Stashmaster

Införa Eva

In case you don't speak Swedish, that translates to "Introducing Eva."   This is my new quilt project using Carrie Nelson's pattern Sweet Escape and the 2 Eva layer cakes that Carrie sent me from Spring Market.  The fabric designer is Basic Grey, who designs scrapbook papers and now also designs beautiful fabrics for Moda.

A couple of things - I know these blocks look very unbalanced.  This is just over half of them completed, and I will work on a more pleasing color arrangement after they are all done.  Also - the white fabric around my squares is the flannel on my design wall - I'm still trying to find a suitable fabric for the setting triangles (and pink was not a good choice!).

A little side note - when I was in high school we had 4 choices of foreign language study - French, German, Spanish and Swedish.  While my parents tried to discourage me from taking Swedish (so impractical!), I signed up anyway (it's that stubborn Taurus thing).  We had a great teacher - Frau Johnson - and boy was it ever fun, but sadly the program was dropped and I was only able to take 2 years of high school Swedish.  Even sadder, I have retained NONE of it.  The funny thing is, I remembered as I started this blog post that the Swedish name I chose for myself in class was Eva.  I think this fabric was somehow meant to be mine.  Thanks again, Carrie!

8 Tiny Reindeer

I finished the second shop sample using the top portion of the Crazy Eight panel.  Just a couple of pieced borders and you have a cute holiday wallhanging!

My baby boys graduated from elementary school last week.  No photos to share - I definitely need to look into a new digital camera that actually WORKS in low lighting situations like the school gymnasium.

We're Number 2!

My daughter's basketball team won just 2 of their regular season games, but they did well enough in the end of season tournament to bring home the second place trophy.  Way to go girls!

Christmas Windows

I finished this sample for the shop using the adorable Crazy Eight panel designed by Sandy Gervais.  Nobody makes panels as cute as Sandy, and this one is no exception.  The pattern is called Christmas Windows and is a quick and easy Churn Dash.  Look how cute the little ornament man is!

I'm making another quickie sample with the top part of the Crazy Eight panel and I'll show you that one soon.

Ready for the 4th!

I finished my Paisley Parade top this weekend and no, Nicole, it's not at the quilter quite yet.  I just love the way this turned out - Prairie Paisley is by far my favorite Minnick & Simpson fabric collection.   No struggles piecing this beauty, not a one!  It went together flawlessly.  And I have a good supply of the fabrics left and intend to make another Minnick & Simpson design, Chippewa 9-Patch.

But next up are a couple of samples for the shop using the new Sandy Gervais fabrics, Crazy Eight.  I promised to get them done before our Shop Hop starts on June 24.

Progress all around

I'm making great strides with my Prairie Paisley quilt.  It looks rather wild with that feather print border, but the last pieced border will really help tone things down, I think.

There's also been a lot of progress where my daughter's teeth are concerned.  Here's a picture of her last August when she first got her braces on - see that big gap between her front teeth?    It was something she wanted gone.   Well, as the second picture shows, we're almost there - the gap is very small now!   Of course, now the silly girl says "I miss my gap"   You can't win, but I think she's adorable, gap or no gap.

Sharing my good fortune

I hesitated to post about this because I didn't want to appear to be bragging, but I see Nicole shared her loot with you, so I am going to do the same.  Besides, I am so over the moon with excitement that I can't stand not sharing my good fortune.

I was also honored to be asked by my friend Carrie Nelson to piece 2 quilts for her upcoming secret project.  Now while it was certainly reward enough to me to have been asked to be a part of this project, Carrie somehow felt she needed to reward me with gifts as well.  She not only sent me 2 boxes of my favorite Presencia thread before I began the project, but she sent me these wonderful goodies from Market, which came as a surprise in my mailbox after a rough day at work on Tuesday.  I could barely contain my excitement as I opened the box.

Inside were a FQ bundle of the fall release from one of my favorite designers, 3 Sisters - Aster Manor - plus 2 layer cakes of Eva, the upcoming collection from another designer I'm growing quite fond of - Basic Grey.  Those mulberry, pink and lime green are not my typical color palette, but one of my secret projects was a quilt made from their current collection, Sultry, which is lighter shades in the same color ranges and I absolutely fell in love with that quilt.   It's all I can do not to post a picture of it.  These Eva fabrics have already been planned into a quilt that will coordinate nicely with my Sultry quilt and I can't wait to get started after my Prairie Paisley project is finished.

Carrie also included one of those great sampler pincushions from Blackbird Designs, which I have been coveting at the quilt shop where I work, I just hadn't brought myself to buy one yet.  And now I'm glad I didn't!

Thanks so much for your kindness and generosity, Carrie.  I had so much fun working with you and hope I get to do it again soon - you don't even have to bribe me with fabric!!!

I love a Parade!

Let me introduce my latest project - I'm making the Paisley Parade quilt designed by Laurie Simpson that was on the cover of Quilt Sampler magazine last year.  Look here to see what the finished quilt will look like.  I absolutely adore the Prairie Paisley fabrics, and am already planning a second quilt with my leftovers.

I've never made a medallion-style quilt before and I am really enjoying this one.

February

Here is the second block of my Wool and Needle Snowmen thru the Year by Buttermilk Basin.

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday weekend.  I've had the last 3 days off from my "real" job and will have Monday off as well.  I will be working at the quilt shop tomorrow, but I don't mind - that's my "fun" job.

This morning I finally finished the shop sample I've been working on with Moda's Wonderland fabric.  It was not a fun project to piece and I'm glad that I'm done and now have all the possibilities of my fabric stash and my sewing room at my disposal for a more "fun" project.  I'm already excited to get started!

January

I've made quite a lot of progress on my Wonderland quilt, but now it is getting too big to photograph.  Take the last photo I posted of the blocks and multiply it by 4, and that's the progress I have made on that project.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I started a new stitching project.  I found this cute pattern - Wool and Needle Snowmen thru the Year by Buttermilk Basin.  Each piece is 4-1/2 x 5-1/2 and can be entirely stitched, or you can add wool applique pieces, which is what I am doing with mine.  I will frame these with quilt fabric and make a wallhanging.

I used Sandhut fabric for the first time as my background, and it's great for stitching.  It's substantial enough that I don't need a hoop, and the thickness of it means I don't have to worry about threads showing through to the front.  I followed this wonderful tutuorial to transfer my design to Solvy and it works really great!  This will be my warm up project to Winter Wonderland.