Texting While Sewing Top 10

Today is the day to announce the top 10 finalists for the Texting while Sewing contest.  It was so very hard to limit my choice to 10 blocks.  I tried very hard to focus on the crux of the matter, did the block use text fabrics creatively?  I tried to imagine the block without the text fabrics to see if the text fabrics contributed greatly to the block or if it would have been as successful without them.  A couple of my favorite block designs didn't make it because the use of text in those blocks isn't as creative as others even though their block designs are spectacular.  It was hard.  

So, here we go.  These are the top 10 blocks, in the order that they were entered.  Kerry and Ayumi are at work deciding on the top 3 winners.  I am feeling badly for them at the moment!

Congratulations to:

Anita for her Chain Piecing Block

Stephanie for her I Miss Iowa Block

Kristy for her Quilter's Bible Block

Cindy for her Texting-my iPod Block

Laurraine for her Scalloping on the Bias Cafe Block

Carolina for her Tweeting While Sewing Block

Dolores for her Thought Train Block

Julianna for her Quilts Forever Block

Charise for her Fashion Design Studio Block

Teri for her Selvages, Selvages, Selvages Block

Thank you very much to everyone who spent time sweating over their block designs (quite literally this summer!) in order to enter this contest. I loved seeing all the entries and meeting some new readers of my blog.  All the entries were really so good!  

Cath Kidston Wellie for Kylie

First off, thank you so very much to everyone who entered the Texting While Sewing Contest! I am so pleased with the number and quality of the entries. I am having the worst time ever narrowing them down to 10 before passing them along to our guest judges.

I am going to buy myself a little time by sharing a block I just finished up for my Cocorico Bee. Kylie's theme is The Best of the British. She has an inspiration board in Pinterest and one of the items there was a Cath Kidston Wellie with Mini Stanley print like this one here. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to make her a boot using my Garden Boot pattern. I also wanted to use British fabrics to make it a bit more special. I emailed my "contact in the UK", Kerry, and she actually had the same Cath Kidston Mini Stanley print that was used on the rainboot in Kylie's inspiration board! I was so excited! I also knew I wanted to use my Kumiko Fujita for Yuwa print in red to fussy cut "share" and "umbrella" for the boot strap. I found that in Ayumi's shop of course. The background fabric is Vintage Modern Dots in Natural from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics. I loved using it as a background fabric and can see doing so again.

I also wanted to let you know that there are some newly listed seam ripper necklaces in my Etsy shop. If you are considering them for Christmas gifts, I would encourage you to pick them up now because my husband will not have a lot of turning time in the barn between now and December.

 I'll be back soon with more contest news! I know everyone is excited to find out who won!

Texting While Sewing Entries

I'm so excited!  It's time to enter your blocks into the Texting While Sewing contest!  You will have three days to enter.  The Linky will close on Weds. August 29, 2012 at 11:59 PM EDT.  

Before you link up, let me remind you of the wonderful prizes!

The First Place Winner will receive:

A $50 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop.  

From Sew Me A Song, a bundle of eight half yard cuts of Becca's newest and greatest text fabrics for a total of 4 yards.

From Quilted Treasures, a Lucy's Crab Shack Bundle your choice of "Guy" or "Gal" (gal pictured above).

And for those who have trouble with the fine print (he, he, he) a Beam N Read hands free crafting light and magnifier.

The Second Prize Winner will receive:

A $40 gift certificate from Sew Fresh Fabrics to spend however you like.

A $35 gift certificate to Zipit, my all time favorite zipper shop on Etsy.

From Sew Me A Song, a fat quarter bundle of eight of Becca's newest and greatest text fabrics for a total of 2 yards.

The Third Place Winner will receive:

A $25 gift certificate to spend at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.

From Sew Me A Song, a fat quarter bundle of eight of Becca's newest and greatest text fabrics for a total of 2 yards.

1/2 yard cuts of the three colorways of Summersville Alphabetty for a total of 1 1/2 yard from Marmalade Fabrics. 

And a charm pack of Summersville from Quilted Treasures.

To enter the contest, link up here! Remember, if you have multiple entries, link each one up separately please.  To clarify, if you made three blocks, enter three times so I see three thumbnail images below.  If you do not have a blog, link to your Flickr photo.  If you do not have either, email me the picture along with anything you'd like to say about your block.
Good luck!

