One Step At A Time: Stop One on C&T's Blog Hop ~ and GIVEAWAY!

Helloow!  And welcome to the first stop on C&T's "The Modern Medallion Workbook Blog Tour!"

C&T has just released The Modern Medallion Workbook, and I am so so so very happy to have my One Step at a Time quilt be a part of it!

When I first found out about this book, medallion quilts were just coming back into vogue, but I admit that I had NO clue what a medallion quilt was! So, if you're like me, wondering what makes a design a medallion, and if it is even possible to make it look modern, here you go! :)  Here's my definition: a medallion quilt is one where the center block is a point of interest, maybe a star, maybe a basket of flowers, maybe a swirl of hexagons, and then each border radiating away from the center is different, and unique.

The novel concept behind THIS book is that it truly is a workbook. If you are making your own modern medallion quilt and like the center block from one quilt, and then like the third border another quilt, but don't like the rest of the borders, just pull it out and incorporate it into your quilt! Easy peasy! You are literally able to resize and redesign any quilt you want by taking bits and pieces from all the quilts and making it your own! I love that idea! :)

Or what if you love a design, but don't love the colors the designer used? Well, you are in luck! There are coloring pages at the back of the book (and my oldest daughter is very interested in these!) :)

And as an added bonus, there are loads of techniques highlighted in here. Pieced curves, applique, paper-piecing...not only can you make beautiful quilts, but you'll become a more talented quilter along the way! Jackpot!

It's a great book. It really is. Again, I feel so humbled to be included in a publications with the likes of Latifah Saafir, Becca Bryan, Erica Jackman, and Janice Ryan (our fearless leader), to name just a few!  And not only that, but the quilts they designed are really, truly, STUNNING. Stunning. Those ladies have got some real talent! :)

So for me, when it came time to design the quilt, I started with a sketch using grays and yellows, but that was too dreary. And I didn't want to be a TOTAL broken record and design ANOTHER rainbow quilt, so I went with a color scheme I think is truly fresh and modern and delightful -- cool greens and blues with a pop of coral. One of my favorite outfits from 8th grade was a navy blue skirt and a kelly green sweater with blue trim. I loved this color combination then, and I love it now!
                          
For my medallion, I went with a swirl of hexagons. I do love me some hexagons! I used an invisible thread and my blind hem stitch to applique them to the background fabric.
                            


And then, each border is a different method of creating a chevron. There are four unique chevron borders on this quilt, and I think each one would make a lovely quilt!

(In fact, the border that started this whole thing is the Palace Steps border, which I designed for this quilt that the Faith Circle of the do.good stitches bee made for Restore Innocence in 2013)

                                    

When it came time to quilt it, I wanted to quilt each section/border in a way that was reflective of that border, if I could. And frankly, I kinda made it up as I went along. :)

In the center, I quilted a swirl of feathers...if you could call it that? I just wanted to mirror the hexagons, and I like how it turned out!
                            
Then in the first border, I quilted half-flowers in each large triangle space. Maybe I should call it a fan? I don't really know! :)
                          

And the corner treatment:

                             

In the green quarter-circle border, I quilted what reminds me of a fern frond. There is a "stem" that curves through each "leaf" section, and then blades that are quilted on either side of that stem.                            

 The third border is quite possibly my favorite because I had a vision, but it was complicated, and then I came up with a method to create the border with a lot less trouble than my original idea! I love it when that happens.  Anyway...I quilted it with gentle waves.                         
And in the final border, I quilted more waves, but in both directions, as the steps went up and down.
                        


And now for the true truth: this was hard for me! Even though I had the design, and had the skills to create the quilt and to write the pattern, this was possibly the hardest thing I have done as a quilter.  The perfectionist monster inside of me came out in an ugly manner more than a few times! I don't like that. Maybe if I were to submit another quilt to another book, I would be a little less wound up about it, I don't know, but this was HARD!! :)

Don't get me wrong, I am very glad I did it, and Janice was a PHENOMENAL asset to the completion of this book, she was on top of everything, encouraging the authors to get their stuff in on time, and patient as a dove with me in all my insecurities. She is the rock and the glue and the life that made this workbook really come together.  (FYI - in case you are wondering why I'm mentioning Janice so much, she and Beth split up the list of contributors so I didn't really hear much from Beth since Janice was my team captain.)

This blog hop continues for another 10 days, so please visit the other contributors and read about how their modern medallions took shape!

