A Fall Table Runner - Quilty Finish

Last week I had to go to the grocery store - I don't usually go.  My husband does 95% of the grocery shopping.  But since I was there, I bought myself some flowers for my sewing room.  Pretty huh?

 Ok.  Down to the good stuff.  I have a quilty finish.  A fall table runner for my dining room.  I used Moda's Wrens and Friends mini charm pack for this and it was a breeze to put together.  I love those mini charm packs.
The colors look just fall enough and it has aqua in it which goes with my dining room.

 The cream strips are from a Moda jelly roll in Snow.  It matches nicely.  I also used the same jelly roll strips for the binding. 

 It's quilted with Aurifil 50 weight thread in color 2021 which is an off whitish/cream color.  I did a straight line grid quilting on it and I think it came out great.  Total measurements are 13 x 31 1/2 inches.

 The back is an orange pattern fabric from Robert Kaufman Metro Living.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I have so much to be thankful for - although cooking on Thanksgiving is not one of them :)

**Linking up to crazymomquilts Friday finishes!**

Houston International Quilt Festival - Part 2

Welcome to the Houston International Quilt Festival 2013.  I'm not going to go over every detail or anything.  Just hit some highlights.

This is Ebony Love.  She was my instructor for the Modern QR code quilt class.  The QR (quick read) code is that little scanny thing that is on everything now.  You scan it with your phone and it gives info about whatever it's advertising.

So in this class, we started making one in quilt form.  Ebony was the most professional quilt instructor I've ever had.  Her instructions were all written down for each of the 4 quilts that we could choose from.  She even had them bound with a spiral.  Just that alone made her class awesome.  
We could choose between a gray or off white background and I got to class too late to nab a gray but that's ok because I probably would have chosen the white anyway.
When our quilts are finished they will look like a QR code.  Because they are in color, they won't be scanable but Ebony said that she will send us a label for our quilts that has the scanable bar code on it when we finish our quilt tops.  I'm working on mine now and hope to have it done in time to enter it in our local quilt show.

I really enjoyed all of the classes I took this year.  Not a stinker in the bunch.  I have pics on my phone of some of the other classes and maybe someday I'll get them loaded to my computer so I can post some.

Here I am in my witches costume for Quiltapalooza.  I loved my tulle skirt.  But out of all the people there, about 80% were dressed as witches.  It occured to me that I could have made mine in pink and gone as a Barbie or something.  Maybe next year.  It was a fun party though.  Lots of great costumes and they gave away tons of prizes.  Unfortunately, no one at our table won any.  :(

This was my favorite quilt from the Modern Quilt quild display in the quilt show.  It is called Fireworks Quilt by Tara Faughnan, an individual MQG member.  To see all of the Modern Quilt Guild display, go here.

One of the classes I took was called Fifty Shades of Groovy By Leslie Tucker Jenison.  Her Fifty Shades quilt is one of the ones on display in the above link.  Her class was fun and she is a great teacher.

One disappointment I had was that the majority of the quilts seemed to be landscape quilts.  I love landscape quilts and art quilts but it seems to me that such a major show could have divided the categories up better.  Maybe have an equal amount of each kind of quilt.  I also wish the Modern Quilt display had been bigger.  It's quite a large movement at this point and I think there should be more recognition.  They did offer Modern quilting classes this year, which was a first.  I took as many of them as I could get into.  I'm hoping for even more next year.

Houston International Quilt Festival Part 1 - Preparing to go

Sometimes I have so many things to say on my blog that I don't know where to start and I get overwhelmed.  That's why it's been so long since I posted.  I just didn't know where to start.

On October 29th (Tuesday) I headed down to Houston for the International Quilt Festival which is awesome by the way.  If you are interested in sewing or quilting and you have a chance to go, take it.  They have so many classes, so many quilts to look at and so many vendors to shop from.

Before I left, I made some prayer flags for the prayer flag swap that was taking place.  I had never made one before and honestly, I had to look them up to see what they even were.  My friend Robyn, who also went to the festival, told me all about the ones she had made and sort of talked me into trying it out.  (Thanks Robyn!! I had fun making them and hanging out with you at the festival!!)  So I ended up making 5 and here they are.

 I like to think of them as inspiration flags instead of prayer flags as most of them don't have anything to do with religion or prayer.  I'm not sure where they got their name but I like Inspiration flag better.

 There's too much light in all these pictures and it washed them out.  Ug!  Someday I'm going to master simple photography.

 I bought a sack of these old quilted hearts years ago and I still have some.  I just sewed it onto this batik fabric which looks like it was painted with water colors.

 More batik fabric.  I cut the passage about hope out of a fabric that I've had for awhile. 

 I sewed these sweet felt flowers onto some natural muslin and stamped it with a "sending happy thoughts" stamp. 

 This one says Poppy Garden.  I hand stamped that and sewed on the felt flowers and ribbon.  And of course buttons.  Everything needs buttons.

 A washed out close up view. 

