White Fences Quilt

I started this quilt in 2012, the same year I started quilting. I sketched it out all cute on a sheet of graph paper.  I still remember waiting in line at my local quilt shop with the two bolts. I cut out about half the quilt. I even started sewing.

I had some notion of this quilt being inspired by those beautiful horse fences you see in Kentucky, I think.

Then I got distracted by something shiny.

The pieces sat in my work in progress box. Every time I saw them I thought about getting back to that quilt.

The years past, so much changed. I made lots of quilts. We grew up a lot. I looked at this quilt in my sewing room and thought about finishing it. I think we all have seasons in our lives where we look back and realize that we passed some developmental stage during that time. Between 26 and 30 I feel like I became an adult. Not in the, now I can pay my bills kind of way, or even, the I can't be goofy and have fun kind of way. I mean my priorities shifted and my outlook changed. I was looking for a place in the world, I stopped waiting for "real" life to happen and started living my life.

That whole time I would occasionally look at the pieces of this quilt up and think, I will finish this someday, not now.

Then, in my 30th year,  everything changed again. We bought a house. We moved to another town. We reached another life milestone.

New years eve of this year, I was cleaning my new sewing room in my new, much loved house (actually it is a really old house) and I saw the pieces of this quilt and I knew it was time to finish it.

I finished it that night while drinking champagne (no joke).

I quilted it the next day.

It was time finish this quilt. I just didn't know that I was waiting until I was home.

Quilt Stats:
Name: White Fences
Size: 67" x 68"
Pattern: Designed by a 2012 version of me
Quilting: Organic grid with Aurifil thread
Finished: January 2016

Sanibel Summer Candy with a Giveaway

Good Morning and Happy Monday my friends! I hope you had an excellent holiday weekend.

Today I have a special treat for you! It is my stop on the Sanibel Blog Hop. This line of fabric by Gina Martin (a Moda designer) is super summery and it makes me want to go to the beach. It has sunglasses, adirondack chairs, bright flowers and gorgeous summer colors.

I had such tough time deciding on what to make with my stack of fabric. Then my bestie Lee of May Chappell sent me a bunch of her patterns and I fell in love with her Eye Candy Pattern. It was perfect to show off the beautiful focal prints and blenders from Sanibel. I think you will agree.

I fussy cut those summer flowers and lined up some of my favorite chair prints. I love those basket weave prints, they remind me of lawn chairs my parents had growing up. This line is nostalgia made bright and modern. It is perfect for beaches, picnics, and cuddling by the bonfire.

The Eye Candy pattern is also pretty much amazing. To get real life all on here for a second. I have been super busy with work and my husband and I are house shopping and he is busy with work and I have been traveling a ton (a run on sentence for my run on life). Shocking no one, I got super sick the weekend I was supposed to work on this project. I am telling you all this because I ran low on time and I made this throw quilt top in two sittings. One night after work, I cut the whole thing. Then I sewed up the whole top in 3 hours on a Sunday! Stay tuned for a complete quilt top to come very soon. I need to finish it in time for summer concert season. This will be the perfect picnic blanket. 

I wanted to give you some tips for sewing up this pattern. The pattern itself is great and doesn't need too many tips, but I have a couple of general pointers.

- This pattern is really ideal for chain piecing. I recommend cutting all of the pieces in one sitting and labeling each of your cut types.

- There are three types of blocks you make for this quilt: flying geese, hourglass blocks, and your center "candy" squares. I recommend making all of each type of piece in batches.

- Once you have made all of your blocks you can decide how you want to place your "candy" blocks.

- I had fun with my center fussy cuts. This pattern is great for showing off those focal prints you fall in love with. I think it is great for showing off a fabric line or specific color story you love too.

- Try a fun background. I decided to go bold with Moda Bella Summerhouse Lime, but you could try anything. I tried to think outside my comfort zone with this one.


I saved the best for last, I am giving away a Sanibel Jelly Roll and a PDF copy of the Eye Candy pattern right here right now! All you have to do is comment on this post and tell me where you go for your favorite vacation. This summer I don't think we will get a long vacation (buying a house and all), so I need to live vicariously through you. I will choose the winner via random number generator on Sunday, April 12th. International winners are okay! Make sure you are not a no-reply blogger.

