Pew, Pew, Pew

I have a few Star Wars fans in my life and my cousin (friend, sister, etc.) is a large one. Her birthday was in May and I knew exactly what to make her! Kristy at Quiet Play designed some amazing paper pieced Star Wars patterns which are up in her shop for free, including the AT-AT pattern I used.

I copied the pattern at 125% and hit my stash for some gray fabric. I used a variety of Konas along with gray and black yarn dyed Essex Linen for the AT-AT. With Kona white for the background I sashed the block in a forest green cross weave and black yarn dyed Essex Linen to make a 20″ pillow.

I used the same hidden zipper technique that I used for my Poison pillow to finish it up.

 

Pillow Details

Title: Pew Pew Pew, May 2016
Pattern: AT-AT by Kristy of Quiet Play
Front: a variety of grays, black and white Kona Cotton, yarn dyed Essex Linens, misc. green cross weave from my stash
Quilting: Aurifil 2600, 50 weight
Finished pillow size: 20×20″

Advertisement

Finding My Rhythm

Hindsight certainly is 20/20! After sporadically posting from March – October last year and stepping away from the blog for a bit, I am ready to jump back in! I realized that I needed to find my rhythm, the rhythm which has been missing since I left Philadelphia in August 2014 – I think I finally have things figured out (hopefully!).

I wanted to share some exciting (and terrifying news), I am teaching my first quilting class tomorrow at Prints Charming Quilt Shop in Fulton, MD! I am teaching an introduction to foundation paper piecing workshop using Carolyn Friedlander’s Sunrise Quilt pattern. Above is my class sample, First Light. I will be channelling my inner Sarah Bond tomorrow and sharing my love for foundation paper piecing. I need to go spend the rest of the afternoon preparing and getting my thoughts together.

In addition to being the first class I teach, this quilt was also the first one I put on the Handi Quilter at the shop. I freehanded an allover curvy meander and enjoyed every minute of it. I don’t anticipate putting anything larger than a runner under the walking foot of my Bernina anytime soon! I’ll update the post with finished quilt photos next week, I need to get it back from the shop tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

A side note: thank you to everyone who has stuck around and cheered me on on Instagram the last few months. If you missed it (on Instagram), we brought home a Great Dane-Weimaraner mix at the end of April. His name is Bex and he has 100% captured our hearts.

 

Quilt Details

Title: First Light, April 2016
Pattern: Sunrise Quilt by Carolyn Friedlander
Front: Kona® Cotton Designer Palette Series: Emily Cier of Carolina Patchworks 2.5″ strips, Gray Sketch, and two misc. black and white prints.
Binding: Aqua on aqua geometric print
Quilting: Aurifil #2600, 40 weight
Finished size: approx. 66″ x 74″

MMXV + a Thank YOU giveaway

Happy New Year! 2014 is almost behind us and I am looking forward to see what 2015 has in store. Personally, I am hoping for a calmer 2015, 2014 was quite crazy. Thank YOU for hanging out with me this past year, I have a giveaway to thank you at the end of this post – it’s a long one!

I thought that 2013 was big year for me quilting and sewing wise; but 2014 kicked 2013’s butt in that aspect. While I never did get our bed quilt made I did get a few minis done, I learned to paper piece (and love it!), and completed a bunch more projects – 25 if my count is correct! I also pieced a bunch of blocks for the Modern Instabee, have started blocks for the Philly MQG Bee, released two tutorials (a quilt and a scarf), was featured an article about swaps & bees and a Craftsy post, and have enjoyed learning and growing with each project that I complete.

A few of my favorite finishes from 2014 (my final three are below!):

You can see all of my 2014 finishes here and blocks & swap pieces here. I started 2014 with an ambitious quilty to-do list and my tastes changed and life continued so not much got done. I am starting this year with a much smaller list: a Charley Harper quilt for my aunt (two years overdue), a Christmas colored Hazel quilt for us, two swap minis, and monthly bee blocks for the Philly MQG crew. That’s it! The rest of the projects will happen as I discover them.

Blog wise, in 2015 I will continue to share my projects with you and I am hoping to have a few more tutorials to share. If there is anything specific you would like to see, please let me know!

Without further ado, here are my final three 2014 finishes: Plus No. 2 which some of you may remember from MidAtlantic MOD in April was finally completed and gifted to my high school mentor, long time Army man, and police officer Merle Bragg. I made another 241 tote for my mother featuring Splash in Midnight from Jessica Levitt’s new Cascade fabric line with Essex linen in gray. My final 2014 finish is Spools, a wall hanging for my Aunt Becky, featuring Charley Harper fabrics. I used SPOOLS from SPOOL/Bad Ass Quilter’s Society’s 2014 Row by Row pattern without the last block of four small spools. Since this is a mini I took the plunge and completed my first real attempt at free motion quilting (FMQ) with a simple meander. It is far from perfect and I still need a lot of practice, but I am happy with it and will continue to practice on quilt sandwiches in 2015.

Thank YOU for stopping by on a regular basis to cheer me on and to see what I have been working on. Knowing that I have you expecting a weekly post drives me to keep creating. I hope that you have a wonderful New Year’s and I cannot wait to share my continued journey with you.

To thank you for hanging with me, I will make three lucky winners their choice of quilt block (pick from Hazel, an outhouse, or a shirt) in their preferred color palette! I have really enjoyed the process of making blocks for others and I want to pay it forward to three of you. To enter, use the Rafflecopter below and leave me a comment below telling me what you are looking forward to in 2015. The giveaway is now closed and the lucky winners are:

             

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will close the giveaway at Noon EST on Sunday, 1/4 and it is open to all of my readers. I will contact the winners via email to go over their block details on Sunday afternoon and will have the blocks in the mail no later than February 27, 2015. Good luck & thanks again!

Elizabeth Hartman and Carolyn Friedlander, the block designers, have no affiliation with this giveaway.

Quilt Details

Pattern: My own Plus design.
Front: Platinum Quilter’s Linen and miscellaneous red, white, and blue fabrics from my stash and from
Beth at Stash Fabrics
Back: Widescreen in blue by Carolyn Friedlander Binding: Blue and white check print from my stash
Quilting: Aurifil 40WT #2600 (a pale gray) Finished size: approx. 45×54″

Pattern: SPOOLS from Spool/Bad Ass Quilter’s Society
Front: Charley Harper fabrics and misc. Kona solids for the spools
Back: Tan solid Binding: Red and cream feed sack reproduction fabric from my stash (I have an
original feed sack in the same print as well!)
Quilting: Aurifil 50WT #2310 (cream) Finished size: approx. 9×27″