Friday, October 13, 2017

Splash of Color Quilt Along

Good morning!  I have decided to join in the  SPLASH of Color Quilt Along with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts and I hope you will join in too!  The rules are quite relaxed, pick out some black and white fabric, a color (or 26 in my case) and any quilt design you would like.  Then link up pictures of your progress every two weeks at Busy Hands Quilts.  You can click on Myra's blog name to visit her site and get more information.
 
I was really lucky to receive Jackie Kunkel's book Splash of Color as a prize for a FMQ quilt along in 2015.  The first quilt that really caught my attention was Star Bright, the 7th quilt in the book.  I especially love the "alternate" version using the darker background fabrics.  I started collection 1/2 yard pieces as John and I travelled around and this year realized I have enough to make a nice scrappy quilt.  Then this quilt along popped up and I decided it is meant to be!  I had also been collecting a bunch of brilliant colors for another quilt idea, but decided they will work better for this.  Some changes I am making to the pattern include reversing the color placement, thus all the blues in my pile, they will be the outer border of stars.  I am also not going to paper piece this, first I didn't want to make all those copies, and second I want this to fit our king size bed and the pattern currently finishes at 88 inches.  I did a test run that you will see below and my blocks will finish at 7.5 inches, meaning my quilt will be 105 inches square!  I am also contemplating making the squares between the star rows into 4-patches, but will wait until I have finished the stars to make that decision final.  There are a lot of stars to make first and I may not want the additional work afterwards LOL!

So a new thing in my life (literally as of a week ago) is this phone.  My father forced me to upgrade to a smart phone when he found he could not send me a smiley face.  The first app I added was Instagram, so I am going to attempt to post occasional photos on there between our linkups for the quilt along.  My IG name is @pamperedpettit if you would like to see other photos.  I do like the ability to take the grayscale photos easily with this phone, that is a great tool for me.  And I had a lot of fun assigning funny ringtones to my family.

Here is my practice block, it's not terribly accurate color-wise as to what the stars in the quilt will look like, but the size and construction was what I was after.  The blocks in the book finish at 6 inches and as I mentioned before this block finishes at 7.5 inches.  I'm pretty excited about this and am starting to understand the allure of scrappy quilts, I am pretty smitten with this block right now.
 I hope you will feel inspired to join in too, the first linkup needs to be added before October 17, so don't take 3 weeks to make this decision like I did HAHAHA!
 

Splash Quilt Along @ Busy Hands Quilts
 
 
Have a wonderful day!
~Brandy
Thomas approves of this message and encourages snuggling into a cozy blanket or quilt as we move into colder weather.
 


Thursday, September 28, 2017

Happy 4th Blog-iversary to me!

Oh wow!  I started blogging four years ago, how amazing!  I love being able to come on here and share my quilting and life adventures, and I love that you visit and take part in them.  My most recent project has been a last-minute decision to make John's father a quilt for his 60th birthday.  That was 2 weeks ago and today I am getting the binding put on!  Here are some progress photos:
 
I taught John how to make his first EVER quilt block.  We felt it was a good time since this quilt is for his dad.  John also picked out the elk panel and all the fabrics used.  I just told him where we needed certain lights and darks to create contrast.  We are loving the tree fabric.
I quilted this on my Bernina 150QE.  Once I got the first row done I texted my mom and said "This will be so much easier on my longarm when it arrives!"

I think Thomas will be sad when he doesn't have freshly quilted piles of quilt to snuggle into though...
Another thing I want to share with you today is some shops John and I visited on our last trip to Montana in August.
 
First we stopped at Regal Fabrics in Spokane, WA.  I was blown away by all the amazing embroidered pieces they have in their shop!  I even got to meet the lady who does them all, her name is Michele Eickerman , she was really great to talk to.





Oh my gosh, isn't this amazing?!  It's a Crabapple Hill pattern (turns out the designer is from an hour from my home) and is called the Mystery of the Salem Quilt Guild.
 
Gotta have a snack table!





Our next stop was in Bonner's Ferry, we had time to check out the second shop we have seen there.  This one is called A Little Comfort Quilting and is on a really amazing Main Street.


I always enjoy seeing the Sweet Onion Cat outside Walla Walla, this shop had a lot of items different than what we've been seeing most of this summer.  I am always glad to see variety.


John was eyeballing the ruler selection, probably glad he doesn't have to worry about keeping rulers organized.



Then we got to go to the Quilt Cottage in Libby, MT.  I was so excited to visit here because when we came through last year it was after hours.  We had a lot of good conversation with the lady working this day as well as a couple other customers who were in while we were.  And we hung out for almost 45 minutes because there was lots to see and talk about!









The next day I convinced John to drive with me down to Kalispell's Sew & Vac so I could show him the classic machines they have there.  John ended up buying 6 yards of fabric and we learned all about the longarm they sell (but it's not the one we are getting, we just like to try out all that we can).

