And then what'd she say?

tj & his quilt

2011-10-20T13:35:00.002-04:00

My college roommate, Susan, and her husband Adam just had a beautiful baby boy, T.J. Before I moved to Scotland I took a trip up to Virginia to give them their baby gift.

It makes me so happy to see T.J.'s quilt being used by all members of their family:

Last week I got to "meet" T.J. via Skype - I just wish I could squeeze his cheeks in person!

Thanks for sending me the photos Suz!

adrienne's baby quilt

2011-09-19T12:06:00.002-04:00

I finished this baby quilt last month but had to wait until Adrienne had her baby shower to post it. My friend Amber gave her sister (Adrienne) this quilt as her baby gift:

I liked the combination of brown and pink - and how cute are these birds?

The backing fabric was fun too - I originally wanted to use the fabric on the front but in the end used it for the back:
I'm sure this quilt will get lots of use once the sweet baby girl arrives!

if I need a sewing machine...

2011-08-25T11:12:00.002-04:00

Look what I found at the "Pound Stretcher" - a sewing machine for 20 pounds!

I resisted the urge to buy it - I'm enjoying the break from sewing!

crafty friends

2011-08-21T21:57:00.004-04:00

I spent last Friday with my friend Beka, who is a amazing jewelry maker. Anytime I wear a pair of earrings she has given me people always ask me where I got them. As a going away gift she told me to pick out some beads and she would make me a new pair:

At first I thought I would like these, they change colors too - but after she made one I realized they were too big for me!

I opted for these pretty green beads:

And in five minutes I had a new pair of earrings:

I'm going to wear them on the plane tomorrow. Thanks Beka!

placemats for the new flat

2011-08-21T00:28:00.003-04:00

Having been inspired by fellow MQG Member, Amy and Cherry House Quilts, I decided that I would make some placemats for me and my two flatmates in Scotland. I'm pretty sure we have a dining room table in our new flat.

I wrote out my game plan:
...and got to work!
I chose grey and leaf green (after quizzing Marie & Eva on their favorite colors)-

The placemats were easy to assemble:

I can't believe I took the time to press all my seams open - a first for me!

I finished all six placemats after I moved back home to my parents - here they are on their dining room table:
The quilting was done in straight lines and I did the backing/binding in the same grey color:

I'll be able to unpack them in Scotland on Tuesday!

a baby quilt for susan & adam

2011-08-14T21:43:00.003-04:00

My college roommate, Susan and her husband Adam are expecting their first child (a boy!) next month. In the midst of packing up my apartment and getting ready to move I managed to finish their baby quilt and went up to Virginia for a quick visit.

The rest of their bedding had not arrived yet, but Susan decided to display the quilt on the crib:

Since I will not be here to meet Baby T.J. in person, we are going to Skype in September so I can meet their sweet baby boy. (at least through the computer screen)

Quilt front:

Quilt Back:
All of the fabrics were purchased at Asheville Cotton Co. They have a great selection of children fabrics - usually I think it's difficult to find fabrics to make a quilt for a boy but I had no problem finding the perfect fabrics!

a new adventure

2011-08-13T17:46:00.002-04:00

This is me last week adding the last item from my apartment into the back of a U-Haul trailer:

At the end of this month I am flying to Scotland to pursue my masters degree...without my sewing machine! My friends and family don't believe that I can survive without my Bernina and all my fabric but it's a change I'm looking forward to!

The frequency of posts to this blog will decrease, but I still have some projects to share!

I appreciate all of you who read my blog and I promise that I am not abandoning my sewing machine for good - only for a little while!

Shelley at Bele Chere

2011-07-30T21:29:00.004-04:00

My friend Shelley, wearing a handbag I made her five years ago, at Bele Chere on Friday evening.

The middle fabric (that looks like beach balls) was the fabric that I chose for my first quilt.

On stage behind her was one of my favorite bands, Floating Action!

sky bar

2011-07-28T22:43:00.003-04:00

My friend Tonya came for a visit from Florida - we had to go to the Sky Bar to watch the sunset while she was here. It just so happened we were all carrying handbags I made over the past three years:

{Me, Melissa, Tonya, Kim}

three handbags for three sisters

2011-07-27T22:58:00.004-04:00

It has been a while since I have made a blog post, but I have my laptop to blame for that - my hard drive crashed, and of course I had not backed up any of my information - but as luck would have it all my photos, music, etc. was able to be recovered.

I have now learned how to properly use my external hard drive and back up everything.

Lesson learned!

On Monday I got to visit with my friends and brought along handbags for their daughters, Frances, Laurel and Margaret.

Let the photo shoot begin:

Last time I saw the girls they told me what their favorite colors were (blue, green and pink/purple):

I think they had fun posing in their pajamas!

handbag at the GAP

2011-07-10T23:27:00.002-04:00

One of my vintage handbags (circa 2005-ish), modeled by Sarah in a dressing room at the GAP in Alabama.

will & jessica's placemats

2011-06-28T00:56:00.002-04:00

If you are looking for a new placemat pattern to try I would suggest the one on Handmade by Alissa's blog.

These placemats were a house warming gift for my friends Will & Jessica.

I will admit that these placemats took me a little longer than I anticipated...with all of the quilting and having to bind them all...but totally worth it.

baby gift

2011-06-23T23:29:00.003-04:00

A couple of weekends ago Laura and I went to my hometown thrift store looking for t-shirts and I found this dress for $3:

{super cute, but too small for me to fit into!}

I decided I would transform the dress into a baby gift for my MQG friend, Carrie:

I knew Carrie had already made a beautiful quilt for her daughter, so I made a smaller quilt that could be taken to the park:

The backing fabric is from IKEA:

We had our June MQG Meeting tonight, and Carrie brought her three-week old beautiful daughter, Delia Ruth, to the meeting - it was such a treat to meet her!

picnic on the parkway

2011-06-22T21:40:00.004-04:00

A few months ago my brother Mark, his girlfriend Laura and I went on a picnic off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I decided it was the perfect opportunity to bring along my picnic quilt...I did not even get an eye roll from Mark when I suggested bringing a quilt.

{Mark and Laura}

We had perfect weather - the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze...Laura broke out her old fashioned disposable camera.

Mark cut the cheese - har, har, har.

And plenty of La Croix Water - however you pronounce it. (I credit this beverage helping me give up soft drinks.)

first day of summer skirts

2011-06-21T21:58:00.006-04:00

Happy 1st Day of Summer!

My friend Kim and I decided to celebrate the longest day of the year with a nice dinner at The Corner Kitchen.

Kim chose three different fabrics for me to make her some new summer skirts:

{Skirt #1 - Sage Green}

{Skirt #2 - Flower Design}

{Skirt #3 - Bold Red Flowers}

I even wore the skirt I made for myself!

The pattern is Amy Butler's Barcelona Skirt, super easy and very versatile!

making of the green squares quilt

2011-06-20T22:51:00.005-04:00

Some photos of the progress on my green squares quilt:

{choosing the fabrics}

{assembling the blocks}

{making the rows}

{trying to stay organized}

{almost completed quilt top}

{finished quilt top}

This quilt is going to live at my parent's house in my brother's old bedroom. The walls are painted a cool green color and I think this quilt will fit in perfectly!

green squares quilt

2011-06-19T19:56:00.003-04:00

I finally have a finished quilt to share! I was inspired by this photo and this quilt block when I was designing the quilt pattern I wanted to try.

