Explore

Last year I chose EXPLORE as my word of the year.

I had several areas of my life that I was wishing to explore & it turned out to be a really good word for me. 

I began to explore weaving, with the purchase of a schacht rigid heddle loom in January.....

Weaving has been so much fun and so relaxing for me. In addition to experimenting with my new loom, I took a trip to Charlotte, NC, where Kathie taught me to weave on one of her floor looms. I plan to continue exploring new weaving techniques in the years to come.

Hubby and I had also decided to explore new options for worship in our community. It turned out, the first church we visited in the new year was a great fit for us. Trinity Presbyterian Church has become our new church home & I look forward to exploring ways I can become more involved this coming year.

As my knees continued to deteriorate, it became clear that I needed to explore new treatment options. I'd been getting by with meds and shots for years and it just wasn't cutting it anymore. In November, I had a total knee replacement and I'm already way more mobile than I was before the surgery.

As far as quilting goes, I attended 2 classes this year (oddly both involved variations on dresdens!)

I have also been exploring improv more, including participating in Debbie's crosscut quilt along

There are lots more examples of how I used my word, EXPLORE, this past year. All in all, it was a successful word for me! One I plan to continue using well into the future.

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My Small World - a finish!

Last year, the quilting world was in a tizzy. Everyone was searching for the special issue of Quiltmania that had Jen Kingwell's My Small World quilt pattern in it. Add me to that list. I searched every Barnes & Noble I had access to. Had friends looking. I couldn't find it anywhere. I was bummed. Then I heard that Jen Kingwell was going to release it as a stand alone pattern in the fall! Hooray! I bought it the day it became available. I thought "someday I'll make this" and I tucked it away. That was that. Or so I thought.....

Toward the end of the year, Nicole announced on Instagram that she'd be hosting a quilt along after the first of the year. I only hesitated a minute. The pattern is daunting.... but maybe, with the encouragement of other quilters. I could do it! Yes! Yes I could. I started digging in my fabric stash. Bought a few novelty prints that I knew I'd love to add and off I went!

Yesterday I put the final stitches in my binding. I'm so excited to share it with you!

My friend Sandy quilted it for me. I love how the swirls look like wind blowing through the sky...

I'm so happy I added that little rainstorm! And a smattering of yellow sunshine.

Those arched triangles were daunting! But I used @sewwhatsherlock's paper piece pattern for them and it worked like a charm!

I just love how you can add little fussy cut details to make this quilt your own. Some of my favorite details are my ballet studio and the Happiness Hotel in section one.

I used almost all fabric from my scrappy stash. Thought it would make a huge dent in my scrap bins but, no. There's still plenty in there.

This is my final finish in the third quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. A whole month early!  I'm so glad I tackled this project. It was great fun!

Hexies forever

Friday evening I met for the first time with Stitched with Love's New Hexagonalong club. Six of us worked away on our hexies. It was fun to see what the others are doing. Amazing how six ladies can use the same lovely book and come up with such different results! Here are some of the hexies I've finished so far...

Next month I'll try to get pictures of the other ladies hexies too so you can see!

The New Hexagon

My sweet friend Chantal has been leading a sew-along at Stitched With Love the last few months. The ladies are all making the hexagon blocks in Katja Marek's awesome book, The New Hexagon...

 Last week I got news that Chantal is moving away (boo...) and I was asked to step in and lead the sew-along beginning in April. Yes! I was thrilled and honored to be asked. I got my hands on the book and some fabric (thanks Joy!) and started working on blocks right away. I have some catching up to do!

I chose the Sun Prints line by Alison Glass for my fabric. Three blocks are done so far....

 I love how each block uses different shapes to make up a three inch hexagon. Here's block one, made up of hexies and diamonds....

Block two from triangles...

and block three, a hex, kites and triangles. This one was tricky!

Block four is ready to stitch today. These are so much fun! If you're local to the shop, I hope you'll consider joining us in this fun stitch-along!

The Postcard Quilt Along

A few days ago, Debbie over at A Quilter's Table posted a Postcard Quilt Along. Debbie had designed an adorable mini quilt that resembles postcards. I loved it. Hop on over there & take a look, I know you'll love hers too!

Well I had been hoarding hanging onto some awesome Hawaiian fat quarters that my pal Raquel brought back for me last year. I knew when I saw the perfect project to make with them, I'd know it. Well this was it! I decided to make a "Postcards from Hawaii" quilt using Debbie's tutorial.

 It required a trip to the quilt store to get some text prints (I've been dying to add some text prints to my stash anyways! Perfect opportunity!)

 And here's my finished quilt! It went together quickly & was so much fun to make.

If you want to see some more Postcard quilts, check out the flickr group. And then make one! come on, I know you want to!

ellyn's place stitchalong - all the links!

Here you have it! All of the links to my stitchalong posts in one handy place. Enjoy!

supplies 

January block mittens

February block sewing machine

March block balloon

April block cross

May block boot

June block bumble bee

July block baseball

August block bunting/bird

September block camera

October block leaves

November block pumpkin

December block reindeer

assembly instructions 1

assembly instructions 2

flickr group - please add your photos anytime!

stitchery - finish it up!