That is not all, nope! I am doing a bonus giveaway. I am giving away this bundle of 10, 1/3 yard cuts of Sanibel and another PDF copy of Eye Candy on Instagram. Incidentally, this is exactly what you need to make your very own Eye Candy quilt (minus background). Click on over to my instagram (@stitchingandbacon), follow me, and comment on the contest photo for another chance to win a bundle and pattern! For this giveaway I can only do U.S. winners, I am so sorry friends. 

There are two chances to win two prizes! Once on this blog and once on instagram. 

The winner of the blog post was comment number 3! Cassandra, who is headed off to Myrtle Beach this summer! I have already emailed Cassandra. Thanks for playing my friends!

Be sure to check out the other blog hop participants this week for more precut giveaways and fun project ideas.

Monday - April 6th

Stitching and Bacon - That's me!

Crafty Tammie

Tuesday - April 7th

DonnaLeeQ

Sally's Angel Works

Wednesday - April 8th

Jess Toye Quilts

I am a Quilter

Thursday - April 9th

Silly Mama Quilts

Friday - April 10th

Hadley Street Quilts

Gina Martin at Pattern and Hue

Crazy Good, Crazy Quilt

I would like to start this blog post with some congratulations to myself. I writing a blog post, which is a win. I only found one tick on myself at work today and we saw no snakes.  I am awake and alive.

Life is awesome.

Today in this awesome successful blog post I am going to discuss a quilt I finished several weeks ago.  

It is a bigger, badder version of this quilt.

My friend Lauren asked me to make her a quilt. Normally, I do not make other people quilts on request. My fellow quilters may or may not agree with me, but quilts are a lot of work and gifting them is not something I do lightly. But something about Lauren's  quilt stuck with me and she allowed me complete creative control and no deadline. Plus she is awesome.

Her only request was green. I think I nailed it.

It only took me a year.

But she loves it.

What do you need to congratulate yourself for today?

Quilt Stats: 
Name: Crazy Good
Size: Approximately 60" x 60"
Fabrics: Scraps! with Ikea fabric on the back
Pattern: Roughly based on Crazy Star (from Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration)
Quilting: Figure eight loops with Aurifil thread
Finished: May 2014

Sewing People are the Best People. Creeper and Rainbow Dash Pillows.

I sat down to recap my past couple of weeks and then I started to feel a bit overwhelmed trying to remember everything and commit everything that has happened to pixels. What if I forget something important?

Then I realized, you won't know if I forget something. In fact, you may secretly be hoping I forget something so I just get on with this post already. I am not Tolstoy, we can keep this down to a quick read.

So here you go, I went to Austin, Texas.

I went to Austin to attend the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting. At this meeting, my coworker and I were co-chairing a session (!!!!!). Writing about this I realize I have residual butterflies in my stomach. This is a sewing blog, so you all don't care that people came to my session or that it was well received. You may care to note that I did not vomit in the conference.

This post is not about a boring archaeology conference, it is about how sewing people are the best people. Before my conference, I spent two nights and approximately two days hanging with one of my bestest internet/real life sewing friends Amy. Amy and her two little boys picked me up from the airport, we ate lots of queso, drank some tequila drinks, I got to read a bedtime story (omg, the cuteness), we drank some beer, we ate some queso, went fabric shopping, did some sewing, did some hanging out, and ate some more.

Amy and her family really know how to show a girl a good time.

Before I left for Austin, I asked Amy what her boys liked. She told me they and just gotten bunk beds and we decided they could use new pillows. I had so much fun tailoring these pillows to each boy's taste.

Gus is five. He loves Rainbow Dash, sparkly things, and rainbows. I decided to make him a Rainbow Dash cutie mark pillow. I also fount this rainbow dash ribbon on Etsy. The rainbow lightning bolt is unfortunately something I sketched out and did not save my original. But, paper piecing for the win!

Bowie is eight. He love science, Minecraft, and paracord knot tying (????). I went with the creeper design I found through Amy's help and some google searches. I love this so much! Those patchwork pixels make me so happy.

I put their first initials on the back. Each pillow measures approximately 19" to fit in a 20" pillow form. They are all quilted with Aurifil thread and mostly pieced with Kona solids.

If anyone here has kids (or is around kids) you know presents are hit and miss. Let's be real and say at five or eight I might have thought a pillow was a totally lame present. As Amy put it, you just never know when they will forget their manners. But that was totally not the case with Bowie and Gus! They loved the pillows! They were bringing them all over the house with them while I was there and they slept with them at night! Bowie even played a game of Minecraft on his Minecraft pillow, just because he loved it. It made me happy (As a side note, they were also super polite and well-mannered).

