A Whole New World!

I'm very excited about my most recent quilt finish. It's been a long time in the making because I was waiting for a few key elements for quilting: 1. Inspiration, and 2. A ruler base for my long arm. ;)

In late June I had the very unique opportunity to spend the day with Angela Walters and a few other VERY exceptionally talented long armers in Denver. The airlines almost didn't let it happen, but Angela persevered, and made it to Denver, and we just really tried to suck as much information out of Angela's brain as conceivably possible in a 6 hour span of time. ;o)

 (Susan (front right) made each of us these little placemats, it wasn't part of our class)

One of the take-aways for me (of MANY) was how to use a ruler for quilting. I have a few quilt tops that are awaiting quilting inspiration, but I only really have one that was right for using the ruler base. (It's basically an acrylic add-on, similar to an acrylic extension table for your domestic sewing machine.)

(this isn't me practicing with a ruler, obviously, but it's the best picture of me and my BFF, Angela!) ;o)

So after that amazing "mountain top" experience, I seriously debated buying a ruler base for my long arm. It was $100, and I just wasn't sure it would be worth it, you know? I spend SO much money on stuff that I don't need or end up using (Hello, Accuquilt Go cutter!), but I decided to take the plunge on this one.

The Shape Shifters quilt that the {Faith Circle} of the Do. Good Stitches bee made in April was perfect for ruler-guided quilting. The problem? I needed to piece the top!! There were a few blocks that I had to re-make because they were trimmed wrong, but it really is an amazingly easy set of blocks to make. (You can find the tutorial HERE) Once I got the top pieced and the backing selected, it was time to get to work!

And WORK it was!! Man alive. Practicing on Susan's long arm for a few minutes was NOTHING like actually doing the quilting on my own quilt, on my own machine. The first block took for. eh. ver. Forever. Or at least four hours, which felt like forever! 

                                           

But then I figured out how to stream-line the process a bit, and eventually got to where each block was taking me about 30 minutes. All in all, though, I believe I spent about 20 hours quilting this quilt.

Totally worth it, yes, but goodness gracious! My arms ached, my legs ached, my back ached...Ruler-guided quilting is not for the weak, that's for sure!

                                                   

Now it's bound, and I'm going to put on the label, and take it to Restore Innocence so they can give it to a girl rescued from sex trafficking.

Here are a couple of pictures of the secondary design of the blocks, and the quilting in each.

  

And one more glamour shot for good measure. ;o)

                                                

Shape Shifters ~ A Tutorial

Have you ever come across a quilt block and thought, "Man! I wish I had thought of that!" 

Well that happened to me last week when I saw blocks that my friend, Liberty, is making for a charity bee.  I knew my turn with the {Faith Circle} of the Do. Good Stitches bee was coming up, and I needed something quick and easy. (I'm all about quick and easy for these quilts. We give our quilts to Restore Innocence, and these girls wouldn't know a Swoon block from a butcher block, so as long as it's beautiful, why complicate it, right?)

Anyway, Liberty pointed me to this tutorial, and I started to play. Man, I wish I had thought of that!  So, giving credit where credit is due, there are 3 Dudes in Arizona that came up with this method of making a quilt block. I, however, tweaked it a smidge to make my vision come to fruition. :o)

After playing around with color options, I decided to go fresh and nautical with a yellow, white, navy combination. Delicious! Since yellows are tricky to match, to say the least, I decided to send half of the yellow that all of my bee mates will need, and they can match the other half from their stash.  Hopefully that will allow for some cohesion among the scrappiness of the quilt.

