Amy Butler Weekender Bag & a Coupon!!

My friend Angela Walters debuted her first fabric line called Textures with Art Gallery Fabrics back at Fall Market 2012. About a month ago she asked if I could make her a bag with her fabrics so she could carry it around at Spring Market. I said sure and she sent me some of her fabrics.

Before I show you the bag, let me just say that I love this fabric line! The fabrics were so much fun to work with and they are so pretty! You can check back to my post about an entire quilt I made using them HERE.

Ok, now for the bag! I made Amy Butler's Weekender Bag and I'm totally in love with it! It was really hard for me to send it to her, I wanted to keep it so bad!  I might just have to make myself another one using her fabrics!

I added some teal topstitching to add a little extra! Hope you enjoy your bag Angela!

 

Also, the nice people at Fairfield wanted to share this coupon with everyone who stopped by the Mirror Ball Blog Hop! I just received it last night and wanted to share it with ya'll!

 



Cherrywood Challenge

You might remember my post from back in February about the Ovarian Quilt Cancer Project, if you don't or need a refresher you can find my post HERE!

As part of the Ovarian Quilt Cancer Project, I'm participating in the Cherrywood Challenge again! What is that you ask? Well...

In 2011, Cherrywood Fabrics donated hand-dyed teal fabric which inspired the inception of the Cherrywood Challenge. Local quilters were invited to create original wall hangings using these fabrics.

Quilts were on display at the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston’s event at the Stafford Centre and on display at MD Anderson where employees, patients and visitors voted in person on their favorite Cherrywood Challenge quilt. Facebook Fans voted online and photos of each quilt were sent to Cherrywood Fabrics in a power point presentation for their professional vote.

We are proud to have Cherrywood Fabrics partner with us again for the 2013 Online Quilt Auction. 

 

They sent a Fat Eighth bundle with 8 different colors

The rules were:

Use only Cherrywood fabrics with no more than 30% of other fabrics. Quilts can be of any shape, but the length + the width of the quilt cannot be less than 48 inches nor more than 120 inches. A round quilt cannot have a diameter greater than 40 inches. (Curator’s Note: any shape is acceptable, you can use scalloped edges and non-traditional designs, but the quilt must hang well from a sleeve with no other support or pins.)

Here is what I came up with: I'm calling it Happy Trails




I had a lot of fun Free Motion Quilting this!



 
And here is what the back looks like, I just pieced what was left over.



 
 
Hopefully this will help raise money for the Ovarian Quilt Cancer Project and help raise awareness!



Brick Road Sew Along: Week 5

Sorry for not having this post ready this morning....long, fun sewing weekend=tired Jamie!

 Let's get started! This week is backing/basting!

 

 

Backing:

1. Get your 4 yards of backing fabric and cut in half so you have 2-2 yard cuts (44" X 72") and cut the selvedges off.

*NOTE: If you want a scrappier/pieced backing look, you could use 4 different 1 yard cuts!

 

2. Then, take the 2-2 yard cuts and sew them together along one 72" side.  You will have one long 72" seam sewn where the selvedges used to be and have an approximately 72" X 82" piece. Press seam.
*I pieced my backing to show you more colors of the RJR Crazy for Dots and Stripes fabrics, but as long as you have a backing piece at least 72" X 82" you'll be fine! Here is a photo of the RJR Crazy for Dots and Stripes fabrics I used: I LOVE THESE DOTS!

 

 

Basting:

1. Find a big open hard floor area to baste your quilt; you might need to move some furniture around.  I usually move my kitchen table to use the big hardwood floor space!

2. With your backing fabric wrong side up, spread out on hard floor and smooth out wrinkles. 

3. Using painter's tape, tape around the edges pulling the backing fabric tightly and making sure there are not any wrinkles or puckers.

