I'm doing my best to keep my priorities intact.  I miss this space and thought a quilt finish was just the excuse to get back here.

I had to go back through my instagram feed to see how long this quilt top sat finished before I had it quilted.  It was almost a year.  I can't believe I let it sit for that long.

It was long arm quilted with swirls in a turquoise thread.  I love everything about this quilt.  The fabric is Jeni's Dreaming Vintage line.  I'm generally not one to go for warm colors but I love how all of these colors look together.  It's such a happy group of prints.  The pattern is Golden Afternoon, also by Jeni.  I bound the quilt with two shades of green and backed it with a sewing machine print that coordinates in the very best way.

I'm keeping this quilt for myself.  I'm greedy like that.

I think the main reason my projects don't find there way here is that I just don't stop and take pictures like I used to.  In May, I made a fabric basket for a friend's birthday.  The pattern was from Anna's book, Handmade Style.  I was so happy with how it turned out that I snapped a quick pic with my phone and delivered it right away.  Later, I thought I would write a little post about it and then realized that all I had to share was this. One lonely photo.  With this in mind, I took some time to photograph a couple of quilts I made last fall.

I could make log cabin quilts for days.  This one is a baby size quilt made from one giant log cabin block.

One half is a light weight chambray, the other half is a split of ice dyed cottons in greens and purples.

The back is a print with indigo stripes on a off-white background.

The pattern for this quilt is Vast from Jeni's book, Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle.

It's made with some of my favorite ice dyed cottons and a mid-weight chambray.  The back is a gold and black print.

I think this quilt looks brilliant with all the lichen on the wall.

I finished this larger than life quilt last spring. It was a commission project and it tested the limits of my small house.  By the time I stitched the last border on I couldn't lay it flat on the floor anymore.  Needless to say, it was quilted on a long arm.

I love the swoopy spiral quilting.

I used Jeni's Giant Vintage Star Quilt tutorial for the center and then added borders to bump it out to a king size.  The eight small corner blocks in the borders were foundation pieced.  I used a half size version of Faith's Summer Sampler Star tutorial.  The front is a mix of cotton + steel fabrics and a super girly pink was requested for the back.

I don't know that it can really get much more girly pink than that!

go anywhere totes

I'm one of this month's featured artists over at Citizens of Textile this month.

I've made a small collection of totes, some zippered pouches, and a couple of special baby quilts.  Each piece uses some of the snow dyed cotton I made late this winter.

snow dye baby quilt

The range of shades and values created with the snow dye process are pretty inspiring.  It's made for a fun one a kind group of projects that I'm so excited to share.

detail of buckskin caravan tote

The Citizens of Textile shop is open through Sunday night 7pm CST.

Thanks!

I have never been a part of a traveling quilt project before, so when Jacey invited me to be a part of her fantastic quilt voyage project I was mixed with fear and excitement.  The idea is you make one block to start your own quilt and then it's shipped around to one of the other participants, who in turn make a block and send it on to the next quilter.  Once everyone has made a block it comes home and you can put together a quilt top.  Most of us are on pinterest and we've been busy pinning all sorts of inspiration for our quilts.  Using pinterest has been a great way to really focus on what you are hoping for your own quilt and also get a feel for what would work for someone else.

Some of us are also sending along a journal/blank book of some sort for all of us to write in as we work on a block.  I ended up making a sort of a journal pack with mini copies of the pins I found for inspiration and punched ovals from paint chips for color palette matching.  There are also some fabric scraps along with a clip to hold the journal cards that people put together as they work on the project.

I used a box from Fat Quarter Shop for shipping (they always use such sturdy boxes) but I thought I should do something to make sure people knew it wasn't being sent from Fat Quarter Shop.  I didn't want anyone to walk out to the mailbox and think "did I order a big box of fabric and completely forget about it?"  It could happen, right?!  So I doodled all around the box in the hopes no one has a panic attack on their front step.

