Prep for Sewing Summit Classes

Sewing Summit is over a week away...I can't believe how fast it's gotten here! That means I have halted all other sewing and begun prepping for my two classes...I'm teaching 'Advanced Bags' and 'Zippers'. I have not taught any classes before, so I'm a bit nervous, but I had a great time cutting out and labeling all the Pellon interfacing charm squares for 'Advanced Bags', so I think I'm beginning to relax a bit.

I know they all look the same in the photo...but just *wait* until you feel them all...it will become clear, I promise! You'll be like a freaking interfacing ninja!

Here's a peak at my little interfacing charm pack...10 different Pellon products that you might use when making a bag. The possibilities are always so exciting to me!! Interfacing will just be part of this class, but I know that a lot of people are anxious to talk about interfacing 'cause I've been following along in the Sewing Summit google group. I'll have to see how many bags I can fit in my suitcase...wouldn't it be ridiculous if I had one suitcase with only bags inside of it? lol!! I told Pellon that they needed to make said charm packs available on a regular basis...they're super convenient, and you can whip 'em out in the fabric shop and all. Ka-pow.

Lovely Erin, the organizer extraordinaire of Sewing Summit, finagled all these supplies for the 'Zippers' class...I know it doesn't look like a lot, but that's almost 150 zippers (regular and invisible) and many many yards of scraps. Wanna guess where the scraps came from? I was told they are from none other than Joel Dewberry himself!! Thank you so much, Mr. Dewberry! Honestly, these "scraps" make me giggle...each "scrap" is enough to make a bag.

I'm sewing all my zipper samples tomorrow night (get ready, Zipper people! 4 different zipper applications, plus if there's time we'll also get to the recessed zipper! When you are done with this class, you are gonna be eating zippers for breakfast! And they thought they were such bad boys). Then I will be taking the rotary to these scraps and *really* turn them into scraps...there is no time for cutting in my class, the sewing machines will be whirin'!

If you are playing from home, never fear, I will be getting all this together to present it so you can check it out on my blog! Yay!

ME? At Joann's?

Do you recognize the photo in the bottom right on this tear-sheet at Joann Fabrics? Yes, it's the Embroidery-To-Go pattern that I collaborated with Rachael from Imagine Gnats on. This is a free pattern for Pellon.

I saw the photo when I got home from work today. As the kids were still taking their nap, I silently swore (for joy) in my head. Then proceeded to do the splits (also in my head).

Here is a lovely version from Lucy at Charm About You.

That made my trip into Joann's a lot better yesterday...thank goodness for Pellon's packaged interfacing, the line at the cutting counter was horrendous and the packaged Fusible Fleece saved me from being late to work! Horray Pellon!!

Tula Pink Sew Along - Spiked Punch

This post is part of the Tula Pink Sew Along!

For full schedule of guest post quilt pattern reviews, discounts, and prizes, click here!

Today's guest quilt is from Caitlin. She owns a fabulous Etsy shop called I Don't Do Dishes, which stocks fabric, interfacing, and patterns. Please stop by and check it out!


I'm so happy to be participating in the Tula Pink Sew Along! I was asked to make Tula's 'Spiked Punch' pattern:

I have a complex about fabric waste, and there was virtually none with this pattern! The cutting went super fast since I used jelly rolls - 1 roll of print and 1 roll of solid. I made the medium size (72"x72") and the fabrics I used were Hunky Dory by Chez Moi, and a Natural solid.  The quilt is for my 3 year old daughter, and I wanted something soft and feminine without being too baby-ish. I absolutely love how it turned out :)

I would rate this pattern for Beginners. It was easy to read and understand, with several illustrations for various steps, and no special tools required. 

The only thing I added outside of the instructions, was to applique my daughter's name onto the quilt top. 



I even ordered a special quilt label directly from Tula Pink - her Tula Can :)

This quilt has been a big hit with my little girl! She loves to point out her name and let it be known that it belongs to HER. It pretty much lives on our couch so she can snuggle with it all the time:

This quilt pattern can look so different from another depending on your fabric choices. Tula first released this pattern with her Plume collection, and then remade it for the release of Parisville. I especially love her choice of pieced binding on this version:

Just imagine the possibilities! 

Thanks to Sara for organizing this sew along :) Come back Monday for another Tula Pink pattern review!

Quilters Take Manhattan & Jelly Roll Quilters

My friend Kim was lucky enough to get tickets to Quilters Take Manhattan last week. I very jealously listened to all the fun she had (and you can read about it here). I saw some photos of Denyse Schmidt and Luke Haynes in there...just sayin'.