It was fun to play around!
 
I will have to take my mom in to see this wall of batiks next year when we visit my grandma again.






We went crazy with the black and white fabric, but all that on the right is John's.  Hahaha!

Our other stop in Kalispell was at the Quilt Gallery.  I have been in there 4 times now and have such a great experience each time.  This was John's first visit and we spent an hour and a half in there talking to the ladies about the Handi Quilter machines (thus I have no photos of our visit, sorry).

On our way home we were able to stop in to Bear Paw Quilting for our second visit to that shop, and man, I just love going there.  HUGE selection and great customer service.  I am super excited about that floral print on the left side of the photo below, I bought enough to make myself a Hawaiian shirt! 

 
 
You may have noticed a theme in the photos above, there are blue and green fat quarters in almost all of them!  That is because I collected those up for making a quilt for my good friend's son who turns 5 this year.  I have the top finished, actually, it has been sitting for almost a month now waiting for me to make up my mind about backing.
 
His birthday is mid-October so I really need to pull this one together!
Well, thank you for catching up with me, I hope you are all still enjoying the Christmas Caroling Row Along, there are another couple weeks to go yet and then there is a show and share!
 
Hope you have a wonderful day!
 
~Brandy
 
Belle and Thomas are very good at reminding me that it is important to take a break occasionally when free motion quilting... they full-on stopped production!
 

Monday, September 25, 2017

Christmas Caroling Row Along - Free Patterns and Giveaways! (Limited Time)

 
 http://www.seamstobesew.com/christmas-caroling-ral-announcing-newest-sponsors-all-the-bloggers/

 
Hello and welcome to my stop on the Christmas Caroling Row Along.  If this is your first time visiting, my name is Brandy and I am super excited to share my rows with you.  That's right, I have TWO free row patterns for you today thanks to the stars aligning as they do. These patterns are FREE through next Tuesday, October 3rd, then they will be available for purchase.  I hope you have been following along for the entire blog hop, if you have missed days please see the end of this post for a list of all the participating blogs.
 
First though, a huge thank you to Marian at Seams to be Sew for bringing us all together.  She has been a busy bee for the last 9 months organizing this event and gathering up some awesome giveaways and deserves a great many hugs.
 
 
Secondly, thank you to Northcott for sending us samples of your beautiful fabric to work with as well as sponsoring the blog hop.  That was such a pleasant surprise for me!  I sign up for blog hops to have deadlines so I get things done, receiving fabric was really amazing and unexpected.  Take a look at the fabrics I picked out:
 
 
My fabrics came from the 'Tis the Season collection by Deborah Edwards, except for the white textured fabric, that came from Northcott's Toscana collection.  Click the following picture and it will take you to Northcott's site where you can see the full collection.
 
http://www.northcott.net/product-detail.aspx?fbid=3&colid=1141&colorid=1773
 
On to my rows!  The original row I designed is called "Midnight Clear Bargello" and is inspired by the song "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and my family's tradition of having lasagna for dinner every Christmas Eve.  I used the process of layering the lasagna to dictate where my colors would go and then used the tune to make the movement in the bargello.  The tune fabric in my row is the poinsettia fabric.  You can download the pattern for this row on Craftsy by clicking on the photo below or clicking on this link:
Midnight Clear Bargello Pattern
 
Midnight Clear Bargello Pattern
 
You may have noticed that I do not have any of the Northcott fabrics in the bargello.  That is because I received the fabric after I had already finished my row with fabric on hand, and this is why you get a bonus row from me today!  I am calling it Midnight Clear Stars.  I wanted to be sure to do the fabric justice and came up with this row that I feel still fits with a Midnight Clear theme.  I just love sitting outside and looking at the stars on a clear winter night, the stars are always so bright.  Again, you can download the pattern by clicking on the photo below or clicking on this link:
Midnight Clear Stars Pattern 
 
Midnight Clear Stars Pattern
 
When you make one of my patterns I would love for you to send me a photo!  Also please feel free to ask me questions if something is unclear in my instructions.  My email address is brandizzle7133 at gmail dot com.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!
 
The giveaway on my blog today is from
 
http://www.junetailor.com/
 
There will be three winners of a cotton pressing cloth!  Giveaway ends October 3rd, 2017.
 
 
 
A note from Marian about the giveaways:

Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways
Please take the time to read it.
Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.
There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.
You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.
Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.
I will start announcing winners on September 12, 2017, and finish announcing winners on October 12, 2017.
In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their winners.
You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me loses the ability to win automatically.
With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.
You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.
If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.
In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.
No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.
All winners are chosen at random.
All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.
Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of Rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.
This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.
The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.
Most of the giveaways are international this year, in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.
I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.
If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.
All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.
An invoice will be sent to you via PayPal, and shipping will take place via PayPal, so your PayPal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. PayPal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.
Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.
Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven't received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.
Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.

