultivating this week. And also visit Patchwork Times to see what other quilters have on their design walls. And finally, I'm linking to Hexie Weekend (thanks, Angie!) with my not-quite-hexagons.

mittens with quilty fun

I made mittens this week! Mismatched mittens. 

We're nearing the end of the Quilty Fun sew along. Just a few more weeks to go! I carefully planned my colors for these mittens. There's no pink or grey here because the blocks that go above this strip have plenty of pink and grey.

These were very easy to make, but I probably needed to pay closer attention to the directions. Because otherwise, thumbs can end up in the wrong place. I wonder how I know that! And I can't operate a seam ripper while wearing mittens.

I'm no stranger to these quilty mittens. I've made them twice before. During the holiday break I made a mitten and snowball runner with a bonus pattern from Lori Holt's book. That was in the dark ages before I started blogging. This one is mostly Doodlebug Designs fabric. I like saying that name. Doodlebug. Doodlebug. Doodlebug!

But my first mitten love is always gonna be the original Bee In My Bonnet Row Along from last year. I had so much fun planning out my fussy cutting here. And I feel happy every time I see this quilt.  

In real life I almost never wear gloves or mittens for short runs outside. My fingers get claustrophobic. Yes, my hands get cold. That's what pockets are for! I'll wear them if I'm going to be outside for a long time. And they're certainly handy (haha) for holding onto grimy poles on the subway trains. I even have a pair of vintage designer gloves, and they're in perfect condition. They're brown suede with a cashmere lining. I never wear them because I don't want to mess them up. Crazy, right? I'll use these quilty mittens WAY more than the real thing!

dresden progress

Twenty six Dresden plates have been hand appliqued! I have 38 to go. I like to tell myself that I have done 40% of the applique work, because that makes it seem like I am closer to my goal. 

I look forward to the time that I'll spend on the applique. I find it to be relaxing. I listen to talk radio or I catch up on Pat Sloan's weekly podcast with American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine. And sometimes it's nice to not hear my sewing machine humming for a few hours. 

The finished blocks will be 8" (I cut them oversized and then trim then down later) and set with postage stamp sashing. I'm aiming for circus-like, cotton-candy-insanity here! There will be multicolored inner sashing and red outer sashing. And probably a few borders. This all works in my mind... and hopefully it will work in real life, too. 

And then there's the bag with even more sashing that still needs to be pressed open. The burnt fingers part is not my idea of fun! I'm working with an assortment of Pam Kitty Morning and Pam Kitty Love, with a few bits of Sew Cherry and Flower Sugar. OH, and this is the first time that I used white-on-white fabric! I love it. I'm sure you've seen that now I use it all the time. I like how it adds texture without additional color. 

I'll use my new set of Perfect Circles templates to help with the center circles. I love having this big selection of sizes to choose from. I picked these up on Saturday at my local quilt shop.

The quilt shop just happens to be right across the street from the Chelsea Flea Market. I had extra money to spend since a flea market vendor REFUSED to sell a sewing machine to me! Ah, that black Singer Featherweight was perfect, and complete with all the accessories, manual, extra bobbins and the original carrying case. He wanted $200 (yes, that's a bargain in NYC). Sold! But then another dealer whispered something to him, and suddenly he couldn't decide if he wanted to sell it to me. He told me to come back on Sunday and maybe he would change his mind. WHAT? Then another male shopper walked up and wanted to buy it to add to his Featherweight collection... and he scrolled through iPhone photos of his machines. Um, four men haggling over a vintage sewing machine?! 

This isn't the first time that I wasn't able to buy a Featherweight. I know that I'd much rather have a white machine anyway, and my own machine is perfection. I'm happy with what I have. Plus, there's always more hand-stitchy stuff to do, too! 

Don't forget to check out what other quilters are working on this week at Patchwork Times!

sewing spools with quilty fun

And now... Quilty Fun week 16 sewing spools! 

These blocks were perfect for me to make. See, I have a little obsession with thread. Sure, I like having it match my projects. But I also just like seeing all those little spools all lined up. Like these machine embroidery threads from Sulky.

I love Mettler 50 weight for everyday piecing and bindings, usually in white, ivory and grey. But I can never quite remember how many spools of white are my stash! It seems like I always have either 5 spools or else I'm on my last few yards. I also collect the smaller spools of Mettler in brights and pastels for sewing down bindings.

