Pincushion Pass Assignments

Pincushion Pass assignments have been posted on Flickr! Hurry over and leave a comment letting me know that you are ready to go.

Scattered Dots Tutorial

I was asked for a tutorial for these potholders, which gave me the perfect excuse to make this:
I took pictures along the way.
Here goes.
First, you will need to decide on your dimensions. The potholders were roughly 7" square. The mini quilt is 14" square.
In both cases, I chose a solid for the background. I used a Kona gray solid for the potholders and linen for the mini. The outermost strips are cut 2 1/2" wide. All other strips are 1 1/2" wide. In this case, they are 14" long.
Then I cut my colored strips 3/4" wide by 14" long.
I traced my spool of thread onto the backside of my material to create the "dots." If you don't have a spool handy, the dots are 1 1/4" diameter.
You should now have all your dots, colored strips and solid strips.
Line them up so that they are ready to sew and you won't make a mistake with the order. Stitch from left to right using a scant 1/4" seam.
I found it best to iron my seams toward the solid fabric as shown.
Then I cut stitch witchery to the same size as the colored dots, fiddled with their "random" placement until I was satisfied, and adhered them in place. Next I used a tight, narrow zigzag to applique. It is important to find a good match with your thread so that the stitching virtually disappears. These dots could be made in countless ways; this is just the method that I used.
Now you are ready to make your quilt sandwich. I quilted an 1/8" away from the strips and dots. Then bind and you are done.
I hope you have fun with this. I have other variations in mind that I hope to try sometime soon.

Garden Shots and Potholder Pass 3 Goodies

First off, here are my favorite garden shots of the week. All the iris are in bloom right now, both the Siberian and Dutch. The iris in the front here is another favorite of mine (I think all of my flowers are favorites actually!). It is called "Super Ego" and is the bluest iris that I have seen.

And I had fun mail today! I received this package from Misty, my partner for the Potholder Pass 3.

Her potholders are so intricately pieced! Each little square must only be about an inch. The designs are very attractive.

And she included this sweet little pincushion. It's really adorable. It's tiny and I really do adore tiny little things. Thank you very much Misty! I must say, fun mail is the best!

Mini Quilt Giveaway Winner

I used the Random Number Generator to choose the winner of the mini quilt but I can't figure out how to capture the image of the generator and show it here. You will have to just trust me. The winner is SpicedCoffee!
Thank you everyone for joining. I will have to do this again soon. It was fun.

Speaking of giveaways...look at what I received in the mail from Kimberly, aka BahamaDawn! It is the most adorable, colorful, journal cover. Her curved piecing and freemotion quilting are wonderful.
(picture courtesy of BahamaDawn)
AND, she was giving away this copper and silver charm but decided to turn it into an entire necklace for me! Isn't it beautiful? She makes everything herself. She made the pretty blue bead and wrapped the sea glass. I can't wait for an opportunity to wear it when the baby won't be able to grab it from my neck and yank! Thank you so much Kimberly.

"Color Play with Scattered Dots"

Something about this shot of the quilt really pleases me. It is a mini quilt pinned to a garden obelisk but at a quick glance, I see an easel with a painting!
I have been wanting to make some sort of color wheel inspired mini quilt for my sewing area for ages. I keep seeing great color wheel projects popping up on Flickr but was waiting for inspiration to strike. I decided to use my "Love Beads" inspired design, as I did on Mary's potholders. I am calling this design "scattered dots" for lack of a better description. Unlike the "Love Beads" where there are multiple, evenly spaced "beads" or circles on each line, my version has only one or two and the placement is random.

I had fun with the binding here, repeating the order of the color wheel with scraps. It was tricky to space them properly though so that they didn't land on corners and were evenly spaced around the quilt!
I was asked if I could share a tutorial for the potholders so I photographed each step of making this and will put the pictures together into a tutorial within the next day or two.
Tomorrow I will draw a random number for the winner of the sunflower mini quilt (see two posts down).
It is 90 degrees here for the second miserably hot day in a row. I hope it is cooler where you are.

"Impression of a Sunflower #2" and more on Linocuts

Before tucking it away and moving on to the next linoleum block, I made one more print. Here is "Impression of a Sunflower #2." This one is intended for a certain recipient so I could play with color more. I wanted to make the giveaway more neutral to work in different homes.
I used a log cabin style block and this time made a ring of french knots at the center of the sunflower. Again, I had to add my signature bee. I tried not to but something was missing!
Here is my stack of previously carved linoleum blocks. I used to print them on rice paper and make greeting cards which I sold at art fairs. I still have a whole store of cards all ready to sell and should probably open an etsy shop. I stopped going to the fairs shortly after Timothy was born. Which block looks interesting to you? I printed the Asiatic Lily also and now I need to decide which one to try next. Any suggestions?
Here is a sneak peak of one block.

