Sewing Summit!! (part two)

The second day of Sewing Summit came earlier and faster than I was prepared for!  I was already wiped out from the previous day, but I had a full day of fun ahead of me!

After breakfast, my mum's and my first class was the Appliqué Tea Towel class with Amy Redden.



This was a fun little class!  It was nice to finish the project entirely in class and not add to my ever expanding list of unfinished projects.



I chose to do a little fox face!  If I were to do this again, I would definitely give him solid colored eyes... but I love his little nose!

Our next class was a Metal Frame Pouch with Elena Roscoe.  This was another fun class!



We finished our pouches during class time, too!  It's a pretty easy pouch, but the results are great!



Our third class was an Embroidered Pocket Hoop with the darling Amanda Woodruff.



I didn't get very far on mine... I still need to finish the running stitches around my color wheel blocks and put it all together, but you kind of get the idea?



Once it's all done, I'll have a little pocket for my rotary cutter and other things!

Our last class of the day was a Photography Lecture by Melissa Esplin.  It was very informative!  Maybe I'll be able to improve my photos!

The closing dinner that night was bittersweet.  It was a lot of fun, but it was sad that it marked the end of Sewing Summit.  Our keynote speaker was Heather Bailey.  It was a lot of fun to listen to her speak and share her story of how she got to where she is.  It was definitely the highlight of the evening.

After dinner, the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild put on a mixer at a nearby gastropub.  Mum and I popped in for just a bit, since we were both so exhausted and had to drive home that night.



We were glad we stopped by when we received this swag!

I forgot to mention that Friday night, during open sew, Amanda, who owns Westwood Acres, staged a pop up shop in one of the sewing rooms!  Of course, I couldn't leave empty handed...



This is Tula Pink's new Acacia!  I fell in love with the colors immediately and I had to bring it home!

Well, that ends Sewing Summit 2013... I have lots of plans and ideas to make next year's event even better and I'm already excited for it!

Currently Listening to: Convergence by Thirty Seconds to Mars

Sewing Summit!! (part one)

Sewing Summit was this past weekend and it was so much fun!!  I had such a great time, I came home exhausted, but already thinking about Sewing Summit 2014!  This is an event that I will definitely go to again.  It was worth every penny and I am so excited about all the things that I learned and all the people I met!

First, there was the shop hop Thursday morning.  I chose not to ride the bus, because two of the shops that the bus stopped at are really close to my house and I thought I would come home to eat lunch and let the girls out after visiting those shops.  I still came home with a good stack of fabric and some free goodies!



Everything on the stack to the left was free!  Gotta love free stuff!  Even though I visit those shops regularly, I seem to always find something that I can't live without!

That night we had an opening mixer, which I failed to take photos at... and then mum and I stayed up late in the sewing rooms working on some pillow tops, which we still have yet to finish!

We woke up bright and early Friday morning, had breakfast and went to our first class!



A lecture on fabric design by Pat Bravo!  It was a really fun and inspiring lecture.  I super enjoyed it.  She even gave us fat eighths of her fabric!  (I didn't take two, mom gave me hers!)

Our next class was the Fold Over Zipper Clutch with Alessandra Guiterrez!



It was a fun class, but neither of us actually got the clutch done during the class time.  We both finished during open sew that night, though.



I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  It was really easy to make and I'll probably make more in the future.

Our third class that day was English Paper Piecing with Kaye Prince.  This class was a blast and could have been my favorite class at Sewing Summit!



I didn't get very far in class, but I worked on it a bit when I was home and lounging on Sunday.  This is the beginnings of a halloween pillow top!

Our last class of the day was the half square triangle quilt top with Amy Smart.  My mom picked this class out and she was thrilled when she laid out the blocks to the first quilt top that she's ever made!  I only got as far as finishing the blocks...



I'm hoping to finish this quilt top some time this year... I just have so much going on right now!

After dinner, mum and I went straight back to the sewing rooms and worked until about 11.  It was a great day!

I'll post about the rest of Sewing Summit tomorrow!