Kim is also giving away some Quilters Take Manhattan goodies. You can check out the giveaway here after you read about all the debauchery.




Also I'd like to tell you about a site that I recently discovered. Jelly Roll Quilters is a fun community for quilters from around the world. It looks like there are some fun groups and swaps on the site as well. Their sister site, RU Craft, also has some nice quilt patterns, many of them free. My favorite quilt pattern from the site is probably this pinwheel quilt:

So go check it out!

Thanks for all the hugs and well wishes during my social media fast ::giggle:: I was feeling all brave about it yesterday but tonight starting to waver a bit...missing everyone! I think this kind of thing is only meant for people who actually do have an active social life, lol.

Tula Pink Sew Along: Houndstooth

This post is part of the Tula Pink Sew Along!

For full schedule of guest post quilt pattern reviews, discounts, and prizes, click here!

Becky from My Fabric Obsession is the guest today with her version of Houndstooth. Becky is a huge Tula Pink fan. She's also one of those girls that I consider a super quilter. She churns out at least 1 fully-finished quilt a month. Check out her blog to see them all!


Hi everyone, Becky from My Fabric Obsession here. When Sara asked me to take part in the Tula Pink Pattern Reviews I was so excited to join in. Thank you Sara for including me! If you've read my blog, you know I'm a huge fan of Tula Pinks' fabrics and have made many projects out of them. This was the first time I've done one of her patterns and I was pleasantly surprised.

I chose to make her Houndstooth quilt. Here is the gorgeous shot from her book Quilts from the House of Tula Pink.

Gorgeous right? But you are probably thinking, there are a lot of Houndstooth patterns out there, why this one? Let me tell you, it is super simple!  The genius of Tula Pink is that she uses strip piecing and no templates. That's right - NO templates or special rulers! YAY!

So here's what you should know about this pattern. The final size is 66"x72". That's a pretty big quilt. The one thing that surprised me was how big those houndstooth (s?, houndsteeth?) are! Here's a shot to show you the scale:

I would say this is a beginner quilt. The directions in the book (including fabric requirements) only take 3 pages. They are well written and easy to follow. Her diagrams make everything crystal clear.

However, if you choose to mess with the colors, it becomes more advanced. Here's what I'm talking about.  The quilt pattern is written for 2 colors, one light and one dark. If you stick to her pattern, you need 4.5 yards dark and 4 yards light fabric. It's very straightforward and you can put this together very quickly.

I, of course, have to make everything more difficult than it really is. I love the graduated colors that Tula Pink uses in her version and wanted to do something funky with mine. I was inspired by this painted wall which was actually on my local news.

Here is my finished quilt top (thank you hubby for holding it up for me).

I'm totally in love with it. HOWEVER, if you decide to do this pattern and do more than two colors, I highly recommend sketching it out first to be sure of your color placement. Your strip piecing will depend on those color placements. You could photocopy the construction layout in the book in black and white or just draw it out. I did not do this my first go around and see if you can spot the problem.

Yup. Multicolored teeth.  I did a lot of seam ripping. But it totally my own fault. It's still a very easily put together pattern, you just have to plan ahead.

The only other negative is that there is a lot of fabric waste with this pattern. You get a lot of odd cuts of fabric that are really too strange to keep as scraps. So if that kind of thing bothers you, be aware.

Cathedral Window Sampler Quilt Along

I am teaming up with Pellon and FreeQuiltPatterns.info, along with 8 other amazing designers, to bring you a fun 9-block Cathedral Window mini sampler.  Each week in October, there will be two block tutorials featuring each designer's take on the traditional Cathedral Window. 

Oct 1 :: Sara @ Sew Sweetness
Oct 4 :: Bree @ My Crafty Crap
Oct 8 :: Jill @ Made with Moxie
Oct 11 :: Emily @ Mommy's Nap Time
Oct 15 :: Rachael @ Imagine Gnats
Oct 18 :: Jessica @ Sew Crafted
Oct 22 :: Elizabeth @ Don't Call Me Betsy
Oct 25 :: Kim @ My Go-Go Life
Oct 29 :: Heather @ Olive & Ollie

And of course, what would a quilt along be without prizes?!  We have some truly amazing prizes for you from some amazing sponsors.

