Thinking about Valentines in November

I belong to a quilt group with some women that I used to go to church with and now get to be good friends with them and crash their quilting group!  Our latest project is a Valentine's project where we wanted to make blocks for each other using Valentine fabrics and colors as well as some heart inspired blocks.  I finally finished up the last of my blocks (we have been exchanging each week we see each other, so these are just the last few I had to whip up).  I did a few different blocks, but the majority of my blocks are what I have pictured below.

 I made dresdens-- both flat edged and pointed-- as well as these "lil' twister" blocks.

I bought the "Lil' Twister" template at the IQF show this year and I love it!  It is a cute little template that is great to use with Charm squares and is really easy to do.  The best part is that it looks so good when it is completed!  For my first try with the template, I used my leftover Punctuation fabric.

 My week for exchanging was a few weeks ago and these are the blocks that I have received!  Aren't they awesome!?  I am already thinking about what I want to do with this quilt to take it to the next level!:)  I am so lucky to have so many talented people that inspire me to do more!!

Countdown to Christmas Quilt

Sweetwater who designs for Moda, has some of the best fabric out there.  I love their style!  So, I was excited to get my hands on their Christmas line, "Countdown to Christmas".  I saw a quilt on Flickr that I really liked (found here by frivolous necessity) and decided to test myself to see if I could make it without using a pattern.

 Somehow I always screw up triangles and I did on this one too, but I think I am the only one who could really notice it because I know what I did wrong!  I really love how it turned out.

 I enjoy these patterns that make your eyes have to focus and unfocus to see several patterns within the same quilt.  I think that is what made me gravitate to this design.

 I used the off white print that had the words for the backing.  I also used a stripe for the binding.

 I quilted this on the longarm using a holly and berry pantograph.  I wasn't a huge fan of this one but I think it was mostly because the fabric was so busy you couldn't see much of the quilting anyway.  Still love this quilt!  It's about 55x55ish??  It was finished just in time to hang over our couch for Christmas.  My other Christmas quilt is hanging on our wall in the front room!

Dreaming of Dresdens Quilt- FINISHED!!!

Back in August I blogged about a Dresden Dilemmaa I was having.  After staring at those dresends for what seems like forever, I decided to make a quilt that looks very much like the quilt in the Block Party book.  I think mine is probably bigger though... I think it ended up being 80x100!  I had lots of ideas if I didn't already have the blocks assembled by my Aqua and Red bee group.  I really loved it so I felt like I needed one of these quilts as well!  Like I said, not an exact likeness but really close. :)

As I mentioned, each of the dresdens were assembled by my bee mates and then I added the blue or red background fabric and made them a little "WONKY". 

 Here is a closeup.

 For the dresdens, I used Riley Blake's Sugar and Spice.  For the background fabrics I used Michael Miller's Mini Mikes along with Kona Red.

 I wanted to include this picture of me showing off the quilt top at one of my quilt groups because it shows how huge it is. 

 For the back I used a plaid print from the Moda and I used red, white and pink polka dot fabric from Riley Blake's Sew Cherry line. 

Here is  a closeup of the quilting on the back.  I'm not sure I chose the right pattern to use, but it was  a new one that I was eager to try it.  It is pretty though... looks like ribbons throughout.  After much thought, I decided this beauty belonged in our family room.  We aren't hurting for blankets around these parts but this quilt is so big that our whole family can snuggle under it and that certainly is worth while!

It's been awhile...and IQF

Hello my fellow readers!  Well, it has been awhile since I have posted anything on this poor neglected blog.  I am sorry!  Suddenly life got a little crazy for me and I realized quickly that I needed to pull back on a few things to focus more on my family and make sure all that needed to be taken care of was actually being taken care of.  Every time I have a new child, I usually go through a period of time where I need to look at my life all over again and figure out what things are important to me and what things need to take a back seat.  This is sort of what happened to me the last couple of months.  The baby also started being awake a lot more and needing more attention and two of my children were in baseball/softball which had us out of the house almost every night.  It all just got a little crazy and I realized quickly that I wasn't going to be able to blog for awhile.  I do appreciate everyone's well wishes and concern.  Hoping that I will back from here on out, but you never know!!


In other news, I am lucky enough to live in Houston and was able to attend the International Quilt Festival for the first time!  It was lots of fun and I wish I had more time to go look at more of the gorgeous quilts that were there on display, but honestly, I spent most of my time spending money and buying fabric and sewing toys!  I snapped very few pictures but I thought I would share what I did take a picture of.

I went to IQF 3 seperate days and spent time with my aunt and my mom (the three of us pictured above), met up with my local guild members another day and went with some friends of mine the last day.  Of course, I only took one picture that first day, but I had a blast with everyone I went with!

