ALYOF: The purple "N" pillow

I tried to make this month's ALYOF goal a lot harder than it needed to be. My plan was to make a pillow for a good friend with Northwestern's "N" on it (we both went to school there). I intended to piece the pillow front, figuring that with a few well-placed HSTs, I'd be set.

Not so much.
Even though I looked at that logo for 4 years of college and umpteen times (especially every Saturday in fall, when I put my shirt on for the football game!) in the 15 years since, apparently I'd never examined it with a quilter's eye.
Not so easy to piece.
So I took the easy route--applique!
And finished the pillow (which has been on my mental to-do list since August) in about two hours, mainly because of all of the straight line quilting.

(badly lit phone photo because my good camera and
my computer were not on speaking terms tonight!)

Hoping I can find a few other fellow Northwestern alums who would like one, as this pillow was fun to make!
Linking up with ALYOF at Sew BitterSweet Designs.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry: Ocean Waves

My second entry for the Fall 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival is another quilt I designed myself, 

Ocean Waves. 

I pieced this quilt entirely with turquoises from my stash. (Yep, clearly I like turquoise!). In direct contrast to that, I had to buy 6 different grays to round out my gray stash for those 4 blocks. I have plenty of gray, too, but gray is such a tricky color! 

After I designed this quilt, I submitted it to Modern Patchwork magazine. It was accepted (yay!) and then I asked my friend Diane Oakes to quilt it. She did, in record time, and I sent it off to the magazine. 

Quilting close-up:

You can really see the quilting motif on the back, too:

More recently, this quilt also hung in the modern row of our guild's show,
Quilts Kalamazoo. 

Quilt stats: 

Size: 56" x 66"

Designed and pieced by: me

Quilted by: Diane Oakes

See more about my two quilts featured in Modern Patchwork here.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry: My Gwen Marston quilt

I was recently a part of our guild's bi-annual quilt show, Quilts Kalamazoo. I had four quilts hanging in the show, including this one, which I called "Look through My Window." It's the quilt I started in a a Gwen Marston liberated medallion workshop in April 2014. This is currently my favorite quilt that I've made, and I'm entering this quilt in the Fall 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Here it is hanging at the show:

And here's a closer look. I'm embarrassed to admit there isn't a picture of me standing with any of my quilts in the show. I'm blaming that on the fact that I was in charge of taking photos of all 250+ quilts in the show for a commemorative CD, and by the time I finished that, I was DONE taking pictures. 

Flashback pic: Here is my medallion in progress (with Gwen!)--I came to the workshop with the center done out of made fabric and the first brown windowpane border. I added the next four borders during the workshop.

A close-up of the center, quilted.

A close-up of the rest of the quilting. 

Quilt Stats:

Size: 46" square

Designed, pieced and machine quilted by: Me!

As I said above, this is my current favorite quilt. I love the techniques used to make it (thanks, Gwen!), I love the color palette, and I'm proud of the quilting I did on it. Now that the quilt show is over, the next step is to hang it on the wall in our family room. Can't wait!

October ALYOF: A Pillow Birthday Gift

I have two (secret) quilted birthday gifts on my to-do list and I'm making one of them my October goal for  A Lovely Year of Finishes, the super-effective monthly motivator hosted by Sew BitterSweet Designs and Fiber of All Sorts.

Right now the project consists of yardage of these two fabrics:

And an idea in my head. 
Here's to transforming that idea into reality! 

And, since the only photo in this post is fairly boring, let me up the cuteness factor with a picture of my newest sewing assistant:

Pretty sure I'm going to think he's a little less cute when he trips over that ruler and breaks it in half...

September ALYOF Goal: A whole lotta quilting!

I finished my September goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes, hosted by Sew BitterSweet Designs and Fiber of All Sorts--quilting my liberated medallion quilt started at Gwen Marston's workshop last year--with 3 hours to spare. 

So pretty much right on schedule for me! 

I had almost as much fun quilting this as piecing it. I did a different motif in each border/section of the quilt, and because I was working in borders, it all seemed manageable (well, that and the quilt's smallish size--48" square!). Much of my motif inspiration came from  my go-to free motion quilting resource: Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters. Love that book! 

