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Little Quilts Blog Tour!

September 1, 2014 at 3:14 am · Filed under Books, Dollies Online, Fabric, Little Quilts Blog Tour, Quilts, Tools, Treats!

It’s time for a little party for little quilts and Little Quilts! We are gleeful over the wonderful reception for our little (am I overusing that??) book so far, and we want the celebration to continue! Sarah and I have devised a blog tour and swap with some of our favorite people. Indeed, in the spirit of Little Quilts, we’ll make and swap wee (see, I didn’t say little) quilts and talk about our progress in blog posts. Our swappers don’t know from whom they’ll receive a quilt, so there will be mystery reveals when the mail arrives. Ooooh, tricksy, it was almost more than my summer brain could handle figuring that out (I know, it’s really not that difficult…).

I’ve already been pondering options for my swap partner. Hmm…

Which of these lovelies shall it be? Should I make one of mine?

Or should it be one of Sarah’s?

Who doesn’t love the Honeycomb quilt? Surely I can manage the embroidery, yes?!

As we all ponder and make, we’ll be checking in, so keep an eye out for our fabulous friends who have joined us. Here’s the Little Quilts visiting schedule for the next six weeks.

September 1: Amy and Sarah

https://mrsschmenkmanquilts.wordpress.com

http://thelastpiece.typepad.com

September 8: Pam Vieira-McGinnis

http://pamkittymorning.blogspot.com

September 15: Nedra Sorenson

http://cactus-needle.blogspot.com/

September 22: Lynne Goldsworthy and Krista Hennebury

http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com

http://poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com/

September 29: John Adams

http://quiltdad.com

October 6: Katy Jones

http://imagingermonkey.blogspot.com

Should you care to join us in the making (or make and then send a small quilt to a friend!) and don’t (yet) own Little Quilts, you will find the pattern for Sarah’s Little Red Riding Hood quilt on the Ryland Peters blog.

And befitting such a celebration, each stop will have a drawing for a copy of Little Quilts, courtesy of our spectacular publisher, Cico Books! So, if you’d like a chance to win a copy (what? you don’t already own one?) from this stop on the blog tour, leave a comment (making sure I can contact you via email behind the scenes) by the end of the day on September 7 — just before the tour stops off with the ever delightful Miss Pamkittymorning.

We hope you’ll join us in our continuing excitement about our book and have a visit with our lovely bloggers at each stop! I’ll check in regularly too to make sure you don’t miss any of the fun!

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So, what’s new?

July 5, 2014 at 12:23 pm · Filed under Books, Dollies Online, Quilts

Well, hello! How goes it? What’s new? I have a little something new to show you. A fun little book that Sarah and I did. It just came out, and we’re pretty pleased.

One makes the quilts and writes and finishes such a thing well before it is actually printed and distributed, so when I got a copy in my hands, it was brand new to me again. What a treat! It is such a sweet little book to look at. I really do smile when I flip through the pages. But then again, I may be a little biased.

We hope you enjoy it! If your friendly neighborhood Amazon is sold out, I do have copies to sell for anyone stateside. I am happy to sign it. Unfortunately, logistics prevent my getting Sarah’s signature too for you, but you never know, you might run into her one day. Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to buy a copy.

The other day with the help of modern technology, Sarah and I talked about Little Quilts with Stephanie Kendron of Modern Sewciety. You can listen to the podcast over at Stephanie’s lovely site.

I gave myself a pep talk beforehand. It was morning so I drank a little coffee but not too much coffee so as to induce aimless babbling. I haven’t listened to it yet myself, but I will.

Sarah and I are planning a blog tour for the book toward the end of the summer. I promise to tell you all about it when we have it ready to go.

Other than this wonderful book excitement, I — like you, I’m sure — have been busy busy with life. My now 14 year old seems to be the center of the busy universe.

I hope this finds you all well! I promised to keep you apprised of goings on around here!

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But who’s counting?

August 6, 2011 at 11:10 am · Filed under Books, Dollies Online, Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

So. Where were we? Or where was I? You thought I disappeared, didn’t you? It felt like it there for a while. Lest you think I’ve been lounging on a beach or resting on my laurels, I have some things to show for my time.

I’m especially excited to have a quilt in issue six of the most awesome Fat Quarterly. Against Traffic is a foundation pieced kaleidoscope-y quilt using two shades of grey and all of Marcia Derse’s prints from her Third in Line fabric collection. I grew extremely fond of these prints while I sewed. And we spent a considerable amount of time together, so I think it says A LOT for Marcia’s fabrics that I still love them after all that togetherness. :-)

Love those fabrics!

I also wanted to show you the latest Dollies Online quilt for July called Mass Appeal:

I saw a vintage quilt with orange peel blocks on point in two colors and my head went boing. Speaking of the Dollies Online, you can now purchase the downloadable patterns individually over at Sarah’s lovely web site. Mass Appeal will show up there shortly as well. I didn’t mind sacrificing that blue sewing themed Suzuko Koseki print for this quilt. It seemed a worthy use.

I’ve also been keeping up with the Farmer’s Wife blocks. Got a little behind when we lost power for three days. Here are some recents:

I’ve been digging through some of my old Kaffe fabrics and scraps of old projects. Going down fabric memory lane.

Last but not least, a step by step by step project, indeed… Sarah‘s Hanging Lanterns pattern. First, cut 800 (or more in case of goof ups…ahem), fan blades and sew them.

And turn them.

And press them.

And sew them together into arcs and get them ready for the next step.

As Sarah has reminded me, she did all of this already and I should not complain. No complaints. Just noting for posterity and recordkeeping and goal setting.