 This is a random quilt to take a picture of (don't worry, I asked first!) but I am in the process of thinking about what sort of quilt I want to make for my daughter's teacher this year and loved this idea of using hand prints.  This particular quilt might be a better idea for one of my younger kids' preschool teachers but I thought it was just really creative.

 There was some AMAZING quilting to see while we were there.  I am on a quest to improve on my long arm quilting skills and perhaps one day I will be able to pull something like this off... or not.

 Another pretty random quilt but I liked how they did a simple ruffle in between each strip.  This would be a CUTE baby quilt!  (The sailboat quilt is pretty cute too!)

 I also scored a fat quarter bundle of Moda Reunion which is due out in February.  I'm in love with this fabric line.  I especially like the fabrics that use the basic primary colors in modern ways.  LOVE!

Also during Market and Festival, my Houston Modern Quilt Guild hosted a couple of get together for the Modern Quilt Guild.  I attended the first meetup which had mostly the people who went to Market (like "famous" bloggers, fabric desingers, quilt designers, book writers, etc).  I was such a nerd while I was there because I got to say hi to some of my favorite people who inspire me to make new things.  While there, I won this fat quarter bundle by Cloud 9 fabrics.  This line is out now!  I was so excited to have won!  My friend, Laurie, who came with me also won a gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop.... we were so thrilled!!

Triangulations

 My month is coming up for my Always Bee Learning Bee on Flickr.  I love this group because I am learning so many quilting techniques.  I was going to do Dresden blocks for my month, but since I still haven't figured out what to do with my last set of dresden blocks, I thought I would try out something that my mom uses in quilting fairly often... TRIANGULATIONS.  What it is is a program that lets you print off templates that when you sew two pieces of fabric together, you will end up with multiple PERFECT half square triangles.

This is heaven sent for me because I don't seem to make more than a few half square triangles without it looking a little stretched or forced.  They are a new love for me and I am sure you will be seeing me make lots of half square triangles in the near future!

Though it is an odd choice for me, I chose to do a BROWN quilt.  It will be completely brown and white.  I am really excited about it.  I love the fabrics I chose so I think it will be great.  I sewed up my first 16 triangles and took pictures of a few different possible layouts.....

I am giving everyone in my bee the option to lay them out any way they choose so I am excited to see what comes back to me!

FAVORITE INSPIRATION

 I find myself being so inspired whenever I look on Flickr.  People post the most beautiful things and I just can't help but get ideas by looking at them all.  I mark the ones that are my favorites.  You may even see a couple similarities between some of these and a quilt or two I have made.  Looking at these beautiful quilts/blocks gets me so excited to do 'the next thing', but also a little sad because I will never get to make everything I want to.  You know?

Anyways, I am sharing with you all of my favorites from Flickr... it is forever growing so I will add more in the future.  I DARE you not to be inspired by these beauties!!:

1. Climbing the walls... A modern denim quilt., 2. PictureBox quilt blowing in wind, 3. Stepping stones quilt finished, 4. Purple & green, 5. Wall Hanging, 6. I Spy Flying Geese, 7. Under the Boardwalk quilt pattern by Sweet Jane's, Terrain fabric by Kate Spain, 8. Pixelated Color Wheel Quilt, 9. Stash Quilt Side A, 10. Wonderland Top, 11. DS Quilts top finished, 12. Rainbow Wonky Stars, 13. Minecraft Quilt Top!, 14. Seeing Squares Quilt Top, 15. Tetris + Quilt = Quiltris, 16. Pixel Pusher, finished, 17. Walk in the Woods finished quilt full, 18. Kaleidoscope quilt top, 19. Dresdens, 20. Adams Quilt 006, 21. Stained Glass Quilt, 22. Block-A-Palooza Complete [3], 23. Red and Aqua Winding Ways, 24. "Hope" October Stash Buster Quilt

1. Bee Modern- June, 2. Orange and Blue Blocks from Bee Imaginative Bee, 3. Suzanne's Blocks Together, 4. "Awesome Lap Quilt", 5. Square Top, 6. modern squares quilt blue green brown, 7. 2010 Atlanta Symphony Decorators Show House & Gardens, 8. Cascade Quilt, 9. Chartreuse Stamps Quilt, 10. Rainbow Around the Block - Karen, 11. Gelati Log Cabin, 12. "Spot On" Circle Quilt, 13. Blue, green, and gray, 14. Baby Quilt, 15. Bumper in crib 1, 16. Australasian Bee Quilt Finished - front, 17. Finished quilt top, 18. February Quilt: Both Sides, 19. Paintbox Quilt - Detail, 20. piano quilt, 21. P1030608, 22. do. Good Stitches December "Love" Quilt, 23. do. Good Stitches X-string Quilt - January "Faith" group, 24. Blue Bento

Knotted Squares

 I just finished up my latest quilt, "Knotted Squares".  This quilt was from Amy Ellis' Book, "Modern Basics".  It was an easy, but time consuming pattern.  Lots of chain piecing and lining up seams involved.  However, I think it was worth it because I LOVE the end result.

