April Bee Blocks Done

If you're looking for the 100 Followers Giveaway you can find it here.

I was a busy little bee last night trying to catch up on blocks owed for the month of April. I still have one more outstanding project for April, a preemie quilt for Natalie in A Dozen Quilters Bee and a block for Kristan from March (I am so sorry!) in the Sewn Together Bee but I am otherwise up to date. April was Natalie's month in A Dozen Quilters Bee. She had two projects in mind and had trouble deciding between them so she offered both up to the group and let everyone decide which project they wanted to work on for the month. Being the overachiever that I am I will complete the second project, the preemie quilt, but Natalie said that the purple wonky star blocks were more pressing so I whipped those up for her last night and got them out to her.

I used Kona Mulberry for the solid background. The other fabrics are Bohemian Soul and Bazaar Style, both by Patricia Bravo.

Unfortunately I was pressed for time and didn't get overly creative with these blocks. But I think they still look pretty in their simplicity.

Then, in the Sewn Together Bee, Sorrel asked for Christmas in April and we all made four tree blocks for her from this tutorial.

I have to admit that I was working a little fast and furious and didn't read through all of the directions slowly and carefully. Okay. I got cocky. And I made a little mistake cutting the triangles for the trees. I ended up cutting them all in the same direction and not two in the opposite direction. Thankfully, I was able to save the blocks. They were otherwise easy and fun to make, if you don't have your head up your butt while you're cutting.

Lastly, and I have to admit that I made and sent this one out last week. I participated in the Sew Fresh Scrap Quilting Bee at Sew Fresh Fabrics. Again, I didn't get to creative with this one but I am a sucker for a nice log cabin every now and then. I am dreaming of the day I have a week off work to just sew. It's coming soon. It's just a waiting game now.

I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations.

100 Followers Giveaway

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

First of all I want to say thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday yesterday. All of your well wishes really brightened my day! And remember, the birthday giveaway is still going on until tomorrow. You can enter the Birthday Giveaway here.

Secondly, I hit 100 followers on my birthday yesterday so as promised I have another giveaway to celebrate! I've been recently digging on the new Daisy Janie line Shades of Grey. I think it's so elegant and useful as a staple in any stash so to celebrate breaking 100 followers I'm giving away a full Fat Quarter Set of the entire line. That's 6 fat quarters coming right to one lucky follower!

Photo from the Daisy Janie Website

All you need to do to win this loveliness is leave a comment and tell me what you're planning to do this weekend. I'll keep the giveaway open until Sunday, May 8th at 5 PM Pacific Time. International entries are welcome. One entry per person, please. Good Luck! And thanks for reading!

Birthday Giveaway

**Giveaway is now closed**

Hello my lovelies! I hope everyone is having a spectacular day today. Despite being at work I'm trying to make the best of it because today is my birthday. And to celebrate I'm going to give away a present to one of you! But before I get to the giveaway I have to share the fabulous "birthday" present I got from the super fabulous Nichole the other night during the LAMQG Home Goods Swap.

Nichole made me the most amazing sewing machine cover from linen (Eek!!!). Oh I love it so! It's the perfect size to cover my little Janome.

And check out the back! She, creatively, put a pocket along the backside. It's ingenious! I can put patterns or tools back there for safe keeping.

She also totally spoiled me with a few extras that she threw in the mix. Check out the fabric and the sweet little pincushion she made for me. I have ideas for those square scraps!

Nichole, thank you so much for my amazing swap goodies. I totally am in love with them! You're super talented and generous and I'm glad I got to meet you through this swap. I can't wait for the next meeting.

But I'm not the only one getting presents on my birthday. I want to spread the wealth so I went into my stash and pulled a bunch of scraps from a few of my latest projects to give to one lucky reader. These are big scraps, some measure close (but not quite) to a fat quarter. I think the smallest of the bunch are some long, thick strips. All are adequate enough cuts to do some damage. Since there was so much love for the Soul Crushing Table Runner I pulled out the biggest Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner leftovers I had from that project. I also included some favorite fabrics from Ivy's Quilt including some Kate Spain, Patricia Bravo and Tula Pink.

This could all be yours...

