Friday Finish: Instagram Mini Swap!

I spent a lot of time being a mini swap avoider.  I just didn't get the appeal.  I would join fabric swaps and block bees, but why would I want a mini?  (It's not like I enjoy quilts and have an abundance of blank walls in my house.)

That was until I saw all the awesome things that were being made during the second round of the Schnitzel and Boo swap.  Seriously, every single mini was awesome and I wanted them all.  But it was too late for that swap, and while I was being sad, the IG Mini Swap started up.  I signed up immediately!

After a stressful wait, I finally got my partner's info.  I was a little bummed, because she wasn't one of those super active Instagrammers.  I worried that I wouldn't have enough to go on, but I started pulling together some ideas.

My partner liked aqua and gold, triangles, asymmetry, and her website looked very clean and modern.  So I pulled all of my gold and aqua fabrics, added some gray for good measure.  I went with a cream for a background color, because the white just looked to harsh.

I sketched out a doodle of this, then cut triangles out of paper that were the size that I wanted.  I laid that triangle on the fabric and cut 1/4 inch past the paper triangle, stitched them together in rows and was shocked that it seemed to work.  There are a few spots where I lost triangle sides, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I bought some heavier gold and aqua thread with the plan that I would background quilt in white and then do some hand stitching in color, but once I had the mini basted, I just didn't like that idea anymore.  Instead, I went with wavy lines over the whole thing, mostly with the white, but with stripes of the gold and aqua threads here and there.   When I was done, I realized it was wind blowing over mountains!  Aw!

Now this mini has a home on the wall in my partner's sewing space.  It perfectly matches her wall, and it looks very happy there.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Val for TGIFF!

WIP Wednesday!

So my job today is to get these quilts bound.  Both are gifts that are long overdue, though no one is expecting them, so no one knows they're so late!  Ha!

There's also QuiltCon supplies to gather, more quilts to quilt, and swap extras to make before popping my Schnitzel and Boo mini in the mail.  So I'll probably just go and get to it!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

While I Was Gone...

So I kind of fell off the internet.  It's that Christmas crafting rush, but mine starts before Thanksgiving, and then I'm just pooped.  I make things, but just don't feel doing the last step, blogging them.  Luckily, I kept up with the photographing, so now that I have my mojo back, I still have pictures of stuff that I've sent away.

So now I can show you what I was up to when I was away!

This was the second center I've worked on for our Round Trip Quilts Bee.  (The first one is here.)  Jenn, from  Never Just Jennifer, and I was in love with it the second she posted it to Instagram.  I was glad I didn't have to wait long to get my hands on it.

She's a fellow New Hampshire-ite, and wanted a quilt that was all about our awesome state.  Her notebook was full of great ideas, like those maple leaves, mountains, snowflakes, and flying geese.  I got this at the height of geese migration when all the fields are full of flocks coming and going, so I had to do some flying geese.

I first added that strip of red to tie in the red maple leaves Leanne had added and then started pulling all my bright and low volume scraps to make the geese.  I really didn't have a solid plan or pattern, just made geese in a bunch of sizes, then moved them around until I got a pattern I liked.  (My one regret, is that pointed the geese flying out of the corner, and not into it in proper flying "v" formation.  Next time!)

The last step was the corner.  Red again to mirror that red maple leaf, and some Anna Maria Horner blue.  It's called Migratory Lace, so I kind of had to use it prominently, and it reminds me of trail maps, and NH has some great hiking and skiing trails!

I love this one, and can't wait to see what happens to it next!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day: Two Hawthorne Threads Scrap Packs

*** Congrats to lucky number 109, Sandra!  Your Scrap Packs are on their way! ***

It's that time of year again!  Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day!  I love visiting all the blogs, finding new ones to follow, and the chance of winning some great stuff doesn't hurt.  And once again, I'm pretty excited to get to join in myself.

So if you've visited before, you probably know all about my love of scraps (and if you're new, welcome!).  I love looking into the bin and seeing all the colors.  It's so much fun to mix and match because you can pull a little bit of everything out, without emptying all the shelves of fabric.

This is a picture of the bin months ago (though the working bin, not the bin I've given up on.  And not the mini scrap bucket, because those have a home elsewehere).  It's gotten more packed and I don't even bother trying to force the lid on, but I get really excited when I finish a project using only these little bits!

1.  Catvent Wall Hanging  2.  Pebbles on the Beach Mini  3.  Orange Peel Vines Hanging

So down to business.  I'm giving away two scrap packs from Hawthorne Threads.  They have really great fabrics, and you get some fairly generous cuts.  I absolutely love getting them, because it's a little surprise every time, and always a good one.  The packs come in Warm, Cool, and Fresh.

How to enter the Giveaway!

