Angela Walters

Sorry it's been so quiet around here for the past month or so.  My husband is a high school teacher/coach and we were finally able to vacation in July after football and baseball stuff was on a little break.  Anywho, I've been super busy around here with lots of fun/creative stuff happening....more on that another day. 

Today, I was LUCKY enough to go hear Angela Walters speak and give a class on machine quilting!! AH, can you believe it?!?! For those of you who don't know who the talented Angela Walters is, I suggest going to her blog Quilting Is My Therapy and see all the fun stuff she's got going on over there! She has a blog where she tells you what she is up to, a portfolio of a bunch of her amazing work, and a fun quilting forum where you can connect with other quilters! She is an AMAZING machine quilter who quilts all of Tula Pink's quilts as well as a bunch of other really cool people. Her first book also came out this summer called Free Motion Quilting, which you can purchase here on Amazon or here on her blog to get a signed copy.  I HIGHLY recommend getting her book and I cannot wait for her next one to come out this fall!

Angela, it was a pleasure meeting you today and I learned so much from your class and presentation! Thanks for all your hard work and inspiring so many!

Enjoy the photos, I took a TON of photos of her in action but I'll only share a few today!

Angela Walters and I

Angela in action

Action shot

Angela doodling...showing us how to make the plume flower.

Some of Angela's samples (just a few...I took SO many photos of her awesome samples!)

And just a few photos of some of her quilts from her book!  They are even more awesome in person! 

Again, thanks Angela for coming to St. Louis, you were fantastic.....and everyone GO BUY HER BOOK......TRUST ME!

Quilt, Birds and a Nursing Cover

I've been pretty busy around here with Memorial Weekend, Father's Day, and a bunch of projects I'm working on! 
First up, a local high school girl contacted me and asked if I would quilt her first quilt.  I was so excited for her and said of course!  She brought me her quilt and I was so amazed that she did a log cabin quilt and that it's a long twin sized quilt.  She made it over the course of this past school year as part of her home ec class, how awesome is that?!?!  That's so exciting to hear that home ec is still happening and that she chose to do a quilt!! Emily, you're awesome!  Hopefully she'll read this so if she does leave her a comment telling her how AWESOME her first quilt is!!!

While I was outside taking photos of Emily's quilt, I noticed baby sparrows poking their heads out of their bird house!! They are so cute and I was able to get a couple shots of them before they hid back inside!

And last but not least, my mom made me a nursing cover that you can see HERE back when Jared was born.  My sister-in-law Rachel liked it so much that she asked if I would make her one for their upcoming trip to California. Rachel picked this pretty batik fabric for it and I think it turned out great; hope you like it Rachel!

 Let me just say, for those of you who nurse or are going to nurse your children, nursing covers are a MUST!  Especially now that Jared is older and grabs EVERYTHING, the nursing cover is great because even if he grabs it he can't pull it off with the strap around my neck!  I highly recommend getting/making one if you plan to nurse your children!  ***It also makes a great gift for a baby shower*** If you want to make one for yourself or a friend, I used this tutorial and it worked great!



Caught up and a pouch!

A bunch of us girls get together after the STLMQG meetings and have a little Bee going on.  I love this group of girls and have such a fun time with ya'll!  They are some amazing quilters and you should check out their blogs!  I love you ladies!

 This is the last month to wrap up the year and then we will start up again in the fall.  I've been a little behind on my blocks after Jared was born and this week I FINALLY got caught up!! Whoop whoop! 

First up, there are Cara's Circle of Geese Blocks!! Check out her blog, because she's got a great tutorial over there on these bad boys!  They were super fun, and I totally forgot how much I like to paper piece!

Next, we have Jessica's blocks.  She LOVES pleats of all kind and asked that we make two improv blocks that included some sort of pleat.  She provided the solids and we added the colorful scraps!  I hope you like them Jess!!

