City Sampler QAL: Choosing the Fabrics

I have had Tula Pink's newest book, City Sampler, on my brain for a while.  I spotted it as an Amazon pre-order quite a while ago and I was excited.  A BIG sampler quilt with no y-seams, applique, paper piecing, or templates - sign me up! 

 

But still, I was hesitant.  My only other experience with a sampler produced this Hushabye quilt and I am less than thrilled with it.  I like the block patterns but my biggest mistake was my choice of fabrics.  I like the Hushabye collection but using it all together was too much pastel for me. When I look at other Blockapalooza quilts - I love them because other people made more appealing fabric choices than I did. 

 

I love the rainbow version of the City Sampler on the cover of the book - but I think I have had my fill of rainbows for now.  I made two rainbow quilts this past year - one with Lizzy House fabrics and another  one with Anna Maria Horner fabrics.

 



 

Am I the only modern quilter who has trouble defining my own style and preferences?  I think the issue for me is that I like SO much out there.  I love reproduction-ish fabrics like City Weekend and Hello Betty.  I always appreciate beautiful fabrics by such diverse artists as Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler, Laurie Wisbrun, Tula Pink, Ann Kelle, Heather Ross, Erin McMorris and so much more.  I even like the darker/more masculine lines by Parson Gray, I love Japanese fairy tale prints, I swoon for Creative Thursday, and the newer lines by Camille Roskelley are to die for.  By naming all of these designers - I am not trying to sound like a label/brandname snob - I am just trying to share how diverse my tastes are.

 

Of all of the quilts that I have made so far - my favorite ones tend to have a "controlled scrappy" look.  When I make a quilt that has only one collection - it often ends up in the giveaway/"meh" category.  I am trying to stop buying full FQ bundles of one line - but if I can't avoid it - I am trying to make myself split them up. 

 

This quilt, made for my nephew last year, is a good example of the kind of quilt I like best.  It's very simple but I like the way I have mashed together a whole lot of prints from all different collections.

 

Here's another example of a "controlled scrappy" quilt that I made (with the help of 2 great bees):

SO - after attending this weekend's BMQG meeting - I came home and started to pull together a color pallette from my stash:

I know, whether consciously or subconsciously, I was influenced by seeing lots of beautiful Quilts for Boston blocks and quilt tops at the meeting- as I decided to go with a very similar color pallette.  I was also influenced by spotting this adorable new DS print (2nd from left) at Joann's following the meeting.  I love that shade of aqua and the pops of bright orange prompted me to add a bright orange to my stack.  Instead of yellow - I am aiming for more "mustard tones"- that scrap of AB Wallflower is my only piece of it (they keep reprinting old AB lines - PLEASE let them reprint that one!). 

This color pallette is a big departure for me - no pink or red - (maybe my husband will be grateful?), but I am excited.  I have thought and thought about what fabrics I would use for this QAL for weeks.  Am I the only one who gets a little paralyzed when it comes to choosing fabrics for a long-term project?  What about style?  Are you sure of yours and what you definitely do and don't like?

 

Circle Circus

I am published in the May/June issue of Quilty.  I submitted my Urban Circus quilt for consideration last winter and I found out it was accepted within a week.  It was very exciting.

I used the AMH "Super Circle" technique to apply the circles onto the quilt.  I am already scheming to make a girl version out of the pink Urban Circus fabrics for Charlotte.  Urban Circus is easily my most favorite kid's fabric collection.  I also used lots of prints from my stash.



 

Here's the cover of the magazine:



And here's my feature:

I was tickled that they even diagrammed my quilting motif too:

Happy quilting and thanks for reading!

Sweet Tote

I made this cute little tote bag as a gift for a birthday party my son went to.  The birthday girl was turning four years old and I thought a "Little Red Riding Hood" bag would be a fun gift to give.  I had a mini charm pack of "A Walk in the Woods" and I used it for both front and back patchwork panels for the bag.   I used the needle turn applique method to put the heart on the front and then I outlined the heart with an embroidery stitch.  

 

I used some batting scraps to give the bag some body and structure - I enjoyed not having to deal with interfacing. 

I only had one mini charm pack square left at the end of this project- it used most of them up quite efficiently.

I used stash fabrics to complete the bag.  It was a little more "grown up" present then I would've liked- I think my error was in making it too big.  Oh well.  Overall, I was happy with how it came out and I would make one again for sure!

Organizing

This post is a brief description of my recent organizing efforts - but first I had to share a funny anecdote on why it's important to have friends who sew - and even the importance of participating in a guild.  I love my husband and he helps support my sewing habit in many ways.  But I really had to have a good laugh when he asked me if the two main projects on my design wall were for the same quilt.  He also thought it was a "given" that the Boston blocks and Liberty X Plus blocks were definitely the same project because there are a few X Plus Boston blocks :)  I had a good laugh.  