Leave a comment telling me which TWO you'd like for a chance to win.

Followers, old and new, get a second chance to win.  Just leave a second comment telling me how you follow.

This giveaway is open to US entrants only, and will remain open until Friday, December 12, at 5 p.m. (PST).  If you're a no-reply commenter, make sure you include your email address so I can contact you.

Thanks for stopping by!  And be sure to check out all the great blogs participating in Giveaway Day this year!

Friday Finish: Pebbles on the Beach Mini

I have totally fallen in love with needle turn applique.  I've always loved a good hand stitching project, and these projects have turned out a lot easier to do than I thought and I can stitch shapes that I like without having to deal with machine sewing curves.

Our guild (Seacoast Modern!!) had a mini swap with another guild.  The theme was a "Sense of Place" which completely threw me for a long time.  I seriously would try to figure out what I would make, brain would turn to mush, and I'd avoid thinking about it with a different project.

Then, I bought a copy of Savor Each Stitch by Carolyn Friedlander.  I was completely hooked by this book; great projects, a good read, and pretty colors.  So I tried to see if one of the minis in the book would apply to the swap challenge.  One of the best thing about the seacoast is the beach, and one of my kids' favorite things to do is find pretty shells, rocks, or sea glass, and Aerial Grove kind of reminded me of pebbles lined up on the beach.

So I pulled a rainbow of scraps and started stitching them down to my "sand" fabric.  I had thought to put them upright as a center column with blue ocean to the right and green grass to the left, but it just looked to busy, so blue ocean won.  I used lighter colors close to the sand to get a waves crashing effect.   Then I quilted it all over with a wave pattern.

And of course, you need a label.

Once I finished that mini, I started right up on one that I would get to keep.  I think in the new year, I'm going to start work on a whole quilt of needle turn, as my big 2015 project.  

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Quilt Matters for TGIFF!

WIP Wednesday: A Very Do. Good One

So August was my turn again to lead our circle, and I wanted something a bit easier than my first (Pyramid Scheme turned out great, but was a bit more work than I realized).  So while I was scanning Flickr and Instagram for ideas, I came across this quilt by Jeliquilts.  I loved it, and figured blocks of half square triangles had to be easier.

All my bee-mates sent a nine-patch of warm HSTs and cool HSTs.  I waited until I got the blocks in, then made single HSTs and made strips of them to better blend the line between warm and cool.  I'm hoping to get to the quilting this weekend, but I was to excited to not share an early picture of the top (and also get it in to be eligible for showing at QuiltCon 2015!).

Also in the works this week, was getting these blocks done.  They're for the October round of do. Good, but I'm just a tad behind, but they're in the mail!

And that pile of yarn from last week, I finished one cowl out of it, then started on some Endpaper Mitts, realized there wasn't enough contrast to see the pattern, ripped it all back, and started these Diamond Mitts.  They're a really quick knit, especially because I cut down the ribbing quite a bit, so I'm hoping to have them done by the end of the week when the weather really gets cold.

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

Friday Finish: Chicopee Plus Quilt!

Here's an old finish for Finish It Up Friday.  I'd finished this quilt a while ago, but didn't want to over share it in case the new owners decided to check my blog.  You never know, and never want to ruin a surprise.  Anyway, I downloaded the pictures to the computer and completely forgot about them until a few days ago when I decided to tidy up my folders.  Yay!

This was a kind of joint collaboration between my mother and I, one of my cousins got married recently and she decided that a quilt would be the perfect present.  Luckily, I was already thinking about a quilt, so she helped me with some of the supplies and then let me have free rein.

I went with Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee line because it just works together, but seems to have a little of all the colors.  I wasn't sure what my cousin would like, so I wanted to give them all of them, in a way that wouldn't blow their eyes out.  And Chicopee does this really weird thing where it's loud and subtle, masculine and feminine, large prints and small prints, retro and modern.  I don't know how it's possible, probably magic.

I modified a pattern for neutral pluses on print backgounds, though for the life of me I can't remember which pattern I used.  And I'm really glad that I gave all those prints some room to breath.  Bonus, it gave me a lot of negative space to quilt!

I used Aurifil Spring Green and a discontinued Isacord in teal.  I would quilt a little in one color, then switch when I got bored.  The effect is subtle on the Essex Yarn Dyed Black linen, kind of like green and teal shadows.  (I really wish I'd gotten better pictures, but it was a rainy week, and my only chance for photos was a half hour window at the reception when it wasn't pouring, on the soaking wet ground.)

I rotated between a handful of quilting patterns in the pluses, all in, more or less, coordinating thread.  This star pattern ended up being one of my favorites, that will get put into the usual rotation.  It's super fun, and doesn't have to be exact to look nice.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday!