Party Animals.

Jason and I had a VERY busy weekend.  We were MAJOR party animals.  My grandma turned 80 last week and Jason's grandmother turns 85 this week.  On Sunday we went to my grandma's party and Saturday we went to his grandma's surprise party.   



Oh boy was she surprised.  She thought she was going dress shopping for an upcoming wedding. 



I love the look on Uncle Tom's face here.  He looks so afraid that cousin Jenna is going to dump all those candles on his lap. 



Uncle Tom is turning 60 sometime soon, so he also got a pair of cakes.  One 6.  One 0. 



Grandma Vrooman, Jason and I. 



Jason and I had made something special for Grandma Vrooman's birthday.  This is her opening the box. 



The label I made for the back using my mom's floating eight-point star tutorial.  Thanks mom!  It was a breeze to whip this one together!

Jason made fun of my use of commas, but whatever... I like my punctuation to be correct; even if only on a quilt label. 



This is the full quilt draped on my bed.  It turned out ENORMOUS and really heavy.  The neutral I used is a fabric called Osnaburg.  It has a beautiful texture to it and I really like the way it looks, I just didn't like the way it handled.  It was an experiment, so we'll chalk it up to a learning experience.  The Osnaburg stretched and skewed and frayed.  I had several spots I had to repair before and after quilting because the seam allowances had disintegrated.  Even though I really like the way it looks, I don't think I'll use it again.

The quilting on this one seemed to take FOREVER.  I used a pantograph by Willow Leaf Studio called Whirlygig in a pretty gold thread.  I thought the design was just the right density of quilting for this one.  Unfortunately, I had a few issues with thread tension, borders, and stretching fabric and it took me 7 hours to finish!  Phew!

I had a bit of help from Jason on this one.  He did about a 1/3 of the hand sewing part of the binding.  Without him this quilt would have taken forever to finish.  I forgot to measure it when it was all said and done, but I think it was about 98x115.

Sadly, none of the pictures I snapped at my grandma's party turned out well enough to share with you.  Maybe next time. 

Modern quilters break the pattern

In this morning's newspaper, there is an article titled Modern quilters break the pattern.  Featured in the article are my friends Lauren & Jacquie. 

Jacquie is a fantastic quilter.  Just look at the quilts surrounding her in the picture above.  I LOVE the color wheel quilt that's in front of her.  And the story behind the "Proposal Moon" quilt shown in the right of the photo is so sweet. 


And isn't this photo of Lauren awesome?  I love that bird fabric she has shown in the bottom of this photo. 

Photos borrowed from the Kansas City Star.  Go here to see the full article. 

Awesome Advice About Free Motion Quilting

I've noticed I have a problem with my free motion quilting sometimes.  In some spots it looks perfect, but in other spots it looks terrible.  The bad spots have the top thread pulling and looping on the back of the quilt.  I've always wondered why this happens until last night when I spotted this blog post by Leah Day. 

She explains why stitches look bad sometimes and how to fix them.  If you're new to free motion quilitng, definitely check out Leah's blog.  It's filled with inspiration and tips for doing things beautifully. 

What's your favorite bag pattern?

I'm working on another project for Fabri-Quilt and I would like some input from you all.  What is your favorite bag pattern?  I'm supposed to design a bag that's sort of a tote/handbag/diaper bag hybrid. I'm thinking a large bag with lots of pockets.

I'm looking for some inspiration for a design I'll be working on and I'm wondering what you guys like.  



That bag above is one I made a while back for taking gear to sewing classes.  It's big and has a ton of pockets.  The downfall in my opinion is that none of the pockets seal.  If it doesn't tip over in transport, everything is gravy.  It usually tips over though...  :(

So what do you look for in a bag? 
Do you like a certain kind of pockets?  Certain size?  Pockets that close?
What kind of straps do you prefer?
Any certain bag shape you like?

Thanks for your help!  I'm looking forward to hearing all your input. 

Welcome to Mount Snowhog.

We're calling that mountain of snow to the left of the Vibe "Mount Snowhog".  We have unburied ourselves from the massive snow storm that passed through our neck of the woods yesterday.  I would guess somewhere in the 12" range is what we had sitting on our driveway.  It's kind of hard to tell for sure because of all the blowing and drifting that went on out there last night.



It really is quite beautiful in my neighborhood today. Hardly anybody is on the roads and the neighbors are all tucked away in their houses.  And how gorgeous is that house across the street from me?  I think I have the best view on the block. 

Also, because my mother-in-law would insist that I spread what she refers to as "the blessings of the season"; Happy Groundhog's Day.  :)