Mother's Day Quilt

I don't get to see my mom very often since she lives in South Carolina. We try to make it home every 12-18 months, and were last there for Thanksgiving 2011. I thought it would be nice to be there for Mother's Day one of these years since I hadn't been with her on Mother's Day since the year I left home....in 1983.  So...we surprised her for Mother's Day! The humidity in SC is way too high in May for this Oregon girl, but I did it for my mom :) 

This quilt is made with Timber by Jessica Levitt for Windham Fabrics. I've been holding onto this fabric for a long time because I knew that I would make something beautiful out of it someday. And I did just that. For my mom.

I know I took a TON of pics, so just sit back and enjoy! 

First I took a few pics of the quilt before we left for our trip. 

I told my mom that she needed to do a bit of posing with her quilt. This lady takes her posing seriously :) 

Isn't she adorable? She absolutely loved her quilt. She didn't want anything to touch it or get it dirty. I told her that I wanted her to love this quilt and use it every single day even with her big slobbery dog, Bluto (he pretty much soaks whatever he licks). In my opinion, quilts are made to be used, to provide comfort and love. And that's exactly why I made it for her. 

More Fabric??

When I came home from work yesterday, there was a white package on the entry table that was marked "Lisa".....that's it. I asked my hubby what it was all about, and he said he assumed it was Dana who had dropped it off. 

I couldn't wait to open it up! I knew exactly what was in that package - My backing & binding fabrics (The Quilted Fish) for my Riley Blake Block of the Month.

I know these are a little funky to go together, but I'm mixing at least two, if not three different lines of fabric for this BOM, some soft, some bright. 

and my Textures Right Angles panel by Angela Walters. 

I ordered this panel for the Right Angles Challenge. It's so cool with all of the colors and shapes.  I have lots of ideas running through my head, just haven't settled on anything yet. You can find all the rules and FAQs on the Art Gallery Fabrics website. There are some pretty awesome prizes to be won, so check it out! 

I really wasn't going to buy any more fabric. I keep saying that, but I really needed the Quilted Fish fabric to be able to finish the Riley Blake BOM quilt. And I really wanted to enter the Right Angles Challenge; therefore, I needed the Right Angles Panel. 

As you can see, I had to take the above pics on my quilting room floor because this is what my design wall looks like right now. 

The quilt that's on the design wall is the one I'm making for the Relay For Life raffle. My sewing table isn't usually pushed up against my design wall. It's usually right smack dab in the middle of my room so that I can walk around all sides.  But this quilt that I'm quilting right now is pretty big and a little heavy and awkward, so I decided to push my table up against my design wall so that the quilt couldn't go off the edge and pull as I'm trying to quilt it. So far, so good. 

Don't forget to check out the Right Angles Challenge!!! Deadline is June 6th. Winter Creek Cloth still has some panels in stock if you need to order one.

Hexie Update

If you've been reading my blog posts recently, you know that I've just started playing around with hexies. 

Oh My Goodness!

I seriously can't believe how addicting these things are!!! I've been taking them to work with me to work on during my lunch break, keeping them downstairs to work on when I'm just hanging out watching TV, relaxing on the deck. I even took them in the car yesterday as we headed to Portland for a concert! 

Not very many of my friends/coworkers have heard of Blind Pilot. They're a Portland band, and they're pretty awesome. They were even on Ellen's birthday celebration because they're one of her favorite bands. To be quite honest, I'm not sure I would've gone if I had known that the Oregon Symphony would be playing without Blind Pilot for a good bit of the show.I thought the entire show was going to be a collaboration of Blind Pilot with the symphony. Of course, when Blind Pilot came on stage, that pretty much made up for the symphony putting me to sleep. 

On the way to the concert, I had them in a nice little container on my lap (I wasn't driving) and there was one point when all the traffic came to a stop because people were too busy watching an accident that was on the other side of the freeway, and all of my hexies went onto the floorboard.  :/ BUT I just scooped those babies right back up and kept on sewing. So portable! 

After we arrived in Portland, we were walking to one of our favorite restaurants and noticed this! 

Hexagons! They're everywhere! I'm sure there were people around wondering why I was taking a pic of the sidewalk. 

So here's the latest progress with my hexies. Yes, I keep them in a sandwich keeper.....for now. I'm sure one of these days I'm going to end up putting my hexies in the fridge at work instead of my sandwich! I'm sure I'll outgrow this container pretty soon, so need to figure out what I'm putting them in next.  I need to find a sturdy little travel container that keeps them a little more organized. If you know of such a little container, please share! 