But my little thread addiction doesn't just stop at spools. I have color swatch cards, too, like these Kimono silk embroidery thread samples. I buy almost all of my fancy threads online, and I want to be sure of what I'm getting before clicking that "buy now" button. These came from Shabby Fabrics. 

So maybe it's ironic that I used just plain old white to piece these sewing spool blocks. At least my pieced spools are nice happy colors!

See the pink spool with the alphabet? Well, I wanted to be sure to have a G in there for Greg and Grey. I really enjoy fussy cutting for planned blocks, but this time all I cared about was the G. I was surprised to look at this photo and see that I also have my last initial J. And then I found C and M (just barely...) for my "assistants" - my cats Chloe and Mia!

And finally, here is the whole spooly lineup!

the assembly continues!

The right side of the Quilty Fun sew along is now assembled! I put this together and then settled in for a night of Academy Awards viewing with two pieces of chocolate cake with sprinkles at my side, inspired by Pam Kitty Morning's recent post about cake. And then I watched Ellen DeGeneres serve pizza to the stars! What a fun night. Anyway, back to the quilty stuff...

It's exciting to see this finally starting to come together after months of sewing. And oops, it looks like I forgot to trim my threads!

We're almost done! We just have sewing spools, mittens, flowers and the bumble bee... and then it's border time!

Check out what the rest of the Quilty Fun group is up to at the Flickr group. I'll be back in just a few days with the spools! I'm also linking up with the Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday, so check out what other quilters are working on.

great granny squared is here!

My new quilt book has arrived! Here's Lori Holt's Great Granny Squared!

In the book's introduction, Lori explains how this block is inspired by crocheted granny squares, and how it's the perfect way for thrifty quilters to use up every little scrap. The Great Granny Squared pays tribute to the creative women in our lives. 

Of course, if it's a Lori Holt pattern, then it must be fun, right? There was a Great Granny sew along a few years ago. I made a quilt for a colleague's baby boy, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt (I know, I feel a little guilty). There are photos of the individual blocks on my Flickr page here. Looking at those blocks now, I'm stunned to see that I used fabrics way out of my comfort zone - orange?! aqua chevrons?! monkey prints?! And when that quilt was finished, I really wanted to remake it for myself.

Well, Lori has compiled the pattern into her second book. It's a bright, colorful book, full of scrappy quilts and inspirational vintage-y photos. The original Great Granny Square is 12" finished. There are a few extra projects, including a runner with 6" blocks. I decided that I need to make a whole quilt out of those little 6" blocks.

I'm working with a deliberately controlled scrappy color palette, focusing mainly on deeper blues, bright pinks, kelly greens and a few whites for sparkle.

And so, an idea was born...

My grandmother Frieda had a great love for life. Always cheerful and always wanting to make everybody feel welcome. She loved to crochet, usually with bright acrylic yarn. And her color sense was a bit... well, it was odd. Imagine a chevron crocheted throw in chocolate, burnt orange and mustard, and maybe a bit of leftover pastel pink thrown in, just because she liked it. Or how about orange, kelly green, white and pale blue? But then she made a simple, granny square throw that we all loved. It was deep blue, pink, green and white. I loved that thing! I spent my high school years snuggled under it, watching videos on MTV.

Even before my new book arrived, I started to think about what I would make. And it just seemed natural to use my grandma's throw as an inspiration. And just like hers, mine will be scrappy. I'll need a lot of blocks...  and I wonder if I can stick to such a limited color palette. As I planned this quilt I smiled, realizing that my grandma is probably looking down on me, happy that I'm doing this. But I do know one thing...

There won't be any burnt orange or mustard!

butterflies with quilty fun

You know that moment in restaurants when the waiter asks "would you like that butterflied?" Yes, please!

Here we are in week fifteen of Lori Holt's Quilty Fun sew along! And it's so much quicker to sew up a garden full of Pam Kitty Morning butterflies than waiting for spring to arrive. It will arrive this year, right?

These were so easy and fun to create. Just a little strip pieced body, a few stitch-and-flip easy-corner-triangles, and DONE! 

I always like to take a quick pic with my iPhone during the assembly process. This helps to keep me coordinated when I sew the blocks together.

These little bodies needed some careful attention with the iron... look at how narrow those seams are on the back!

Check out other quilty butterflies at the Quilty Fun Flickr page here, and see what other quilters have on their design walls this week at Patchwork Times. 

the assembly begins!

