Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Have you ever been to Skopelos?

Every so often (ok, more like every week) beautiful new fabrics pop up on Instagram and designers or manufacturers hunt down people who sew to help spread the good news about that fabric's existence.  I was very lucky to get tapped to help promote Katarina Roccella's new Greek Island inspired Skopelos line for Art Gallery Fabrics.  Check this out..
(Image borrowed from Katarina's blog)
Skopelos is a beautiful island in the Aegean Sea. I haven't been there (yet) but Katarina's fabric collection really captures so much of the peace, relaxation and vibrant beauty found on so many of the Greek islands.  I wanted to work with these fabrics and promote this line because Greece is really underrepresented in the quilting world.. I hope you'll get inspired to make something with these fabrics and/or go to Greece yourself.  I can almost feel myself walking in a breeze down a flower-lined path in a sun dress made from any of these.. can't you?

For my stop on the tour, I decided to make a Dresden Table Runner, one of the projects in my NEW BOOK (yes, more on that news later in the week!).

It is made of five 9" Dresden blocks on point.. first I machine pieced the Dresdens...



Then hand appliqued them to the background fabric (ok, I was pressed for time and machine appliqued a few).

And I cut setting triangles from the luscious Paparounes stripe..

And that's as far as I got.. I made binding, cut backing and batting even, but I haven't quilted it yet..

With any luck, I'll get it done before the blog hop is over.. make sure to check back and see.

Now it's time to visit all the other stops on the Skopelos blog hop!  So many beautiful things have been made with these fabrics already.  I hope you get a chance to play with some too..

1. LYNNE GOLDSWORTHY - April 20th
2. ALLEGORY LANHAM – April 21st
3. ERICA TOOLE - April 22nd
4. RACHAEL GANDER - April 23th
5. AMY FRIEND - April 24th
6. MARIJA VUJČIĆ - April 25th
7. DANA BOLYARD - April 26th
8. ERICA JACKMAN - April 27th
9. JESSICA ALEXANDRAKIS - April 28th
10. SVETLANA SOTAK - April 29th
11. KATHLEEN RIGGINS - April 30th
12. APRIL RHODES - May 1st
13. PAUL HALLINGER - May 2nd
14. SHARON MCCONNELL - May 3rd
15. CAROLINE HULSE – May 4th
16. JANE DAVIDSON – May 5th

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Habits

I can't.
I tried, I tried, but I can't.
The original inspiration quilt used one fabric (a patterned neutral) in all of the geese, either as the goose or the sky.  But, I can't do it.  The more fabrics I see, the more I want to include..

(btw, original inspiration came from @mamafound on instagram.  I'll tag her in my IG post of this photo)

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Finding meaning, loving stash

I found a picture on IG last night and bolted out of bed to start this quilt.
If you're not a quilter, this may sound strange, but the rest of you are probably nodding your heads.

I sorted my closet a few weeks ago and made piles for donation and pack away til next winter.  There was a pair of flannel pajamas that had seen enough winters and didn't fit that comfortably anymore.  The screamed "make HSTs out of me!" but I tried to push that urge aside.  Still, they ended up in my sewing room stacked with a pack of Thangles, just in case.
Here, these are the pjs:
(Christmas, 2010)
I disassembled the pjs as fast as I could and started cutting 6.5 x 7.25" rectangles, as the Thangles package instructed.  I cursed a few times because I forgot how much you need to struggle with flannel, especially thin, upcycled flannel.  But I was determined.
I started with a few, pairing the flannel with an orange print shirt (totally in an upcycling mood last night, what can I say) and some other light colored prints for high contrast.  The results are pretty awesome.  I have a vague idea of where this is going and a few more hours to sew today, so let's see what happens.
(Ignore the Hawaiian applique.  It's still on the design wall so I don't forget to baste the second half..)
I have cut out all I can get from the pjs, and now I'm tossing stash bins searching for good contrast fabrics.  I found this gem, totally lost in the bottom.  I haven't used this since.. Hokkaido maybe?
I'm in the groove.  Glad I had the chance to blog as it happens.  Check instagram for more progress pics, I'll probably post there before another blog post..

xo

Monday, April 6, 2015

Monday Morning Star Count, April 2015

Hi guys.  Anybody here?  Want to post links to your English paper piecing progress?
Here you go:



I have been cutting and plotting away on Travel Quilt #5, and keeping it with me to stitch in all sorts of stolen minutes the past month.  The best was the afternoon I spent piecing with Eri at Panera.. 3 blissful hours of conversation and EPP.



(doh, can't get this one to load horizontally!)

I hope you all were so lucky~

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