May 13th: Amy Sinibaldi- nanaCompany.typepad.com

May 14th: Christina Lane- sometimescrafter.com/blog

May 18th: Erica Jackman- kitchentablequilting.com

May 19th: Becca Bryan- www.bryanhousequilts.com

May 20th: Karen Anderson-Abraham- bloomingpoppies.net/

May 21st: Latifah Saafir- www.latifahsaafirstudios.com

May 22nd: Kerry Green- verykerryberry.blogspot.co.uk 

May 25th: Beth- www.plumandjune.blogspot.com and Janice- www.betteroffthread.com

The giveaway is closed. Annmarie from Wisconsin is the winner. :) Thanks for all your lovely comments!
 
Now to the GIVEAWAY!!  I personally HATE Rafflecopter, so i'm not going to go that route.

C&T has offered to give one copy of the book to one lucky recipient here. If you win, and you live in the US, you will receive a hard copy of the book. If you live outside the US, you'll receive an electronic copy of the book.

So...to win, I would like you to leave one comment with what your favorite modern color combination is right now. :)  It's that simple! (Giveaway will close at 11:00pm MDT Friday the 15th of May)</s>

And then, tomorrow, go visit Amy's blog. ;)

Have a great day!

{WiP} Thursday ~ Week 11

I hope you've had a great week. The weeks always go by super fast for me! 

(almost two weeks ago, now!) Last Friday I gave a lecture/trunk show on modern quilting to a local traditional guild, and I think it was well received. (At least the people who came up to me afterwards were nice!)

Here I am showing off the awesome mini quilt Elizabeth Dackson of Don't Call Me Betsy made for me in a swap. (I won the jackpot, didn't I?) She turned it into a pattern if you want to make one for yourself. :o)

                                          

Here's the hexie quilt I made during Madame Samm's Hexie Queen blog hop last fall, and I'm donating it to Crafters For Courage so they can auction it off and raise money to build another Courage House for girls rescued from sex trafficking. I recently read that approximately 1% of the people rescued from sex trafficking have a safe place to go, so they often find their way back into the traps of the pimps. (We all need to do more to end modern slavery.)

                                                        

And this is the longest (and largest!) WiP, my Mod Mosaic bee quilt. The Mod Mosaic bee started 2 years ago, if that gives you any idea. :-). It's a king-sized quilt, and all that's left is the binding. Unfortunately, I didn't think about Susie's Magic Binding technique before I started binding this. :-/ But it's for ME, so it can sit. :o)

                                            

My newest WiP is this improv beauty of solids. I am totally crushing on it! Here is a bit of one of the sections:

                                                  

And here is a picture of the whole thing. I hope to get it quilted in the next week.

And something I've been wanting for over a year? The Sew Together bag by Michelle of Sew Demented!  It took me a full week (because I kept making stupid mistakes), but I love it!  And, yes. In case you are wondering, I am planning another one. Hopefully it won't take me another year! :o)

                                                

Here's the outside. I guess I've been in a gray mood lately! Everything I've done lately, including a super new pattern I'm working on, is gray! No worries, though. Rainbow is still my favorite color, and I'll get back to that really soon. :o)

 

And, finally, a super cute dumpling pouch and key fob for our Front Range MQG pouch swap on Saturday.

 

That'll probably be it for things I can show for a while. I've got to get my nose to the grindstone and sew up the new pattern (very exciting and daunting and nerve-wracking and oh-I-hope-this-turns-out-like-in-my-head stressing!)

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I'm planning to post a giveaway -- soon? -- just need to get myself together!

Blessings,
~Melissa

Hexie Queen Blog Hop

Welcome to my little stop on the Hexie Queen Blog Hop!
I was really humbled when Madame Samm contacted me asking if this rainbow hexie quilt was actually mine.  It was. :)

A friend had sent her a picture from Pinterest, and she wasn't sure how to get to the original blog post and quilter. She found me, though! :)  She told me all about the Hexie Queen Blog Hop, and it sounded like SUCH  fun blog hop that I jumped in feet first! :)

So one Saturday, when I was supposed to be working on a million other things, including potty-training Little Bird, I decided to start my hexie quilt instead. She helped. ;)  A couple of years ago, I participated in 5 rounds of the Hexie Swap on Flickr, and one round was all solids, so I had about 50 pre-cut hexagons, just waiting for a project! They were cut with the Accuquilt Go cutter, and they're perfect for a quick project like this!

Once Little Bird and I had decided on the colors we wanted to use, I set her free with her own stack of hexagons so she could make "her own" quilt. She didn't really do much with hers, but it gave me the chance to get mine all laid out. :)

Once I had the layout I liked, I adhered the hexies to the top of the 44" square of Kona White. I used the same method I used when I did my first hexie quilt. I sprayed the back with spray baste, and pressed it down with my hand. If I needed to adjust it, I could.