The fabrics in the quilt are Kona cotton - 5 shades of green, cream, and gray.

And a view of the back (I kept it simple):

Relaxing on the hammock:

And sitting on the porch listening to the French Broad River:

handbags in memphis

2011-06-03T14:03:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I went on a mini-vacation to Memphis, Tennessee to visit my friend Mary Allison and her family. Here she is with her bag (that she made from an Amy Butler pattern) on the way to the Farmer's Market (and her son's wolf ears from his school play):

I brought this bag with me, which came in handy at the airport - I'm realizing that I should probably start making smaller bags for myself so I don't carry around so much stuff - my shoulders would sure thank me!

MQG Mug Rug Swap

2011-05-19T22:52:00.003-04:00

At the March Modern Quilt Guild meeting we swapped photos & fabric to have a Mug Rug Swap. A mug rug is a version of a mini-quilt that you can use to put a cup of tea and a delicious baked good of your choice.

I drew Connie's name and she gave me this photo as my inspiration:

And here is what I came up with:

Amanda drew my name (I gave her a bag of mendocino fabrics):

Here is the mug rug Connie made for Elaine:

Amy had this photo to use for Carrie:

I love how different they all turned out:

Kate brought in two antique quilts - this one was a log cabin made from silks with lots of detailed hand embroidery:

baking on tuesday

2011-05-17T23:58:00.004-04:00

I learned how to read a recipe and love baking in my friend Anne's kitchen in 2004...we began our kitchen adventures when I was in college, and we are still having fun in the kitchen together.

We were suppsoed to get together last week to bake and catch up, but I unfortnately caught a cold/virus/crud and couldn't make it - but we finally were able to hang out today.

Anne and I share a love for the Barefoot Contessa and decided to make the Chipotle & Rosemary Roasted Nuts from her latest cookbook: (Mary Allison, is your mouth watering?)

It's really hard to not want to eat the entire pan once they come out the oven - it's best to bag them up and give them to your friends and family as soon as possible!

The next recipe we made was Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting from Joy the Baker's blog:

Cheers to Peanut Butter Frosting!

...And this recipe doesn't use eggs so no harm in licking the bowl - not that it would have stopped me anyway.

I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished cupcakes - we even topped them with peanut butter cups. I did remember to take some of the cupcakes over to my friend Rae's house tonight - they are chocolate/peanut butter fans. Rae told me it was my fault when her kids ask to have cupcakes for breakfast.

Sunday Fun

2011-05-01T22:50:00.002-04:00

My friends and I had a fun time at the Big Love Fest in Asheville:

I spotted Kirstie with a handbag I made for her a couple of years ago:

Melissa on her way to volunteer at the beer tent:

And Sarah making sure everyone knew Floating Action was about to take the stage:

bagels & sewing

2011-04-22T18:00:00.006-04:00

My friend Emily is home for a visit from England, so I took a day off of work to spend some time with her...and her mom, Diane. I have really missed our Sewing Weekends together, so we had a great time catching up!

I had to drop my Bernina off at the fabric store to get cleaned and serviced, but luckily Diane let me borrow her Bernina, which happens to be the first machine I ever sewed on.

Emily worked on some potholders to give as hostess gifts:

We had a delicious (and nutritious) dinner:
...and kept on sewing late into the night:

Friday morning, we went and got bagels and coffee (a tradition for our sewing weekends):

I even broke my "no-caffeine" rule and had some coffee: (...oh yeah and some diet cokes...oops!)

A day full of sewing requires a hearty breakfast: (the cutting mat served as a nice placemat)

Diane & Emily - I LOVE these two women!
Emily and I both worked on some placemats:

{Emily's}

{Ruth's}

Lots of progress on sewing projects, but more importantly, I got to spend some good quality time with friends.

MQG Quilt

2011-04-20T21:36:00.003-04:00

The Asheville Modern Quilt Guild made this quilt for the fundraiser I organized at work to benefit our Youth Scholarship Fund:

A very special thanks to Amanda, Amy A., Carrie, Connie & Kate for all making blocks to contribute to the quilt.
We all included one strip of the same fabric so that all of the blocks had something in common.

There were a lot of people who wanted this quilt, and it helped to raise almost $2,000 for the scholarship fund. The winner was a sweet woman named Nicki, who was on vacation with her mom and beautiful infant daughter. It was meant to be that Nicki won the quilt!

To finish the quilt, I sewed the 12" squares together, sashed the quilt in white, and did straight line quilting. I used a variety of scrap fabrics for the binding.

the weekend

2011-04-17T21:42:00.003-04:00

I had a nice relaxing weekend that included:

Hanging out on a quilt at the Earth Day Fest:

Grilling out with friends:

Going to a spa party at Mindy's:

{Katie & Sarah showing off their handbags}

And working on my new quilt:

sewing retreat

2011-04-12T22:36:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday, the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild got together for a little sewing retreat.

We all brought our projects:
And made lots of progress:

new fabric

2011-03-25T17:56:00.001-04:00

Fabric Delivery for me!

The bottom four fabrics are all being turned into handbags - and the other three I bought just for fun!

progress on raffle quilt

2011-03-22T19:21:00.003-04:00

Last Thursday, at the Modern Quilt Guild Meeting, I collected all of the blocks for the raffle quilt:

Today I sewed the quilt top together:

Finished quilt top (measure 56" x 56"):

I bought the backing fabric today and realized I did not have any batting - I hope to have this quilt finished up by next week!

{ modern } relief - japan

2011-03-19T22:16:00.004-04:00

{ modern } relief - japan a photo by { House } of A La Mode on Flickr.

The tsunami and earthquake that devastated Japan hit very close to home for me - my extended family lives in Japan, and just two weeks ago my grandmother flew over to Japan to spend two months with her sister. Thankfully, they are all OK.

{with my grandmother in Japan - 2009}

{family reunion - Tokyo}

At this point in my life, I know that the monetary donation I made to the relief efforts in Japan does not make a huge difference, but I know every bit helps, so I encourage you to Donate to the Red Cross.

As an extra enticement to quilt lovers, these two blogs are giving people a chance to win a beautiful quilt:

Oh Fransson! Giveaway

Tallgrass Prairie Studio Giveaway

I am taking part in the { modern } relief - Japan fundraiser and decided to donate this quilt - it is one of my favorites - and I hope it will raise some funds!

At this point, the timeline for this fundraiser is still in the works, but the goal is to have it up and running by May 1st. I will keep you posted when I have more information. If you have a quilt you can donate to the cause I encourage you to sign up!

Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers.

st. patrick's day

2011-03-19T10:49:00.002-04:00

On St. Patrick's Day, we had our March Modern Quilt Guild meeting - everyone brought their string quilt blocks...look how pretty they are together:

My friend, Kassandra, loved her new potholders:

Later that evening she texted me a picture of them hanging up in her kitchen:

american+irish soda bread + a little sewing

2011-03-16T22:38:00.003-04:00

In honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I made this American-Irish Soda Bread recipe from the King Arthur Baking Blog:

The link has step-by-step instructions & pictures- I thought my two loaves turned out pretty well!