Please take note that you will have to pay the shipping cost for this prize should you win.  But isn't it totally worth it?!
 

Northcott and Calibre Arts are also having giveaways every day of this event, you can enter them at Seams to be Sew's website.
 
Here is the schedule for the entire blog hop, I hope you will hop around and create some fun rows!
 
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
 
 
 
 
 
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Martina Latimer
 
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Cheryl LaPlante (sponsored by Quilt In Piece)
Morning Glory
Pampered Pettit
Fun Threads
 
 

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Pets on Quilts - 2017

Woohoo!  It's that time of year again, the Pets on Quilts show, where we get to pick through thousands of cat photos looking for just the right one to share with the world.  :D
 
Thank you to Snoodles and the gang at Lily Pad Quilting for hosting the Pets on Quilts show and for gathering up some awesome sponsors.  Have you seen the prizes the sponsors have donated?  Amazing!  Check out the posts at Lily Pad Quilting for more information.  I also want to remind you all that anyone can join in on the fun if you have a blog, Flickr, or Instagram, all you have to do is upload your link to the linky party by August 20th.  I hope you'll join the fun!
 
Here is my entry to the Cats on Quilts category:
In January I shared a quilt that I made for my friend Cheryl in exchange for a picnic basket.  Thomas was (yet again) ENTHRALLED with this quilt, he must have a thing for colorful quilts.  I captured this sleepy moment one day and just love it.
Thank you for stopping by, remember to visit the other entries and leave some comment love for them as well!
 
~Brandy

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Craftsy Class Review - Startup Library: Quilting with Christa Watson plus 50% Discount Code

Oh boy, do I have something exciting to share with you today!
 
Photo courtesy of Christa Quilts
I got to take Christa Watson's new class on Craftsy called Startup Library: Quilting and it was so much fun.  Craftsy classes are neat because once you have them in your class library, you can watch them as many times as you want and they are available forever!  This is definitely a good thing with this class as there is a lot of information given in the first couple lessons, and it is worth watching a couple times to pick up on things you may have missed.  Another nice feature with the classes that you purchase is that you can ask questions and the teacher will actually answer them, so you know you are getting expert advise.
 
Photo courtesy of Christa Quilts
This class is fantastic for beginning quilters who are looking for clear step-by-step instruction and knowledge.  The class consists of 14 lessons with nearly 6 hours of instruction.  There is a printout that breaks down the lessons into all the steps Christa talks about and demonstrates, with the times during that lesson so you can quickly re-watch a step when needed.  The printout also defines many of the processes and lingo used in quilting and has the pattern for the quilt made in the class which is called Friendship Stars (shown above). 

Photo courtesy of Christa Quilts
I enjoyed a lot of things about this class.  The camera angles used, the close-up view during processes, the simplicity of the pattern, and the fact that as an experienced quilter I actually learned some new tricks!  That makes this class a worthwhile investment to me. 
 
Photo courtesy of Christa Quilts
 My favorite trick that I am excited to use is her basting technique.  You just need one table, a can of basting spray, a large ruler (such as a 6 inch by 24 inch), and a well ventilated area.  And depending on the size of the quilt, a helper.  :)
 
Photo courtesy of Christa Quilts

Christa is well-known for quilting on her home sewing machine.  She walks you through using both your walking foot and free-motion quilting as options for quilting your quilt. 
This class literally takes you from barely knowing what quilting is to fully creating a quilt!  And as I mentioned before, this class is certainly useful for an experienced quilter as well, there are always new techniques to try out.  I hope you will also hop over to Christa's page and read some of the behind-the-scenes that she has on her post.
 
Now, one of the things Christa says early in the video is to "take what you learn and make it your own".  I have mentioned before that I have a tendency to switch things up in a pattern, I'm not sure that I've made a pattern completely to the letter of the instructions since I began quilting.  I even changed up a block in the very first quilt I ever made!
 
That being said, here is the top I made this weekend:
 
I went with a Sawtooth Star in place of the Friendship Star and decided to make 9 blocks instead of 25.  I love how quickly it came together, simple 12 inch blocks are the best.
At first I thought I would be donating this but it's not going to happen, LOL, this is definitely staying with me!  Every time I see it I do a happy dance.
 
 
I am still figuring out the border, I only have that little scrap of blue left so I wanted to plan the border around it.  I may add another cream border after the pieced border also, then use the center star's fabric as the binding.  And depending on how much jean material I have left after finishing my sister's quilt, I am thinking a jean backing for this one as well.
 
Now, I have a special code for you to be able to take this class at 50% off the regular price, how great is that!  Follow this link http://craftsy.me/2v4ZQeF and it will add the discount to your cart.  The discount will be reflected once you click "Buy Now".  The discount is good through October 8th, 2017.
 
Thank you for visiting, have a wonderful day!
~Brandy