Happy Blogiversary to Me!

One year ago today, I decided to start my own little quilting blog: so I could comment, and join the community, and keep track of my own slow-poke projects.

It's been quite a year--I initially got back into quilting (after a six-year absence) to deal with an incredibly stressful tenure situation (which isn't resolved, but that's neither here nor there). I have found a lot of inspiration, community, and satisfaction in the online quilt-o-sphere, and what better way to celebrate that than with a giveaway of my own?

I'm going to be giving away TWO--that's right, TWO--fabulous prizes!

Number one:

I have some leftover bits from my Kona challenge classic charm pack--I have a stack of 2 1/2-inch squares that I don't have plans for, so: For this prize, I will baste those squares into 1-inch hexagons before I send them along, and you'll get a rainbow stack of hexagons ready for a project! Just like this one:


Number two:

My LQS always has some treasures that are out-of-print, and this one is no exception. For this prize, I'm offering one yard of fabric--four fat quarters of Luna II by Maywood Studios. These luscious chocolates will make a delicious little treat, or a lovely addition to your stash!




You'll get one chance to enter for each prize--I'll keep separate lists and use a random-number generator to pick the winners. To enter, comment and tell me what you'd like to do with each prize: for example, if you tell me you'd like to make a mug rug out of the hexagon prize, that counts as an entry on the hexagon list!

If you'd like to enter for both prizes, you can include your plans in a single comment. (I'm using 'plans' quite loosely, here--if your immediate plans include nothing more than petting the pretty fabric, that counts!)

I'd appreciate if y'all would spread the news of my little giveaway--or not, if you want a better chance of winning! *g*

The giveaway will close on Saturday, August 27th, at midnight CST. Please make sure you aren't a no-reply blogger, or if you are, please leave an email address where I can contact you to arrange for your prize.

A big thank-you to everyone who has made this year a good quilty one for me, and I'm looking forward to next year!

Why yes, I do enjoy starting new projects!

...although I'm trying to finish some, too?

I haven't been sewing as much as I thought I would, lately, but I am feeling the end of summer fast approaching and have missed chatting fabric, so I thought I'd stop in and share what I have been doing. Which isn't so much finishing as it is starting new projects!

At the beginning of August we traveled north to visit my brother and his family, and since I finished the piecing on the spring wallhanging, of course I needed another hand-piecing project, right? So just before we left I cut the batik fabric I'd bought (ahem, six years ago) for the autumn wallhanging, and while on the trip I pieced almost half the blocks I need!


I starched my fabric before cutting it, and I'm unsure if I like hand piecing the starched fabric. We'll see how it turns out!

I've also started hand-quilting on the spring wallhanging, but so far I don't really have enough to show you. I think my stitches are horribly large, but I'll get it figured out by the time I'm done with the quilt. And the kaleidoscope quilt didn't get finished in time for the quilt-along prizes, but I'm getting close--the rows are complete, and the top is almost together!


And last but not least--the other new project! My guild (the Rock River Modern Quilt Guild) got some charm packs of Kona solids and we're challenged to make something with it--here's how far I am right now:


I already know the name for this one, and it's going to be a mini quilt for my sewing room wall. I'm very excited, as I'm really feeling like I'm designing this one, all by myself. (I really should identify which Kona solids are which, as it would be like having a 'color card' on my wall. *g*)

This is my 50th post, and I see that my one-year blogiversary is coming up on August 22--I'll be posting a giveaway that day, so make sure you stop by to check it out! :)



The WsIP stats:
New projects: 2
Completed projects: 0
In progress: 9

Sewing Ironically

Hello, lovelies!

This week saw me at an online-teaching workshop (to help me learn how to teach online courses), and our typical schedule allowed an hour for lunch--which, in true professorial fashion, meant we would sit around talking. So naturally, I brought my sewing (I'm putting the final borders on the spring wallhanging, and oh, what a joy to sew such long seams!).

At one point another young prof said something about a thing she'd like to do in one of her classes that was a bit outside the norm and many of us laughed about it being scandalous. I did a whole 'clutching my pearls' gesture--which caused a bigger uproar when J pointed out that I did it complete with a thimble on my finger!


He backpedaled a bit, saying that I know I look like an old lady while sewing, so it's okay: I'm sewing ironically.

