Pattern Testing!

I like to volunteer to test people's patterns. I volunteer as many times as people ask for helpers. I figure if it's something I'm good at I can do a great job for them and if I am a beginner at something I'll learn a new skill and they'll get good feedback about how to help others like me succeed.

Of course that was all in theory since no one ever took me up I my offer until now :) Yay! I got to pattern test. The wonderful Ms. Juliet at Tartankiwi let me have a go at one of her patterns.

When I printed it out I almost peed my pants, at least emotionally. Surely those tiny pieces are a printing error?!? They were not. So, I chose colors that'll go with either my Forest Quilt A Long or 3x6 Bee Blocks and go to it. And guess what, those itty bitty pieces were easy to do! The pattern is straight forward and easily read and understood. I think it turned out so well. Since she hasn't released the pattern yet, I can only show you a bit of how it's looking. You should hop over to her blog and check out her Kiwi Bird paper pieced block-I fell in love with it.

Here's a few pics of what I worked on.

 The not so pretty back. Like the back of embroidery, seldom shown. 

 That white corner in between the minty dots and mushrooms is super tiny

The top of the piece that I can show you, in progress. 

I was so scared of foundation paper piecing before I had done any. Now I really love it. You can get such precise corners, lines and designs done so easily. If you haven't tried it yet, I totally recommend it.

Month Sucker

I got a cold in April. It's now May. Besides doing my taxes, being a mediocre friend and keeping my house clean, the whole of April was pretty much a wash. Only one hive of my bee-mates got their blocks on time, I forgot to post about the Lovely Year of Finishes finish and to set a goal for May. So here are my unofficial goals for May: sew more-I love doing it, bike at least 5 times-I love doing this as well, porch sit, blog more-even if its just from my phone and I can't control where the pictures are oriented (obsessed much?) and definitely not least-appreciate friends by being an awesome friend to them.

That shouldn't be too hard right?

So in keeping with the new goal of blogging by phone when necessary, here are my second set of 3x6 Mini Quilt Bee blocks for the solids hive (and see what fun designs popped up when I folded them to mail them?!) :

Half-Way There Lovely Finish

My April Lovely Finishes goal is to get my 3x6 Mini Quilt Sampler Bee Blocks done. I've gotten the paper pieced blocks done. This is a design that I came up with myself after doodling and drawing, measuring and dividing shapes. I love how paper piecing come together with little shapes.

I am so in love with how these ones turned out! Look at how the seams match up! And even the cream colored Tula Pink Salt Water print matches up as well. I may or may not have leaned down to it when the seam was done and whispered, "I love you." 

Now the recipient wanted calm colors in indigo, jade, ash, aqua and cream and she said she liked Tula Pink. I got a bee in my bonnet, ha!, made the block entirely out of Tula fabrics.  A little overboard but I like it :)  Here's the block before trimming then after trimming.

Rainbow with black background

Hot colors like red, orange, yellow and pink

Greens and Blues

Rainbow colors and white background

Cobalt with black and white

So that means I'm half way there. That's exciting and sad since the other half were due already and I haven't gotten them done yet. I got a cold that's not going away any time soon and that makes everything move at the pace of cold molasses. Plugging along though :) You can go over to the Lovely Finishes link up to check out what everyone else is working on here.

here

Super Covert Robin

I am a good person who puts things in safe places. Like hiding my Covert Robin's address and email from myself for more than a week after I received my gift. But I finally found it in its safe place! So I get to email my person Gigi. (Hi! Waving my hand). I got a fabulous city tote. This is my very first made for me bag ever! It was like getting a birthday/Christmas present! It came wrapped in a bow and everything. I super love it. The green lining is so great with the outside and is light so it's easy to find things.

I got it the night before I left on a week long trip to California. Now this bag was born in the East Coast and traveled all the way with me to the beach on the West Coast. How cool is that! It was a great beach bag. The handles are the perfect size for my hands. I'm pretty sure every one that saw me was jealous of my awesome bag. Here it is enjoying the sun!

Thank you so much Gigi! We could try quilting together this year :) And thanks Imagine Gnats and everyone over at Covert Robin and the link for all of the gift givers/recipients here Mon Petit Lyons. 

April Lovely Finish Goal

Third time's the charm. This is the 3rd and last time I'm writing this post I tell ya. The last two disappeared. Poof. So here we go, Goal: get 3x6 Bee Blocks done. All 527 or 12 of them. Here's an extremely technical drawing of one block I'm planning on doing for the solids group and some fabric choices for the paper pieced block.

Lovely Finish for March

I've actually had this done since the first week if March, or was it the beginning of the second? For a while now :) My goal was to re quilt and bind it. The binding fabric is a light grey with lighter grey circles from Riley Blake Super Star. I wanted something that would not stand out more than the quilt since the quilt has so much piecing. And it needed to go with the back.