It's time! The Quilty Fun row along assembly is in progress!

And here's the full left side!

I'll still need to make butterflies, sewing spools, mittens, flowers and a bumble bee in the coming weeks. But I have a secret change in mind here to make my quilt top a bit different from the others. (Hopefully I can actually execute my plan!) Then there's a cute bonnet label for the back of the quilt. 

I've started to think about my borders. Ok, I may have been thinking about them since November when Lori Holt announced the sew along. Maybe.... Here's the border treatment on Lori's finished quilt.

Photo from Bee In My Bonnet by Lori Holt

Here are the fabric finalists. I really want to see some black here... it's a color that I don't usually work with, and I've pushed myself to include a little black each week. Ok, I gotta admit that Pam's black prints are so cute that I HAD to find a way to use them! The black border will help to pull it all together. I'm just not sure if I want a black inner scallop, or a black outer border. 

My top choice right now is a pink dotty scallop and a wide black outer border. But blue dots with black could be really interesting, too. If you have a preference I'd love to know!

building houses with quilty fun

It's week fourteen of the Quilty Fun sew along! And this week's assignment was to build neighborhood houses. Or as I like to call them, little pink houses for you and me.

John Cougar Mellencamp's classic "Pink Houses" song was stuck on repeat (in my head) while I built my houses. The lyrics are kinda bleak, but never mind... it's all about the pink house!

Pink and green is my most favoritest color combination ever! I often combine pink and green in my blocks. Even my blog got the pink and green treatment, plus grey, of course!

I built a little blue and plaid house, too!  There aren't any blue houses in my neighborhood (nope, none... I looked), but I wanted a nice contrast to the pink and green house. Wouldn't it be fun to live in a blue polka dotted house?

These blocks were sooo easy to sew. I didn't need to worry about the chimneys lining up with the angles of the roof like they do on so many other house blocks. 

Lori posted instructions on how to join the left side blocks together, and so that means that I'll be back in a few days with an update!

Be sure to check out what the other Quilty Fun quilters are up to on the Flickr page here. 

happy valentine's day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I have been wanting to create something Valentine-y. I like special quilts to celebrate each holiday, but I just ran out of time to make a pink and red quilt. But I HAD to do something! And so, pincushion to the rescue! The little pins are by the fabulous Annie at Pinks and Needles.

I raided my stash for reds and pinks, and came up with an assortment of Lori Holt, Pam Kitty Morning, Atsuko Matsuyama and Flower Sugar. I had to take a quick pic of my scrappy mess.

I've never made a pincushion. See, I'm just not that creative with my sewing machine. If you've read my about me page, you'll know that I don't do zippers or darts or sleeves... And yet, a pincushion has been on my wish list for awhile. This little pineapple cushion was made with a paper pieced pattern from the January/February 2012 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine. Except that theirs was in country colors. That's so not me. But I could imagine it in my Grey Dogwood colors.

Yes, I'm a bit of a sloppy paper piecer! But I do use my little wooden presser all along the way, and I'm careful to trim all of my seams down to a scant quarter inch to reduce bulk.

Ok, so I gotta tell you a funny story about the filling. It's stuffed with crushed walnut shells. They give it a nice weight. I got that little trick from Miss Pretty By Hand. But you know where to buy crushed walnut shells? In the pet store. In the reptile bedding section. Yes, next to snakes and lizards. I love turtles. Snakes terrify me. I tried to buy the shells online so that I could avoid seeing THEM. No luck. I had to visit 4 pet stores to find it! Each time, I walked into the reptile section keeping my eyes to the ground so as to not make eye contact with the snakes. And now I am the proud owner of a 5 quart bag of reptile bedding. 

Hummm, I wonder if any snakes need a pincushion?! 'Cause I could make a jumbo, 5 quart pincushion!

falling leaves with quilty fun

It's week 13 of the Quilty Fun sew along! And this week we made falling leaves. These are bright and happy, like budding spring leaves.  

It took me just a few minutes to prep the fabric for these leaves. I had a few precut 1 1/2" strips of Pam Kitty Morning fabric that were left over from another project. Perfect!

You'll see that I am a BIG pinner. It takes me a little bit more time but helps to ensure that my blocks finish nice and flat. I often use up that whole tin of pins on just one border strip.

Normally, I like to use colors similar to nature when making blocks like flowers, trees and hearts. I like pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers and blue diamonds.

