I Did It! It's Finished!! Sparkle Punch Improv

 Last January (January 2012), I started Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch Quilt-A-Long thinking it would be the perfect gift for my daughter's 9th birthday. I finally finished it for her 10th birthday this year.

This WIP became a fixture on my entryway wall for over a year. Everyone who came by for a visit during the past year could watch my slow process of putting this baby together. It was all worth it, I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I know it will be a gift Charlotte cherishes for years to come.

Look At This ADORABLE Puppy Pouch!

How cute is this guy? I used the brand new Straight Stitch Society "Feed The Animals Coin Purse" pattern and I absolutely love it. AND I actually put in a zipper, something I've been avoiding for a while and it wasn't even that hard (in fact, I'm thinking I'll make the other two animals soon).

The pattern totally walked me through my anxiety about tackling a zipper (can you see the part where is says to take a deep breath and get out your zipper??), which really cracked me up and made the process a lot more fun.

Let's see... I also recently made my new Mail Sack purse out of some lovely Melody Miller Fabric I've been coveting for a while. I really stressed for a while on what to pair with these awesome typewriters...

then I found the bright and amazing floral pattern by Phillip Jacobs - perfect! Bright and fun, just what I need for summer (hopefully it gets here soon).

Here's my awesome bag in action. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this pattern? (PS I made P's shirt too... an ode to the car he currently loves and loves to take apart—I don't get it but it's fun to make custom t-shirts as gifts).

And speaking of making shirts, here's my last project to share. My ba-BLING Sis Boom Dana Top made out of ba-BLING Dear Stella fabric. It's peacock feathers with gold lamme sprinkled in. I know it sounds crazy, but I think it's lovely and just the right amount of ba-BLING! I finished it up on Mother's Day right before Quilt Market (it was supposed to be for Quilt Market but I was so excited about the ba-BLING that I wore it for Mother's Day too).

Cheers!! Thanks for stopping by.

Charlotte Made An Adorable Apron

I'm so proud of my 8 year old (almost 9) daughter Charlotte. Here she is posing with an apron she made (mostly) by herself. We used the new Riley Blake Verona Apron Panel, which I highly recommend for beginners or sewing with kids. It was quick, easy and a lot of fun. Plus look how darling it turned out. You could easily add your own embellishments to really make it your own masterpiece.

It took Charlotte maybe 15 minutes to cut everything out, give or take a few minutes if you add time to play with Sparky and scraps while cutting.

Then the next night we started sewing the pieces together. I had Charlotte do most of it herself. I've had her help me make other little projects (we're both beginners) and she's gotten better and better and handling the machine. At first it was scary, I was worried about somebody loosing a finger, but now that thought only occasionally pops in my head. It would be neat to get her into a sewing class for kids, and maybe she could eventually teach me a few techniques.

She sewed and turned the pocket and straps.

I had her do the pressing too.

I did the finishing edge all around the apron.

She chose the layout of the apron with the pocket at the top and buttons. It turned out great and she's so proud of herself. Now I'm thinking it would be fun to get another colorway (this one is calling my name) and making matching Mom & Daughter Aprons. I bet our cookies will taste even better when we make them wearing these adorable aprons! 

The Epic Race: Turtle vs Hare 2012

Once upon a time, there was a resourceful, little turtle who was tired of racing and losing against a cocky, little hare. The clever little turtle took his allowance money and bought himself a bicycle and the rest is history. 

My submission for the Spoonflower Weekly Contest. This week's category: Bicycles (3-color). I thought it would be kind of fun to try to create a bit of a story with the design.  

Name Tag and More! (lots more)

Last month I joined the Portland Modern Quilt Guild (PMQG) — YAY! Exciting! It's really inspiring, there are so many talented quilters out there.... and they're pumping out super amazing quilts like crazy! We meet each month and they're all bringing new incredible quilts to show & tell each meeting. WOW (where do they find the time?)! I love it, the ideas the colors, the fabrics. Last month they kicked off the new year by asking members to make a name tag to wear at meetings. Above is the name tag I made. BRIGHT, Amy Buttler and Anna Maria Horner fabrics - plus I used the sparkle thread I won at the last meeting (I love sparkles even more than bright). Then I ironed on my label I created for my quilts and added some buttons for a little extra touch of cute. The binding isn't the greatest (it's actually kinda sucky because I was in a hurry and it's pretty darn tricky to make a binding for a little tiny quilt) but's it's OK I still like it, even if it's not perfect.

I've been plugging away on my Sparkle Punch Quilt Along. I've got a long way to go, but I'm hoping to finish for my daughter's birthday in April. Cross your fingers for me.

Here's the awesome swap gift I received from my GenQ Valentine Swap partner. It's a lovely little zipper pouch. The colors are gorgeous - scrappy pinks and reds. But my favorite part is the quilting she did on it. Random straight lines, some follow the shapes and others are just on their own. Looks great.

And look at this super cute pin cushion my sweet friend made for me! Doesn't it look GREAT with all my favorite leaf pins stuck in it? So colorful and cute. I love it!! 