Currently Listening to: Back to Back by Wolf Gang

Recents >>

It has been a rough Monday for me, but I'm trying to be cheery as an evening spring storm approaches. It's been one of those days that nothing seems to go correctly, but there have been a lot of good things lately.

I have recently discovered the joy of audiobooks from the library.  I have started by checking out the audiobooks for some of my favorite books.  Since I feel like I hardly have any time to read, I am at least very glad I can listen.



On Friday my mom and I made a trek to Logan specifically to visit My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe, which is one of our favorite quilt shops, but it is two hours away from me!  On the way there, we ate lunch at The Crepery, which was delicious. On our way home we stopped at the Blue Bird for some chocolates for our husbands and drinks for us.  I had the freshest cream soda I've ever had.  It was incredible! Here are a couple iPhone photos of our adventures:











Of course, we purchased fabric at the shop...



On the left is the Lullaby Baby collection by Jean Kelly for Anthology Fabrics.  On the right is a mix of Urban Mod, Indian Summer, and other bits that I randomly gathered.

I have been so thrilled about the nest and mama bird in our tree!  I went out there the other day to check on them and I found mama bird missing.  I took the opportunity to have Jake lift me up so that I could see inside.  I was expecting eggs, but I was surprised with baby birds!  I snapped a couple of pictures with my phone and then we ran away before mama bird could come back.  (We then found her hunting for worms in our backyard!)



Also, I have started this cross stitch and I'm in love with it!



More recents >>
loving > cross stitching
sewing > lap size Houndstooth quilt
fabric lusting > Norwegian Woods
reading > this article on Passion Pit's Michael Angelakos
drinking > double chocolate chip frappuccinos
eating > ribeye and corn on the cob
current temperature > 67°

Currently Listening to: Easy to Love by The Jezabels

The Fabric Obsession

Well, hello Friends!

Check out this lovely stack of fabric that I have recently acquired!

On the bottom is the pebble print from Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew line that I fell in love with when I sewed together Lillian + Oliver 3.  The one on top of that is Lizzy House's Outfoxed and Jeanean Morrison's In My Room, both of which are for the Triangle baby quilt that I'm working on.  Then there is V&Co's Simply Color and then a range of white on whites and some other green fabrics that my mother purchased for an upcoming class...

My mom and I are taking a class at Pine Needles to make this pillow!!  She wants two pillows for her couch, so she purchased all the fabric and I agreed to help!

The fabric at the very top of that pile is a fat quarter of Honey Honey, that I decided that I couldn't live without!

Our class is on May 10th and I already have the fabric cut, pressed, and ready to go!

I am so excited to finish up the little Triangle quilt and get started on the other quilts that need to be done by June!

I hope you all have a great day, my friends!

Currently Listening to: Is There Any Love by Kid Cudi, Wale

Recents

I ordered some great new fabric last week and I was so, so happy when it arrived!



The top fabric is Rock n' Romance by Pat Bravo, followed by Urban Mod by Art Gallery in both color ways, a yard of the Architextures crosshatch in peach, and four more Architextures prints.  The solid is Kona Iron, which I think is my favorite!

I feel like it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated on my quilting stats.  Sadly, I haven't finished a single quilt.  The Fireworks quilt is ready to be basted just as soon as I have batting.  The Pow Wow quilt is still in need of a backing, but the Rock n' Romance print that I just got is for the binding!  So, I now have two quilts in need of being finished up, but I am about to start another quilt.  I just knew I was going to get piled up!  Oh well, I'll get through it.  Maybe April will be a month of finishing?

Yesterday was a super good day.  Mom came over early and spent the entire day with me.  We sewed all morning and we did some shopping in the afternoon, followed by more sewing!  I was helping her with a baby quilt, which I'll share more about tomorrow!

Also, my mom and I are up to something super awesome and fun! I can't wait to share it!

Currently Listening to: Cudi Zone by Kid Cudi

Recents

Surprisingly, I purchased some fabric this past week!

