Guess where I'm going...

..and win some Neptune fabric! I thought I would celebrate my finished quilt and getting all 5 of us to our tropical destination on points (and hopefully earn some good karma so I can get all of us back on points when I make those reservations!) by giving away some oceany fabric.

six layer cake pieces - two of each print

Go back a couple of days to my 'Speed Binding' post and try to figure out where I'm going. Those three pictures represent two different locations. Last time we went, Caleb helped some locals dam a stream...

Leave a comment with your guess and I'll let Sir. Random pick a winner when I get up on Friday. Follow me for an extra entry! Good luck.

My First Quilt (and Laura's finished quilt!)....

You will remember my first quilt from a few months ago....I like this picture of it hanging the best.

And now all the pictures of Laura's quilt that you asked for! Thank you for all the nice comments on it, especially to those of you who have no-reply emails in blogger, since I couldn't thank you personally.

I learned from other bloggers that you can tack your quilts to fences and such outside for great pictures that don't include feet sprouting out the bottom!

Interestingly, this quilt is nearly the same colors as my first! That blue linen IS the same fabric - I learned that I love the texture of linen in a quilt. Blues and greens have always been my colors.

And I love striped binding! I have learned to carefully follow the stitching on the back as I tack down the binding, so it is a nice, even width all the way around. On the first quilt I just kind of squashed it over!

Here are Laura and I right after she opened her gift. She really liked the top, but loved those Harry Potter blocks! That mail owl is still my favorite. Here he is all quilty looking.

And a nice picture of Laura with the quilt. I love to keep them, but it was fun to gift a quilt, too!

I certainly had a great time learning how to paper piece! I was so worried about trying it, but it is just like doing a puzzle. And I love puzzles!

My biggest lesson learned was regarding dye lots. As a knitter, I am well aware of the pitfalls of dye lot mixing. But bleached muslin - how different could that be?! (Laura, don't look!)

In the summer sun, very different! You can't really tell inside. I didn't notice until I was nearly done quilting. So it became a design element :)

I love making stuff and I love learning new things - I can't wait to discover more in my next projects! As a reward for making it all the way to the end of this long post, come back tomorrow for a fun contest I have planned!

I made it!

The binding is done....

The label is on.....

I washed and crinkled - wrapped - they just drove up! Have a fun 4th of July weekend!

Speed binding!

I have to speed bind....what is the fastest that one can hand stitch the binding down on a 65" square quilt? Laura arrives tomorrow morning, and the binding looks like this right now.....

....because I spent the day securing 5 free airline tickets to here...

and here...

and here - the first time back since Becket came along.

Oh, how I miss my nine patch blocks....

{or: Paper piecing with 35 bazillion bits}

Cute little Hedwig had about 50 pieces.

I learned to keep my fingers all away from the edge of the ruler, even when cutting tiny bits, after slicing the tip of my finger. Although this is one thing that I loved about paper piecing. No precise shapes to cut, and if you leave a large enough piece on the edge, you have plenty of room to square up!

Here's a general look at the floor behind me - I pieced, sewed, ironed, cut - then just pushed all the mess right off the edge.

Another sewing machine invention I really want, is a laser light. Does anybody do that yet? I would love a pin point in the spot the needle will come down, then a nice laser line that extends from there to the edge of your table to help feed. Wouldn't that be helpful?

The thing I like least about paper piecing is this at the end. It seemed to take forever getting all those little paper bits off.

Now it looks like a cool, drizzly day. Perfect for getting this quilting done!

Harry Potter

I have been making my first paper pieced blocks. And they are all Harry Potter. They are for my sister in-law's birthday quilt. Laura will be here Friday and I'm still working on getting this back pieced!

Hogwarts crest

I was going to try some simple paper pieced blocks first, but here I am, totally out of time! So in I jumped. These are all FREE from Jennifer Ofenstein at her web site sewhoooked. She has a ton of patterns - not just Harry Potter.

Hedwig

We all love Harry Potter and have been going to the midnight parties since 2003, when Naperville had their first one. The whole downtown area streets are closed and most of the shops turn into Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

Caleb in 2003

Caleb and Kenton in 2005

Laura in 2007

For the last book in 2007, it was a little nuts, as things are prone to get here in Naperville. But we had a fun time getting sorted and hanging out all afternoon until the midnight release.

Golden Snitch

She and I even went out the next night, just the two of us, to my favorite local Italian place - with our books - and silently read all through dinner! The waiters totally understood.

Mail Owl (he still needs his eyes at those purple spots)

Just last month we went to the Museum of Science and Industry - they have the traveling Harry Potter exhibit. It is filled with props and sets from all the movies. No pictures allowed!

Scroll

I almost died when they had all the Weasley knits and I couldn't snap a picture! The detail in all the props is just amazing. Go see it if you have a chance.

Quill

I hope she enjoys these Harry Potter blocks on the back of her quilt.

Working Wired

I have three projects I'm trying to get done by Thursday. Only one is finished right now...

