Quilt contest

I just wanted to let you know that I have a quilt in the Threadbias Briar Rose Quilt Contest. My quilt is called "Summer at Grandma's" and my username is of course saykayquilts. Anyone with a free account can vote once and I would really appreciate your vote! Here is a screen shot of where my quilt is and what it looks like. Thank you for your support!

Boston

Thought I would send a little bit of love to the people of Boston and contribute to the "to Boston with love" project sponsored by the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I did the heart one first and really enjoyed the process so I went ahead and made the bird one. I loved the pink heart but really wanted to brighten it up with the yellow and orange bird. They sewed up so quick and easy, pretty instant gratification with this one and it will hopefully send some love and cheer to the people of Boston. If you are interested in contributing check out the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild blog for instructions and inspiration.

Sorta quilting

So I haven't been doing that much in terms of working on quilts. Mainly because I am unpacking my sewing area and a few of my things are still at my parent's house. I have, however, been working on bags, lots and lots of bags. 

My quilted totes I have been using a quilt as you go/ improv piecing method. I love the result and have given a few as gifts. These pictures are of one I am working on now as a special request for sale. 

I have also been working on several more utilitarian type bags. The Ikea fabric above was used to make a huge swimming bag for the spring and summer. And due to the recent Austin plastic bag ban (yay!) I have been making lots of reusable shopping bags. I already had some bags that I would use but I frequently forget to bring them with me so having extras to tuck away in the car and in my purse has been so handy. In fact I have plans on making more to have in every possible knook and cranny! Hopefully soon I will get back to making some quilts but I am really enjoying this bag craziness that has come over me!

Not Really

The past month and a half has been a whirl. We have been living in Fort Worth and Austin, trying out a new job in Fort Worth. My parents live in Fort Worth so we had a place to stay and we were making preparations to move but the job just wasn't what we thought it would be. So we started looking in Austin and found what seems to be a really great place for my husband. He starts work next week but he is excited about it which wasn't really the case with the last place. I did a bit a quilting while we were there, piecing some of the quilt above, working on a few tote bags. I did a lot more crocheting and embroidery, and some writing. I also packed a lot on the days we were in Austin. While in Austin I had an amazing time volunteering at Quilt Con, I was so inspired while there and  really rekindled my love of the city of Austin. I didn't really want to move, I like it here. My Husband had the same feelings. I am glad we are staying, now just to unpack.  

I Will

I saw Tula Pink's "Nightshade" line at my LQS and absolutely fell in love with it. I just had to buy it. Never has fabric spoken to me so clearly. I am a purple girl, I have always loved black, and grey has become one of my new favorite colors. This fabric also walks the line of darkness so nicely, it's a little goth but with some elegance.

So I made this quilt top, all original, from my mind, no pattern. Sure it's a simple design but there is something about designing it yourself, I guess it just reminds me that I am a person, not a parrot. Anyways, I have been holding off on quilting this because it needs to be free motion quilted, it told me so. Ideally I would love to quilt some spiderwebs all over it, maybe a few stars mixed in. But I struggle with free motion quilting. I practice and I know I need many more hours of practice but I just am not pleased with my results yet which makes it hard to do so. But I have set this goal in my mind.

By the end of this year I Will finish this quilt, with spiderwebs..... and maybe a few stars.

Strawberry Shortcake

For my first quilt of 2013 I wanted to do something a little simple and sweet. I also happened to have the perfect color inspiration on my new kitchen table.

The flowers were an anniversary present from my husband which was the only romantic gift as we both agreed to buy a water filter for ourselves. We are so practical aren't we? I guess maybe in this day and age year 4 is water filter, who needs paper, wood, silver, gold anyway? Maybe year 5 will be a Macbook, year 25 will be a robot, and year 50 we will go on a cruise of the galaxy.

  

Back to the subject at hand. I did 4.5" squares with 1.5" sashing. I loved the cute little 1.5" squares at the sashing intersections, adorable.

I straight line quilted on the diagonal which made diamonds. At the moment it is my favorite way to quilt squares, simple but beautiful.

I love the outcome, so sweet. I may sell this quilt in a few months, after we are all moved. Yep, you read that right, we are moving. We are moving to Ft. Worth which will be good for us. I am not excited about the actual moving and the fact that I won't be able to do much sewing but I have some embroidery to work on for the time being, books to read, and I have been doing some writing that I will continue to work on. All in all I think I can manage, and I am sure once we are moved in and unpacked I will be sewing up a storm!

Better late

This is the last quilt I did in 2012. Now I am quite aware that we are close to a full month into 2013 but at least I am doing it! That has to count for something right?

These pictures are of the quilt top I did for my brother-in-law. He is one of many who have gone to North Dakota for all the oil jobs up there. I decided to make him a quilt when it started getting chilly here in TX, I figured if I was cold here I could only imagine how cold it is there! I also liked the bit of a challenge a masculine quilt would be for me. Most of the fabric in my stash is floral, bold floral at that, and I have been trying to seek out masculine or unisex prints to add to all that floral. I also have a strange fixation with prints so throwing in the solids was a bit different for me but I think it had an amazing result. 

These quilt blocks were pieced onto paper and were so much fun to make. I absolutely love doing foundation piecing, on paper or fabric, because it seems to go by so quickly. Before I knew it I had all the blocks done! I used this tutorial at film in the fridge except I didn't glue my center string down, I basted it down, and I used the same solid for the edge strings to create the center diamonds.

I forgot to take pictures of the finished product but I just stitched in the ditch to quilt it and did a scrappy binding using the prints in the quilt. I love how this quilt turned out, it was one of my favorites to make and I hope to make more like it in the future.

Secret Garden

This quilt was made for my sister-in-law Lillie. I figured it would be the appropriate time to blog about it because her birthday was yesterday! 

I had been eyeing the fabric for a while at Hancock's when I worked there and just had to pick it up. It was called Secret Garden and I thought it was such a fitting name. 

I simply cut the fabric into 6" squares and did a small 1" sashing between those squares. Simple, sweet, and girly. (Who doesn't love girly?) I quilted it with diagonal lines and bound it in an aqua gingham I had.  

And to top it off we found a pretty secret place to take pictures of it. I love going to parks and having no one there, makes me feel like I am in my own secret garden!

New Year

So it's been a while, you know how things go, traveling and such. I have also been working on many secret projects which are hard to Blog about. Anyways, I am back and the next few posts will be about quilts I did over the past couple of months.

This quilt is one I made for my cousin Missy. I had been wanting to do a quilt with hexagons for a while so I just jumped right in.

I machine pieced all of the hexagons which took a little more time and patience then other piecing I do but I think it was so worth the effort.

I had also been wanting to do a quilt using yellow, grey, black, and white and had these prints pulled out for a while waiting for the perfect project. 

The colors with the hexagons really give the feeling of a bee hive. Little did I know that Melissa means honey bee, how perfect?

I also found the perfect place to take pictures of my quilts, would you believe this place is right behind my husband's work? Only in Austin would you have something so natural and beautiful behind an office building.

I am so pleased with the finished product and can't wait to do another hexagon quilt!