Even though it's months away, I'm already looking forward to putting together my quilt!

It's that time of year when winter starts to drag on a bit.  I thought I would brighten things up a bit with a sale.

During the month of February you can get 20% off your purchases in my etsy shop.  Just use the coupon code BIRTHDAY20.

thanks!

This was one of the those quick projects that took me ages to finish.  The colors are not ones I usually work with so I had a difficult time deciding how the blocks should work together.  I shuffled them around so many times.  I kind of hated it and then I loved it.

The heart of each log cabin block was part of a panel that I cut up and then edged with wonky bands of tone on tone orange, green, blue, and gold.  The orange is a cross hatch print, while the others are silhouettes of leaves.

The extra spaces around the blocks and the binding are a coordinating brown print that I think looks like little bees buzzing around, but is actually tiny airplanes.  I quilted it with gold thread in vertical straight lines.

The back is big, wide bands of the coordinating colors that I used on the front. 

I think it makes for a great baby quilt.  I'm happy that in the end I powered through and kept working on this one.  It would have been a shame to let it sit on a shelf unfinished simply because it was bit frustrating in the middle of making it.

It will be listed soon.

Big quilts are tough to photograph.  I have used this spot in the past for big quilts.  The steps are a big help, but the wind can be a big problem.  I love the small feet trying to hold the corner from blowing back on this one.

Thankfully, just when we thought all hope was lost, we stopped at the park.

This quilt was two years in the making.  The calicoes are from Liberty Lifestyle's Bloomsbury collection.  I fell in love with them the first moment I saw them.  As a child of the 70's, I was raised on calico.  My mom made dresses with pinafores for me that were a blend of Little House on the Prairie meets 1970's bold.

calico dress

Once I picked out the fabrics, the pattern was an easy decision.  I love log cabin quilts.  From traditional to wonky, they let simple blocks shine with all the different options for layouts.  Plus they are a part of my history.  Around the time that picture of me, along with my brother, in our finest 70's looks, our new log house was being built.  I grew up in a log house.  It's an L-shaped ranch style, but it's still a log house.

Log cabins have become my comfort block.  As soon as I finish one, I want to make another one.  Which is good because it took a whole lot of blocks to make this quilt.  The back is pieced with brown florals and paisley medallions.

I used flannel instead of batting for a lighter weight, but with as much fabric as is used in a quilt of this size, there's not a lot about this quilt that is light weight.  I used a heavy weight pearl cotton in ivory to tie the layers together.  It's already on the bed and I should add, over the bed.  It pools onto the floor around our full-sized bed.

This is one of those projects that I thought might never be finished.

I am so happy that it finally is after all this time.

black and color block of the month quilt

I started writing this post in my head this morning while I was taking these pictures in the back yard.  It was sort of a sad post, dwelling on how disappointed I was with how the color transferred in the dryer.  I'm still bummed about it, but in between then and now, I had a visit with my new massage therapist.  When she heard I did a lot of sewing she did some extra work on my arms.  As someone who spends a lot of time holding projects and stitching with my hands, I shouldn't be surprised to feel how much tension she worked out of my forearms, but I was.  Turns out I don't just hold my tension in my neck and upper back.  Needless to say, I'm feeling relaxed and much more at peace with this project.

It's the Craftsy Block of the Month from 2012.  YES, 2012.  I started working on Amy's class in January of 2012 and just finished it this week.  More proof of how far behind I am on my works in progress list. I used Gee's Bend Solids for the entire quilt top. It's a group of cottons with the softest hand.  They are hand dyed solids, which, while it creates a gorgeous variation in color, also creates a less stable one. I treated a stack of the fabrics with Retayne and Synthrapol to help them hold their color. Unfortunately, because I took so long to finish the blocks some untreated black ended up in a couple of the blocks. (note to self...treat fabric as soon as it enters the house)

I was nervous to wash it knowing there were some rogue untreated pieces of the black fabric in the mix so I threw in 3 color catchers and crossed my fingers. I ran down to the washer when I heard the end of cycle buzz and was thrilled to see all the bright colors were still holding their own. Woohoo! I tossed it in the dryer and away I went.  Then the dryer buzzed and I ran down.  I was crushed.  When I pulled it out of the dryer I found the yellows and pinks where now smudged with black. As the quilt tumbled, the black spread itself all over. I had this happen with another quilt, and with washings it diminished, so I tossed this one in with 3 three more color catchers and here's where it stands.