 I also needed a handmade name tag holder.  I sewed this one up really quickly and attached all my pins to it.

 Half moon modern fabric on the front and Michael Miller stripe on the back.

 This year the festival took place over Halloween.  The had a party called Quiltapalooza.  It was a Halloween dress up party/dinner.  Lots of fun.  I made myself this fun skirt.  Guess what I went as.

Closeup.  There was lime green, black and black glitter tulle. 

In my next post, part 2, I'll show my whole costume with some quilt show pics.

Thanks for reading!

Halloween Quilt

 

Look what I finally got!  A Kona Cotton Color Card.  Say that 3 times really fast.  haha

I've been wanting one for some time and I love looking at it.  I think it will be really useful the next time I go to order solids.  I already have a list of the ones I want first.

And now for a quilty finish.  Ta da!  I finished the Halloween panel that my dh wanted me to quilt for him.  It's been hanging in his office doorway for about a week now.  He's already gotten compliments on it which makes me feel good.  It was a good chance for me to practice free motion quilting and also stopping and starting (which I really stink at) since I didn't have to piece it.

I did how ever, piece the back together with Halloween fabrics that I've had laying around for some time.  The orange is Kona Solid in orange.  I bound it with an orange fabric called Marble Swirls by Moda.  

 

Here is an up close and personal of the quilting.  I used a gray and black variegated thread from Sulky that is 100% Rayon.  I usually use polyester or cotton thread to quilt with but this is a wall hanging so hopefully, that thread will be ok.   I couldn't find the Mettler thread that I wanted at Hancock's and didn't have time to drive across town to my LQS.  I did this alien finger quilting on the big square in the middle and a meandering stitch on the rest.

 This is the first time I've done a meandering stitch and I have to say, I don't like it.  I don't see myself using it again anytime soon.  It was more difficult and time consuming than I thought it would be and not fun at all.  I was really wishing I had continued with the alien fingers but I didn't want to take out all those stitches to start over.  Live and learn.

Now for the finale.  A picture of my son this past Saturday on his 15th birthday.  He's the best kid in the world and I love him so much.

I'm getting ready this week for the Houston Quilt Festival which is next week.  This will be my second year to go and I'm sooooo excited.  I'm going for 5 days - although one is a half day which is Sunday and I'm coming home that afternoon.  I have classes scheduled every day and I'm trying to prepare for those.  Plus, I made something special that I will try to share later this week.

Thanks for dropping by and happy quilting!

**Linking up to Sew Many Ways**

WIP's for Wednesday - a quick update

It's Wednesday again and I thought I'd make a quick post to update the progress of some of my WIP's from this post.

WIP #1 was my Halloween quilt wall hanging that my DH requested for his office.  

I'm almost done with the quilting.  I thought I'd finish today but I had to shop at Macy's run errands.  I want to have it completely finished by Monday so he can take it to work.

My WIP #2 was to finish some items for my etsy shop and I did finish the stack I was working on but now it's time to start more.

WIP #3 was the homecoming mum which I finished and wrote about in my previous blog post.

WIP #4 was the stack of HST blocks that I have been slowly trimming.  When I last posted about them, they looked like this on my design board:

I've trimmed a few more and rearranged them and now they look like this:

One of the first modern quilts I saw was a version of this but in Christmas fabrics by Basic Grey.  I LOVED it and have wanted to make one ever since.  I'm not for sure that these blocks will stay like this but I'm really liking it so far.

WIP #5 was my cross quilt.  I haven't made anymore blocks for it although I do have a stack of fabric waiting for me to cut it so that I can make the final 6 blocks.

And of course, now I have a WIP #6.  

I've started a fall table runner using a stack of mini charms called Wrens and Friends by Moda.  I don't have a fall table runner and I thought I could whip this one up while it's still fall.  Especially since we, just this week, started having temps below 90 degrees. 

That's my progress this week on my WIP's.  I've got my fingers crossed that I will actually have a finish soon.  Maybe. 

*linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced**

Homecoming Mum - Texas Style

In my last blog post, I mentioned that Homecoming week was coming up at my son's school (it was last week).  Therefore, it was my responsibility to make (or buy) a homecoming mum for his lovely date that he had asked to the Homecoming dance.  He's only a freshman and this was his first time to ask a girl to be his date.  It was a very nerve wracking time.  Her name is Claire.

In my quest to find instructions and ideas on the internet on how to make a mum, I discovered that not everyone celebrates Homecoming week or wear huge, giant mums on their chest.  Apparently, it's a Texas thing though I did discover that a few other states do it too like Oklahoma, Louisiana and I think Arkansas.  I had no idea that this wasn't something that everyone did.  I grew up in Texas and I never really thought about what other states did for Homecoming.

Anyhoo, in Texas the girls wear mums bigger than their heads (usually given to them by their dates or by their parents) and the boys wear garters on their arms that are a smaller version of the girls (given to them by their dates as well).
So, I thought, I'm crafty.  I can make the mum.  And so I did.  And it turned out WAY better than I thought it would.  I didn't make one of the giant ones - it wasn't bigger than her head.  It was about the same size as her head (lol).  Some of the mums are so big and heavy that they have to be worn with a ribbon around their necks instead of pinned to their shirts.  Some have 12 or 15 flowers on them and they light up.  Can you believe it?  I just thought it was nuts.