The next step was to heat set the hexies in place with a hot iron. I used a random scrap of fabric to protect my iron from any overspray of glue.

The beauty of heat-setting them this way is that when I inevitably had to put the quilt away, I could go away trusting that the hexagons wouldn't move a millimeter. And little hands couldn't move them, either. Security is a good thing when you've got curious little helpers around the house! :)

A couple of hours later, I was able to come back to the quilt. I raw-edge appliqued each hexagon in place with a straight stitch 1/4" in from the edge. I didn't want to stitch over any other stitches, so I stopped where I started, and tied a knot on the underside of the quilt top.

When the quilt top was finished, I just felt like singing! It felt soooooo good to put the must-do list aside and just follow the inspiration for once!

And then it came time to quilt it. I had a hundred ideas (and two more after I started, ain't that always the way!), but I went with a straight line between opposite hexagons, and then a spiral throughout the whole quilt.

Spiral quilting takes foreeeevvvvvvvvvvver! :) And this is a small quilt! I can't imagine doing it on a larger quilt. Sheesh!

Here's Little Bird claiming "her quilt" once again. :) I've never made a quilt just for the fun of it, so I've never had the chance to have one of my children claim it as their own. I'm not sure if she really thinks this is for her, but, other than it being a bit small for a 3 year old, there isn't any reason I can't give it to her! :) Plus, then I would get to enjoy it, too! ;)

Do you know this trick when you're attaching your binding to your quilt? I either wrap my binding around a pencil or an old thread spool, and then stick it on the extra thread stand on my sewing machine. It really helps keep the binding straight and orderly while I'm attaching it. Sure beats the pile of binding I used to have on the floor!

Here she is again! This time she is tracing the quilting lines with a play-doh cutter. :) Maybe she's just as attracted to rainbow quilts as I am... ;)

Uh oh! Buzz is making his move! Move over, sista! This one's MINE! ;)

It's hard to tell in this picture, but I backed it with a random yellow-and-white polka dot fabric I had. I'm happy to use something that I already had on hand. Going to the fabric shop with 3 little ones is NOT fun! For anyone! :)

You can see the quilting a little better here, I think. I realize it looks a bit like a spider web, but c'est la vie. I like it. And I have an even greater respect for spiders now! This web was TOUGH to weave!

I hope you enjoyed learning about my little hexagon quilt. Where else have you been on this Hexie Queen Blog Hop? Here is a list of the others that are posting today. If you haven't already been, you should go visit their blog! I am confident inspiration awaits. :)

Life@RuffHaven 

Pieced Brain 

Den Syende Himmel 

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Meadowbrook 

Sandra Kaye Designs 

Let’s Patch it Up

Sew Many Yarns

Around the Homestead

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much? 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed my little hexie project! :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 34/52

Holy Toledo, folks! Do you know what happened here? This last week I actually completed the things I wanted to complete this week!! Wow. Either I'm getting back on the horse, or I've finally lowered my standards to realistic levels.

(it's the second one, in case you didn't know)

I finished Alison's blocks, finished Des's blocks, and made the car seat cover. And if my children could better synchronize their nap schedule, I would have mailed them already!

You saw my "Melissa" block for Alison in the Bee Happy bee, but this one is new. It spells "woven.", which is very much what we are as a bee. Woven very tightly together. Best. Bee. Ever.

Here are the two very simple, yet very impactful blocks for Des in the {Faith} circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. She's using this technique from Moda BakeShop.

And I finished the car seat cover. I used this pattern from Georgia Leigh Designs for a friend expecting her first baby girl. I love this fabric SO much!! It's girlie, but super modern, and feels nice. :)  I backed it with Kona Navy so when the baby is sleeping, it'll be pitch black for her. Mama needs baby to sleep! I had planned to put buttons on the straps, but just wasn't gonna happen. It's really cute, though. And I'm reminded once again that I need to get one made for Buzz!! Poor kid. :-)

I also bought the fabric for my Grayson quilt and my Field Study quilts, though I can't start on them yet.

I'd like to deviate for a minute and talk about Field Study. Folks, I am not a die-hard AnnaMaria Horner fan. I mean, I am now, but wasn't in the past. Her fabric designs were pretty, but I didn't NEED to buy them. But, Field Study? 800 times more beautiful in person than on the web. I just keep taking them out of the bag and looking at them. Glorious. I can't wait till the voiles come out. Mmmmmm...dreamy. So if you're on the fence about it, I encourage you to somehow see it in person. You will want it, I almost guarantee it! :-)

But...before I can work on those, I need to make Mary's mod mosaic blocks, and Kelly's improv blocks. Then, I dare say it out loud, I'll be caught up for August!! I haven't been caught up in forever!!

