Hey, I Actually Sewed...Well...Cut Something!

Between book editing, sickness and general "real life" more than two weeks have slipped by since I worked on anything quilt related!  (Other than my English paper piecing project.)  I know, crazy.  :)

To be 100% accurate I still haven't sewn anything, but last week I did cut out the pieces for the April At the Fair Quilt blocks (they are Awesome!) and cut out pieces for a quilt using the Des Moines Modern Quilt Group's challenge fabric.  We were given a small bundle of black and white text prints and I want to make a quilt with inserted pieced strips like this quilt.  But instead of squares I want to have a variety of block sizes.  So I drafted a basic design in EQ7 (Note that the outlined block is to scale.  I don't know why the colored on is not).

Then I dug through my solid fabrics and came up with this group of blues and greens.  Cutting the strips and blocks was a bit challenging, because I had to take into account not only which fabrics would look best together, but how much of each fabric I had.  I was pretty proud that I was able to get it all out of stash.  I really have come to believe that I have too much fabric.  I could make so many quilts out of what I have.  The next quilt on my to do list is made entirely of scraps.  I just need to finish this one first.  So many quilts, so little sewing time.  :)

You Can Quilt! Almost Done!

You Can Quilt!, a book based on the Skill Builder Sampler, is still a work in progress, but it is coming along.  Last Monday Marlene and I were sent the final draft of the book to edit!!!  It looks Amazing!  You are going to love it!  The graphic designer did an excellent job with the layout, colors and figures.  It will not only be informative, but beautiful.  I can't wait to see it for real.

We were given 48 hours to read it over and send in our edits.  That was a crazy 48 hours.  You Can Quilt! is a whooping 144 pages plus over 70 pages on a CD (there is a page for each block, foundations for paper piecing, templates, a gallery of quilts, a bonus block and additional instructions for setting.).  A standard quilt book is usually 96 pages.

We got the majority of our edits in on time and then took a bit more time over the weekend to print and measure all of the templates.  Our edits were compiled by the Book Editor and now the Executive Editor and Layout Editor (I think that is her title?) are making the final changes.  I am hoping that they will be able to send it to the printers this week or early next week.

Once it is at the printers it will take 6 weeks to get back to us.  The standard printing time is 3 weeks, but adding a CD to the book added another 3 weeks.  The extra time will be well worth it.  I think that printing templates and foundations off a CD is the best way to go.  You can pre-order You Can Quilt! on Amazon or a signed copy in my Etsy store.

You Can Quilt! Building Skills For Beginnersstarts with basic cutting and straight line sewing and then moves on to half square triangles, quarter square triangles, flying geese, wonky and improvisational piecing, foundation paper piecing, curves, one-patch blocks, applique, inset seams and ends with three challenge blocks.  We cover Everything!  Detailed instructions for 36 blocks (three for each skill set) are given in the book with instructions for a bonus block on the CD.  Each skill set starts with a simple block, followed by an intermediate block and ends with a challenging block.  You ease into learning each skill, but by the time you have finished making all three blocks you should feel comfortable making any quilt that uses that skill set.

This book is not only perfect for beginning quilters, but also for all of us that are stuck in intermediate-quilter-land.  I had been quilting for years before I tried to foundation paper piece and I would never have tried to applique if it wasn't for my husband (read that story here).  This book is all about overcoming your quilting fears, trying out new techniques and building skills so you can make the quilts of your dreams.

This book is for you!  Your friend!  Your quilt group!  Everyone!
I can't wait to see it!

And I am linking to WIP Wednesday, because this is one of my biggest WIPs ever!  :)

Scrap Hexies: Coming Along

 I have made some progress since January on my English paper pieced hexagons.  It is starting to look like something!  When I cut up all my small scraps for the hexagons I was worried about how they would play together, but so far, so good.

 Becca enjoys climbing all over it (when her horse isn't) and looking at the different fabrics.   She has assigned a flower to every family member.  Her's is the pink and gray one with the seahorses and I think my husband's is the orange/red one.  I forget mine.  I'm sure she will inform me again.  :)

Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday.

My QST Rainbow Quilt

   
I have a few things that I would really like to do, two of which are to have something published in a magazine (money and glory!) and have a quilt in a quilt show (but once that happens I will probably want to win a prize or something).  I recently had a quilt accepted for publication and it should be coming out soon (!!!) and decided that I wanted to make another "magazine quilt" and this quarter square triangle rainbow quilt was going to be it.

It all started with a stack of Micheal Miller Cotton Couture  that I got on sale at Pink Castle Fabric.  I had recently seen this quilt and knew that I also wanted to make a quilt with solid fabric with a rainbow gradation.  I decided to make it with quarter square triangles (QST) instead of half square triangles (HST).

I knew it was going to be totally cool and had visions of the magazine wanting to make kits for it or something, but then I got lazy while chain piecing the QSTs.  I thought, "No big deal if the seams aren't totally perfect.  I'm going to trim them down to size anyway."  What I had forgotten is that trimming works when you are working with HSTs, but QSTs have two diagonal seams and it is almost impossible to line up the seams at all four points if your piecing is sloppy.  Really, if I had want to submit something to a magazine I shouldn't have be sloppy at all, but I was.  So....some of the points are 1/4" off (or more!  ouch!)

And that is really embarrassing to admit but at the same time it was really freeing to realize that I wasn't going to try to make something perfect to submit.  It made the trimming easier (I had frozen when I realized that trimming wasn't going to make the QSTs perfect) and now I am less stressed about doing cool quilting.  It is rather nice to not have to be perfect, but embarrassing to admit that I am not perfect.  Not that anyone (including myself) thought I was.

I already have the backing - some cool coral floral flannel (say that 5 times fast!).   I am excited to finish it up.  I love how the colors play together.

Waiting on the banister to be quilted.
8 inch blocks
56" x 72"

I Love My Quilty Friends!

The best part of belonging to a local quilt guild is having great "real life" "geographically compatible" friends who like quilting as much as me.  Last week we had a sewing day (so much fun!) and when I was almost finished with this pillow cover I discovered that I hadn't cut all of the gray text pieces.  !!!!  Worse, I didn't have any of the gray fabric left.  I tried to source it online and in the LQS where I bought it two years ago, but no luck.

But you know what?  Minutes after posting this picture on Facebook asking if anyone had any light gray text from Sunkissed by Sweetwater I had responses (yea and nay) coming in.  It is great to have people who don't think you are crazy for knowing the name and designer of a fabric line and it is super great to know someone who would drive out of her way to give you that 8" square of fabric you need.  Thanks Tricia!

I really can't explain why it meant so much to me or how I felt to have all these women respond to my post willing to help.  I cherish my interactions with them and the friendships we have built over the last four years.

So, if there is a guild near you check it out.  Volunteer to help so you can get to know people.  It is worth the time and the energy.  Quilty friends are great friends to have.