Dresden plate as requested

      I have just finished my first dresden plate quilt! I was very nervous to start this, I thought these were super crazy difficult. I found out that I actually had fun cut and sewing all the dresden blocks together and they went together fairly well for the blocks. My oldest daughter requested a Dresden plate quilt with an ocean feel.

     What I did have difficulty with was placing the blocks together so that all my dresdens matched up correctly. No one told me there was to be more math than usual involved!! A hint if you've never done this, (1) if the pattern calls for seams to be 1/4in make it a scant 1/4in seam and (2) make sure all of your beginning and ending points are the same distance from the top of your square. Again, my seam ripper was my best friend!

   

  
  The pattern is called "Triple Deck" from the book
Thoroughly Modern Dresden by Anelie Belden. I purchased this book last year and very happy to say I finally finished my first project from it and am excited to start another! 





Coming soon.....a finished quilt block for the raffle quilt.


     

Grow your blog 2014

If you have found your way here from the grow your blog party, Welcome! And a great big thank you to Vickie at 2 bags full for hosting this wonderful event.  

          My name is Regina and I live in Northern California with my husband and 2 beautiful daughters. We love the ocean and all of it's abundance but when I am not playing at the beach I love to play with fabric. I am fairly new to sewing and quilting, I started after joining a local group who create a fundraiser quilt each year for our local fire department. I made my first applique block with them and was hooked!
         I created this blog as a way to chronicle my creative journey and meet new friends. I love surfing through quilting, sewing and yarn blogs to draw inspiration from and get ideas and how to's. The people that I have met so far through blog land have been extremely supportive and helpful in many ways and I hope to meet more wonderful people!

This is what I have been working on this week. If all goes well, this will be a Dresden quilt as requested by my oldest daughter!








   And, I spent time putting these little lovelies together, although I don't have a specific plan yet! I just had so much fun cutting and sewing these that I kept going until I ended up with a hefty stack!

That's all for now, I hope you enjoy looking around my little piece of blog land!  Comments are appreciated and I will respond as promptly as possible. 

Regina

What kids can teach us

     After much ado, I finally finished this quilt for my youngest daughter. She had picked out the material on one of our shopping trips about a year ago.

     I seemed to have a love hate relationship with this quilt! I struggled and struggled with the points of the triangles, putting it down to do other projects instead many a time. All the while, my daughter asking "Are you ever going to finish my quilt??"

The funny thing is that while I didn't like the way it was turning out, my daughter kept at me. She thought it was pretty and wanted me to finish it. I pointed out all the mistakes I was making and showed her what is was suppose to look like but she wouldn't budge....I even offered to start a new quilt for her. To all of my protests, my daughter told me "I like this quilt, It is perfect because it is made by you".

     What a smart kid! And she's right! It doesn't have to be perfect. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way a perfect sewer or quilter but my mistakes are usually small and not too noticeable. But with this quilt my mistakes are huge! But I went with it and finished it for my daughter.

     I call it "beautiful imperfections".  The pattern is by Jay Bird quilts. 

     Again, this is completely hand quilted. I even quilted a saying along the top and bottom edges "Remember to always find beauty in life's imperfections" in glow in the dark thread! And it really does glow in the dark!!!

       
     I tried to show the wording here but it's really hard to see. Bad camerawoman!! Guess I am going to have to add "learn how to take better pics" to my  resolutions list this year!  

My most recent finished projects

     Hello again! This is late in coming but I just wanted to share my most recent finished projects!

     

   
      First up is "crazy quilt" which was by far the funnest to make! It went together well and I have to admit this is the first quilt I didn't have to use my seam ripper on, lol! This was machine pieced and hand-quilted with a meandering stippling in the middle, flowers along the inner border and a fleur de lys pattern around the outer edges.

     My next finish is a project that I started at Fabric Fest and I am very happy with how this came out!

       This is called "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" and is designed by Sue Daley. She really is a great teacher and I truly enjoyed myself learning many new techniques and highly recommend any of her classes.

Paper piecing madness

What am I working on this week you ask? Lots and lots of paper piecing! I was lucky enough to take a class from Sue Daley on paper piecing while in Las Vegas. She was such a great teacher! Originally from Australia, Sue is the queen of paper piecing. She does beautiful work and provided us with many tips on how to create beautiful quilts quicker. Yeah for me because I have to admit, I do love instant gratification projects!                                                                                                                                              

             

These are made with Riley Blake polka dots and gingham. The bright colors are so vibrant and placed together really do make you think of rainbows and sunshine!

