Quilting Becca's Quilt

 My new friend, Becca (she is in my quilt guild), asked me to quilt her queen size quilt.  She made it with Amy Butler fabric and is simply GORGEOUS.  I kind of want to keep it but I am sure she wouldn't appreciate that.  You can find more of her creations on her blog.

 I hope she is happy with it... I think it came out really nice.

 If you visit Becca's blog, you will find more pictures of the quilt top (and I imagine as soon as she gets it tomorrow, she will probably post a finished picture before too long.  Since I only did the quilting, I wanted to focus my pictures on that.

 I really do love the pattern she used for this quilt.  I love how it really showed off her fabrics!

 She has a really pretty blue pieced back.  Originally we were going to go for a blue thread on the back, but we opted for the white instead and I think it was a great choice.

Now all she has to do is bind this HUGE quilt... have fun!!!

POW WOW... inspiration!?

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Admittedly, when we used to go places as a family and my mom would start talking about how something or another reminded her of her quilting... I totally rolled my eyes and was pretty embarrassed.  Well folks, I really am turning into my mother.  Our church hosted a Pow Wow on Saturday night and I couldn't help but think about quilting!!!

The tradition, dancing, singing, drumming and ceremony was all beautiful, but I was most impressed with the what they all wore!!!  Everything is very bright and intricate.  Incredibly inspiring as far as making something that reflects this style myself some day.

 AND-  Do you see what I see in the middle of all those feathers?!?  STARS!!!  Stars like I make on quilts!  This might be a "duh" statement for most of you, but it is all starting to connect for me, perhaps part of our quilting culture comes from Native Americans!

 I saw stars everywhere on these outfits (costumes??  Not sure what the correct term is).  Their attire had so much going on.  Color, different fabrics, different materials, animal parts/skins, beautiful designs.  It was very neat to see.

 I love this bag!  Think they would give it to me?  Nope.  Check out that star!  Looks like it could go right on a quilt, doesn't it?  Of course, most of the stars I saw (specifically in the head pieces and in the center of feathers) were all done with bead work.  VERY tiny beads.  I wouldn't ever do that.  I don't have the patience for it.  It is almost all I can do to paper piece a star and even that seems like a lot of work.

All and all it was a very fun night that really made me think of quilting!!!  Perhaps I am obsessed, I don't know, but who could stop thinking about quilting with all of those stars!

 This is a picture of me (ignore the glare off my forehead !:))  My dad helped to host the event so out of respect (and fun I guess) he got to dress up too.  He actually had deer toenails hanging from his knees.  I would be interested to know if there is some sort of cultural significance to that.

 And for good measure, here are 3 out of 4 of my kids.  They had fun too!

Here is #4.... with a very weird look on his face.  He doesn't always have that look on his face... only when the camera comes out and he is like "what the heck is that!?"

A Group of Row Quilts

First off, the giveaway is still underway... don't forget to enter to win!


Our church has a small quilt group that meets monthly and works on one project a year.  It's a fun little group with quilters of all levels.  There are also some modern quilters and more traditional quilters in the group so it is always fun to see the same project done in different fabrics.

This year, we are doing a row quilt.  Each person in the group will have an opportunity to teach a block and then the group will take what they have learned, make the blocks and complete one row of those blocks.  I am REALLY excited about this project and am trying to decide between these two fabric choices:

I am kind of opting for the first one... I love them both so much and for different reasons... whichever I don't use will definitely be used in another project in the very near future!

The first picture has about half the fabrics from the Sanctuary line and the second picture has about half from Modern Meadow.  The rest of the fabrics are from my stash.

Watching it all come together...

First off, the giveaway is still going on.  Only one more week to leave a comment and have a chance to win one of six great prizes!!!  Enter here.

So this is what is on my design wall right now.  These beauties were made by my Honeybees group.  I have a plan for this quilt and am excited to get a chance to work on it...some day!

Stars are still coming in the mail, then I will get an idea of how many more I need to make myself.  I am planning on adding different blocks in between these and making a cute border as well. I really am excited that the members of my group made me such GREAT blocks... seriously, these are beautiful!

August Bee Blocks

 I really love participating in bees.  That being said, I had a really busy month for blocks.... lots of time consuming blocks as well as blocks with batting which cost a bit more in postage.  In a way it was a good realization to me to perhaps participate in a few less bees and do more of my own creating.  It seems like with another child in our home, I have less quilting time, so I have less time to work on what I want to work on.  --- Nevertheless, it really was great to work on these blocks!

 Do Good Stitches:  We were given an inspiration picture and were asked to make two blocks in whatever shades of grey we want:

 Fat Stash Bee:  We were asked to make a confetti block in the prints provided to us:

 Aqua and Orange Bee:  This one was a first for me... we were asked to make two blocks that contained a circle, the letter K and a vespa.  For some reason I only took a picture of one of the blocks:

 Aqua and Red:  We were asked to make wonky stars.

 Christmas Fabric Bee: We were asked to make these drunkard's path circles.

 Twelve Month Quilting Bee:  Asked to make stars from some Sugar Skull fabric.

 Always Bee Learning:  We made cathedral windows-- this thing is huge (like over 24" by 24") and weighs a ton.  This took forever, I won't lie.  Of course, this particular bee is about learning new things and I certainly did.  This is a hard one to give up!

