Kid's Pencil Roll - complete with twig pencils

I had a kid birthday party come up recently and needed to whip up a couple of gifts.

Instead of putting together a full pencil roll that would hold 24 pencils (as the pattern recommends in Joelle Hoverson's book, Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts) I decided to do a much smaller version.

It actually went together much faster than the full version I did before and I was able to finish it inside of a couple of hours.

Twig pencils are the cutest thing on earth, magical really. They just barely fit into the pencil roll. I think I would make the pieces slightly larger next time in order to account for their increased diameter.

And not to whine, but why oh why doesn't my local Kinokuniya book store have a copy of Yoko Saito's new Taupe Patchwork Bag book? I could really use some good long weekend reading!

The Sarah Johnson Quilt

I started a Wedding Signature Quilt ages ago, based on the Sarah Johnson Quilt.

It's a historic quilt from 1826, with the pattern created by Froncie Quinn of Hoopla Quilts.

For some reason I'm re-interested in this quilt again, and starting to get pieces together to make more blocks.

Let's see how far I get.

I also counted up how many 'in progress' quilts I have, and I think it's about 15.

What's your magic number? Is 15 a lot? It sounds to me like hardly a good start at all.

If the sock fits, wear it!

The sock fits!

Unfortunately (?) my friend Sharon will have to make it's mate. Good thing she's such a fast knitter. She will be racing the clock vs. the awesome growth path of our baby son.

Things to enjoy this beautiful Friday:

- Adorable cable sweater from Purl Bee
- Poison Green quilt from Lea at Simple Pleasures
- Incredible quilt show photos from Jan at Be* Mused

The Glass Slipper

Once upon a time, my girlfriend Sharon of Knits are for Kids knitted this sock for her son, and it was too small.

Boo...hoo...what a horrible shame that is. I wonder if it would fit on our baby son instead?

Did she give the the sock? Of course.

Does it fit our baby?

bup bup BAAAHHH.....stay tuned for the next riveting installment of this amazing tale.......

Will he fit the knitted sock, and will she be begged by her dear friend to knit up a mate for it?

I feel like there should be a fairy Godmother involved here or something.

Japanese Waffle Fabric and whoa, 400!

Can you believe this is my 400th post?

I think in dog years, that makes my blog very very old. Or at least an excellent reference and amazing wealth of information. Or maybe just a lot of keystrokes.

I am in love with the green Japanese waffle fabric that I picked up as Goodness was having a fire sale, closing their Etsy doors.

This fabric really looks super 3D, just like a waffle that would come out of your waffle iron.

If you do a search on Etsy for Japanese waffle fabric you will see more of what I'm talking about.

I will confess to having bought a very tiny bit of it in off white from CottonBlue. CottonBlue has a lot of the 'cute' Japanese fabric that is really appealing to me especially for kids quilts.

While I was hanging around Etsy, I found this adorable lamp made out of wool. If I had a little girl I would have to get it. Good thing it's all boys for me.

Cheers to the 400th post! I've come a long way, baby.

Blah blah blah

Finally, the Keep Calm quilt is finished and up on the wall.

Speaking of putting words out there, check out this pillow that has one of my all time fav sayings on it: blah blah blah.... So awesome! Were it not $100, I would have to have one.

And of course I was reading Kathie's blog, Inspired by Antique Quilts, and saw her posted link to getting a copy of Barbara Brackman's used to be out of print now available via download as an ebook Clues in the Calico. It tells you how to date antique quilts.

You know the little quilt appraiser in me has got to have this book.

Hand Quilting and Steel String Guitar Practice

After hand quilting way more than my usual amount, and having not developed calluses yet, my son asked me to play a little guitar for him.

Ouch!! Sheesh, boo boo fingers did not like those steel strings.

The wall hanging quilting is finally done and I have an awesome binding picked out. Now to have some time to just put it on there.

We had a nice weekend here. All healthy for once, that's a new one around here. Maybe the dry weather is doing us some good.

Meanwhile, I'm loving:

the fashion of Rick Owens, such cool designs....
these roses photographed by Quaint Handmade...
this kitchen (beautiful) as photographed by Lara Cameron of Kirin Notebook

Keeping Calm

The Keep Calm and Carry On quilt top is done, and I'm in process of quilting it.

I decided to use black thread to quilt it, which is a little funky, but after all it's an odd little project.

In a desperate effort to polish off the veggies that we get from our CSA, a place called Two Small Farms, my husband discovered this cool site called RecipePuppy.

Enter items in your frig, and the puppy comes up with recipes for you.