I also got to work on a few small sewing projects:

A coffee cozy surprise for a sweet friend:

And two potholders that my friend Kassandra asked me to make for her:

finished blocks

2011-03-14T23:03:00.001-04:00

Here are my three completed blocks for the raffle quilt:

Can't wait to see everyone's blocks on Thursday at the MQG meeting!

baby quilt for oliver

2011-03-03T23:26:00.003-05:00

I was deleting some photos off of my computer and I found a few quilts that I had not shared on my blog!

This is a baby quilt I made for my friend Allison who just had a sweet baby boy named Oliver:

I sketched out a simple design on some graph paper and thought I would use this soft flannel I found on fabric.com.

The backing gives you a better idea of the fabric - I love all the houses and the pops of color:

(sorry these pictures are not the best!)

MQG Quilt Instructions

2011-03-02T22:35:00.007-05:00

This post is for my fellow Modern Quilt Guild members - we are making a string quilt for the fundraiser I am organizing at work.

Below is my attempt of showing you how I made a string quilt block. There are several great string quilt tutorials you can also check out:

Tutorial by Film in the Fridge (Note: I use a square of fabric, not paper for my blocks!)

Tutorial by The Sometimes Crafter (Note: Again, I use fabric and not paper)

Tutorial by Sewtakeahike (Note: Paper vs. fabric again)

Here we go (and let me know if you have any questions!):

Start with your square of white fabric:

Take a strip of fabric and line is up with the line drawn in the middle:
*Cut your strips between 1" - 2" wide, and remember to use the one fabric I gave you with the squares - it does not have to be the first strip you sew onto the square!

Close-up of fabric strip lined up:

Sew using a 1/4" seam allowance:

Fabric strip sewn onto the white square:

Iron:
Line up your next fabric strip and sew:

Press again: (see how the strips begin to build on one another)

Start doing the same method to the other side of your white square:

Continue sewing strips of fabric on until you reach the end and have covered your entire square:
Like this:
A view of the back of your square:

Using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut the excess fabric away from the square:

Here's the finished square:
Thanks again to those awesome women helping me make this quilt for the fundraiser! I can collect all the blocks at our March Meeting!

birthdays

2011-03-02T21:01:00.003-05:00

My sweet friend Emily's birthday was on March 1st - she just moved to Birmingham, England with her boyfriend, Brian. To make sure her birthday gifts got to her on time, I mailed them in mid-February, and they ended up getting to her early! One of the gifts was this handbag:

Emily e-mailed me this picture, on her birthday trip to Oxford:

This weekend I am celebrating my friend Mary's birthday - she requested that I make this cinnamon fudge (I also added cayenne pepper to give it a kick!):

Finally, I baked these Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting for my co-worker Erik's birthday:
He'll never know there were supposed to be 12 cupcakes instead of 11!

*Update: There were only 9 cupcakes left when he received his birthday gift - my co-workers snagged some!

in progress: raffle quilt

2011-02-23T23:52:00.002-05:00

The February Asheville Modern Quilt Guild meeting is tomorrow night and I realized that I did not have anything for "show and tell."

I had this quilt on my to-do list as a donation to a fundraiser we are holding at work:

Speed-piecing:
Completed quilt top: (2" sashing and 3" borders)

Ready to baste:

Ready to be quilted and to take along to the meeting tomorrow:

hipsters know their food blogs

2011-02-17T22:25:00.003-05:00

Check out these hipsters:

Just kidding. They aren't hipsters - this is my brother Mark and his awesome girlfriend, Laura. They opened my eyes to the best food website ever called foodgawker. You should check it out because you will love it too!

Now just make sure you invite me over for dinner the next time you make that homemade naan bread!

rae's new handbag

2011-02-14T21:54:00.002-05:00

I bought this fabric from IKEA to make a new handbag for my friend Rae:

When I gave Rae her new handbag this morning, she immediately switched everything out of her other handbag to this one...I think she likes it!

For the inside flap, I used this fun fabric (also purchased at IKEA), and added a pocket for Rae's iPhone on the front of her purse:

two new handbags.

2011-02-13T20:26:00.005-05:00

Remember this fabric that Sarah picked out:

Here she is sporting her new handbag:

This weekend I also decided to make myself a new handbag...I took this fabric that I bought in Japan (which was being used as wall art above my futon):

And turned it into this:

The handbag pattern is from Amy Karol's book, Bend The Rules Sewing.

Now I just have to find something to fill the big white space on my wall.

Oscar's Quilt

2011-02-09T23:01:00.003-05:00

In record time, here's the completed baby quilt I've been working on for the past week:

The "Modern Baby Quilt" pattern is by Oh Frannson! The pattern version does not have borders, but I knew I wanted the quilt larger than the pattern called for, so I made more squares and added the three borders.

I quilted using straight lines - and was happy with the way the quilt crinkled after washing:

The backing fabric is the same as one of the borders on the front - it incorporated all of the colors from the quilt top:

Oscar's grandmother, Mary, picked up the quilt today and loved it - it is for his 2nd birthday:

A baby quilt for Jessica

2011-02-07T21:54:00.003-05:00

Here is the finished baby quilt for my friend Jessica:

I cut a 30" square out of the main fabric and added a 3" border, making the quilt 36 X 36 inches. A special thanks to Michelle for helping me figure out a quick baby quilt pattern!

The quilting was done in a wiggle stitch, and even with hand sewing the binding on, I was finished in no time. I doubled up the batting on the inside so it would be extra lofty.

Here's Jessica (at 8 months) with her husband Greg showing off their quilt.

more fabric = more projects

2011-02-03T22:45:00.002-05:00

I wanted to share the fabric I just bought (on sale!) for a quick baby quilt that I will be giving a co-worker leaving for her maternity leave this coming Monday.

(Top fabric = main fabric; blue dots = border; stripes = binding; and the last fabric will be the backing)

I also need to make a quilt for the upcoming fundraiser at work (that will be the first of April) and I saw this fabric - which looks like pieced log cabin blocks - how cool is that?

I plan on cutting out the individual squares, adding a colorful border and sashing the quilt in black.

new winter handbags

2011-02-02T23:05:00.002-05:00

Here's a sneak peek at my next sewing project(s), new winter handbags for my friends Rae & Sarah...and one for myself.

I went to the Charlotte IKEA this past Sunday and discovered that they now let you cut your own fabric in 1/4 yd. increments! Crazy! I have to say visiting the fabric department in IKEA made me really miss my friend Emily - we would always begin our marathon sewing weekends by meeting up at IKEA & buying fabric. It did not seem the same without her there.

Rae's new handbag will be made out of these fabrics:

We share an office, and I was pretty sure of the style/shape she wanted...but I did ask her just in case she added something new to her wish list. I chose this fabric for her because of the canvas-like feel and the fact that it will look good with both black & brown clothing.

Onto Sarah's new handbag:

Sarah was actually with me on my IKEA shopping trip and chose these fabrics herself. I am really loving the dark grey house fabric for the inside - hopefully I will have some leftover fabric to use on another project.

And finally here is what I chose for my new handbag - it's not very wintery, but it will be great for springtime! And since the groundhog did not see his shadow today, it looks like Spring is on its way sooner than expected!

I purchased the fabric at the Asheville Cotton Co. when I was supposed to be choosing fabrics for the baby quilt project. I tried to resist buying this fabric but my will power was just not strong enough.

onto the binding!