This pattern can be found on Sue's website Busy Fingers.  The best thing that I learned from her class was how to cut multiple shapes at once with acrylic templates. What a time saver!  

 I really like paper piecing because of it's portability. I can take a small amount with me in a bag and work on these everywhere. But, my favorite place to sew is sitting on the couch in the evening with my family and I got a lot done there with some help from my friend!

Fabric Fest 2013

          I just got home from attending the first annual Fabric Fest. This was such a great event put on by Riley Blake with over 300 sewers in attendance. The first night started out with opening ceremonies in the vendor hall. There were lots of vendors, food stations and of course fabric galore! I know this sounds a bit silly but I was a bit starstruck throughout this event! 

                                                               Eleanor Burns and I

           I am fairly new to sewing and found myself walking among designers and bloggers that I have been following for the entire time! I got to meet and talk to a few of my favorites and was so happy to find everyone so nice and friendly!
    
          I learned a lot at this event as well!! The classes I attended were: Big Stitch Quilting by Andrea Goddard, Retro Travel Bag by Melissa Mortenson and Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows by Sue Daley. These instructors were great at walking you through the steps of their projects and taught us lots of tricks! I came home with the starts to 3 projects and lots of ideas and inspiration.

          I was also fortunate to meet some really nice sewers in the classes who helped me with even more tips and tricks, thanks so much! What a wonderful group of women! 

A little side note: check out our new residents!  

They are living in the trees on the back of our property. There are 4 adults and 5 babies. Every morning they fly (more like flop!) out of the trees to our well house and then start scavenging throughout the neighborhood. Then every evening I watch them fly back to their nest.  

That's all for now, 

          Regina

Ode to Frida quilt completed!

This took some time but I am happy to say that I finally finished the "Ode to Frida" quilt and am very happy with how it turned out!

 This quilt is lap-sized and completely hand quilted with a small meandering flower pattern. I am super happy with the look and feel of this quilt.  I took a machine quilting class at my local shop and yes, I am still hand quilting! I guess you could say I need a lot more practice on the sewing machine!

I have a Huge pile of un-finished projects and need to get to work!  But I always feel good as I complete them so hopefully more completed projects to come soon....

Annual Fundraising Quilt

      For 33 years the women in my town have gotten together and created a quilt to raffle off to raise funds for our local fire department. I have been lucky enough to participate in this event for the last 4 years.        This is how I got the quilting bug! Prior to joining these woman, I new just the basics of sewing and did very little. Over the years I made costumes for my kids, sewed set designs for their school plays, not much more than that. 

     This year, I am organizing the fundraiser and have been very busy with this! We started in February, with several meetings to decide what this year's theme would be, what style and layout of the quilt and to get an idea how many women would be participating. Then it was off to our local quilt store to pick the materials! Our next step was to organize a cutting party and get the packets ready for pick up. This year, we have 25 women quilting 25 squares!

We then meet as a group and sew our individual squares. This is always so much fun! We try to share materials, stories and help each other with technique. 

I have learned so much from these ladies! I learned how to needle-turn applique, baste and hand quilt from these lovely ladies and then I was hooked!

This year, we chose "roots" as our theme, and each woman interpreted that in their own way. I chose a turbulent ocean scene with lots of kelp to represent what roots my family and I to our coastal community. 

     The next stage, is deciding on a final layout and sewing all the squares together. This is my favorite part. We get to see every one's finished square and how beautiful they have all turned out.

   

      Then, the quilt is taken to local festivals, events and farmer's market and we sell raffle tickets for a chance to win our quilt. I am so impressed with the amount of time and effort that everyone puts forth. As I mentioned there are 25 women who sew squares for this quilt and even more volunteers that help out with selling raffle tickets. 

                                   

                                                                                                                                        

I have made some truly wonderful friendships with some incredible women! Here is one of them at our first fundraising event of this year. 

    

 I have finally reached a "lull" with all the work associated with organizing this event am looking forward to getting back to my unfinished projects pile! 

Ode to Frida Kahalo

I was meandering around one of my favorite quilt shops in mid January and came across this fabric from  Alexander Henry. It features Frida Kahalo who is a favored painter of mine. This is one painter that my daughters love as well, so I decided to make a Frida throw for the family room.

In the making of this quilt I realized why I don't strip more quilts, my sewing machine. Don't get me wrong, I love my old Kenmore but that is the problem, it's old and doesn't have any fancy bells and whistles. This was a present from my parents when I first started sewing years ago making costumes for the plays that my children were in. And being a self-taught seamstress, my Kenmore and I have been through many trials  and tribulations, suffering together through defeats and celebrating many feats!
But all relationships simmer out and like any true blooded woman, I traded up!
I am so impressed and a bit overwhelmed with my new love!  We are off to a wonderful start and the Frida throw was my first completed project with my new sewing machine.

