Modern Bee

My sweet friend Lindsay from Lindsay Sews got her first book published and is doing a blog hop. I hope you guys have been following along.  The book is amazing and has beautiful quilts in it. I met Lindsay at Sewing Summit a couple of years ago in her creative journey class.

 She was such a sweet person and so easy to talk to. I really enjoyed hearing her story and the journey she had been on with wanting to publish a book. At that moment her book wasn't green lighted yet. I got to hang out with her again last Feb. at QuiltCon and heard the exciting news that she was being published!!! You can order your own copy here. 

I'm so happy and proud of her and her accomplishments. I was honored when she asked me to join her hop. She asked us to make anything we wanted out of the Mosaic Tiles Pattern. I chose to make a baby quilt because it seems like everyone I know is having babies. I picked a bunch of blues/turquoise and gray fabrics and got right to work.  It was such an easy patten and the directions were great. I had so much fun sewing this up. 

On the design wall trying to randomize the prints.  

 I liked using the 2 different grays. I really thought it made the blocks pop out. 

I love the back just as much. Simple, clean and modern. It was really fun being apart of her hop and I can't wait to make this quilt again. Go check out her book and join a bee. 

~January~

Full Day Of Sewing!!

It's so nice when you get a full day of sewing in. It's a rarity with two boys at home :) so when the stars aligned haha I ran with it. 

This was my first time to paper piece letters. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was looking for a fun, funky block for a surprise quilt a group of us are making for someone ;).  I picked a block out of the Sew Out Loud QAL. I have always loved this quilt and thought this block would be perfect. You can check out her post and get the template here.

We are doing a mugrug swap between our guild and the Las Vegas MQG. I found a great one on Pinerest and got to work. I did some echo quilting and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way it turned out. Finishing it up with yellow binding yay!!!

And lastly it was my turn to pick a BOM for the guild. I found this one on Pinterest, again ;) It was such an easy paper piece and went together super fast. You can check out the post and get the template here. I thought it would look good on point so I added some boarders and voila. 

I was kind of surprised at how much I got done in just a few hours. It felt great to finish a project haha.

~January~

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Wonky Paint Chip Mini

This is my first time to be apart of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. It seems I never finish one on time to participate. Today is the day :)

We had a fun challenge at our MQG called the Wonky Paint Chip Challenge. We each got to pick out a paint chip and had to use 2 of 3 colors on the chip. I picked one that was golden to pale yellow and knew immediately that I wanted to pair it with gray. I have been loving that color combo lately.  I got to thinking about the "WONKY" part of the challenge and looked all over pinterest for inspiration. I fell in love with this pin. It went together really fast and was a lot of fun to sew together. There wasn't a lot of hard thinking. Sometimes it's so nice to not think and just sew :) I named it yellow lighting for obvious reasons, but when my mom saw it she saw gray lighting. Well! It's interesting to me that people can look at the exact same piece and see something completely different. When you look at it what do you see, the yellow or the gray lighting? For the first time ever, I tried my hand at hand quilting and it was a lot fun. I don't know if I could do a huge project yet, but something this small was perfect. The mini finished up at 15" X 20".  

Be sure to stop by and check out all the cool quilts linked up at the Blogger's Quilt Festival and pick your favorite or link up your own. There's still time and a ton of great prizes too! I hope your having a wonderful week!!

~January~

And The Winners Are...

Thanks to everyone who joined in on the fun!!! If you didn't win I'm so sorry, but I hope you will stick around :) The way this year is flying by there will be another Giveaway Day before you know it. The winners have already been contacted - The Random Generator picked #28 For the FQ Bundle

#28

Allison CMay 6, 2013 at 2:45 PM

I'm a follower! I really like the Single Girl pattern.

And #65 for the Ruby Star Wrapping Book.

#65
MichelleMay 8, 2013 at 8:30 PM

I follow via bloglovin

I am new to quilting, so I don't have a favorite quilting book yet. I do enjoy looking through back issues of different quilting magazines for inspiration though!

Thanks again for playing!!!

~January~ 

Giveaway time 2

I love me some giveaways and I know you do too!! 

Yay, it's Giveaway Day! Be sure to check out all the cool loot people are giving away :)  and please stop by my other giveaway HERE.

I'm giving away a Ruby Star Wrapping Book. There have been a ton of blog hops and all sorts of hype over this book so, I thought it was a perfect giveaway.  "This is the ultimate resource for those who are as creative as they are willing to conserve. Ruby Star Wrapping inspires you to think resourceful, think reusable, think unusual when it come to gift packaging."

Such a fun and creative book!!

I'm making it easy to enter: Just be or become a follower and leave me a comment telling me your favorite quilt book :)

  International bloggers are welcome to join in on the fun as well. Giveaways end on Friday May 10th and I will randomly choose a winner through random.com on Saturday morning and announce it on Sunday. Make sure to check out all the great giveaways at Sew Mama Sew.  I hope you all have fun and good luck!!!

~January~

Its that time again -- It's Giveaway Day!!!!

I can't believe it's Giveaway Day already!!

 This is such a fun time and I love being a part of it - both playing and doing some giving of my own. And who doesn't love a giveaway!! I know I sure do :)

I have been hosting a low volume swap and have really loved all the low volume goodness. Round 2 will be in the near future as well ;) So I thought I would share the love and offer a Low Volume Fat Quarter Bundle. It's low volume in my opinion - there is a wide range on low volume depending on who you ask :) 

My bundle will include 4 FQ's.

Timber & Leaf Bird Flora Blue

Dear Stella Cleo Large Chevron Sand

Architextures Draft Paper Ivory

1001 Peeps Illuminate Light Blue

I'm making it easy to enter: Just be or become a follower and leave 
me a comment telling me your favorite quilting design :) International bloggers are welcome to join in on the fun as well. Giveaways end on Friday May 10th and I will randomly choose a winner through random.com on Saturday morning and announce it on Sunday. Make sure to check out all the great giveaways at Sew Mama Sew. Pop over to my other giveaway HERE!! I hope you all have fun and good luck!!

~January~

Cutting Fat Eighths

We are cutting Fat Eighths today!! 

First let me start out with this - If you are cutting fabric for a swap like the one we're doing here, be sure you get extra fabric for cutting errors. I cut (in my opinion) pretty precisely, however when I got to the end of my fabric I was a bit to short. I had no idea what had happened. Did I miscalculate how much fabric I needed? Did I somehow cut it wrong? It seems that I was actually shorted just a bit on fabric. This makes me feel a tad bit better, but it's very annoying especially when you call the company and they now may be out of the fabric your using. So, that being said I will now buy more fabric than needed and I will measure it before I cut it when I'm doing a swap.  

What is a Fat Eighth:
It is one-eighth yard of fabric that is usually cut 9"X22" instead of the typical one-eighth yard cut 4.5"X42.

I'm sorry my directions confused some people earlier so here is an easier way of cutting. Press your fabric before cutting it.

Cut 10 9" Wide strips by Width Of Fabric (WOF).

Hold down your ruler firmly while cutting. It's easy for it to slip and move around while cutting. It also helps to have a very sharp blade in your rotary cutter. You should never have to saw your fabric.

Then cut them in half.  You should end up with 20 9"X22" Fat Eighths.

Fat Eighths are a great precut. They allow for bigger prints and are very versatile.

I hope this helps everyone make there Fatties!!

Have a great day!

~January~