Two Winners!

I know I said I would announce the winner of the February UFO Parade on Monday, but really, why wait?  It's not like there will be any more entries!

First, let me announce the winner of the Bag It! giveaway.  This is an "instant gratification" prize, because as soon as I send the winner's email address to Sara, the pattern will be emailed from Sara to:

Commenter #26, Rebeckah Austin, who wrote:

Here is a photo of the bag chosen by Rebeckah:

Congratulations, Rebeckah -- I'm sure Sara will send you the pattern soonest!

If you didn't win, don't despair.  You can buy your own copy of any of Sara's patterns at Sew Sweetness!


While we're picking winners, why not pick the winner of the February UFO Parade?

Once more to the Random Number Generator, and the winner is:

Who turns out to be Sooli, in Australia!  Here is the winning entry:

 

Sue, I think you should have another bag pattern!  Please go to Sara's website at Sew Sweetness and choose which pattern you like best.  Let me know, and I'll email the link to you.  Instant gratification! (since I learned it can take three weeks for a package to get to Australia)!


DH tells me it's supposed to snow again tomorrow, so I'm turning off the computer and going OUTSIDE! Happy Sunday!

From the desk of your

A Few More February Finishes

For such a short month, February turned out to be pretty productive!

Once I completed my Scrap Squad quilt (blogged on Quilty Pleasures here) and my 100 Blocks magazine sample quilt, I just kept on sewing and sewing and sewing -- I think I averaged six hours per day at the machine.

First I finished the April Jelly Roll Party sample, "Garden Paths."  This is the quilt I complained about last Wednesday. Now I admit that, once the borders are on, I really like this quilt.  It turned out larger than most Jelly Roll Party quilts, too bad there isn't a great-niece with an upcoming 12th birthday!

Than I finished the most recent "Brown Bag Surprise" quilt from Ruth's Stitchery.  I love to do these projects, because Ruth cuts all the fabric -- all we quilters have to do is show up and sew!  This one is called "Indonesian Railroad."  The pattern is from the 2012 "That Patchwork Place" calendar.  Of course, it's called "Indonesian" because all the fabrics are batiks!

This is quilt #9 for 2013.

The sample quilt has a wide border of medium blue batik, but I really think this looks better as a "No Borders" quilt.  Vivian quilted the sample in the shop with a variegated blue and purple thread, which really sets off the various colors of the batiks.  (PS I hear there are one or two kits left over from the class, and as a bonus, when you buy a kit you get 12 patterns with the included calendar!)

Quilt #10 for 2013 is the last "Strip Club" quilt from High Country Quilts.  I will really miss that group, we met for seven years!

It's called "Iphegene's Walk," inspired by a walking path in New York's Central Park.  The path is named for preservationist Iphegene Ochs Sulzberger.  Go here to read more about her and about Iphegene's Walk.  I made my quilt from Kona cotton solids, and looking at this photo of the Walk in Springtime leads me to believe I made a good choice!  (photo from New York Focus website)

Isn't it beautiful?  Doesn't it just make you want to fly off to New York?  OK, let's wait a month . . .

BTW, according to Wikipedia, in Ancient Greek mythology, Iphegenia was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, whom Agamemnon was commanded to kill as a sacrifice to allow his ships to sail to Troy. Her name means "strong-born," very appropriate for Iphegene Ochs Sulzberger, who was influential in forming the Central Park Conservancy.  

On the schedule for today is the next "Sew Sweetness" bag sample, another 100 Blocks sample and the March UFO.

Here are the blocks I have completed for my March UFO project:

Only four blocks to go!

Today is the last day to comment on the Bag It! giveaway for a chance to win one of Sara's bag patterns.  Go here to comment, and good luck in the giveaway!

From the desk of your

February UFOs Parade

Wow!  Just. Wow!

I can't believe the quilts and other projects that have been completed this month!  And it was a short month, too!

Before the parade begins, here is your assignment for March, should you decide to accept it:

UFO #1

I don't have a photo of my next UFO project, but it's a quilt from the 2010 Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop. The shops had a special "Colorado" themed fabric printed just for the hop, and each shop designed a block using Civil War reproduction fabrics.

I did get my own February UFO pieced (remember, in my world, ready to go to the quilter is finished!):

It's an oldie Buck-A-Block project, blogged here.

And now, Ta Da!  The February UFO Parade!

Look at this beauty!  Anyone who has made one of Bonnie Hunter's mysteries will appreciate Karen's "Orca Bay."  Go to her blog here to read "the rest of the story."

