Just a quick post to share the news. My son and daughter-in-law have a beautiful baby girl. She was born late last night at 12:38 am.
Isn’t she just gorgeous? Parents and baby are doing wonderfully. Baby Girl weighs in at 8 pounds and 4 ounces and is a very long 21 1/2 inches. She has such kissable cheeks! The kids and I FaceTimed this afternoon which was such a treat. Technology is going to make living across the country from this little girl almost bearable.
The whole birthing process is nothing if not exhausting. This girl is tuckered out. I think her parents probably look much like this as well. It is an amazing thing to watch your baby become a father. Indescribably awesome. These two will be fantastic parents. Such a sweet family of three (plus the dog and two cats!) I am reveling in this little miracle. <3
Today is a crazy day. So much to be done and my mind is just wandering from one thing to the next with little actually being accomplished. Baby Girl is just far too content on the inside and my daughter-in-law is having labor induced today. So far things are going just fine but I am excited for the baby’s arrival and, as any mother would be, empathizing with my DIL and remembering how it was to deliver the first child. Exciting, nerve wracking, lots of unknowns. My DIL is a physician which means she has less of the “unknowns” than I did but still… until you experience it, you don’t really know what it will be like.
So I am distracting myself and playing in the sewing room. It is so cold out – we got a dusting of snow which often seems to happen just when my daffodils are blooming.
As for projects, I have a number of things stacked up in the sewing room! My first priority is a bunting I am making for Baby Girl. I have each flag ready to go. I will applique her name on it when I find out what it is. Until then, I can’t really do anymore on this.
I am using gray fabric for the letters. I suspect I will be working on this tomorrow!
Over the weekend I started to cut out a shirt. I didn’t have quite enough for the entire layout and figured I would run over to the store and pick up another yard of this gorgeous charcoal gray knit. However, they are out and it isn’t coming back. 🙁 So, I am changing plans and will make the sleeveless version. It is cute and will be a good way to make sure the pattern fits correctly. If I am happy with it, I want to make it with the three quarter length sleeve and a cowl neck. I love the version with the cross over in front.
When I got the pieces cut out, I realized I didn’t have the right needle for my machine. Clearly, this just wasn’t in the cards for me and set it aside. I will go pick up needles later today!
Moving on from the shirt, I decided to cut pieces for a baby quilt I am making for my niece. Her third child, a girl, is due at the end of the month. I am using the pattern, When You Wish, by Kristy at Bonjour Quilts. It is a free download when you sign up for her newsletter.
I had plenty of fabrics to choose from and they create a nice rainbow effect.
This quilt is just a very effective arrangement of HST’s. I have most of the HST’s completed and have begun stitching them together. I love the look. I am saving my HST trimmings. Some time ago, I saw something on Kitty Wilkin’s blog, Nightquilter.com, about leaving the trimmings out for the birds and seeing them in nests in the spring. We are just coming into spring and we have a plethora of birds so I want to see if we get any colorful nesting going on!
I plan to gather a few more and put them out in a suet feeder. I will let you know if I get any results.
Ok – last thing for today — I made this awesome frosting over the weekend! (Talk about jumping into a completely unrelated subject!) Julia and I were making a treat for my husband to celebrate a (work-related) special accomplishment. But he can’t have dairy products so I was looking for a new way to ice a cake. The cake was chocolate and it seemed like this Peanut Butter frosting recipe would be a fun one to try. Oh. My. Gosh! It was amazing.
Peanut butter, coconut oil, almond milk and powdered sugar. Amazing. Not at all healthy and three zillion calories, but for a treat? So yummy. Here is a link if you would like to give it a try.
That is the latest and greatest. I will be on pins and needles (ugh, terrible play on words) all day. Hoping for a swift delivery of Baby Girl and that her amazing mama does well throughout the process.
We are playing the waiting game for Baby Girl (my first grandchild) to arrive. Everyone is so excited to meet her but she seems to be taking her own sweet time. My daughter-in-law is great about my constant texts – although I had better knock it off or she might block my number. 😉
I did get the baby quilt finished and sent off. It turned out so cute! Remember I used the Simply Snuggly pattern by April Rosenthal, making adjustments to size it down just a bit. The baby’s room is lavender and white. My daughter-in-law asked for lavender, gray, white and pink for quilt colors. I had fun shopping for these. This was the initial fabric pull but I didn’t end up using all of them.
The quilt is a collection of HST’s set on point with sashing between each one. It was very simple to piece.
I enjoyed quilting this sweet little project. I free motion quilted a flower on each HST. Once those were finished, I did little loops on the long sashing rows and a little heart on the sashing between each block.
Simple and sweet for Baby Girl.
The backing was made with a cute bunny print and I added a few leftover HST’s to jazz it up a bit.
The quilting shows nicely from the back. There are some puckers, or ripples, where I quilted the sashing. I am guessing it might be from the order in which I quilted it? Quilting the blocks and then coming back to the sashing might not have been the best choice? Maybe I should have been more methodical and quilted each row in its entirety and it may have given me a smoother finish. But it is what it is, right? I washed it and it is all crinkled up and ready for Baby Girl to use it.
I bundled it up and sent it off. The strip of fabric I used to bundle it up is actually a scrap from the binding fabric. Sweet lavender and white flowers.
Hopefully I will have news of the baby to share with you soon. Until then, I will try to be patient and leave the kids alone! Believe me, it isn’t easy. 🙂
Linking to my usuals, as well as She Can Quilt for the end of Q1 FAL link up. Check the Link Ups tab at the top of the page for the details.
I am loving having all of these gorgeous bolts of fabric downstairs. I like to look at them, rearrange them, sell pieces to my wonderful customers and best of all, make stuff with them. I know, it probably isn’t the path to becoming rich – using up my own inventory – but it’s all just sitting there, taunting me, calling out to me. My willpower only goes so far. I am human after all.
When I was in the process of selecting this first round of fabric purchases, I tried very hard to make sure that the lines I bought were able to intermingle. I like offering choices and having pieces that work well together. This pink paisley print is actually from the Modern Tykes line (from Henry Glass). The line is a set of adorable juvenile prints. But this paisley holds its own. It is a deep pink with gray and taupe accents. Pink isn’t usually my color but I like this one. I also carry a selection of Color Weaves – a textured solid made by PB Textiles. The gray piece works perfectly with this paisley print.
I love both of these fabrics together and thought they were a good choice for a springtime tote bag. I used (for the second time) the tutorial, Summer Madras Tote by Anna Graham (Noodlehead.com). (Here is the first one I made, in case you want to check it out.) It is a very simple bag that takes maybe an hour to put together. The tutorial is very easy to follow. I like the outer pockets finished with a bit of trim.
This bag is roomy and will be perfect for shopping or filling with fresh produce at the farmer’s market. I have a feeling I will get plenty of use out of it!
I have a second bag in the making as well. This one is based on a tutorial by Beth at Cooking Up Quilts. For this, I will use a piece of fabric from Maker Maker, by Sarah Golden. I have been wanting to try a recessed zipper and her tutorial makes it look simple. That remains to be seen!
I also finished the baby’s quilt this week. I sent it off to my kids and will share a post on that next week. The baby is due any day now. We are all so excited to meet her.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. I am experiencing QuiltCon vicariously through all of the posts on Instagram. So many amazing quilts!!
Today is the last day for the sale on Maker Maker fabrics. I have each piece marked down by 15% – no coupon code needed.
Linking to my usuals – check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Island Batiks offered two challenges to the group of Ambassadors for the month of February. One was to create a fun project for Galentine’s Day. I posted about that one a couple of weeks ago. The other was to make and donate at least one kennel quilt. This was new to me. I had not heard of kennel quilts until now. These little quilts (about 12″ x 18″) are made and used by shelters when they are supporting animals in need who may have been separated from their owners due to emergencies, weather crises or other unfortunate circumstances.
Here is the explanation from Island Batik.
In 2016, Island Batik joined forces with an existing group of industry partners and supporters of the Petfinder Foundation to create the Piece for Shelter Pets (PFSP) initiative. The initiative supports the Petfinder Foundation, a “public charity that works to end the euthanasia of adoptable pets by assisting animal shelters and rescue groups across North America”, through financial contributions made possible by the sale of fabric, thread, and other quilting related products. PFSP sponsors include The Quilt Pattern Magazine, Island Batik, Aurifil Threads, QuiltyBox, Benartex, and Hancock’s of Paducah.
TheTQPM Small Kennel Quilt Team is a volunteer organization sponsored by The Quilt PatternMagazine (TQPM) that springs into action (or should we say “stitches” into action?) when disasters strike, sewing small kennel quilts for animals in need while they are separated from their humans and possibly injured. Creating kennel quilts is a way for quilters to help our animal friends in times of need by doing what we love. TQPM Small Kennel Quilt Team supplies kennel quilts to shelters across the United States. Learn more here.
Making one or two kennel quilts is a very easy way to support these little critters who are in need. Because they are tiny, it is a perfect scrap busting project. When I made mine, I was able to stitch batting strips together, using up some of those long strips that are left when we square and bind a quilt. I would encourage you to click through the link above and make a few.
I used a set of 5″ wide strips that came in the box of treasure supplied to me by Island Batik. They are so pretty – the lime green adds a nice, bright touch, don’t you think? I took some of the strips and made six rail fence blocks for this little quilt. No binding is needed. Just stitch right sides together, turn right side out and finish by sewing up the opening. I quilted a series of diagonal lined to keep the quilt together.
With the second quilt, I just sewed the strips together length-wise. Really, the project is very easy and probably took an hour or so to do. If you decide to make a few, I would love to see them. Post a picture on Instagram and tag me @needleandfoot. Also use #kennelquilts – it is lost of fun to see what the other quilters are creating!
Thank you Island Batik for partnering up with the Petfinder Foundation to support animals in need.
Linking to a few favorites, including Sew Some Love a link up for projects being made for charities at Kat & Cat Quilts. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Today I am sharing my first interview in my new Meet the Designer series of blogposts. I was lucky enough to be able to talk with Sarah Golden last week. Sarah is an artist who lives just an hour west of me, in the Sacramento area. Her first line of fabric, Maker Maker, was released earlier this month by Andover Fabric and I am thrilled to have a selection of Maker Maker available in my shop.
When asked to tell me about the history of her artistic career, Sarah explained she wasn’t particularly artistic as a child. She grew up in a tiny town near Yuba City, CA with a population of 100. (Yep, that is very tiny!) She is a musician and plays with a band called The Battle of Land and Sea. When working with the band, Sarah plays guitar, sings and writes some of the songs. But her art? This came later. As for being an artist, Sarah actually described herself as a late bloomer. In fact, she didn’t really think of art or creating as a viable career. As she said, “it never really occurred to me that art was a ‘thing’; that it could even be my career.” It is absolutely her calling now though!
It was back 2008 that Sarah began to draw, creating illustrations. She used those illustrations to create items to sell in her Etsy shop. From there, both her artistry and business slowly grew. Sarah was in her mid-30’s when she became pregnant with her twin daughters. She wanted to be a stay at home mom for her girls. It was at this time she taught herself to sew clothing. Sarah explains this was a time where she experienced a huge burst of creativity and felt she developed her true sense of self as she sewed. Sarah shared it was then when she really ‘came to life’ and developed her calling.
When her twin daughters were about 18 months old Sarah discovered surface design, painting, stamping or printing designs on fabric. She began to read voraciously about surface design and started practicing. Actively sharing her projects on Instagram, Sarah became part of a community of makers. She began to make block print fabric (using a cotton and linen blend) and used it to create beautiful items such clothing, zip pouches and fabric collage art. (Sarah still creates these beautiful items and sells them in her shop. Click here to take a look. Her creative spark truly shines in her selection of artwork and handmade goods.)
As Sarah continued to actively share on Instagram, her pool of followers grew. Included within those followers was Andover Fabric. In October of 2015, she received an email from Andover asking if she would consider partnering up with them and having her fabric produced on a larger scale. Sarah was thrilled to accept and Maker Maker became her first line of commercially produced fabric.
Fortunately, Sarah had most of the design work for the pieces in Maker Maker complete as that is what she had been printing on her own fabric. She tweaked some of the colors and refined a few things before Andover began the long process of developing the line.
I asked Sarah to explain (in basic terms) how she creates her work. She first designs and cuts the blocks for printing. When she creates her designs, she stamps the block prints to paper and scans the design to create a digital file on the computer. The design is then tweaked with Photoshop. Colors and layers are added until she feels it is finished. Sarah is working on a second line now. Naturally, she was unable to share very much about it but I know I am excited for the release. She is hoping the release will happen very late this year, or in early 2018.
When queried about how she tries to balance her work with her family life, I heard a slight sigh. Being a mom to twin girls who are not yet in school and being a very prolific artist, that balance is very hard to achieve. She is grateful to have her studio at home. She and her husband had converted their garage into a studio. This means she can work at different times each day without leaving to go to a studio. She does work in the evenings when the girls have gone to bed. Sarah’s mom lives somewhat nearby and is available to help with the girls. Also, Sarah and her husband have a bit of a tag team routine they do on the weekends. One will take the girls for a few hours while the other works or creates and then they switch off. As with many of us, Sarah finds it difficult to balance selfish sewing (or sewing just for the fun of creating something for oneself) with the sewing and creating she must do for work (that which is tied to deadlines). Currently she is really trying to work a bit less. Being self-employed and having a studio at home is a blessing but it also makes it all too easy to work All. The. Time! In closing, Sarah took a minute to explain how very grateful she is to have this career doing what she loves. She gains such satisfaction from her work and is very aware of how fortunate this is.
In closing, I just want to say how much I have enjoyed getting to know Sarah over the past several weeks. She has so much talent and is a very kind soul. Along with the rest of her community, I am very much looking forward to watching as her career develops and new fabric lines are designed! If, like me, you would enjoy keeping up with Sarah’s projects, you might sign up to receive her newsletter.
In conjunction with this, my first post in the Meet the Designer series, I have reduced the price by 15% on Maker Maker fabric in my shop. Take advantage and shop between now and Friday for this rich cotton and linen blend. No coupon code needed as the prices have been adjusted in my shop!
I hope you have enjoyed getting to know Sarah! I will be linking up in several places, check out the Link Ups tab at the top of the page. Sarah, many thanks to you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me. I very much appreciate it. 🙂
I am so excited to share this with you! I will be publishing a new series on the blog. It is called Meet the Designer. Over the next few months I will be sharing an interview between me and a fabric designer. Let me tell you how this came about. As you know, I have been spending a great deal of time researching fabrics and manufacturers as I build my shop. Working through this process of picking manufacturers and certain lines of fabric, I have had several opportunities to talk to the designers of the fabrics I selected. I so enjoyed this and I thought it would be fun to share the stories I have heard with all of you.
Each interview will be posted during the third week of the month. You can look forward to reading about my conversation with Sarah Golden, designer of Maker Maker for Andover Fabric next week. I truly enjoyed meeting Sarah (even though it was over the phone) and I know you will enjoy getting to know her as well! Other designers that you will soon read about just might include Maureen Cracknell and Kim Diehl. That’s all I am saying for now.
I really hope these posts are a fun feature. I am thrilled to share them with you.
A little of this and a little of that – this has been the routine in my sewing room this week. For the most part, I have been quilting the baby quilt for my almost-here grandbaby. She is due March 3rd and I know my daughter-in-law has reached the point where she is done being pregnant. Those last few weeks are just miserable. I hope this little girl makes an appearance soon! The quilt top is finished and the quilting is nearly finished.
The quilting is coming along fine though. It is hard for me to sit and quilt for long periods of time. My neck becomes very grumpy if I sit for longer than 1/2 hour or so. It is better this way. I break it up and get other things done in between. I have been quilting a flower on each HST and a little heart on the sashing between the squares. So cute.
The hearts are a bit on the wonky side but such is life. I have a feeling the baby won’t be too critical of her Grammy’s stitching.
I have jumped in on a quilt along. It is hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland, both are designers for Art Gallery Fabric. They are calling it the Sewcial Bee Sampler. A block design is released each Wednesday and today is week three. If you are interested, there is plenty of time to catch up.
With each week, there are giveaways for those who participate. Needle & Foot will be sponsoring two of the giveaway Fridays; one in June and one in July!! Here is the pull I selected for the Quiltalong.
I am using the rest of my fat eighth collection of Fleet and Flourish (designed by Maureen Cracknell). I added a fat quarter bundle of solids from the Pink Castle subscription I received for my birthday. I am being very judicious with the Fleet & Flourish and hoping I have enough. We shall see!
The first three blocks look great!