You will not believe how utterly simple this is. Prepare to be shocked. :o)

Note: This tutorial is for each member of the Faith Circle to create 8 blocks for April's quilt, not for the entire quilt. :o)

Fabric Requirements (for 8 blocks) 

• 1 strip mid-to-dark blue (but not navy!) 2 1/2" by WOF
• 2 strips Kona White (mailed to you with the yellow) 2 1/2" by WOF
• 2 strips yellow (please use the yellow I'm mailing to you as a guide, please choose a warm yellow (no green tones) 2 1/2" by WOF 

Sewing Instructions

1. Sew the strips together along the long edge as follows: yellow to white to blue to white to yellow. Use a scant 1/4" seam, and try to sew the strips so that they don't warp or bow.
2. Press the seams to the darker fabrics
3. Square off the left side of the strip set, then measure 10 1/2" over, and cut perpendicular to your seams to make a 10 1/2" square. Repeat 3 more times to make 4 squares.

     4. Rotate two of the squares so the stripes are vertical, leaving two with horizontal stripes (as above)

     5. Place the vertical blocks on top of the horizontal blocks, and secure around all four sides using pins

         or glue. You know how I feel about my glue basting! :o)

     6. Sew around all 4 sides using a scant 1/4" seam, as seen below.

     7. Take your two sewn-on-all-sides blocks to the cutting mat and get a long ruler and your rotary
         cutter.
     8. Placing the ruler across the diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner, cut through both
         layers.

     9. Rotate your ruler to the opposite set of corners, and cut across the other diagonal from corner to
         corner again. Open up the cuts and find beautiful, triangular blocks! Voila!
    10. Press the seams to the yellow (center strip), and you are finished!

I see you!

Thank you, Faith Circle, for always being willing to make beautiful quilts for the girls rescued from human trafficking and supported by Restore Innocence.

Again, this method was devised by the guys in Arizona, I just played with the colors so it would look like eyeballs...just kidding. :o)  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! And if you make a quilt using this technique, let me know!

Hope Takes Flight ~ Double the pleasure. :)

I've finished Hope Takes Flight 4 and 5.

I've made this quilt five times now! Yes, four of them look very similar, whatever.

One ~ butterflies made by {Faith Circle} members

Two - at QuiltCon 2013 ~ butterflies made by {Faith Circle} members

Three ~ made with Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille

Four ~ made from one Kona Classics charm pack

and Five ~ made from Artisan Batiks: Geoscapes 4 by Lunn Studios for Robert Kaufman

I kept the making of these last two under wraps since December because Robert Kaufman asked me to write the pattern for this quilt using the Classics charm pack and Artisan Batiks. I said "Are you sure you want me to do this twice?" They said "Yep. We're sure! Get busy, Melissa!"  (I was honestly confused about it for a long time!)

But twice I did! One in solids (= my comfort zone) and one in batiks (=not far from my comfort zone). This collection of batiks from Lunn Studios is really pretty. I love how each butterfly moves more than in the solids quilt. Plus, Nichole at Robert Kaufman told me that there has been a lot of research done lately that shows that batiks are selling really well with more modern quilt patterns. Who knew, right? :)

And NOW, I am pleased to tell you that the patterns are available for free on the Robert Kaufman website! Yeppers, F. R. double E. Free!!  Here is the link for the solids pattern, and here is the link for the batik pattern.

I want to make this one more time, using only two colors (well, three, if you include the black for the bodies!) like my friend Aunt Spicy did. I'll be sure to post it if I ever get around to it! :)

Also...and I would be remiss if I didn't say this...I want to thank YOU for being so encouraging and excited about this pattern from the very beginning! The first and second quilts were made in late 2012 by the members of the {Faith Circle} of the Do.Good Stitches bee, and donated to Restore Innocence for a girl rescued from human trafficking. The response that I got from finishing those two quilts was just overwhelming! Without that, I never in a million years would have considered writing up the pattern (and making it three more times, hah!). And the continued nagging follow-up from a couple of lovely friends really spurred me on to finish the pattern. And then, when I was asked by Robert Kaufman to make these last two for them, to post free on their website, I thought that was the perfect ending to the story.

And while that story is wrapping up, I've got lots more "stories" in my head that will become patterns one day. :)  I just need to find the time!

I hope you have a wonderful week, and thanks again for being so supportive. I most certainly couldn't do this alone. :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 29/52

I'm this close to finishing my do.Good Stitches quilt. I finally pieced the back the other day and spent less than 2 hours quilting it - and that includes thread and bobbin changes! Stippling is the way to go when you need a fast finish!

