Quilt Market Recap!

As many of you know, International Quilt Market was in Kansas City last week. Selina and I had intended to attend together, but sometimes life has other plans. Despite that Selina was unable to attend, I made the long, 45 minute journey downtown to see what all the fuss was about.

Welcome to Quilt Market Kansas City!

Market is a Trade Show for quilt store owners. pattern makers and suppliers. Credentials are required to obtain tickets, and I’m happy we are important enough to go! It is a three day event that includes classes, marketing strategies and, of course, Sample Spree. I had always heard Sample Spree was a mad dash because it’s one of the only events that allows you to bring home bundles of fabric. As excited as I was for Sample Spree, I actually left it empty handed. It was a great time, and lots of fun, but the fabric lines I was most excited to see were not made available at the event.

Like this! Tula Pink’s Stardust in Birds and the Bees and Nightshade

I noticed a trend of nautical themed fabrics; beach scenes, boats, pirates, maps, etc. All of which I adore. I have a special place in my heart for the nautical theme having grown up at the beach.

Ship Shape

What I love about the Ship Shape line is that it reminds me of sheets my mom used to have on her bed. I think it would be amazing to create this quilt and back it in those vintage sheets!

Great. Now I’m homesick. =/

Sarah Jane

The Sarah Jane line is so sweet and fun. I love the project ideas they have chosen for this line. It seems versatile to use for children but also in personal projects.

Sweet Water never disappoints  

Tweet! Too sweet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aprons were also very popular, or maybe I just like them! Here are just a few of my favorites.

Violet Craft

Birch Organic Fabric. I MUST use this in a project!

Summerlove. Had me a blast. ;)

 

I also met and chatted with Nancy Zieman of Sewing with Nancy, Mary Ann and Mary Fons, saw Amy and David Butler, and many many more quilt-famous people. It was too much fun! Next time I’m going to bring ridiculous amounts of money and a wholesale license. One will be easy to obtain. The other would also be easy to obtain but I don’t want to go to prison.

Yes, I was sewing with Nancy!

Selina already owns this line. Nightshade is very cool!

One of the best things I came across was a booth selling Fat Quarters of modern, current fabric lines for $2 per FQ. I was able to pick up a number of fantastic finds for myself and my absentee buddy. I had a huge stack of flyers and catalogs promoting new patterns, books and notions, so my wish list is now a mile long. One of the bundles I picked up was David Butler’s Parson Gray – Curious Nature. I can’t wait to pick up the book Big Blocks, Big Style to create a handsome, masculine quilt. I will not likely keep the quilt, so consider this a warning for an amazing quilt for the man in your life!

I’m taking it with me!

Best wishes!

Lizze

 

Gardener Bucket Tutorial

Hey everyone! It’s been a long time since I wrote a post here! I wrote up a tutorial on my other blog yesterday, and I thought I would share a link to it here as well.

As we all know, Mothers Day is coming up. Next weekend, in fact!!! If you are anything like me, you usually forget about it and have a mini panic attack at the last minute. This year I decided I wasn’t going to do that. If you have basic sewing skills and a 5 gallon bucket, you can make this in just a few hours time.

Here is the link if you want to check out the tutorial and give it a try! http://littlehouseonmeylah.blogspot.com/2012/05/gardeners-bucket-apron-tutorial.html

Have a great weekend!

Selina

Blocks of the Month

After a recent weekend getaway to St. Louis, I can now say I’ve traveled the length of the Lewis and Clark trail. In reverse and by car, but I made the journey none the less!

See? We made it to The Gateway to the West!

It seems fitting that The Kansas City Star has a Block of the Month pattern called The Spirit of Sacagawea: A Textile Tribute to an American Heroine for 2012.  I was late to the game to find out about it. The pattern comes out in the newspaper on the third Tuesday of the month. I missed January’s pattern by a few days and had a hard time finding anyone who still gets the newspaper. I put a call out on Craigslist to anyone who may still have the paper, and was luck enough to receive two in the mail the very next day! How sweet is that?! I sent both senders a thank you note and a little something for their kindness. Certainly thoughtfulness like that is rare and should be praised!

Kansas City Star Block of the Month, The Spirit of Sacagawea

I figure having only one block a month gives me time to finish each block. (How many times have I said THAT before?!) I have finished both January and February’s blocks, and am looking to start on March this weekend!

January

February

One of my favorite things about these blocks is that it calls for them to be scrappy. So, I have not yet purchased a thing for these blocks! I told you I was going to use my scraps! I will say this though; Don’t piece when you’re upset! I had a terrible week and attempted the Mariner’s compass. I had to rip out every single stitch in the first 64 segments I sewed! So, there it is. Imperfect, but done!

I’ve also joined the Dessert of the Month cross stitch form The Frosted Pumpkin and have been trying to keep up with that!

Dessert of the Month

Keep with Selina’s progress as well at her Sew it Up blog! Happy stitching!