 I've been hoarding a jelly roll of Moda Hideaway fabric that I was instantly drawn to use for this project.  I LOVE that line.  The colors are basic, but really pretty.

 This quilt pattern is really neat because it incorporates two different squares.  I like quilts that show off more than one pattern within the quilt.  In this case, the yellow squares and then the solid squares.

 I only used 25 of the strips from the jelly roll and only about half of each of those strips.  The other half of each of the strips I used went to make the binding.

 I quilted this quilt using the curlz pantagraph for the longarm.  It was the perfect choice because the fabric that I used for the borders and backing seemed to swirl in the same pattern.  It was very fitting.  I used white thread.

 The backing (and border) that I used was also from the Hideaway line.  I knew instantly that this was the fabric that I wanted to use.  It was white and subtle but incorporated pretty much all of the colors from the line in it.

Here is a closeup of the scrappy binding that I sewed on by hand.  Finished size 72 x 72.

Winner #6- Last Day of Giveaways!

Today is the last day of the giveaways (Boo!).  This was so much fun that I am sure I will do it again soon!  I mean, my 100th post is almost here so I am sure I will have an offering for that coming up soon, so check in with me occasionally to see what's going on!

So our last giveaway is three 1 yard cuts of these three fabrics!  From left to right we have Journey by Kathy Davis for Free Spirit, Carinna Gardner for Northcott Fabrics and Monaluna for Birch Fabrics - Circa 60 Beach Mod.

So our winner is....

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

70 

Emily!!!

Emily said... "You're amazing Erin! How are you doing all this with your kids? Great Job! "

 

Congratulations Emily!!  Emily is actually a friend of mine who quilts but I knew her before I even started quilting.  She has amazing taste and always makes the most adorable things.  She recently made a baby quilt for a friend of ours that I was drooling over-- she just always finds the cutest fabrics.  I don't have a picture of it but it was made using charm squares from the Moda Hullabaloo line. Very CUTE!

 

And Emily, the key phrase is "doing all this with your kids"... cause I usually DO have to do it WITH my kids.  My sewing room is by the kids' playroom so that helps.  I also have a closet in my sewing room that has a bunch of workbooks, stickers, crafts that they can do in there with me.  The youngest was taking a lot naps, but he is starting to be awake more, so it certainly does cut into quilting time!   I have some extra time these days now that school is in session, so that affords me some free time.  Emily has 5 children so she knows that doing anything for yourself while kids are around is definitely hard.  However, I think it is important for kids to be able to play independently at times and see that their mom likes to do things that aren't ALL about them.  Still, I wish I had more time to do the things I love, but there is a time and season for everything!

Congratulations again to Emily and ALL of the winners!!!!  Thanks to everyone that joined in to be a follower!!

Winner #5!- Featured Winner

Day #5 of the giveaway!!  I am excited to giveaway a fat quarter set of Reindeer Games!

And the winner is:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

5

LEANNE!  Leanne said, "And I am one of the early followers of your blog, it is looking great!"

Thanks Leanne and congratulations!  I was happy when the number 5 came up on the 5th day of the giveaways, plus it is also my favorite number... all the stars aligned for this one I guess!

Leanne has a great blog to show off all her skills... one of my most favorite things she has done is her wall hanging for her Love of Solids partner (please be me, please be me!). 

(picture from Leanne's blog, www.shecanquilt.blogspot.com)

 Seriously, that is ridiculously awesome!!  I can't even pretend to be able to do that!!  I WISH!

She also made a quilt that has some really neat quilting on it, check it out here.  It looks really cool! 

Congratulations again to Leanne- I will do my best to get that out to you asap!  And to everyone else... one more chance to win!!!

Day #4 WINNER

 Happy Sunday all!  Today is day #4 of our giveaways!  Today's prize is a cute Amy Butler fabric pouch.

And the winner is...

Random Integer Generator 

Here are your random numbers: 30 

Our winner is AMY who said, "hi, erin! good luck with your new shop. i'm currently obsessed with wathcing the entire criminal minds series on dvd from netflix. i stalk my mailbox waiting for the next disc!" August 18, 2011 11:10 AM

Thanks for the tip Amy.  My husband is always looking for another series to get from Netflix so we are putting this one on the list!!  We recently finished "Quantum Leap"... don't laugh, or actually do... it is totally old school!!  I was not into watching it, but I sat with him a few times while sewing on a binding and kind of got into it.  It's a cute series from back in the day.

ANYWAYS!-- CONGRATULATIONS!  I will try and contact you to get your address, but if you read this first, please send it to me at toerintx@yahoo.com.