Then, there is a block for Lynne.  She provided all of these fabrics and asked that we make one giant block.  She is making a quilt for a friend and I'm not sure if I can mention it on here because I believe it's a surprise.

Lastly for the Bee blocks, Mary Claire came up with this awesome block and it was really fun to make.  She provided all the FMF fabrics and we made one giant (I believe 20") block.  Hope ya like it MC!

Also, I whipped up this cute pouch today for a graduation party we're going to this weekend.  My husband is a high school teacher, so needless to say we get invited to lots of parties.  Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is best friends with this girl's sister, so I was able to sneakily find out her favorite colors!  This park slope fabric I had was exactly what her favorite colors are, so I hope she likes it!

By the way this is my Cathedral Windows Pouch tutorial. It comes together pretty fast; I was able to assemble it during Jared's naptime today. 

Speaking of which, my little man is teething and not taking as good of naps anymore and just becoming a little fussy.  My poor baby!  We have teething tablets and gel teethers which help some.  Do ya'll have any suggestions for this first time Mama to help his pain?  Thanks and have a great weekend!!

SMS giveaway Winner!!

WOW, 495 comments!!  Ya'll are awesome, thanks so much for stopping by my blog and thanks to Sew Mama Sew for hosting Giveaway Day!  

I loved reading all of your comments about what you look for in patterns!  Ya'll are so smart and had some great ideas!  I really liked having multiple sizes for each pattern, I think I'm going to start including multiple sizes for every pattern from here on out!

Okay, I'm sure ya'll just want to know who the winner is.....

I asked my husband (while sitting here watching ESPN and halfway listening to me) to pick a number between 1 and 495 and he chose lucky #316 who is Mel!!

Mel said... 116

and i follow your blog via gfc

May 24, 2012 12:49 AM  

 

 Congrats Mel, I will be emailing you after I'm done with this post for your mailing address so I can send you the charm pack!!  

Thank you to Robert Kaufman for donating the NEW Kona Solids charm pack for my awesome opossum followers!

SMS giveaway Day!

Hey ya'll!

We are back from Market and exhausted!! Thanks to all who stopped by and said hello, we truly enjoyed meeting everyone!  I'll post more later, but first how about a little giveaway?

It's Giveaway Day over on Sew Mama Sew, be sure you check them out because there are huge lists of people participating! Also, tomorrow is my 27th birthday, so why not give something away for that too!!

I'm giving away a charm pack of the NEW Kona colors!  During Market, the awesome people over at Robert Kaufman gave me a Charm Pack to giveaway to my awesome blog friends! Look at those pretty new colors.....ooooooooooohh......aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Here's how ya win!

1. Leave a comment telling me what you look for when buying a quilt/sewing pattern?

If you want more chances to win, follow my blog, facebook or twitter and leave separate comments telling me you did so!

The giveaway is open until May 25th at 5 p.m. PST and the winner will be announced sometime on May 27th!  Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!

Be sure to check out Sew Mama Sew for more giveaways.....and my Mom's blog because she is participating as well!

Come visit us at Market!

Mom and I are having so much fun at Spring Market!  We have our first booth with all of our patterns this year and we are having so much fun!! If you're at Market, please stop by SunFlower Quilts booth #2431 and say hi!!  Plus, come see all of our quilts, we'll even let you touch them!  Ok, well that's all for now; we are super tired and need to go to bed.  And before I forget, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my sister Laurel and my Dad for watching/helping out with Jared while Mom and I are working the booth!

Cathedral Windows Sew-a-long WINNERS!

Today is the day that everyone has been waiting for!!! Jared is down for his afternoon nap so I can now announce the winners!

Thank you again to all of our sponsors for the awesome prizes!  I am so impressed with everyone and your Cathedral Windows projects and LOVE LOVE LOVE looking at all of them! We have some very talented people in this sew-a-long.  The winners were selected at random and the lucky people are.......

