Something Exciting

Last month I received a phone call. It was from Katja, the owner of Katja's Quilt Shoppe, and she wanted to know if I was interested in teaching some quilting classes and working in her shop! Of course I said, "YES!"

I have been dreaming for the last year or two of teaching some quilting classes and wondering if that was something that was destined to only be a dream or if it was something that would come true one day. I didn't apply or ask if she was looking for anyone. She just called out of the blue. I was very flattered and humbled that she liked my work enough to ask me. What an honor. Thanks Katja!

I started working in the shoppe last week and will teach two classes in the fall. The picture above shows one of my quilts with the fabrics. I am nearly done my sample and then I will show you some pictures of it and tell of the angst involved...

xo Nicole

Bee Quilt

I finished up this quilt at the beginning of July and gifted it almost immediately. It went to some friends who were in need of some encouragement during a difficult period in their lives.


I made the quilt with some blocks from my two online quilting bees (Circuit Block Party and The Maple Leaf Bee) from 2010. My original vision of the quilt did not come to fruition due to blocks being a variety of sizes instead of 12.5". (One of my own star blocks was not included because it turned out to be 12".) So, I had to put on my creative thinking cap to come up with a solution to this problem. I had 5 star blocks and 10 improv blocks and my desire to have a quilt that was a decent lap size. I wanted it to be 5 by 5 blocks. The photo above shows what I was thinking at the beginning of this process.


I went to work making blocks. I made 4 improv blocks with lots of small pieces of leftover fabrics. (Those blocks are in the outside centers of the quilt in the photo above.) Then I wanted to make 4 more blocks that were keeping with the scrappiness of the quilt, but had some structure to them. I came across a photo on Flickr that had a block I loved, so I decided to make my 4 blocks with it.


In the end, this is the layout that I went with. I put the star blocks in center of the quilt and put my mosaic blocks in the corners with the improv blocks spaced in between everything. I wasn't really loving the results, but I had a quilt top anyway. I decided to make it a bit longer, but instead of doing more blocks, I added a top and bottom double border. I think that it really helped to tie everything together. (See first photo.)


I decided to just piece the back together out of leftover chunks of fabric. I think it turned out pretty good. The grey solid actually isn't the same as on the front, but I figured nobody would notice that.


We had a lovely day to take photos of the quilt and Nader's shirt even matched the quilt. He begged me to take the label off and give it to him instead. I guess I got him hooked on my quilts!


For the double borders I decided to try a new free motion quilting design. It shows up best in this photo of the back. The bigger circles were in the solid yellow border and the flowery design was in the larger print strip. They aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was fun to try out a new design. I'll definitely do them again.


I decided to bind the quilt in the charcoal solid fabric and I love the way that it frames the quilt. To save time I machine sewed it and it looks really good! In the end, I am pleased with the quilt and I know that our friends love it so much. I hope they get lots of use out of it (now that it is in Australia!).

I have some other exciting news, but I will save it for a future post. I am running out of steam tonight!

xo Nicole

Mexico Quilt(s)

I may have mentioned before that I was starting a project at church to send quilts to Mexico. It's called Project Cobija (quilt in spanish). Each summer our church sends down a team to build 8 or so houses in Tijuana. Last year when I went, I thought that it would be fabulous if each family was also given a quilt with their new house. With the help of some wonderful women at church, we sent down 10 quilts last week. Above are some of the quilts that were given away.

The quilt that I made was mostly from my scraps! (I think I need to make another one to thin them out some more). I followed a tutorial from Amanda-Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. She called it Easy as Pie. It definitely was easy!

I cut out the pieces in one evening and sewed them together in three more. I basted it and then quilted it in a couple more. I quilted it with a free motion loopy stipple so that it would be nice and sturdy.

I decided to machine sew the binding for durability and speed. It was my first second time attempting machine sewing binding (I don't want to talk about the first time...). I'm very pleased with how it turned out! I know it looks kind of white in the pictures, but it's a light greeny batik. I even finished my quilt before my deadline! That pretty much never happens.

I'm very pleased with the end result! Maybe I will have a picture to show later with its new family.

xo Nicole

Carmen's Practical Bag

Last week I made a bag for my friend Carmen. She was looking for a cloth bag that was big enough to fit in some specific items.

She looked at several stores without luck, so I offered to make one for her. She came over and picked out some fabric at my "store." (You know you have too much fabric when you refer to your stash as a store).