I’m also dabbling in the Japanese Boxes quilt from issue 81 of Quiltmania. I saw this quilt over at the gorgeous Facile Cecile blog. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. And then I re-drafted it ever so slightly so I didn’t have to cut anything in 1/16ths of an inch (sometimes my laziness instead makes my brain hurt a little more) and could use a rotary ruler. These are a little on the addictive side and very easy to sew on the machine.

So, that’s some of what’s going on here. I’ve missed you.

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Yoo-hoo!

May 16, 2011 at 1:47 pm · Filed under Dollies Online, Fabric, Quilts

Hey, who took away the warm part of spring? I just got my sandals out. I had the air conditioning on for a night.

Now the furnace is back on and I wore my winter coat to the bus stop. Bah!

Oh well.

A tease of warm weather certainly got me in the mood for sitting on the porch with an icy beverage. It also got me in the mood for light, bright colors.

This is the latest Dollies Online quilt called Fans of May.

I just love this palette of colors. It was also fun to mix some “of the moment” fabrics with some oldies but goodies from the stash. I’m being careful how I use that Kaffe yellow dot on grey. Endangered species, that.

I hope your weather knows what it’s doing because clearly mine does not.

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The gang’s all here and then some

January 21, 2011 at 1:49 pm · Filed under Dollies Online, Fabric, Quilts

It’s like an eclipse — won’t happen again in this century! Look at what’s in my house — all at once:

THREE Dollies Online quilts made up with Sarah’s From Little Things fabrics. I know, I know, I keep squealing about it. I can’t help myself. And I can’t apologize.

I wanted to put them all up on the same wall at the same time, but I had a feeling if I did that, the new one wouldn’t get sent on to Sarah. Because the wall would be damaged by sadness if I took it down. And you can’t paint over sadness.

And I’m already dealing with the sadness of being nearly out of those stripes. Therapist!

AND WHILE IT’S SUNNY (because I know it won’t last), I snapped a few more pics.

I get to start playing with this soon:

Aerial view of Modern Workshop jellyroll. Thank you, Moda!

And I think I’m done with the clamshell portion of the clamshell quilt:

I think a couple of simple borders to finish it off. I was pondering taking the offcuts and making some sort of curvy border. I don’t think I’m entirely done contemplating that because there is a huge amount of waste when cutting this quilt. Please do not suggest a tiny clamshell border. I will come after you. :-)

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Sewing right along

January 12, 2011 at 2:15 pm · Filed under Dollies Online, Everyday Things, Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

How is your year going along so far? Soon I’ll be saying, ‘gee, where did January go?’ Speeding right along, it is.

To add a cheery note to the gloom of winter, I started some narcissus bulbs a while back. I am hoping that someone will remind me next year that I can’t stand the smell of the things. But they are pretty. Too bad they are banished from direct admiration in the center of the house. They have to sit in the corner in the kitchen. At least I didn’t put them out in the cold garage. Or the cold garbage…

I’m keeping the sewing pretty flower-y too.

I really like the back of this wedge circle that’s part of this month’s Dollies Online quilt. It’s flower-y with Miss Sarah’s From Little Things fabric (which is hitting the stores, I might add) (I might also add that I prefer to call it Von Kleinen Dingen).

I’ve had carefully pleated horse show ribbons on my mind lately — a local shop has some vintage ones hanging and I’m quite enthralled with them. When I flipped over this wedge circle, I thought of the horse show ribbons. Don’t mind me….

Also worked with some Kathy Davis fabric last week. This was a cut and sew in one day kind of thing. Ahhh, that felt great.

The pattern is Sassy Stripes by Toadusew from the Fons & Porter Learn to Quilt magazine. As close as we’ll get to a Valentine’s quilt, I think.

I’m also working on a big ol’ clamshell by way of drunkard’s path blocks from some Soul Blossoms fabric.

I think it’s working out OK. Actually it makes me grin from ear to ear. :-)

Stay warm and stay dry!

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Let’s do this again soon!

December 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm · Filed under Dollies Online, Quilts

Not only am I excited that we are having our first bits of snow today (yes, it will get old very soon), but also I’m EXCITED because Sarah and I would like to announce DOLLIES ONLINE YEAR 2!

Above you can see some of the fun we’ve had in Dollies Online Year 1, so we’re gearing up to have as much OR MORE fun in year two.

Dollies Online! You do love a good dolly quilt, don’t you? Well, we have a second year of dolly quilt patterns for you beginning in January 2011 — six patterns from Sarah, six patterns from me! Dolly quilts are a great way to try new methods in a small project, so we’ll be exploring a variety of techniques. We will be sure to share our tips for success in every quilt.

The program will run through the Sew n Sell site. You can sign up for all 12 months at once at a savings of $5 AUS per pattern. With the 12-month sign-up, you will also receive a free pattern for a quilt designed especially for subscribers. You can also purchase the patterns individually on a monthly basis for $15 AUS each. Individual patterns are released a little later so that subscribers have a first look.

We also share photos over at our the Dollies Online Flickr group. During the second year, we have some other choice activities in our scheming — perhaps an “along” and even a challenge (I’m thinking a Ruby Star Rising dolly quilt challenge because I can’t stand how beautiful that fabric is — there, I’ve said it out loud and that means I have to do something about it!).

We’d love to have you join us! Maybe drop a hint to Santa — we’re sure you’re not on the “naughty” list — and ask him for Dollies Online.

If you have any questions about the program, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

I’m soooooooooooo looking forward to a new year of dolly quilts!

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