Friday Felicities #8 - Flickr

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Another F-themed felicity for a Friday! I swear I'm not doing this on purpose.

As I finish up the three online bees I was involved in during 2010/2011 and prepare to begin one more (just one this time), I'd like to take a moment to talk about Flickr.

In its simplest form, Flickr is an online photo storage website. You upload your photos, group them into sets based on your own criteria, and you can even order prints and make photo books. You can send links to your photos to friends and family. If you have a blog, you can copy and paste the html code you need to put a photo from your Flickr photostream into your blog.

But it's so, so, SO much more than that! It's also a community composed of Groups that you can join and to which you can add your photos. Some groups are more passive, and are mainly about the photos, such as Simply Solid Quilts. Others are more active, like the groups dedicated to swaps (doll quilts, potholders, holiday tree ornaments, mini quilts, pouches, handmade home decor items....the list goes on!), and in addition to photos you can find lively discussion threads.

If you're looking to participate in a private fabric swap (see my tutorial about that), Flickr is a great place to find someone to swap with. Do you have a quilt top and need some suggestions for quilting it? Try How Should I Quilt This? or check out the many beautiful examples of modern quilting stitches in this group, or this one. Quilt-Alongs run by bloggers usually have a Flickr Group where you can post your progress at each step, and ask questions in the discussion forums.

Coming full circle to my online quilting bees - they're all through Flickr! You can make your own group with your own rules, or you can join a bee that's looking for participants (Quilting Bee Blocks is the go-to place to find bees that need members). Here's my final block for Sew & Bee Happy, for Molly. I loved making this wonky multi-star block.

I know I've barely scratched the Flickr surface, but I hope that's enough to make you at least want to check it  out if you aren't already a seasoned Flickr-er.

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

In which I show you a whole lotta nuthin'! Not a great way to welcome all my new followers from my Ellison Lane feature last week. It'll get better, don't worry. :)

A FINISH

I was a busy beaver this week, and finished up that secret project I mentioned before. As of today, it's on its way to a recipient who has no idea about it. So all I can show you is this little teaser:

When it gets to where it is going, I'll do a full reveal, I promise. Trust me, you'll like it! :) 

A NEAR FINISH

Remember this top?

I'm thiiiiiis close to having the binding sewn down on  good ol Wonder Wheel! Yay! It sat basted for a long time while I pondered how I wanted to quilt it, and I'm really pleased with what I decided to do. Stay tuned.

OTHER STUFF THAT GOT WORKED ON

A bee block (the last one for Sew & Bee Happy - has it been a year already?!). Still in mid-completion. Also in "mid-completion"? My own blocks from this bee! ARGH!

ABOUT TO BECOME WIPs

After my bee blocks are done, I will be turning my full attention to the Preschool quilts. I've got a plan for each of them, and I'm very excited. More on those soon too.

I'm sorry this is such a lousy update - I swear I'll make it up to you!

Go check out people who were way more productive than I over at Lee's, okay? 

Aurifil Giveaway Winners

Wow! What a great response! Thanks for the kind words about my projects - I appreciate them all!

Mr. Random did his thing, and the 5 winning comments have been picked.

First up:

And that belongs to:

Second winning comment is:

And that is:

Third winning number:

Who's 94? That's:

Winning giveaway comment number four:

Here we are:

And the final winning comment is:

And that is...

Winners have been contacted. Thanks for playing!

I'm Featured!

Looking for the Aurifil giveaway? Click here.

Friends, I'm so excited - Jennifer over at Ellison Lane Quilts is featuring me today in her Saturday Spotlight! Come by and visit, and you'll discover some answers to questions about me that you never even knew you had!

Thank you so much for inviting me to be on Saturday Spotlight, Jennifer!

Friday Felicities #7 - Fall Giveaway sponsored by Aurifil!

It's no secret that I love LOVE Fall. The crisp air, the freshly-picked crisp apples, the pumpkin pie...Oh! And sweaters, boots, jeans, scarves....the leaves turning colour...yeah, I love me some Fall. That today is the first day of Fall is very felicitous for me.

To celebrate, let's have a giveaway! The fine folks at Aurifil sent me a wonderful package of threads to use, and some to give away!

I use Aurifil 100% cotton thread nearly exclusively these days. Bernie is a bit of a princess when it comes to what she likes to be threaded with, and nearly anything other than Aurifil causes a lot of complaining of the mechanical variety.

Aurifil 50/2 (50 means the weight of the thread, the higher the number, the lighter the thread; 2 means 2-ply) on the orange spool is my favourite for piecing. It's thin (so it doesn't mess with my ¼" seams), and virtually lint-free (so I don't have to brush out my machine as frequently). I sometimes use 50wt for quilting if I am quilting in the ditch or I don't want it to be too prominent, examples of both are here in this mug rug:

Aurifil 40/2 on the green spool is a great choice for quilting, including free-motion. It is smooth like buttah, I tell you, and it has quite a lovely sheen to it. Here are a couple of closeups of quilting done with 40/2 thread in a lovely aqua (colour 5006):

1. dqs10 quilting in progress, 2. Supernova quilting closeup

Aurifil 28/2 on the grey spool is another great quilting weight. I used this slightly heavier weight to quilt my For The Love of Solids pouch here:

I also used it to do the scribbly stitching on this mug rug:

Aurifil also makes a 12/2 weight (red spool) which can be used for hand-quilting (like perle cotton), and I've used the 100% wool thread in that weight to do some NON free-motion quilting. The FMQ tended to break that thread. (No photos of that project because it's a secret!)