Does that sound familiar? Yes, I quoted the Lucky Charms cereal commercial!  I just got over a cold, and Lucky Charms is my favorite comfort food that I eat ONLY when I'm sick. I ate the whole box... in two days. And I can't sing the theme song when I have a sore throat. But I'm better now, so obviously the cereal IS magically delicious!

Anyway, sometimes I let myself be creative with color, and I just had to make a blue leaf!

These little leaves were so fast to make! See what everybody else is working on at the Quilty Fun Flickr group here. We have 7 weeks left, so there's still time to join us!

mixing it up

Sometimes, the best part of finishing one quilt top is having the opportunity to start another one!

I started "Mixing It Up" by Bee In My Bonnet this weekend. I think that Lori Holt has some of the most fun patterns, and this one reminds me of hunting for vintage treasures at the flea market. 

But I really love this pattern because it features the Kitchenaid mixers that I am a little obsessed with. I have wanted one for years. I've put serious thought into which color I'd get. Majestic yellow? Ice blue? Pistachio? Or the pink one that I saw at Georgetown Cupcake in Soho?

Sadly, I can't have one. My tiny kitchen counter is only 30" long x 22" wide. That's all the workspace that I have!

But fabric mixers don't take up any space, right?! And I FINALLY have a reason to cut into my stash of Lori's "Bake Sale" fabric. I've also added in some leftover fat quarters of Sew Cherry and Polka Dot Stitches. 

So here's the green apple mixer, with a pink vintage Pyrex bowl. I've decided to piece the beaters, or you can embroider them as Lori suggests. Next up is the aqua sky mixer.

But I think that my favorite part of the quilt must surely be the spatulas. I didn't expect that to happen! So easy to make and so cute. And they won't accidentally melt if I leave them on the stove too long.

Humm, all this talk about mixing it up has made me hungry for a snack! I think that I'll go mix something up!

hot chocolate top finished!

Nine cups of hot chocolate are ready to serve! Anybody want to join me for a cup?

It feels great to finish this up today. It's like Christmas in February!  

I have slightly altered Kate Spain's pattern. I chose to put pieced steam on all blocks instead of embroidering some of them. 

I had lots of fun making this, and spent most of my time considering fabric placement within each mug. The pattern calls for just a layer cake of Kate Spain's In From The Cold, but I used a fat eighth bundle so that I'd have a larger assortment of fabric to pull from and to allow for fussy cutting. You don't want to know how many times I cut the red cookies and aqua turtle doves above!

It looks like I barely used that bundle! My leftovers might just make another nifty Christmas quilt next year.  The finished top measures 50" x 62", and you can find the free pattern here.

And now I can return to sewing with spring-y fabrics! I'll be back in just a few days with something new!

See what everybody else has finished this week at Crazy Mom Quilts.

the groundhog saw... tulips!

Still sewing along with Lori Holt's Quilty Fun Sew Along! 

Never mind that grouchy groundhog. This week's spring tulips have me absolutely convinced that Spring is almost here!

I should probably admit that I spent a full week considering which Pam Kitty Morning fabrics to use for the tulips. First I pulled little dots, then plaids. But I REALLY wanted to try the stripes. And I am so glad that I did. The stripey tulip reminds me of those fun parrot tulips that I love. And I'd plant my own if I had a yard!

I used a big pink dot to balance the wide stripes. 

I can totally imagine a whole quilt full of these tulips. Kinda like my great grandmother's flower beds. And there's even a pattern for a quilt packed with tulips in the Quilty Fun book!

Next week we'll make falling leaves. What, falling leaves in February?! Well, mine will be bright and happy. 

See you soon!

row, row, row along... done!

The Bee In My Bonnet Row Along quilt is done!

And freshly out of the dryer! All squishy and crinkly!

This quilt has all of my favorite traditional motifs. Like multicolored apples and crazy flying geese.

Happy houses, bright tulips, baskets and butterflies.

I had a major overdose of Flower Sugar here!  Plus the Pam Kitty Morning dotty backing. I still have yards of those dots in my stash - I can never have too many dots! And I love the cross hatched quilting done by Melissa Hoffman.

There's even a bee label! A big thank you to Lori Holt for providing free patterns for us each week and ultra-clear tutorials. All of these patterns have been compiled into an amazing new book called Quilty Fun. 

Have you seen the latest Quilty Fun Sew Along? We're only halfway through, so there's still time to join us! Get the scoop here.

