Packaged up & ready to go

There is just something about seeing a quilt all packaged up and ready to send to its new home. It makes me all giddy inside...anyone else feel the same way?

Pink & Purple.

One day I decided it has certainly been too long since I've spent some quality time with my sewing machine. 

My homework was completed and I had a few hours to spare. What to sew I asked myself? 

While sitting in my studio my eyes fell upon this lovely stack of pinks and purples.

An idea began to form and I decided to cut them into a bunch of squares.

But I couldn't stop there and decided to make them into a bunch of half square triangles instead.

I forgot that half square triangles require a lot of trimming. Especially 127 half square triangles.

But then I began to piece them together.

And that made me happy.

The End.

Quilting Journey

I've been thinking about my quilting journey over the past few days. It seems like it was just yesterday that I first got my lovely sewing machine, Nina.

Back in the beginning of 2008, I casually mentioned to my husband that I'd like a sewing machine. This seemed to be a rather unusual request coming from me, but I said that I wanted to learn how to quilt. For some reason I was intrigued by the idea of designing with fabric. I love working with color and designing projects, and my dashing husband knew it, so it wasn't long before I came home one day with this lovely box! 

The first night I had Nina, I ran out to the local fabric shop and bought some fabric to make a quilt. This is what I "whipped up" over the next few hours:

We affectionally call it the swastika quilt. Apparently I didn't see the swastika in the design when I put it together. Oops. I guess I was too excited to be sewing to pay attention to details like that.

I've come a long way since then.

I love the entire quilting process - choosing fabrics, playing with shapes, colors, lines, and scale to create something unique and eye catching. And boy do I love turning the ideas in my head into realities. 

How did you start your quilting journey? I'd love to know!

New Bees in the New Year (a month late)

One of the best things about quilting, in my opinion, is the chance to participate in a variety of bees. Sites such as twitter and flickr are excellent places to find other like-minded quilting people with whom to start a bee. It's great fun because quite often you meet new friends in the process.

So I thought I'd share with you a few bees that are happening this year.

3x6 Bee.

I love this bee. In fact, I with a handful of awesome ladies help run this bee and make it a success. It's quite fun and rather low key. Basically, you get paired up with a group of 6 other people and you make 1 block for each person in whatever colors they specify. You have 3 months to do this. So theoretically, if you participate for 3 or 4 quarters you will have enough blocks to make yourself a nice sized quilt. One of the reasons why I like it so much is because you get to meet a lot of talented people in a short amount of time. Sign ups are going on right now for Quarter 1 (Feb 1 - April 15) so check it out here.

Here are a few of the awesome blocks I've been given so far:

4x5 Modern Quilt Bee.

It is basically the same concept as the 3x6 bee, only you make 5 blocks instead of 6 in the three month period. I'm not sure if their sign ups have closed or not yet but I participated in it for the first time over Christmas and it was great fun. All the ladies in my group were extremely talented! Check out their webpage here for more info.

Here are the blocks I got the first round -- enough to allow me to finish up a sampler quilt I've been working on from the 3x6 Bee.

Quilts for Cancer.

This is a new bee starting up where each person makes a quilt that they give to someone they know that has cancer. I like this idea because not only are you helping to give people some comfort during a trying time, but it also uses your stash fabric so there is no mailing necessary except for the blocks. There are still a few spaces left so you can check it out here.

Do.good.Stitches.

This bee is the brain child of Rachel from Stitched in Color (seriously if you have not read her blog go do it) I love this bee and have been part of it for about a year now. I love that we quilt for charity, that we use our own fabric, and that we rotate who designs each quilt. I also lucked out and have the best group of people ever in my circle. Seriously, they are all super talented and super creative. For more info check out the Do.good.Stitches flickr page.

Here's a small sampling of some of the quilts that the Inspire Circle has finished:

Citrus Sails Quilt

Bijou Lovely's Herringbone Quilt. 

Also new bees are starting up all the time. Be sure to check out the Quilting Bee Blocks group on flickr that often has a list of bees looking for participants.


Are you going to participate in any bees this year? If so, which ones?

November Quilting Bee Blocks

This month I have managed to finish all my quilting bee blocks before they were actually due! Yay!

Do.good. Stitches:

This month we got to make some bottled rainbow blocks following Rachel's tutorial. I have been wanting to try this for ages so I was so super excited when Becky chose this as her block for the month. Here are my two blocks:

Kona Berry Block (dark purples)

Kona Raspberry Block (dark pinks)

I loved making these blocks and see more of them in my immediate future...and there is something to be said for the quilt-as-you-go method that these use.

Sew Bee Beautiful:

This month it was Ella's turn to send out fabric and she requested some wonky stars. At first I was a bit nervous to make these, having never made a wonky star but I am pretty pleased with how these turned out. I'm sure her quilt will be quite beautiful! Now please don't mind the severe lack of ironing in these photos, I'm still looking for an iron...

Mod Mosaic Charity Quilt

This isn't a "bee" parsay, but earlier this month Kelsey asked for some help in making mod mosaic quilt squares using gray, orange and blues for a family who has had one bad thing after another happen to them -- house fires, hospital stays, car accidents, etc. You can read more about her request for blocks (and sign up to make one) here. These blocks are super easy to make and are excellent for using up stash. I enjoyed making this block and wish that I had time to make more.

List on a Monday morning

Please excuse me while I go have an anxiety attack now.