And here is another.

I was asked where I bought my supplies. I got the fabric and inks from the Dharma Trading Company. I don't think I would make a quilt with these blocks because I would fear repeated washing. But they will be fun for mini quilts, tote pockets, etc.

Mini Quilt Giveaway

This mini quilt measures about 11" x 13". I printed the sunflower from a linoleum block that I carved about 8 years ago. This was my first time printing some of my work on fabric. I normally print them on rice paper. It is embellished with some metallic beads at the center and a little bee buzzing to the side. I'm calling it "Impression of a Sunflower."

If you would like to enter, just leave a comment. If you are a follower, go ahead and enter a second time as my way of thanking you for the comments that you leave me on a daily basis! I will close the giveaway on Thursday and draw a random number. Good luck!

Busy Saturday

Truth be told, some of this happened yesterday but the days tend to blur together. My 4 year old daughter, Lily, is very into horses. For her birthday, my sister gave her a stuffed horse head and a tail to attach to her bike to turn it into a pony. If you pinch the ear, it makes horse sounds. The sight of her on this "pony" is enough to make just about anyone smile. Now she fancies unicorns as well and asked me to help her make a horn. She chose the scrapbook paper and we made a cone and added some glitter glue. In our haste to transform the horse before the glue was dry, some of it smeared. I attached it with a thin white ribbon so it can be removed when this fickle little one decides that she wants her pony back.
This morning we hit the flea market fundraiser at our elementary school and I found an LL Bean single jogging stroller for Penny for a mere $10! I took off the fabric seat and washed it and my husband replaced one tire and it is basically as good as new. The person selling it told me that it didn't fold and that was the main reason for the low price. Well, once I got it home my husband figured out how to fold it in a couple of seconds. If that wasn't enough excitement, we found Minty. Minty is the mint green Little Pony above. Lily loves Little Ponies and we are having the hardest time finding them. She has the few basic ones that pop up everywhere but she saw Minty in a video and has been wanting her for a good year. I haven't been able to find her but we bought her today for a dollar. It was a well spent dollar! Then we went to the garden club plant sale where I bought a red astilbe for a new shade garden area that I dug on Friday. I spent the rest of the day gardening. Tomorrow I will plant the window boxes.
This little ground cover is very unusual. I bought it a couple of years ago now mostly based on its name, "Pussytoes." Isn't that cute?
My Siberian iris have started blooming this week. This is one of my favorites called "Shaker's Prayer."

The lupine are beautiful right now. These really please me because I grew them from seed too! I know I get unduly excited about things I have grown from seed but it is just plain exciting! I have both the blue/purple lupine and pink.

This is my favorite shot because it is Penny reaching for the lupine as I am holding her. As I carry her she points and exclaims "Ba!" or "Ahh!" etc. until I bring her to things to touch. She particularly likes plants. I think she gets it from me!

I will be back on Monday with my giveaway!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

If you are new to my blog and visiting as part of the Bloggers Quilt Festival, welcome! Hello to all my returning blogger friends.

Today I am sharing my Stained Glass Windows, a cathedral windows quilt. This project definitely feels like my biggest accomplishment this year. I worked on it non stop from about Christmas till mid March. I used the machine to assemble the white squares but I hand sewed all the windows open.

My favorite pictures are those where the light is streaming through the quilt. I noticed how nice it looked hanging over the ironing board with the light from the windows coming from behind so my husband and I rigged it up for a picture.



It measures 40” square and will hang in our front hall at the top of the stairs once we renovate the hall. Of course, it won’t be back lit then so it will look more like this:

I am glad to have this chance to look at the pictures again because the quilt is put away at the moment because our renovation plans changed and we are working on a downstairs bathroom now, not the front hall. It will have its turn soon though, I am sure.
I missed the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day so I am planning my own giveaway for early next week. Check back or make me a Favorite if you are afraid of forgetting.
Enjoy the rest of the festival!

Another Cute Baby Post

Go ahead and roll your eyes...it's another post about the cute baby and her ever expanding wardrobe! I just loved the last romper that I made because it is so perfectly babyish, fit well with room to grow, and is perfect for the weather that we are currently having. I ordered the material ("Tossed Daisies in Pink" from the Blossom Lane collection by Wendy Bentley for Timeless Treasures) planning on making a sunsuit so I only had a yard and this pattern requires a yard and a quarter. I spent a good deal of time moving pattern pieces around to try to make it work. I finally got all the pieces on there except the sleeve binding and the ties at the back of the waist. I decided to use this bright sunshiny yellow gingham that I had leftover from another project for the sleeves and opted to skip the ties in the back.