All that's left is the label, really. Last night I finished the binding -- it was magical!!! I used Susie's Magic Binding technique, demonstrated here on my friend Marti's blog. I stink stink stink at machine binding, so I wanted to try this, thinking maybe this will work and it won't look like something the dog rolled in!  And it does! It does! It DOES!!

Here is a picture of the purdy mitered corner...

And here you can see the front and the back. Honestly, this is the closest-thing-to-perfect my machine binding has EVER looked!!

I'll put a label on it this week, and take it to Restore Innocence.  They were very appreciative the last time I took them some quilts, and I know they are so happy to bless the girls with these quilts. :)

And then I'll put my sewing machine away. I've got a lot going on this weekend, and sewing isn't going to be a part of it. :(  But then next week, I will put on a brave face and make Janice's paper-pieced blocks for our Bee Happy bee. I'm only marginally better at paper piecing than I am at machine binding!  

And I've designed a few quilts that I am SUPER eager to make! Aunt Spicy is my partner in crime on these, and keeps encouraging me to make more! What a friend, right?!? And I loved getting back to the long arm. It seems I'm prolific at the first and last steps of the quilting process, but I'm a slow turtle at actually MAKING the quilts! I need to get faster. I have two baby quilts to make, and only know the gender of one of them. If the unknown is a boy, then I'll give my Huckleberry quilt I made when Latifah Saafir was here in May. If it's a girl, I'll do something quick and easy and double the recipe. ;-)

I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Go check out the linky party. There's some beautiful stuff being made!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 28/52

I am very aware of how blessed I am - and how much I take for granted. Really, I am. My life is FULL. Busy. Blurry from all the activity, really, and I know that will only get worse as the kids get older. But it's a good busy, a good full. I know that.

But it's exhausting, too. As an introvert, having 3 people in my face, on my leg, on my hip all day long can add to the exhaustion. So when they're all finally in bed, and the house is quiet, it's my time. My time to sew, or blog, or catch up on blogs, or read.

What? Read? What's that? :)

I'm just saying that it's all good. I wish I had time to sew more, and blog more, but the most important thing I can do every day is take care of my family. I know that. It's tiresome, but it's the right thing to do, and it's what I want to do! But I also want to be creative and productive and make this gigantic to-do list just an eensy bit smaller! :)  That being said, I'm hoping to put a bit of normalcy back into my life, because it's been far from normal lately!

We just got back from a week in LA, visiting friends, visiting the LA MQG, visiting with some of my Bee Happy hive, going to Disneyland...for THREE days... ugh!

We've been home for 2 days now, and we're still trying to get back to normal and acclimate! It's not like we've got jet-lag, really...it's more like vacation-lag! :)

This is what I sewed just before we left. They are called Starburst Cross blocks, and they are for the Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. The tutorial is by Sew Crafty Jess., and it's going to be a stunning quilt! I just love the bright colors!

And then we left for California. It was a GREAT trip, really. Not long enough!

I took over a thousand pictures over the course of the week, but I won't hit you with all of them. I need to do a separate blog post about the whole trip just so I can remember it all! :)

Here are a few of my favorites, though.

Hugging Cinderella after they twirled together in their dresses (Ramona was kind enough to let us borrow Bean's dress for the day!)

Waving back at Rapunzel who waved first. Starstruck. :)

Here's Buzz at the Mickey and the Magical Map show -- he was mesmerized!!

Our Disneyland passes had a blackout day on July 4th, so we went to the beach instead. It had been a very long while since Mookie had been to the beach, and I don't believe Sprout had ever been! And I know Buzz hadn't ever been! :)

Mookie really enjoyed the water, Sprout enjoyed the sand, and Buzz didn't really enjoy any part of it!

We went to California Adventures the next day, and after we had a spontaneous rendez-vous with Mr The Mouse himself...

