Sneek Peek of Tomorrow's Post

Happy Tuesday!

Today is a sneak peek of tomorrow's post. 

Just a quick picture of a little patriotic project I did recently.

Join me tomorrow for the full reveal!

Have a great day!



Swaps

Hey there everyone!

Hope your Monday is starting off well.  I want to talk quickly on Swaps.  I have done a number of swaps over the past few years and I will discuss a lot of them in the coming weeks.

Recently, I decided to participate in a swap that was run by a good friend.  It was a Doll Quilt Swap.  I decided to use a charm square pack that I had and did some improv piecing.  I took three charms squares in the same colorways, stacked them and cut them twice.  I switched up the pieces, sewed them together and then cut them in different shapes.  I then used Orange Kona for the background and pieced them to make blocks.  Below is what I came up with:

I also made a mug rug to go along with it!  I did straight line quilting on both.  I also took the charm squares I had left, cut them in half and them sewed them together to make an interesting binding for both.  I really enjoyed working on the project.  It was so much fun to do some improv piecing.  I named it "Big Orange Backcountry" since I live here in the heart of East TN and because we have many great backcountry trails to explore, in which you will find many beautiful flowers.  The recipient really like her doll quilt and mug rug and I had a blast making it!

This is just one of the most recent swaps I have done.  I will be talking about many others as we go along and will give you some resources to find out more. 

Join me as we dive into the fun of swaps!

Have a great day!

The Beginning of a New Adventure

Quilt Beginnings

My grandmother used to make quilts way back when.  I remember my summers growing up and going to her house in West Virginia, and it seemed that she always was sewing or quilting.  I think she made a lot of quilts and they were beautiful.  I never really thought a lot about it or really appreciated the fact that she made them...until a few years ago.  I will always have great memories of those days of visiting her house. 

Years ago, I used to work for a very well known cable tv network company whose focus is on home and garden.  I think you know the network as HGTV.  In the early beginnings of the network, there was a show called "Simply Quilts" with Alex Anderson.  One of my first jobs in the company was to watch show episodes as they came in to the library, before they aired, for any technical problems.  As one of the only girls in this department, I often had to watch all the craft shows, because the guys did not want to.  That was perfectly fine with me, because I didnt have to watch as many of the remodeling shows!  I used to watch this show and just be in total awe of all the quilts that were shown.  I thought to myself, "I would never be able to make a quilt myself!"  I never thought, all those years ago, that it would have such a profound affect on me.

  Well, that was back in about 1998.  In November of 2009, I bought a sewing machine.  My only purpose at the time was to sew on my handmade cards. LOL  Little did I know that I would soon start sewing and quilting.  I have come a long way since then and this is where you will hear all about my quilting adventures from the past few years and into the future!

Please join me on this adventure of doing something I truly love!

Quilt Ramblings Starting Tomorrow

Hello!

     I have decided to focus my blog more on my quilting and sewing adventures.  Since we start the next half of the year tomorrow, I plan to start posting pictures and quick posts about all things sewing and quilting.  Some days my posts will consist of my past projects.  Some days, you may see projects in progress and other days you may get some kind of information from the sewing/quilting world.

     Please join me on this adventure as I try to grow to be a better quilter! 

Lets have some fun with all our projects!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012 at Amy's Creative Side

     My name is Stephanie and I am so excited to be participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the very first time!  I want to thank Amy for this truly amazing quilt festival!  I love quilts and the Modern movement and I am part of our local Modern Quilt Guild in Knoxville.  I have enjoyed looking at all the quilts over the past couple of years, but I never entered one and this spring, I decided to change that.  It is truly amazing to see all the wonderful quilters and their designs and I am so inspired by all of them! 

     The quilt I am featuring is called "Orange Slice" and it is the very first big quilt that I made.  It is approximately 60" x 80".  I had only been sewing and quilting for about a year and had done mostly smaller baby quilts.  Then, in January 2011, I decided to join the ps i quilt Postage Stamp Quilt Along.  I was so excited to do a quilt along, but didn't know what kind of jelly roll or fabric to use.  Some were using the Sweetwater line featured for the quilt along and some were going very scrappy. 

     I only had two jelly rolls at the time and I just loved the "Fresh Squeezed" line by Sandy Gervais by Moda, in my stash.  It was so bright and yummy and of course, I live in Tennessee...Go Vols!!  As I looked at some of the others' fabric choices, I noticed that many were using a very light, neutral background with their jelly rolls.  While that was great for some lines of fabric, I wanted to go bright and bold!  So after some debating, I found the RK Kona Orange, which was an absolute perfect match for this!

     I cut up all the fabric, put all the colors together, followed all directions and came up with this beautiful quilt top.  I had no idea at the time it would be so striking with the movement of color! 

     I decided to use some of the left over strips on the back, paired with RK Kona Turquoise. 

     Then, I was trying to decide how I wanted to quilt this quilt. I held on to it and waited and waited.  In November 2011, about nine months after I had finished the quilt top, I found a wonderful long arm quilter, Sharon, who was just starting out and had done some amazing work on charity quilts for our guild. After talking with her, she found this fun, citrus quilt pattern to quilt my quilt! It is absolutely perfect and just what I wanted!!! 

     It turned out so beautiful!

     I decided to bind the quilt with some of the fabric I had bought in the "Fresh Squeezed" line that was turquoise with orange flowers.  This fabric was perfect to tie the whole quilt together. 

     Now, when I do binding, to be different, I have learned to use what some call, a feather stitch, on my quilts.  I love this stitch!!  It is unusual and adds a touch of flair.

     The quilt along was such a wonderful learning experience!   I am very proud of all the work that went into this first big quilt and it is, by far, my favorite!  Recently, I took my quilt to our KMQG quilt retreat. We had such a wonderful time and there just happened to be a beautiful sunset up in the mountains, so I got several pictures of my quilt on the porch. 

     Thank you for taking the time to stop by!  I hope I have inspired you to quilt something beautiful!

Easter Treats

Happy Thursday!

I hope you are having a wonderful day! 

Hop on over to the SP Stamps Blog and check out my Easter treats!  This is a cute little way to add a little extra pop to your child's Easter basket or to your Esater table!

Have a wonderful day and a very Blessed Easter!

SP & Company Stamps--Happy Birthday Card

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you are having a wonderful day!  Please hop on over to the SP Stamps Blog today to see all the fun!  I have a sneek preview over there for this card!  This is a great set call Mustache Madness!  I love it because it has many differnt sayings, plus Happy Birthday!

Card size:  4.25" x 5.5"

SP & Stamps:  Mustache Madness

Have a great day!