Sooli finished two projects in February.She says the first one took "no time at all," so she went ahead and finished her #3 UFO, the second bag.  Sooli is one of my Australian followers, visit her blog here.

Irene has a jump on next Christmas with this cute snowman panel quilt.  She says all it needed was the binding -- but you know it is hard for something like that to go to the top of the pile!  (I know, I know!  I hate binding!)

Another two-fer finish comes from Sandra in San Diego (lucky duck).  Her blog is called KwiltnKats, so of course, her quilts are named:

Kadette

and Konfidential

The story "behind the kwilts" is here.

Another Australian friend, Susan, finished up this cute "houses" quilt:

See more of Susan's projects at her blog here.

Kerry got this lovely, challenging quilt finished just in time for the February parade:

In her blog post, here, she claims this pattern "goes together quickly."  I'm thinking my friend Holly is going to have another person on the bus . . .

Oh, man, here is another person who finished two projects in this short month!  AND she was battling the floods in Australia!

This is Noela's January finish (the power was out, so she couldn't email!):

And here is her Twister Table Runner for February:

Well done, Noela, and we all hope the flood cleanup is complete!  Here is Noel's story.

Jessi made this quilt in exchange for a friend's piano -- then found out the piano was too big to be moved!  But she still finished the quilt for her friend, who will be visiting China and considering teaching English there.  I had to share two photos, one shows the entire quilt, but the second one show the colors better (and oh, yeah, I see another Orca Bay in the works!)

Here is another Lil' Twister quilt, made by Debbi using Bunny Hill's Lily and Will II and a bit of Deb Strain's Cherish Nature.  Debbi reports that her 2013 UFO list has 15 items -- and she finished two this month.  But only sent one photo!  Hope to see the other finish next month, Debbi!

"Quilt Camp Carol" sent this photo of some lovely applique work.  She has such a great eye for combining colors!

And friend Martha claims her February finish would never have been finished if her son had not said "I want this one."  So glad he did!  I hope I get to see this one in person, Martha!

Once again, WOW!  I hope you'll visit the blogs of these fine finishers, and if I missed you this month, let me know.  I'll update the post -- and announce the winner of this month's giveaway on Monday.

From the desk of your

BOM-day

You know how you see a new Block of the Month project and think "Oh, it's only one block per month. I can do that."

Yeah.

I'm sure I'm not the only quilter who has eight BOM projects underway. I've spend all weekend catching up on my Blocks of the Month.  Being a "visual" person, I listed all of my BOMs on my project white board:

The Twisted Amish, 3D Sampler and Patchwork Party projects are one, two and three years old respectively. I've been working on the Farmer's Wife for three years -- but now that Marti Michell has written a conversion chart for the blocks to use her templates, it is going much faster.

Six blocks this month:

The Patchwork Party BOM also uses Marti Michell's templates.  I love her technique, the pieces fit together like a dream!

Here is the latest Designer Mystery block:

I'm so glad I went ahead and pieced all the setting blocks.  Two more months and this one will be ready to put together and quilt!

Here is one of the two block parties I joined this year at Ruth's Stitchery, Ryokan:

The newest in my BOM gallery is "Vintage Memories," using a gorgeous new collection by Marcus Brothers, "Gallery in Red and Blue" by Faye Burgos.  I'm not a "blue" fan, but I had just finished a red and white quilt, so I decided to go with the blue colorway.

I'm hoping that having the list right there next to my cutting table will encourage me to keep up with all these BOM projects this year!  For additional accountability, I'm linking up to Sinta's BOM Rehab at Pink Pincushion.

Only two more days to get your February UFO photos in for the parade!


From the desk of your

Bag It! Giveaway

I recently test sewed a bag for Sara Lawson of "Sew Sweetness."  This is a great bag, with a unique closure that twists to lock.  Hence, Sara calls it the "Locked and Loaded" bag.

Here is the photo of my sample bag:

Sara shows photos of several other sample bags on her blog post here.

I love that she included an adjustable strap.  I don't like to carry a shoulder bag -- they always make my back hurt.  Do you have that problem?

Sara recommends "ByAnnie's" Soft and Stable interfacing.  This type of interfacing looks like very thin foam rubber with fine knit fabric on each side.  It really makes the bag stand up nice, without being heavy.

The Locked and Loaded bag also has a zipper pocket inside.  If you've never put a zipper pocket in a bag, Sara's instructions make it easy peasy!  Of course, I hope she has amended the pattern to remind the maker to put the zipper against the BACK side of the bag, rather than the front.  We'll just pretend I meant to do that.