To enter the giveaway simply leave a comment and tell me your favorite way to spend your birthday. I'll leave the giveaway open until 12:00 PM (Noon) Pacific Time on Friday, May 6, 2011. International entries are welcome. And since I'm very close to hitting 100 followers, keep your eyes peeled for another giveaway coming up very soon! Good Luck!

Soul Crushing No More

The Soul Crushing Table Runner is done. So sad. This project really grew on me, thanks, especially to all of your help, guidance and input along the way. In March the LAMQG announced that they were hosting a guild swap similar to the UHGS on Flickr. I thought it could be fun to actually hand over the booty and see a reaction in person so I signed up. I also thought that participating would be a great way to get more involved in the guild and start to meet more people.

I was paired up with Missy. She said that she would love a table runner. She likes bright colors and linen. Also among her favorite designers are AHA and Amy Butler. I stopped by Sew Modern to get some fabric inspiration and was immediately drawn to the Soul Blossoms line. It seemed to fit her color and fabric likes. Then I got it home and started to pull out my coveted Innocent Crush stash. When the line was first introduced I bought up a bunch and have been waiting for just the right moment to dive into it. This project seemed like the right moment.

Along the way I've shared with all of you some of my concerns with my fabric choices. I thought that the two lines went together hand in hand but I was nervous that they would be appropriate for Missy. The more I worked on this project, the more I fell in love with it and last night I gifted it to Missy.

I've never participated in an "in-person" swap and I will not lie, I was very nervous. Thankfully, Missy seems to be pleased with the end result which makes me very, very happy. I'm really glad that I decided to participate in this swap. Hopefully I've made steps forward to making some new friends in the guild. I'm already looking forward to my next meeting.

I'm linking this project up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story. And stay tuned tomorrow because I'm going to be hosting a very special giveaway.

The Dresden That Doesn't Kill You Makes You A Stronger Quilter

Finally... Success! The Dresden didn't kill me. It's not perfect, but I figured it out and now it's on it's way home to Australia. I only hope Kelly forgives me for it's tardiness. You wanna know how I defeated the block? With my mighty iron.

Oh, how I love the iron. Forgive me while I wax poetic a moment. In high school, when I was trying to raise money to travel with Up With People, I started an odd jobs business around the neighborhood and I ended up doing a lot of ironing for one of our neighbors. Thankfully, I discovered that it wasn't a household chore I particularly minded all that much. I was used to wielding a iron on my sewing projects so it was a natural fit.

Even now, I don't mind ironing. My iron is a powerful tool that I use constantly while I am quilting. I know there are many debates about there about wether to press your seams open or to the side. I've experimented with both ways and I have to admit that I am partial to pressing seams open. I am not saying that this is the "correct way" to do it. There is no right or wrong way. It just happens to be the way that works best for me most (but not all) of the time. Why do I prefer to press my seams open? Well, the answer for me is pretty simple. I find that I get flatter, truer seams when I press them open. I used to press to one side and I often found that my seams would get bulky or I would start to loose a scant bit in the seams. This would sometimes result in slight folds in the seams or blocks that were slightly smaller than anticipated. So one day I tried pressing my seams open and I was happier with the overall result - flatter, straighter blocks and seams.

That said, pressing my seams to the side is what saved this block. Kelly sent everyone in the Red and Aqua 2 Bee precut fabrics for this block with a simple tutorial from Sew Mama Sew. The pattern calls for 20 petals and since I was making this block for someone else and not myself I wanted to get it right rather than send it to her with 19 petals. After I ripped it apart I started re-sewing it back together again this time with a much smaller seam allowance than the requested 1/4". Of course the result was too large a center to be covered by the fabric circle she sent along so I went around again with my 1/4" foot. And then I took it to the ironing board and ironed the seams TO THE SIDE. That is the secret! I cracked the code.

If you are struggling with the Dresden Plate Block, like I was, try ironing your seams to the side. This way you can "fudge" your seams a little and you can work the seams with your iron to help your dresden lay flat. Then iron the hell out of it when you flip it over and pin the hell out of it when you place it on the background fabric. Lastly, when you're sewing the petals down take it SLOW. If you ended up "fudging" any of the seams when you ironed it there may be some scant folds in the fabric that might bunch if you aren't patient. Don't be afraid to slow down as you reach each seam, anchor your needle and lift your presser foot to avoid bunching at the seams.