I used the Practical Bag pattern by Grand Revival Designs. I made one of these bags for myself in the fall and I really enjoyed the pattern. It was easy to follow and well laid out. I think the design is really clever too.

I made the lining out of two different fabrics for fun and added in a couple pockets made from scraps. I didn't add interfacing to the lining but I think that next time I will. It would make the bag just that much sturdier.

I top-stitched in a turquoise thread for some contrast and I am very pleased with the outcome. The most difficult part of making the bag was getting the 'v' to lay flat. Hopefully next time they will look a little better.

I also bought a purse pattern (called Flea Market Bag) by Grand Revival and have yet to try it out. I hope it will be as simple and clever as this bag. Have you made either of these bags?

xo Nicole

some quilts to share

This first quilt is one that I made for my nephew Paul. He's so adorable and I really love him. I wish I lived closer by. I started making this quilt before he was born, before any of us knew if my sister was having a boy or a girl. I wanted to make something gender neutral. I found the pattern in a book called Great Little Quilts that my great-aunt gave to me. The pattern is called Single Wedding Ring, but it's also known as Crown of Thorns.

The book didn't really give very specific instructions, so I just made up my own size block. Unfortunately, I forgot to add in seam allowances. I cut all the fabric before I discovered this. Luckily, it still sewed together nicely, just a little smaller than I anticipated. Which also meant that it took longer. I think I also underestimated the complexity of each block. The quilt has 12 blocks, each made up of 25 squares and 16 of the squares are HST (half-square triangles). Each square ended up 1.5" finished.

I eventually finished it up and added a couple borders to make it a little bigger. I was only going to make one border originally. I took some time to think about how to quilt it. I didn't want to take away from the beautiful blocks or to be too densely quilted. I ended up doing straight diagonal lines that brought out some of the secondary patterns of the blocks. I also chose to do a fun binding on an otherwise traditional quilt. Don't you love the backing fabric?

This is a quilt that I made for my sister Frances (Paul's mama) on her birthday last year. I forgot to take any pictures of it before giving it away, so it has been unblogged until now. I think that I bought it as a quilt kit, but can't remember where. It's made of fabulous, bright batiks and a white on white fabric. The design is from Atkinson Designs called Lucky Stars.

It came together quite quickly because the blocks are 15". The quilt ended up being 45"x60" - a nice size to snuggle on the couch with. I quilted it with a loopy meander - my go-to free motion quilting.

The back is just a solid green with a few scraps thrown in. I like the simplicity of the design.

The last quilt to be featured today is one that I made with Cherry House Quilt Along. She called it the Socken quilt. It was quite simple to put together. The little squares finish at 1". I was inspired by the quilting on another of her quilts, and attempted to do something similar. I really like how it turned out. I gave it to a special baby in our church a few weeks ago. I hope that he loves it and gets lot of use out of it.

Thanks for stopping by!
xo Nicole

Create

On Flickr, I found a group called Create! A Project a Day. The premise is that you will create something everyday in February. Since I was feeling highly unmotivated in January and didn't accomplish much, I thought it would be a great idea for me to join. It's been a great push and the creative juices are definitely flowing. I will admit that I haven't made something everyday, but I think that I only missed two days so far.

I've been working on making a quilt for my nephew Paul, who was born on December 28, 2010. I found a quilt in an antique quilt book that I fell in love with and I knew that I wanted to make it. It's called Single Wedding Ring, which maybe isn't the most fitting for a baby, but it was just too sweet to not make. I really love how the blocks create secondary patterns when sewn together. It will have 3 by 4 blocks and a couple of borders. The blocks are quite tedious to put together, so I've been easily distracted by other projects...

I came up with an idea for this stack of fat quarters. I can't reveal too much info at this point in time, but I am finishing up my drawing for it. I have a lovely person in mind for the resulting quilt.

While I was reading Cherri House's blog at the end of January, I discovered that she was going to have a quilt along. I liked the pictures she showed and was excited to join in. She recommends making it with solids, but I wanted to try it with some fabric from my stash. I think it looks good so far. It's small, baby quilt size. The green blocks finish at 1". I'm not sure yet who the recipient will be, but I am going to try out some new quilting on it!

