Pattern Testing Reveal - Gradient Stars from Patterns by Jen

I am so happy to share a pattern I tested for Jen at Patterns by Jen.  She released her Gradient Stars pattern on Friday and I hope you will visit her site to see the other testers quilts and check out her other patterns.

 

Here is my completed quilt top, I am still contemplating how I want to quilt it.  John was kind enough to step outside into 100° weather and hold the quilt up for me.

 

One thing I did a little different from the original instructions was to cut my pieces from a strip as shown above.  I was working from my stash so needed to make the best use of my fabrics since I didn't have much extra.

 

Pinning was important for this one, and I had to rework some of my seams to nest better but it was worth it.

 

My stacks ready to be sewn together.

 

The 15-91 works so well for piecing.

 







Here's a close-up of the quilt, I am so happy with how this turned out!  I think that this may be one of the more intense patterns I've made so far and the results are incredible.  If you have any ideas for how I could quilt this I would love to hear them.

 

Have a wonderful day!

 

~Brandy



Hearts & Flowers, Tiara Time, WIPs

I'm so glad to be back to sewing!  I had a break there for a bit, as I was preparing for my new job, which I have now been at for a whole month.  I am the new receptionist for an engineering firm, and am incredibly happy about my new job.  I get to learn about all sorts of different things involving engineering, biology, water flow rates, and my grammar/proofreading skills are going to increase exponentially. I mean, who doesn't want to know these things?  LOL  (FYI, I went to school for engineering and then for oceanography before I switched to art.)

 

On March 19th we had a sew-in for the Hearts & Flowers section of our guild.  I can't recall if I have shared what we do for Hearts & Flowers, so I will explain.  The guild asks our members to donate 6.5 inch blocks of nine-patches, heart, and flower themed blocks.  Then usually twice a year we get together and sew up the blocks into tops to then be quilted and bound by whoever donates their time to do so.

The ladies setting up.  I brought my White as I am most comfortable working with it for piecing, and I knew we'd be at it for at least 6 hours.

 

I received a great new sweatshirt from John for my birthday.

 

I dedicated this time to be Tiara Time.  To see the post that inspired the idea, visit my friend Ronnie at Road Home Quilting.  I read this on her blog a few weeks before the sew-in, and love the idea of when the tiara goes on, it's MY time.  I can see how this would be really applicable when a person has children.  The ladies at the sew-in also think the idea is pretty neat, we talked about sharing it with the guild at one of the meetings, I'll have to bring it up again.

 

After sorting through the stacks of finished blocks I found I was one short so I whipped this block up.

 

You can see my block in the upper right hand area.  I was drawn to the green and blue blocks that day.  Mainly because most of the other tops assembled were in the pink and purple range.

 

This was a top in process that Sherry and Kay were assembling.

 

 Mona assembled this one, she actually got at least 2, if not 3 together.  She was working with four-patches that consisted of 2 nine-patches and two heart/flower blocks, and they go together much faster than individual blocks.  Which may be why the group leader requested them, come to think of it...

 

Me plugging away at assembling my top.

 

The nine of us completed six tops, which is pretty amazing!

 

I took home fabric I had picked out for the borders, and finished my top in time for our next guild meeting, which was actually a Symposium.  So I dropped it at the front door then wandered around learning about all sorts of things, like different styles of applique and that a gentleman who just started quilting 7 months ago is hosting a sew-in at our local quilt shop and we will be making sailboat quilts.  I also picked up 4 packets of nine-patch makings for our guild's raffle quilt, which will be laid out as shown below:

 

Lots of nine-patches!  These are little guys, they will finish at 3 inches.

 

My current project is working on my sister's birthday present, her birthday is May 19, so I have a couple weeks to get this done!  The pattern is one a member of our guild created, and I was so inspired I immediately bought fabric to make one myself.  I do wish I could have taken her class, but funding prevents that from happening.  One of these days...

Last weekend I was able to get it up on the design wall and organize the four-patches into a comfortable setting.  It was more work than I thought it would be, and is probably why I don't usually go scrappy.  I had to walk away at least 6 times so I could be level-headed during this process.

 

Also, I completed my niece Susie's quilt!  We sent it down to Arizona, and my brother-in-law Shannon sent us a photo of her unwrapping it.  I hope she has many adventures with it!

I really appreciate John's help, every time.  Also, look at this sweet flanged binding!

 

Of course, the cat's have been terribly helpful:

 

I was really surprised, I could NOT get Thomas to leave this quilt alone!  He loved on it from conception, so I assume that it means my niece will also enjoy it.  By the way, I used two layers of batting with this one, and could barely feel the seams of the jean material from the top.  And it is really cozy.