So! Here's the fun part! I've got 5 sample packs of Aurifil thread to give away to 5 lucky readers! Just leave a comment before 10 pm Pacific time on Sunday, September 25th, and Mr. Random.org will choose the winners soon thereafter. Good luck! Oh, and please make sure I have a way of contacting you!

Giveaway closed; winners have been chosen. Thanks for entering!

Lucky Me!

Seriously. Lucky me! I received this wonderful, beautiful, perfect swap package from Sarah of FairyFace Designs. These treasures flew all the way from Ireland and arrived in my mailbox today.

In her lovely process post, Sarah described her inspiration for this quilt as well as the process which took her way outside her comfort zone. I said in my swap questionnaire that I loved improv stuff, and grey, and monochromatic colour schemes with a pop of contrast. Boy, did she nail it or what? I mean, look at that quilting! Just like what I did on the pouch I made my partner! And can you believe she's never done improv letters before? That Q is fantastic! I love the punch of colour that the pink adds to this beauty, especially as the dot on the i.

Oh but that wasn't all, friends - look at the incredible stitching on this beautiful mug rug:

The whole package also included some fabric, some wooden buttons and some lovely postcards of Ireland. THANK YOU, SARAH!!

Enabling

My High School BFF owns a quilt shop - cool eh?

Sew Sisters is having their annual Birthday Sale starting right now for online shoppers through to Midnight Tuesday night. 29% off all fabric (including $6.99/m clearance fabric!), all notions, all books and all kits! Flat rate shipping too - $9.99 in Canada and $12.99 to USA.

Judy stocks some Kona Solids, as well as some great colourways of Metro Living! And the Clearance Section always has some cool stuff.

So go help Judy celebrate her 29th (?) birthday! To my fabric-loving friends, I say only this: YOU'RE WELCOME!

(I'm not paid to advertise for Judy - I'm just a happy customer and a looooong time friend).

Friday Felicities #6

A couple of felicitous things today, friends!

1. My partner in the For the Love of Solids (FTLOS) received the package I sent and she is really happy with it! And that makes me happy. Here's the front of the pouch I made her. When I decided to put her initials on it, I was amused to see what they were, considering I'm a Canadian, eh?

Elaine says she calls it her "Canadian/Initial pouch"

2. My local Modern Quilt Guild, the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, met last night and I always, always come home from the meetings with my mind brimming with ideas and inspiration. There's a challenge, a potholder swap (with our neighbouring guild the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild) (ignore what I said about no more swaps, mmmkay? A couple potholders are not a big deal), and so many lovely quilts in Show and Tell each month. Seriously, I usually have trouble sleeping that night because I'm busy planning quilts. At this rate, I am going to have to live until I'm about 150 to get all my wish-list projects done.

Have a great weekend - be sure to stop by next week for a nice giveaway. Better yet, become a follower or subscribe to my RSS feed (HOW FANCY AM I???) so you know when I update the blog!

WIP Wednesday

Whew, it's been a while since I've had a WIP Wednesday report! Let's remedy that right now.

MADE MAJOR PROGRESS ON (i.e. COMPLETED)...

My FTLOS swap items - mini quilt and pouch.


That was a whirlwind of activity starting right after we got home from our trip until last week when it all went in the mail to my partner. Then I made an overdue Bee block.

NEXT, I GOT WORKING ON...

A secret project. It's a surprise, so I don't want to reveal too much. Here's a wee glimpse:

OTHER PROJECTS ABOUT TO REQUIRE ATTENTION

My quilty ADD is kicking into gear. I am in contact with my daughter's preschool about doing a presentation on quilts, and working with the children to make not one, not two, but THREE fundraiser quilts. They're going to be fairly simple in design/construction (inspired by this project), and they will be large-ish wallhangings, so they won't take too too long. (Famous last words).

Oh! And! Because I'm not quite busy enough (hahaha) I have my first commission! I'll be making a family tree quilt for a friend to gift to her parents. I need to sketch a few ideas, have her choose one then give a quote. It's a Christmas gift but I definitely don't want to leave it too late. Especially since the preschool quilts will likely be needed for the wintertime fundraiser.

4 quilts before early December. Totally doable, right?

STUFF THAT I HAVEN'T WORKED ON IN A WHILE...
(...and likely won't be working on until the new year)....

All my other projects! But you know what? That's okay! I love having lots of projects on the go. Plus, I'm done with swaps for 2011. I'm also down to one Bee, so that's pretty manageable too. I'm actually very excited about the next couple of months.

