Castle Quilt

I finished the Castle Quilt about a month ago but I wanted to wait a bit before I posted it because I entered it into the Project Modern Challenge . I'm sure it's a long shot that I will actually win but I'm happy to be in the running for a new machine!

It is straight line quilted, backed with Minky, and bound in blue! And the most important part is that Avery loves it! As I was piecing it, she kept taking off with pieces and laying them on the ground and then laying on top of it....and she would tell me "Mommy, this is Avery's castle".

Heather Ross Studio Sale loot!

I received my package today! I asked for girl's clothes in 4t and fabric scraps! I got exactly what I asked for....and more! oh and I spent $50!

Fabric cuts are: snails 1/2 yard, dots 1 yard. Does anyone recognize it?

This dress is a thick jersey knit....it looks so comfy! But I am always scared to put Avery in anything white! Maybe she'll do better next summer when I bust this out!

Her signature is cut off...but she signed each print! I think I may need to fame them and hang in A's room.

LAMQG 1st Anniversary Awards

LA MQG 1st Anniversary Awards, originally uploaded by seventeen and em.

I won a set of Fat Quarters at the LAMQG 1st Anniversary meeting!

And to prove what a super nerd I am...I also received an award for Perfect Attendance! I was the only member (besides one of the officers, Latifah) who attended every meeting since the very beginning! My hubby even called me a nerd! ha!

Following through

Don't you love when you get this marvelous idea for a project, write it down, draw it up, and actually follow through and make it? Like in two days?!

I've had a stack of Castle Peeps since our LAMQG field trip to Michael Levine's...and I decided to put it to good use. I've been on a bit of a quilting 'off season' with the summer heat and summer plans...but now that it is starting to cool down (except this weekend is 104 degrees) and that NFL has started...I have been in the mood to sew again.

The fabric just spoke to me, almost quite literally! Just look at it! So it went from this:

To this!!!

It's about 60x60 and A will use it on her toddler bed.

I'll be basting and pinning it tomorrow at the Guild Sew! and I'll post pics when it is quilted and washed!

HR Studio Sale

Did you all see that Heather Ross is having a studio sale?!

http://heatherross.squarespace.com/journal/2010/9/15/studio-sale-place-your-order.html

I just placed an order for random scrap bags and girls clothes.....hmmm, I wonder if I'll get anything!

A quilt top and a birthday gift

Sorry for the crappy pictures! I took them last night after the sun started to set. Anyhow, I'm sure you get the idea! This baby is big...like 90x100! I'm working on the back now and I'm already nervous about quilting it! How am I going to get it to fit in the neck of my machine!?!

I turned 31 about 2 weeks ago. My hubby hired a photographer to take pics of Avery and I for my gift. He said that all the pics we have in iPhoto are of him and Avery...because I'm always behind the camera. So this was a great gift! But then he ordered huge canvas prints of a few pics to hang in our living room! Here are a few of the pictures....there were 264 of them!

If you remember a few posts back I mentioned a Tinkerbell and Friends costume pattern I bought...well, she's wearing the dress (and wings) I made for her in some of the shots.

My fave pic of Avery.

I love this one....she was over taking pictures and said "I wanna go home!" and just took off down the path! It's funny to think that her face is all pouty and mad in this shot!

Feature!

Wow! My Paintbox Quilt is being featured! Please go to Quiltstory.blogspot.com to check it out!

And if you are visiting me after seeing me on Quiltstory....Thank you! I have a awesome new quilt to be posted soon! So please check back!

This is hard....

finding time to update my blog is hard! How do you do it?
This is going to be a long post!

First up-

A raffle quilt for the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild. Members volunteered to make a block or two for two raffle quilts - one warm and one cool using a piece of fabric given to us and using the rest from our stash. Then I volunteered to put the top and back together. It's a big one too, about 80x80. Do you see my note at the top of the quilt? When I layed it out I gave it a 'direction' and when it's quilted I'd like the top and bottom to match up! ha!

Chris! This is all your fault! You were hand sewing hexes at our monthly guild sew and I was inspired...now I'm addicted!

Avery has turned into a super girly-girl. Dresses all the time - and I mean all the time. Even to bed OVER her pj's. And even in the bath a few times because she refused to take it off! The more ruffles the better to spin around in....so I used solid scraps left over from my paintbox quilt back to make this skirt. I attached it to a tank I picked up at Target for $2. And this skirt is EXTRA full....the bottom ruffle used 5 selvedge to selvedge strips....that's over 200" of fabric!

I've been holding on to a large stack of Dolce by Tanya Whelan Fabric for a while now and adding coordinating prints to the stack when I came across them. Then I hit a wall. I had NO idea what to do with them! I didn't want to cut into the beautiful large print poppies! Then of course Elizabeth inspired me with this....that woman is a motha f'n genius.

btw....that is a Tinkerbell and friends pattern in the corner....figured I'd make A a costume...to wear all year round! Joanns had a sell of their Simplicity patterns for $1 each. So I picked up a few halloween costume patterns. They are normally 16.95! crazy deal! I also picked up a pattern of various pirate outfits....OMG, so cute!

block up close...

Paintbox!

Yay! It's done! I just finished binding it and I wanna put up a quick post before A gets up from her nap....

I definitely tried to do something out of my comfort zone with this quilt...I used solids, didn't use white sashing, and I even backed it in blue...and normally I would have went for pink. The scariest part was quilting in a lighter thread color so I knew it would have to be spot on or you'd totally notice if I did a shitty job stippling.