Belle is giving very sage advise on how to attach the flanged binding: "To begin with, you need to cut off all that extra fluff, and then give it to me to tear into tiny bits".  No sweetie, not today.

 

I also gave my Grandma Kathy her table runner, and she loves it!  The quilting came out really nice.  She thought the fact that I used Insul-Bright as one of the layers was pretty clever, I just think it will be so handy to have a giant hotpad.  I'll have to remember to get a photo of it on her table, with the cup of flowers she placed on it.

 

Well, I hope you all have been happy and healthy and are enjoying this change in weather towards sunnier days!  I'm hoping to get my flower seeds planted tomorrow so we can enjoy them this summer.  Have a wonderful day!

 

~Brandy

Happy Birthday!

 

 

My mom and I share our birthday, and today was very nice!  I turned the big 3-0, and am not daunted by the idea of being three decades old.  I'm one of those oddities that is actually excited to age, to go through life getting the experiences that I can and being able to show at the end that I LIVED!  My mom is very much the same.  Possibly one of the biggest things she has done recently is 3 years ago she donated her kidney to the husband of a gal she went to high school with.  She felt that she was just called to do so, so she did.  He is living a very full life, and they have become fast friends (his name is Carl, my mom is Sheila, and the kidney has been named Carla, LOL, that's my family's sense of humor).

 

 

 

Mom and I did have to work today at her store, but it went by quickly and the ladies I work with are all so great, I got a hug from everyone when I came in.  After work we met up with many of my family members at a local pizza place called Sweet Basil and spent the next hour in pleasant company.  I was pleasantly surprised to receive gifts from everyone, it's been a while since we've had a party so I was just expecting the pleasure of everyone's company.

 

I had to laugh at all the cat-themed cards, what are they saying about me?  And the one from my cousin actually made me teary-eyed, we have grown quite a bit closer since working at the store together for the last couple months.

And I get a kick out of this photo, what a variety of gifts!  The ammunition is from my great-uncle, and as soon as he handed me the box I squealed because it means we get to go target shooting soon, yay!  Chocolate and movie tickets and wonder clips, then tools from John because he knows I need some around the house and we never have any, and then there's this:

 

My present from mom and dad, individually wrapped bills that mom apparently spent all morning wrapping for me!  Look at all the pretty colors!  They said it's for a new laptop, I say let's plant it and see if it grows into a tree...  Oh, I nearly forgot, mom also bought me some daffodil bulbs, and they are so close to ready to bloom I can hardly wait!!  They are my favorite flower.

 

I also got a singing message from my dear friend Lacy-Jean (who is a zookeeper at the San Diego Zoo, awesome!) and I sure hope to talk to her this weekend, and then I received a photo-text from my other best friend (Megan) that made me feel so great.  I love my girls!

This is from almost five years ago now (whoa!) and it's Lacy-Jean, Jennifer (my sister), myself, and Megan.

 

Oh by the way, I'm making progress on my UFOs!  I did actually complete the rose:

I felt like my revolver was fitting for the Guns' N Roses theme.

When I took it to the lady at the fairgrounds where they hosted the banquet she was so excited, and tried to walk away with it for her very own :)  I may need to make up a couple to just have on hand, I saw some great key fabric that I think would also make a good background for the rose.  With the border this finished at ~16.5 inches square.  I'm working on photos of the quilting which I will share later.

 

And I am nearly done with the braided runner, this was just when I started and of COURSE the bobbin ran out, right in the middle of a feather.  It is coming along quite nicely, I just have the outer border to quilt and binding to put on and that will be two things done!

 

No progress has been made in my room though.  Hoping to get something accomplished this weekend, as we have no current engagements.

 

Belle is telling me it's bedtime, so I must follow orders.  Plus I can hear sleeping noises from John in the other room, so it really must be time.  Thank you for visiting!

 

~Brandy

 

 

Thomas: Whoa, wait, I swear she put this down here so I can burrow.

Belle: No, it's meant to be slept on so our fur cannot be extracted from the batting, silly boy.

a Completely Honest Sewing Room post

So, this last weekend I was all excited about the fabric I had received from Connecting Threads that I just had to sit down and make some Disappearing Hourglass blocks.  About one and a half blocks into it, John walks in the room and says, "What are you doing?"  Uhhhhhhhh.... (goes my brain) "Sewing?"  I answer, wondering where this is going.  He looks around my sewing space (about 10' x 8' room that is PACKED with stuff, mostly in piles) and says to me, "When was the last time you sat down and made a list of what you haven't finished?  If you want to feel better about your organization and time spent quilting, you may want to look into it" and then turns and walks out.  Subtle, but effective that man is.  You may be picking up that we had been having conversations about never feeling like things get finished.  But look at all the things I've done in the last couple weeks!