Each block is framed but when I got to the third block, I decided to wait before framing it. I am wondering about my choice of gray and navy blue as frames. So, I need to ponder that one for a bit.
Ok – that is the update for now. Projects are moving right along. 🙂 Hope the same is true for you! Linking to Let’s Bee Social and Needle & Thread Thursday. Links are available at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
If you are a fan of the TV show Parks & Rec, you are probably familiar with Galentine’s Day. The main character Leslie (played by Amy Poehler), holds a Galentine’s Party with her girlfriends each year on the night before Valentine’s Day. It made me smile to see this graphic sent to the Ambassadors by Island Batik.
Since I was in the spirit, last week I made a Valentine, to me from me. I have a number of little heart mini quilts that I have made over the last several years. I like them. Simple hearts of red, pink, cream and white. Remember how much fun Valentine’s Day was? We decorated brown paper bags, wrote the “to” and “from” on each card, and hoped there would be some candy involved.
This year Island Batik included some red and pink batik fat quarters in each of the Ambassador boxes. It just so happened that I recently purchased a pattern from Jayne of Twiggy and Opal called Rainbow Heart Trio. I made just one of the three minis included in the pattern. Don’t you love how the tiny heart is nestled into the center of the larger heart? Since I only made the one mini, I have hardly made a dent in the bundle of pinks and red fat quarters. No worries though, Island Batik has plenty of projects in store for us. I will put them to use soon enough.
This project was yet another lesson in value and color (when, oh when, will I learn these lessons!?) If you look at the tiny heart, you might notice a few pieces of a pale dotted batik. It is a very pale shade of lavender. On its own, it is very pretty. Included with this project and surrounded by the creamy background pieces, it is totally lost. I didn’t really get it until that smaller heart was surrounded by the larger heart. Looking at the photo above, this is the smaller heart when I was piecing it. I thought there was just enough difference between that pale dotted batik and the background. Once it was surrounded by the background it faded out. I also had some of that fabric used as blocks in the larger heart. I was able to unpick those stitches and swap the fabric out with something darker. I left the smaller heart alone. I will get this figured out one day. But for now, the shape of the smaller heart doesn’t show up as much as it would have if I had used darker fabric in those spots. I will get there though. It just takes practice.
The Rainbow Heart Trio pattern comes together quite easily. The longest task is definitely the cutting. The HST’s that make up the smaller heart finish out at 1 1/2″. Tiny little things. I quilted it with my walking foot. The quilting was inspired by the pattern. I liked how Jayne quilted the samples and I followed along with her. The only part that I free motioned was the little scallops around the outer edge of the smaller heart.
Wishing each of you a Happy Galentine’s Day and an even sweeter Valentine’s Day!
Linking to all of my favorites. Check out the tab at the top of the page, Link Ups.
This week I received a fantastic box of treasures from Island Batik. You may have seen some of the pictures I posted on Instagram last week. When I found out I was selected to be a 2017 Island Batik Ambassador, I had no idea (seriously) of what I was signing up for. I had read about projects that Connie Kresin had shared on Freemotion By the River because she has been an ambassador for a few years. Other than that, no clue. Anyway, when i got the email, I was so excited. A few days later I received a series of documents from our fearless leader, Katie. She works in media relations at Island Batik. I am incredibly impressed both by her clarity and organization as well as the scope of projects that are planned out (already – completely) for the entire year! I feel organized if I have a few blog posts planned out over the next couple of weeks. But to have this structure in place through the end of 2017, that is amazing.
I want to share some of the fabric they sent to me to work with. The company is incredibly generous and asks that we plan some fun giveaways for our readers. This way you have the opportunity to share the wealth so to speak. These rolls are made up of about four 1/8 yard cuts in each.Aren’t they gorgeous?
There is also a selection of 1/2 yard cuts (see below) and two pieces that feel like they are probably two yards each? I haven’t measured them. But they will be great for sashings, borders, bindings and backings.
I love this sweet Valentine bundle of FQs.It is Just what I need to make a little Valentine for myself! I hope to share that with you later this week. The biggest part of being an Ambassador is to promote the newest line at Island Batik. It will release in a few months and they generously shared a large number of 1/2 yard cuts with me. I will share more on that soon. There will be some really nice giveaways coming your way soon.
I hope you will enjoy sharing this quilty adventure with me over the course of the year.