...we headed for Monsters, Inc. Here's Buzz practicing his scream. It sounded a wee bit like his tiger roar, but it was darn cute! 

Then after lunch, Dave took Mookie on the Grizzly River Run (think Thunder River...)  She had a blast!

And on the third day, Dave and I split up so he could take Mookie on more big kid rides, and I could keep it simple with the little ones. We happened to see Rapunzel in her tower, which was kind of amazing.

Unfortunately, most of those pictures didn't turn out because, not surprisingly, it's kind of hard to manage an active one-year old while a three-year old meets her all-time favorite princess!

In the afternoon, we got to meet Tinkerbell, which was equally amazing, and equally hard to photograph! Honestly, I think the girls were kinda done having to smile for all the paparazzi! :) (they get that from their father...)

And then on Sunday we went to church and then spent some time with friends from church, and got ready for the journey home on Monday :(  Sad and exhausting journey home.

Yesterday was a lazy, lazy day recovering from our wonderful trip, but last night I needed to really get down to business on the aforementioned gigantic to-do list, so I made my July blocks for the Faith Circle. This time it's Modern Cross Blocks, featured by Faith of Fresh Lemons in her Summer Sampler Series.

And tonight, I've got one more bee block for June, and I've got to piece a back, and maybe even get it loaded onto the long arm. Wouldn't THAT be grand!

It feels great to link up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Go see what others are doing, and have a great week!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 17/52

I am very excited to share this new purchase with you:

It's a Baby Lock Crown Jewel long arm. It's pretty intense, but I LOVE having it!!

It is loaded up with Spot On Wide by Robert Kaufman for the back (in Chartreuse), and this giant for the front:

I think one of the reasons I am loving it so much is that the quilt I'm working on (my Mod Mosaic) is for me. No one else. No judged shows, no one's baby, no one else's bed. So I feel like it's okay to accept my mistakes, to learn where to go slow and where to go fast, to take my time, and really just ENJOY the ride! :o)

I'm quilting it with "interlocking circles" I learned about over at Happy Quilter/Melissa's blog. (It's easier drawn than quilter...that's all I'm going to say!)

And it's a proper long arm. On a looooong table. :o). We opted for the extension, so the table/frame is 12 feet long, which makes my 90" quilt seem small. :o)  It lives in our basement, so I get a bit chilled working on it at night, but that's nothing a few extra layers can't fix. :o)

I also opted for the larger M-class bobbin over the L-class. I'm not sure of the size difference, but I'm able to quilt a little more than 8 12" blocks with one bobbin, and I know I would run out after 5 or 6 blocks with a smaller bobbin. It's a luxury, I admit, but one I am happy with. :o). And just in case anyone asks, I have not noticed any tension issues as the bobbin empties. It's good from start to finish!

I'm also really excited that the quilt is always there, waiting for me whether I have 20 minutes or 2 hours. I always have snippets in my day, but to start a new project on my domestic machine, or carry on piecing a quilt top, or to make a bee block? 15-20 minutes isn't really that much time! But it's just enough time to go to the long arm and quilt for a bit.


However, I do have other things I'm supposed to be doing!

Like finish this block for our in-guild bee:

And piece my April do.Good Stitches quilt. I'm still waiting on one set of blocks. I've already made 3 extra sets, and don't really want to make another if I don't have to! :o)

And mail out the charms Kelly won over a week ago!

And start working on something old with some of the charms I won from Elisabeth so very long ago. :o)

Plus a million zillion other things craft-wise, and a zillion million other things home-wise. I know you all have just as many craft and home projects, so I just wanted to say that I appreciate you coming here and reading about my life. With the switch to Bloglovin, I am reading a lot more blogs than I used to (they would just sit, languishing in my Google Reader!), but I'm not always commenting. :) I love being inspired by you, though! :)

As always, I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced for her WiP Wednesday Post .

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 16/52

So this is still in progress. :)  I have most of the rows sashed together -- just a couple more to go, then I have to sash the sides. Then prepare the backing (Spot On Wide in Chartreuse by Robert Kaufman) and the binding, and I'll be ready to quilt it!