 

Aurifil BOM-click on photo to visit the website

I laid out a Valentine's herringbone table runner, which is now wrapped up in that towel and under my cutting table

Two more Snapshots QAL blocks done, only 4 to go!

The National Rifle Association is hosting a banquet with a theme of Guns and Roses and I plan to donate this to their auction.  The banquet is on the 13th of February, 11 days away.

My tumbler-leader/ender project is making great strides!  I even added more pieces to my darks and lights.  This will eventually be a REALLY busy and fun quilt.  My tumblers are 2.5"...

 

So here's the skinny:

 

I made a list of how many projects I have tops of, or piles of fabric for, or that are even partly quilted and just need to be finished, and I have filled the 20 lines on my sheet!  That's just the ones I can remember!!!  Holy Cow!  I truly thought I was doing better than that, I thought I was closer to 10.  You know what though?  This is a good thing, as I obviously have enough projects to keep me busy for a couple months then I can set up achievable milestones for myself.  I am going through my sheet and prioritizing the projects (such as Susie's birthday present which I had wanted done at least in her birthday month, urg, too late now) and am writing down target dates to finish them by in a little calendar my grandma gave me for Christmas.  My plan is to whittle my list down to 10 before starting a new project.  I believe it to be achievable because all my projects are at different stages in the quilting process and so if I get tired of one stage, I can switch to another WIP but still be working on this list.

 

Here's the rest of my open honesty today, behold my stuffed sewing space!

 

View from the seat at the sewing machine.

This is what is directly behind me, the Macy's bag is where I put my cut-offs of fabric.  This is my cutting table... it's hard to be efficient in this mess.

The hardest thing is that my little haven is so overwhelming when you walk in, that John doesn't often venture in to visit. I adore my husband, and want to be around him as much as possible, but he won't stick around when I'm sewing.  The cat's barely come in here too, how bad is that?  I think they are afraid of being buried.

 

I have come to the conclusion that John is very much in the right, and I need to restructure myself, and my room (obviously...) so that I can feel GREAT about sewing for others, and for myself.  I love this hobby, and am limited on space, so some things will need to change if I want to keep this up.  Thank you for letting me share these thoughts with you today, do you have any ideas that might help me along?  Or do I just need to buckle down and make things happen?  I appreciate any assistance I can get :)

 

~Brandy

 

By the way, here's what started all this in motion:

 

 

 

Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

WIP Wednesday

I am really enjoying the whole "solids" idea in quilts.  After seeing the Kona cottons lookbook, and then winning a charm pack of their newest colors and seeing how fabulous the colors are in person I have become a HUGE fan.  On top of the purity of color that you get in an all solids quilt, you then have all this open space to show off your free-motion quilting!  Yes, I find that appealing.  I can also see how that could be very intimidating.  I am trying to continue to challenge myself so I know I'm still growing as an artist.  Although, there are some days when I find I need to get back to basics.  And it doesn't get much more basic than solid colors does it?

 

These four colors just happened to fall next to each other, and I find the combination highly attractive.

 

These were next to each other in the charm pack, and I am a big fan of blues and greens together, the purple is OK, I'm not a huge fan of purple, but I realize you need a "pop" color and this makes for a nice cool palette.  And I mean cool as in opposite of warm FYI.  You could throw an orange in there for contrast in place of the purple and that would be interesting too, although I'd probably be more inclined to go the hot pink route.

 

These half-square triangles made for the prettiest scrap piles :)

 

Parade of color!

 

I am making the Moda Love pattern which is available as a pdf file here.  I took my charm pack and cut it in half, then one of the halves in half.  I haven't decided if I will make 4 of these mini quilts or just 2, but in case I am done after two, I have some 2.5"x5" rectangles to do something fun with.  The plan with this particular one is to quilt it with a puzzle quilting motif such as Lori did here and give it to my Great-Grandma for Mother's Day this weekend.  She's been really into puzzles lately, and expressed interest in my quilting so I thought she'd enjoy something like this.  She doesn't need a full size quilt, but I hope she will use this as maybe a placemat or something.  It should finish at 12"x12".  I'll be sure to share a finish photo when it gets to that stage!

 

I also got my Snapshots quilt block finished for April recently, and since we have 2 cats I changed the puppy block to a kitty.

 

When I shared my block on the Facebook page I had a lot of positive response, a few people even asked for directions on how I made the cat!  I was able to give them measurements, but really all I did was not make the puppy ears and barely changed the shape of the head.  Sometimes I don't realize that the concept of figuring the measurements may not be as easy for others as it is for me.  Thus I shared what I knew.  :)

 

 

 

Here are my gratuitous cat photos from this last week, they are so excited about Spring being here that they're acting like total goofballs!

 

 

 

Have a lovely day!

~Brandy