Friday, July 30, 2010

While Kirsten's away...

Yesterday was our FAVORITE LQS's annual Christmas in July sale.  Unfortunately, Kirsten couldn't be there.  Fortunately, I was there...with Kirsten's shopping list and money.

Since I think she will see this post before she sees me (and all her pretty fabric) I thought I would just tease her a little...Hey, Kirsten, I have all of this for you! (Oh, and I didn't even spend all of your money!)


Those Amy Butlers are from the clearance section and were 60% off!!!!  Too bad I didn't wait for all those cuts I bought for Kirsten's birthday. Of course, some of the one's I got earlier were all gone by yesterday, so I guess 50% off is better than not getting them at all!



Of course, I also got a bit more fabric for myself, too.  The stack on the left are just because they were pretty and at a VERY good price.  The stack on the right are the beginning of a new quilt!  That's Kona black on the very bottom of that stack.  Too bad fat quarters were all that was left of the orange dots on the top!



In all, it was lots of fun and now my arm hurts from carrying around all those bolts of fabric.  But it would have been more fun with my usual partner in crime!!!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Happy Birthday to ME!

Soooo....I'm so dang spoiled. Look at this haul my wonderful mom got me for my birthday!!!!

 The bottom row are all 1 yard cuts, first 2 are Eva (Basic Grey), and the rest are Amy Butler! The top row aren't all mine...they were all end of bolt pieces, so they are sharesies between me and mom; we don't cut into 'em until we need 'em in case we need bigger pieces. But, they get to live at my house!

I got all spoiled because our favorite LQS put all of their Amy Butler Midwest Modern in clearance. Really, how can you resist 50% off?

And on top of all these glorious pieces of fabric, my wonderful husband got me a vintage children's handcrank sewing machine! It is still on its way here, but I can't wait to play with it!

Well, I head out Tuesday morning for the rest of the week(going to girl's camp as a cabin mom! Am I old enough to do that??), so I don't even get to play with my pretty fabric yet. That also means I will be MIA from the blogging world for almost a whole week. How will I survive? Have a wonderful week everyone!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Charcoal Triangles

Ok, I got as far as uploading pictures on this post, and one sentence written, and Zoey somehow hit post! So...this wasn't going to post until tomorrow, but guess it is tonight now!

Anyways, lookie here, I have another finished quilt to show off!


This one was fun to make. I kept seeing similar quilts on flickr, and I decided I had to play too!


The prints are nice and boyish; I was going for a fun, suitably manly, boy quilt :)


I straight line quilted this one, outlining the charcoal triangles. Oh, and the charcoal is Kona Charcoal, which I also ended up using for binding. Nothing else seemed to look good, so I stuck with it and went for subtle :)


I like this backing! I had a few extra squares left from the front, so I decided to feature the adorable silhouette animal prints. (David Walker's Oh Boy fabric for inquiring minds)


Ok, so notice this cute little frog's nice red tongue? While I was piecing the top, I kept seeing that bit of red out of the corner of my eye. I would try to get that darn red thread off the fabric, and was thwarted every time! So maybe I'm a huge dork, and I probably should have learned faster, but I think I did that at least 3 times...tee hee

This one finished up at 44"x52", and will shortly be available in the shop. *Now listed!*

Have a wonderful weekend! I will be off enjoying cake, ice cream, and presents (it's my birthday on Sunday!)

Red, Pink, and Aqua FINISH!

I finally have pictures! Did you know that ridiculously hot temperatures (110+) will make you find a way to move your photo shoots inside? Even when you have awful lighting and no space? Yeah...hence the delay...Sorry!

Anyways, I have this gorgeousness to show off now!


This quilt makes me want to completely change my decor to match...Somehow I don't think that would pass the husband, and truthfully I would probably get tired of the whole house like this fairly quickly. But still, love it!


Ok, so I'm not totally in love with the back. I don't dislike it, but I was feeling a little uninspired, and really struggled to come up with anything, and I just wanted to finish this quilt. I was ready to go with an unpieced back, but well, one width wasn't quite big enough...


So I ended up with this. Nice, simple, and it doesn't detract from the awesomeness that is the front!


After all my deliberations on binding, I ended up with this aqua dot. It is from the Spring Fever line by Me and My Sister Designs, and it is SOOOO SOFT! Seriously. So. Soft. The whole time I was finishing up the binding, I just ran my fingers along it. I couldn't stop. I like the way the dark aqua frames the blocks; so glad I chose that color! Ps, thanks mom for letting me raid your stash!


