This, that, and the other

This post is going to ramble a little, so stick with me. (Or don't. I won't know if you leave now!) Anyway...



I wasn't going to join Rachel's latest quilt-along, but then I did. See, I had this Hello Betty Retro jelly roll collecting dust, and I found a Moda Bella Snow jelly roll for a good price here...so I figured, why not?


Here's my progress so far.


Luke took this photo of my progress.

And...thanks so much for your input on my Red Letter Day quilt! You certainly gave me a lot to think about! Here's a chart I created to reflect your responses.

Am I a dork? Yes, I am. So, to update you, I ordered a few blue fabrics to audition. And I'm still seriously considering white. And black. And gray.... Stay tuned!

Also, the lovely Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy tagged me for a Liebster award.



The Liebster award recognizes "little" bloggers--those with fewer than 300 followers. Now, 300 sounds like a lot to me! I'm surprised that anyone who isn't a blood relative reads my blog. Thanks for thinking of me, Elizabeth. Now I get to tell you about three blogs with fewer than 300 followers that I like to read.
1. Blue is Bleu: I've been reading Audrie's blog for a long time. Go for her beautiful, unfussy quilts. Stay for her wicked sense of humor.
2. Sew This Is My Life: Cristin has a great eye for color. Her gray and green quilt is one of my favorites. And she has a really cute little boy! (When I clicked "publish post," Cristin had 299 followers. So she very well might be ineligible for this award by the time you read this! What do you think will happen? Do you think it will be taken away, like Reggie Bush's Heisman?)
3. Film and Thread Now, I have no idea how many followers she has. She very well may have thousands. I hope I haven't offended you with this "little guy" award, Anne! But Anne is an innovative quilter, and her Are We There Yet quilt is unforgettable. I love her Backward Forward quilt too. She makes incredible bee blocks, and her photography is always amazing. Plus, we Alabama quilters need to stick together!

Finally...you should be watching Justified.

Season 2 starts on February 9, and season 1 is available on DVD on Tuesday (so get thee to your Netflix queue!). I'm sure FX will be rerunning the first season too. Timothy Olyphant is fantastic.


Plus it has the coolest intro since The Sopranos.

Okay, think that's about it! Told you I was going to ramble! Have a great Sunday.

Opinions, please

Cheryl over at Naptime Quilter is relaunching the Workshop in Progress. Great timing, because I could use some input!



The women of my quilting bee made these excellent Red Letter Day blocks for me last year. I've really been itching to sew them together lately, but I can't decide on the sashing.


There are so many other colors going on here that I'm tempted to go with plain ol' white, but is that too boring?


Please let me know what you think! And head to Naptime Quilter to see who else is participating.

Practice makes...dresdens!

I'm in 2 bees this year. Cherie is in both of them, so I'm making blocks for her this month. First up for the Sew Beautiful Bee: a dresden plate using Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms fabric. I was a little nervous about this one, so I made a practice block using my own fabric first.

Cherie based her instructions off of this tuturial from Sew Mama Sew. Really fun! I think I'll make this into a pillow.


With that one under my belt, I had the nerve to cut into Cherie's fabrics. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Hope you like it, Cherie!

1 charm pack + 1 yard of flannel = 1 baby quilt

I was feeling a little, I don't know, burned out after the holidays. I wanted to sew something, but I didn't want to do any measuring, or cutting, or thinking. So I came up with this equation that even my addled brain could handle: 1 charm pack + 1 yard of flannel = 1 baby quilt.

I had a Fandango charm pack...


and the yard of flannel that I won in Kate Spain's giveaway. (Like the satellite dish in this picture? Shh...we don't have satellite TV. High class here at the headquarters of Katie's Korner. Our neighbors have their dish mounted on a post in the front yard, so this seems like a minor infraction...)



I quilted in diagonal lines--I wanted the quilt to stay soft, and I wanted to practice the technique. The binding is a dot from Midwest Modern, which ended up being a pretty good match.