The back's a little crazy but I'm trying to use up, make do or do without. It doesn't match the front but it is its own friend :) I found pinks in the stash that were all a bit coral-y or warm that would go together. I added in the yellow for a break from all the pinkness. It does go with the yellow in the bottom print. I think it's Alexander Henry? and the strips on the sides are A. Henry Farmdale Crosshatch, there's some Amy Butler Soul Blossom and some Del-hi (the yellow polka dot one).

The quilting is organic straight line both vertical and horizontal. I really like the look and was happy that it would reinforce all those small pieced seams. Some of the fabric pieces were less than two inches square. I was so happy with the straight lines, that I echo quilted the stitching that sewed the binding down.

I had originally done the quilting in grey but it stood out too much. It almost looked like it was sitting on top. I pulled out my Aurifil pack (the one I won in the Merrily We Sew Along) and got the white, grey and pink out. To my surprise the pink looked the best. It blended in with the grey and blue very well, or maybe I should say it complemented them and didn't distract.

It was a brain buster during the Scrappy Stash QAL. Once I had the blocks sewn I had all these different sizes that I had to fit together.

I laid out those blocks a couple times on the floor and just couldn't get them to work so I made more block, combined some and decided I definitely needed the grey blocks I had planned to use.

After all the blocks were done I laid them out and rearranged them for hours. I took pictures of the layouts I liked the most and had my two sisters also give their two cents about what should go where. Once I decided how the blocks should go I had to figure out a way to put them together. I didn't want to deal with partial seams as I was trying to get the quilt done in time for the quilt-a-long. I finally got them into sections and added more logs to the scrappy cabins where necessary to make them fit. Here's the plan that worked. This, ahem, beautiful photo is a phone picture that I played with to organize in photoshop then took a screen picture of. But hey, it was about 2:30 in the morning and I needed the plan to be set :)

 I'm so pleased how it all turned out and I really do think its a lovely finish.

Tula Pink 10" Fabric Swap on Flickr

Hi all! You may or may not know that I love Tula Pink fabric. Pretty much everything since Parisville I've been obsessed with. The details are incredible. There's a fabric with cameo's where the ladies hair makes ships!  Then these Dusky Tears are ships as well (sorry about some of the crap pictures. They're coming from my phone in my rush to post this before realjob. I'll see if I can edit in better ones later.)

Then there's Prince Charming that has a damask type of fabric with frogs. And see that this classic clamshell shape is actually snails? Then there are the rain drops.

Parisville and Prince Charming fabrics are still available in fairly limited quantities at places like HawthorneThreads, Quilt Home or Fabric.com. Tula has a new line out that's called Salt Water which is quite charming and even lovelier in person than any photos I've seen online. The octopus!

There are great basics as well like these small plus hexies

 Oh and you mustn't forget about her Birds and the Bees line. It has real birds and bees with trees,  purple/blue squirrels and cosmic dust! There is also the Nightshade line that was especially made for Halloween. These are Apothecary Jars in lavender

And the Sisters

There is loyal following of her fans out in the world and she even made a site for me us. It's the I Heart Tula Pink site! You can get exclusive deals and kits, fabric and goods. Why am I pimping Tula today? Well there is a Tula Pink Fabric Swap over on Flickr. So far there are about 23 people signed up to participate for the next round and we could use a few more. People have even been able to get their hands on lines before Parisville that have been out of print for years. From youngest to oldest: Plume, 
Neptune, Flutterby, Nest, Hushabye and Full Moon Forest.

In case that graphic link doesn't work click here for the Flickr page. You can sign up for a spot and peruse the fabrics, by line, that have been used already. Come join us!

Oh Em Addictive

So Julie over at Intrepid Thread is having this giveaway slash contest. You take a photo and upload it to  Playcrafts palette builder and it's So easy. It pops up with these colors selected from your picture. I was just gonna do one for the contest and... I couldn't stop! I kept at it for about an hour. They get you with the first one then you keep coming back for more. Now I can't decide which one I should use.

Now these are all my pictures and they are copyrighted so if by the slightest sliver of a chance you might want to use one of these, please link back.

There's lemony cupcakes

 Warm raspberries with a lilac sparkle

Sophisticated quiet colors

Summer fresh iced citrus

 This one cracks me up a bit: Christmas picture with Halloween colors? Okay!

Preppy baby

Soft winter low volume

Grapefruit in the desert?

Sorbet, mmm

A cool palette with Emerald and settled by neutrals

 

I didn't want to stop! What do you think, which one would you want to work with for quilting?