christmas in july + rekindled friendship

I'm not a huge fan of Facebook these days, but I will give props for it's miraculous way of reconnecting you with people from your past. My dad's corporate job had us jumping around a bit when I was growing up and there are several best buds who I've lost touch with along the way. 

After moving from a suburb of Philadelphia, PA to one near Memphis, TN, I was the new kid in mid April of my sixth grade year. Talk about culture shock! Amanda and I were fast friends, we'd pass notes in class and hang out at each others' houses doing hair and makeup. She was the first friend my mom parents let me to go out into the world alone with, we hit the mall and felt like rockstars carrying around her mother's cell phone, something no one our age had at the time. Ah, memories! 

We both moved away a couple years later and despite her love for stationary and writing letters by hand, I was a horrible pen pal and we eventually lost touch. Fast forward ten years and we we're Facebook friends, though it wasn't until recently that we really reconnected, over quilting, of course! 

She's relatively new to the making part but has loved the art for a while, so we've been feverishly texting back and forth about fabric sales and sewing technique and patterns we like. Here's where that stack of fabric comes in. A few days ago we both decided to make modern plus quilts using Jeni Baker's free tutorial. We each pulled fabrics from our stashes and have started cutting. 

I've gone the "Christmas in July" route, hoping the "in July" part will encourage me to finish it quickly, considering it's almost August. Follow Amanda on Instagram @graccieone to see her fabric pulls, as well as several other really awesome projects she's working on. She's a natural and I think it's so awesome that quilts brought us back together. Gives me the warm and fuzzies!!

Hope you all have a wonderful day :D

i claim this blog in the name of krista stitched

I never used google reader. I'm not really sure why. My tech-unsavvy way of keeping up with the online quilting community was to google a blog that popped into my head, read and comment on a post or two and surf around blogland via other people's comments. As in, you leave a comment on so and so's post and I recognize you or think your comment is interesting, so I click on you to get to your blog. Or, on the rare occasion that I actually post something here, I click over to your blog after you've left a comment on mine and return the favor. This method of "keeping up" doesn't work too well from an iphone.

Since everyone's been talking about the demise of google reader I figured now is a good time to get with the program and downloaded bloglovin. It automatically transferred all of the blogs I already "follow" via google friend connect and I assume it will do the same for you, but in order to "claim" my blog I have to put the following link in this post...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

It's been working great from my ipad, although it's an iphone app so it's kinda blurry if I make it full-screen.  From my iphone I can't seem to make commenting work unless I tap the little arrow at the top right to open a post in safari (apple web browser) and log into my google account first. I'm not sure why that is.

Also, if your blog uses commenting that pops open a new window, I can't do it from bloglovin. I haven't tried it from a computer, so I'm not sure if it works differently than the app. Again, I never used google reader, but bloglovin is working WAY better for me than my old method was, so I think you'll be hearing from me more often! 

I'm not sure if I'll be blogging more often, though. I realize I'm not all that exciting, but if you want to see more from me you can view my instagram feed on the web by clicking here. 

Oh, and please let me know in the comments how you manage to "make it work" in the online quilting community. I'd love to hear your secrets!

That's all for now :D

inching along

It probably sounds crazy to make an entire quilt using 1.5" squares. And not the method where you sew long strips together then slice and rearrange. The method where you use English paper piecing and sew each and every one of those little guys together by hand.

Crazy is exactly what that is! So while several of my Instagram (IG) peeps who are inch by inch quilting along with me are doing it that way, and I greatly admire they're patience, I've got enough EPP projects going and decided to take a different approach. Working with a huge variety of small scraps eliminated the option for strip piecing, so I went with the fusible method.

I kind of just figured it out myself but after having people on IG ask about it, I googled and found this great tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman. I had drawn a 3" grid on my interfacing to help me align my 1.5" squares, but she suggested drawing the grid once and reusing it, which I might implement next time.

I used pretty lightweight interfacing, I'm not sure what kind. Something I bought a lot of a while back when it was 50% off at Joann's. I've heard people voice concerns over the bulkiness created when doing patchwork this way, but in my experience a few washings really softens it up just fine. I might end up turning these patchwork panels into giant couch pillows, so a little extra stiffness wouldn't be so bad.

The folding and sewing bit worked slick, I had a lot of fun with this part. This panel here is actually the third one I've made, the first two were much smaller on scrap pieces of interfacing, so this time I went big. On the second one I sped through it to see how quickly I could get from point A to B, but was a bit disappointed by how poorly my seams met up afterwards. So this time I took a little more care to make sure everything was lining up nicely and sewed a little slower, totally worth it!

When it came to cutting open the seam allowances, I first tried scissors but mine were too big and it wasn't working for me. So I tried my seam ripper, which worked wonderfully, gliding along effortlessly. But for the second set of seams it kept getting hung up on the first set of seams, so I just used my rotary cutter and sliced off the edges.

