Guest Posting Over @ Cutting Corners!

Eeep!  I can barely contain my excitement!  Just a quick announcement to make sure to that you know I'm guest posting over on the Riley Blake Designs' Cutting Corners blog!  Here is a sneek peak!  :)

Daisy Cottage {Modified} Bento Box Quilt

I finally have a finished quilt to share with you all!  Truth be told that my stack of quilts (which are quilted) that need bindings was out of control for a while.  I've had the chance to bind two of the quilts, have one more in queue, and have two quilt tops that need to be quilted- whew!

This beauty is made up of a Daisy Cottage Rollie Pollie, which was given to me by Cindy of Riley Blake (remember when I mentioned that I had the opportunity to go to their corporate office when I was in Utah last October?).  :)  The sashing is Kona Cotton in Ash, which is so versatile and definitely one of my favorites!

For the backing, I used a Sherbert Pips print (Play Dot in Vanilla Ice Cream), with a a reappearance of the Kona Cotton Ash, from the front of the quilt.  For the binding I opted for a Lizzy House 1001 Peeps print (Illusion in Pink).

I decided to quilt the quilt with daisies (hence Daisy Cottage), in yellow.  I really do love the quilting on this quilt, although its a bit more dense than I'm used to.

Before I go, I want to thank my sweet friend Jana her original Daisy Cottage Baby Quilt inspired my finished quilt.  They are very similar, yet they both speak to our own styles and personalities, and I love that!  :)

Lesson Learned- Becoming a Longarm Quilter

I had an appointment to do some long arm quilting today, and unfortunately I left discouraged and a bit defeated.  Please tell me that I'm not the only one that this has happened to!  

This is how today went down- I had two quilts that I wanted to quilt.  The first was MY quilt (yes, I finally got around to making myself a quilt), and the second was the Daisy Cottage quilt that I had started some time ago.  Back to the drama!  I selected the thread color and the quilt pattern, loaded MY quilt onto the machine, and when I advanced the quilt after the second pass I realized that the backing had folded over onto itself.  This picture doesn't really do the oopsie justice (or does it, and I'm just making this whole ordeal worse than it really is?).

At this point, I had two choices, leave the oopsie (folded over back) or rip out what I had quilted (an area that measures 26" tall x 67" wide), and re-quilt MY quilt another day.  Silly me, I opted for option #2.  I've spent approximately five hours unpicking the quilt today, and have not even made a dent.  My goal was to unpick and perhaps re-quilt the quilt on Friday, but I'm almost positive that my timeline is impossible.  I'll just unpick when I can, and re-quilt when I'm ready.  No need to make myself miserable by unpicking for hours and hours a day, right?  :)

After an afternoon of feeling so discouraged and defeated, I saw Stuart cuddled up in my currently imperfect quilt, made me smile.  He loves my quilt just the way it is, and if ever  again (fingers crossed!) the back of my quilt folds over onto itself, I too will love my imperfect quilt.  Lesson learned!  :)

Best Valentine's Present....EVER!

Hi Friends!  I hope everyone is having a fantastic week.  I just wanted to pop in, as Thomas and I were hard at work last night finishing up my new (and very large!) design wall!  I had mentioned that I wanted to build one, and Thomas made me one for Valentine's Day.  He is great, isn't he?  :)

The design wall measures approximately 6' x 6', is made with foam insulation, and attached to a wood frame.  Thanks to the design wall, I no longer have to lay out my quilts on the floor and subsequently block the sewing room off from the dogs with a baby gate (why is is that they always want to lay on whatever I'm working on!?!).

You may notice as well, that I've rearranged the sewing room a bit.  I moved some of the larger furniture out to accommodate the design wall, that and the small room was feeling way to claustrophobic!  One day when I'm not creating, and my studio is clean, I'll post a photo of the new layout for your viewing pleasure!  :) 

LA Quilt Shops Part 2: The Urban Craft Center

After leaving Sew Modern in West LA, Stephanie, Kristin, and I made a quick drive to The Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica.  A month or so ago Thomas and I were in Santa Monica, as we had tickets for Ovo.  I had read about The Urban Craft Center online, and so we stopped in to take a look.  I fell in love with the store, and thought it would be a hit with Stephanie and Kristin (lucky Kristin, she actually lives close enough to take their classes!).

 

One of my favorite things about The Urban Craft Center is that it is a one-stop shop for all of your crafting needs.  They teach and embrace all sorts of crafts, which is such a wonderful outlook!

Stephanie and I surrounded by beautiful fabrics.  The Urban Craft Center doesn't have a ton of fabric, but what they do have is great.  They have a lot of Japanese fabrics, a couple Moda lines, and all of the Amy Butler fabrics were on sale!

The Urban Craft Center is big on classes, which I love!  Saturday they were having a paper making class (pictured above).  They offer knitting, sewing, embroidery, soap making, bookbinding, and Yudu Screen Printing classes (just to name a few!).

Last but not least, this is their yarn, felt, and book section.  I wish I was a bit more handy with my crochet hooks, as they had yarns in such gorgeous colors!

PS- Can you believe that I've blogged three days in a row!?!  Hopefully this becomes the norm...only time will tell!