More mini quilts

I have  made a few more mini quilts for 2 different reasons. The first reason is for another IG swap, actually called IGMini Swap. :)

My partner said she liked rainbow things and improv but wanted something a little more sophisticated. Trying to touch on all three items, I came up with this, It's quilted in rainbow variegated thread.

I sent a little mug rug, too, for the heck of it.

I made the quilting show on the back because I figured if she didn't like the front it would give her an alternative way to hang it.  She seems to like it, though, and the quilting so maybe she will hang it both ways, depending on her move.

This is what I received from someone else in the swap. I love it!

The other minis I created as giveaway prizes to my IG followers. I have been active there while not so much here and chose 5 random followers and made a mini of their choosing from the website fandominstitches.com.  It's great if you know how to foundation piece and like themes!

 The extra "O" is for a friend.

I had some fun making all of these.

Cheers!
Beck

Little Finishes

Joining in on SewJo Saturday, today.

The last couple weeks have been about little finishes.

I finished quilting a quilt for a friend (which I can't post about just yet) and I finished piecing and binding the Quilt of Valor donation quilt made by the Fredericksburg Modern Quilt Guild.  Another member will be binding it so it's off to her next week.

Our parameters were blocks that were red white and blue and 12" finished. Any style.  Look at the variations of style and yet they play so nicely together.  I can't wait to see what it looks like with the binding on it.

Also, I was asked (after volunteering my services for whatever might be needed) if I could make 5 small giveaway gifts for The Stash Bash in GA at the end of this month.  I went to this last year and had a great time sitting and sewing with old and new friends. I can't wait to see Chris Warnick (Frecklemama) again and everyone else.  Seriously. It's a weekend where food is prepped for you and a room is always open for sewing. Top it off by being on a beautiful piece of property and it's a wonderfully relaxing. I've got 4 out of 5 prizes finished, so far. I'm not sure what to make for the 5th. Maybe a cellphone wallet. I don't know... still thinking.

Prize 1 - zippered pouch

Prize 2 - 12" mini

Prize 3 - Thread catcher and tool holder

Prize 4- Thread catcher and tool holder

Last little finish, a bunch of headbands. I  keep buying headbands in hopes I can find ones that don't slip off during exercise with no success. So, I tried making one.

It worked, didn't slip once while exercising. I've made several more and will send them to my sisters and a friend to test and see if they work for them as well. Regardless of their review, they work for me and a couple of these extra ones will be in my drawer. :-)

If you want to make your own, you need 1 piece of fabric 4"x18" and 1 piece of 1"x4" elastic.
- fold in half lengthwise and sew long side together
- turn right side out and tuck the short, raw edges inside the tube about 1/4"
- press the whole thing
- position the elastic about 1/4" inside a short end and then sew the short end closed going over it about 3 times.
- repeat on the other side and it is complete

Cheers!
Beck

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - Pillow Covers

****GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**** Thank you to all who stopped by.****
The winner, by random.org number generator is Melissa!  She's the 34th entry out of 41. Congratulations, Melissa!
"Melissa Palmer said...

My family would go to the Christmas Eve service every year. So one year, back in the day, my youngest brother (12 at the time... yes, 12), got ALL. THE. WAY. TO. CHURCH... and then realized he wasn't wearing shoes as he was getting out of the car. Hilarious, and oh so typical of him :) We make fun of him every year for it!

Thanks for the chance! Those pillows are GORGEOUS!

Melissa"

*********************************************************************************
I may be missing a lot of blogging opportunity lately but I'm not going to miss posting a giveaway for all y'all!

Sew Mama Sew has organized a wonderful day again and I'm excited to join in and use this to jump start my blogging again. I've missed you so much, but that's not important right now, what's important is to get to the fun stuff.

I'm giving away these matching pillow covers.  They will fit a 16" square pillow form.
(Note: I am not including the pillow forms but they are standard forms from any craft store or Walmart.)

To enter, please leave a comment telling me a good funny family holiday story (any holiday if you don't celebrate Christmas).  NOTE: if you are a no-reply blogger or leaving an anonymous comment & do not include an email I can reach you if you win, your entry will be disregarded. The moral, please be sure to leave an email if you are one of those. Thanks! 

Giveaway is open until Friday, Dec. 13 at 8pm ET and I will ship internationally and will choose the winner randomly from the comments.