I'm pretty excited about the way I am going to quilt it, but I'm going to keep you in the dark in case it goes bad and I have to default to loops. :)  Loops will still be fabulous, I love loops, but this new way? Pretty cool.

I'm also waiting on one more set of blocks for this little gem for the Faith Circle of the of the do.Good Stitches bee. I think this is my ideal layout - I'm calling it Wonky Zigs. :)  (I'll use the Spot On in Aqua for the back of this)

And I finished my April blocks for Anita in the Faith Circle. Simple, yet stunning.

I have to say that my circle seems to really embrace the idea that simple CAN BE better when it comes to making quilts. We haven't made any complicated quilts and complicated blocks in a while (8 hours for a Swoon block, anyone???)  And I really, really appreciate that.  We all know that these quilts are going to be an amazing blessing for the girls that receive them (they are donated to Restore Innocence, an organization that partners with the FBI and helps girls rescued from human/sex trafficking).  Those girls don't know an Ohio Star from a Wonky Star from a WhirlyGig. They just know that these quilts represent unconditional love...something most of them have never felt. (I could go on talking about Restore Innocence for days...)

And I am REALLY excited to have these books! C&T Publishing had a sale a week, or so, ago, and I chose these. I wanna drop everything and just eat these books up! Just flipping through One Line at a Time got me all fired up to try some new quilting techniques.

So, that's me! What I'm working on! How about you? Did you link up with Lee of Freshly Pieced?

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 12/52

Happy Wednesday!

Does anyone still call Wednesday "Hump Day"? I never liked the term much, but I just wonder if it's gone the way of the 8-track tape. :o)

Did you get much done on Worldwide Quilting Day Saturday? I didn't! ;-). Of course it was our guild meet-and-sew, and my birthday, so instead of sewing, I was eating! I got to have lunch with my friends , which is a rare treat, and then I got to have Mexican food with my family, which is another rare treat. :o)

On of our members brought her 6 year old granddaughter (and her machine), to the meet-and-sew, and when little Bree found out it was my birthday, she made me a sweet little something.

All by herself!


Yes, she used her grandma's fancy embroidery machine, but Bree did all the work while Sally worked on her own project. I was floored!!! And I swear my daughters will never get their paws on this!

I did sew a little on Katie's bee blocks...

And I got my solids so I can sew together my mod mosaic quilt.

Except, whoops! I forgot that there were 7 that I have to patch or fix in some way. That's one of the disadvantages of being in a bee (or 4) ... some people don't have quite the same standards of stitching or definition of 1/4" seam as I do. :-/ Such is life in a hive, though. (Note: my Bee Happy hive makes me perfect blocks every time. Every. Single. Time. They ARE the bees' knees!). And I don't know who made each one - there are 48 - so it doesn't really matter, I just have to figure out how to fix them! Like this:

I'm not even sure HOW to fix that one! Can I put some fusible interfacing on the back and then fuse another layer of white? Will that work?? I would HATE for this thing to start disintegrating after I get it finished!

So, my goals this week are to finish Katie's blocks, and fix these mod mosaic blocks.

OH!!! And I've started to get my do.Good Stitches blocks for March. I'm excited! This'll be such a fun, spring quilt. :o)

I'm playing with the layout, there are at least 4 different designs I've played with so far. Once I get all the blocks, I'll decide what looks best all together.

Have a great, crafty and productive week!

I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced. Go see what everyone else is doing! It's always so inspiring. :o)

Hope Takes Flight 2.0

Yay! It's completely finished! I'll be taking this quilt to FedEx to send it to QuiltCon today. Whew!

Bound, labeled, sleeved, pressed, de-linted (eww!).

It's (mostly) identical to the first, but here's a picture of this one anyway.

The butterflies were made with Mrs Schmenkman's tutorial by the {Faith} Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. We are giving our quilts to Restore Innocence, an organization that rescues girls from human trafficking (= sex slavery).