Here's the center:

And a few of the borders:

And the outer border:

And a look at the texture of the quilt:

This quilt (and three others) are hanging in the Quilts Kalamazoo show in nine days. Which means I'll be carving out some time the next few days to bind this quilt and add hanging sleeves to all four quilts. It's totally acceptable to attach hanging sleeves with safety pins, rather than stitching, right?! 

Pellon Flex-Foam blog hop!

Pellon has just launched a fusible version of their Flex Foam. They asked me if I was interested in trying it out, and let me tell you--the timing was perfect--I knew just what I wanted to make! 

My third son just turned one. Which means I've had a lot of years of diapers and lugging around a diaper bag. Whenever I can, I'd rather just grab a few supplies (diaper, wipes, changing pad) and bring them along instead of an entire bag. I threw my last changing pad out when the fabric separated from the padding and the padding balled up inside--so frustrating! When I heard about fusible Flex-Foam, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it!

This Grab-n-Go Changing Pad folds up to hold a diaper and a travel case of wipes, and then unfolds to be used. Compact. Cushioned. Easy. I like it! 

Click here to find the tutorial for the Grab-n-Go Changing Pad.

The Flex-Foam adhered to the fabric so smoothly--not wrinkles, no pulling. And it stayed adhered! It's such a nice layer of cushiony softness! 

I can't wait to make something else with it. (And I have something in mind...which I will share as a tutorial...as soon as I find time to make it!)

Here's a little bit more information about the Flex-Foam, and then at the bottom of this post are a few additional photos of my project, links to the rest of the Flex-Foam blog hop, and details about a giveaway so you can try Flex-Foam yourself!

Pellon® Flex-Foam™ is a lightweight stabilizer consisting of a layer of foam sandwiched between two layers of soft fabric. It is excellent for use in crafts, accessories, and home décor projects for an elegant finished look. It can be used in place of or in addition to other stabilizers. Flex-Foam is a breeze to sew through and adds shape and body to projects such as computer cases, eyeglass cases, purses, tote bags, cup holders, diaper bags, and more! It is compatible with a wide variety of fabrics. It is available as a sew-in, a 1-sided fusible or a 2-sided fusible. Available 20” on the board and 60” on the roll*. 

*60” roll isn’t as readily available as the board at the moment, but that should change soon!

See the various Flex-Foam products here:

FF77 Flex-Foam™ Sew-In 

FF78F1 Flex-Foam™ 1-Sided Fusible 

FF79F2 Flex-Foam™ 2-Sided Fusible 

Here is the changing pad unfolded. I used a few prints from Kanvas' Safari Playground collection. I love these fabrics because they're a nice mix of cutesy and more mod. (After three babies, I'm sometimes done with cutesy!). I chose this (dark colored...don't need to explain that choice!) animal word print for the changing pad surface--something cute for my son.

And the outside is this neat circle print--something that doesn't scream "baby" for when I'm carrying it around. (I can almost pretend it's a clutch, right?!)

For the giveaway:
Comment here for a chance to win a yard each of each variety of Flex Foam:  sew-in, 1-sided fusible, and 2-sided fusible.  Leave a comment letting me know what you'd make with Flex-Foam. One random winner will be chosen (US & Canadian residents only). The giveaway is open through Sunday, September 20th at 11:59 pm EST. Please make sure I have a way to contact you!

Make sure to check out the other stops on this blog hop! 

9/8 – Swoon Sewing Patterns

9/9 – Mommy’s Nap Time

9/10 – Cut to Pieces

9/11 – My Crafty Crap

9/13 – Pellon

9/14 – Baby Rozen Design

9/15 – Sew Sweetness

9/16 –  Love to Color My World

9/17 – Anjeanette Klinder 

9/18 – Pellon

September ALYOF Goal

My September ALYOF goal is to quilt this quilt. Beyond the personal satisfaction of meeting my month goal, there's another deadline attached--I entered it in our guild's local show--Quilt Kalamazoo--which is October 9 and 10. So assuming I make this goal, I will then have at least one week to bind it and add a sleeve!

Time to get started...!