2011-02-02T23:02:00.002-05:00

It is time for the binding! My Tuesday deadline is fast approaching and I am planning on hand sewing the binding on Sunday while catching up on some episodes of Mad Men. That will give me just enough time to wash & dry the quilt and send it on its way.

more progress...

2011-02-01T22:07:00.002-05:00

I've made more progress on the baby quilt:

All of the quilting is almost complete:

And then it is onto the binding!

new quilt project

2011-01-25T17:36:00.002-05:00

Pattern here.

susan & patrick's quilt

2011-01-18T21:29:00.003-05:00

My friend Sarah's parents, Susan and Patrick, commissioned a quilt several months ago, and I finally completed it and gave it to them over the weekend. Sarah's mom, Susan, picked out all of the fabrics that were used in the quilt top and decided on the "red onion" quilt pattern. She even sent me photos of the room in her beautiful Alabama home where the quilt would be used. I really enjoy when my friends and family get involved in the making of their quilt - I appreciate their input and it's fun for me to see them get excited!

The fabrics I used for the border were purchased at the Asheville Cotton Co. I'm glad I chose the burgundy fabric for the inner border and binding to add a pop of color.
The backing fabric is a Tina Givens "Treetop Fancy" fabric, purchased from fabric.com. I just realized that I photographed the back upside down!

A special thanks to my friends, Kim and Carriedelle (green boots), who stood outside on this cold, snowy day and patiently held up my quilts while I photographed them!

a quilt from other quilts

2011-01-12T17:24:00.005-05:00

A few years ago I started making this quilt. It was basically just some improv and trying to incorporate some of my favorite fabrics that I only had tiny bits of in my fabric stash.

Then I started working on other projects and just set it aside....for a loooooong time.

I know it was a long time because I found this picture (taken two years ago)...and there had not been any progress made on the quilt top.

But check it out - I finally finished the quilt - and I'm keeping this one for me!

The quilt has incorporated all the "leftovers" from several other quilts that I have made. My favorite part is the word fabric (from IKEA) that I used around the borders.

I sent the quilt off to be quilted - and just picked it up this past Sunday.

For the binding, I had stretched a piece of Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room fabric as wall art in my apartment and I just took it off my wall, took the staples out and cut it up. And what do you know it was the perfect amount of fabric for the binding!

The back of the quilt are fabrics that I had on hand and needed to use.

I'm looking forward to taking this quilt off of my bed and using my new one!

cutting the cake

2011-01-09T18:02:00.003-05:00

The coconut cake I made for Christmas was a success - here I am making the first cut. My mom thought we should document it.

It turned out that coconut cake is my grandfather's favorite so he was the most excited out of everyone. It was cold enough to store the cake on the back porch (instead of taking up room in the fridge) - and there were no leftovers to take back home.

a tiny sewing break

2011-01-09T17:53:00.002-05:00

I was on the phone with my parents last night and my dad commented that I had not updated my blog lately...I thought that was funny (and nice) that he noticed.

To confess, I haven't touched my sewing machine since before Christmas - crazy!

I did bake a birthday cake for my friends' New Years Eve party...Rae's husband, Jarrod, had requested a peanut butter cake. The frosting recipe came from here.

Here's Jarrod making his wish and blowing out the candles:
I also made some chocolate peanut-butter cupcakes to go along with the cake.

I just picked up three quilts that I had quilted, so I'm about to start posting a lot more in the near future. And with 6-9 inches of snow in store for tonight and tomorrow, it looks like I will have lots of time to reintroduce myself to my Bernina.

coconut cake night

2010-12-22T21:39:00.003-05:00

Baking cakes from scratch is an ordeal (at least for me) - but I wanted to bring a nice dessert with me to Christmas and thought a coconut cake was just the thing to bake. This is actually the second time I have made this cake. The first time was with my friend Anne in her amazing kitchen, so the true test was to see if I could get the same results in my tiny kitchen.

I gathered all of my ingredients - I already had the cake flour from a previous recipe that only called for a cup of cake flour - I was happy to get to use the rest of the box!

Step 1: Making the Cakes

1-2-3-4 Cake (from the Swans Down Flour Website)

Ingredients

-1 cup butter (2 sticks)

-2 cups sugar

-3 cups sifted cake flour

-3 teaspoons baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-4 eggs

-1 cup milk

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

Cream butter. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk and flavorings, beating after each addition until smooth. Baking: Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.

Look at those buttered and floured pans - no cake is sticking in those pans!

Step 2: Making the Glaze (Recipe from Anne)

Ingredients

-1 1/2 c coconut milk

-1/2 c flaked, sweetened coconut (out of 14 oz bag--save remainder for top and sides of cake)

-3/4 c sugar

Cook in small saucepan on medium approx. 10 minutes, take care not to burn.

Poke holes in cake and spoon filling over layers.

Step 3: Making the Frosting

7-Minute Frosting (Recipe from Paula Deen on Food Network website)

Ingredients

-1 1/2 cups sugar

-1/4 t. cream of tartar

-1/8 t. salt

-2 egg whites

-1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Place all ingredients (except for vanilla) in a double boiler. Beat with electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water and beat for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Remove from heat.

Ta-Da Frosting! (It was super easy, and interesting to see how the consistency changes so fast!)

Step 4: Layering those cakes up!

At this point I am patting myself on the back for remembering to put parchment paper around the bottom of the cakes to catch the drips.

I'm not sure about the best way to get the flaked coconut on the sides - I sort of lightly pressed and tossed the coconut on the sides.

I heard that coconut cakes gets better after it sits for a couple of days - so by Christmas this cake will be ready to go - but I doubt I will wait that long to try it out.

I thought about trying Alton Brown's recipe here, which involves breaking open a coconut - and I chickened out. But if you can catch that episode of Good Eats - it will make you want to try it out! Check out the videos here and here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

a different potholder

2010-12-14T19:03:00.004-05:00

I should really stop talking about potholders. But I have one more post about them and then I will talk about something else.

Over the Thanksgiving Break, I saw my grandma using this potholder:

As you can see, it has gotten LOTS of use...

I took the measurements, traced out the pattern and decided for Christmas I would make my grandma a couple more of these so maybe she could retire this one. No offense roosters, but you've seen better days.

Here's my first attempt, and I give it a thumbs down - mainly for the binding - I have never attempted curved binding and this was a disaster. I asked a few friends and found out that using bias binding would yield better results.

Today I saw that Spool Sewing posted this tutorial for a very similar potholder. And as a bonus, there was no curved binding!

Here's one I made as a cercy for my friend Sarah:

I also made a pair of potholders for my friend Jaime's birthday...her kitchen has brown cabinets and hints of orange so I thought these would coordinate well.
And now I'm heading to her birthday party - hope she likes them!

leftovers

2010-12-13T22:56:00.003-05:00

On Sunday & Monday I went through two baskets of scraps and came up with these:

...that's 25 potholders, made entirely from leftover fabric scraps.

Here are a few of them:

If you want to make some of your own, you can find the tutorial here.

Happy Birthday Grandma Ruth!

2010-11-30T21:48:00.004-05:00

We celebrate my grandmother's birthday over Thanksgiving each year. Last year we celebrated Grandma Ruth's 80th birthday and threw a big party...you can check out that post here.

This year we had a delicious carrot cake and Grandma Ruth had some help blowing out her candles.