I went to Pine Needles with my mom on Saturday and I saw this amazing minky.



Since it was a bit pricey and I did not have my coupon on me, I went back and purchased it yesterday!  I don't have a quilt in mind for it, but I'll be using it as the backing to some future baby quilt... it is just too adorable and I couldn't pass it up!



These fat quarters also made their way home with me!



The top and bottom fat quarters are Les Amis and I unfortunately don't know the one in the middle... that one was sort of "grab now, ask questions later"...

I have still been working on the Fireworks quilt, but the progress has been a bit slower.  It's hard for me to stay focused when I know the blocks are such a huge time commitment.  I will show my progress on it tomorrow, though.

I did start the Fresh Mini Quilt for March, but I also finished it last week!  So, that means that I'm still only at two current works in progress!  That's happy.

Well, I hope I'm able to make some real progress on that Fireworks quilt this week.  I would love to have that hanging over the back of my couch by the middle of April!

Currently Listening to: Fluorescent Adolescent by The Arctic Monkeys

I Can't Believe it's Tuesday

The weekend and already this week is just flying by.  Yesterday was so busy that I forgot to post! Oh well...

Today is a fun day! It's my anniversary!  Two years ago, I married my best friend.  We have been so happy!

This afternoon and evening Jake has all sorts of fun things planned!  I think I'm most looking forward to the fancy dinner, though!

Anyways, last week I (surprisingly) didn't buy any fabric again!  Maybe I'm better at not impulse buying than I thought... BUT some fabric did fall into my possession.  And no, I didn't steal it!

I've mentioned before that I'm helping my mom with a couple of quilts.  Well, she has a way of convincing me to cut her fabric for her... She's sneaky like that.  So, all her lovely fabric came home with me!

She is making this quilt as a charity quilt for Relay for Life and she decided to make it using Sweetwater's Noteworthy line!



She picked these prints for the quilt top, backing, and binding.  I think it's going to look really great!

She also picked out the sashing, binding, and backing for the Lillian + Oliver quilt she wants to make.



This is also Noteworthy and Kona White.  Here is a picture with the fabric bundle she purchased for the top:



And all that lovely fabric came home with me!  The best part is that I get to keep the scraps!  There's nothing better!

Anyways, I'm still working on my Fireworks quilt and while I haven't started anything new... I did join the Fresh Mini Quilt club put on by Megan!!  I've been thinking of the fabrics I want to use for this month's mini, but I haven't pulled anything just yet.  I am excited to start it though!

Anyways, we've got lots going on today!

Currently Listening to: I've Got Your Number by Passion Pit

Quilting Stats

Over the weekend I was thinking, and I thought it would be fun to have a post a week that sort of reviews my quilting statistics from week to week.  This is a time to be honest with myself in how many projects I start versus how many I finish and answer the question of "how much fabric did I buy last week?"  I feel like it's all part of keepin' it real. So, these stats are for the last week.

Quilts started: One - the Pow Wow quilt and here is the progress of it.  I didn't get much sewn last weekend due to so many family activities, but most of the fabric is cut.  You can't see all of it in this photo.  Also, this is 13 finished blocks out of the 99 that I need...



Quilts finished: One - Baby Zig
Fabric purchased: Most of the fabric that I purchased was for a specific project.  I always feel so much more justified when I can show my husband exactly what the fabric is for.  So, I bought all of this:

• 4.5 yards of Lizzy House Constellations in natural
• 4 yards of Lizzy House Constellations in black
• 1 yard of Lizzy House Constellations Supernova in purple
• 1/2 yard of Lizzy House Pearl bracelets 
• 1/2 yard of Aneela Hoey's Posy
• a fat quarter of Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater
• 1/2 yard each Timber and Leaf by Sarah Watts prints of the playful fox, fox portrait, and the gerbera in blue.
• 1/2 yard Carnaby Street by Pat Bravo

So, yeah... a lot of fabric.  The Pearl Bracelets, Posy, and Mama Said Sew are all for my future Valentines quilt that I sort of introduced here.  The Constellations fabric is all to make a Fireworks quilt from start to finish.  I had purchased a half yard bundle of the entire line for my birthday.  

