This is currently my finished bed quilt on my queen size bed. I made it for me and love it!
I've been making some Christmas tabletop centerpiece quilts. For sale in my etsy shop
The dark red is the backk view of the green bordered x-mas centerpiece... these are currently for sale in my etsy store: Elaine's Crafty Corner
Since I moved from Denver, PA to Asheville, NC the end of May 2010 I have been busy acclimating to my new town. I haven't found any favorite quilt fabric shops like Z&S store from Denver... but Hancocks has been serving my needs, along with my regular online fabric shops ;)
I heard a friend of mine from PA is expecting a baby girl in January. My friend loves Holly Hobbie and anything like that so I decided to make my first applique quilt for her new baby featuring sunbonnet sue type little girls for the baby quilt. I may end up selling this one on etsy and making her another one, since I just learned her favorite color is purple and the nursery may reflect that :)
I have made a few quilt tops... UFO at the moment... the mermaid blocks need to be sorted, I took a photo with them pinned to my window curtain LOL my own version of a quilt board.
And recently I've been working on small doll size quilts to donate to the Asheville Humane Society. They are all backed with either faux fur, minky or thick faux suede.
I mainly focused on Adult sized Little Red Riding hood capes for the past 2 weeks for my ebay Halloween listings. (Pictured above)
AND
I officially opened my etsy shop Elaine's Crafty Corner in the beginning of October (finally listed some items). But yesterday I SOLD an item! A yard of Echino Japanese import fabric to a lady in Australia! I plan to get some of my actual handmade quilts on there over the next few weeks after Halloween has ended and I am finished making my handmade capes for ebay.
Choosing fabric for a project can be pretty intuitive or difficult for some. Sometimes I fall in love with a quilt pattern and then take my time hunting down the perfect fabric. Some patterns just scream modern to me and I want to get bright, bold colors. Take Anna Marie Horner's Good Folks line, perfect for a fresh modern pattern.
These are some cuts I ordered that just arrived on Monday from the wonderful Sew Fabulous Quilt Store .
(I have to say Jenny did a fabulous job getting them to me FAST, I placed my order on Saturday and they arrived Monday!)
I saw a quilt pattern consisting of diamonds featuring Tula Pink's original Flutterby collection and just had to get some cuts from that line because the bright pinks, yellows, green, blues and reds all blended beautifully:
I know that diamond pattern I saw will look great in any color scheme, but now I can't imagine using my Flutterby fabric for any other pattern :)
I love sampler quilts. I love how different block patterns and block sizes play off of each other. I like that you can decide to add a few blocks with embroidery or don't have any at all. Sampler quilts can be adapted to each persons desired look and ability. I have found many civil war samplers I admire and I want the one I make to employ neutral prints with subtle color tones. I chose William Morris Workshop because of it's range of Indigo blues, rusty reds, gray-greens and light blues. I think designer Heather Ross is a happy medium of modern and vintage; her fabric lines usually feature bright colors with small, delicate prints that encapsulate a modern color with a vintage feel.
Some prints from Heather Ross "Far, Far Away" collection:
Many times I just fall in love with fabric lines, buy them and decide to use the line as I go . . . like the Henry Glass "Shade Garden" line byMichelle Engel Bencsko: Here are a few of the cuts I ordered from his line...
But mainly I just like to mix lines together. No one says you have to use all fabrics of the same line in one project. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for Moda and other Designer's precut strips, FQ's and layer cakes. Sometimes I will use just one designer line in a quilt, tote or project.
For example, my Moda "Mill House Inn" Layer Cake duvet cover:
But the "scrappy" effect allows me to achieve the perfect medium of colors for most patterns.
I (like many other fabric obsessed sewers) have some bold, unique or out-of-print fabrics that so far I haven't been able to make myself cut into them. LOL they can sit in my fabric bins until I can bear it.
I think doing your own thing and loving your results is the best part of sewing and creating stuff. You can use the same pattern numerous times but get different results every time just by using different color schemes and using the same fabric's in different quilt patterns can result in truly unique quilts. Have fun!