She also loved the potholders I made her!

mendocino spiderweb quilt

2010-11-24T21:02:00.003-05:00

I finally completed my spiderweb quilt! I started this quilt this past summer with my friends Emily, Sally, Sarah and Mary Allison, who all made blocks for this quilt. A very special thank you to my friends who helped me complete this quilt!

Most of the fabric in this quilt is from Heather Ross' Mendocino Fabric line.

To finish this quilt I basted it using double batting and made diagonal quilting lines.

For the backing and binding, I used leftover fabric.

This quilt is the perfect size couch quilt and has already gotten plenty of use!

pincushion swap

2010-11-18T01:08:00.002-05:00

For the November meeting of the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild we had a Pincushion Swap. Each person provided the fabric and we drew names. It was neat to see how different all the pincushions turned out!

Here are some of the finished products:

{By Carrie - For Amanda}

{By Me - For Carrie}

{By Amy - For Amy}

{By Amy - For Me}

{Back View of my new pincushion}

new mittens

2010-11-14T18:44:00.007-05:00

One of my favorite things is bartering with people. This past summer my friend Jenni e-mailed me. She was headed out West and wanted me to make her a handbag that was large enough to hold her camera, a book and her knitting needles. In return, she was going to knit me something fabulous.

We e-mailed back and forth until we chose a great Amy Butler Fabric and I came up with this handbag:

Jenni e-mailed me these photos while she was on her trip:

I asked Jenni if she could make me a pair of green mittens and last week I received these in the mail:
She used this beautiful merino green yarn that was hand-dyed in Germany.
The weather is just getting cool enough to wear my new mittens. Thank you so much Jenni!

A new level of cuteness

2010-11-10T23:26:00.002-05:00

Amber and Jack's baby, Darcy, enjoying his new quilt!

friends. handbags. beer cozies.

2010-11-09T22:35:00.004-05:00

{Tonya}

Visiting us from Florida and modeling her new handbag.

{Kim}

With last year's birthday present - wonder what you'll

get for your birthday next week???

{Enjoying a pint}

Don't forget the beer cozy.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2010

2010-11-01T21:36:00.003-04:00

For the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival I wanted to share the New Wave Quilt I just completed for my friends Jenny and Jan:

The quilt pattern is by Oh Frannson! and I used sixteen different purple batik fabrics that I purchased at the Asheville Cotton Company.
A few months ago, I used this quilt pattern to make a baby quilt. I will say that making this pattern in a queen size quilt was an entirely different experience. Since I did not have enough floor space to lay out the fabrics, I had to make sure I was very organized and kept track of the order of my fabrics. (Somehow I managed to not mess up the order and there was no seam ripping involved.)
There was no way I was going to attempt quilting this quilt myself. The quilting was expertly done by Angie of 5 Little Monkeys Quilting. I chose a pattern called "Bubbles Everywhere" in a veragated thread.
I backed this quilt with Kaffe Fassett's Antique Lotus Leaf fabric.
A special thanks to my brother for hand delivering the quilt for me and to Jan for commissioning me to make this quilt for Jenny!

dish towels & napkins

2010-10-24T19:21:00.002-04:00

I found a great deal on white dish towels and wanted to add a little something to them, using fabric from Robert Kaufman's Metro Cafe line. These dish towels were mailed to England for my friend Emily.

And here are two towels I gave to my next door neighbor:
I recently went to a wedding of a college friend and decided to make some cloth napkins as the wedding gift. All of the napkins have the green and white flower print on one side, and I alternated different fabrics from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane fabric line.
The napkins were an easy and functional gift to make.

at the party

2010-10-13T21:50:00.001-04:00

I spotted some of my handmade items at Sarah's Party...

Jaime's Handbag:

Kim's Green Skirt:

Carol's Handbag:

birthday cupcakes

2010-10-13T21:25:00.004-04:00

October is my friend Sarah's birthday month, and we have been having a great time celebrating so far. This past Sunday we had a birthday celebration for her at the Sante Wine Bar.

I made three different kinds of cupcakes and they turned out really well - trust me...I taste tested all three and then had another one at the party.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache:

Raspberry Almond Cupcakes with a Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

and finally...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes:

If anyone is looking for some good cupcake recipes I would highly recommend these!

Happy Birthday Sarah...I am looking forward to celebrating the rest of October!

Helen's Summer-Fall Handbag

2010-10-03T19:40:00.002-04:00

I spent the weekend in Charleston, South Carolina visiting my best friend Helen. On Saturday morning we went downtown to the Farmers Market where we had some amazing crepes for breakfast and shopped around.

Helen happened to be carrying her handbag I made her for the summer/fall - I figured living at the beach she could get away with carrying a white handbag in the fall - and who listens to that rule about when to wear white anyway?

The tomatoes were so pretty - they made me want to make a B.L.T.

The handbag pattern is from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing. The fabric I used came from IKEA...it is a decorator fabric weight and super sturdy.

Baby Quilt Commission

2010-09-30T22:36:00.003-04:00

My friend Claudia commissioned a baby quilt for one of her close friends who recently had a baby girl.

Claudia wanted me to use Amy Butler fabrics, so I found these fabric squares on eBay and sashed them in white fabric.

The quilting was done in straight lines using white thread to blend in with the sashing.

The binding is made from a few different Amy Butler fabrics that I had leftover from other sewing projects.

The baby quilt took me 3.5 hours from start to finish to complete.

The backing fabric is made out of the same fabric as her friend's diaper bag, which I made using this pattern.

quilt prep

2010-09-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

I got my Spiderweb quilt basted together today!

I had some "extra-loft" quilt batting that I doubled over - which is going to make this quilt extra thick.
I keep all of my safety pins in an old cigar box - they always get jumbled up and I stick myself numerous times with the pins during the entire basting process. No pain no gain.

I plan on quilting using gray thread (to match the solid fabric), echoing the lines in the quilt. Sort of like this quilter did here.

Stay tuned...I hope to have this quilt finished up soon!

march of dimes baby quilt

2010-09-21T19:58:00.003-04:00

My friend Kim asked me to make a baby quilt for the upcoming Silent Auction to benefit the March of Dimes.

I bought the fabric at IKEA, cut out 6" squares and sashed them in white.

The Benefit is this coming Thursday - I finished it up just in time!

two fall handbags

2010-09-16T20:58:00.002-04:00

I wanted to share the two fall handbags I made for my friends Rae and Sarah.

I love the Japanese fabric line Echino by Etsuko Furuya...and I knew that my friends would love the bird fabrics I chose for their bags.

The handbag pattern is from the book Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol.

{Rae}

{Sarah}

amber's baby quilt

2010-09-08T22:07:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday I went to my friend Amber's baby shower. She is eight months pregnant and her friends that planned the shower made sure that we all celebrated in style. We had brunch at this great restaurant, FIG, and Sarah made delicious carrot cake cupcakes for dessert.

Check out the lime green cupcake stand - I snagged that at a yard sale for $1!

I have been working on this baby quilt for a while now, and this quilt has been the subject of a couple of my blog posts found here and here. (If you are interested in seeing the progress of the quilt.)

(Amber totally knows she is getting a baby quilt, but she did a good job acting surprised!)

"Whatever could this be?" She says.

(Don't mind the woman behind Amber smoking the cigarette.)

