Quilting Bucket List

The lovely peeps at Gen Q have revealed their quilting bucket lists today and I was inspired to put some of my own goals in writing too. In no particular order, the following are goals I would like to accomplish in my lifetime...

1) Attend a week long quilting retreat. So far I've only been on weekend retreats and it seems like a significant portion of my time is wasted while I'm setting up or breaking down my stuff. It wouldn't have to be fancy or formal, though a cruise would be super sweet.

2) Make a queen sized 1" English paper pieced hexagon quilt. This is actually in progress now but I am well aware it may take me several years to finish.

Tutorial on my method coming soonish

3) Buy a fancy sewing machine. Right now I sew with a 15 year old Bernina 1260 and it works very well considering. However, it doesn't have any fancy features, is heavy, and is pretty loud compared to the newer models. I have been eying the Bernina Aurora 440QEs but it's out of my budget at the moment.

4) Teach a class. I have demonstrated my English paper piecing method at a quilt show, retreat, and at my house for my modern quilt guild members, but I consider those less formal. I would really like to teach a class at a quilt shop or quilt show where people pay to take it and I teach them something that's worth their money.

5) Make some quilts to hang on my own walls. I have made 3 wall quilts for other people during flickr swaps but I haven't made anything like that for my own home. I would really like to make some wall quilts to match this one given to me in the For the Love of Solids flickr swap:

6) Design a fabric line. Even if my fabric is only ever on Spoonflower, I want to go through the process of designing the patterns, infusing a color palate, printing the fabric, and using it in a project.

7) Be published in an in-print magazine or book. This may not actually be as elusive as I think it is, but it seems like you have to be pretty fancy to be published in print. Editors must be looking for projects that are editorial and unique, in just the right colors, well photographed, and with well done instructions. I don't think I'm there yet. 

8) Make clothes for my own children. I've made a few pillowcase dresses and other little things for my nieces and appliqued a few things for my nephews but I think it would be wonderful to do these things for my own babies. For now, we're praying for God's blessings.

9) Sell a quilt to a stranger. So far, I have sold quilts to friends and family members to give to others as gifts. I would really love to sell my quilts online or at a craft show and have the satisfaction that complete strangers value my work.

10) Go to the Spring or Fall quilt market. What an adventure that would be! I would love to see new lines before they come out (and buy them), browse booths, go to Lizzy's cake party, meet my favorite designers, and see the industry from a different perspective.


I can already say that I've led a workshop in my guild, demonstrated at a quilt show, white gloved a quilt show, sold tickets for a guild raffle quilt, been to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton Virginia, founded and grown a quilt guild, made a quilt to be auctioned off for charity (actually 3), made preemie quilts, been to a quilt retreat, made a king sized quilt and many other smaller quilts, was featured on an e-zine, did some tutorials, sold some quilts to family/friends, made myself something to wear, started a blog, and so on. In just 3 years of quilting I feel I have accomplished a lot and I'm ready for more.

So what's on your bucket list?

Happy Quilting

Industrial Cottage Baby Sling Giveaway

I've been neglecting to post my winnings from another giveaway but I feel compelled to finally fess up. I was waiting to announce the good news along with some other good news but that didn't exactly happen the way I thought and prayed it would. We are still hopeful we will be blessed with another baby in the future, but for now, check out this adorable cutie pie (all photos are from The Industrial Cottage Inc):

Oh how I love that Anna Maria Horner print paired with those baby blues!

Industrial Cottage did a giveaway through Dear Lillie, one of my favorite blogs, and I was the lucky winner. For my winnings I selected the Gray and Sunny Yellow baby sling and it arrived made to order, just my size.

You can check out all of Molly's lovely slings in her Etsy shop and read more about what she does on her blog.

Many thanks to Molly for sponsoring the giveaway, many thanks to Jenni for hosting the giveaway, and many thanks to the Random Number generator for picking me!

Banner Day Giveaway Winner

This post is LONG overdue! I am so sorry for the delay Shea!

The lovely Shea of Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio generously did a giveaway for her banner pattern back in June and I was lucky enough to be one of the 3 winners. I had grand hopes of making a banner from the pattern and announcing my winnings that way, but one thing led to another in June and then July and so on. I still haven't made a banner yet but I uncovered my pattern recently below some junk on  my computer desk and immediately gasped in shock! How could I be so careless??

I hope Shea will forgive me and I hope she won't mind me stealing some pictures from her post since I don't have any of my own to share.

 I love her colorful versions!

I plan on making one or more which all together will say 'keep calm quilt on' to decorate my sewing room, but this pattern would work for just about anything including bridal showers, baby showers, baby/kid rooms, or the holidays.

I hope you'll check out her pattern at Pink Chalk Fabrics and other online retailers. Thanks again Shea!

Happy Quilting

New Page

I've been busy quilting but I haven't been able to find the time to blog about it. Such is life.

I managed to find time to quickly list some of the books I've been reading thanks to my Amazon Order History page. I was inspired by Heather of House of a La Mode to record all the books I read mostly so that I can remember in the years to come, but maybe you'll be interested too. As the page says, there are few comforts more exquisite than snuggling under a quilt and reading. 

If you're a reader, check out my new Reading List page. If not, sit tight. Posts are coming!!! I just have to wrap up a few projects with deadlines.

Don't worry, I'm taking pictures!!

Happy Quilting (and snuggling) (and reading)

Quilted Paperback Book Cover - Part 4

PART4

This post is a continuation of

• Quilted Paperback Book Cover - Part 1 
• Quilted Paperback Book Cover - Part 2
• Quilted Paperback Book Cover - Part 3

To close your opening, you are going to fold your fabric to the inside of the cover so that the folded edges are facing out. We will sew a 1/8" seam all the way around the cover to close the cover and set the pockets in place.

Pin your opening closed

I just leave them sticking up and pull them out before they touch the end of my foot but pin perpendicular to the seam you're sewing if that works better for you.

Sew 1/8" seam all the way around the cover, starting with your open edge

You cover can now be done if you want it to be! That's right folks, if you want to be done at this point your cover will work just fine.

 

If you would like to add some additional quilting by hand (anywhere), machine quilting,  embroidery, embellishments, etc. you can do so at this point. Just be careful not so sew the pockets to the cover as that would prevent your book from sliding in.

I ended up adding a bit of embroidery using Valdani perle cotton size 8 thread (from PurlSoho.com) but I'm not quite finished yet. 

You can see in this picture that I've finished my covers several different ways: very thinly spaced straight line quilting, straight line quilting spaced further apart, hand quilting, or nothing at all.

The following are pictures of individual covers I have made recently. As you can see, they're all a little different:

string pieced cover, no quilting

machine appliqued hexagons, echo hand quilting with variegated valdani perle size 8 thread

single cut of fabric, variegated valdani perle size 8 stitching in all the light green lines

And here's another showing the outside and inside of the cover in more detail:

 

My plan is to add some hand quilting in the solid gray areas to finish this cover off.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! These paperback book covers would make a great gift for the holidays to a fellow book lover. The measurements I used in the tutorial are for mass market paperback books and will fit most books in that category.  The covers also work well for keeping the book you are reading private so that, as my friend recently mentioned, you can read smutty romance novels and no one will know! You could also use the same method to make a cover for a journal or notebook.

I'd love to see your creations! I hope you will add them to the Threaded Mess flickr group. If you do, I might just show your work off on this blog!

Happy Quilting