Now that this is finished (I don't have a recipient yet...but I'm assuming I'll know someone who has a baby girl at some point!), I'm ready to move onto something that requires a bit more brain power. Maybe Cherie's dresden block for one of my new bees?

Hobo bags

Luke has a growing collection of action figures, and we were in need of some storage for the little guys. This post on Cluck Cluck Sew reminded me of this tutorial on Made, and I was off and running on some Hobo Bags.


After I finished the first one (David Walker's Oh Boy), he demanded another in robot fabric (Alexander Henry's Ready Set Robot). Of course, I was more than happy to oblige.




Maybe this will keep his super heroes from getting lost for a little bit longer.


Satisfied customer! I suspect I'll be making more of these in the future.

15

1. ChubbyStars, 2. Colorbrick, 3. Simple Abundance 2, 4. Hooty Hoot 2, 5. ZigZags in Voile 6. All Stars (for Wrap Them in Love) 7. Arcadia Charm Bracelets 8. Play Ball (for Quilts for Kids) 9. Verna Coins 10. Turtle Power (for Quilts for Kids) 11. Summer Soiree12. Simple Abundance Scruffily 13. Hooty Hoot 1 14. California Love 15. Pinwheel Sampler

That's how many quilts I made this year. That's a perfectly sane number of quilts to make in a year, yes? Thought so.

I didn't include any smaller projects in that count. Just the big 'uns. Even though my favorite finish of 2010 was probably these little guys.


What will 2011 have in store? More quilts, I imagine. I haven't decided what my next project will be. I'm hoping I can be a little more confident and adventurous with my fabric and design choices. I'd like to try some embroidery too.

I'm a little embarrassed to tell you that I won another giveaway this week (I know, I hate me too), but this fabric is too gorgeous not to share. I was the lucky recipient of this FQ bundle from Rebecca at Chasing Cottons.





The fabric is Paradise by Pat Bravo. This fabric wasn't really on my radar before it arrived in my mailbox, but I love it! Rebecca sent along her new Eden's Garden pattern too.


Three of my favorite prints from the collection.

Wishing you a happy (and lucky!) New Year!!

One week, three movies.

aka A Very Good Week

We took advantage of grandparents willing to babysit Luke last week and saw three movies.


We saw the late show of True Grit, so I'm sure that colors my assessment. I liked it and the cinematography was really good and whatnot....but it was slow. I could watch Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon talk for two hours, which is a good thing because that's about all that happened (zing!).






















About halfway through The Fighter, I whispered to my husband, "Is that Christian Bale? Like, Batman?" He was incredible. Plus, Mark Wahlberg is shirtless for most of the movie, if that's your thing.

























I had low expectations of this movie, and I was pleasantly surprised. I cracked up at every word that came out of Paul Rudd's mouth and 60% of the words that came out of Owen Wilson's mouth. This was my favorite movie of the week.

Anything else worth seeing?

Merry Christmas!

Chubby stars

Here's my quilt from Tracey's Chubby Stars Quilt-Along.


My picture-taking fence is getting a workout! The fabric is a Flower Sugar 2 and a little red pindot.


I was worried about washing this. But I threw in a few Shout Color-Catchers and held my breath. No problems!


I used a print from Flower Sugar for the back.


Probably my last finish of 2010!

Giveaway day winner!

Obviously I'm not the only one excited about this new line! Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by my blog.

The winner is....

Lucky #651!

JANSIE

Who entered just under the wire!

Congrats, Jansie. I'm sending you an e-mail and I'll get this in the mail asap.

Two things

Here for my giveaway? Scroll down to the next post!

I made a ticker tape doll quilt for my niece using AmandaJean's tutorial.
I used my brightest and most fun fabric scraps in hopes that she'll think it's cool.


For the backing, I used this ants on a log FQ.


My corners are looking better! Hope she likes it.


And the lovely Kate Spain had a stocking stuffer giveaway on her blog, and I won! My excellent prize came in the mail this week.

