Sew A Modern Home Giveaway Winner

Hello!

I am pleased to announce that the winner of the Sew A Modern Home giveaway is Carla G!  Carla, you will receive your e-book from Martingale.

Thanks, everyone, for participating and Happy Sewing!

Sew A Modern Home Giveaway

Hello and welcome to the Sew a Modern Home blog tour and giveaway!  One lucky winner will receive an e-copy of this book which is full of projects you definitely want to make.

I’m very happy for and proud of my friend, Melissa Lunden, who has written her first book, Sew a Modern Home for Martingale.  For those who don’t know Melissa, she is a pattern designer who lives in Portland, OR.  Her patterns are innovative and appropriate for novice quilters and experienced quilters alike.  If you’d like your very own hard copy of her book, it is available on both Barnes and Nobel and Amazon.  Melissa's patterns are available in her etsy shop.

In Sew a Modern Home, the projects are organized by room:  living room, dining room, main bedroom, boy’s and girl’s rooms and nursery.  The book also features instructions to make a picnic quilt an fun market tote. 

My favorite projects include the Sharp Turn Quilt for the boy’s room.  It would look great in light blue, gold and white or black, gold and white for both Bruin teams — UCLA and Boston!

The quilt for the girl’s room the Pinky Patch Quilt is scrap-friendly.  A great twist on this quilt would be to replace the 4-squares with fussy cut prints.  

If you are looking for fun plushies to make, Melissa has created the very cute Plushie Penguin and Octoplushie patterns.  There is also the Ribbon Lattice Playmat that is decorated with ribbon.  I really love that idea.  Melissa suggests an option using fabric instead of ribbon.  That could be a good way to use up those leftover binding strips.

The "out and about" projects feature The Bee's Knees Picnic Quilt and the Farmers' Market Tote.  I am a sucker for a bag, so I will definitely be making that!

If you'd like to win an e-copy of Sew A Modern Home:  

• Leave me a comment on this post here on BostonSewer by Friday, 8/22.
• Be sure to leave a valid email address.
• I am starting a new blog, ModGeometry.com.  If you’d like to increase your chances of winning, please leave a comment there as well.  (One entry per person, per blog, please!)
• The winner will be announced on Saturday, 8/23.

You can also enter the other giveaways by visiting the other blogs on the tour.  Some of them are my favorites and I'm looking forward to discovering some new blogs, too.  Good luck and thanks for visiting!

8/13 – Lunden Designs

8/14 – Very Shannon

8/15 – West Coast Crafty

8/16 – You are here!

8/17 – One Shabby Chick

8/18 – Cactus Needle

8/19 – Fabricworm

8/20 – Generation Q Magazine

8/21 – Martingale

8/22 – Prudent Baby

8/23 – Stitchery Dickory Dock

8/24 – Fave Quilts – Seams and Scissors

* All photos courtesy of Martingale and Brent Kane

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Sew A Modern Home Blog Tour Begins

Hello!

Yes, I've been away for quite some time.  I will be blogging over at a new site soon, but first I want to tell you about a fun new book written by my friend, Melissa Lunden of Lunden Designs.

Sew A Modern Home is Melissa's first book and features projects for the home that can be made by beginners or by you more seasoned sewists out there.  I love the book and am honored to be a part of her blog tour.  The book was released on August 5.  It is available at local quilt shops and at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Be sure to visit all the blogs on the tour and stop by here on August 16 for your chance to win an e-copy!

Laurie's Bow Pillow Tutorial

Laurie Matthews, a Boston Modern Quilt Guild member that has recently moved to Colorado, gave a cute bow pillow as a Yankee Swap gift at our holiday party.  Everyone loved that pillow -- especially me!  Laurie mentioned making a tutorial and I didn't let her forget it :)

True to her word, Laurie did write up a tutorial and I tested it for her.  I made the pillow cover and bow from Melissa Averinos' Swoon collection from a few years back.  I bought the fabric without knowing what I would do with it.  It makes a great pillow!  I thought it would be fun to switch the orientation of the print on the back.  I almost lined it up correctly. :}

Laurie has been working with Ann Kelle, creator of uber cute fabric collections.  You can find Laurie's tutorial here!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday!