The rest of the fabric that I purchased... well, I just couldn't live without it, I guess...

Quilts Planned: Four - Fireworks, Lap of Luxe, Modern Plus Quilt, and this one that I'm helping my mom with
Other projects started: None
Other projects finished: None

Beginning of the year to date quilts started: Three
Beginning of the year to date quilts finished: Four

So, these stats make it look like I'm on top of everything and like I only have one project going at a time.  But let's just remember that I finished all my 2012 projects before I started anything new and, it is only February... I feel like I have plenty of time to derail and I want to know when it's happening!  I have a feeling that it's going to happen soon, seeing as I do not have backing for the Pow Wow quilt, but I have everything for the quilt tops for the next two planned quilts...

Also, another reason this may look so together is that I really dislike having a bunch of little pieces around. This seems potentially hazardous to me:



So, it's sort of a commitment that when I cut it, I'm going to sew it together fairly quickly.  Once the cut pieces are sewn together, I'm suddenly not in such a hurry anymore...

Currently Listening to: Ready to Go by Guards

Fabric Mail Day!!

Why can't every day be as great as today?  I got a big box (technically it was a Priority Mail medium box) in the mail today and it was full of fabric!  Oh joy of joys!!

Before I get into the heart of my treasures, I feel like I should preface this post.  I love Jay McCarroll.  His fabric is some of my most favorite fabric ever. I discovered him when Habitat was fading out of stores.  I was able to get my hands on two prints (technically the same print, in different colorways), but that was it.  Last week Fabricworm sent me an email about Jay McCarroll's newest collection, Center City.  I immediately looked it up, fell in love, and decided that it had to be mine.  Then later that week Fabricworm sent me another email in the which they stated that they had restocked Habitat, but this was the last of it.  Oh, and not only did they restock it, they put it on sale.  That pushed me over the edge and I sorta... went crazy.

So, without further ado, here are my spoils!



This is Center City, the Midtown colorway.



This is the Downtown colorway.



This is the Uptown colorway and it is my favorite! I LOVE that gold in there.  What can I say, I'm an uptown girl... :]



Here is what I bought of Habitat.  I refrained from buying... well, everything.

Then I bought some random-ish fabrics that are not Jay McCarroll related.



This is Eye Drops by Tula Pink.  This was restocked and I missed this one the first go-round.



This is Where's My 'Stash by Nicole's Prints for Alexander Henry.  This was also restocked.  I cannot explain why/how I missed this the first time it was released.  This is a fantastic print!!



This is a new collection by Sarah Watts called Cushion and Dust.  I particularly like the birdcages.  This fabric will morph into drawstring bags soon. (did anyone else see Jeni's post about the sale?!)

And, since I was at it, I threw in a scrap pack.  Best. Decision. Ever.  It was like opening a surprise!  Have you ever ordered a scrap pack?  I just love everything they sent me!





 I could not be more excited to cut into these!!

I hope y'all are having as good of a day as I am!!

xoxMegan

Currently Listening to: Feel it in Your Hear by Abandon

Mail Day!

YAY for getting fabric in the mail!! It's the most exciting day!!

I got fabric for THREE quilts!

These are the fabrics for the quilt for my biological father.  He's not really a person that would enjoy prints.  Here I have Kona Bone and Kona Steel.  (I have enough Kona Bone for my surprise fourth quilt too!)

These jelly rolls are Spa by Deb Strain.  This is for a quilt for my adoptive dad.  The whole collection is made up of blues.  It's going to be so soothing and nice!

And FINALLY! The backing for my sister's quilt!! This is Nightshade by Tula Pink!  I am so in love with this fabric!!

I am so thrilled that my fabrics have arrived!  I can't quite decide what I want to do first!

I hope you're having an excellent day, too!

xoxMegan

Currently Listening to: Missing by the xx