Ironing the seams open on this project seemed like the best way to go, since "nesting" didn't come into play and with the bulkiness from the interfacing I thought it would lay flatter. The dark/light side thing wasn't an issue either, since these colors and values were all over the board and the interfacing helped eliminate transparencies in the fabric. Normally I find it irritating and finicky to iron seams open, but the stiffness from the interfacing made these spread apart quite easily for me.

This whole quilting with teeny squares thing is a neat idea, but obviously not a new one. A couple Instagram peeps started doing it four months ago, I suggested we use the hashtag #inchbyinchquilt (my one and only major contribution to the whole thing) and soon it turned into an international scrap swap involving 10 people officially and several others unofficially. Recently a new round of swapping has started, which I'm not participating in because I still have a ton of scraps to cut from the first round and I'm not sure I'll ever end up using them all.

Here are images shared on IG in the #inchbyinchquilt photo pool. Pretty cool stuff, right?! It's fun seeing everyone else make progress, motivating and inspirational too! I'll keep adding my shots as I make headway and it will be neat to watch the new crop of IG peeps inching right along with us. Have you ever made a postage stamp quilt? I googled and found this tutorial by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, which looks pretty neat.

I'm headed off to see the latest Twilight movie with a couple of coworkers, which we've done together for a few years now. This is the last one though... Ah, the end of an era!

really random thursday

Ready for some random thoughts? Ok, here you go!

I'd kind of forgotten about Allegory's hoop-la-la swap that I'd signed up for a while back, but I pulled some fabrics yesterday and came up with a plan.



I'm thinking a little house in the woods with a bit of embroidery, too. I might try raw edge appliqué, which I've never done before, or I'll do needle turn. Do you think raw edge is lazy, or cool sometimes? I don't want my partner to think I'm lazy, but I think it might be neat for something decorative to hang on the wall.



Another thing I need to get moving on is the pouch and pincushion swap I lined up with Kris (of Duke Says Sew What, I totally forgot to link to her when I first posted this, eek! my bad!)... Like a month ago! We didn't set a deadline, but it's time to get cracking. I've pulled some fabrics for a zip pouch but haven't worked out a design just yet...

Also, I way overestimated the amount of candy to buy for trick-or-treaters. I had two giant bowlfuls and extra bags just in case. But only eight kids stopped by in a span of four hours, can you believe that? I kept telling them to take as much as they wanted but they'd still only take one piece. Go figure!



Here's Lucy the race horse and her rockin' hot devil mom. Although that little sequined bow tie looks vaguely like something a chippendales dancer would wear, doesn't it? Noted. Jon (who wore Shrek ears all night and looked absolutely adorable) loves scary movies (I do NOT) so we watched The Mothman Prophecies and ate Little Cesar's pizza. Not all that scary, really, but pretty good! Without many trick-or-treaters, though, it was a relatively uneventful evening.



Oh and check out this super cute pincushion that an Instagram pal (@satoi_yuen) sent me all the way from Hong Kong! Isn't it sweet? I'll need to make her something to send in return, add that to the list!



And here's something exciting, we're getting a new fermentation tank installed at work! It's a big darn deal and everyone was buzzing around taking pictures and watching in anticipation. They were still getting it situated when I left today, but the cranes should be gone by tomorrow.



We use tanks like this to grow bacteria for agricultural purposes. To put it simply, legumes (think soybeans, peanuts, peas) + our products = better yield! Google rhizobia and/or liquid inoculants if you're interested in more details, I don't want to bore anyone.



And then we went on a walk in the park in the brisk evening air. Lucy chased after birds and squirrels but only as far as her leash would allow. Ah, fall is such a lovely time of year!

I'm linking up with Cindy's Really Random Thursday, because as you can see its Thursday and this post is really random. Yeah! Ok, over and out :D

Sent from my iPhone

my wonky house neighborhood

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
You know what's fun? Getting mail from Australia. They have really cute stamps over there and need to use a LOT of them to send stuff across the globe. I forgot to photograph that though, so use your imagination. (think tropical fish, sea turtles... coral reef!!)



These are the wonky house blocks Erika, (@guildthelily on instagram) made me for  the far flung bee we started a while back. Someone got creative! The little weenie dog is my favorite part, not to mention the clothesline and vegetable garden. That confetti sky... I adore them.



The group shot so far, a little funky neighborhood being built block by block by a bunch of quilty peeps across the globe. Gives me the warm and fuzzies, I tell ya. Happy Wednesday!