Pellon

FreeQuiltPatterns.info

Aurifil

Fat Quarter Shop

There will be prizes for completing each individual block and for completing the full 9-block sampler top (does not need to be fully completed with back & binding).  You will have until November 15 to complete all the blocks. Please join the Flickr Group (which is where you will be able to enter your blocks for the prizes!)

Now that the cat's out of the bag, I can share the amazing prize bundles!

First & Second place will be randomly drawn from all completed sampler tops. You do not need to have the mini backed, quilted, or bound, but all nine blocks must be completed. You may have one entry for each completed sampler top.

First Prize
1 Kindle Fire HD
1 $35 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate
1 pkg Pellon® EK150-10 Easy-Knit® Tape
1 pkg 70 Peltex® Ultra Firm Sew-In
1 pkg Pellon® 987F Fusible Fleece
1 pkg Pellon® 805R Wonder-Under®
1 pkg Pellon® SF101 Shape-Flex®
1 Legacy™ by Pellon® Throw (60x60) 100% Natural Cotton Batting
1 pkg Pellon® Perfect Loft™ Cluster Fiber
1 Pattern Playground CD

Second Prize
1 $35 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate
1 Legacy™ by Pellon® Crib (45x60) 100% Natural Cotton Batting
1 pkg Pellon® Perfect Loft™ Cluster Fiber
1 pkg Pellon® 805R Wonder-Under®
1 pkg Pellon® SF101 Shape-Flex®
1 Pattern Playground CD

**********

Third & Fourth place will be drawn from all individually completed blocks. You may have one entry for each of the nine blocks completed.

Third Prize
1 pkg Pellon® 987F Fusible Fleece
1 pkg Pellon® 805R Wonder-Under®
1 pkg Pellon® SF101 Shape-Flex®

Fourth Prize
1 pkg Pellon® 987F Fusible Fleece
1 pkg Pellon® 805R Wonder-Under®
1 pkg Pellon® SF101 Shape-Flex®

**********

Individual block prize bundles will be drawn from all entries for each block design. You may have one entry into each of the nine drawings for each block completed of that design.

Individual block prize #1-9
1 Aurifil thread bundle
1 Pattern Playground CD

**********

All blocks must be completed & submitted to the Flickr group by midnight central time on November 15 to be considered for the drawing.

Tula Pink Sew Along: Cloudy Days

This post is part of the Tula Pink Sew Along!

For full schedule of guest post quilt pattern reviews, discounts, and prizes, click here!

Today's guest post is from Lisa at That Crazy Quilty Girl. Lisa is a long arm quilter, and between quilting some *amazing* things for her customers and teaching national classes, she also has time to create some crazy good stuff for herself.


Hello!  Today is my turn for a little wordy/quilty goodness in the Tula Pink Sew Along!
Now I don't want to incriminate anyone, but I didn't technically choose which pattern I'd be talking about today.  Sara chose it for me, and I really couldn't say no because I had already made it three times!
I'm going to tell you about Cloudy Days, from Tula's book, Quilts From The House Of Tula Pink.


Hmm.  Okay.  Let's try that again ten minutes later without the nosy cat.

That's better!

I have to admit that I'm lucky to have a (signed) copy of this book.  During her book signing at Spring Quilt Market, I was busy working in the GenQ booth, but a lovely friend of mine was sweet enough to go grab a copy for me!

At Market I also happened to get a bundle of one-yard cuts that I thought would be perfect for this quilt, and I already knew that I wanted to use dark blue for the background fabric.
I can't tell you how accurate the fabric requirements in the pattern (3/4 yard of eight prints, 5 yards of background) are, as I made three smaller versions for a class I'm teaching next year.  If you make this quilt exactly as the one in the book, you'll have a 72"x95" snuggle monster.

I think that the pattern instructions were pretty easy to follow, and it went together semi-quickly.  I'd say this is probably a beginner-to-intermediate skill level pattern.  You basically cut rectangles, cut the rectangles into other shapes and then sew it all back together.  No specialty notions are needed.  I used my 8.5x24" ruler and it did the job, though I did have to fold some of the blocks in half (the large rain drops).  There is a lot of sew-press-trim to it, so you have to have a little patience in that regard.  And for the record, I highly recommend pressing your seams OPEN to avoid bulkiness!  For this quilt, you also do pretty much all of your block construction sewing on the bias, so you'd need to be mindful of not stretching or warping your fabric as you sew.  But the blocks are basically fool-proof as you sew them together and then trim them to size.

One thing I did do differently than what the pattern said was the wedges that make the top part of the rain drop.  The diagram says to do it like this:

Doing it that way didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me.  So I flipped my wedges in the other direction and that worked a lot better.  (Is it because I'm left handed?)

