Have you seen this?

I've been reading blog posts about Quilt Market (which I hope to see myself one day) and just heard about this new line that debuted there.

I've got to have it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots and lots of it!

OMG I love it so much and it is so perfect for me.

I'm already designing a quilt for it in my head though I'm too excited to actually get a real plan in place.

At the moment.  The ideas will gel at some point I'm sure.

The big sob story part of this fun news is that it isn't available until June.
It is going to be hard waiting that long to get my hands on it.

More Castles on the Horizon quilts are in process

I can't tell you how excited I am to be watching all the versions of my Castles on the Horizon quilt that I designed for the Moda Bake Shop come to life on Instagram.  I literally squeal each time I see a post.  I just have to share the pics with you.

This really bold color one is being made by Britta (IG: greatbritten66).  Love it!

Brooke (IG: thequiltyox) has her blocks sewn together.

And last for today but certainly not least, Cathy (IG: cathyewbank) has completed her top.  Don't you just love the calm feel of this one? I know that I do.

If you want to follow along with these ladies too their hashtag is #charmpions and there is another one, #charmpionsqal.  Thank you again to all the members of this IG group for choosing my pattern.  I am truly humbled.

Stunning Stitchin Sunday - a Monday edition

It's been a long time since I've posted a Stunning Stitchin Sunday showcase. With all the Girl Scout Troop Organizer work that I've been doing over the past 3+ months, I got really behind on blog reading and am happy to say that I am finally caught up. Thankfully the season for my duties so I can get back to my regularly scheduled programming blogging wise.

 

While getting caught up on what everyone else has been doing, I cam across some beautiful quilting that I wanted to share with you.  This is by no means all of it, just what has been posted about on the blogs that I follow over the past couple of weeks.

Of course, you can tell that since I'm posting this on a Monday that I didn't get time to do it yesterday (we had yet another Girl Scout event) but I'm betting that you still want to see all the beautiful work happening on the interwebs.  Make sure you hop over to each blog and show the quilter some love!

1. Quilting is My Bliss, 2. Happy Quilting, 3. Ivory Spring, 4. Piece N Quilt, 5. Addicted to Quilts,
6. Tamarack Shack, 7. Piece N Quilt, 8. Quilting is My Bliss, 9. Tamarack Shack, 10. Piece N Quilt, 11. Night Owl Quilting & Dye Works, 12. Quilting is My Bliss, 13. The Nifty Stitcher,
14. Quilting is My Bliss, 15. Piece N Quilt, 16. Pumpkin Patch Quilter

City Sampler At Your Own Pace linky party

I'm happy to report that I actually got a chance to make a few of my City Sampler blocks recently for my City Sampler At Your Pace Quilt Along. 

I'm making all of my blocks with Halloween prints. Here is block #1. 

After making the first one, I wanted to immediate make more but I had to run a bunch of errands and  so I had to wait. The next day I was able to get back into my studio and make a couple more. This is block #2. 

And here is block #3. I love how these are coming out. 

So here's my start of my City Sampler Halloween quilt. Since I'll be making all 100 blocks I have a long way to go but since there is no timeline for this quilt along, I'll just make more as time allows. 

I originally thought that I was going to make them in order that the are presented in the book but since the first grouping is 15 cross style blocks I know that I will be itching to make others before I get all 15 done. So instead I'm going to make 5 from chapter and then allow myself to move onto a different section. 

So if you are sewing along with me, how are your City Sampler blocks coming along? 

The linky party will remain open for a week. I can't wait to see your progress.  

Custom baby hooded towel - a tutorial

Recently my friend Heather asked me to recreate what she said was the best baby gift she received for her son to give to a friend who is expecting a baby girl soon.  It is a hooded baby towel made with a real towel so it is much bigger, thicker and snugglier.

I borrowed the one her son received (he still uses it 8 years later) so that I could see how it was made.  It really is easy and turns out so nice so I thought you might be interested in seeing how it is done.

