Happy Veterans Day & A Giveaway

Happy Veterans Day. Today we honor those who have served and are serving. We honor men and women like my husband, who stood/stand on a wall. Today at 11:00 am please take a moment to observe 2 minutes of silence. This is to honor the sacrifices of the brave men and women who have served their country.  Thank you.

In Baby Love news, please head on over to Hopeful Threads. Kristy has a giveaway up for 2 different panels. One is donated by me and the other by her.  We would love for anyone with a desire to participate in this month’s project to be able to do so. When you enter, if you are picked, please remember the intent of the giveaway is that you will use the prize to make something and donate back to the monthly project.

Panel SBS 1 Panel HT 1Happy Veterans Day!

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Posted in Hopeful Threads | 7 Comments

NICU Quilt Tutorial by Purple Panda Quilts

On thing I truly love about this online quilting community is all the wonderful and supportive friend’s I have made. One such friend is Kristy from Hopeful Threads. We are working together this month to make NICU quilts, blankies and lovies. Another wonderful, amazing and crazy talented friend is Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts.  When I mentioned the project to her she offered to do not only a quilt, but a tutorial as well!

What makes this truly amazing is that Lyanna is currently in graduate school and pulled herself away from her studies to do this, thank you Lyanna.

Please make sure you head on over to Purple Panda Quilts to get the tutorial for this stunning baby quilt!

NICU-quilt

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Posted in Hopeful Threads | 6 Comments

Swap Fun With My Guild

Last night was our monthly meeting for the South Sound Modern Quilt Guild and it was a fun one! In September everyone who wanted to brought in baggies full of their scraps and traded with someone else. The goal was to make a swap gift for someone using that persons scraps (kind of guaranteed they will, at the very least, love the fabrics).  There was no limit on what you could make.

When I got my bag all I could see was white fabric. I was initially a bit scared, what was I going to do with just WHITE! My partner though was stealthy, she hid all of her colors inside a nice wide strip of white, lovely oranges and grays. Here is what I made:

I have a ton of orange and gray scraps too, so I added some from my stash. My partner made it so easy on me, she said she didn’t have a zippered pouch and her pin cushion was in need of updating. Voila!

I made the pouch using a QAYG technique, with no pattern or tutorial, just made it up as I went. The pin cushion I just sewed together all of the scraps. I had so much fun making this. If you want a tutorial for the pouch let me know, I will happily whip another one up, it won’t be exactly the same, but you will get the general idea of how to make it.

The awesome part though was when we got to give our gifts, the ladies in this group are just so crazy talented! It was amazing to see what they made with scraps! Heather from Creative Blessings had me and she clearly did her homework! She got me down to a tee.

I felt so incredibly spoiled! She got me my favorite fabric line (Simply Style) and a gorgeous mug rug and cup cozy with a little coffee set! She even gave me some extra flying geese and hexie templates!

This card (which I didn’t read until this morning) truly touched my heart. Heather is incredibly talented with making cards and it made me feel so special to receive one of hers!

And this notebook cover! She designed it herself and could she have gotten my style any better?!? Hexies and flying geese! My two favorite things!

I think Heather needs to do a tutorial for this! It is truly an awesome design. It even has a pouch for sticky notes and a pencil! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

As Heather said in her card, this guild has filled a need in her life that she didn’t know she had, and she is so right for me too. I had no idea who much starting this guild would mean to me, but it truly has been the most amazing experience! Thank you so much Heather!

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Posted in Purse/Pouch, SSMQG, swaps | 11 Comments

October Winners – A Lovely Year of Finishes

Another month of incredibly awesome finishes has come and gone! I love how productive we have all been and I am getting so excited for 2014!  Shanna and I hope you will join with us again! In the mean time, winners for October. Thank you again to our sponsors. Remember, if you are interested in sponsoring next year please contact either Shanna or myself, we would love to work with you!

October Winners Are:

1. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

Winner 1: Lisa Marie – joining us from Flickr

2, 3.  TWO winners each getting to choose one pdf pattern
from Sew BitterSweet Designs – that’s me!
($10 value)

Winner 2: Heather – Quilts in the Queue –
Winner 3: Moneik from Moneik Quilts

4. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

Winner 4: Patty – A Stitch in Time

5. A Paper Piecing Kit from Paper Pieces

Winner 5: Lisa L. – joining us from Flickr

6. $25.00 Gift Certificate to Superior Threads

Winner 6: Kris – Sew Sunshine

7. Quilting Patterns designed by Quilting Lodge

Winner 7 – Tammy – Karamat Sews

Thank you again to everyone who linked up! Remember you still have time to link up for November! Time to get that Christmas sewing into full gear!

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Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts | 5 Comments

Christmas Diamonds Table Runner – Tutorial

I joined a Christmas swap on Facebook. I had a lot of fun sewing this lovely little table runner together for my partner.

Measurements: 16×40
Materials
20 White Charms (5″x5″)
20 Christmas Charms (5″x5″)
Backing Fabric at least 18″x42″
Batting scraps at least 18″x42″
Ruler
Fabric Marking Pen or Pencil

Note:
All seams are 1/4″

Start by pairing your white charms with your Christmas Charms and sewing your Half Square Triangles. I have a tutorial here if you have never made them before.

For this project I pressed to the dark side, usually I just press open but I find it is easier to match points perfectly when pressing to one side or the other.

Trim your HSTs down to 4.5″ x 4.5″. You will have 40 sets.

Next you want to lay out your pattern, don’t follow mine exactly as the upper lefthand block is actually turned (look at my first picture in this post to see how that block should be oriented).

I like to sew my blocks together in pairs, for each pair I pressed towards the green HST. This will make life so much easier and your points close to perfect when assembling everything.

Next sew the 2 pairs together butting the center seams nice and tight and you will have a block that measures 8.5″ x 8.5″. I like to alternate each block when pressing the middle seam, one up, then one down. Again this leads to better alignment. You butt the seams up next to each other and the point line up perfectly.

You will make 10 of these blocks total.

Assemble your top. Remembering to line up those alternating seams.

The above picture was taken after I ripped out my turned block and fixed my mistake. Oops!

Quilt as desired.

The wonderful Shanna from Fiber of All Sorts is who recommended the magical 3 lines to me for the quilting and I have to say I love how it turned out.

Bind using your favorite method.

Happy Holiday Sewing!

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Posted in Christmas, Fiber of All Sorts, tutorial | 22 Comments