Founding the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild

Who wants in?  I hope you do!  Becca from Sew Me A Song, Peg from Sew Fresh Fabrics and I have been talking about founding a modern quilt guild for those north of Boston for awhile.  Now, we are actually doing it! I am a member of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild (and will continue to be) but I can't make it to as many meetings as I would like because the meetings are just far enough away that they consume most of my day.  For those of you with young children, you know that can be a deal breaker.  I'd love a guild that was close enough for me to be a more active participant.  We hope that this guild will be a sister guild of sorts to the Boston Modern Quilt guild, maybe sharing swaps or retreats, etc.  We'd like to reach out to those in Northern Massachusetts, Southern Maine and Southern New Hampshire.  All skill levels are welcome!

Our first meeting will be held on October 20, 2012 from 10-12 in the morning at the West Newbury Town Annex located at 381 Main St., West Newbury, MA, 01985. The main building will say "1910 Building" above the door, the Annex is located at the rear. We'll have a sign on the door.

West Newbury is about an hour north of Boston; 32 minutes south of Portsmouth, NH; 50 minutes south of Manchester, NH; 35 minutes south of Kittery, ME.  The room is large and spacious and there is a free parking lot in the front of the building and an additional parking lot in the rear of the building.  Nearby Newburyport, MA would be a great location for lunch if you are travelling.

The first meeting will be a time to meet each other, talk about our goals and interests, and preferred meeting times.  We will also have a show and tell so please bring your latest or favorite creation or a work in progess.  There will also be door prizes sponsored by Sew Fresh Fabrics, Sew Me A Song, and During Quiet Time.  I nearly forgot, there will be snacks as well!  The first meeting will be free with donations accepted at the door to help get our group going while we iron out little details like the cost of dues.

Thank you to Maureen from Maureen Cracknell Handmade who designed our logo. If you'd like to grab a logo, please feel free to grab this one that is more appropriately sized for your sidebar than the one above!

Also, please follow our blog:  Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild Blog

And "Like" us on Facebook too of course: Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild

Please let me know if you have any questions.  All are welcome and we hope you will attend!  I look forward to meeting you!

BasicGrey Design Team

Welcome to the BasicGrey Design Team Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from the blog of Kathy Racoosin.

I was fortunate enough to be invited back this year to join the BasicGrey Design Team, designing sewing tutorials once a month on the BasicGrey blog, featuring their gorgeous fabric lines.  Today, I thought I would share a sampling of some of my previous tutorials.  Above is my Flutter Blossom Dresden Pillow.  You can find the tutorial here.  It is made using Hello Luscious, a perfectly floral springtimey sort of fabric line.  I love the combination of prints and colors in this line.

I've also enjoyed sewing with BasicGrey's Christmas line, Blitzen.  You can't help but smile at the cute snowmen but many of the other prints are very sophisticated so the line doesn't look childish.  I like that.  I share the tutorial for this patchwork stocking here.

Oh, and I loved this project too.  I call it the Envelope Wrislet. I made it using Little Black Dress.  If you'd like to make one yourself, the pattern can be found here.

I'm anxious to cut into these beautiful fabrics from the Kissing Booth collection. You will see a tutorial or two from me using these beautiful fabrics in October, after I share one more Little Black Dress project in September.

To celebrate the new design team, BasicGrey is allowing me to give away Konnichiwa collection pack. For your chance to win, see the giveaway box below :

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next, it's time to hop over to Shannon Tidwell's blog.  Remember, if you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the BasicGrey blog for a list of direct links to all of the blogs in the hop.

Seaglass Waves Pillow Cover Tutorial

I know I have been bouncing all over the place, showing Christmas designs and most recently, a fall table runner.  I like to work when inspiration strikes, even if it isn't seasonal!  But, I sneaked in one last summer project while it is actually still summer.  I am calling this pillow Seaglass Waves.  It's made using the Sizzix Bottle Die and the free tutorial is available on the Sizzix blog today.

Many thanks to Peg at Sew Fresh Fabrics who selected the seaglass shades of Kona for me.  They were perfect for what I had pictured.  I would love to make a larger quilt like this someday.

Kissing Booth by Basic Grey

Look what came in the mail today!  It's Basic Grey's newest fabric line, Kissing Booth.  It's expected to ship out to stores in late October.  The Fat Quarter Shop shows an expected shipment date of November.

Basic Grey is always so good about including some text prints!  These gems are a part of the Kissing Booth line.

