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!

Quilts for Boston Still Going Strong

The drive for blocks ended in May, but members of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild continue to distribute quilts.  I am fortunate enough to deliver a quilt with a block I made!  Can you guess which block is mine?  I think some members of the Boston guild might have an idea. :)

For those of you who do not know, it's the Bento Box block made with blue and yellow Pearl Bracelets!  I wanted to take a picture of the quilt before I deliver it this week.

Thanks to all here in Boston, the US and yes, countries around the world, who have worked to make Quilts for Boston a success!

Lizzy is in the House!

Last week I was lucky enough to get into the class Fabric Pattern Design and Printing with Lizzy House at gather here in Cambridge, MA.  It was nice to see Lizzy in my home state!  

The two-day class started off with Lizzy talking about how she entered the fabric design industry.  She also talked about elements that go into the design of a collection and taught how to make repeats by hand using tracing paper.  When you do it by hand, you really learn it!  We designed a three-piece collection and selected one for block printing.

The second day was reserved for block printing.  Lizzy majored in printmaking in school and it's something she really loves.  Her passion really shines through in her teaching.  Block printing takes quite a bit of time:  carving your block, getting the painting surfaces ready, preparing the fabric, preparing the paint and then finally printing the fabric with the blocks.  Oh, I forgot to mention cleaning the blocks!  I really like block printing.  It is a great way to experiment and develop new ideas.  I need to carve out some time and space to do it at home, though! (Ba-doom-pish!)

I was supposed to attend Lizzy's talk sponsored by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild and the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild, which was held the morning on the same day our second class was held.  I had a quilting emergency that kept me up until very late the night before.  I knew I had Lizzy's 6-hour class later that day, so I decided to sleep in (and I was afraid to drive up to West Newbury on only a few hours' sleep).  What quilting emergency, you ask? I'll blog about that a little later.

Lizzy graciously agreed to pose with my PB-Complete quilt I made this summer.  This quilt has all the Pearl Bracelets that have been released to date.  We will have more Pearl Bracelets in early 2014, so I'll have bragging rights for a little while longer. 

See what everyone else is up to this WIP Wednesday!

Featured on the Boston Modern Quilt Guild

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild featured all the Quilt Market posts I wrote and took pictures for on the True Up blog.  The link is here.

They also featured my Spoonflower gift wrap. Spoonflower offered gift wrap for the first time last year -- during Christmastime only.  I hope they'll offer them this year, too!  If you are interested, you can order the designs on fabric, wall paper or wall decals.

My QuiltCon Pincushion

I've completed my QuiltCon pincushion!  My guild, the Boston Modern Quilt Guild, is participating in the QuiltCon pincushion swap that is hosted by the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild.  Though the deadline to submit a pincushion has passed, the details are here.

I am going to QuiltCon and I had some pincushion-making supplies, so I decided to make a pincushion!  I went to Martha Stewart's Stitch Fest a couple of years ago.  I missed the session on making my pincushion due to travel difficulties but they gave me the fabric and batting.  I decided this would be the perfect time to finally make this pincushion.

Stitch Fest was a launch party for Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, so thankfully the instructions were in the book!