Which then sidetracked the whole table into a discussion of how 'old lady' crafts are making a big comeback among our generation. I got to talk about how my tattoo-artist younger brother knits his own socks--and no, I have no clue how he does it. He has a bunch of little needles and giant meaty hands, it's just amazing to watch. :)

What do y'all think? Does it ever bother you that the 'image' of the craft is solidly in 'grandma' territory? (Of course, if you are of the 'stereotypical quilter' generation, do you feel hemmed in [ahaha, punny! *groans*] by expectations?)

As for me, I feel quite proud to be carrying on this tradition, and learning how to make such beautiful things with my hands. And I can get so much done, even while chatting with friends--I kind of wished I could sew while in session, too. :) I kind of feel sorry for my students who give me weird looks when I mention that I quilt, like they don't understand the satisfaction that comes from creating something.


Here's a finished project! This little counted cross-stitch took me forever to actually complete. The fabric is ivory, and the pale pink and pale ivory half-stitches were impossible for me to see what I was doing unless I was practically in sunlight, so I stalled at several points. Ah, well, it's done now! And looks lovely on my wall.

Linking up with:

Value in Repetition

Hello, lovelies!

I figured I'd reveal my Super Secret Sewing Project once it arrived at its destination, and today I heard that the package made it safely, so: Here it is! (Click for bigger!)


These are comfort pillows for a dear friend who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She's headed in for surgery on Monday, and I hope she finds these useful and cheering! (The bone-shaped pillow is from this pattern on Connecting Threads, the bird is from this pattern by Pillow and Maxfield. The rectangular one was half-mistake, half-late-night-crazed-inspiration, and I really like the baffling baffled box pillow I ended up with. *g*)

I also attended a Rock River Modern Quilt Guild meeting this week, and had a lovely time chatting with everyone! Jeanne of Grey Cat Quilts talked about being in a 'sampler quilt mood,' as opposed to making the very same block over and over, and it got me to thinking.

Sampler quilts can be a lot of fun--I'm in the middle of my first two, right now, and it's nifty doing so many different blocks! There also seem to be lots of sampler quilt-a-longs going on in blogland right now, which is also great.

But.

I think there's a lot of value in doing the very same block over and over, too, especially for beginning quilters. (I think Jeanne's a long way from a beginner, let me be clear!)

For me, I don't think my skills particularly improve in one block, but across many--I would be far less confident with my kaleidoscope quilt if I hadn't had sixty-seven blocks of pinwheel practice with my Tweetygigs quilt. I'm finding my kaleidoscope blocks are getting better, too, and I'm only a third of the way through putting them together.

So I urge you, if you're a beginning-to-intermediate quilter, not to dismiss single-block quilts. Sometimes repetition really is the best way to learn!



(Linked with Fabric Tuesday, check out all the goodies there, too!)

Late-Night Experimenting

Hello, everyone!

Just zipping in with a quick WIP Wednesday update--it's a gorgeous day here, so I'm headed out for a long walk soon. This past week has seen me working on my Kaleidoscope quilt (which included a clean-and-oil of my little Husqvie and some musing on how she talks to me), with a break for a sewing project I can't quite show you yet. :)

Last night I finished my layout, and started sewing blocks together:


That's where the experimentation came in.

Does your machine talk to you?

Hello, sweet sewists! :)

Today saw some significant progress on my kaleidoscope quilt--I spent time getting the quarter-blocks together:


And I was considering how my machine 'talks'--it tells me when I need to clean and oil it, just from the way it sounds and how it feels when it's running.

WIP Wednesday! Now actually on Wednesday!

Ah, Wednesday! Today is the day we all recover from our long holiday weekends!

My holiday weekend consisted of fourteen hours in the car, three repetitions of Beauty and the Beast, at least six repetitions of the Beauty and the Beast original Broadway cast recording on CD, one family reunion, one long-overdue and far-too-short visit with Tracie, ten years' worth of family memories while hunting for Grandma pictures, lots of glow-necklaces and glow-sticks shared among the family, a half-hour of delightful fireworks with commentary provided by Zoe, and more brats and hamburgers than I've eaten all year.

Today, we recover!

Fortunately, long visits also mean hand-sewing time, so I've made significant progress on my hand-pieced spring wallhanging (as always, click for bigger):


I've got the center all together, and the first two borders on! Isn't it exciting?