The three winners who will each get a $25 gift certificate to The Fat Quarter Shop are:

jnnmn7

toomanyhobbies96

KyndraQuilts

The winner of the FQ Bundle from Fabricworm is:

Heidi @ Buttons and Butterflies'

Winners, I will be emailing you shortly with info about your prizes!!

And to ALL (that's right I said ALL) of the runners up please send me an email at jamiemueller0522@yahoo.com with a PDF pattern name of your choice from www.sunflower-quilts.com.  I will then email you the PDF pattern that you chose!  Just consider it a little thank you for participating in my Cathedral Windows Sew-a-long and I think all of you are winners!!

I'm not going to type all of your Flickr Names on here, but if you posted a Cathedral Windows project in my Flickr Group then you get a PDF pattern so please email me!!

Just because the sew-a-long is over doesn't mean that you have to stop making Cathedral Windows projects!  If you make something still post a photo in my Flickr Group and be sure you hop over to the Flickr Group and check out all of the AMAZING projects!!!



Last day for Cathedral Windows submissions!

Hey y'all don't forget to submit your cathedral windows projects to the Flickr group. Today is the last day that you can submit projects in order to qualify for prizes. Good luck to everyone and tomorrow the winners will be announced.

Cathedral Windows Sew-a-long Reminder

Hey ya'll, don't forget to make your Cathedral Windows projects so you can win some awesome prizes!  Go HERE to see all of the Cathedral Windows projects links! 

In case you're new to the Sew-a-long, if you make any of the Cathedral Windows projects and upload them to my Flickr Group by April 30th, you will be entered into the giveaway for awesome prizes!! Go HERE to see all the prizes up for grabs!  There is no limit to the amount you can enter! Have fun and get sewing!!





Cathedral Windows Journal Cover

Cathedral Windows Journal Cover
Supplies:
1- 6" X 9 1/2" Journal of any kind
1 FQ main outer fabric
1 FQ lining/windows fabric
1/3 yd fusible fleece
Coordinating thread

Directions:
Cut from following:

Main Outer Fabric FQ
2- 10 1/2" X 18" strips
sub cut:
1- 10 1/2" X 7"
1- 10 1/2" X 15 3/4"
4- 5 1/4" squares

Lining FQ
1- 10 1/2" X 15 1/4" piece

Fusible Fleece
1- 10 1/2" X 24" piece

1. Follow the Cathedral Windows Basics Tutorial HERE using the size requirements below:
5.25" solid squares (I used the same print fabric as main outer fabric)
1 1/2" window squares
2 1/2" inner peak-a-boo squares
*Instead of making a four patch like you do in the Cathedral Windows Basics tutorial, you will sew 4 folded squares together in a single row.

2. With the fusible part of the fusible fleece facing up, measure 6 1/2" over from the right side and iron your CW strip in place.  Use only the tip of your iron, being careful not to fuse your fleece onto your iron.

3. Take the  10 1/2" X 7" piece of main outer fabric and with right sides together on top of CW piece, sew using a 1/4" seam allowance.  Then, flip the fabric back over the fleece and iron in place.

4. Take the 10 1/2" X 15 3/4" piece of main outer fabric and with right sides together on top of CW piece, sew using a 1/4" seam allowance.  Then, flip the fabric back over the fleece and iron in place.
*After this step you can quilt if desired, but not necessary.

5. Fold over short side (10.5") ends and topstitch.

6. With fabric side facing up, measure 4" over from each end and iron flat.  Pin in place.

7. Take your 10 1/2" X 15 1/4" lining piece and with right sides together, pin in place only on the top and bottom longer sides.  Sew along the top and bottom pinned sides using a 1/4" seam allowance.
*I like to backstitch at the pockets, just to make it more stable when taking your journal in and out of pockets.

8. Turn right side out and iron flat. Insert your journal and you're finished!

Don't forget to add your photos to the Flickr Group for a chance to win some of the awesome prizes or Link up below!