I tried snails and chocolate just to test its limits, and it didn't find anything. But, what it found for coffee and chocolate was definitely worth some thought.

And what is with this knitting site called KnittingHelp.com? Why are knitters so very cool? Where is the quilting equivalent of this site?

Continental Knitting blows my mind. I might have to invent "Continental Quilting".

Continental Quilting: Twice as fast as regular quilting with less movement of your fingers! Now...how to implement that...hmmm...

Mother's Day project: Silhouette Necklaces

Yesterday my friend Sharon, of Knits are for Kids blog, and I worked on our Mother's Day silhouette necklace project.

She turned me on to a cool web site: http://www.photojewelrymaking.com/ where we got a lot of our supplies.

Overall, the final results are ok. I would NOT recommend doing this project on a hot day, and I would also recommend that you use some kind of sealer like modge podge perhaps, on your photos. We didn't do that and some of the papers took in resin.

Anyhow, think moms and grandmothers will not notice small imperfections, they will probably just love the fact that we made them something personal.

Fabric from Singapore

In my post office box I got the most lovely package.

Mona, from Singapore, sent me the most amazing Victorian inspired fabric complete with silhouettes as part of the print!

It was such a sweet gesture and it really warmed my heart so very much.

Thanks a million Mona.

The fabric is designed by Micci for Yuwa fabric company. I am not too familiar w/ this designer, but I am off to read more about it.

I'll be working more on the silhouette project tomorrow so stay tuned for updates! My first adventure with resin.

Happy Easter!

Hope that this Easter finds your family together, happy, healthy and relaxed.

I made this bunny ages ago from Hilary's pattern, found on the beautiful and famous Wee Wonderfuls blog. Her patterns are adorable and very easy to follow.

If you don't have a copy of this bunny pattern yet, you might want to pick one up. I loved making it and I'm usually not a huge fan of stuffed dolls.

We will be hunting eggs and eating our usual Easter breakfast treat. Best wishes to you.

Inspiration

This is one of those weeks where I could just use a little inspiration.

The "Z" key broke of my beloved work laptop (from signing my initials too often at the end of my emails most likely), the baby has picked up a tummy virus, and my sweet mom left us to go back home (we tried to keep her, it didn't work!).

While my mom was here I did get some late night work done on the Keep Calm wall hanging, so should have that done quite soon.

Where are you getting your bloggy inspiration this week? Got some tips for your fav new blogs? I'm always looking to learn about more. Meanwhile, I'm clinging to:

Decaf, please

Home Spun Living

Quilt It

Quilting with the Past

Visit From Gramma

How nice is it to have my mom visiting for along weekend?

Um...how handy do you think it is to have an extra pair of hands to juggle the 3 yr old, 6 month old, and entourage of plumbers traipsing through here giving us quote on our currently leaking kitchen sink.

Talk about pulling fat out of fire...perfect timing, Mom!

As if her hands are busy enough bouncing babies and making tents w/ 3 yr olds...she is working on the above cathedral windows quilt in her spare moments. I love the indigo fabrics she's using.

In other news, "Goodness", a Japan-based online fabric shop, is closing their doors and leaving Japan. I say "Badness" to that, since it's one less beautiful source of fabric for us....(boo hoo), but "Awesomeness" to the fact they are currently hosting a liquidation sale of 40% off everything.

Quilted Undergarments

This is a photo of a quilted pantie that I designed and made.

Little did I know that I would eventually get a contract from Nordstrom to mass produce them.

They loved them so much that I've been offered a part time position on their board of fashion directors as a quilted undergarment designer.

Good thing I'm not the only one designing quilted undergarments for people who love to do quilting.

Today I also heard back on my application to be a Project Runway contestant next season, and they accepted me! I've always wanted to be on that TV show.

And for those of you still using those pesky old needles and threads to hand applique, please check out Quilt Flap's new method of using glue instead. What an excellent idea and time saving measure.

Anyhow, today's April Fool's day, and of course NONE OF THE ABOVE IS TRUE, but isn't it good craic to have some fun once in a while.

Victorian Silhouettes

I love the Victorian era, and the album quilts that came from it. You remember my old Baltimore Album...the eternal 'in progress' quilt.

In honor of that, I was thinking that adding some silhouettes of the babies to the recent baby quilts that I made as part of the label. Does that sound like a cool idea? I'll need to get a photo of my sister's baby from her, but I think it would be kinda cool.

I was also thinking of making a collection of my husband, me, and the boys to put up on the wall. Wondering if we should do them with (see above) or without the tongues sticking out...

