Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry

I've been looking forward to the Bloggers Quilt Festival because I have a special finish for the year of 2016. My very first donation quilt! We will talk about all the blah blah blah's in a minute so without further ado, here is 

BARN STARS

OK, now for the blah blah blah's. Back in 1985, I graduated from St. Benedicts. I attended 7 schools in my life and this was the school of friends I bonded with and will never forget. I can run in to a classmate and it's like we never left.  Well I ran into one one day and we decided to have a class reunion. We got 6 other people on board to help and now we are planning a reunion for 2017! Problem is, we have no money for a budget to plan.

I decided to make a quilt to raffle off to make some cash for the event. We thought we would be able to enter it into the St. Ben's summer social and give half of the proceeds to the school, and keep half for our reunion. Well, it didn't quite work out like we thought. Father explained that the money for the social goes toward tuition costs for less fortunate students. He didn't want to set a precedence. Although we completely understand, it was a little disheartening.

I still want to find a way to raffle this off to raise funds for our reunion, but I'm afraid I don't know where to start. I know legalities are involved with permits and such, so it's a little daunting. Suggestions would be appreciated!

This quilt started with the fabric and sort of evolved. I had no pattern or direction and just kind of went with what came to me.

Close up of the quilting, zippling.

I bought all solid fabric at first but even that decision quickly changed. I originally was going to make one big star. My goal was to make it super big, super fast! I can never keep things that simple. It went from one star to 4. then while making the stars I wanted arrows on the top and bottom. I knew I did NOT want a border. I really wanted to keep everything floating.

The whole thing measures about 70 x 98. Hmmmm, I may have to tweek it if I ever make a pattern. Not exactly standard. I know my long legged friends would love it, though;)

The back was an evolution of left-overs. I always seem to have left-overs. I think the back deserves a little personality too. Don't you?

With the quilt label, I added some ravens to represent our school mascot

And no quilt photo shoot of mine would be complete without my little Zoey

I mean...look at that precious smile :)

I hope you love it as much as I do! I'm really pleased with how my first quilt design turned out!

Good luck to all who participate in the Bloggers Quilt Festival!

A year....I'm still here

Wow, I can't believe it has been a year since I have blogged. My free time seems to be non-existent. Work, clean, fix dinner, clean, laundry=mental exhaustion. I think I need a class on how to better manage my time.

To be fair, there has been nothing I felt like blogging about last year. My free time was taken up by a quilt. A quilt I didn't want to do. An unsatisfying quilt(to me).

You see, back at the end of 2014, My aunt purchased an Amish quilt top. She asked me to put it together for her. I don't enjoy doing this type of work, but after much persuasion and negotiation, I agreed.

I don't like to work that way. It's not enjoyable for me to finish someones work. But, she's family. A bit easier for me to back down on my firm NO!

To make matters worse, my sister was pregnant and begged me to make her an entire layette about 1.5 months before her daughter was born. So right when I finally get some momentum going on the Amish quilt, I had to stop and work on baby things because the baby was coming soon. Guess what? I STILL need to make a bed skirt and a baby quilt :O. But I had to stop that project because, well, she was born, and my aunt was becoming impatient.

My sister and niece

this window cushion was a challenge and took FOREVER!!! getting the foam in was even worse. I ripped the cushion the first time because it was a tight fit, as it should be. After a little googling, and repair, I found the proper way. but the foam in a plastic bag and vacuum the air out. Put it in the cushion (quickly). then rip the bag off. It's a little cumbersome, but doable. It was hard to find a bag the right size.

Then my niece was born with a heart defect and went into congestive heart failure. She is soing fine and thriving finally after surgery to repair the holes in her heart. That put things on hold as well. We were all so scared!

Well, I FINALLY got the king size Amish quilt top FINISHED!!!!!! YAY!!! Huge burden lifted!

Amish quilt

So now I can get back to doing me. I have learned to say NOOOO!!!!!!!! It really is a matter of my own stress levels.

To bring you to current events, I'm making a quilt for my daughter's room that we are planning to re do. I will blog about that later. Yesterday I made my first public appearance!! I was asked by a colleague to take part of an around the world folk art bazaar for charity at one of the elementary schools at the school corporation I work for. It was my first public appearance :)

I  did a quilting demo for free motion quilting and had some of my quilts on display. It was fun to see little ones, both girls AND boys interested in what I was doing. I wish I had gotten some pictures, especially of this one little girl who already had her own sewing machine! LOVE TO HEAR THAT!!!!!

Me and Erika

I met the sweetest, most intersting foreign exchange student from Slovakia. Her name is Erika. She is 18 years old and she was demonstrating "Mal'ovanie Voskom" which basicall means, painting with wax.She melted crayons and painted designs on eggs. She learned this technique when she was 8 years old when she joined a creative club after school.She makes them every year before Easter.She is a kindred spirit in that she has a broad range of creative interests(like me) including sewing!I was so nervous to do this event, but meeting new people and seeing the little ones take interest made it all worth it!

Erika gifted me 2 eggs! Aren't they BEAUTIFUL??!!

FMQ entry

No time to blog and sorry for bad pics. I'm trying to get entry in before deadline :/ I will blog later.

The Smiley Bag

I finished my second entry for the Sew Sweetness Purse Palooza 2014 contest. I made the same bag as my last entry. It's my second attempt using the pattern I drafted myself, based on the Lizzy Bag by Vera Bradley. It's a little bigger than the Lizzy, and I again added a turn lock (this time a heart). I LOOOOOOVE how it turned out:)

The Smiley Bag

I used my beautiful daughter as a model. This purse really looks good on her!