I couldn't wait to quilt up the first one!  The other two are still in a ginormous pile waiting to be quilted, but that doesn't matter.  The lovely ladies at Pellon sent me samples of their Legacy line of battings, and for this quilt I used their 3/8" loft polyester.  I'm in love!

If anyone's ever wondered about my photography skills, these pictures should pretty much make up your mind.  But the quilt looks rad?!

Sara stole this photo from Lisa's blog; it's a class sample for MQX.

My Social Media Addiction

I have a problem. The time has come to admit it (partially joking). I think we all participate in some kind of social media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, what have you. My biggest vices are definitely Twitter and Facebook. I tried scaling back, I really did. Instead of checking it throughout the day, I tried limiting myself to 40 minutes in the morning and then in the late evening after a certain time, but it was still disrupting my personal life. And that's not cool.

So I took drastic measures and decided to halt all social media until Halloween, which is a little over a month from now. You're probably gonna laugh, but the way I accomplished this (because I definitely don't trust myself not to peak) was that I changed my passwords to some random phone number I found in a stack of papers, then threw the number away. Of course I could recover my passwords, but I'm not going to do that. This probably sounds childish to you, but in certain instances I don't have a lot of control over myself, lol.

So, for a little while you'll just be seeing my auto blog feeds on Twitter and Facebook, but that's really and truly it. I know that it's not realistic to think that I can stay away from social media forever; it's really important for networking and promoting your stuff.

But I'll still be blogging...I hope you'll say hi once in awhile as I know I'm going to miss all my sewing buddies. :*)

Awwright!!!! So tonight I'm beginning work on my Sewing Summit classes...I'm doing a Zippers class and an Advanced Bags class. Zippers will be 4 different zipper techniques (and I'll throw in recessed zippers too if there's enough time!). Bags will be a whole ton of different things, beginning with interfacing, ending with purse hardware, and lots of things in between.

The photo of the Kona card up there is for a certain reason...my husband is designing a quilt for Pellon. We actually just ordered the fabric tonight! It's also the first quilt that I'll have longarmed, by the fabulous Lisa. Hopefully I don't actually have to sew anything on this one myself (as that was the plan, ha).

 

I'm ready to get to work on some new bag and clothing patterns in November as soon as all my other commitments have been fulfilled. I'm really excited about that. I have 2 bags already drafted, and so many ideas for women's clothing! All new patterns written starting in November will be accompanied by not only my step-by-step color photos, but you'll also be getting a 30-minute (or more) video with each one, showing you exactly how to make the bag or dress. I feel like videos really make sewing accessible to everyone...how many times have you watched a video on YouTube on how to paint a dresser or set up a light studio?

Anyway, I digress. :-) Hopefully my lack of social media participation will make me ultra-productive ::puts on the Superman shirt with the muscles::

Frippery Dress

Thomas Knauer's new fabric line, 'Frippery' is full of some great colors for Fall. The line features peacocks, polka dots, and my favorite, these triangles which I used to make a dress. My favorite colors are blue and green, and I just *love* this fabric!! It's nice and bright, just how I like it!

 

My original plan was to use Vogue pattern #1227 (minus the extra top ruffle, which I thought was very 80's but more of a 'Saved By the Bell' style). I got the bodice together, which was an underwire, but I just couldn't get the fit right. Sometimes you just have to know when to pack it in and admit defeat. ;-)

I'm sure if I had put a muslin together and spent more time on it, I could have gotten it right, but time is not something I have extra of right now, so I subbed in my favorite Serendipity Studio bodice (although this is the first time I have made the pieced version...which is the sheer brown fabric up top).

There is a segmented waistline and also a segmented yoke, which I was kind of nervous about...I just was not sure how it was going to look when actually worn, since I was omitting that top skirt. I was actually pleasantly surprised...the skirt hangs rather nice!

The zipper is quite visible in the back, especially with the sheer fabric, although it actually lays flat, so I'm okay with the zipper showing. I still have not decided what fabric to use to finish the raw edges of the neckline and armholes...I think maybe a brown to match closely with the fabric of the upper bodice.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It's rather short, but great to wear over tights and boots. It's been cool in Chicago for the past week, but of course today it's almost 80 degrees!

Don't forget to check out Thomas Knauer's new fabric!! I'm also really excited for his upcoming line called 'Asbury'! Ice cream and carnival rides oh my!