I like the look of the ties but I have been untying them for morning and afternoon nap because I can't imagine that it is comfy to lie down on a knot to sleep.

And did I mention that Penny is very much "on the go" now? So, that will be all for this photo session. We have some dandelions to pick and tear apart.

Octopus Sundress

My daughter has been learning about the sea at preschool and is infatuated with sea creatures now. She requested an octopus dress. This is one of those times when I love to be a sewing mommy because a mommy who doesn't sew might not be able to fulfill such a request. It was my perfect excuse to buy Heather Ross fabric; Mendocino, Octopus in particular. I liked the slightly less vibrant colors in the "blush" version but she was adamant that "fuchsia" was prettier.
She strikes this pose with her head on her shoulder whenever I go to take a picture. It has been driving me nut so I decided to just embrace it and go with it!

I used a combination of two tutorials to make this dress. I used the simple sundress pattern to cut the two rectangles to the right size since I was not using a pillow case. Then I used this tutorial to finish it. I am happy with the results and it works for this year but is big enough for next year too which is what I strive for!

It turns out that it is the perfect dress for swinging! I made this dress about two weeks ago but it was finally warm enough to wear it tomorrow (and that was still pushing it).

Pink Penguin's Fabric Basket

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this little project! I have been wanting to make some of these fabric baskets for the longest time. I was spurred on by the realization that my daughter is through preschool in a few weeks and I needed three more teachers gifts! I made three of these, assembly line style, using up some scraps that I had seen enough of. Then, I made this one for myself! (I know that may not be in the true spirit of giving...)
I had a little sandwich baggie full of 2 1/2" squares left over from my nine patch quilt. This tutorial from Pink Penguin calls for 2" squares so I decided to make half square triangles with my 2 1/2" squares. This brought me pretty close to 2" squares. I could have trimmed them but instead I just enlarged the basket dimensions by 1/2" overall. I also stitched the squares together for one side of the handles. I did a little extra quilting before sewing it up as well. I like the added touches. Now I need to find a use for this basket. I had originally thought I would use it to hold my safety pins for quilt basting but I like to throw them into a container and not bother to close them up first. They might get caught on the fabric. It might be better to use a metal or plastic container. But then what do I use this for? It is too cute to sit around empty!

Some Flower Pictures

I spent a long day finishing up the mulching in my yard. It's been an ongoing project during many a naptime for the past few weeks. It reminded me to post a few flower pictures that I have taken recently.

Right now I am enjoying this beautiful ground cover. It has to be the sweetest little groundcover ever. It is so blue. And there are so many shades of color in there too. I just love it. From a distance, it just forms a blue/purple haze on the ground.

And these columbine have me nearly giddy because I planted them from seed last year. I get overly excited about successful seed grown perennials. It is just neat to see them progress. Last year they were just teeny tiny and didn't flower. This year, I have two large groupings of them with this lovely shade of blue, purple, rose and pale pink.

The lilacs are almost completely gone by now. The Rhododendrons are next up. But I enjoyed the scent of lilacs in the house for a good week. This picture is for you Marsel! She is missing lilacs this time of year.
I hope you enjoyed a beautiful spring day too!

Sailboat Booties

I have another excuse to make cloth shoes for a baby! My daughter's preschool teacher is expecting a baby boy. I decided to make her a pair of booties for her end of the year teacher's gift.

Of course, I used the Stardust Shoes pattern once again. Hopefully the teacher will not mind that the gift is not for her exactly...I know I wouldn't care.

Proof Positive

Mary, here is your proof that potholders were made for you and they are in the mail. Poor Mary and her partner have had rotten luck. Mary's Potholder Pass 2 partner has sent two sets of potholders to Mary and neither have reached her. Here is my attempt!

Mary, I am going ahead and ruining your surprise in case you never see them in person! If they do not arrive in a couple of days, I think you should follow your mail carrier home and check his or her kitchen for a nice stash of modern potholders.

Mary requested modern potholders. These are inspired by the Love Beads quilts (as seen in The Modern Quilt Workshop. The vertical solid pink strips are just 1/4" wide and the circles are as big as the top of a spool of thread. I used grey and pink solids and Heather Ross-Mendocino-Octopus-Fuchsia.

I hope these suit your taste Mary. Enjoy! (If you get them that is!)