(Sorry, it was hard for me to get an entire backing picture because it's large and I'm short)

(Ozzie wanted to show you where to tape to the floor)

 

4. Then, spread batting out on top of backing fabric, smooth out any wrinkles and tape around edges.

 

5. Next, spread quilt top on top of batting and smooth out any wrinkles.

I don't tape my quilt top, because then I can adjust it while pinning if needed.

 

 

Pinning your quilt:

*There are many different ways to in your quilt, this is my method!

What I use:

I like to use curved safety pins with Paula Jean Creations covers on them, these covers make gripping the safety pins so much easier.

 

 

I also like to use a Kwik Klip, this bad boy saves my finger tips from being sore while closing the safety pins and makes basting so much faster in my opinion. You can find more information about these products on Paula Jean Creations website!

 

1. Using curved safety pins, baste your quilt together every few inches making sure to catch all layers (backing, batting and top).
*I like to pin more rather than less to make sure I don't have any puckering while quilting. But it's your call on how much you pin.

 

 

Ok, that's it on backing and basting! Come back next Monday for a machine quilting tutorial!!  Any requests on designs? 

And make sure you add photos to the Flickr Group!

 

Mirror Ball Dot Blog Hop Winners!

Sorry it's taken me until 11pm to announce the two winners of the Mirror Ball Blog Hop, but I was on a sewing retreat with my Lou Bee Group and I'm just getting home and finished playing with my little boy and can now sit down and blog!

I had my friends during the retreat pick two numbers and then ended up both being named Linda!! Crazy!

 

Winner #1: Please email Mark with your five color choices of MBD and mailing address:

markhordyszynski@mac.com

 SewLindaAnn

 

Winner #2: I will be sending you a PDF copy of my iPhone Case pattern!

 Linda

 

Thanks so much for all of your wonderful comments and be sure to check by all the other stops in the Mirror Ball Blog Hop!!

BRICK ROAD SEW ALONG:
I will be posting around NOON central time on Monday May 6th! I am too tired to finish working on my blog post after a long, fun, productive Sewing Retreat weekend! Sorry that it won't be in the morning :)

Angela Walters Panel Challenge

About a month or so ago, Angela Walters sent me her panel and some fabrics from her Textures line for Art Gallery Fabrics to come up with something. 

Before I show you what I came up with, make sure you stop by Angela's Blog to enter the Make it Right Panel Challenge yourself! There are lots of amazing prizes, including cash money!! Plus, I highly recommend buying her entire Textures line, the colors are gorgeous and there are some great prints!  Here are just a few of my favs...

 

 

 

Here is what the panel looks like:

 

 

 

 I decided to cut up the panel and turn all of the squares into something else. I made HST (half square triangles), log cabin blocks out of the rectangle pieces, sliced some in half and added more fabrics to them, etc...
Here is the finished quilt that I came up with:

(ignore the sloppy picture, the dog walked over the quilt and I was on a chair too lazy to straighten it, plus it's been raining ALL day and I wasn't able to go outside)

 

I have so much fun cutting this a part without any sort of plan and just randomly sew it back together. What was even more fun for me was quilting this.  I've been wanting to practice my feather quilting more, especially after I took Angela's free motion feathers class on Craftsy! I quilted a huge diagonal feather with some swirls around the feather.

Thanks to my assistant Ozzie!

 

Now go buy yourself one of Angela's panels and enter the Make it Right Challenge!

 

 

 

 

Brick Road Sew Along Week 4

Everyone's blocks are looking great!! You still have plenty of time to catch up if you're behind, or if you're just joining us! This week we will add sashing, borders and assemble our entire quilt top! Let's get started!

 

Cutting the Sashing:

1. From the sashing/border fabric cut:

          20-1 1/2" X WOF (width of fabric) strips.