So excited, I think books and fabric are on an equal scale of obssessive love and needing to have for me.
And here is my cat Gabriel with a close-up of his heart shaped marking ...we've called him "heart-butt" since he was a kitten and we noticed his cute fur feature.
And here he is in profile, my senior boy (turns 13 this July).
Well I am off to score some "new" books to add to my already staggering book shelves LOL Wish me luck on the hunt ;)
This is the quilt top (so far decided against border)
I love Anna Marie Horner's Good Folks line it is so bright and fun and plays off other contemporary fabric lines so well. I decided to make a baby quilt (40" x 50") The quilt top is just waiting on me to decide what to do for the back of the quilt ; )
Here is a block progress pic... with my kitty Arie overseeing my layout :0) I started this on 4-9-10 weekend.
I adore Heather Bailey's Pop Garden so I decided to mix and match to create a bright, red, peach, aqua-blue, mustard, orange green and gray quilt top... and I'm attempting curved piecing for the first time and LOVING it!
The thought of stitching curved or circular pieces always scared me, now I can't believe how many cool projects I passed on because of them and they really are simple if you cut out your pieces to a uniform size. That is key. Also, give your wrist a rest from rotary cutting and use a fresh blade to decrease wrist fatigue and hand cramping while cutting around the curved templates.
I was going to make a 3D batik block (here is my sample block)... Started making these the first week in March.
Then I tried batik Stars and decided to go with a traditional star layout at this time... I will come back to the 3D layout on another quilt I'm sure :)
Below are some of the layouts I played around with... that is such a fun aspect of the quilting process. I recommend changing layouts, you never know you may discover a whole new look or find your next quilt top layout just by changing around block pieces. ;)
I've been loving bird fabrics so I finally finished that UFO modern block Spring lap quilt I cut and pieced back in November 2009. Finished size (unwashed) 52" x 58". I just love the way the orange, brown and turquoise colors pop out at you and the bird fabric is so subtle. Gonna be hard to part with this one!
Back of quilt... just used strips of leftover fabric from front and hand sewed the brown binding to the back. I always machine stitch the binding to the front but hand sew the back binding so it has a nice clean finished look. I think sewing the binding is my favorite part of the quilt process, so relaxing and the knowledge that it's the last step before completion rocks!
My other Bird quilt is a bright toddler/ baby quilt. I used the super soft fabric collection "Cheep Talk" and LOVE the colors too!
The Quilt is basted with safety pins and ready to quilt so I will the completed quilt pics at a later date...isn't this fabric scrumptious!?
Wow it's taken me 4 months to visit my OWN blogger account LOL.... even though I've had no problem visiting my fellow crafter pages and favorite blogger websites (daily!) UGh... well at least while on my hiatus from blogging I have been sewing and cutting quite a few projects and getting some of my UFO's finished. Yeah!!
I came down with a sever sinus infection right at the beginning of the new year and it took me about a month to fully recover after taking lots of antibiotics. I am back home in Lancaster, PA but will be heading heading back to NC in about 2 weeks.
I missed the Lancaster Quilt show :( But hope to make the July quilt show if I am in the area still.
I'll post a few pics of just some of the stuff I've been doing.... haven't been taking pics as often as I should :)
Blacksheep Bliss Please email me privately so I can get your mailing info and get your two prizes out to you right away! I want to thank everyone for participating and for all the truly lovely comments. I wish I had more prizes to give!
Please check back for my January Etsy store grand opening contest that will happen soon (in December) :)
Well today is giveaway day check out Sew, Mama, Sew! to see all the fantastic opportunities to win some beautiful creative items! I have two items ready for one lucky winner :-)
Item #1 is a chance to win a cute little Fat Quarter 5 pack featuring Heather Ross Mendocino for Free Spirit & Moda's Neptune Atlantis.