Lizze

WiP Wednesday

Yes, it’s Thursday, but I had to share what I did all day yesterday! I made Work in Progress Wednesday my bitch! I have been seriously slacking in the sewing department, my projects are all backing up. I broke my tailbone a few weeks ago, so sitting at a sewing machine has not been high on my priority list! I have another blog about swaps and blocks of the month to share, but all in due time!  As for Wednesday, I made blocks from FIVE different projects!

Booyah!

The owl is from The Western Washington Shop Hop of 2010, The Churn Dash is a Farmer’s Wife block, The Hydrangea and Pink blocks are Buck a Blocks from some years back, and the Baskets are from the Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Shop Hop from last October! (more on those later!)

Whew!

Also, I have yet to finish my February cross stitch, but I’m working on it!  See Selina’s progress Here!

Devil's Food...in progress

I’m doing my best to catch up! More soon, I promise!

Lizze

Making the Most of Scraps

What does your stash look like? (I’m talking fabric stash here! Don’t be crazy!) Does it consist of neatly folded, color coordinated, organized fat quarter sized pieces or larger? Because mine sure doesn’t! I have yardage, unfinished kits, kits I’ve cut and promised to get to as soon as I finish my next project, fat quarter bundles, jelly rolls and of course, scraps. When I say scraps, I mean bags of scrap fabric I couldn’t bear to part with after cutting out the piece I needed.
I wouldn’t call my self a hoarder, per se, but my stash is nothing to sneeze at. In a fit of organization I did seperate my scraps into categories by project or color and put them all into their own gallon sized zip lock bags. I have a tote bin full of “coordinated” scrap bags. But what am I going to do with them all? I think all sewists eventually ask themselves that question. You can’t throw them out! What if I need
that?!

Don't judge!

I can see the inevitable conclusion of my spate of itty bitty fabric collecting. I will eventually be burried with it all, or it will bury me. Something must be done. And since the new year is upon us, I must take the opportunity to resolve to create something with scraps and scraps only.
I’ve actually put this into practice and have made a few things in the past month already. Many of the covers I make include scrap batting and backing from other projects. I did make a Kindle Fire cover for a friend this Christmas:

Cool girls like skulls AND pink!

From the scraps of this project I created a DS cover for my daughter. She really loved the fabric, and I hadn’t thought of a handmade gift for her for Christmas yet, so I came up with this:

It’s has space for her DS, a divider to keep the charger seperate and slots for the games. Taking what I knew from making so many Zippy Strippy bags, it wasn’t terribly hard to create!
My challenge has begun, and I challenge you to do the same! I will alternate between scrap projects and new material projects. It may not make a huge dent, but hopefully I will double my finished project total for the year! I will post projects as I go. I would love to hear what you’re creating too!

Lizze

Handmade Holidays

Hey all! I know we haven’t been around here for awhile. Life has been busy, as usual, and we let things get away from us sometimes.

I have spent a lot of time sewing lately. I participated in my first craft fair (which was a big disappointment), and found out last week that we are finally getting that opportunity to move back to our hometown which I discussed on this blog last summer! So in between packing and purging a ton of crap our family has collected in this house over the years, I have been working on some new gift items for the shop.

These are iPad sleeves that I have been making. I’m taking custom orders as well so if you would like one, please let me know as soon as possible. They can be made in any size with any fabrics!

Lizze made these darling zippy bags too!!! These are so cute and perfect for carrying around anything at all. She made one for me and I use it for a travel sewing kit, but you could put make-up, iPods, use it as a wallet, etc. They are made in several different sizes and she will take custom orders as well.

 

Thank you for your support of buying handmade. It is hard to make a living doing what you love, especially without people willing to support your handmade business. You don’t have to buy from us, but if you buy just ONE handmade item from someone, you make a huge difference  and give the business owner hope and the courage to continue.

Selina

Fair Love

 

As many of you know, I entered a couple of quilts into our local fair recently. Our fair is very large. One of the 10 largest fairs in the US actually. It is so expensive to eat or ride rides at the fair so we haven’t done that for several years. My favorite part about the fair though is looking at all of the exhibits, listening to local bands, and the animals.

We had a really great time this year. We looked at all of the agriculture exhibits (which are always amazing). The kids got to do some free activities like beading and painting. We saw a couple different bands and a magician.

We love watching the draft horses. They really are some of the most beautiful animals ever. I caught this picture on my cell phone and thought it turned out really cool (totally by accident).

There was one barn full of nothing but bunnies. We looked at every single one. This little guy stole my heart.

Of course we had to go see the quilts. There were hundreds of them hanging from the ceiling.

 

Imagine my surprise when I saw my quilt, in this sea of gorgeousness, hanging there with a little red ribbon on it.

I just got my quilts back this Tuesday, and wouldn’t you know it, the Quilting Gallery Contest this week is Flying Geese! This quilt has over 100 flying geese pieces in it, so I decided to enter. It’s not cheating to win more than one award for the same quilt, right? Heehee!

If you are so inclined, won’t you please take a peek at the quilts in the contest this week and vote for your favorite? I hope you choose mine, but there are always many beautiful quilts there so if you choose another it’s okay. I’ll only cry for a week or so ;) Voting starts tomorrow and goes through Sunday.

http://quiltinggallery.com/tag/weekly-themed-quilt-contest/

Selina