          2-7" strips

 

2. Take 6- 1 1/2" X WOF and subcut:

           36- 1 1/2" X 7" pieces

 

3. From the 2-7" X WOF strips subcut:

          8-6 3/4" X 7" pieces

 

Sewing the Sashing:

1. Choose 6 blocks and lay them out vertically with the shorter sides on top and bottom. Sew a 1 1/2" X 7" sashing strip to the bottom 7" side of the first block. Press sashing to block. Continue sewing a 1 1/2" X 7" sashing strip to the bottom of the next 4 blocks. *There should be sashing attached to 5 of the 6 blocks.

2. Sew all 6 blocks together in a vertical row along the 7" sides. Press sashings to blocks. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to make a total of 4 vertical rows that measure 7" X 74 1/2".

3. Choose 5 blocks and lay them out vertically with 7" sides on top and bottom. Sew a 1 1/2" X 7" sashing strip to the bottom 7" side of the first block. Press sashing to block. Continue sewing a 1 1/2" X 7" sashing strip to the bottom of the next 3 blocks. *There should be sashing attached to 4 of the 5 blocks.

4. Sew all 5 blocks together vertically along the 7" sides. Press sashing towards blocks. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to make a total of 4 vertical rows that measure 7" X 62".

5. Take a 6 3/4" X 7" piece and attach one to the top and one to the bottom of 1- 7" X 62" vertical row along the 7" side.  Press towards blocks.  Repeat on remaining 7" X 62" vertical rows. You should now have 8- 7" X 74 1/2" rows.

6. Take the 14- 1 1/2" X WOF strips and sew two together along the short 1 1/2" sides to make one continuous strip. Repeat with remaining strips until you have 7- 1 1/2" X 84" strips. (Be sure to cut the selvedges off first)

7. Measure all rows and cut 7- 1 1/2" sashing strips to that measurement. (Should be around 74 1/2") As long as your rows are all the same size, it doesn't matter if your measurement is a little off from mine, but it should be close to 74 1/2".

8. Lay out the rows alternating as shown.

9. Sew a 1 1/2" sashing strip to the RIGHT side of rows 1-7. Press to sashing strip.

    

10. Sew vertical rows 1-4 together.

11. Sew vertical rows 5-8 together.

12. Sew all rows together from steps 10 & 11.

Outer Border:
1. Cutting the border fabric, cut 7- 2 1/2" X WOF strips.
2. Take one 2 1/2" strip and cut in half. Sew one half along the short 2 1/2" end of 2 WOF strips. You will now have 2- 2 1/2" X 63" strips.
3.Measure the center width of the quilt top and cut two strips to that measurement. Sew top and bottom strips on. Press to border.

4. Sew 2 strips together along the short 2 1/2" ends. Measure center length of the quilt top and cut strip to that measurement. Repeat with 2 more strips.  Sew one strip to each side of the quilt and press to border.

 

And now your quilt top is done! I'm sure they look awesome! I can't wait to see all of the tops so don't forget to upload photos to my Flickr Group!

 

Here is the rest of the schedule...see you next week for backing!

 

Week 5-May 6th: Prepare Backing/Basting

Week 6-May 13th: Quilting/Binding

Week 7-May 20th: Winners Announced

 

Also, be sure to check out my Mirror Ball Dot Blog Hop Post HERE for a chance to win some fabric!

 



Mirror Ball Dot Blog Hop & giveaway!

Hello and welcome to the 2nd stop on the Mirror Ball Blog Hop!

 

I think people know my LOVE for the awesome Mirror Ball Dot fabric by the wonderful designer Mark Hordyszynski for Michael Miller Fabrics, but in case you don't I LOVE THEM!!!

 

The first round of MBD came out all the way back in 2007 with about 40 colors. I missed them the first round,I was graduating from college and getting married, so needless to say my plate was full! I saw them and instantly fell in love with them. I believe I came across a few bolts at a local quilt shop. I then began scouring the Internet trying to find as many colors that I possibly could. Then at Quilt Market back in Fall 2010 I "flirted" as much as I could with the President of Michael Miller Fabrics to get them reprinted. He said if I got enough people interested that he would consider it!  I went home that night at started a Flickr Group, made a paper petition as well and asked all of our loyal customers that came into the old shop (thanks again by the way and I miss all of you!) to sign it!  Then, about a year ago, I believe it was March 2012 I received an email from Mark telling me that they just introduced 5 colors of MBD and they were planning on launching 20 new colors!!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to get that email, I probably came close to peeing myself from excitement, that and being sleep deprived from having a newborn!!