Let's put those stitcheries together shall we? Lay out your 12 stitcheries and 13 charm squares in a 5x5 grid. Top row will have 2 stitcheries, next row 3, then 2 then 3 then 2. Make sense? Sew them  together in rows, then sew your rows together. This will give you a 23 inch square.

Now here's the deal. Sometimes you (ok, maybe not you. but me for sure) picture something in your head and when you put it together it's something else altogether. Here are my blocks all sewn together:

Holy cow, that's really BUSY! Let's just say, if I had it to do over again I think I would use solids in between instead of prints! HOWEVER.... this is what I pictured for a whole year and I am going with it. So there.

I decided to add solid pink borders all the way around mine. It did control the madness some! It also made it quite large (about 28 inches square with 3 1/2 inch borders). I have it all pinned and ready to quilt in the next few days but I thought I would give you an idea for your own stitcheries.

A few tips:

I put my stitcheries in order (January, then February, then March... and so on). Feel free to put yours in whatever order is pleasing to you. There are no rules!

Press all of your seams toward the charm squares to avoid bulk.

Please post your pictures in our flickr group.

If you haven't joined us in the stitchalong or you are missing some patterns, I will post all of the links to the stitchery blog posts in one post in a couple of days. That way you don't have to go searching! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Stitchalong blocks

I hope you've finished stitching your 12 monthly ellyn's place stitchalong blocks! If not, no worries, you can always come back to this tutorial when you are ready. Today I'm going to show you how to make 5 inch wonky blocks from your little stitcheries. Ready? First off, you need a sashing fabric. If you want to use this same fabric later on for borders and binding, you'll need about a yard total. I've used solid bright pink here. Cut some 3 inch strips, width of fabric. I used 8 strips total. 

Remember that your stitchery blocks should already be cut to 4 1/2 inches square.

Sew strips to both sides of your stitcheries. I chain pieced the blocks to the strips and cut in between them after. Press the seam allowances (1/4") toward your strips.

Now even up your edges....

And add strips to the top and bottom the same way....

 Do this to all 12 of your blocks....

 Now we're going to cut these blocks down to 5 inches. I hope you have a 5 inch square ruler. That will make this process so much simpler! You could also cut a five inch square from template plastic or cardboard and trace around it onto your blocks. I used a five inch ruler. Tilt your ruler to make a wonky block. Make sure you leave at least 1/4 inch of the border fabric all the way around after cutting.

 see how cute it is all wonky?

Do this to all 12 blocks. I did all of mine tilted the same way. If you want your quilt really wonky you could tilt your ruler in different directions on each block. It's up to you!

Ok, that's enough for today! Once you have all of your blocks cut wonky, gather 13 coordinating charm squares and I'll show you how I joined mine in a few days.

Don't forget to add your blocks to our Flickr pool. 

stitchalong! our last month

We made it! Today I am giving you your twelfth and final stitchery pattern for the ellyn's place stitch along. And what could be better than a happy red nosed reindeer? I hope you like him.

 If you've been stitching along with me, you will have 12 completed stitcheries when your reindeer is finished....

You can get your December stitchery pattern here.

I'll give you a week or so to stitch him up, then we'll start putting them all together! Are you as excited as I am to see the finished project? Stay tuned! Oh, and don't forget to add your finished stitcheries to our flickr group. Happy Stitching!

November stitchalong

Can you believe we're almost done with our stitchalong? After today, there is only one more block! I've had a great time creating them for you. I hope you've had fun stitching. 

November's theme? Pumpkins of course! Here's our pumpkin stitchery....

And eleven blocks all stitched up for you! One more hole to be filled.....

You can find the free pattern here. When you're finished stitching, won't you add your pictures to our Flickr group? I love seeing what you have done!

October Stitchalong

Although the calendar says it's fall in this part of the world, we're still having 90+ degree days here in Texas! Nonetheless, our theme for October's bring 'n brag is fall leaves, so that's what we're stitching! My apologies to those of you in the "other" hemisphere who are heading into spring right now! Maybe you can still stitch leaves along with us this month? Or save the pattern for more appropriate weather!

You can find the pattern to stitch your own here.

Maybe since I stitched it, the cooler weather will come? Let's hope! This makes 10 little stitcheries done. Just two more and we can put them all together.

Happy fall! (or spring! depending where you are)

(well lucky you! This posted early! I thought I had scheduled it for tomorrow....enjoy!)

September stitchalong

Have you been stitching along with us? I hope so! It's time for our September stitchalong pattern. This month's theme is "professions" or "tools of the trade". Well, the tool I've been learning to use better this year is my camera. So, I decided to go with that...

What kind of camera do you use? Earlier this year, I got a Nikon D3200 and I love it! I still have a lot to learn about photography but having a great camera certainly helps, don't you think?

Here's a link to the free pattern so you can stitch one too. 

If you've been stitching every month, you should have nine little squares stitched up now....

 Won't you add your stitchery photos to our flickr group? I love to see what you've been doing!