In a marathon session, I finished quilting my niece's quilt. I decided to stitch inside each square with writing 1/4", then stippled all the rest. It took a long time to navigate around all those squares! It is already boxed and ready to return to Ohio.

A quick picture of my new Far, Far Away since I don't have a quilty photo

A couple things I learned while doing that quilt. My sister in-law is a hand quilter, and she hand basted everything together with long, running stitches. I thought it would be fine, but it was a nightmare on the machine. I kept catching the stitches on either the needle screw or the presser foot lever. I ended up pulling out the basting and pinning before I started to stipple.

Second, my dream machine would have a huge, endless bobbin CONE! I should put my engineering degree to work and come up with something that would avoid the need to constantly swap bobbins in and out. I'm sure Amandajean would love that, too. (Go visit her newest quilt that needed 18 bobbins if you haven't already.)

This is what kept me awake and going during that night of quilting .... you know those tasty chocolate covered espresso beans that some shops add to the top of your cup? I have myself a whole box!

I eat them by the handful! I love Trader Joe's.

Week 8 nine patch

And I got out a pretty platter that my Uncle, who is a geologist, gave me for a wedding gift long ago. It is made from a large piece of quartz and holds my waiting pile of blocks and edge squares so nicely.

I'm going to start squaring them up - I haven't done any yet!

Tool Time Tuesday

(edit - this was supposed to show up tomorrow morning - I guess blogger doesn't want to wait!)

I turned my dining room into a sewing space and have decided to cover one wall with quilts. I hung two so far.



I found these 3M Command strips at Target. They are made to hang frames - I bought the small size which hold up to 4 pounds. I use other Command products all over the place, I love them! So I was excited to try these picture hangers.


They are like plastic velcro, and seem quite strong. Instead of using the peal-and-stick stuff on the quilt side, I just slip stitched the strip to the top two corners. Since they are long, if you stick one up and it is a little crooked, you can adjust it. You can see that it is flush with the binding, so it hangs nice and flat and you don't see the strips at all.


What I like best is that when I have more quilts to add or just want to change the arrangement, the strips will peel off and move without any holes in the wall! I have had these two up for over a week, so they seem to hold very well.


I'm going to have fun filling my space!

Summer Rhythm

I finished piecing my Cubic Rhythm top.

....in between Lacrosse games

.....and new friends.

(Mr. Toad out for a 'walk' in the grass)

An almost win!

Last week I showed you the three sets of fat quarter bundles I designed as part of a contest on The Fabric Shopper.

My fun set of Sugar Sprinkles was chosen as an honorable mention! The set will be listed on Whipstich with my name. How cool is that?! One of the things I am most unsure about is color and pattern matching, so I was very excited.

I actually pieced most of that set together myself last week and bought several fat quarters from her shop. I'm now on the hunt for more candy-colored oranges and pinks to make a wonky star quilt like this wonderful creation by Georgia McDonald. Takes your breath away, doesn't it! (I think I need a clothes line just for pictures like this!)

But for now I have given myself a deadline to finish two projects. One will be a gift and the other is our summer picnic blanket that would be best done before the summer is done!

Quilting Help

I've been asked to help machine quilt a top that my husband's sisters pieced, so I thought I would ask all of you for some suggestions.

This was made for my niece, and everybody had written/decorated a square. A couple of squares have iron-on photos. As you can see, things aren't lined up directly in one way or another.

So, I was considering stippling, but wasn't sure what that would do to blocks with writing. I think there are too many to just not quilt on them. The back is a pink ballet slipper pattern, so whatever I do, it should just blend in there.

It is boxed and on the way here from Dayton (they are only about 30 minutes from The Fabric Shack!)

Any thoughts?

Summer Fun

On Sunday, while trying to find other quilt shops in the Chicagoland area, I came across one that is so very close and I had no idea it existed! I talked Becket and Kenton into a trip over on Monday and was pleasantly surprised to find a little gem. The boys happily played with the blocks set out for kids while I rummaged through their pile of fat eighths (I told the boys I would be fast and wouldn't wait for anything to be cut).

Tucked in the corner of a strip mall, it's a wonderful and bright shop - buzzing with a surprising number of customers - VERY friendly shopkeepers, and a good sized collection of my kind of prints. In the back of my mind I'm thinking I would like to work part time in a shop - this would be the place! I picked out these goodies.

And I loved these little cupcakes - it's the only piece I didn't recognize nor does it have the selvage info. Anybody know it?

We had a crazy amount of rain today. Except for a bit of flash flooding toward evening, it was a wonderful summer rain - warm and thunder free. I told the boys they were free to run and splash if they liked. The oldest and youngest rushed for their swim shorts and headed out.

I tried to catch some of the fun from the front door.

But I had to venture out with the umbrella once they found a huge puddle in front of the neighbor's house.

Before heading in, I found this beautifully perfect egg that blew from a tree and landed on our stone out front.