I used 32 different solids for this quilt instead of the 40 Elizabeth wanted us to use because I didn't have enough different colors (especially purples and blues) or I just didn't like the color. So some colors have 3 blocks instead of 2. Almost all of the fabrics came from my scrap bin...and no, it's not any smaller. It is sashed in Kona Charcoal and stippled with a medium gray thread.

The back....

Paintbox sneaky peek

Paintbox sneaky peek, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

Just a glimpse of the paintbox quilt! Stippling it now....

Sashed in Kona Charcoal...my new fave solid!

Baby quilt...

I almost forgot! I made this baby quilt using this tutorial...which was super fast and easy. This is a gift for a family member who is having a little girl next month. I have a confession to make....I don't love it. I intentionally used fabrics that I didn't want anymore just to get rid of them. Is that bad? I mean, when I make a quilt, I want to LOVE it and not give away...but this one...I happily tied a ribbon around it and gave it a new home.
I'm glad that I keep this blog my dirty little secret and that she won't be reading this.....

Bees and Easter

I know, it's been a little while....keeping up with blogging is a lot of work! How do you all do it?

First up is Avery's Easter dress that I made from this book . The book is great...it's has a bunch of patterns and ideas for embellishing clothes...but the pictures aren't that great. So I had to wing it when I decided to do ruffles. This dress took HOURS to make but I'm glad I finished it. Yes, that is my hubby Sean in the background. He thinks the dress looks like it's from Little House on the Prairie or like Avery belongs to a Polygamist group. I told him that I don't think they don't wear such bright colors or ruffles.

On Saturday I worked on my Paintbox Quilt and then got distracted staring at the Dresden template I bought a few weeks ago. Thanks to Chris who showed us her amazing quilt with a dresden flower at our LAMQG meeting a few months back....I've been wanting to make one.

So.....I had to hurry because A was napping and I knew she'd be up soon....I was able to get the dresden done then she woke up and I finished the rest that night. It is the first quilt that I've made start to finish in one day and it was an awesome quick fix! I put it in her basket and she threw it to the side to get to the rest of the goodies. Oh, well. Maybe it'll be a wall hanging.

Bees....Avery got stung by her first one last week on her finger. She cried and was mad at the bees for the day. But at least she not allergic and it motivated me to pick up her Epi-pens from the pharmacist. (she's allergic to peanuts) On a side note - it's incredible the amount of candy that has peanuts. My pockets were full of peanut butter cups and snickers from the egg hunt she did at brunch. And no, I didn't throw them away! No way I'd waste perfectly good chocolate.

Here are my bee blocks for the Bee Mod group at the LAMQG and The Block Swap on Flickr.

March blocks for Lisa @ LAMQG

April blocks for Leslie @ LAMQG

Confetti blocks for Paloma @ The Block Swap

Hushabye Whirlygiggle

Hushabye Whirlygiggle, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

This is a repeat....I know. I had two charm packs of the Hushabye by Tula Pink line and it was perfect to use for this quilt. And since I gave the other whirlygiggle quilt away as a gift it doesn't count as a repeat in my book. But...this one is a gift too. For my 'sister from another mother' Natalie. We have been friends for about 10 years and she was a bridesmaid in my wedding. She was diagnosed with MS late last year and is now paralyzed from the shoulders down.

Lauren's Blocks

Lauren's Blocks, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

I've joined two bees....one (live and in person) at the LAMQG and one virtual on Flickr. These 4 blocks are for Lauren's 'Square peg, round hole' quilt. She asked for 2 blocks but she gave me sooo much fabric, I had to make two more! I'm so loving the bottom right that I almost kept it...almost.

It's done!

My half sleeve is finished! Click here to see a video of it taken last night at the tattoo shop!

Guru Tattoo - Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA
Artist: Paul Dhuey

Wonky Mendocino

Wonky Mendocino, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

Yay! This quilt was made for Avery's toddler bed....when she gets out of her crib. And I don't know when that will be because I like that when I put her in bed, she can't get out. She's also going through a phase where she has lots of excuses to not go to sleep...her fave is "I'm hungry! Noodles, applesauce, yogurt!"

I backed this quilt with Minky.....I quilted the top to the batting then added the minky on the back and binded it. I learned a big lesson though...the top and batting shrunk a lot more than the minky, so it's kinda floppy. Oh well! Now I know i need to prewash next time use use minky on the back.

birdie potholders

birdie potholders, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

I made these using scraps....they were a lot of work for such a small block. But I LOVE the look of them.....I won't actually be using them in the kitchen - they are too pretty!

Starling zig zag

Starling zig zag, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

Happy new year! This is my first finished quilt of 2010....I officially had it done before the end of 09 but I still needed to bind it!
It was made WITHOUT using triangles! I used this tutorial and winged the size of it. It was SUPER easy and pieced together really fast. It is a gift for friends our ours that are expecting their second....and the sex is a surprise!

2009 quilts!

2009 quilts!, originally uploaded by 30andquilting.

I had a blast in 2009 learning how to quilt, purchase fabric, start a blog, join the LA Modern Quilt Guild, get 2 girlfriends to start quilting, and most of all - making all these lovely projects! Of course I actually own like 5 of them because the rest I gave away as gifts....

Excited for 2010!