Since this will be my first time hosting a giveaway for my handmade items I decided to make a wristlet featuring a free hand embroidered tree on super soft faux leather for item #2. The wristlet is 5" by 8 1/2" with a strap. It's perfect for a day of shopping or clubbing when you don't want to lug around a heavy purse.
Tree wristlet
Inside view of tree wristlet . . . it has a pocket!
Just leave a comment to this post by Monday, December 7th 11:59 pm EST for a chance to win both items. I will post the winner's name on Tuesday December 8th. This contest is open to Everyone, yes that means I will be shipping Internationally too! I will be using a random number generator to choose the winner. Please one entry per person to keep it fair ;) Goodluck everyone!!!
During December I will be hosting a grand opening contest for my etsy store: Elaine's Crafty Corner, so please add my blog to your favorite's list and check back often for more items to win!
Comments are now CLOSED . Winner to be announced in a new post!
This is my first little wristlet, no pockets with a free hand tree embroidery... I now know what I did wrong with it's construction, and will make a better constructed one on my next attempt!
Well I jumped from idea to idea and just made things I wanted to try based on online inspirations from contest blogs . . .LOL. I take complete credit for all my mistakes since I only had a pattern for the Coupon caddy from the wonderful blog of Blue Cricket Design...
The items below: small purse, scrappy stars were free hand and probably show it! The 24" block with primary color scheme I made based on a 12" block pattern from The Quilter's Cache, a truly wonderful site full of free block patterns for every level sewer!
I'm still undecided if I want the blue band completely around this purse or just for a top snap enclosure OR to for go it completely and just put a zipper in... which will be hard to do at this late stage since it is otherwise sewn. Ugh I should've decide this BEFORE I sewed it all up!!
Ahhh and my scrappy stars made from left over kaleidoscope quilt block pieces... I just love the pink and brown together. These are each about 30" in diameter so I can make them into mini doll quilts or a table piece for my round table... hmmmm???
Now this one promises to be interesting and challenging, especially for a fairly new quilter like me. I am considering entering the Lark Books Quilt It! Contest if I can come with an idea that I think would be attractive enough to enter that I could actually achieve with all the requirements LOL
One Grand Prize winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to www.hancocks-paducah.com and 11 quilting books from the Lark collection. 4 Quilt Category winners will each receive 11 quilting books.
The contest will run from October 24th – January 5th and winners will be announced on February 1st. To enter, read the rulesthen email us at QuiltIt@larkbooks.com with the title of your piece, at least one photo of your quilt, and in which quilt category, as set forth below, your Quilt should be judged.
Required Elements
Entrants will create an original Quilt of any size that incorporates at least three of the following five required elements:
Here is a brief glimpse at my newest quilt blocks I'm working on and my 1st attempt at free-form modern quilt blocks. I love the colors and the look of the blocks and had a blast just cutting and sewing as I went along with no real plan, just added pieces where I wanted. There are 9 finished blocks... 2 that will be added to back or used another way... the lighter fabrics used in them disrupted the flow of the quilt.
I didn't want them too wonky, just off center and added to. . . more to come! (Having a blast with this one, no patterns yippee)
Quiltmaker Blog contest begins Nov 9th and ends Nov. 13th. Daily contests held by many linked sites ...
Yeah!!!! I was able to win a copy from Cheryl over at QuilterChic on the first day of the contest, someone must be loaning me some of their good karma! I can't wait to browse through this book and get some inspiration and see all these quilters' wonderful creations!
I am new to quilting but have loved to sew since I was a child. I am an avid reader and tv watcher, which is great since I tend to have the tv on as background while I cut fabric and plan out patterns. I love sewing in general. I like all styles (Modern, traditional, applique, embroidery, etc...) I like trying new things. I've made purses, quilts, pillows, wall art. And hope to eventually attempt clothing and wool toys and so much more!!
This is currently my finished bed quilt on my queen size bed. I made it for me and love it!
The dark red is the backk view of the green bordered x-mas centerpiece... these are currently for sale in my etsy store: Elaine's Crafty Corner
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