This one finishes up at 43" x 53", and is quilted with meandering loopys. Definitely my favorite free motion pattern!
My lovely red, pink, and aqua quilt is now available in my shop!


Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A tribute to my dad.

When I saw this Boy Scout fabric by Robert Kaufman, I knew I would have to make a quilt for my dad.  My dad has been involved as a Boy Scout leader for over 50 years.  In January of 2009, he actually got an award for 50 years in Scouting, but they didn't make much of the presentation.  I think 50 years in service of the betterment of teenage boys deserves some kind of recognition. When I found this kit on sale, I grabbed it! I also learned about the dangers of making quilts from kits!  Some of the fabrics would have benefited greatly from a little fussy cutting, but the kit didn't include enough fabric for such frivolities.  Also, the 2 border fabrics were definitely directional prints, meaning that I couldn't just cut them from the width of fabric and position them around the borders or it would just look silly. So, I really had to plan out how to cut the fabric.  And since there wasn't much extra in the kit, I also had to do some piecing.  The print on the red border piece was pretty subtle, so I didn't worry too much about the design matching up, but the outer border was a much more obvious design and it was a little trickier to match up the print so it didn't look pieced.  If I had just purchased yardage, then I would have gotten a piece long enough to do the borders without having to piece them, but then I would have had lots of extra Boy Scout fabric laying around.  And while I typically don't mind having scraps to add to my every growing collection, I'm not sure you can cut this fabric into small enough usable pieces to make it not look like Boy Scout fabric.


I did have enough scraps to do some fussy cutting for this pieced back.  And I found some yardage from the collection that was perfect for the backing.  I also got more of the avocado Kona cotton that was used in the kit to finish up the pieced back.


I got some light tan Kona cotton and some chemicals that make your fabric printable (and the printing semi permanent).  After lots of testing, I decided this would be a great way to commemorate my dad's scouting service.  This block has all the adult leadership positions he has held. (Putting in these corner blocks also meant I didn't have to try to match up the fabrics in the outer border at the corners!)


This block is for all the Jamborees and Camporees that he was involved with, including a World Jamboree to Norway in 1975 as an Assistant Scoutmaster.  This was especially cool because he had to actually apply for this position, competing with other leaders.  This troop was comprised of scouts from Arizona, and I believe Nevada and maybe California.  Also, my older brother was chosen from a pool of applicants to be one of the scouts in the troop.  And to top that all off, my dad served a mission for our church in Norway about 20 years earlier, so he got to go back and see the country again.  It didn't hurt that he still could speak the language!


This block was for all the adult scouting awards he has received.  The last one in the list was "awarded" by one of my brothers and I believe endorsed by the other 5.  And it is probably the award my dad is most proud of! Yes, all 6 of my brothers earned their Eagle Scout award, something my dad has always regretted that he did not earn.


The last block was a special honor he received.  I thought it deserved its own block.


This quilt was definitely a labor of love. The timing ended up to make this a perfect gift for dad's 75th birthday, but as usual, I cut it right to the very last minute.  There was a party at his house, a couple of hours away from where I live, and Kirsten was riding in the back seat of my truck, stitching down the binding while I drove us and our husbands and Zoey to the party.  We (meaning Kirsten) actually finished the binding after we gave it to him while we were still at my parents house that evening.  (Thanks again, Kirst!!)

I'm so proud of my dad for the selfless service he has given throughout his life and for the example he has been for me.  I love you, Dad!!!!


Friday, July 9, 2010

You know you have a problem when...

I have a story to leave everyone with this lovely Friday afternoon:

My good friend Melanie gave me a call yesterday:

Mel: "Hey Kirsten, I'm on my way home from 35th ave (My favoritest LQS!), and I have a story for you!"
Me: "Yay fabric! Oh, ok, what's the story?"
Mel: "So I'm up getting my *on sale Amy Butler* fabric cut, and chatting with the lady about how it is selling really fast. I tell her yeah, my friend called and told me that it was on sale yesterday! She looks at me for a second and says, "Zoey's mom?"
Me: "HAHAHAHAHA!!"
Mel: "And then the other lady that was up by the register turns and says, "Isn't her last name James?" Uh, no, that's her mom...."
Me: *pretty much on the floor giggling now*
Mel: "The people at the fabric store know you by name!"
Me: "Hee hee hee hee ho ho ho ho! Ummmm, yeah....they might...."
Mel: "You know you have a problem when...."


Soooo, apparently I have a bit of an addiction....
And so does my mother!

By the way, when I went in this week, the ladies were as excited as me to see Zoey toddling around the store :)