Scrappy Pin Cushion Swap Mosaic

I'm participating in a flickr pincushion swap this month. I figured I would give my partner an idea for what to make me with a mosaic I made at BigHugeLabs. To my partner...

Hey friend I don't know! Thanks for making me a pincushion! Here's a mosaic of some that I like:

The pre-quilted Amy Butler fabrics are what I am making sewing machine covers from. I just love the girliness of the pink tote! I love the texture of the Amy Butler pillows. I would love something I can wear on my wrist as I am working (that the pins won't go through of course).

Thanks again and Happy Quilting (or sewing or whatever your favorite thing to do is)!

do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} September Blocks - Part 1

I just finished my first block for the do. Good Stitches charity bee. This block is for the September quilt being made by the Hope group:

*see the flickr page*

*see the flicker page*

This was totally out of my comfort zone! I have never done "wonky" before but I have to say it was pretty fun. I grabbed all of my blue and green scraps (the theme colors for this month) and pulled out what I thought would work well.

I store my scraps by color in Ziploc baggies in a bin so I can just sift through and pull out what color I need pretty quickly. This comes in handy for applique or scrap projects. As I am working on a project, I toss my scraps into my "trash bucket" (which is a re-purposed cheese ball container) and sort through them once my bucket is full. MMmmmm cheese balls...

The apple in the middle will hopefully tie in with the block jenib320 made that features more of the same print. My only complaint with the wonky technique is that there seems to be a lot of scraps left that I doubt I can use for anything else. I'm going to try to incorporate them into my next block and see how that goes. I'd hate to have to throw anything away if I can find a purpose for it! (omg I sound like such a hoarder)

Happy Quilting!

Thoughts of Red and Aqua Running Through my Head

I have so many projects piling up in my head and no time to sew. Work has been consuming my evenings and weekends, and what I haven't spent working I have spent organizing and cleaning. I can't seem to get red and aqua triangles out of my mind...

Or how I am going to put my love pinwheel blocks together. I have been going back and forth about what color I want to use for the sashing and I think I've finally figured out a solution! I was really hoping to tie more pink into my quilt so it would coordinate better with my girly guest bedroom bedding. I put a fat quarter of Kona Petal up on my design wall and love how it is just slightly lighter than the pink in my bedding but I think overall it's too much color. I thought about it some more and came up with a plan that still brings in the pink but leaves most of the sashing white:

What do you think? A little pop of pink, color variation throughout, and mellowed by the white sashing. I can see it working really well but that means I have a lot more sewing and cutting to do...

I'd really like to make myself some clothes that can transition into fall like this Museum Tunic from Anna Maria Horner's website or the Anna tunic by Amy Butler! It would be so nice to have all the time in the world for these projects but alas, I have to make money to pay for them...back to work for me!

Happy Quilting!

Miss You!

Lately work has been taking over my life. This is a self portrait of me right now...

"MORE WORK?! zug... zug..." as my RTS playing husband would say...

Happy Quilting!

I Bought City Quilts!!!

I am still working on giving my blog a makeover. Thank you for your patience while I work on it! What do you think of the fish? They are almost too cute for words and I love feeding them but I am worried they might make the page load slower.

I also decided to finally move out all of my stuff from my "cave" in the basement and set up shop in my dining room upstairs (it was empty) so that we can repaint the walls down there. Currently the walls are painted in this awful greenish tan color and the paint has a texture almost like sand paper. I am sure someone crazy like Hildi from Trading Spaces thought it would be an awesome idea to put sand in paint and sell it (obviously others agree because they buy it) but I for one and not a fan at all. We're going to get rid of the texture somehow and repaint the walls in a color that gets my creative juices flowing.

I love my new set up in the dining room so much! I will have to come up with something similar or better when I go back downstairs so that I don't miss it. One of the coolest things about the new work area is that I was able to set up two work stations so friends can come over and sew too!

Come on over friends! I'll pop open a bottle of wine or mix you a rum and coke!

Today's big news is that I finally bought a copy of City Quilts. In honor of their 400th (5 posts ago) blog post, they are giving away a free pattern of your choice when you order the book! I chose to get The Tempest as my free pattern because I couldn't resist the purple! Go check out Cherry House Quilts!

from the Cherry House Quilts web shop

from the Cherry House Quilts web shop

Happy Quilting!