This bag is larger than a purse I would normally carry, but it will make a terrific knitting bag!

You say I mentioned a Giveaway?  Right-o.  How about a pattern of your choice from Sara's collection of bag patterns?

Just go here and look over her patterns.  Then come back and leave a comment telling me which is your favorite.  If you're the winner, Sara will email you a PDF copy of the pattern of your choice!

Giveaway ends Sunday, March 3 at noon MDT.  If you're a no-reply commenter (or anonymous) please be sure to include your email address in your comment.  Of course, international entries are welcome!

Linking up to "Weekending" at 1/4" mark.

Only three more days to finish your February UFO.  Send in those photos by Thursday to be included in the 13 in 2013 Parade!


From the desk of your

WIP Wednesday and Why I Don't Like It

Oh, it's not WIP Wednesday I don't like.  It's this quilt, the April project for Jelly Roll Party:

And again, it's not this quilt design I don't like.  Or the fabric I don't like.

It's the combination of this pattern and this fabric.

The pattern is "Garden Paths" by Amanda Murphy.  The sample quilt is made with Amanda's "Veranda" collection for Robert Kaufman.  It is a lovely collection of multi-colored floral and citrus-y prints.  I am using a new line from Moda, Sakura Park by Sentimental Studios.

(photo lifted from Suzzett's Fabric)

I chose this fabric because "Veranda" is no longer available, and I think it's important to make shop samples from fabric that is available at our host shop, Ruth's Stitchery.

Here is the photo of the original sample quilt:

(from Amanda's blog)

As you can see, the original fabric has a wide variety of colors and prints.  Sakura basically has three colors, pink, blue and green.  I chose the pink tone-on-tone as my accent color.  It is turning out to be a really, really PINK quilt.

Plus, once again, a photo highlights a piecing mistake I made:  twice, I have the same green prints adjacent to each other.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday, the QuiltCon edition, at Freshly Pieced.

    

Sigh.  I have to finish this sample, but I do have a "Veranda" jelly roll.  "Someday" I will make the quilt again using Amanda's fabric!

From the desk of your

Monday Monday!

It's a holiday -- no mail in the US today while we celebrate the namesake of My Little Sailor's ship, the USS George Washington!

The Front Range Modern Quilt Guild celebrated its second "birthday" on Saturday.  What a bash!  Prezzies for all, cake, the Madrona Road Challenge pillow exchange -- too much fun!

Michael Miller company graciously provided fabric packs of the blue colorway of "Madrona Road" by Violet Cross to hundreds of modern quilters for this challenge.  I think every guild member who received fabric made a pillow:

Here is the pillow I made for friend Kari:

See how much I love you, Kari, I paper-pieced this block!  It's from Nancy Mahoney's "Kaleidoscope Quilts."  I even did some hand-quilting around the white triangles (sadly not visible in this photo.  The light in our meeting place is bad bad bad!).

You might not know, but the pillows Kari made were selected from dozens of entries to be displayed at Michael Miller's booth at QuiltCon in Austin, Texas this week.  Well done, Kari!


Just look at the pillow Angela made for me!  She really went above and beyond to make it special,  surveying my friends as to what I like:  "Marti doesn't like blue" (oh, no, the fabric is blue, what will I do?)"  "Marti talks ALL the time about Her Little Sailor.  (I know he's on an aircraft carrier.  In the Western Pacific.)

Angela printed out a photo of Jacob's ship and traced it to cut out the ship's profile from the text print.  In the lower right hand corner, the text reads "Prince of the Pacific Northwest."  What she didn't know is, My Little Sailor was born in Tacoma, Washington -- he is truly a Prince of the Pacific Northwest!"

She fashioned a lighthouse from the herringbone print, and fussy cut a flower to form the light.  She then quilted yellow "light rays" emanating from the light.  And "waves" on the blue "water."  She even stitched the ship's CVN number, "73" on the "island" of the ship!

I should have taken a photo of the back -- she attached a metal snap to close the cover.  Clever, huh?

I gotta tell you, when she presented it to me . . . well, let's just say Mary Kay waterproof mascara really IS waterproof!  Thank you, Angela, I will treasure it!

Let's take one more look at all 26 pillows.  A couple of people purchased fabrics from the orange/pink colorway to match the wishes of the recipient.  And every single pillow is incredible!

What a display!

So how's your February UFO coming along?  I've only received a few entries for the parade, so this is your official "nag nag nag" statement!

From the desk of your