 

Anywho, I am so honored that Mark asked me to join the Mirror Ball Blog Hop and hope that ya'll like my projects! Plus, there's a chance for you to win some MBD awesomeness yourself!

 Here is the info for the blog hop straight from Mark's blog:

"The concept was to get six designer/artists/bloggers - all Mirror Ball Dot enthusiasts - to work with the new color palette that was released last year. I limited the participants to four fat quarters of Mirror Ball Dot and one-quarter yard of 3 colors of Michael Miller Fabric's Cotton Couture. They were sent 1 yard of each color of Cotton Couture and were allowed to use their discretion in using it but just the same, I tried to limit what they were allowed to work with. The backing, batting, binding or other incidental materials were left to their choosing. Over the next 8 weeks we're going to share ideas, thoughts and tips on working with the shimmery, glimmery, pearlized, iridescent geometric fabric call Mirror Ball Dot. Each MBD Enthusiast will post on their respective blogs, so you're going to have to "hop" around, and at each stop you'll have an opportunity to win a Mirror Ball Dot color card and one Fat Quarter of 5 colors of your choosing of Mirror Ball Dot fabric. "

 

For the MBD Challenge I came up with these fun iPhone Cases!

 

The fabrics I chose were MBD: Princess, Citron, Luna and Starlight; Cotton Couture: Mist, plus Neon Lemon and Neon Pink

I made 8 iPhone cases so I could showcase all of the fabrics I requested. I just love how they turned out and they go together really quickly! On the inside of the case, there is a place to hold your iPhone using elastic and there are pockets on the other side to hold your ID, credit cards and some cash. Then it folds up nicely to cover your iPhone while you're not using it. There is Peltex on the inside of the case to make it extra safe for your iPhone, since those suckers are make of glass! These are great for going out and holding all of your essential items without the hassle of carrying you huge purse.

If you want to make one for yourself and all of your friends, you can purchase a pattern HERE! If you make one, send me a picture OR add a picture to my Flickr Group so everyone can see it!

 

I love working with the Mirror Ball Dot fabrics! They are cotton quilting fabrics and the metallic shine is to die for and just simply stunning! When cutting them with a rotary cutter, the blade just glides through them like butter! I also liked working with the Cotton Couture and new Neons. The neon colors are so bright and fun and worked well for my project. The only thing is that they are pretty stiff. Being stiff actually worked very well for the iPhone case and I'm very pleased with the results! I didn't prewash them so I'm sure they would soften up if you did.

 

I couldn't just make one thing for the Mirror Ball Blog Hop, so I also made a quilt using a FQ Bundle I had been hoarding for a while.

 

This quilt is called Brick Road and I'm actually in the middle of the Brick Road Sew Along on my blog now! If you want to make one using your MBD fabrics, jump on in and sew along with us you still have plenty of time! There is a link in my header to hook you up with all of the instructions so far. It's just a quilt top right now, but I will be doing a tutorial on my blog on how to quilt it in two weeks as part of my sew along, so make sure to come back and check that out!

 

Here are more photos of the projects I came up with:

 

 

Ok, now is YOUR chance to get your hands on some MBD fabrics! What's up for grabs you say?

There will be two lucky winners:

1. will receive a MBD color card and 5 MBD Fat Quarters in your choice of colors!

2. will receive a FREE iPhone case PDF pattern

 

Simply leave a comment on this blog post and I will chose a winner next Sunday May 5th!

Thanks for hopping to my blog and be sure to stop by all the other blogs during the Mirror Ball Blog Hop! HERE is a link to Mark's post with a list of all the blogs!