Sent from my iPhone

far flung bee + project gingham

My very first quilting bee started this month! Some Instagram buddies and I began throwing ideas around a while back, but now we're actually doing it and I'm super stoked. We're calling it the Far Flung Bee because we live all over the globe, and there's six of us so we'll each be making two blocks a month, for six months. Cool, eh?

broken dishes bee blocks

Here's a post by Elizabeth Hartman that explains virtual quilting bees in case you aren't all that familiar with them. I came up with a bit of a twist for ours, though. We each chose the type of block we wanted, but instead of one person having all twelve blocks made for them in one month, we each make two and receive two. So this month I made two broken dishes blocks for Deb and I'll receive two wonky house blocks from Essie. The last month of the bee each member makes two blocks for themselves.

swap charms on left, my picks on right

To make Deb's broken dishes blocks, I pulled four bright prints from my stash and four gray charms from the stack I received through the Neutral and Solids Charm Swap hosted by Annaliese @The Pewter Acorn. This was my first charm swap, and I chose to send a teal bella solid and a slate/white crosshatch (both on right) that I picked up from my LQS.

mom's old riccar

As for Project Gingham, it's been a bit of a struggle. I kind of rushed into an idea I had without really thinking it through too much. First I thought I'd use a standard sheet of computer paper with a section six inches wide running diagonally from corner to corner. I was going to foundation paper piece strips of ginghams within those strips, then add white on the two remaining opposite corners.

i haven't gotten very far

In my mind, it would have been a variation on this quilt I had seen on Alex's blog. So I went crazy cutting random width strips from my ginghams. But then I decided maybe there was a much more interesting and hopefully easier (im not so sure now) way of doing it. I made this mockup in paint (then drew the diagonal cutting marks on with pencil) a few weeks ago and had planned to go this route. Where I'd sew strips of stacked coins to strips of white, then slice and dice and end up with blocks for two different quilts.

cutting diagram

I've got plenty of gingham, I told myself. Only the green machine wasn't liking this process so I've finally switched to my mother's Riccar, which is only 30 years old... and it's sewing like a dream. So there you have it. The coffee just finished brewing and I'm about to go make serious headway on project gingham. Wish me luck!

rockin' weekend recap - it's a doozy

Hey there. It's been busy over here, but I had so much fun in the last few days and thought I'd share some highlights. It all started when I finally got the motivation to put up a rad design wall in the new sewing room.

rad new design wall

You can't hardly tell from the photo, but it's pieced together and covers the whole entire wall. I know, not really necessary, but I had enough material. So why not go overboard?

Stats:
2 30x60in sheets of 1/2 in thick white foam board (which we cut in half at the store so it would fit in the car)
1 king sized 100% polyester batting (cotton batting has an ivory color to it, I wanted white)
3M adhesive strips for hanging

All in all it took an evening and about 30 bucks. I could have simply tacked some batting to the wall like I had before in the dining room, but this looks much better and I deserve the very best :P

project gingham, underway

I was trying to get as much done on my gingham quilt before leaving town for the weekend, but pressing seams open sure is tedious. I had reasons for doing it that way, but now I'm thinking it's a waste of time. Especially with the Project Gingham deadline fast approaching! Someone needs to hurry the heck up, already.

windows down, needle in hand

We then skipped town and headed to my future in-laws' place for the weekend. Did I forget to mention that the boy and I are getting married? Oops. Like I said, lots going on over here. Anyways, I brought along my first ever EPP project, these hexie flowers which I started back in January and am now bordering to make big hexagons.

uh oh, where are you taking me?!

What's super fun about the boy is how spontaneous and awesome he is. There I was, happy to sit and stitch and devour peach cobbler with his mom on the back patio, when suddenly we're headed off to a hillbilly pasture party involving lots of food, beer, live music (the boy and his friend sang folk rock songs, swoon!) loud mouths and laughter. Good times all around.

a mud-splattered Lucy-goose

Of course the dog was loving every moment of this adventure, too. We ended up camping out on a sandbar off the river, complete with tents and fishing poles and Sam Adams. Too much fun, really. But the next day was over a 100 degrees and the AC went out, so not everything was perfect. I did manage to get three blocks finished during stolen moments at the house or in the car. This one is my favorite.

a flower burst hexagon

I've decided to name it a flower burst hexie block, and while I'm sure it's been done before I can't find anyone to credit, so that's what I'm calling it. And if you're on instagram, I'm using #projectflowerbursthexie to tag all my photos so they can be in one place. And if you're doing Project Gingham with us, we're using #projectgingham to keep track of our progress. I also made a Project Gingham Flickr group, too!

I'm linking up with Quilt Story today for Fabric Tuesday. Head over and check out what else is there!

Ok that's it. Phew. Long post. Also my 100th in just over a year. I've come a long way since the very first. Thanks for sticking with me!

My Newest Addiction - Instagram

Whoa. I just figured out how to utilize Instagram properly. As in adding #'s and @'s in order to tag photos and people. It's like social networking through filtered, square pictures.

I've gotten a lot of action in the last couple hours. Soon I will rule the world!

In conclusion, If you don't use Instagram, you should start because it's awesome. If you do use it, look me up @kristastitched. You know you want to. We can be instabuddies!