And I need to write up the description because September is my month in the do.Good Stitches bee, and I've got a very special, very deserving, unknown-to-me recipient of this quilt, and I'm pretty psyched. I also need to make my sample blocks.

THEN I can work on my Fruit Stripe quilt, my Grayson quilt, and my Field Study quilt.

Oh, and I pulled out an old beauty. A multi-generational WiP. I'll tell you more about it later, but here's a sneak peek:

In other news, bunk bed training sucks. We are really struggling. My 2 year old just doesn't seem to know how to truly relax and settle down and go to sleep. We've tried quite a few techniques, and some help, but nothing works. And she wants to sleep in the bunk bed, but she just plays too much (even when she's notably tired), so we've been doing the bedtime routine as though she will stay in the bunk bed, but then, after 3 warnings, we remove her to her crib again. She just sleeps SO much better in her crib. SO much better. It's amazing how different her personality is when she's getting enough sleep. I'm so discouraged, though.

We'll keep trying, because somehow, she's gotta get outta that crib, but I just don't know how. Maybe we put the toddler bed in her room, and put the crib in the bunk bed room, and have the baby and the 4 year old share a room. I don't know the answer.  Any suggestions or books or websites would be great. She sleeps fine in her own room, but just not in the bunk bed, yet. She doesn't cry or play any of the manipulation games that other kids do, she just won't stop in the bunk bed. It's like Six Flags over Texas for her, and just as big!

She's adorable, though, even when she doesn't get enough sleep. :) When I wash her hair, it's curly, but when she sleeps, the curls fall out.

Have a great week!

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced, hosted by Michelle, and the weekly {WiP} Wednesday feature.

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 26/52

Happy Independence Day!

Or, as I often heard when we lived in England, Happy Insurgents Day!  :o)

Can you believe the year is half over??  Me neither. Christmas is only a blink away!

Thanks to all of you who commented or sent emails about the wild fire west of town. We are safe, and have been the entire time, really, but the officials say the fire is no longer a concern to Colorado Springs. It's at 80% containment, so they are still fighting it, but probably not with 1000 firefighters like we had last week. But, MAN, that thing was horrific. Nothing in my life was ever really threatened, and yet I'm still processing it. I can't imagine what the people are going through that really lost everything. Those houses that burned (347 total) burned with such intensity that NOTHING survived. Where strong homes once stood, now piles of ash remain.

On that note, while there are a lot of different organizations and groups asking for quilts, Julie at Have Fun Quilting is taking quilts for victims of ALL the wild fires raging in the west right now. If you want to make a quilt for a victim, feel free to check her out. She's being very organized and deliberate about how she distributes the quilts. If you want to donate a quilt, or any quilt parts, I strongly encourage you to research the person/blog/group that you're giving it to. And GOOD FOR YOU!!!


Once all evacuees house guests left, and the house was quiet again, I was able to do a little sewing. Not enough, mind you, but a little. That baby boy of mine still thinks holding him 24/7 should be my first (and only) activity. :o)


I finally finished Natalie's bookshelf block for the Bee Happy bee. It measures 10 x 20", and is going to be part of a wall hanging, so we could add things and do things that wouldn't work on a bed quilt.

Like peeling wallpaper.

And a steamy cup of coffee in a Christmas mug.

And a wrinkle in A Wrinkle in Time. :o)

While it is definitely OUT (far, far out) of my comfort zone, it's fun to be able to add things, or try techniques that I couldn't do if she were going to use this quilt on her bed.


I spent a little smidge of time on Leona's mod mosaic blocks, and hope to get them done today.

I also cut some hexies for Aunt Spicy. She's going to make a hexie quilt for Quilts of Valor, and another one to send to Australian soldiers. She's so generous, and inspiring. And FAST!!! That woman can SEW! :)

And, as further evidence to her generosity, she sent some Heather Bailey fat quarters because I'd mentioned that my 4 year old wants to make a quilt this summer. THANKS AUNT SPICY!!! We're going to pick out her solid today. She's pretty excited. :o)

I, of course, still have a million other bee blocks to make (9 feels like a million to me right now), and other projects to do. But I can only eat this elephant one bite at a time. So I'm going to spend my day of freedom sewing! Yay!

And linking up with the summer traveling {WiP} Wednesday, of course. :o)