My funniest holiday story would have to be the one where my mother tried to kill the entire family one Thanksgiving.  We got to her condo and just outside the door, the smell was awful. When we got in, even worse! She told us she just made dad take out the garbage b/c it had to be the cat litter and while we thought this was stretching it, we figured, "okay".  No, about 10 more minutes and we couldn't take the stench any more. 5 grown adults and 3 adolescents started sniffing around the 900 sq ft condo looking for the smell. We all converged on the stove at the same time.

Hubs opened the oven door and the gagging commenced.  He closed the door. Mom profusely stated she just bought this, thawed it properly, it couldn't be the bird.  We opened the door again. She shut up.

I don't know who took the bird out to the back deck to torture the neighbors (frankly, I don't know how they all didn't come beating on her door b/c her smell had to be ruining their turkey day smell) but I know it wasn't me.

Mom started calling stores to see if she could find an unfrozen bird or breast. I opened the wine. Dad and hubs went to get the new bird.  The girls drank and then, like any family who needs to waste time, after we had a few under our belts, we started drunk Skyp-ing and I decided calling Ms Shay of Quilting in My Pyjamas fame, to introduce her to my kin was a good idea.

Seriously after that, Shay only answered one Skype call after that. I think she felt sorry for me but has ultimately realized that if she's not talking to me, the police will have no reason to haul her out of bed at midnight one night when one member of my family has finally succeeded in offing the rest and the police need witnesses to determine what happened when and how. Wise choice, Shay, I'd probably have done the same. -wink-  It's a wonder I'm still on her blog roll list.  The woman must not be as administratively judicious on her blog as she is on screening Skype.

So, while to this day mom laments her best plan had not worked, the rest of us are not so silently thankful our noses weren't all stuffed up that fateful day. (And yes, we've had Thanksgiving's since without incident.)

So, you want to win these pillow covers or what?  Share your tale!

Cheers!
Beck 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fractured Sunlight

I have been waiting for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy's Creative Side, to unveil this quilt on my blog.  First, though, if you are here from the festival, welcome! If you have not heard of it, click the link to check it out. It is an awesome, online quilt show that will open up for voting at the end of the week. I absolutely love this festival.  I try to visit each and every blog to see the creations and I become so inspired.

On to my entry, which I'm putting into the Two Color Quilt category, I love this quilt for a few different reasons.

-         It makes a bold statement in its simplicity (honestly, it looks much more complicate than it is.)

-         The design is 100% my own, but I did enjoy using the InstaGram community for opinions along the way.  (I love IG these days, feel free to find me at Sarcastic Quilter.)

-         The kids and hubs (who doesn’t usually like modern quilts) all love it and enjoy seeing it on the wall.

-         The kids participated in the photo shoot of the quilt! You have to read on for details on this one. I’ll just say now it was one of my finer parenting moments and I am bragging because it’s so hard to have these moments when they are all teens! LOL

This quilt uses the "Sunrise" block from EQ6 and is foundation pieced. I did a QAL a couple years ago with this block to teach foundation piecing but have been wanting to explore different looks I might get with only two colors. I chose the fabrics.

I made four blocks and tested designs.

I sewed the remainder of the blocks, then pieced borders and sewed them on. Next, I quilted the heck out of this baby, echoing the shapes in each block and border and even mimicking some of the print on the fabrics in places.  

Regarding that parenting moment, it was shortly before school started. The kids nor I had any activities all weekend and the sun was shining.  I told them to get their shoes on, grabbed this and another quilt which needed photographing and we hopped in the car.  When the kids asked what we were doing, I said going on a photo shoot. They all had to come up with places to photograph the quilts at, keeping in mind the style of the quilts and figuring out complimentary backgrounds etc. Reluctant at first, after the 1^st location (a park down the road), they were in the spirit.  Taking my camera and taking photographs themselves or giving me instructions on angles as they were hanging and arranging the quilts.

For example, the shot below actually has my kid pulling on a branch to open up the draped quilt. He passed the little seedling and thought it would be great to drape the quilt on with the background and filtered sun. Kind of cool for a 13 year old, don't you think? I'm convinced these kids have more than we do half the time & we just need to find ways to let them express it.

My kids got creative, we spent a few hours outdoors together and we had fun laughing and sharing. Many of these photos came about because of the quilt's name, "Fractured Sunlight", can you tell?  

There were quite a few people around so it became a big race to get photographs without folks moseying along the paths in the background.

So, I love this quilt. Not just for the personal experiment it was for me in designing, creating and quilting it but for the wonderful excuse it provided for an afternoon of fun and comraderie with my kids.

If you like it, please consider nominating it and giving it a vote.  That would just be some nice icing on the cake to share with the kids.  I know their involvement in the story will make them proud.