 Bee Connected-  We were asked to make log cabin Quilt As You Go blocks-  I left these untrimmed so she could cut them as she pleased.

 Sew 2 Speak:  We made log cabin-ish blocks from this GORGEOUS Neptune fabric.  I love this line.

 Sew 2 Speak:  This was actually a July block but never posted it

 Christmas Fabric bee:  These are some SMALL pieces in this block.  The finished product is great, but I didn't enjoy the process.  Kari was smart to have other people do this one!  This also took quite awhile!

 Sewn Together:  Bottled rainbow... this one also has batting that she will trim after she receives it.  This is a popular block right now on flickr.  Great for scraps.

 

I also finished up my 4x5 Bee blocks this month.  They aren't due until October, but I wanted to get a jump on these!

Giveaway still Underway!

Just a reminder that it is still not too late to enter the giveaway!  I am doing the giveaway to celebrate my blog and new etsy store!  Deadline is September 1st.  Click here to find out more and to enter!  Below are all of the prizes up for grabs!

MMM Sent!

My Make Mine Modern was sent off to my partner last week, but I was not thinking and completely forgot to take pictures.  LUCKILY for me, my partner loved it and took lots!

I made her a tablerunner (from Ty Pennington's Impressions line) that would match her new curtains, a pouch, a pincushion and included a pattern because she has girls that she likes to make clothing for.  I also loaded her up on fabric because I am a fabric hoarder myself and who doesn't LOVE fabric?  I always feel so relieved when I know my partner has received her package and when she approves the contents therein.  This was a fun parcel to put together and I hope my partner enjoys it!

Off to HMQG

If you are looking to enter my HUGE giveaway, you can find out how to enter and win one of 6 great prizes here.

Today is our monthly Houston Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  I feel really lucky that there is a place I can go to meet up with other quilters who quilt like I do.  I am always inspired by what the other members of the guild accomplish.  Here are some work from the other members' of the guild:

1. habitat challenge mosaic, 2. sunflower quilt, 3. rainbow bamboo quilting, 4. navy QOV #11 - finished, 5. Whirl and twirl, 6. HMQG July Meeting, 7. Hope Valley Plus Quilt, 8. Heather's baby quilt, 9. Amy's whole quilt, 10. "dorothy's garden" quilt, 11. Innocent Crush Brick Path, 12. "corner crosses", 13. january "bee pieceful" quilt - butterfly kaleidescope, 14. Lily and Will Front, 15. hmqg wonky star QOV - completed!, 16. Cacophony of Color - Bella Solids Parade, 17. HMQG Park Challenge, 18. Alzheimer's Quilt #5, 19. Tumbler Quilt, 20. Rainbow progression, 21. DQS, 22. Triangle Whimsy Front, 23. I Dream of Triangles, 24. 2 Squared Front, 25. Cate's Quilt

My absolute favorite part of our meetings is show and tell!  It is so fun to hear about other peoples' quilts.  There is always a story to a quilt.  Even if it doesn't start with a story, a story is created as you make it.  I think that is why I feel so attached to the quilts I make.  Sure I can't keep them all, but each one of them is important to me!

Fabric Sniffing

If you are looking to enter my HUGE giveaway, you can find out how to enter and win one of 6 great prizes here.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned my kids at all or not, but I have four children.  Ages 6, 4, 3 & 3 months.  Only one of them goes to school so far, so things at our house are pretty crazy all the time... just the way I like it. :)  So my oldest, Elise, is an awesome big sister... the best.  She is also my craftiest child (has already constructed some pajama pants and part of a quilt all by herself!) and loves to join me in my sewing room and be with me.  Ellie loves to look at the fabric, pick out coordinating fabrics and ask me about any projects I am working on.  When it is just her and I in my sewing room (typically I have a whole crew "helping" me), she will just talk on and on about her day and what things are going on with her.  I LOVE IT!  I hope she will always want to just sit and talk with me.

While all this is extremely sweet, Ellie has a really weird thing she does.  She smells fabric.  Obsessively.  Elise and her younger sister, Maggie, always run to get the mail together.  I am in a lot of bees so there is a package of fabric in the mail pretty much every day.  They always hurry back in the house, open the packages and sniff the fabric...not just a little sniff sniff, but a huge inhaling of fabric goodness!

I mean, I admit, I do love the smell of fabric, but I am also thinking this might be a little strange!

DS Heaven!

If you are looking to enter my HUGE giveaway, you can find out how to enter and win one of 6 great prizes here.

My birthday was a few weeks ago and I decided that I had looked at this fabric too many times without buying that I finally needed to take the plunge.  JoAnns' DS fabric line is priced about the same as the quilt store fabric, but I did get to use a 50% off coupon to buy the 5 yards of backing fabric I bought.  Score.

I know the DS fabric is very popular, but I just love how this fabric literally reminds me of going on a picnic.  So, I am going to make, what else?  A picnic quilt out of it!  Not sure exactly what design I am going to do yet... for now it is sitting on my shelf while I keep staring at it trying to decide what to do... but it is calling to me, so I am sure it won't be too long until I dive in!