Blogger's Quilt Festival - Bree

Well, nothing draws out the occasional bloggers like Amy's Creative Side's Blogger's Quilt Festival! Even though I never win anything, it's a blast going through all the posts and seeing the really cool quilts everyone has done.

I haven't shared many quilts lately, though I've been speedily sewing along. You can follow my instagram for more regular updates. If blogger could come up with a tap-tap-send app on the phone, I'd probably blog way more! Such a creature of convenience.

So, most of our regular readers haven't seen this finished quilt!

My quilt is made using Julie's new Tunnel Vision pattern, which is available on the sidebar. Seriously great pattern! I haven't given it a special name, because Tunnel Vision is pretty perfect.

Stats - 

Size: 58″x72″

Techniques: curved piecing, home machine free motion quilting

Quilting: Quilted by me on my domestic machine

Category: Home Machine Quilted Quilts

I love this quilt for it's simplicity. From a distance, you don't really get the details, but it is certainly a fun quilt. I used remnants of a Kona Poseidon bundle paired with Kona Chartruese, and a little pop of Michael Miller's Groovy Guitars. The back is the fabulous IKEA Britten Nummer fabric.. seriously great quilt back!

The fun came in with the quilting. I left the blue arches unquilted, and used a different technique in each separate green section! All of this was done using lime aurifil thread with a white aurifil bobbin on my domestic machine (A Janome 6600)

This section is easily my favorite. I'd love to do an entire quilt with this motif!

I even included a fun little sun motif. 

This quilt was an experiment in control and quilting different elements. I watched a bunch of Leah Day videos on youtube.. and since it was staying in the house (my four year old claimed it), there was no real fear of screwing it up.

Thank you for stopping by and peeking at my quilt! Go on over to Amy's Creative Side to check out the others!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hey guys, guess what? Come a little closer, I have something to tell you. I'm going to whisper it really quietly though, so I don't scare it off. 

*I think my sew-jo might have come back*

It's a slight possibility, but still a good chance. I spent the better part of yesterday actually MAKING stuff, with my sewing machine!! And and and.....When I had to stop and make dinner, I couldn't wait to get back to it!

So while I keep on trucking so I'll have something to actually share with you guys, I'm going to throw in an entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival to at least give you something to look at in the meantime.

Now, it hasn't been that long since I posted this one, so I do apologize for shoving it in your faces yet again, but it was fun and I enjoyed making it!

My entry is my Storm at Sea mini that I made as part of a doll quilt swap.

This quilt measures at 16" and was entirely paper pieced.

There are some very tiny pieces in there! I think the larger diamond shapes measured somewhere in the vicinity of 2"x 3" if that tells you anything. 

I made this during my annual weekend retreat at my friend Karen's house. I spent almost the entire weekend working on it. Paper piecing isn't my favorite type of piecing, but doing it in the presence of friends actually made it quite fun!

I'm entering this into the wall hanging category, Come check out the other entries. There are multiple categories this year, so don't forget to see them all!

New Winner

Unfortunately, our giveaway winner never contacted us :(

Friends, please make sure you have an email address associated with your profiles when you enter giveaways, I'd hate for you to miss out on a win!

I redrew

and our new winner is Julia!

Julia, you do have an email address associated with your profile so I will be contacting you!

Thanks again everybody!

Giveaway Winner!

Thank you all so much for all of your entries! We broke another giveaway day record with a whopping 703 comments! 

I'd like to give a very warm welcome to all of our new followers, we're so glad to have you on board and hope you stick around!

I have a teeny tiny confession to make. When giveaway day rolls around I usually remove our email addresses from the account, just temporarily, so that our inboxes aren't inundated with giveaway comments. We both come to the post and read them all still, it just helps keep things under control because, let's face it, 700+ comments over the course of a week is a lot. 

The problem with that is, we had no way to reply to any of the comments because of it. I turned it back on when I realized that I couldn't because even though I couldn't reply back to all of them, there were some that needed replies, like questions and such. 