 

Anyway- I spent some time this weekend dealing with the overflowing mess of my fabric stash.  It went from this:

to this.  It's still not as pristine as a lot of the beautiful sewing studios you see on many blogs - but at least it's not all about to fall on the floor.  As you can see, I have a lot of blue but I hardly ever use blue - I need to remedy that!

 

 

I also finally organized all of my DMC floss- I had SO much because I have picked up a lot at yard sales over the years.  I had so much in addition to what you see in this picture that I am giving 3 containers to my sister and I still have two big bags of extras (if you are local and want some - just let me know!)

 

Finally- if you haven't noticed yet - I finally organized my blog to look a little more crafty and not so plain.  I had been so intimidated by reading about lots of bloggers paying people to "beautify" their blogs - that I thought I wouldn't be able to figure out how to improve mine- as I am definitely not a computer expert.  So if you are seeing this in a reader- click on over and check out my swanky new banner and my links on the side.  The only thing I want to add is a tab for pictures of my finished quilts - if anyone knows how to do that - please let me know!

WIP Wednesday

I finally made the cute Star Wars cross-stitch my sister sent into a pillow for Gregory:

 

I have a whole lot of cutting going on for my X Plus quilt.  It was a little hard to cut into my most precious Liberty Lifestyle fabrics but I know it will be worth it!

I've made a few more blocks - these are so addicting!

 

It took a while, but I cut up my own stash-made layer cake into the triangular pieces needed to make a giant Crackle quilt.

 

 

This is the result when you sew all of the pieces together.  Isn't it striking?  I honestly think this pattern has the potential to catch on like a lot of the popular patterns out there - it's so fun and easy.

 

I scored some vintage fabric and completed tiny cross stitch pieces at a yard sale.  So sweet!

I've listed a few fabric bundles in my etsy shop.  I've fallen hard for Shelburne Falls- I ordered a half yard set and cut it in half - it's much cheaper than buying the pre-cut bundles released by Free Spirit.  I also finally splurged on some Little Folks - I missed out on the recent $6 yd. sales (darnit!) but figured I better buy some before it's all really gone.  I am trying to stick to just fat quarters lately - so I also listed a Little Folks FQ bundle too.

 

I am finally actually linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced- I feel more motivated to connect with other bloggers and I am excited to do this more regularly.

 

 

it's happening

I couldn't help but make another Boston block using the X Plus block pattern.  This morning I cut for maybe an hour and sewed the first block of my Liberty B&W quilt - I have been talking and thinking about this quilt for weeks - I figured I'd better utilize my excitement for the block/process and get going on it! 

It cheers me up a bit on this Monday morning.  My husband was gone most of the weekend with a Boy Scout campout and I didn't get much rest.  Add to several spots of poison ivy all over my body (including my face!) and I'm a woman wishing to take a "sick day" today....

Thanks for all of the love on the Hexie String quilt - I should probably quilt that thing before I start piecing something else - but you know how it goes!

Hexie Quilt Top Completed

It's finished!  I can hardly believe it.  This quilt was very close to becoming a long-standing UFO.  I got really tired of making the string blocks!  I always thought a string block must be easy and quick - but it has been very slow.  It doesn't help that this whole quilt takes a while with the hand-piecing of the hexagons and the fussiness of trying to line up the four corners of the inset red/pink square.  Not to mention cutting all of those strings - now I do have a fair amount of scraps but most weren't ready-to-use strings - so there was also a whole lot of cutting involved.

 

Enough complaining!  I am very happy with how it came out and I plan to quilt it on my home machine soon.  In addition to lots of scraps, I also used a fat-eighth bundle of Little Apples that I swapped a Wonderland jelly roll for.  Honestly, I think F8 bundles are kind of a joke - I often think even fat quarters are too small for most projects - but the F8 thing worked okay for this quilt.

 

As soon as I laid this quilt top on the ground - Charlotte had to scoot over to it to sit on it.  She is at such a fun age right now.  I know I complained a lot during her first year - but honestly - once she hit 12-ish months - life has been awesome.  I love that nursing is over, that she is starting to play with her brother, her sleeping habits have improved, and her personality is really coming out and she really can be a lot of fun.  If I could skip the newborn stage- I hate to say it, but I probably would.  If babies came out behaving like they do at 1 year - I would probably have 10 more kids....  Just kidding.

Anyway, hopefully I will have this completed soon and can show it off here within the next week or so.  I will be linking this up with Stitched in Color's Scrap Attack - String Fever.  I've said this before, but this quilt is made from a pattern in the book by Tacha Bruecher, Hexa-Go-Go.