I seriously can't get enough of this fabric. I think I need to order a little bit of ALL of the patterns I'm missing. Hope I can still find it! I think I'll put this on my hubby's shopping list on Pinterest. 

Hideaway Hexies

I have finally joined the big hexie movement! Woot! Yesterday, I cut my first hexies and worked on a few practice ones, and they all came out great! I've done so much research on hexies (probably way more than I needed to!) and found some great resources! For some reason, I couldn't just jump in and start making hexies! I was probably overthinking it and worrying more than I needed to about doing it the "right" way.  I just didn't want to make a grandmother's flower garden the wrong way.  That would be bad. 

I already knew which fabric I was going to use. I've been hoarding Hideaway for a very long time, and I knew that I wanted to make a special quilt out of it. I only have about 5 different patterns from the line, but that's okay.....it will still be beautiful.  And who knows.....maybe I'll get some of the other ones before I finish this quilt. I have a feeling it's going to be awhile before it's complete.

I had originally planned to make big hexagons so the quilt would be finished quicker, but then decided that I really, really like the look of the smaller ones so went for the 1" hexies. I know....that's crazy, huh? 

After jumping from blog to blog to blog, and doing a lot of reading, I finally decided on this website for my templates Geta's Quilting Studio because her templates worked best with the size I needed, as I planned to cut my fabric with my Hex n' More ruler. It does take a little bit of time to cut them out, but not too bad. 

Then I read a ton of websites on how to construct the hexies. Good-ness!!! I probably would've been fine just jumping in and start sewing.  Again, I just didn't want to mess up on these things. It's a lot of work, and that would be awful to put in all the time and work and find out it was done incorrectly. So, I finally decided to use Lori's post over at Bee In My Bonnet.  Her tutorial is awesome!  She has great pictures and very detailed instructions!

So.....would ya like to see what I've done so far? It's not much, but it's only day one of the Hideway Hexie Quilt. 

Is that fabric just the cutest? Look at those tiny little birds and flowers! And how do you like that product placement? That's my HP Envy Spectre. I love that thing! And I may or may not know/love/live with someone who works at HP. 

Oh, and speaking of hexies

It's a little uneven, but it's still a hexie. And it's a delcious hexie at that! 

Riley Blake Block of the Month and FABRIC!

I'm LOVING the fabrics I'm using from The Quilted Fish, and I think this might be my favorite block so far. 
Seriously.....this picture doesn't do it justice. I think I need a new camera. I've been using my iPhone camera, but I think I'm ready to move up into the real world of cameras. Hint Hint  :)  This fabric is just so bright and fun! 

We had our Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Saturday, and my favorite fabric person - Dana from Winter Creek Cloth - brought my online purchase. I wanted to make sure that I had all the fabric I needed to finish my Sugar Block Club quilt, so I bought enough for the backing, the sashing, and the binding.  is this stuff beautiful or what??? I'll be using the stripe for the binding, the pink for the sashing, and the bright flowery fabric for the backing. I can't wait to see this quilt finished! I'm learning so many new techniques, especially paper piecing. Although I've had a little frustration, I have to keep reminding myself that it's something new and I can't always expect to do it right the first time! Right? 

I also just placed an order for the remainder of The Quilted Fish fabric from Winter Creek Cloth, so I know I'll have what I need to finish that quilt, too! 

If you haven't checked out Winter Creek Cloth's website, you should! Great fabrics, great sale prices, and excellent customer service! And her domestic shipping is only $5!!! Oh, and make sure you sign up for her newsletters to be informed of her specials, new arrivals, and giveaways! Oh....one more thing! She's also on Facebook....she's everywhere! 

Bustin' Some Moves!

I decided to link up with Kim who blogs over at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure to bust some moves....ummmmm....I mean scraps. I have so many flippin' scraps, it's not funny! Here's a pic of my very organized scraps.  Impressive, eh? 

And my unorganized scraps.....not so impressive.

I've been wanting to try the x & + scrappy quilt block, so thought this would be a great way to start.  I have a hard time with scrappy, but this is kind of organized scrappy, right? So thought I'd give it a shot. 

This is weird to me. I really, really struggle with making scrappy.  I absolutely love the look of scrappy quilts, though.  Is that weird? Maybe I just have weird fabric. Hmmmmm......

I thought I'd give it another shot and came up with this one. 

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout! Woot! OK, I think I might be able to get used to this scrappy stuff! 

What's funny is that my husband really liked the first one better than the second one! 

Hop over and check out Kim's blog and all those who joined in to use up their scraps! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else accomplished :)