Still smudged.

From a distance it looks great. It's like a fellow student once said of my work during a critique in a university drawing class, "if you step back and half close your eyes, it is perfect". (I wasn't insulted, he was British so his accent allowed him to get away with even the most thinly veiled insults.  Plus, he said it was "perfect", right?!)

So it is our new family quilt. You know the one that gets thrown in the back of the car and used to for anything and everything.   And it will be the coolest car quilt around!  I love the feel of the fabric, so soft and smooth.  Plus aside from the smudges, it's a pretty awesome set of blocks!  It's backed with a black and blue print so grass stains won't  a problem.

Bring on the picnics!  We are ready!

Way back when in January 2011, lulu and I went shopping for fabric for a quilt for her bed.  She chose a fun mix of pinks with a bit of green mixed in.  We set them aside until we came up with a pattern.

That fall, while I was on the Sewing Summit shop hop I picked up the Swoon pattern and started cutting into the stacks.  By sometime in 2012, I had finished two of the blocks and she had decided she didn't love pink the way she used to.

She loved blue and green and I was so happy I had not made any more than two of those giant blocks at this point.

We sorted through my stash and came up with a new stack.  I spent some more time cutting, stitching, quilting and finally last fall (just before the Thanksgiving deadline she gave me) her quilt was finished.

At some point in this whole process, she asked me to hand quilt it.  Since she's on the short list of people I have a more difficult time saying no to, I agreed.  I machine quilted the sashing with some quick matchstick quilting not only because it looks cool, but also to hold the quilt together nicely while I spent the hours it took to hand quilt the blocks.

I took advantage of the left over blocks to fill some space in the back along with a mix of prints.

I also took a huge sigh of relief when I finally finished it and she loved it.

It's the season of late starts at school, kids home with sniffles and coughs, snow days, and yet another blizzard so I'm stealing some time to show you my Parks quilt.

This whole quilt was put together a bit spur of the moment.  I loved the national parks print (by Wilmington) the moment I saw it and thought it would be fun to try something different.  I pulled together a quick stack of fabric, stitched and slashed and built up two log cabin blocks.  One for the front and one for the back.

Once it was pieced, I started in with the quilting.  I ran one zig zag line down the middle and followed those angles out to the edges.

Someone I know is working on visiting every national park.  She's also someone who lives life a bit spur of the moment so I'm thinking this might be a perfect treat for her.

No camping today, though, it's raining, there's thunder and hail, closely followed by freezing rain, it's supposed to start snowing later today with 50mph winds tonight.  All those precipitation types in one day.  Iowa is totally overachieving today.

I managed to ignore a good portion of the housework this week in favor of some fun sewing projects. I've started a new quilt for our bed.  I've had a fabric stack set aside to make a bear paw quilt for our bed for over a year now.

Then Dana from Old Red Barn started up a little scrappy bear paw quilt along over on instagram.  It was just the kickstart I needed.

I'm planning to do one special accent paw in each block so I spent some time this week working on some of those.

Lulu's friend has a birthday coming up so she chose the fabric and I did the stitching on this very dear deer.  The pattern is from Issue 2 of Love Patchwork and Quilting.  (one of the cutest quilting and stitching magazines around)

I was also lucky enough to get a request from Anna of Noodlehead to try out her new road trip case pattern.  I'm already thinking about what fabrics I will use on my next one.

I love the button and loop closure.