As you can see we had a few laughs, as we always do;) She admitted to me that she wasn't crazy about the fabric when I started. But she said "I like it! If whoever that is for is stupid enough to not like it, I'll take it." That makes a mom feel good. She knows this one is not for her. She already picked out her fabric. Hers is coming. Hopefully I can crank out a few more(and hers of course) before Christmas!

I love this pocket!

I love this pocket! I think it's why I'm not getting board of making these:) Plus it's always fun to see how each fabric pattern will look. I have to admit, though, I got to know my seam ripper a little better with this one. I had sewn in magenta zippers. The color was way to off. 

Back side

The Black zippers look so much better. It was worth an extra day of work!

This is not the greatest interior photo. The are 2 pockets inside.

I'm having so much fun making this one. I'm highly considering making a pattern to sell, but it scares me to death if I'm going to be honest. I really don't know where to start :O I have made the bag 2 times and the pattern pieces seem to work, and I'm sure I could write instructions, but putting it in digital form is an enigma to me. Anyone willing to point me in the right direction would be appreciated! Oh ya, and if the name sucks (The Smiley Bag) I need ideas because that is as good as I could come up with. My friend suggested The Dani bag. It has a nice ring to it, lol!!

Lizzy remake

I have been on a sewing BREAK for the past few 5 months. There are many reasons. I've been pretty busy, but mainly, I just needed a break. I think it's because I dive in and just....don't stop. But the itch to get back has been there. I just needed a push. I couldn't resist Purse Palooza 2014 hosted by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness!

So here is my 2014 entry.

front view

back view

I recently purchased the Lizzy Bag by Vera Bradley. It's a smart little cross body bag with a handy slip pocket and flap pocket(2 pockets in one) on the front. i just loved the look. I don't know if they are discontinuing it, but there are no new patterns on the website. 

I normally don't go for such a small bag, but there are times I just don't want to carry all my crap that I usually feel the need to haul around, such as a fair, or shopping.

front slip/flap pocket

My bag is a wee bit bigger then the original Lizzy measuring 9X8. The pockets are made just a tad bigger as well to accommodate my IPhone 5. My phone will slide easily all the way down the slip pocket, or the flap pocket-even with my Otter box on.

hardware and piping detail

I changed the flap opting for this cute little turn lock I got from Janelle Mackay at Emmaline Bags. I LOVE HER HARDWARE! I think the right hardware really sets a handmade bag apart.

interior pockets

I added the interior pockets. The zipper pocket on the back of the bag had credit card slots which I didn't bother to add.  My decision for this was mainly because I was getting impatient to get it done! I have been working out this bag all week! I had to draft my own pattern(still learning that skill) and work out a few mistakes. Oh, and a couple of trips BACK to the fabric store to get more fabric. I quilted it using Soft and Stable for the batting. I have to say-WOW, I love how it quilted up! You do have to pull the fabric taught as you are quilting to avoid unsightly ripples. I was quilting on the bias, so I learned quick, pull it VERY taught. But no bigger then the piece I was quilting, it wasn't a problem. The payoff is great, though. The bag keeps its shape soooooooo well! It's very structured!

I so love this bag and now I have my first order for it- from my daughter, Ashley! She has already picked out her fabric which I already knew would be Waterfront Park half square triangle. She has been eyeballing that fabric in my stash for a while:)

My only question is what to call it? Is it proper to give it a name since I basically ripped  off the design from Vera? I don't feel bad about making it. You learn a lot about bag making by looking at and making a designer bag. But I'm at a loss as to what to call this entry. Any thoughts?

Splendid Ovum-Blogger's Quilt Festival

This post is loooooong overdue! I finished my Splendid Ovum(EGG) Quilt a week later than I had hoped. I was shooting for Easter, but better late then never!

Here are my two helpers for a quick snapshot. Drew was more interested in photo bombing then keeping the quilt straight.

The quilt measures 68X77. The biggest quilt i have made yet. And even with all of the negative space, it took me longer then I expected! I think I worked on it religiously for 2 months! All of those eggs were quite time consuming!

When I finally got-er-done,me and my husband had a serious conversation. It went something like this:

hubby: Is that quilt for me?
me: Do you want it?
hubby: Did you make it for someone?
me: No, nobody is getting this quilt, but I was going to enter it in a quilt show.
hubby: That's fine, I'll take it after that.

Well, that made me feel awesome! Haha! I think it may have had something to do with the fact that it's the biggest quilt I've made and the backing fabric I chose (Philip Jacobs-Foxglove) is soft as butter! He loved the weight of the quilt! It also made me feel a little guilty. I have been meaning to make him a quilt, but the right one hasn't hit me yet. Little does he know, I have fabric put back for him:) It's OK, he deserves 2 quilts!

Zoey even likes it!

I'm entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative side. I will be entering the Large Quilt Category. Mine is 290 in. around.

If you get a chance, go check out the many beautiful quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

I'm Eggstatic

I'm eggstatic how my eggs have turned out! Each one took sooooo much longer than I thought it would, but I think it has been worth it! I'm hoping this quilt will have a modern twist and not end up.....cheezy;)

I plan on getting my eggs together soon. I have to wait until next week to order my quilt backing fabric(which I have picked out). But that is ok,it will give me time to figure out how to quilt it. My goal is to have it done by easter! Check back soon! I have been doing regular updates on my FB page if you want to follow HERE. Maybe one day I will update my blog and put all of the fancy buttons on it :/ I will be posting again soon, I hope:)