Does this all make sense or have I totally confused you all? I know I have a tendency to get overly verbal, especially when I'm excited. I hope this helps someone else out there who may be struggling like me. And for those keeping score: Dresden Block: 1, Hollie: 2. I pulled it out with a Hail Mary just before the buzzer!

I'm linking this finish up to Sew Modern Mondays at Canoe Ridge Creations.

Natalie is AWESOME!

Good morning party people! First of all I wanted to share something with all of you. My bloggy friend, Natalie of the Threaded Mess just published an amazing tutorial of her recent preemie quilt over at Fat Quarterly. Not only is the tutorial great and easy to follow, the resulting quilt is stunning. Really! Run over there and check it out! She's totally inspired me to make my next baby quilt. And if you haven't visited her blog yet, please stop by. She is so talented. Seriously, I can't wait for the day that we get into the same room. One of these days, Natalie, we'll be together sewing up a storm!

That's the happy news. In my little corner of the world I'm actually very frustrated. Remember this?

Well it now looks like this...

That's right. I ripped every last damn stitch out of the little bugger. But, I am determined not to let this block defeat me!!!

At first I just took out enough stitching to get it in half...

It was still laying funky so I sectioned it down to quarters.

No luck. Seriously, my love of dresdens is quickly waning. So now all the petals have been torn apart and I'm attempting to re-sew them this morning. The worst part is, I am seriously behind in getting this bee block back to it's rightful owner and I feel horrible about that but I want it done right. In case you're keeping score it's: Dresden Block 1, Hollie 0.

Wish me luck. I'm going back in!

But wait... there is one bright spot out there. I'm getting very, very close to hitting 100 followers! Can you believe it? My followers count here on Blogger reads 91. (My count on Google Reader is actually at 97. Can anyone explain that?) I'm going to go with the official blogger one since I don't understand the discrepancy but when I reach 100 I'll have a very special giveaway to celebrate with you. I want to thank each and every one of you who follow my little blog here. It really means a lot to me. And your comments always make me smile. I love you guys!

P.S. Some of you were asking about the yard-long cutting ruler and also my mega cutting mat I was using to cut down the Soul Crushing Table Runner. I found them both at Joann's. The cutting mat was EXPENSIVE but worth every penny. I recommend waiting until they're having a 50% off sale or coupon to buy it. That's what I did. You can find the ruler here and the cutting mat here.

I Just Needed Thread

I walked into the fabric store with the intention of just getting this...

Instead I walked out with this...

I can defend my purchases, really, I can. As I was pin basting the quilt sandwich for the Soul Crushing Table Runner the other day I thought that this would have been the perfect project to try spray basting. So I put a can of Spray Baste on my mental shopping list. I went into the store, grabbed my thread and headed to the spray baste. Of course I have been wishing internally, for some time now, that I had a longer cutting ruler. One that at the very least stretch over a single fold fabric. I get ruler and cutting board envy every time I'm at the cutting station of my LQS. Lo and behold positioned right next to the spray baste were cutting rulers. And they even had one that measured a full yard. Well, I just had to pick that up too. And then I spied a ruler grip. Now, I've never used one of these before but I know a lot of people do and I thought that maybe using it would help give me some leverage when I'm cutting so what the hell, throw that in the basket too. Then I turn around and spy the latest edition of Stitch Magazine and $80 later I walked out with my thread and more toys than I need.

And as I was cutting down the Soul Crushing Table Runner last night I realized that my least favorite part of the process isn't the quilting or the basting... I think it's actually cutting the quilt down. I always lament over this part. The quilted quilts are always too long for my ruler or sometimes even my cutting mats so I worry about cutting down correctly with straight lines and proper measurements. It's always a stressful process.

But when it's done at least it means I get to move onto my favorite part... hand binding. Yippee! It's almost done!

And, even though it's not technically a "finish" since the Soul Crushing Table Runner is almost finished I'm linking it up to Sew & Tell Friday over on Amylouwho's Blog.