A New Pearl Bracelet Project

It didn't take too long to collect all of the colors in Lizzy House's new set of tonal Pearl Bracelets.  This time all I had to do was make a trip to gather here and purchase a set of fat quarters (instead of trolling the internet)!

Above is a sneak peak of my new quilt design.

Unfortunately, there is a break in the action.  I ran out of Best Press.  Grrrrrr!  Amazon to the rescue!  I'll get some in a couple of days.  In the meantime, I can clean up my sewing area.  It has not yet recuperated from the last few projects.

Sew what else is going this WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Marimekko Unikko Curtains Complete!

This week I finished my Marimekko curtains!  I am quite proud of them.  This is my second time making curtains.  The first curtains were a bit of a disaster but were up for many years, I am not proud to say.  DH is quite proud of anything I make by hand, however, and faithfully opened and closed them even though their width just barely covered the windows.  They weren’t lined, either.

The Marimekko fabric was just wide enough to make the curtains 1.5 times as wide as the window.  Also, I used the small Unikko scale for the valance and the medium scale for the curtains.  Believe it or not, there is an even larger scale fabric that I bought.  That scale is too large for curtains but is perfect for a wall hanging or table runner.

This was also the first time I used the hemming foot on my sewing machine.  What took me so long?  It was easy once I got the hang of it.

This was my first time using grommets, too.  I suggest grommet practice for anyone who hasn’t installed them before.  

I love the selvedge so I left it in!

I was inspired by this post: http://bluesusanmakes.blogspot.com/2011/01/cafe-curtains-with-grommets.html

I used this tutorial to sew in the lining  http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2011/10/12/how-to-make-professional-lined-curtain-panels/

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday!

Wonky, Wonky Music is Complete!

Wonky, Wonky Music is finally complete!

I used the Bow Tie Required pattern by Lee of Freshly Pieced.  I loved this pattern the first time I saw it.  When I happened upon Andover's Music collection,  I knew the pairing would be perfect.  I made the quilt for my husband, who used to be a professional drummer.  That is why I put the main print in three blocks down the middle and featured the drum set.

I wanted to use all the fabrics in the colorway, so instead of using a single fabric for the bow ties, I used the orange and the red.  The background is Kona Silver.  I originally chose Kona Khaki but when it came in the mail I realized it was too yellow.  I used my Kona color card, too.  From that I have learned to order fat quarters based on the color cards and then audition them with the other fabrics.  I realize Kona Snow would have worked, too, (I used Snow for the Improv Monitor Cover) but I am happy I chose Silver.

I planned to use Kaufman's Spot On Steel for the back.  What I didn't realize was that I was going to have all these bow ties left over!  Of course, I had to use them so I decided to make them into a grid.  I love the pattern they make.  You can't tell they were originally bow ties!  The Spot On fabric clashed with the bow ties.  After looking at them, they just screamed Ash from Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics.  I thought the light gray binding would clash with the back but I think it gives it a nice frame.  What about those orange stripes, you ask?  I didn't buy enough of the Ash, so I had to do some quick improv piecing!  I think Ms. Denyse Schmidt would be proud of that!

I quilted it myself at Laurena's!  I was inspired by Lee's quilting on Bow Tie Required.  Her quilting is great -- she did not overlap any lines!  I was not as adventurous.  I overlapped my lines but I really love the effect.  I just wanted it to look improvisational, like jazz!  In addition, because drumming runs in the family, I quilted in the initials of DH's father, uncle and brother.  Don't look too hard for the initials, they are not in this shot!

Now DH has a quilt of his own.  I can't believe it took me so long to make one for him, but I just needed the right inspiration!  Maybe now he'll get those buttons sewn on his clothing he's been asking about.  Or, maybe not!

See what else is going on at Crazy Mom Quilts this Finish it Up Friday!