There are two pocket options.  I chose the four pocket version with flaps.

I'm filling mine with some of my hand piecing supplies.

It was my first time working with vinyl.  I was nervous because I have heard so much over the years about how it can get stuck on presser feet while you are stitching, but I used my walking foot and it was a breeze!  I have to admit, I did get over confident and think that I could machine finish the binding.  A skill I've never been able to master and managed to get some stitches on the vinyl.  In the end, I couldn't take the sloppy stitching lines so I picked them out and finished it by hand.  I was left with some tiny holes in the vinyl, but I think they are less distracting than the line of stitching so I'm happy.

Thankfully this one wasn't a gift so I was able to accept my mistake and stitch on.  Well, again I have to admit first I ate a handful of chocolate covered almonds and then I stitched on.  I think those tiny holes might be a little reminder of how important it is to slow down and finish a project the right way.

Sometimes stubbornness just gets in the way doesn't it?

This was another one of those unfinished projects that has been hanging around waiting so patiently for me to finish it.

My starting point for this quilt was the grey background print.  I loved the concrete look of the speckled grey print and wanted to let it shine.  I was hoping that adding just a hint of vibrant color would let that happen.

And did it ever!  I love how they bring out the best in each other.

The speckled concrete grey print was something that I found at JoAnn.  The brights are from Amy Butler's line Lark.  The whites are a mix of low volumes from my stash.

I quilted it along the white diagonals in white for a subtle emphasis on the chain pattern.

I pieced the back with a mix of prints.

Mostly grey and white, but I couldn't resist adding some more color with the firework print.

It was a chilly day for a photo shoot, but thankfully my helper was able to keep warm.

p.s. this quilt is listed for sale in my shop

A downside of quilting is at a certain point you have more quilts than you can use in one house.

I give lots away each year, as gifts and also if there is a charity auction in need of items, but they still pile up.

I have posted several for sale in my shop, along with a bunch of tooth fairy pockets I found in with the quilts when I was cleaning.  (You can also click to my shop on the link over on the right sidebar where you see my cool new logo)

Happy Weekend!!

I made this quilt for my cousin who was married this past Saturday.

The orange print is from Denyse Schmidt's Daisy Mae line for Joanns. I was lucky enough to get a several yards on super clearance when my local Joann store was in the process of moving. The background fabric, Kona pepper, blends in perfectly with the background in the print.

I wanted to hang on to the minimalist feel, so it's channel quilted with black thread spaced 1 inch apart.

It's backed with Kona oyster so while the quilting lines blend into the front, they stand out on the back.

I love the bold pattern on the front mixed with the bold quilting on the back.

At the end of June, I had the chance to spend some quality sewing time with friends.  Holly, Jeni, Jacey, Anna, Faith and I met up in Wisconsin at the most amazing vacation house.

We talked about everything, we ate giant pretzels and amazing belgian frites, we checked out Madison (including a chance to meet George), we dyed fabric, we even managed to fit in a whole lot of stitching.

I finished up a new york beauty that will soon be shipped off to someone special.

I tried fabric dying for the first time.  We used an indigo kit and learned a lot about what works well and what doesn't.  These are my pieces before the dye bath.

Here's the top piece after dying.  I will most definitely be doing more with this technique.

It was fun to see what everyone was working on.  There were a lot of secret projects that I'm sure you will see popping up soon.

I brought along a cheesecake.  I didn't want us to go without sweets while we were sewing in the middle of nowhere.

iced mocha cheesecake

crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 stick butter (softened at room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

cheesecake filling

3 bricks (8oz. each) of cream cheese at room temp

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon coffee extract

ganache

1 1/4  cup heavy cream

7 oz. bittersweet chocolate (chopped)

1/4 teaspoon espresso powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put a kettle of water on to boil for the water bath.