A cool post I found on making paper version here.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Have you heard about this poster that says "Keep Calm and Carry On" and all the popularity it is achieving in this recent downturn?

I think the story is too funny, so I'm making my own version in applique for my doll quilt wall. Using the freezer paper on top method.

My friend Sharon just started a blog about knitting and has asked a very good question about why when you slip a stitch do you have to do it purl-wise, or knit-wise, and really...who cares which way? Since I'm not much of a knitter I certainly cannot help. Let her know if you have the answer over at Knits are for Kids.

I also ran into the cutest ever Etsy shop by LuckyMeBeads that sells custom made silhouette pendants. Are they not the most beautiful things you've ever seen?

Do any of you smartie pants know a good method of making photo or silhouette necklaces using resin? Oh....how I would love to try this. I'm going to start by making a silhouette of my darling husband.

And the winner is....

Hats off to all you rockin' photographers out there. Thanks for playing along and taking your before and after pictures for the photo contest!

Check out what Katie did for her before and after photos. Nice work here!

Sew Sally not only posted some very nice photos, but has an awesome pair of blue socks in progress.

Rupert Girl posted some adorable photos of her grandmother's flower garden blocks both before and after.

Patch Which posted her before pix of the cutest little camera bag ever.

Be in Red posted a before photo only so far...but her project is so pretty, go check out her blog.

Sue of Country Creatures also decided to play along with us and posted both before and after.

Diana of Dented Thimble Quilting used a beautiful blue quilt in her before and after photos.

Mari Quilts has posted before and after of her sock - so pretty! I seriously need to knit the other sock in my pair.

So out of all these awesome folks, I put your names in the hat and who won the fat quarters?

Diana of Dented Thimble and Anna of Rupert Girl!

Ok ladies - email your mailing address to me - quilt(dot)baby at hotmail (dot) com and your fat quarters will be on their way.

Oh and if you're wondering the fabric in the above photo is also designed by me and printed by Spoonflower. I'm in LOVE with Spoonflower!

Before and After photos

Looks like some of you have been busy with your cameras!

Here's my 'after' photo. No flash, no clutter, and with some cute little dishes in the corner of the photo.

The basic idea of the photo project is to get folks thinking about using a bit more natural light on their textile work.

Diana over at Dented Thimble (what a cute name for an adorable blog!) has posted both before and after photos. Go check her quilts too...so very pretty. Thanks for playing along Diana!

Have you been to visit Lucy at Attic24 yet? Her blog photos are very nice and perhaps will give you some inspiration.

I also ran into this adorable little water color artist, Angela Vandenbogaard and her sweet prints for sale on Etsy: jellybeans. I think this idea of using dots to make trees is very cool and would translate well into quilting.

Quilter/Knitter Photo Contest: Let the games begin!

Wow, I'm thrilled that so may of you want to play along with the photo contest! Let's do it!

Above is my 'before' photo (as you may have guessed).

Photo Contest Rules:

1) If you want to participate, leave me a comment.

I'll assume all those that commented on my last post are already participants, but if you haven't commented yet, please do so I can add you to my list.

2) Take a 'before' photo of either a finished project or a project that you are working on now. Your project should be something handmade (ie. quilt block...knitted item...clothing you are making...etc). Post the photo on your blog or flickr. It's the honor system, so try to restrain yourself from reading my rockin' photo guide before you snap the 'before' photo.

3) Read, follow instructions, and gain inspiration from my Blogger's Guide to Photography: your pictures will rock in 10 painless steps.

4) Take an 'after' photo and post it to your blog or flickr. I want us all to have at least a few weekend days to shoot photos, so I'll check back on your progress on Monday night Pacific Time, March 23rd, so finish your photos by then. Leave me another comment when your 'after' is posted so I can check it out!

5) If you play, you'll have a chance to win a fat quarter of the above fabric that is designed by me and produced by Spoonflower. I'll randomly choose the 2 winners out of all those that participate, so good luck!

Photo contest - interested?

I finally wrote the beginnings of the "Quilt Blogger's guide to Photography - your pictures will rock in 10 painless steps".

Before I post it up, I got to thinking that it might be fun to host a little photo contest.

In order to participate, you would take a 'before' photo of a project you're working on before you read the guide, then post the photo to your blog or to flickr.

It wouldn't even need to be of quilt blocks, but it could be of a clothing project, or a knitting project. It could be any hand made project actually.

Then, you'd need to read my 1 page guide to improve your photos, and after reading it take an 'after' photo of the same subject. Then you would need to post your 'after' photo too.

Let me know if it sounds like fun.