I love the moment when a quilt is passed on to one of my friends - it's hard to describe without sounding super cheesy, but it just makes me happy.

The inspiration for this quilt came from Cluck Cluck Sew's Chain Reaction Quilt.

The quilt is larger than a normal baby quilt, which I hope will mean many years of use!

Handbags at LAAFF

2010-09-05T22:37:00.002-04:00

This Sunday was the Lexington Avenue Arts & Fun Festival (LAAFF) in downtown Asheville.

While walking around, I spotted two lovely ladies that were carrying handbags I made:

Liz:

Lara:

So much fun to run into them and to see them carrying their bags!

a new handbag for melissa

2010-09-02T21:30:00.002-04:00

Tonight I surprised my friend Melissa with a new fall handbag - we went to see our friend's comedy show and when I looked over, Melissa was sitting in her seat still wearing her handbag - I'm glad she liked it that much!

Her old handbag I made for her a while ago, (that is also in the picture) needed to be retired! I will try and take some better pictures of it the next time I see her!

Baking instead of sewing

2010-08-30T22:04:00.004-04:00

Looking for some yummy recipes to try? Here are some of the recipes I have road tested (and loved) from a variety of food blogs:

Vegan Pumpkin Bread from Joy the Baker (my brother's favorite)

Fresh Mango Bread from Joy the Baker

Perfect Blueberry Muffins from Smitten Kitchen (these are baking in my oven right now!)

Carrot Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting from Eat Make Read

Challah! Bread from King Arthur Flour

Red Velvet Cake Balls from Bakerella

Apple Turnovers from the Barefoot Contessa

Fresh Peach Crisp from Tammy's Recipes

Morning Glory Muffins from Eat Me Delicious

Oatmeal Toasting & Sandwich Bread from King Arthur Flour

Ultimate Ginger Cookies from the Barefoot Contessa

For anyone who likes to bake bread you should check out the following links:

Baking Banter - they have great pictures and step-by-step instructions

Wild Yeast

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Pinch My Salt

Cookingbread.com

Enjoy and happy baking!

whew! the spiderweb quilt top is finished.

2010-08-26T20:48:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of July I received the majority of my spiderweb quilt blocks from my friends. I ended up making 20 more squares to make the quilt the size I wanted. Finishing this quilt top has been on my to-do list for most of the summer. I kept putting other projects ahead, but tonight I decided it was time to finish this one up!

For anyone who is thinking about making a spiderweb quilt, I will say that I found these blocks VERY time consuming. Which is ok for some people, but when I have five other quilt projects going on at the same time, it got pretty annoying.

The tutorial for these blocks can be found here. The final size for each block is supposed to be 8.5" square. I noticed that some of the blocks were slightly smaller than this, so I was a little worried about how the piecing of this quilt would go with some of the blocks being different sizes.

I had 48 blocks total and I made my quilt top 6 x 8 squares. Luckily, this quilt top was small enough to lay out on the floor of my living/sewing room.

For as much time as each individual block took to sew together, I sewed this quilt top together in record time. There was not a lot of pinning required with these blocks, which makes it easy to zip through your sewing machine. The different sized blocks did not cause me too much trouble either!

TA-DA! Here it is...my finished spiderweb quilt top. Measuring 64 x 48 inches, this quilt will be great for the couch.
I will take better pictures soon...the floor does not give me the best angle for getting a shot of the entire quilt.

Now to design the back of this quilt...

fun mail day

2010-08-23T22:17:00.002-04:00

I love getting fabric in the mail!

I do not have specific projects for all of these fabrics yet, but they were too awesome not to pass up!

modern quilt guild-august

2010-08-22T22:14:00.004-04:00

For the August Meeting of the Modern Quilt Guild we had our potholder swap.

Connie drew my name and came up with this:

The quilt block pattern was called "Broken Dishes" and she chose the backing fabric to look like the textured paper I had on my inspiration card.
I drew Amy's name and came up with this potholder:
And a shot of the back:
Amanda created Carrie's potholder:
Amy drew Connie: (She used the tutorial from Oh Fransson!) This is the back:
And the front:
And finally, Carrie created Amanda's potholder:

Here they are all lined up:
I love my potholder and it goes great with my green mixer!

mommy june at the quilt show

2010-08-19T17:00:00.001-04:00

My grandmother at the Asheville Quilt Show:

asheville quilt show

2010-08-18T21:06:00.003-04:00

The Asheville Quilt Show was held the first weekend in August. This year I entered two of my quilts, Sarah's 30th Birthday Quilt and my Collaborative Quilt.

My Aunt Karen and my grandmother drove up from Columbia, SC to see the show on Friday. My grandmother, "Mommy June," is one of the people who inspired me to try out quilting, not to mention my Aunt Karen was one of the people who purchased my very first sewing machine and gave it to me for Christmas when I was in college.

Saturday morning, my friend Helen and I went to the show. (Helen is checking out the back of my quilt.)

Sarah's quilt was so long, it had to be folded over so it would not drag on the floor.

Here's my quilt that was in the "Group Quilt" Category:

On Sunday, my other grandmother, grandfather and their friends, Ina and Ted, drove down from Brevard, NC to the quilt show. We had a picnic at the Arboretum and then walked around the show for a while.
Grandma Ruth (Can you guess who I was named after?), is also an artist, I grew up seeing all of her beautiful paintings...I'm lucky to have two grandmothers with artistic talent!

The judges gave me some good feedback (they liked the variety and amount of fabrics I used) and said that both of the quilts could "benefit from more quilting" - which isn't likely to happen considering my friend Sarah said I can not borrow her quilt again because she missed it too much, and I've got five more quilt projects stacked up that need my attention!

the liverpool dress

2010-08-13T15:47:00.004-04:00

My friend Rae and I started Amy Butler's Liverpool Dress pattern on Wednesday night. I get extremely confused trying to read clothing patterns and Rae is really good at it, so we made a great team! (from my standpoint anyway!)

I was surprised that once we got the pattern pieces cut out and started going through the steps it actually made sense!
Rae's husband, Jarrod, fixed us whole wheat waffles and sausage for dinner and at one point when we were getting tired, he made us some yummy drinks:
I found a pair of pajama pants on sale for $5 at Target that I'm using as the trim on my dress.
That night we accomplished cutting out the pattern, sewing in all of the darts and making/attaching the collar.
I'm looking forward to sewing night #2...I have never attempted buttonholes or many of the other skills required to make this dress, but it's been fun so far!

leo & elliott's quilts

2010-08-07T22:56:00.006-04:00

Two years ago, I made an "I Spy" baby quilt for Sarah's nephew, Leo. I made this quilt when Sarah and I were roommates, and she actually helped me cut out some of the squares for the quilt.

Today, Leo is two years old and LOVES his Aunt "Say-Say."

Three months ago, Will and Jessica, had their second child, Elliott, and have just moved to Asheville. Of course I had to make sure Elliott had his own quilt, and Friday night I got to give it to him. (Leo helped with the wrapping paper of course!)

So far so good...
I think Baby Elliott is happy with his new quilt.

I used elephant fabric (E for Elliott, E for Elephant, you catch my drift?) and added an orange border (for the Auburn Tigers, Sarah & her brother Will's alma mater) and sashed the quilt in white.
When I was choosing fabric for this quilt I found the backing fabric first, and bought the elephant fabric to match - I was able to back the quilt with just one yard of fabric. The binding is a cobalt blue solid.