Tammy, yours was one that I couldn't reply back to and I hope you're reading this. I just wanted to say that I'm really happy that you are so excited about Tabby Fabric and hope you can make that visit! Maybe we'll bump into each other there some day ;)

Ok, now on to the winner!!

Courtesy of Random.org

Our winner is #126, Miggsie!!

Now here is another problem. I can't contact you Miggsie! There is no email address associated with your profile! So if you see this, please leave a comment on this post, with an email address, and I will contact you for mailing instructions.

If I don't hear back by Monday evening I'll draw another winner. 

Thanks again everybody, have a great weekend!!

A Lovely Year of Finishes-May Goal Setting

Oh sew-jo, why hast thou forsaken me?

It seems the only way I'm getting anything accomplished is to keep on trucking with these finishing goals. 

So come on May, bring it! 

I'm going to work on TWO things for this month. Go me!

First up, finish making a new bag for myself.

Second, finish a baby quilt for my soon to be niece. No pictures yet in case my sister is reading ;)

They're both started and about halfway done, just need to finish. Wish me luck!

It's Giveaway Day!

Welcome to Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Today's giveaway is sponsored by my local quilt shop Tabby Fabric and Studio.

Tabby Fabric and Studio is a fabulous little shop owned by my good friend Rhonda. Rhonda has this awesome style when it comes to quilting and design and has a keen eye for what's hot and trending. 

You may have seen her little shop in the newest issues of GenQ  Magazine or maybe the feature on the GenQ website with her pattern. You can check that out right here!

Rhonda also has an etsy store! She's working on getting more listings loaded up every day but there is already some really good stuff in there, please go check it out and show her some love!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TabbyFabricandStudio

Rhonda has so generously donated a Comma charm pack for today's giveaway!

Here's how to enter:

Leave us a comment, but make it a good one! Need some ideas? Tell us about your favorite notion, your favorite upcoming fabric collection, or what you do when you're in a sewing funk and need to snap out of it. Or just tell us a joke!

Optional bonus entries:

1. Become a follower! You can do that by clicking here:

You can also follow us via Facebook (button is on the sidebar) or by whatever reader program you use. Just let us know in a second comment that you did it. Current followers get a second entry too of course!

2. Go check out Rhonda's etsy shop and then come back and leave another comment telling us what your favorite item is. 

3. Share this giveaway! Blog, Tweet, Instagram, Facebook, Pin this giveaway for an additional entry. Use whatever social media program you want to use to do it. Leave an additional comment for each share. 

I'm supposed to close the giveaway Friday night, so you have until then to get your comments in. If a few sneak in before I draw the winner on Saturday that's ok too ;)

Click here to get back to all the great giveaways!

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/

One last thing before you go!

In honor of giveaway day, how about a coupon code?

Use code SMSDAY for 10% off in my pattern shop!

http://juliepickles.bigcartel.com/

Code expires Friday at midnight Pacific time.

Giveaway is open to all visitors, including the international peeps.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Images above courtesy of Tabby Fabric and Studio website

Mr. Raccoon Finally Has a Home!

It only took about 7 months but the Mr. Raccoon block is finally done. 

Allegory asked for a house block featuring him somewhere, anywhere.

Allegory really loves Halloween so I thought a trick or treating Raccoon was in order, after all, he did come with a mask ;)

I guess technically it's not his home, since he's trick or treating and all, but you know what I mean. 

Knowing Al, she needed a house that was a bit funky too. I hope she loves it!

April Lovely Year of Finishes goal, you are done!

Denyse Schmidt Doll Quilt Swap

Leona recently invited me to participate in a mini/doll quilt swap over on Flickr. The rules were to make a mini quilt, no bigger than 18", and to make it with Denyse Schmidt fabrics and coordinating solids. 

Now I realized as I was getting ready to post this, that I never showed any process pictures on this one. Bad blogger! The truth is, I waffled back and forth on what I was going to make, all the way up until the last minute, then I put it together over the course of my annual weekend at my friend Karen's house a couple of weeks ago. 

So here it is!

I went back and forth between so many different patterns before finally settling on this one. My partner really seemed to like geometric designs so I wanted to stick with something like that, as opposed to say, applique. 

