little house in the woods

Here is the project I made for Allegory's hoop-la-la swap. I was going to wait until I received mine and blog about both at once, but if it's headed from overseas it could be a while yet and I'd like to post this fall-themed project before the snow hits!

My partner was Cori, who blogs over at Let's Eat Grandpa. She's an editor and a ninja and incredibly creative, go check her out (but come right back, or else!). I got started back when the leaves were just beginning to change color, which inspired me to pull this scrap piece of Fall Trees in terracotta, a Bella print by Windham Fabrics.

From there I grabbed a few scraps and some embroidery floss and posted this picture to the Flickr group for feedback. Cori said she loved my idea of a little house in the woods, which was good news because I had had my heart set on it by that point! I did raw-edge applique, attaching the pieces with a washable glue stick before stitching them down by machine.

I used fusible interfacing on all of the pieces, including the background, to lessen the transparency of the fabrics and to give it a more stable feel. There's also a layer of batting on the back. Then I added some bits of embroidery here and there just to pull it all together.

There's a liberated feel to it, what with the frayed edges and wonky stitching and all. I figured it would look fine in the end, and while there are trouble spots (think right there in the trunk between the bottom limbs on the tree to the right... ick!) I really love how it turned out.

I finished it off by hot-gluing some yellow duck cloth to the back and orange ric rac around the outside. Then I wrote on the back with one of those ink pens meant for fabric. Finding my hot glue gun was quite an ordeal, it hadn't been used in years and was in the very last place I looked (ha, isn't it always?!).

It actually hurt a little to part with this, I was very much in love with it by the time I was done! I actually entertained the thought of making another one for myself, but there isn't enough left of the tree fabric for me to do that, what a bummer. Here's hoping Cori finds a nice spot for it in her home, I'm sure she will!

I'm linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday, go have a look around!

Rose Star Mini Quilt - Finished

I went ahead and made a mini quilt out of my most recent rose star block, thinking it would look cute on the wall in my sewing room (once I get it back) or on the center of a table in case that never happens.

I echo quilted it, 1/8in from the seam on one side, 1/4in on the other. Why? Because I messed up and didn't notice right away. By the time I figured it out I decided to just keep going and pretend I'd done it that way on purpose (oops, so much for that plan).

I have a scrolly/swirly black and white dot print (by Alexander Henry maybe?) and thought it would look cool as binding. I was right (duh) and I'm super happy with how it turned out.

The back is leftover sheet material that my mom found at a thrift shop. It's 100% cotton and I used most of it for the backing on my punctuation quilt. I just need to put binding on and that one will be finished. I guess I should get on that...

I'd like to give a shout out to my pal, Elizabeth! She wrote a killer sweet post where she linked back to my blog not once, not twice but THREE times, lol! I was über pleased and am stoked she's joined in on the EPP bandwagon. Do yourself a favor and go check out her blog, Occasional Piece.

Okie dokie that's all for now. I'm linking up with:
Megan's {sew} modern Monday
Elizabeth's Little Quilt Monday
Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Thanks for stopping by!

My Love Affair with EPP

Since I have no Valentine, (ick! who needs one?) I'm professing my love for English paper piecing instead. It's more like that disgusting, obsessive, quit hanging out with your friends because you've fallen off the face of the planet sort of love, but I'm ok with that. Judge all you want. I'm HAPPY.

hexie flower hexies

I know what you're thinking... Maybe if I put down the needle and thread and ventured out of my living room for a change I might find myself a man. Meh.

The other day I stopped to get an oil change. While the guy behind the counter seemed to be flirting with me, I decided to walk across the parking lot to the LQS and peruse the fat quarters instead of chatting with him while I waited. Once I returned he got back to asking 20 questions, attempting to find out if I was on the market. After telling him I spent nearly all my free time quilting, he straight up inquired if it was because I had no man to tend to. Huh. We laughed because he was spot on and we both knew it.

and another pic to prove this post does in fact belong on a quilty blog

Unfortunately for this guy, he didn't meet my very basic requirements. Since my pool of possible valentines is so incredibly vast (ha) I can afford to be picky. I'll share a few things I need from a man in order for him to have a chance with this fine behind.

- Must be able to fix a sewing machine.
- Must enjoy tolerate holding bolts of fabric so my hands are free to look for more bolts of fabric.

- Must be tall enough to hold up a queen size quilt for photographing without it touching the ground (preferably his footwear would be visible, but let's not get too specific!)
- Must have a mother who owns a long arm and would let me use it anytime I want (bonus points if she has a giant stash for me to pilfer)
- Must know to gift me a bundle of fat quarters on Valentine's day (and any other holiday) rather than flowers or chocolate or diamonds. Ok maybe I'd take diamonds, but you get the idea.
- Must make the mad cash so I can quit my job and be a SAHQ (stay at home quilter) for the rest of my life.

Are my expectations too high? Methinks not.

Oh and thanks for all the feedback on my Star Flower block (in the last post), it's so nice to ask for opinions and get such good ones! I'll be sharing pics of the finished product once the sun shows itself long enough for me to take some.

Liking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday :D

Rose Star block #2 + hexie flower hexies

This is my second attempt at a Rose Star block, you can find a tutorial by Clare here.

After finishing 45 hexie flowers I've decided on how I want to piece them together. I'm adding a border to each one so they finish as hexagons, 7 inches side to side.

After making three I wished I had used two similar colored prints for each background like I had with the flowers. I'm gonna do the rest like this and maybe I'll fix the first three later. Or maybe they'll blend right in and I won't have to!

I'm now realizing the amount of work I have ahead of me but hopefully I won't run out of steam :D

Linked up over at Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday!

Hexilicious!

Oh yeah!

Here's what I have so far and I like how it's shaping up so, so much.

So much that I expanded my fabric picks and acquired quite ambitious stacks of squares.

I'll keep going until I tucker out on hexies, at which point any leftover cuts will be ready to use for some other project down the road.

Linked up at Sew Many Ways and Quilt Story!