Block 28

A few weeks back I saw Tula Pink's City Sampler book featured on her Facebook page. You could order the book, or you could order the book plus a set of fat eights to get you started on the project. It took me all of thirty seconds to succumb to that temptation...

The book is absolutely gorgeous. Each of the blocks is hand drawn and coloured in; it takes me back to a fresh package of newly sharpened pencil crayons at the start of a school year. Back when you use one, then put it ever so carefully back in the exact spot it came from. Anyway, the book is just lovely.

A City Sampler quilt along gets going on Monday (yay - Victoria Day holiday here in Canada!) but I really wanted to try something out before then.

So easy. And very fast. Oh, it's not a sampler block, but you probably figured that out already. I didn't quite have a vision, yet, of the quilt I wanted to create and didn't want to just make some random block, either. Fortunately for me, my daughters and daughter-in-law are all relatively newly married and happily feathering their little nests so throw pillows are a well-received item in these parts. Eldest daughter (by all of 6 minutes - it's very important to her for people to know that) chose the print from my bundle of fat eighths and I added in the solids. I tripled the block measurements to get an 18" finished block. The quilting inspiration comes straight from the book, slightly modified to match the scale of the pillow.

Since I had all my girls here over the weekend, I told them each to pick out a favourite print or palette form the bundle, so there are a few more pillows coming. Good thing. Work is super busy right now so having quick projects like this satisfies my urge to sew and be creative and works with the time I have. I've been thinking it would be neat to make a quilt top of 18" sampler blocks. I'm keeping that idea in the back of my mind!

And, my muse has spoken....I have my inspiration for the City Sampler quilt along, too. Looking forward to getting started next week. Come join us!

e.

Giveaway Day winner...

Thank you to everyone who visited and left encouraging, kind comments on the Giveaway Day post. I visited many of the bloggers who participated; I loved so many of the projects I saw and smile at how generous this online community is!

The winner of my giveaway is Kelli, who said the thing she likes about summer is "Vacationing. In my world, that means laying out by the pool, with a good read or mag in hand, while jammin' tunes play in the background and with a cold beverage in reach." I think it sounds perfect and I hope Kelli is able to do lots of vacationing in the upcoming summer months!

This weekend has been busy but very fun. We had our Mother's Day festivities yesterday as that is when all my kids and their spouses could be here. We grilled steaks. enjoyed yummy Skor-bar cheesecake, and just had a great time. I am so blessed with awesome kids and the spouses they chose. They spoiled me with a new Creative Grids ruler (my favourite kind!) and some flowers:

And now, I think I'll enjoy spending a bit of time with Tula.

Happy Mother's Day and happy weekend to all.

e.

It's Giveaway Day!

Giveaway Day is a fun event organized by the gang over at Sew, Mama, Sew and it is a great way to meet a whole lot of bloggers and crafters and take a look at lots of great projects and ideas! So, without further ado, here is my giveaway:

My prize is this pillow cover which will fit a 20" x 20" (50cm x 50cm) pillow form (mine is being modeled an an Ikea feather-filled version). The pattern is by Tacha Bruecher for Moda Bake Shop and I downloaded the tutorial last fall, when it was featured on their site. The fabrics on the front are Juggling Summer by Zen Chic. The back is more Juggling Summer and a Kona solid and the binding is a small Windsor Lane check by Bunny Hill Designs.

With the pillow form inside, this would be quite a beast to mail but a replacement one can easily be found at places like Ikea (they have feather ones and non-feather ones at a good price), Michael's, Jo-Ann's, Walmart, or your friend's and neighbour's couches. By sending the top only it is easy to make this open for interenational friends to participate! The draw will be open until 5:00 PM PDT on Friday, May 10 (gotta like 5:00 on a Friday!) and I'll announce the winner shortly thereafter.

Thank you so much for coming to visit! If you'd like to enter, leave me a comment and tell me something you like about summer. I like a lot of things about summer, but one of my favourites is knowing the farmer's market will be open again! What about you?

Linking up to Giveaway Day here!

e.

On the positive side

The sun was out today and the sky was blue!!!

I have to say just that is enough to warrant a blog post, in my opinion. But I'm also positively pleased with my newly finished plus-sign pillow:

I followed this tutorial over at Jaceycraft; it is really simple to put together, although laying out my squares was a lot like working on a puzzle (which was kind of fun). Once I had my layout, the sewing went quickly. The fabric came from some charm packs of Juggling Summer by Zen Chic and I quilted it in an arced pattern to mimic the circles in one of the rings. I basically tied a string to a pencil and pivoted around one of the corners. I quilted down that line using a walking foot and then echoed it. I used a lined envelope backing and bound it with 2 1/4" wide strips. I didn't want a really wide binding, but it if I am going to try 2 1/2" wide strips next time. There are four layers of fabric where the two backing pieces overlap, plus the quilted front so it was a bit of a challenge getting the binding folded over all of that far enough to cover the seam line.

Here is my attempt at an artsy shot:

I'm finishing something up for Giveaway Day which starts on Monday - I hope you'll come back then.

e.

Low Vol-Yum!

A local quilt shop had a sale on last week and I was happy to help them out by picking up a few pieces of low volume fabric - something which seems to be missing in my stash.

These pretties are from a few lines and I really like how nicely they play together.

Spring teased us last week by bringing sunshine and warm temperatures but the weekend brought more snow. And wind. Nobody would call Chicago "the windy city" after spending any time here. The good thing is the wind takes away the snow and brings another promise for spring - I'm sure hoping it sticks around a bit longer this time!

Today is Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts. I usually remember about it on the 2nd of the month or something like that. It's a day quilters show off what they have been working on for the past month. In my case, there isn't much to show except for a couple of bee blocks and my churn dash quilt for Do. Good Stitches. Still, I'm so thankful I had time to enjoy what I love doing, and I am excited to link up and play along!

Wishing everyone a good May!

e.

Churn Dash Happiness

Back in January, I asked the Happiness circle of Do. Good Stitches to make churn dash blocks in an earthy colour palette. I figured with Christmas and all the excitement of the holidays just past, we could use a simple project to ease us into the new year.

Fast forward to now and the quilt is finally done (although the constant snowfall makes me think it's still January some days).

My circle mates did a beautiful job with the blocks. I asked everyone to make one light on dark and one in the reverse and I love how it came out. For the quilting, I opted to use straight lines running the length of the quilt about 1/2" or so apart. I was so excited when I saw the texture to this quilt after pulling it from the dryer.

So good to have another project finished! 

e.

Do. Good Stitches - WIP

I took a little time today to work on a couple of things for the HAPPINESS circle at Do. Good Stiches. I am one of the quilters in the group and today, I got a top put together which I will hopefully quilt tomorrow.

And the other thing I got done was two blocks for April. Our quilter has asked for blocks of our choosing in a palette of grey, aqua, turquoise, and a bit of blue.

The one on the left is a Scrappy Trip Around the World block (my first - and it was very fun to make!) while the one on the right is Starburst from Elizabeth Hartman's Practical Guide to Patchwork. Also a quick and fun block to make and I could see it working in a scrappy variation as well.

Still waiting and hoping for spring but at least it didn't snow today!

e.