I hope that they can use this quilt the next time they head out to the park for a visit to Splashville...Elliott can enjoy lounging on his new quilt in the shade while Leo plays in the water with his Mom, Dad or Aunt Say-Say.

the mermaid quilts

2010-08-01T22:31:00.011-04:00

I am so excited to share the two mermaid quilts I just completed. This weekend my brother and I went to Atlanta to visit our friends, whose daughters I made these quilts for. I really wanted to be there when Helen (age 12) and Lucy (age 9) opened up their presents - as much as I enjoy sending mail, these quilts needed to be hand delivered!

The majority of both quilts are made from Heather Ross' Mendocino fabric line.

Lucy's quilt is a Modified Bento Box pattern. A tutorial of how to make these blocks can be found here at the Film in the Fridge blog.

I made nine bento box blocks and then did simple squares and wide borders to make the quilt larger.
The back is pieced with leftover fabrics- the yellow is a seahorse fabric (you can't really see the pattern in the photos).
I sent both quilts off to be quilted - and used the loopy pattern that I used on my Summer Patchwork quilt.
Helen's quilt is a string quilt. This quilt used mostly orange, brown, turquoise, yellow and white fabrics.
I am glad I put the small white border around the string blocks before adding the patchwork borders.
The back of this quilt is one of my favorites!

My brother snapped some photos of the girls opening their quilts. (They are a little blurry, it's hard to get shots when we were tearing wrapping paper and unfolding quilts.)

The best part was when Helen said "Oh, I can't wait to put this quilt on my bed!"

summer patchwork quilt

2010-07-28T00:19:00.006-04:00

I find it harder to motivate and finish a quilt that I am making for myself, but since this is my summer patchwork quilt, I figured I better hurry up before summer is over!

I found the inspiration for this quilt from two quilters: Ashley at Film in the Fridge and Carrie at Postcards From the Selvage.

Carrie is one of the co-founders of the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild and she e-mailed me the directions for piecing this quilt together...which saved me a ton of time - thank you again Carrie!

I pieced this huge quilt together in a few hours - because of the large blocks of solid fabric, there is not too much piecing involved. By sewing together long strips of each fabric and then cutting them into the patchwork squares the quilt top was finished in no time.

I sent my quilt off to be quilted, and I chose a loopy pattern that turned out nicely once I washed and dried the quilt.

For the binding, I cut strips of multiple fabrics - I found that trying to use one fabric took the focus to the binding instead of the quilt itself.

I incorporated some of my favorite fabrics into this quilt - a great way to hang onto some of them, even if it is just a few small squares.

The written numbers fabric is from IKEA, and now I wish I had used that fabric for the entire backing instead of piecing with multiple fabrics down the middle. I also wish I had bought a few more yards of the fabric before it was all gone. I still have a little bit of the fabric left that I think I will use as the inside of a handbag.

My friend Diane is appalled that I make quilts yet prefer to sleep under a duvet. ("And it's a boring green duvet too." - this is a direct quote.) I hope she will be happy to know that I am putting this quilt at the foot of my bed, so at least it will give the illusion of being used. And once it gets below 100 degrees outside, I may even put it on top of my duvet and use it!

summer sewing weekend - in pictures

2010-07-25T18:53:00.007-04:00

I just got back from my Summer Sewing Weekend with my friends, Emily and Diane. Sadly, this may be the last sewing weekend we will have together for a while since Emily is moving to England in September.

Here is a look at the projects we worked on:

I gave Emily a binding lesson - her completed project is here.

I finished quilting Amber's Banana Pudding Quilt:

Diane finished up her stacked coins quilt:

"Everything Tote" Tutorial: (From Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross)

Emily's Hourglass Blocks ready to be sewn:

I made ten more spiderweb blocks for my quilt - geezzz these things take forever to put together - I can not believe I asked my friends to make me eight blocks each.

Zig-Zag Quilting Progress for Emily:

I made a skirt sample for my friend Kim - I had to get a refresher course on darts and zippers from Diane!
I finished quilting Merri's wedding gift - more on this quilt later!

Pajama Pants & Shorts (another project from Weekend Sewing):

And if the weekend could not get any better, I had a package waiting on me from fabric.com - they had a huge sale last week and I ended up purchasing 2o yards of fabric - but when it is only $2.50 a yard and you have a coupon for an additional 20% off...how can you resist? (Check out the sale here.)

dis-cards

2010-07-22T01:02:00.003-04:00

One of the first modern quilting books I purchased was Denyse Schmidt's Quilts. This book has some great sewing projects (for all skill levels) and inspired me to make these two quilts.

I needed to make some creative thank-you notes, and remembered the "dis-card" project from the book.
The directions are really simple, and you can get creative with your fabric scraps and come up with your own designs.

I found some blank stationery I purchased from A.C. Moore and came up with these:

All of the fabric used came from one small scrap bag that happened to be within arms length of my sewing machine and I used variegated thread for the top stitching.

I made fifteen dis-cards in all and finished them in under an hour! (Chain-piecing them will save you lots of time!)

If you make these, remember to change your needle after sewing on paper, it will dull the point and cause some issues the next time you work on another project.

scenes from our quilt party.

2010-07-20T17:35:00.005-04:00

Here are some more pictures from the quilt block party we had a few weeks ago. Sarah wrote a great post here about the evening.

The evening started out with gin & tonics and delicious homemade pizzas...

The pizza dough recipe can be found here...it's super easy to make!

Sarah wrapped up all of our blocks in fabric - and we also had signature blocks that we signed and will eventually add to our completed quilts.

Wren joined in on the swapping:

Mary Allison's huge blocks are based on Denyse Schmidt's Hop, Skip, & a Jump quilt. She told me she has already put her quilt together and is hand sewing it together using embroidery thread.

Here is Emily with her Hour-Glass Blocks - based on a quilt by Red Pepper Quilts:

My spiderweb quilt blocks - I have 15 blocks left to make:

Sarah and McCool showing off her log cabins blocks made from thrifted clothing:

What a fun evening we had together in the mountains. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's completed quilts!

mountain modern in july

2010-07-15T22:04:00.003-04:00

Tonight was the July Meeting of the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild.

We all made inspiration cards for a Potholder Swap that will take place at the August Meeting.

Here's how they turned out:

I brought three fabric scraps and then used the supplies at the meeting to come up with this:
And here's the back: (I feel like my green KitchenAid Mixer was inspiring me.)

Here's Amanda drawing her number to see who she will make a potholder for:

I drew Amy's inspiration card:

Her kitchen is brick red and black and the photo in the right hand corner is of a stain glass window that hangs in her kitchen.

I'm interested to see how they will all turn out!

w.i.p. quilts

2010-07-14T21:56:00.002-04:00

The title of this post is dedicated to my brother, who I know immediately rolled his eyes at my use of an abbreviation.

I have four "Work In Progress" quilts at the moment.

Yes, four!

As of this evening, they all have binding sewn onto them.

The trick now is to find the time to sit down and hand sew the binding onto the back of each of these quilts.

...which happens to be my least favorite part of the quilting process. Truth be told, hand sewing the binding has taught me patience and I am slowly learning to enjoy it.

If you are looking for some great binding tutorials I would recommend checking out these video tutorials as well as this tutorial.