I am off to view all the other beautiful entries now, I hope you enjoy the rest of the festival and a big thanks to Amy for hosting and ALL the sponsors this year!!!

Cheers!

Beck

The Monopoly Quilt won Honorable Mention

Holy cow! I don't know if there were only 3 quilts in the exhibited category or more but I'll gladly accept the quilt was good enough to win an Honorable Mention Ribbon at the quilt festival. 

I'm so tickled about this.

Hubs is very proud and now thinks I should enter quilt shows regularly.  He's determined I submit something to next year's IQFoI.  Personally, I believe he really wants to use it as an excuse to visit Ireland again.  An excuse I can't argue with! LOL

Anyway, last picture and brag. I just wanted to close out the "story" on this one with you all.  The quilt is now back at home and teen son has reclaimed it for his bed.

Cheers!
Beck

I have a quilt at the Int'l Quilt Festival of Ireland!

I was contacted a few months ago with an invitiation to put my Monopoly quilt in the "Games and Puzzles" exhibit at the http://www.iqfoi.com/.   How cool it felt that someone saw my quilt and thought it was nice enough to send that email! 

I pondered whether to send it, after all, it's a bed quilt and has been used daily for a few months by the teen boy.  After a good wash and examination, it appears P has been taking good care of it.  I did ask P if I could send it off to the show and it took him a couple days to decide it was okay.  Frankly, I think that was more of a compliment to the TRUE value of the quilt than even the invitation. Two good compliments in one week.  I had to be careful fitting my head through the doorways for a bit there! -wink-

Anyway, I decided to send it off and it's should be hanging there as I type this. The show is this weekend and if you are going or know anyone who is going, can you do me a favor (or beg a favor for me)?

Could you get a picture of "Monopoly" at the show and email it to me? I'd be forever grateful!

If you are going, have a wonderful time. Hubs and I have been talking about getting back to visit such a beautiful country again, it's too bad we couldn't make it work for this weekend.

Cheers!
Beck

Swooning into the Blogger's Quilt Festival - May 2013!

Amy is at it again. I love that woman. Just in time to come back to the blog after a short break after the SMS Giveaways, Amy hosts the festival.

The main page to the festival is linked HERE.  On this main page, the individual categories will be linked since there are often so many entries.  The other bonus to that, in my opinion, is that it's more organized to see and link around to the sponsors. I love visiting and shopping at the sponsor sites, even if my wallet doesn't!

I have decided to enter one quilt in the festival and that is the Swoon throw quilt I completed late last year and measures about 54" square.  The original post on this Swoon can be found here but I can reiterate some fun facts just for this festival entry.

This pattern, Swoon, by Camille Roskelly, is a great little pattern. I enjoyed making it, I even had a brainstorm on how to simultaneously sew the HSTs for pinwheel blocks that can be used on the quilt as a partial border.

I chose the purple, blue and white fabrics first and then, searched for a background which was different but awesome. This green completely does it for me. I tested the waters a bit and quilted the various sections in different ways. I am so happy with the result!
What I'm most proud of, however, is that most corners in this quilt are as good as this one or pretty darn close.

Lastly, I choose a navy blue to anchor the whole quilt together and because this was a throw, I backed it with a lavender minkee for comfort. Isn't it neat to see all the quilting on the back? It almost looks like it was embossed.
Shortly after this was completed and mentioned my step-son's mom stopped over for a visit & mentioned she was participating in a fundraiser for her sister's support organization. It was a cancer support organization and I'm sorry to say I cannot remember which but I mentioned I just finished a quilt I could donate. When I pulled it out, it turned out the colors were the representative colors for the particular cancer support.  I would have loved to keep this Swoon but I'm much happier knowing it has helped someone who needs it.  I love quilting.

I hope you like it and if you do, please consider giving it a nomination nod. It'd be great to have it recognized but with so many beautiful quilts, I can certainly appreciate it may be a difficult decision. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the festival.

Cheers!
Beck

SMS Giveaway Winners!

Short and sweet, a big thank you to all of you who popped by and entered my giveaways. I was surprised to see such a response and I had a blast going to many other blogs and entering, even though I didn't win anything, I'm happy to have found several new blogs to read.

ETA: I need to edit this and say I did win over at Quiltbarn's giveaway! YAY, love Notworthy prints.

You know, because I have all the extra time for it. LOL

So, on to the winners.


The winner of my first giveway, for various patterns and books is
Dortha!
"dortha said...

I had a boiled egg. Nice give away."


The winner of the second giveaway, a small zip pouch with a few goodies is
Sarah!
"Sarah Macdonald said...