This project has probably distracted me the most. A while back I saw a quilt block on flickr with this design and from the thumbnail picture I thought it was a large quilt. When I clicked on it, I saw it was just a block. Since then, I've been obsessed with making a large quilt with that design.

My blocks are 8" finished and I am nearly done sewing the top together. It actually has come together more quickly than I thought it would. It will be a present for a friend, and I should have enough time to quilt it up before her birthday. I really wanted to make something with spring colours since winter seems to be dragging on forever. I chose some green and pink fabrics with a spring feeling. I used 8 fat quarters and some solid natural yardage.

The other thing that I've made this month is a nursing cover for my sister. I am pleased with how easy it was to make. I used this tutorial. And the best thing is that my sister loves it and uses it.

The more I take time to create things, the more ideas I get. I'm finding it rather hard to focus on one thing at a time. I do feel like I've accomplished a lot so far this month and I am thankful for the time that I spend using my God-given gifts. I am also thankful for my own sewing space that I can leave and just pick up where I left off.

I hope that you are inspired to create something yourself!

xo Nicole

Quilting Bee Blocks

In 2010 I participated in two online quilting bees. I am going to share some photos from the Maple Leaf Bee that I moderated. I learned a lot during the year and tried new techniques. I also learned about how to run a bee and to get the most out of it.


These two orange and blue blocks were made for Quilting Barbie and she is going to make a quilt for her son with all our blocks. We were asked to make improvised blocks. They were a lot of fun, and were more time consuming than I anticipated. I have fallen in love with improv since that time!


These two pink and green blocks were made for maripenquiltmom. She made a quilt for her sewing room with them. She asked us to make the centers in the style of Oh Fransson's Map of the States block. I didn't follow the exact instructions, but used it as a jumping off point. I am super happy with how they turned out.

This crossed canoes block was my first introduction to paper piecing and I made it for indigolimeblog. It was interesting to try it, but I definitely don't love paper piecing.

These two pinwheel blocks were made for FeltArtistic. She sent us some vintage sheets and told us to make our favourite pinwheels. It was a challenge to use these fabrics because some were very soft and slippery, and there wasn't a lot of contrast in them. I am pleased with the outcome though.

I made this spiderweb block for Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in May. Each section was paper pieced, but not in the same way as the crossed canoes. We used scraps from our stash and she sent us the middle pieces. I love how it looks with the printed fabrics in the middle.

This flying geese circle was also paper pieced for brenda.g34. I was terrified of this block and put off making it for several months. Once I finally started it, I had to use my seam ripper numerous times. It was super challenging. This block confirmed my suspicions that I hate paper piecing!


These two tree blocks were made for crazycraftycarm. She requested any kind of tree block and this is what I came up with. I was sent green fabrics and also added a bunch of my own green scraps. I love how they turned out.

These two blocks were made for DoreyR. She sent us a few jellyroll strips and asked us to make whatever kind of blocks we wanted, as long as they ended up 8.5". I made some very simple blocks, but I think that they are very effective.

In September, kroddick asked us to make up some wonky quarter log cabins with these two solids. Mine isn't very wonky, but I tried to make some wavy seams. I think they are too subtle and maybe just look like mistakes in sewing. I'll have to experiment some more with wavy seams.

Austen g. sent us some Hope Valley fabrics and asked us to make whatever kind of block we wanted to. She is making a Hope Valley sampler quilt. I tried out a block that I got from my Moda class at Katja's Quilt Shoppe. It was fun and easy to come together. I was thinking that it would look really cool to have a line of these blocks in a quilt. I'm planning on trying that out someday!

In November, arianescrafts sent us some very delicious fabrics to make her a dresden plate with. This is the first time that I have every done machine applique. It took me a few tries to get my tension right, but once I did, it went very smoothly. I can hardly wait to see her completed quilt!

Finally, December was my month! I asked for these pinwheel within a star blocks. I told people that they could change the centers if they so desired and the fabric placements too. I haven't received all the blocks back yet, but the ones I have received are fantastic! I'll probably make up another block or two for my final quilt, but I haven't decided exactly what to do with them yet. I was planning on combining them in a checkerboard fashion with some improv blocks I had my other bee do, but it is looking way too busy.

So, that is a year's worth of bee blocks for the Maple Leaf Bee. I am starting up another round of Maple Leaf Bee and will have some new people. It is going to be half a year this time, which will be a little bit more manageable. I am super excited to get started and make some new online friends.

xo Nicole