For this project you will need 1 standard size bath towel in your choice of colors and 1 matching hand towel plus enough ribbon to add to both ends of the bath towel and one end of the hand towel in the appropriate width to cover the flattened area of the towels.  Heather purchased this Royal Velvet towel from JC Penney's and brought me this pretty Purple Polka Dot Ribbon to use.  I believe it was a 9 foot roll. 

First cut a length of ribbon to the width of the bath towel, adding a little bit on both ends to tuck under.

Using coordinating thread and a 1/8" seam from the edge of the ribbon, sew it to the towel, making sure to tuck the ends under as you get to them, pivot at the corner and then continue down the side.

Do the same for the opposite end of the towel.  Here is this one all done.  It is so much prettier already.

Next add a length of ribbon to one end of the hand towel.  Then measure 12" from that end and.....

...cut off the excess.  Yes, if you are wondering, it was tough cutting that wonderful thick towel.

Fold the hand towel in half, right sides together.

Sew together the two rough cut sides.  I don't have a serger so I used a close zigzag stitch instead and went over it twice to give the seam added strength and this enclosed the raw edges a bit.

This is the completed hood.

The next step is to actually sew it to the bath towel.  On the long side of the bath towel, find the middle and place a pin there.  Open up the hood part and do the same.

Match up both center pins and then pin the long side of the hood to the bath towel.

Take it back to your machine to sew them together, adjusting the edges of the pieces as you go to keep them aligned.

Again I used a zigzag stitch here.

Then to give the seam added holding power I went back and also stitched a straight line along the edge right under the line of zigzag stitching.  You can choose to do this or not depending on the towels you use. 

Here is the hood completely sewn to the bath towel.

Viola!  The completed custom baby hooded towel.  I so like this better than the premade ones.

If you are wondering what I did with the part of the hand towel that was cut off.  Well I just couldn't waste it.  Instead I had just enough ribbon left to sew to the other end and after folding under the raw edge twice and securing it together, I used a decorative stitch on my machine to give it its own flattened area at the opposite side (I have no idea what they call that part of a towel).  Now the new mom will have a matching wash cloth to go with the hooded towel.

Heather also brought me a matching washcloth so I too added ribbon to that one and this is the completed 3 piece set.

I had to beg Sunshine to model it for me quickly for a couple of photos so that you can see just how big this is.  All she wanted to do was go and play.  You can't blame her as yesterday was a beautiful day here.

I really love this project and will definitely be making one for friends that have new babies in the future.  This is so much thicker and more luxurious than purchased hooded towels and it is a ton bigger so they will get that much more use out of it.

I hope you like this little tutorial and please share pictures of any versions that you make.

The Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap is done!

There is one other big thing that has happened here lately.

The Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap has been completed.

Just look at all these gorgeous charms the participants received!

There were a number of packages that arrived late so sending these out got delayed a bit.  One package actually went MIA and never arrived at all.  The participants were willing to wait a little longer to see if it showed up (which it still hasn't to this day).  The person that sent them chose to purchase more fabrics and on my suggestion had them shipped directly to me.  Once I got them in my hands and cut them for her, all of the packages where quickly stuffed and sent on their way.

Even with the few problems there were getting this swap done, I'm so glad that I did it.  There is no other way I would have ever been able to get such a pretty variety of Kate's Christmas lines to turn into a holiday quilt for myself.

I thought I knew exactly what pattern I was going to use for my charms but I took it out recently and now am second guessing my decision.  I'm on the hunt for a new idea though I still might go back to my original plan. 

Thank you to all those who participated and thank you for your understanding during the delay.  I hope you love your charms and I can't wait to see what you create with them so please share when you do.

Castles on the Horizon sister quilts

The other day I was surprisingly shocked to learn that there is an Instagram group that has chosen to make my Castles on the Horizon quilt that I create for the Moda Bake Shop, though each person is using different fabrics.

To say that I was thrilled to learn about this is a huge understatement.

There are 15 or 16 IG friends in this group and they call themselves the Charmpions (so cute).

Some of the members of the group gave me permission to share pictures of their quilts in process with you.

Brooke IG: thequiltyox is creating this version.

