Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner*!

I mentioned I won a prize on the Finish Along. It arrived today from Swell Cloth Fabrics. It's an adorable Etsy shop and the lovely prize was a bundle of FMF. Pictured below with my Turkish friend.

What a fun prize, thanks Rhonda and Sarah! I'll be sure to start a new project ASAP!





Go check out her shop and then tell me what to name the Turk. It's a picture of a statue in a museum in Antalya, Turkey that I just had printed on canvas.


*just kidding on the chicken dinner, I had chicken at lunch.

Binding Away

I did a bit of binding at the guild meeting today. I don't always like to lug my machine up and it is much easier to chat with handwork.




Last meeting or so when I was up at Quilter's Paradise I bought a little blue box of Thread Heaven thread conditioner for my hand stitching and it's just great! The threads run smoother through the fabric and it doesn't tangle as much. I made it through 2 corners in the short time I was there so I count that as 50% done. It's the new math but anytime I finish a corner I call it a quarter done even if I start 10 stitches before a corner.

Note - these colors are truer than the last post. It's really a lovely collection.

Backing for Polka Dots Whirlygiggle

For the Polka Dot Whirlygiggle, I decided to pull put whatever dotted flannel I had around and see what I could come up with. So I went from this -




to this, note the pen and paper for math -



with some precise-ish cutting to this -



Which has just the right amount of overage to fit on the frame. Mostly. Sort of.

Third Round

I did well in the second round of the Finish Along. Five of the seven projects that I listed are now done. So this quarter I'm going big. Not just quilting projects but a few other projects in process.


1. For hopefully the final time, Arabella Diamonds. It really is just a little more quilting in the borders and ditches, binding has been ready for ages.



2. Lightning's quilt from Salt Air


3. Polka Dot Whirlygiggle



4. Hometown 1



5. Hometown 2



6. Greek Crosses


7. Receiving Squares 2


8. Kitchen curtains - these are two contenders for the job. I have the measurements from deconstructed panels that came with the house.


9. Fiori pouch



10. Studio

Receiving Squares

From this stack of squares to this -







Oh curses, I didn't download the full quilt picture. I will have to update later, but you can see my "fancy" quilting here.

This was one of my Finish Along Projects.

Update:  I actually won a prize for this finish so I have come back to the post to add the full pictures here. These squares are all cut out from leftovers of receiving blankets I've made for babies. Probably over the last 5 or 6 years. Mostly for my nephew, Squall, but some for friends too. This one is intended to be donated soon. For those keeping track, yes, I hand sewed the binding again.  It's just still my favorite way to finish.

You Gotta Have Skills

Mine happens to be procrastinating.





Err, I mean, testing new things. Like fabric stamping.

Chinese Takeout

Another for the Finish Along was this top. I added the borders, quilted and bound it.

This is me showing it at the guild meeting. I haven't done better pictures yet.

Chirp Fest 2012

I finished up my Chirp Fest 2012 quilt this quarter. I was one of my Finish Along projects for this quarter.

Here it is on my fancy quilt rack :)





I used a pack of 6.5 inch squares of Wrenly and backed it in a Wrenly flannel. A little Wrenly stripe to bind it off and super fast wiggly line quilting with a few words in the solids finished it off.






Done and done.

Leash

Since we've been bike riding and chasing cats around here lately, it was time that Matty Spice had a leash that wasn't about to snap in half. I've been looking for a replacement since she came home from gramma's house. The cable leads the other dogs use can really saw through things.

I used some heavy fusible interfacing and two strips of one of my favorite Jenean Morrison orange delightfulness. I seriously love this leash. I might scotch guard the hell out of it soon to help it stay cheery.

Sorry mom, this leash won't be coming up to your house...probably ever.



Edited: 6/16/12  And now she has a matching collar.  I lost two seam rippers to it but I think it's worth it.  She was not so excited about trying it on 17 times while I figured out the size.  

LA Modern Quilt Guild

Annette came up with the brilliant idea of going to one of the LA Modern Quilt Guild meetings since they are close to her house. So I put on my driving gloves and headed to Santa Monica. I don't know what was more fun, seeing her current projects and cute little sewing space, meeting her quilty neighbor Brian, or going to such a motivational meeting. It's a large group and we didn't get there in time to get a seat.



The meetings are held at Sew Modern in LA and in this picture the owner, Lauren, is talking about Quilt Market and all the great new fabrics coming up. She passed out bundles of all sorts of new lines for us to see including the new Liberty (which feels delightful although the design doesn't call out to me).




Show and tell was amazing! So many talented sewists out there. I think the one being held up in the picture here consists of blocks from one of the group events. Someone brings in scraps and everyone makes a quick block.



I did pick up a few fabrics but most awesome was that I won a door prize!! A little pack of the new Kona solids! Hooray! I love it!

The only problem with the meeting is that it is at the beginning of the week and I had to go to work instead of sew all day.

Thanks for organizing us, Annette!