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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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Dollies, dollies, dollies

October 15, 2010 at 8:09 am · Filed under Dollies Online, Fabric, Quilts

Er, quilts, that is.

I wanted to show you the fence and the apples. This is the latest Dollies Online quilt called Apple Orchard:

For some reason, this one makes me squeal especially loudly. The center is based on an antique quilt block — the quilt was made up of lots of these blocks set side by side and was all folk art-y and wonderful. If I make a larger version, I can’t decide if I would sash with fence or without and have the apples all bumping up against each other. To be pondered… I have another one of these to go with some very special fabric for a very special occasion…to be continued… Dollies Online subscribers have first dibs at the pattern but it will be available individually in a couple of weeks.

Last month’s quilt, Tumblers was also based on an antique quilt. Don’t the old quilts just make your mind race sometimes?! Is there such a thing as too much inspiration? Tumblers will be available shortly as an individual pattern.

Like the apple trees quilt, I’d like to make a whole quilt of tumblers too. Quilters have all the fun, don’t we?

Hope your week contains lots of fun and inspiration!

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It’s not a dry heat

July 23, 2010 at 4:27 pm · Filed under Dollies Online, Everyday Things, Fabric, Quilts

I think we can officially complain about the weather. Sticky, icky. It’s been warm but not the sticky, icky kind. Until now. Come on, would I have a Slurpee before noon if it wasn’t hot? You know what though, I have been so thirsty since I had that Slurpee. That doesn’t even make sense. Oh well, I’m sure we will survive.

Despite all that, it has been a lovely week in the mail box with a theme of notions. I joined in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap a while back. And some lovelies arrived from the very talented Tia:

I can’t even stand it! I’ve been moving them around the house so I can see them wherever I am. I have been super-lucky twice because Tia was my swap partner in round 6 of the Doll Quilt Swap:

Don’t you love all that stitching?! Very, very lucky! Thank you so much, Tia!

Speaking of notions, I was quick and snapped up one of the cutest seam rippers from Lynette Anderson:

Can’t. Stand. It! I think I have to put her on a shelf and admire her because I will be sad if anything untoward should ever happen to her. Maybe Lynette will have more of these in the future…but be quick like bunnies! She and the pincushions are posing on today’s garage sale find — a pretty new tray.

Dear daughter came home from the same little sale with these:

Aren’t they sweet? But, wait:

Tee hee, a whole nesting family. They have wobbly bobbly heads too (except the wee babies).

Another garage sale find has dear daughter hopelessly addicted to Tetris now. Well, I guess a girl needs some diversions when we’re not really going outside.

I’ve been sewing. I finally had an idea for finishing my SSSQ quilt-along quilt — but it’s taking FOREVER to piece so I’m not sure I’ll get it done by the July 31 deadline. I’ll show you some progress next week. Hopefully I’ll show you progress…

I also did up this quilt top — looking kind of like it has its hair in rollers at the grocery store what with the basting pins and batting sticking out:

There are several-many moving parts in those flower tops. I’m glad to be on the other side. Now to the quilting.

And a fresh release from Dollies Online came out on the 15th. Wheee!

I made it along the lines of the pink and black and off-white basket quilt I did a little while back. Subscribers have received the pattern (it’s never too late…), but it should be available as an individual pattern shortly.

Oh, don’t forget….the City Quilts blog tour is winding down, but don’t miss all of the revelatory info on Cherri and her fantastic book! You can still enter the giveaway that’s running here until midnight tomorrow (July 24).

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I was kind of a fan of the old schedule

June 24, 2010 at 5:33 pm · Filed under Dollies Online, Everyday Things, Fabric, Quilts, Treats!

Summer F.U.N.K. This summer out-of-schoolness has hit me up-side the head and I was not ready. Clearly. There is a mental recalibration that seems like it’s happening about as fast as turning a big ship. Not ready. But the end of school arrived, ready or not. I may not be able to call in sick on these days, but I have been calling in crabby. But, I think we may be headed in the right direction with compromises in hand.

Some people seem to be actively working to uplift my mood.

First, I’ll mention the new Kaffe fabric has landed over at Glorious Color. Happy!

Namely, Sarah, for one.

A parcel/extravaganza arrived. See, my birthday wasn’t over! There was a smashing Dollies Online quilt:

Little Trees! If you’re looking for something different to try this summer and you’re not already a Dollies Online member, keep an eye out for the individual pattern for this quilt — Sarah has lovely advice for changing up your fabrics with doodles! Take a gander at just some of her ideas:

There is a piece of Nicey Jane fabric — the one with the bubbly big polka dots — that I want to doodle upon.

There was also a SUMPTUOUS scarf:

Oh dear heavens! Isn’t it beautiful. No, you can’t have it, but I wish you could feel it. The base is the drape-iest wool I have ever felt. EVER. Gads, it’s gorgeous!

And? Matches the Little Trees quilt, dontcha know:

I’ll have to wear them together in public.

And she sent chocolate (sorrrrry, no photo, you understand). And one of a kind fabric:

And more fabric:

I know it’s a lot of goodies for one person, but I’m really old. And really crabby.

Thank you, dear Sarah!

Stephanie is also boosting my mood:

She sent me a LOVELY stash of Molnlycke fabric that belonged to her mom. This is the brand that was recommended by my home ec teacher in junior high. The quality is amazing and I’m thrilled to own it. She also sent along that lovely rayon in the front. Yum yum! THANK YOU, Stephanie! The Molnlycke is following a Swedish theme since I have decided to read Stieg Larsson mystery trilogy this summer.

Right when school ended, I also got these thank you flowers from Dear Daughter and Dad:

The flowers were for packing lunches and such. Awwwww. Yes, weepiness ensued. Followed shortly by unappreciative crabbiness. 🙂

Other than that, I’m trying to make headway on the to do list. I also needed to face the trimming of these:

Remember my off cuts from the Kaffe quilt-along stripes? I sewed them together a while back. Keeping them in a semblance of order is kind of challenging. That’s mainly why I thought I’d better get busy on them. Use them or lose them. Literally.

They are currently being monitored by Squidley Dudley:

He’s fresh back from monitoring the oil spill in the Gulf, I think.

And then there’s a new Dollies Online quilt to work on:

Oh, the math.

I’ll end with some gratuitous photos of flowers. I’ve been taking their pics in the mornings because I know they won’t last. In fact, the sweet peas have entirely faded after hitting their stride just last week. Sad, that.