In the meantime I've been doing a lot of drawing (instead of sewing). More cartoony caricatures for my friend in the commercial real estate biz. I hope these guys like their funny bottle labels I've been making. Here's the finished project — a custom Maker's Mark bottle— for the last drawing I posted.

It's kind of weird to draw pictures of all these random people I've never met. Here's the next one I've been finishing up this weekend.

I'm working on my watercolor skills with Painter as well. Below is my Christmas card (I know - old news) I drew for this past Christmas. Painter is a little less forgiving than working in Illustrator, so it's a bit of a learning curve. I really love the look though. 

I'm practicing and hopefully I'll get a lot more polished at these cute watercolor illustrations soon.

Swap Gift and Graffiti Love Bots

Swap Gift and Graffiti Love Bots — what? Yep, that's right. Here's what I've been working on this past week.

I signed up for the GenQ Valentines Swap. Here's my Valentine surprise I'm working on for my swap buddy. I'm pretty excited, this is the first swap I've done and my partner looks pretty cool. Check out her blog. I hope she likes this little goody I'm working on. There's actually three different projects in the works in this picture. YIKES... I might need to just go take a clean-up break.

And.... I'm really digging the Spoonflower Fabric Design Contests. Putting together a fluid theme and repeat is way hard. It's much harder than I originally thought (all those gorgeous fabrics in the quilt shops make it look so easy!). I'm really enjoying the learning, and the reason to exercise my doodling skills— I get rusty if I don't draw for a while. Really rusty. The image above is my entry for the Graffiti/Street Art contest this week. I call it - Love Bots. Funny though, I don't really love it, but it was fun trying to come up with an idea and illustrate it based on the theme. What would you write if you had to graffiti up a wall?

Spoonflower & Wonky Stars

I've been wanting to join the fun of the Spoonflower Weekly Fabric Contest ever since I heard about Spoonflower. Have you heard of Spoonflower? It's so cool — custom printed fabric! You upload your own designs and have it printed on a variety of different fabrics. AND there's so many talented people uploading their own incredible designs on a daily basis. Inspiration overload! So anyway, they do a weekly contest where they pick a theme and ask people to submit designs based on that theme. This submission is for "Outdated Technology". They specifically said "think cassette tapes" and my mind went immediately to all my old mix tapes! Mix Tapes - I loved them (I also had an obsession with recording Rick Dees Weekly Top 40s every Sunday too)!! And then I remembered my high school BFF who was pretty fond of creating fun mix tapes and adding her own dose of quotes and worldly wisdom in between songs. She was wise and quirky beyond her years in high school. Fun memories.

Other than that I've been cutting and cutting and cutting..... and cutting. I cut over 600 3.5" stars for the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along. That took me most of a Sunday. I actually watched 3 movies on my computer while I was working on the cutting. Then I started cutting my negative space squares last weekend another 300+ to go. Fun times (mostly).

After a while I decided to try and make a few stars. They are trickier than they look. Elizabeth mentions testing out the technique on some scrap fabric before starting on your quilt fabric. I thought "pssssshhh" that doesn't look too hard and started on my precious squares. Turns out she was right. Figuring out that wonky angle and getting the angles to line up for a straight cut when you square up the edges is tricky! I had a few oppsies and a few seam ripper moments (after I learned to stop cutting the fabric BEFORE measuring to see if the angle worked), but I think I finally got the hang of it. I have five stars done and A LOT more to go.  I'm learning quite a bit along the way on this one. Quite a bit indeed.

WIP - Mom's Bright & Beautiful Quilt

Here's a quilt I'm working on for my mom. She loves bright colors so I went a little wild with this one. All of a sudden I'm noticing orange in a lot of my projects. Maybe it's the season for orange?? I have been drinking a few pumpkin spice lattes and wearing my orange sneakers lately too. Hmmmmm....

Anytime I try and lay fabric on the floor Sparky (full name: Cinderella Sparkle Rose Barrett Roth - the kids named her) likes to help. Or maybe she just has a wicked sense of humor and enjoys running through my project on the floor for laughs. I can't tell what she's thinking, she's got a good poker face as you can see in the photo above. Here she is right before she starts doing her trademark "Tasmanian Devil Spin" through the middle of my block arrangement.

And speaking of orange in projects, this is my new favorite fabric. The photo doesn't do it justice, the colors are amazing! Orange, purple and cyan all mixed together with a lime green. So bright (OK, like my mom I love bright) and beautiful. I just keep staring at it draped on my couch.  It's Pom Pom Dahlias by Philip Jacobs for Rowan. So pretty!! I'm headed to International Quilt Market in Houston next week and I've been thinking about making a skirt out of it. I think it might even pair well with my orange sneakers.

Here's my other little project. I've been doodling away with my new Painter app. Isn't it cool? It looks like I doodled that little jack-o-lantern on paper with water colors. I'm finding that I'm really rusty with my doodling skills though. It's been awhile since I've just drawn a picture without going back and adjusting nodes or combing shapes and adding gradients etc, etc etc in Illustrator. I'm really enjoying practicing again, I forget how much I enjoy drawing until I get back to it. Hopefully I'll pick up my "style" soon with the Painter app.