Doll Quilt Swap Received

I have been participating in the 13th round of the Doll Quilt Swap. I haven't shown much of my quilt because I'm waiting for it to be received first. It has some identifiers on the front that will give it away!

But, I received my happy mail this weekend! This little beauty came from AnnaMichelle:

Isn't it so cute!? I love the way she matched the border with the stars. Very clever! I have the perfect spot over my fabric shelves to hang it!

Here's the back so you can see the fantastic quilting.

And she included some extra goodies which was so sweet of her. And funny because I have recently read the Friday Night Knitting Club series and have been tossing the idea of crocheting or kitting! Now I have the perfect excuse to try. If you have a great beginner pattern or tutorial you like, please let me know!

Thank you so much Anna! I love it all.

Puzzle quilt finished

I was just able to finish up another baby quilt. I forget where I got this pattern, but it is called Snuggle Blocks and is by The Pattern Basket. I made mine with Poetica by Art Gallery Fabrics. I love this line and wish I had more!

Those squares on the outside? Taggies!! Such a cute idea right!?

I tried to get a photo of the back, but it was too windy and I wound up with a peekaboo of my daughters log cabin. But you get the idea.

Here's a close up of some of the gorgeous colors in this line.

I did the quilting myself and kept it simple, but dense enough to withstand a baby or small child. And the thing I'm most excited about with this quilt is that it has gone to a local boutique consignment shop with a couple other baby quilts I've made to be sold. I'm hoping it sells so I can raise some cash for more fabric!! ;)

I also made a few burp cloth sets to see if there is any demand for them. Here is my boy set:

Girl set:

 

and a gender neutral set

 

I'm hoping for the best!

Quilt stats:

Size: 49" by 58"

Pattern: Snuggle Blocks

Fabrics:  Art Gallery Poetica

Quilted by: Myself

Finished: 1/30/13

More January blocks

I just realized I never blogged about the rest of my bee blocks. First up is the do.Good Stitches Bliss circle block. We were asked for american flag blocks with all prints that read as solid. Here are my two blocks:

And then I finished my 4x5 blocks pretty early. I don't know what's wrong with me, but when I have deadline sewing I have to get it out of the way or I can't enjoy my sewing time. I stress about the deadline stuff I have to get done. Is that just me?


Anyway, the block I picked is from Quiltmakers 100 blocks edition. It's called Chain Mail and was designed by Debby Maddy. Here are all the blocks I made (the one on the bottom left is for me):

And then today I was sewing other things and my needle started acting funny. It finally snapped and went flying (missed my eye by just a tiny bit!). I haven't gotten to see if it was a fluke or not, but I'm afraid I'm being punished for not taking it in for service. Bad Becky!


Oh and I apologize to everyone. I had to turn on comment verification, the spam was totally out of control and blogger wasn't catching it anymore. I hate doing those verifications myself so I feel your pain. Please don't let it stop you from commenting, I love to hear from you!

My Madrona Road Challenge Entry

I joined Philly Modern Quilt Guild in the National MQG Madrona Road Challenge. Our only guide was that we should paper piece our project and we couldn't use other prints. I love these fabrics. I already had the gray print below with the black hashes on it so I added it in to this challenge.

I had seen this block in all the Farmer's Wife quilts, I believe it's called the Century of Progress. It looked like an easy one to convert to paper piecing (maybe it already is?). Here is my version of the block.

Since I stink at quilty math, my block came out a little bigger than a 12" block. I decided to turn it into what I'm calling the mega-pouch! My sewing area is in the dining room so I have to clean up for company a lot. I love having lots of pouches to put current projects in and keep them together. Really, you can never have enough pouches.

I've also always wanted to do a circle of geese block so I finally tackled one for the back (front?).

I added white around the blocks since they were different sizes (haha!) and added lining and zipper.

So yeah, I cheated a bit. That stripe isn't madrona road. ::blushing:::  It just went so perfectly and I love a great print inside a bag. But hey, my zipper work is getting pretty good!


Thank you to the Modern Quilt Guild and Michael Miller Fabrics for hosting this challenge!

Quilting Angels Swap received

The sun came out yesterday so I was able to get some photos of the beautiful gifts I received from Kari for our PMQG swap.  I had asked for a tote bag and she made me such an awesome tote with heavy weight fabrics!

The inside has a bunch of pockets in it. I think I'm going to use it as my purse I love it so much!

And then all these goodies! A christmas quilt kit, HST ruler and a stack of yummie fabrics.

What a great bundle of fabrics right? And check out the adorable little owl ribbon. I have to find something special to make with that.

Thank you so much Kari for spoiling me so!

Quilting Angels Swap

Last night we had our 2nd Annual Quilting Angels Holiday Swap at the PMQG meeting. This is the one swap we do in our guild where you pick your partner and get ideas from them. Thanks to Elfster.com it's a totally secret swap (totally recommend the site, it's really smart!).