I also love these hounds-tooth check prints with tiny hearts included in the design.

These hearts with stitching around the edges are another favorite.  They remind me of the designs found on old Valentines Day tins for chocolates.

And of course the line includes a few shades of Grunge.  There is a light pink, medium pink, ivory, chocolate and red.

I'm looking forward to writing some tutorials for the Basic Grey blog using this line. Is there anything you'd particularly like to see me make with them?

Oakshott Leaves

I was so excited when Lynne contacted me with an offer to try some Oakshott Rubies.  I have been wanting some Oakshott ever since I saw Krista's quilt. I love the subtle variations in color, the sheen, the depth and the texture.  When I pictured Rubies in my head, I was thinking of true reds and had a Christmas project in mind.  When they arrived, however, I could think of nothing but fall in New England.  And that is how I arrived at this raw edge applique table runner.

I appliqued a series of New England leaves onto  my "way low volume" patchwork that I blogged about the other day.  I pieced the leaves in a variety of ways.  The maple leaves were free pieced and I think my absolute favorites.

I thought it was getting a little busy so this Sumac like branch is not pieced at all but made out of two shades of Rubies.

The other leaves were paper pieced herringbones.

I used free motion quilting with a variegated thread to stitch down and quilt the raw edge appliques.  Then I had a little fun on the background stitching rows of leaves and the words "leaf" and "fall."  You can sort of see this in the picture above.

The stems are embroidered using Lecien's Cosmo Seasons variegated embroidery floss.  They were a perfect match for the Oakshott colors.

I have more Rubies left so another project will be coming eventually.  I just loved working with them.  

Deadline Time!

This is a reminder for those of you who are sewing blocks for the Texting while Sewing Contest.  The deadline is rapidly approaching!  August 27, 28 and 29, you may link up on my blog to enter your block.  My fabulous guest judges will decide on the winners by Sept. 3.  

Remember there are some amazing prizes in store.  Click here to see them all. 

 If you have been on vacation all summer and missed the news about this contest, see here for the rules. You still have time! 

Some wonderfully creative and clever blocks have been popping up in the optional Flickr group. Take a peek. So tell me, did you make a block but are keeping it secret till the end? Are you still working on one? Do you want to in the worst way but haven't found the time quite yet?

Lowell Quilt Festival

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild's show just wrapped up this afternoon at Appleton Mills in Lowell, MA.  The show was affiliated with the Lowell Quilt Show but off site.  People could take the shuttle over to see it and many did!  As you can see from the shot above, the gallery space was just beautiful.  It's a renovated mill building.  Lowell was America's largest textile center in the nineteenth century so it is fitting to have a quilt show in one of the old mill buildings.  

I was asked by my blog readers to take lots of pictures and I have to tell you that I failed miserably!  I helped for a couple hours on set up day.  Because I am so darn short, I couldn't hang the quilts but I assembled all those upright pieces.  I was busy and my hands were really greasy and I didn't get any pictures.  I planned to take them at the opening reception.  I brought my camera, but without a memory card!  So, no pictures.  When I went back today right before break down, I discovered that breakdown had started a little early.  So I just have a few shots and do not have all the artists' names.  

This is my modern New York Beauty but you have seen it before.

This is the right hand side of the hall.  I know that the first quilt is called "Black, White and Read All Over" by Linda Wolyniek.

This is a sampler quilt by Jane Fitz.

This quilt got a lot of attention from my kids because it has sparkles all over it.  It's by Jen who managed to get some better pictures of the show so click over to her blog. She also has pictures of the challenge quilts and her newest finish that was also in the show.

I didn't get names for these two quilts...leave me a comment if one is yours and I will add the information. Just in....Stephanie Harrison made the quilt in the right and it is called "Tissue Paper Petals."

This is Flight by Alexis. She blogged about this quilt here.  I really love this one.

I unfortunately do not have pictures of the rest of the show!  I know. It's quite pathetic!  I would suggest checking the Boston Modern Quilt Guild blog and perhaps some pictures will be shared there soon.

There were lots of lovely quilts and I think that the show was well received.  I nice couple who were admiring my quilt chatted with me a bit and they told me that they preferred our show over the main show!  She was older and not very aware of the modern quilting movement but found these quilts much more interesting than the traditional quilts shown at the main show.

I was told that one of my blog readers from Australia stopped by the show.  I'd love to know who you are!  Leave a comment!