If I have unfinished projects laying around my apartment for too long it drives me crazy- so I'm going to try and finish these up before the beginning of next week.

Looks like I will be making some time this weekend to sit down with a needle and thread, put my headphones on, and catch up on some podcasts.

a few potholders.

2010-07-13T00:00:00.002-04:00

At the upcomimg July meeting of the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild we are going to be doing a Potholder Swap - I'm looking forward to seeing whose name I draw!

I've started using my leftover scraps from quilts to make potholders:

I never really have a plan when I start - I just grab fabrics out of a bag and see what happens.

I use my friend Diane's potholder tutorial found here.

There is also a great tutorial here by Oh Fransson!

If you are looking for a quick and easy gift to make - or to use up some of your fabric scraps - potholders are the way to go! Who doesn't love a functional piece of art?

Once you start making them - it's hard to stop!

Sneak Peek

2010-07-11T00:46:00.006-04:00

This past Monday was the big reveal for all of our collaborative quilt blocks. I am going to wait and post on the evening when I get some of the pictures my friends took, but I wanted to share this picture of all of us with our blocks:

Sally, Mary Allison, Me, Emily, Sarah

I have fifteen more spiderweb blocks to make and then I will be able to put together my quilt top, which will look something like this.

christmas in july quilts

2010-07-08T21:31:00.004-04:00

I wanted to share the two quilts I made for my uncle - he is giving them to his sisters this coming Christmas!

The first quilt I made in the Modified Bento Box Pattern - instructions on how to make this quilt can be found here.

I purchased most of these fabrics at Hancock Fabrics - on sale for 75% off since it was right after the holidays!
This quilt reminds me of wrapped presents.

I realized that these quilts were much too large for one person to hold up on their own - but I did my best!
The backing was made from a dark red Christmas Light fabric.

The 2nd quilt I made from the "Trip Around the World" pattern.

These fabrics were purchased at the Asheville Cotton Company - they have a nice selection of holiday fabrics at their store!
And here is the Christmas Light fabric again - this time in lime green. The strips were leftover squares from the quilt top that I incorporated into both quilts.

Now my uncle just has to decide who gets which quilt! But he does have over five months to make that decision.

my collaborative quilt.

2010-06-22T20:03:00.002-04:00

Now that I have completed everyone else's quilt blocks I had the chance to make one of my quilt blocks. I asked my friends to make me spiderweb blocks like this:

I e-mailed this picture to my brillant co-worker and friend, Rae, and she duplicated it to give me a sneak preview of what my quilt will eventually look like:

I like the result - and it's almost time to put the real thing together!

quilt blocks are finished!

2010-06-17T22:26:00.002-04:00

Dear Emily, Sally, Sarah and Mary Allison,

I just finished all of your quilt blocks for our Collaborative Quilting Project! I am so excited to get together with you ladies next month...and just think, we will all have enough blocks for full sized quilts! See you in July!

Love,

Ruth

Sarah's Quilt Blocks (Log-Cabin Style made out of recycled clothing)

Post on Sally and M.A.'s blocks can be found here.

finished: spiderweb mini-quilt

2010-06-15T23:23:00.002-04:00

I just finished my spiderweb mini-quilt this past week - you can see my first post about this quilt here.

I enjoyed how fast this quilt came together. I did basic quilting lines that followed the spiderweb shape and the binding was done in several Amy Butler Love polka dot fabrics.

I may sew a few tabs on the back and find a nice place in my apartment to hang this quilt - it does have some of my favorite fabrics in it!

the bubble up quilt

2010-06-10T23:26:00.011-04:00

Meet my friends Nancy and Hilson - I've known Nancy for a few years now...she serves on the board of directors where I work, and once we started sitting beside each other at meetings we became great friends. Aside from being just an all around fun person, Nancy always has great tips on restaurants, recipes, travel - you name it and Nancy has an answer - and if not she can research it and get you an answer!

"Bubblin' Up"

But this blog post is actually more centered around the gentleman sitting to the right, Hilson...who I just finished a quilt for and got to wrap it up and give it to him today! Hilson is a big fan of quilts, and when he found out that I was a quilter he asked me if I could make him one.

For the quilt I did not have any guidelines - full creative license! I did go to their house to get some color ideas and tried to ask enough questions to get an idea of what type of quilt Hilson would be interested in having.

I chose these fabrics that I purchased at the Asheville Cotton Co. When I picked out the fabrics I had an entirely different quilt design in my head. I had originally wanted to make this Nine-Patch Lattice Quilt.

I made a TON of nine-patch blocks: (I believe I made close to 40 of them...I'm not sure, I lost count!)

And then when I laid all the blocks out, I absolutely hated it - it was way too blendy and did not look anything like what I wanted it to. (yikes!)

I went back to the drawing board and decided to just experiment with the blocks I had already made and come up with a quilt design on my own. I started out by cutting up the nine-patch blocks and adding some borders: (that looked ok...)

Here's another block that I made using the batik fabric as the center:

I decided to make larger blocks made up of one fabric and then find a way to make the sashing more intricate: (I finally started to make some progress!)

Here are the photos of the finished quilt: (thank you Kim for always helping me photograph my quilts!)

I did not even notice the cross-like pattern that the sashing creates until I looked at these pictures on my camera. Working with the quilt, I always seemed to focus my eye on the larger blocks, but from a distance the sashing really stands on its own!

I did mostly straight line quilting and used variegated thread in a wiggle stitch around the batik squares to give them a little more texture.

I showed my dad the quilt and he said that it was a very "avant-garde looking" - which immediately made me think about "Project Runway" - they seem to use that term on the show quite a bit.

The back of the quilt is a little crazy - I had to find a way to use up my nine-patch blocks - and I was happy with the result.

Hilson has all kinds of sayings and one of my favorites is "bubblin' up." When he gets together with his friends to drink a little champagne Hilson will say "Come on, let's go bubble up!" I thought that this would be the perfect name for his quilt.

Bubblin' Up at Never Blue

Here we are having a little quilt viewing at dusk in downtown Hendersonville:

In the end, I think it was fitting that I ended up creating a quilt that was unique and one-of-a-kind...just like Hilson.

the new wave baby quilt

2010-06-09T22:11:00.005-04:00

My mom asked me to make a baby quilt for one of her friends. They do not know if they are having a boy or a girl so I had to make this quilt as gender neutral as possible!

I started with 9 fat quarters that I had in my fabric stash (that were given to me by my aunts). The fabrics are "Frolic" by Sandy Gervais for Moda).

I think the fabrics are slightly more girly, but I could maybe see this working for a boy too - still, let's hope they have a girl!

I used the "New Wave" Quilt Pattern by Oh Frannson! that you can find here. I purchased the "expanded pattern" so I could have the option to make this quilt in a variety of sizes.

Here are my pattern pieces laid out on my rug, which also serves as my design wall for most of my quilt projects. (I just realized this photo is slightly blurry...oops.)

Here is my finished quilt:
For the quilting I did some echo quilting to mimic the design.

The finished quilt size (after washing) is 39 x 32 inches.

This quilt took me 5 hours to complete from start to finish - piece of cake!

I found some pretty green tree fabric for the backing (I'm not used to being able to use one solid piece of fabric as a backing!) and striped fabric (from the same fabric line) for the binding.

Can't wait to put this quilt in the mail and check it off of my to-do list!