The rainbow represents God's mercy, and His covenant with His people that He will never leave us. The butterflies represent being given a second chance. These girls need to know that God will not leave them, and that they have a second chance. (We all need to know that!) The black satin ribbon binding is Restore Innocence's "brand" or logo. The ribbon is for innocence (little girls love to wear ribbons), but the black is for how dark and disgusting and evil this HIDDEN crime is.

 

It's going on right under your nose. That van in front of you on the highway? Maybe he's driving a few girls to a "date"... The girl in line behind you at the grocery store that won't make eye contact? Maybe she's buying diapers for her baby that was born into this slavery. The billboard advertising a "massage and spa" at the truck stop???

THESE ARE LITTLE GIRLS!!!

I'll repost this from last year, but the facts remain the same.

(Provided by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 2011)

Click HERE for Restore Innocence's Facebook page.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and her Finish It Up Friday linky party. I'm glad to be finished so I can make my January bee blocks! :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 6/52 ~ Eating Elephants

You know that old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time."

That's how I feel about my quilt for QuiltCon. I'm slowly working through all the stages to get it ready to send, but it is a SLOW process around here. I don't really get to work on it during the day, so after the kids are in bed, then I can start. But who is functional and efficient at 8:00 at night? Not me!! I'm slow. And slow. Or even slower. :)

So I do what I can, when I can. And I'm down to the last two steps. I sewed the label on this morning, only to realize that what I thought was the lower left-hand corner was really the upper right-hand corner...exactly where the sleeve should go!

Oops!

I am pleased to announce that ripping out ladder stitches is much easier than ripping out any other kind of stitches I've ever ripped. :)

During naptime I was able to make a drawstring bag. It's not fancy, but I like it. And it was free.

So tonight I'm going to put on the sleeve, and tomorrow I'll attach the label, and I'll be done!

Done, I tell ya! And the next time I'll see the quilt, we'll both be in Austin at QuiltCon! :)

Which, by the way, the Modern Quilt Guild has asked all attendees to link up with a post with a little information about me! 

According to the meme you might have seen on Instagram lately, we are to post our picture, and then post 5 things you might not know about me.

Here's me last September.

And here are 5 things you might not know about me:

1. I've never been drunk. And no, I don't have to have this experience! 
2. I don't really like to eat, and have no "comfort food" when I'm upset. 
3. I have a thing about $$. I always have more than enough, but I still feel poor sometimes. 
4. I LOVE good pens. And loathe bad ones. I'm kind of a snob about them. 
5. Long before I even WANTED kids, I knew I would have 2 girls, and had their names picked out about 5 years in advance. Good thing no one stole their names!

 And in case I'll see you at QuiltCon, but you don't normally read my blog, here are some other tidbits:

1. I have a 4 year old daughter (Mookie), a 2 year old daughter (Sprout), and a 9 month old son (Buzz, or Rocket Man), and I've been married for 13 1/2 years to Dave.
2. I am the president of the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, and we meet (usually) south of Denver in a little town called Monument. We are about to celebrate our 2nd birthday, and it's been quite a fun ride. The guild is made up of some really incredible women, and I am always inspired and energized after a guild meeting.
3. I learned to sew in 1997, in Mrs Wadsworth's 3rd period Home Ec class. It was my first year teaching, and 3rd period was my off period, so I learned to sew alongside my students. :)  

Good enough.  Now...WiPs! :)

Like I said, I'm almost finished with Hope Takes Flight 2.0. I'll be boxing her up on Friday so she can get to Austin in time. :)

Then I have to sew my bee blocks!! I'm SO behind, it's shameful!! :-(

But one thing I do want to share with you is a fun little finish. Sorta. It's a finish of finishes.

I made a calendar of quilts!  This is only a few of the pictures, but I think it's a really fun way to remember what quilts I've made or been a part of making.

Maybe next year I'll have a calendar of quilts I made in 2013! Hah! (Not at the rate I'm going!)

Hope you have a great week!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced's WiP Wednesday link-up.



And, of course, the MQG QuiltCon link up! :)