Mix crust ingredients in bowl of food processor until combined.  Use a straight sided glass or measuring cup to press crumb mixture along the bottom and up the side of a springform pan.  Chill crust while preparing the filling.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in bowl of food processor or mixer until creamy and smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next.  Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl between each egg.  Add heavy cream, vanilla, and coffee extract and blend until smooth and creamy.

Wrap pan tightly in multiple layers of aluminum foil to make water tight for water bath.  Pour batter into prepared crust.  Place pan in larger pan (I use an oversized skillet) and pour hot water into the larger pan until it comes about half way up the sides of the cheesecake pan.

Bake 45-55 minutes,until almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together , but still have a lot of jiggle in the center.  You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage.  Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let it rest in the cooling oven for one hour.  This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently and reduce chances of it cracking on the top.  After one hour, removed the cheesecake from the oven and lift it carefully out of the water bath.  Let it finish cooling off on a rack on the counter.

Once cooled, cover with ganache.

To make the ganache, mix the espresso powder and cream and bring to a boil.. Pour cream mixture over the chopped chocolate and let sift for 45 seconds then begin to mix.  It will become creamy when fully incorporated.  Pour in center of cheesecake.  Allow ganache to cool, then cover and put in refrigerator to cool overnight.

I was thrilled when Jeni mentioned she could bring along some of her homemade salted caramel sauce because this cheesecake is extra delicious topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

It was a blast of a weekend that flew by so quickly, so I can't wait to do it again!

I finished this quilt in April, but I'm just getting around to looking at the photos I took just after it was bound and washed.

Can you tell it was a windy spring around here?

The inspiration for the pattern came from Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  The four large blocks in the center are #713 basket of chips.  When I mentioned the blocks name to the spouse he immediately pointed out that Cj's favorite potato chips are orange, green, and yellow.

Boom, we had a color palette!

Those blocks were so full of triangles that I continued the idea with different triangles in the borders and added a sawtooth block to each corner with a row of teeth around the edge.

Here's the back.  It's a mix of coordinating prints.

Again, the wind.

This will be going into my shop once, I complete a little shop redo sometime this summer.

About a year ago, Lulu came to me with this drawing she had just finished.  She thought it would make a great design for a quilt.

I agreed and shortly after that we pulled the fabrics we needed.  I took care of the rotary cutting and she took care of the stitching.

Last June she finished the quilt top.

Then like most of us, she was distracted by something else, likely swimming lessons, then the start of school, then tumbling classes, and the next thing you know it's 2013 and her quilt top still didn't have a quilt back.  She chose a great blue print from a local designer and now it's done.

From sketch to reality...

her first finished quilt.

Megan is hosting the Fresh Mini Quilt Club.  It's a 6 month series, so at the end of six months you will have made six super cute mini quilts.  I had never made a mini quilt before this one, but they are a great way to build your skill set.  You can try different piecing techniques without being overwhelmed and they are perfect for testing out your free motion quilting skills without wrestling an entire quilt through your machine.

I used a layer of Insul-Bright along with a layer of warm & white for the batting so I could use this as a trivet on the dining table.

It was so satisfying to make this complete project in one day.  I know I'll be making more minis in the future.

And just a bit of housekeeping...

Google reader is shutting down on July 1 so I thought I would suggest bloglovin' as a replacement.  It looks great, is easy to use, and has an app so you can catch up on your favorite blogs where ever you are.

It's looking more like January at the cottage today.

Schools are closed and the spouse is working from home so it's a full house. In between knocking down icicles and sledding I caught a few shots of the quilt I finished last night.

It's been a year in the making. It's made from the Half Square Triangle Block of the Month that Jeni shared on her blog last year.

Most of the fabrics I used are from Moda's etchings line by 3 sisters.

There is also good selection from Bunny Hill's Putting on the Ritz along with some bits from my stash including some French General and some repro prints. It's bound with a cursive print from etchings.

The back is a mix of grey prints.

Thankfully the wind didn't blow the quilt away, but it tried.