I love to crochet, but I'm getting more and more into sewing these days!"


CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!  

Cheers!
Becky

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - Giveaway 2

This giveaway is now closed. Winner will be announced soon.

I'm joining the giveaway day again. I have missed out the last couple so I decided to host two giveaways. This is the second giveaway.

This giveaway is for a handmade key fob and a zippered pouch, which I've recently learned to make and love for the quick satisfaction.  Inside the pouch, I've added some goodies, a 2in pack of Moda Bella Solids, a spool of Superior's NiteLite glow in the dark thread, the Celebrate Dreams pattern by Tweetle Dee, and most of, if not all, of a charm pack by Moda (I'm sorry, I don't remember the name but it's sweet pink, red, and white colors.)

To enter, please leave me a comment telling me what your favorite sewing or crafting activity is (i.e., do you prefer to sew clothes, kids toys, quilts, scrapbook, designing, etc.)

One entry per person and good luck! This giveaway is open to international participants and will close for all on May 10 at 5 p.m. PST. Winners drawn randomly using the random number generator.

ETA: If you are a no comment blogger or an anonymous commenter, please leave me your email. If you win and i have no way of reaching you, I will choose another winner.

 Please take a look at Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day post for hundreds of more wonderful giveaways!

Cheers!

Beck

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - Giveaway Day 1

This giveaway is now closed. Winner will be announced soon.

I'm joining the giveaway day again. I have missed out the last couple so I decided to host two giveaways. This is the first giveaway. 

These are quilting pattern books and clothing and sewing patterns I haven't used and don't think I will.  Also included are a few fat quarters from JoAnn's that I cannot remember what I bought it for. Maybe to line a soccer bag for son #2, I'm not sure. Let's see if I can list it for you:

• Garden Lattice Quilts by Eleanor Burns
• Quilt it Yourself Booklet by Simplicity
• American Patchwork Quilting Magazine Pattern insert
• Trip Around the World by Eleanor Burns
• Irish Chain in a Day by Eleanor Burns
• Quilts for Kids to Love by American School of Needlework
• Quilts for Baby by That Patchwork Place
• Pillow Trio by ModKid
• Kitschy Corset Apron by Brassy Apple
• Ruthie's Romper by Izzy& Ivy
• Long Live Vintage Pattern book by AdornIt
• Stars & Stripes pattern and templates by Teri Henderson Tope
• Fons & Porters Printed Treasures Label Kit

Anyway, short and sweet post. If you would like, please post a comment and tell me what the healthiest thing you've eaten or will eat today is. (I like to come up with random ideas for these giveaway comments. hehe)

One entry per person and good luck!  One entry per person and good luck! This giveaway is open to international participants and will close for all on May 10 at 5 p.m. PST. Winners drawn randomly using the random number generator.

ETA: If you are a no comment blogger or an anonymous commenter, please leave me your email. If you win and I have no way of reaching you, I will choose another winner.

Please take a look at Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day post for hundreds of more wonderful giveaways!

Cheers!

Beck

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, VA Feb 2013

It's been so long since I've posted I thought my first post back in should be quilt related and, well, just plain fluff.

Mom and I attended again this year, together. We make a full day of it and have a great time just hanging out. Here, I made her pause in the cold and windy weather to take a photo for you.  She'll always stop for a photo!

Also, I was sucked in. Sucked in, I tell you, in purchasing the following fun items:

This bundle of fabric that I love but have no use for.  It was a 5 yard bundle for $30. There was another lady petting it but her friend talked her out of it, told her it wasn't very pretty. What's up with that? I think it's beautiful!

Fat quarters for the #sweatnsew challenge I was running on Instagram (now you know that between home life and work, my other free time has been on Instagram).

A nifty tool for making Lemoyne stars blocks. I'm convinced this is going to make my life easier with these stars that I love and will be reporting soon on this particular tool.

Small, pre-printed whole cloth fabrics. I want to use these and practice some tarpunto quilting by machine. This is a quilting bucket list item for me.

A paint kit so I can dye my own fabrics.  I've seen this for years but this year, I decided to take the plunge and get some tools. I think I'm really going to enjoy letting a little creative out of me with this but as with the star tool, I want to clean some things off my plate first before I add more to it.

Lastly, one of those things to clean off, mom bought these fabrics so I can make her a tote. Don't you think this will look great! She's got a love of batiks and the price of these was unbelievably good. Almost a steal!

As for the rest of the show, I think I'll let most photos speak for themselves.  The labels first, then the quilt.  Enjoy.

I really wanted to take this one home! :)

Cheers!
Beck