My friend Celine IG: espritpatch, blog: Espritpatch has just finished adding the borders to quilt top.  She is using The Boathouse by Sweetwater and Modern Background Paper by Zen Chic, both by Moda.

Cindy aka IG: whiskysmum is well underway with her blocks.

This soft and low volume version is coming along nicely by Cathy IG: cathyewbank.

One member of the group has already finished and gifted her version.  This gorgeous creation is by Katrina IG:katrinahodgsen1969.

And my friend (and a good friend to many of you too) Lesley otherwise known as The Cuddle Quilter duplicated my quilt by using Horizon by Kate Spain also.  I love seeing it all washed in sunshine.

Lesley had her longarm quilter use a swirly pattern instead of the straight lines that I used.  I love this version too and it really give some great flow to the overall look.

Thank you, thank you ladies so much for liking my pattern and making your own version.  It truly makes me feel wonderful and gives me incentive to get to finished the other new patterns that I am working on.  Hopefully a new one will be available soon.

Spooktacular Mini Quilt Swap 15 sent

After some mailing snafus, my partner has received her package so now I can show you what I sent to her for the IG Spooktacular Halloween Mini Quilt Swap.

This is the sneak peak I had shared on IG while I was making the top.  The colors are off but hopefully she wasn't able too figure out what it was going to be.

As it turns out, Julie was also the person that I sent to for this swap.  I'm guessing that was by design by the swap organizer (much easier to keep track of I'm sure). I figured it out when I received the package Julie sent to me but she didn't know until my package to her arrived.  This is what I included in the package. 

 I have plans to make for me a full sized Swoon quilt so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the pattern for one block as it turns out 24" square and be able to showcase some fun fabrics at the same time.

For the quilting after much thought and auditions of design options, I chose to go with a simple but very effective squared spiral.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I didn't mark it at all and just eyeballed it for spacing and as it turns out that I like that method better, for this piece at least, as it isn't 100% symmetrical and to me, it just adds to the charm.

I used a bright purple with spiders print for the backing and love the way the quilting shows on the back. And Dang Nabit! I realized when I uploaded the pics that in my hurry to mail it off, I forgot to add the label.  So very sorry Julie.  If you want you can add a pretty embroidered one yourself.

Although I had wanted to make her another small goodie to go with the mini quilt, I just didn't have time. But I did find some fun Halloween things to send to her.  Silly socks are always appropriate.

Since I love Halloween and could buy up all the decorations and cute goodies for me, it was tempting to keep these for myself.

I guess now I officially have a photo bomber.

I had a lot of fun making this mini quilt and really hope my schedule lightens up soon so that I can create some more.

So if you are wondering just why I've been MIA since the end of August (no blogging, no IG, practically no sewing, nada), other than the usual back to school craziness and my work schedule change that goes along with that this year, the main reason is because of Girl Scouts.  In the spring my GS council asked me to take on the volunteer job of Troop Organizer for my local area.  That means that I keep track of the girls who want to join a troop and get them placed into one or help organize a new one. This is huge for my service unit (local community) as we have 70+ troops and over 600 girls.  Our council serves girls in 15 counties and my SU is the biggest one of all.  The busy season typically runs mid August when school, and therefore scouting too, is getting ready to start back up through November though there will be a few new requests during the rest of the scouting year.

To say that it has been insanely busy so far is an understatement.  I knew this would be a big job but I didn't know just how big.  As of today, 76 girls have been placed and 6 new troops have been started.  There are currently 22 girls on the waiting list and 5 more troops in the process of getting going.  Because I believe in the power of Girl Scouts in building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place, although this position is taking a lot of my otherwise free time, I feel that it is worth it.

We have one more open house this coming week and I'm sure that will add more new names to the list to be placed.  One reason that I agreed to take this position is the fact that it isn't a year round job for the most part and trust me when I say that I'm looking forward to the down time.  I really want and need to get back to my sewing.  I finally got into my studio yesterday and am working on a different sort of baby gift for a friend and have started working on a quilt that has been on the frame way too long.  Hopefully I'll have it finished this weekend.

Whatever is going on in your life, I hope that it makes you happy.