I pulled the hilarious and sweet Pat Deck. She had an iPad case on her wish list so I found a pattern on Etsy and went to work! Here's the front with the case closed. The dark band is actually a navy blue elastic. I had a hard time with the colors on these photos.

 I will admit, I struggled with this pattern a bit. Some of the grammar and descriptions were a bit difficult but I think the functionality will be worth it. (and sorry, i don't have an iPad to show you how fabulous it looks in the case). It can stand upright like this:

Clever huh?

It also sits semi upright like this:

Here's the inside lying flat with my label in it. And if you can believe it, Pat told me after receiving it that she actually had picked out the same fabrics in a different colorway to make her own iPad case! So glad I got her taste right!

Then she also wished for a smock for her grand-daughter. I already had this Smock Monster pattern that I got at a quilt show. I was all excited about it and my daughter poo poo'd the monsters so I decided to make it plain for Pat.  First I did a smaller size mock up for my son Evan to test the pattern with an adorable fabric I already had.

He was gracious enough to model it for me (I was too lazy to take off his bulky sweatshirt).

I love the way it covers the shoulders.

Pat asked for a "not too itsy sweet" version for her granddaughter. Having a girl who's not so girly myself, I tried to find a fabric that I would have used for her.

And I found these cute little buttons that matched so perfectly.

Then finally, I had some extra fabric from the iPad case so I made a little pouch for the goodies I included.

I hope you like everything Pat! Once I get a chance to take some photos, I'll show you all the goodies that I received!

Daisy Janie - New Leaf Blog Hop

Welcome to the first stop on the New Leaf Bee Block Blog Hop! Thank you to Jan Dicintio of Daisy Janie Fabrics for inviting me to join her. She's introducing her newest fabric line New Leaf and of course I said yes right away when she asked me! Her designs are beautiful and her commitment to creating quality organic cottons is so awesome.

I was really excited when my package of fabric arrived. And it did not disappoint, New Leaf is gorgeous! And it felt way softer than my past experiences with organic cottons. It is really quite beautiful.

Our inspiration for the blocks was about turning a new leaf, growth, new directions and such. The new direction I've been heading recently is actually towards the past. I've been really interested in vintage quilts and started looking at some compass blocks. I found this amazing compass block and decided to recreate it with a modern flair. If anyone knows the name of this block or anything about it I'd love to hear it! I wasn't able to find any identifying information about it.

Here is how I constructed the block. As I mentioned, I had a picture of a vintage quilt. I resized that photo to create a 12.5" block. From the printout I created templates. I drew over the seams with a marker to make them darker, then traced on template plastic.  Here is a PDF of my block at actual size that you can use to do the same thing.

Then the templates were cut out.

I used the templates to cut out the pieces making sure to add 1/4" seam allowances and started sewing together. Here is the order I used. Started with these.

Then put them together to get this.

Get everything together in a big circle.

Sew together all the outside pieces first and then sew them to the center circle.

The first test block I did, I pieced the center circle. It didn't come out very accurately so this time I did it with machine applique. I would recommend doing it that way if you try this block. Lay your template plastic over the block and create a circle that will cover all your raw edges. I used a compass and marker, but you can use anything you have to trace a circle around it (bottles, toilet paper rolls, etc).

From there you can create your center applique pieces and attach them with your preferred method. And your block will be finished!

I hope you like my modern vintage block. I really think these fabrics give a bright modern feel! Thank you so much Jan for letting me  participate in your blog hop! I'm excited to see New Leaf in the stores and get my hands on some more. You can find out where to get some here.

The blog hop will continue tomorrow at The Little Red Hen. Here's the rest of the schedule:

New Leaf Bee Block Blog Hop Schedule
Mon, 1/14 - Becky Moyer, My Fabric Obsession - you are here. ;)
Tues, 1/15 - Lynn Harris, The Little Red Hen
Wed, 1/16 - Candy Glendening, Candied Fabrics
Thurs, 1/17 - Holly DeGroot, Bijou Lovely
Fri, 1/18 - Melanie Thornton, Melanie Dramatic

Mon, 1/21 - Emily Cier, Carolina Patchworks
Tues, 1/22 - Rachael Gander, Imagine Gnats
Wed, 1/23 - Maureen Cracknell, Maureen Cracknell Handmade
Thurs, 1/24 - Leanne, She Can Quilt
Fri, 1/25 - Cindy Wiens, Live a Colorful Life

Mon 1/28 - Cheryl Arkison, Dining Room Empire
Tues, 1/29 - Jacquie Gering, Tallgrass Prairie Studio
Wed, 1/30 - Shanna Bailey, Fiber of All Sorts
Thurs, 1/31 - Katy Jones, Monkey Do


The FQ Scramble letter is:N