My first plan was the Marcelle Medallion that's making the rounds. Well, the center part of it anyway.

But that involved buying the magazine or the book and my budget is tight. I was actually going to go for the magazine but couldn't find it in the stores when I looked. I knew it was due to hit the racks sometime in March but I was running out of time!

So then I thought, maybe I could do a Bloom Bloom Pow mini. But I was running out of time for that too as the instructions weren't scheduled to post before I had to mail it. 

So I went digging though EQ7 for some inspiration and happened upon the Storm at Sea block, it was love at first sight. I put four of them together, had the program print the paper piecing pattern, and voila!

The two inner rings are from Hope Valley, the three outer rings are from Flea Market Fancy and the dark print is from Greenfield Hill. It is also backed and bound in the dark print.

I printed a label onto some muslin and hand stitched it onto the back, then wrapped it up and sent it out!

I also included a little cross stitch that I made, my first one ever! The hoop is 3 inches, to give you an idea of scale.

That was quite fun and I will definitely be making more of those! 

I am very very happy to say that my partner loved the package I sent!

I'm still waiting on mine to arrive. I can't wait to find out what's in it, there are some serious beauties in the Flickr pool!!

Before I sign off, just a quick reminder that today is the last day to take advantage of the awesome coupon codes in my shop!

http://juliepickles.bigcartel.com/

TESTER10 gets you 10% when you order at least one item

TESTER20 gets you 20% off when you order at least 2 items

TESTER30 gets you 30% off when you order at least 3 items

Codes expire at midnight Pacific time on April 20th.

Buying 3 items almost gives you the third pattern for free! The pattern and template bundle ARE included in this sale!

Linking this up to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

Testers Parade! (and a Coupon)

Today we are celebrating my most awesome pattern testers. You guys, these chicks totally rock. They all went above and beyond with their testing and made some really fabulous quilts!

Before I show you all of their awesome work, I wanted to show you the baby version of Wedge-ulous. The baby size turns out a tiny bit different than the larger lap size. It's still a work in progress, but it's at least a complete top, so you'll get the gist :)

Now for the tester's versions!

My super awesome friend Mali made this very beautiful, very feminine version.

And how gorgeous is that photo? I think I need to hire her to take all of my pictures for me!

Jennifer made a baby size, she left off the top and bottom borders and bound it on the wedges, which I thought was totally clever!

You all know Jennifer, right? She blogs over at Knotted Thread and has a fabulous little fabric shop. She also tested Mod Pop for me and is super sweet!

Bree was super tester, she just kept churning out the quilt tops! She had a fabulous idea of inverting the colors of Mind the Gap so that the prints were the "sashing" pieces.

Then she dreamed up this beauty.

I think she was out to prove that it looks good any way you can imagine!

Bree also tested Tunnel Vision. She said her son needed a carry around quilt and that he loves guitars.

I love that lone guitar arch. This one definitely screams boy and we know how hard it can be to make a quilt for a male. I do believe she nailed this one. 

My other awesome friend Dede was my other tester for Tunnel Vision. Hers is quite the opposite of Bree's in that it's totally feminine.

And look at that quilting! 

She also made this mini-mural on the back. See how she rounded the corners? Yet another great use for the Mod Pop templates!

Beautiful work all around ladies, thank you so much!!!

Now how about a coupon code for my shop to celebrate? 

In honor of my fabulous testers use the following codes to save big in my Big Cartel Shop!

http://juliepickles.bigcartel.com/

TESTER10 gets you 10% when you order at least one item

TESTER20 gets you 20% off when you order at least 2 items

TESTER30 gets you 30% off when you order at least 3 items

Codes expire at midnight Pacific time on April 20th.

Buying 3 items almost gives you the third pattern for free! The pattern and template bundle ARE included in this sale!

The sale only applies to my Big Cartel shop. Remember that I have to manually send the pdf files to you so don't panic if you don't have them right away. I will send them to your paypal address and usually get them sent pretty quickly, it just depends on how far away I am from my computer. And let's face it, I'm a stay at home mom, I'm usually not very far ;)

Thanks again for all of your support!