I was determined to make a normal size tasteful mum.  So, I set out to Hobby Lobby and proceeded to buy one or two of everything they had in the mum making department.  I have enough stuff left over that I can make one for next year.  I think I might have over bought, eh?  HaHa
Here are the up close and personal pictures of the finished product.
 

 My dear friend Robyn who is a veteran mum maker, told me to be sure and shop the scrapbooking sections and the Christmas department for anything that I could use.  Lots of times it's cheaper in those areas than in the mum making section.  I got the green sparkly ribbon in the Christmas area and then wrapped it around the white ribbon.  I also got the sparkly C in scrapbooking.  (thanks Robyn for all your great tips!!)

 Sparkly silver footballs. 
Some people make the mums out of other colors like maybe the girl's favorite color or they use a theme or something.  Since this was my first time, I just stuck to the school colors of green and white.  Also, it's very popular to attach a stuffed animal into the center of the flower.  I thought her initial was prettier and classier.

 The white ribbon says "class of 2017" and I made the green and white loopy ribbon and spelled out Homecoming 2013 in silver sparkly letters.  You can see some of the trinkets that are attached in this picture. 

 Lots more trinkets, lots of ribbon.  I used silver glitter jingle bells from the Christmas dept.

 I hand applied this silver scrollwork to the white ribbon one Friday night while my DH and son were at a football game.

 The green ribbon has silver letters that spell out "Claire" with glitter stars and footballs.

And here is the whole end product.  It was about 3 1/2 feet long and was a lot heavier than I thought it would be.  I finally just had to make myself stop adding things to it.  

This is my son's garter which Claire gave to him.  The tradition is for the boy and girl to wear their mums at school all day on Friday and then to the football game that night.  The homecoming dance was on Saturday and they don't wear them to the dance.  

It was such a fun week for the kids and I'm so glad a good time was had by all.  AND, the football team won their homecoming game which just made everyone more festive.

And that, my friend, is how you make a homecoming mum in Texas.  :)

**Linking to Quilt Story - see button on side bar **

So many WIP's, so little time.......

Hey, it's WIP Wednesday!  
I usually remember WIP Wednesday on Monday or Friday so I'm doing pretty good this week.  :)

I have so many WIP's that I've had to make a sticky note chain beside my computer to remind myself.  Some of them have deadlines and I'm trying really hard to get those finished.  Here are some of the ones with the deadline.

1.  Halloween panel quilt for my DH.  He wants to use it to decorate the doorway in his office.

So I'm just going to make a backing, make a quilt sandwich and then I'm going to use it to practice my free motion quilting.

2.  New eye pillows for my etsy shop.  I need to get these finished and listed soon so I can work on aprons and stockings.  I have about 40 to sew up and get listed.

 3.  Homecoming mum for my son's date.  Next week is homecoming and we are suppose to get this to her on Thursday afternoon - so I have a little over a week to finish it.  But I think I can finish it up in the next 2 days.  I need to get it finished before I end up going back to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and buying more things for it.  Although, I do need some large jingle bells that are covered in glitter.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about with this mum stuff, when I finish it, I'll make a post on it so that it will clear things up for you.  It's kind of a weird Texas tradition.

Now for the ones that have a looser deadline.
4. I have a ton of these HST units that I've been slowly trimming a few everyday.  The fabric is Happy Tones from Michael Miller and the white fabric is Kona Cotton.  Eventually, it's going to be a rainbow quilt.

 Here are the trimmed ones on my design board.  I may end up making another 120 HST's to make the quilt bigger or I may end up using the white fabric as negative space to separate the colors a bit.

5. My cross quilt needs to be finished by Christmas.  I have 14 blocks so far.  Two are not on this design board because they wouldn't fit.  I've ordered a Kona Cotton Color Card so that I can see all the colors and decide the ones I need to finish this.  I want to make at least 6 more squares.  I thought the color card was a better idea than just ordering all the orange colors until I find one that I like.  (although that would have been more fun!)

So there they are.  Of course, I have more WIPs than that, as we all do but these are the most important ones for now.  I'm taking a class tomorrow at my LQS to make a strip quilt.  I think it's less of a class and more of a bunch of people just sitting and sewing.  We had to purchase the jelly roll from the store but otherwise the class was free.  I scored a jelly roll of Potluck by American Jane for Moda.  
I may end up finishing it up and giving it as a Christmas gift to my in laws.  I thought I might use flannel or minky for the back so that it would be really cozy and they could both use it if they get chilly while watching TV.  They watch a lot of TV.  My MIL doesn't like my fabric choices as she prefers old traditional calicos but Potluck is very retro and I thought she might not hate it too bad.  We'll see.

Have a great day and happy sewing!