I do hope you'll come back to see how I am progressing - there's an opportunity to win some lovely giveaway goodies in it for you!

Linking up to Lee's as usual, and Monika's for the first time.

For the Love of Solids Swap - extras

In addition to the "large item" we make for our partners, we are asked to include a "small item." I decided to make my partner a pouch.

I already had some blue zippers on hand, so the pouch was built around that feature.

This is the BACK of the pouch; the front has my partner's initials on it so it has to stay secret for now. I forgot to measure it, but it's pretty roomy. Probably about 8"x10" or so?

The outer colours are little subdued (Kona Medium Gray and I think Kona Caribbean for the blue bit), so I went wild with the inside:

[Somewhat off-topic, but that colour red (Kona Chinese Red) reminds me of the first bedding I bought for myself after moving out on my own for grad school. It was from IKEA - a royal blue paisley duvet cover with accents of all kinds of jewel tones (hello, 1993!!), and a sheet set in that dark red. I felt *very* grown-up and not a little naughty with my red sheets.]

Okay! Back to the pouch! I quilted it with some gorgeous 28 wt Aurifil thread in random straight lines that remind me of shattered glass.

I also included a FQ of the Kona Chinese Red, and sent off my package to faraway places last Thursday. I hope it arrives safe. And soon!

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday and Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek.

Friday Felicities #5 - For the Love of Solids

Felicitous news, Followers! This Friday's Felicity is that I have a FINISH to share! (Aside: why do so many of my Friday Felicities involve the letter F? Such fortuitous alliteration!!)

I swore off swaps and bees.....and promptly joined a swap and a bee. Whoops. Anyway, this swap was really interesting - all solids! My collection of solid fabrics isn't that impressive (mostly limited to white, off-white and 3 shades of grey) but thank goodness I'd just put in an order with Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics for a rainbow of Bella Solids (Moda). Pretty!

I browsed my secret partner's favourites, and it looked like she'd enjoy a New York Beauty mini quilt. I mulled and mulled. And mulled some more. Printed out a foundation piecing template. Mulled it over some more. Then, inspiration struck when I was leafing through a Kaffe Fassett book at the library and I switched courses slightly to a pickledish quilt.


The mini quilt came together quickly after that. I foundation pieced some arcs.

Then I needed to choose a background, and ended up with door #1: Kona Coal.

Then I had a quilt top in need of quilting.

I asked for -- and got -- some great advice from my Flickr posse and here's the final result. May I introduce, "In a (Solid) Pickle."

The centre really isn't that floofy - it's from being folded up and I photographed it at work (on the shipping deadline day) so no pressing available.

Looks kind of New York Beauty-ish, doesn't it?

It's 20½" square and I am really proud of it!

I used 5 different colours of thread to quilt this. Grey for the echo quilting, and then a different colour in each of the 4 different arcs. You can see the colours a little more clearly in this photo:

And the quilting on the front, in detail:

All in all, a solid (geddit? HAHA I crack myself up) effort, I'd say. I hope my partner agrees!

One more photo? OKAY!

There is another little goodie that was in the package; I'll blog about that in a couple of days. Patience, my lovelies! Have a great weekend!

Making Progress

I'm still on holidays from work and The Child has been having afternoon naps which means one thing: sew, sew, sew!

That's a good thing, since President of the Last Minute Club here was (is?) late with August's blocks for Sew & Bee Happy. Henny asked for a wonky log cabin in orange, turquoise, white and grey.

She commented on the floral batik when I used it in a different block for this bee so I knew I *had* to include it for hers. Now the block is on its way to Indonesia! Isn't this online community awesome? I made a block for someone in INDONESIA, people!

In order to really cement my title as Prez of the aforementioned Last Minute Club, I am staring down a deadline for the For the Love of Solids swap. September 8th is the last day I can ship. In my own defense, I was mulling over my plan, and mentally designing my "big item" - a mini quilt - over the last couple of weeks.

I was thinking I'd do some New York Beauty blocks, but when I saw this Pickledish quilt in Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance book, I knew I'd found my design. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and those middle ellipses are behaving a bit better now that I've removed the foundation piecing papers. Now onto the quilting!

This swap requires you to send a small item in addition to the large one, so I decided to make my partner a pouch using this hilarious tutorial. I surprised myself by making a practice one - I've never sewn a pouch before (though I've read many tutorials with great interest) and it's just like me to barrel ahead and go for it. Anyway, I'm glad I did - it made sewing up the one for my partner slightly less stressful. Here's the practice one; I will wait til my partner receives her actual one before posting photos as it has some identifying characteristics on it (like her initials) and this is a secret swap.

I am happy with my work! And I am linking up to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations, and Manic Mondays at SewHappyGeek!

Friday Felicities #4

What's making me happy on this Friday is that I am a Bag Lady! Yes, you read right: a Bag Lady.

I've got a tutorial posted over at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder for making this simple lined tote.

Bonus: there's a giveaway! See you there!