Thanks for visiting! This is my first link-up with Finish It Up Fridays, sponsored by Crazy Mom Quilts. I need to go check out all the other blogs!

the plate collector

I have an addiction to English porcelain plates. I've spent years collecting far more plates than I'll ever need. Every piece of antique transferware calls out to me at the flea market. Every handpainted fruit plate wants to come home with me. And now I find that I have become addicted to Dresden plate quilt blocks!

It started innocently enough. I sewed along with the Bunny Hill Plate Club. Then came the Fig Tree Quilts  "Lollipops" pattern. And now it's the bright, scrappy version. I've used an assortment of Pam Kitty Morning, but also added in some of Lecien's Flower Sugar, and some tiny, leftover bits of Sew Cherry.

This one was inspired by Lori Holt's "Ring Around The Rosy" pattern... but I got very caught up making the 6" plates and didn't want to stop. So now I have, oh, 64 of them to hand applique! 

I'm using Kimono silk applique thread in Cherry Blossom. I love how easy this thread is to use, and the names are all so much fun. 

I think that I'll be very busy for awhile!

honeycombing with quilty fun

It's time to make honeycombs with this week's Quilty Fun Sew Along!

I look forward to Monday mornings to see what Lori and her team have in store for us. And this week was honeycombs! I like how Lori has renamed the classic snowball block. Because we need a break from snow right now, right? Time to dig through my stash of Pam Kitty Morning fabric.

How about some medium prints?

Yay! A chance to use my larger prints!

And I gotta have my dots and spots!

Then just 92 easy-corner-triangles later, and I have 23 honeycombs!

And here are this week's blocks all together! 

We're just over halfway through the Sew Along, but it isn't too late to join us! Have you seen some of the great blocks that other quilters are putting together? There are some amazing things at the Flickr group here.

Next week's blocks are tulips. I might just cheat a little bit and start to pick out my fabrics now...

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

quilted hot chocolate

Brrrrr! It's coooold outside! With all of today's snow and super-cold temperature here in NYC, it made me think about a nice cup of hot chocolate. A cup of hot chocolate quilt, that is!

I started this quilt just a few weeks ago during the holiday break. And since it is snowing, I thought that now would be the perfect time to finish it up. Plus, it's holiday fabric - and I really want to move on to springy sewing. 

To make a cup of hot chocolate, first start with a generous helping of chocolate. Oops, I mean a generous helping of fabric! I've used a fat eighth bundle of In From The Cold by Kate Spain.

Next, start sewing! I used this great free pattern on the Moda website. Kate calls the pattern "Hot Cocoa" but I've always referred to the drink as hot chocolate. So I've renamed my quilt. But wow, this pattern is a LOT of pages, so fill up your printer with paper! There are just 9 blocks plus sashing. I've made a few alterations to Kate's pattern just to make it a bit more unique and, well, Grey Dogwood-y. Here are a few of my favorite blocks so far. 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back soon with the finished top. But now I need to go play in the snow. And make hot chocolate. The real kind. With marshmallows. Lots of marshmallows!

four patching with quilty fun!

Yep, it's week 10 of the Quilty Fun sew along! It's also the debut of my blog! That's right, today is Day One of my quilt blog journey. You can learn ALL about me here.

So you all know about Lori Holt's amazing book, Quilty Fun, right?

To say that I love this book would be an understatement. I've already participated in Lori's Great Granny Quilt Along, the Bee In My Bonnet Row Along, and then the Quilty Barn Along.  So of course I was going to be a part of the Quilty Fun Sew Along! 

This week's project was to make three strips of postage stamps. Or, ok, Lori calls them four patches. Let's just agree that they are tiny and cute, ok? And luckily, Lori has an ingenious way of constructing these so that you don't need to fuss with tiny squares. How clever!

I'm again using fabric from Miss Pam Kitty Morning! I love her collections. Seriously, her fabric makes me happy, like sprinkles on a cupcake. And I'm a bit obsessed with cupcakes. And so, I've got a huge stash of all three of her collections. This time I'm pushing myself to include some black in each week's blocks.

These companion sheets from the Fat Quarter Shop are super helpful.

Ah, three rows of little postage stamps! Or, if you prefer, four patches!

Well, my first post wasn't so scary after all. Thanks so much for stopping by! And a special, big THANK YOU to my friends and family for their encouragement. Come back in a few days... I'll have more. Really!