The package came tied with a little fabric ornament, which went straight on my tree.


She sent me a little Kate Spain calendar, some gorgeous Fandango flannel, and (coincidence!) a baby charm pack of Central Park.


I took this picture so you could see the difference between my giveaway charm pack and the mini.
Thanks, Kate!

It's Giveaway Day!

The giveaway is now closed. Stay tuned for a winner!



I'm participating in Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day! There are tons of giveaways to enter, so I'll keep this brief.




Is it in poor taste to win your own giveaway? I suppose so...

One lucky winner will receive...
Two charm packs: Kate Spain's Central Park and Sweetwater's Sunkissed. I'm really excited about both of these new lines. I hope you like them too!

Want to win? Just leave a comment on this post. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner.

I'm happy to accept international entries. I'll close the giveaway at 9 p.m. (CST) on December 17, and then I'll pick a winner using Random.org.

Be sure to check out the rest of the giveaways at Sew Mama Sew.

Colorbrick...check!

It's been cold here (well, cold by Alabama standards anyway), so I've been perfectly happy to sit on the couch and sew bindings. (Let's be honest: I'm perfectly happy to sit on the couch and sew bindings in July too, but I digress.) I'm loving my finished Colorbrick (made from Rachel's quilt-along).


The fabrics are Meadowsweet, Del Hi, Katie Jump Rope, Full Moon Dots, Chocolate Lollipop, and probably a few others.


Full Moon Dot action for the binding.


I followed Rachel's instructions and quilted in straight(ish) lines in the mortar to make a stair-step pattern.


The quilting shows up really well on the back. I went with a pieced back. I used some leftover blocks from the front and paid reference to the quilting by piecing them in a stair-step pattern. You like? I like. I know I've said it before...but this has to be my new favorite.

Two things:

Be sure to check out Tracey's new Quilt Hope In project. She's setting up an Etsy shop to support Heartline Ministries. I'll be helping out. Will you?


AND...be sure to check back on Monday. It's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, and I'll be participating again. I think you'll like what I'm giving away...

Simple Abundance 2: Finished!

This quilt top has been finished for a couple of months, but I finally got around to quilting and binding it. I made it for the Fat Quarterly quilt along. It's a really easy way to put a jelly roll to good use.





I had some yardage of the Sunshine print for the backing, but I didn't have quite enough. I added some strips of Kona solids to make it work.


I used this tutorial on the Fat Quarterly blog for quilting. Basically, you set your machine to do a giant zig-zag stitch. I think it's a cool effect, and it's really simple.


I used Kona Chinese Red for the binding. When I ran out of that, I switched to Sunshine.


I have to admit that I've lost my ability to make a decent mitered corner. I used to be pretty good at it, but things have really gone off the rails lately. Anyone have a foolproof tip?

Have you noticed? It's December.

Guess it's time to start decking the halls! I got out Luke's advent calendar last night, and I finished sewing the binding on my Christmas tree skirt while watching the season finale of Sons of Anarchy. (Love that show, but I'm so glad it's over! I don't have the emotional fortitude to watch any more.)


I fell in love with this tree skirt pattern from MamaCJT. I love the way it turned out!


I've been collecting green and red fabrics for the last few months. I used some Sparkle All the Way, gnomes from Holiday Happy, and even a little Tufted Tweets. The buttons (my favorite) are from Alexander Henry's Sew Christmas. I have lots of fabric left over. I think I see a Christmas quilt in my future! (Someone please remind me that I don't have time to make a Christmas quilt this year.)


I echo quilted around the trees...


...and did some loopy quilting in the red parts. I've never done loops before, and I definitely should've practiced first! Oh well.


I was little nervous about the binding because, well, it looked tricky. I used Tracey's (very clever) continuous binding tutorial and Krista's tips for creating the scallops, and it looks pretty good!

I suppose there's nothing left to do but put up the tree!