I always learn something on every project and wanted to share what I learned this project.  I learned that ironing is very important in every project and it really matters which way you press your seams. Such a simple concept but something I had to learn the hard way!

 If you look closely at these edges you can see that in the first picture(left) I ironed towards the darker fabric and on the second picture (right) I ironed the seam away from the darker fabric. Again, my seam ripper and I became one!!

I hope to post soon with a picture of this completed project. I am hand quilting at the moment, hopefully to finish soon!

              Regina

Feeling Blue after Christmas

Soo Blue, now that Christmas is through...

        Not really, relief that we are through the holidays and life can get back t0

            normal, well, sort of. I am excited about this new year and the changes it brings. As of the start of the New Year I will be in a new position at work, working normal hours. That will leave me not so exhausted all the time! Plus, it's less hours so that gives me more free time, yeah!!!

Here is my blue bubbles quilt top. I appliqued each bubble on by hand. I still need to "sandwich" and quilt it, but that's where I am having trouble. I am not sure how I want this quilted, any ideas? I was thinking of sashiko in the bubbles but as I haven't actually done any sashiko yet, I am a little nervous. I am getting friendlier with my seam ripper but it still breaks my heart to pull it out for fear of wrecking my quilt top!

I was also thinking about appliquing underwater critters in the bubbles, but I thought that might look strange.

And I won't touch it until I know exactly what to do! So I sit and stare at it and watch the rain come down....sooo blue...
Any ideas?

                

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas!


        Sorry for grainy picture! I need to figure out how to use my "phone" camera a little better!

hexagon quilt

By far, this was my favorite project to date! Since I am new to sewing and quilting, this took some time but, boy, was it worth it! I started with gathering up lots of different 1930's replica fabrics. I fell in love with these prints they are so simple and fun and way easy to match up. Then came the cutting and basting onto paper hexagons. I literally had a basket load! With help (thanks to Sara and my daughters) I matched and created about 30 "flowers" no two alike.

The biggest problem that I ran into (and this stalled the project for quite some time) was that I ran out of the gray/black backround fabric. I must have checked in all the quilt shops within 100 mile radius and no luck! And an online search brought up nothing! That's why you see the edges in orange matchy flowers because I really wanted this to be a usable size quilt. (still working out how to take pictures!)

Finished product turned out to be a 50 x 60, completely hand stitched, hand quilted throw for our couch just in time for the cold weather!

Guess I need to figure out the art of picture taking as well!
                                                                 Regina

just in the nick of time

These were finished just in time! And they are going to one of my favorite fans, my mother! YAY!!!  This year, she is going to do all the cooking for our family (double yay!!) and I thought she should have some new table accessories. I got the idea and pattern over at  Love to Sew, her placemats are super cute!







These were fun to put together and real easy (which is great for this newbie seamstress!) The hardest part was deciding how to quilt them as I was running out of time. I went with a simple box pattern, just enough so that they hold up (hopefully!).

The other greatness about making these....quick gratification!! Which I needed just about now!
                                                            Happy Turkey Day!



Baby shower blanket

Here is my latest project, finished! And just in time for the shower! This was specially made for my friends' newest edition to her girls team. With help from my favorite local quilt shop (couldn't decide on pattern).
This was fun and easy to piece then hand quilted with butterflies and flowers.

You hoo! Mojo, anyone seen my mojo?

I always tell myself that I am going to work on one project at a time, and finish it before I begin the next. And then life happens, I see something else that needs doing more or I just get excited about something and before I know it, my life is chaotic with unfinished projects cluttering my nights, days, house and yard.  Then I start to look around and feel overwhelmed by it all and watch my motivation go running(screaming if you must know all the gory details!) Out the door. That's when I plop down on the couch to get thoroughly engrossed in a movie that I don't remember the name of shortly after its over. And the man walks in the door and plops down next to me to become as engrossed as I am in- what's the name of this movie?-and as I walk outside, and trip over his unfinished project  I watch his motivation go hand in hand with mine down the street. Then I thought to myself "self, you need a way to acknowledge your accomplishments so that you can keep your motivation".  This is what I came up with.
I hope that by sharing my projects and posting as I finish things that it will inspire me (and thereby inspire the man) to keep rolling full steam ahead!! Really, I just want to find my mojo again!

Here is my first project completed this week. A bag that my girlfriend asked for almost a year ago!