This post is long enough. I will stop here, happy boys, happy Sarah. Amy is a rock star. Sewing people are the best people.

Love you all.

Hugs and kisses.

Untitled Baby Edition

I had trouble naming this quilt. My husband and I tossed around a couple of ideas.... Down by the Sea, Vintage Flower, Blue...

I think I am going to just call it untitled. That sounds artsy, right?

That name sort of goes with my process for this one. I just started pulling fabrics from my scrap bins and cutting them into 6 inch long rectangles of varying widths. I intentionally did not let myself pick favorites or cull the stack. If it was long enough, I cut it.

The quilt is mostly blue because I started in my blue bin. I started in my blue bin because it was too full to close. At some point I decided this was going to be a baby quilt and stopped cutting (side note: so many baby quilts this year!). Then I decided it was going to be for girl, so I dived into the pink bin. Then I threw in some grays to give it some fun.

Ta Da!

I love it. Somehow the craziness works. Is that a metaphor for life? Maybe, sometimes the little bits of ugly will make something pretty.

Too sentimental. Probably.

This quilt is heading off to a baby in Canada soon, eh.

xoxo,
Sarah

Quilt Stats:
Size: 40" x 44"
Pattern: Scrappy Coin Quilt. Idea has been floating around the world for awhile, no pattern needed.
Fabrics: So many. The solids are probably all Kona cottons and Essex Linens.
Quilting: Free motion infinity, pieced and quilted with Aurifil thread.
Finished: July 2013

P.S. - Photos were taken in front of my neighborhood fish monger. Yeah, I have a fish monger within walking distance of my house.

And I Will Use All of the Colors [now in technicolor]

The inspiration for this quilt came to me suddenly. I was trying to think of a block to assign for my month of the Simply Solids Bee (Gamboge group, woot!) and this just HAD to happen. Prepare yourself for some serious photos.

I wanted to use all of the colors. I wanted to not care about complementary or contrasting, to just let it go. It is unbelievably freeing to just improv the color selection.

I wrote a tutorial on how to make this block, which I call the wonky diamond. The finished blocks all came back beautiful, like little rainbow envelopes from my bee mates.

Then I made a quilt top (posted about here). There is not a whole lot else to say, except I love it. Incidentally, my husband informed me from the start that this is his least favorite quilt I have ever made.   He is not being mean, but the colors are just not his speed (honestly, not everyone has to like everything right?).

The back is pieced from more bright strips, an extra block, and one little Umbrella print heart. 'Cause I heart this quilt.

Happy Rainbow friends (I have to add a photo of myself, quilters have to get in front of the camera sometime).

These photos were taken in an alleyway near my house. This little gopher (?) is known as Saxapahaw Sam and he is a favorite of some unknown (to me at least) graffiti artist. The photos were taken by me or my loving husband.

This wall happens to have a bar on the other side. Therefore, we adjourned to the bar for some refreshments following the shoot. Boom.

I have a lot of projects wrapping up right now, so I am hoping to show off some more finished quilts soon. Stay tuned!

Quilt Stats:
Size: 50" x 60"
Fabrics: Assorted Kona Solids (I did not actually use all of the colors, just some of them) on a Kona Snow background. I think the solid diamond and binding are Steel. Back is from Ikea. There is one tiny little umbrella print on the back too.
Pieced: with help from the Gamboge group of the Simply Solids bee
Quilting: Infinity symbol quilted by me on my home machine with my trusty Aurifil thread.
Finished: July 6, 2013

PS - Be sure to come back for my Christmas in July post on Wednesday!

Woodpecker.

I made a woodpecker. Then I turned it into a pillow. 

I had never made a pillow before, but my guild was having a swap, so what the heck? I sure made a pillow. 

This particular swap partner had just made a Kiwi pillow to represent her New Zealand heritage. She showed it off at the guild meeting, then when I got an email that she was my partner... I knew she needed another bird (coincidentally, she entered her pillow in the Modern Mini Challenge). Right?!

She also said she liked bright solids with low volumes. My specialty. I love bright colors!!!!

I used this pattern from Sewing Under the Rainbow. It is totally awesome. Pretty easy for me as an paper piecing person (maybe I am intermediate?). It took a bit of time though. 

Then I quilted it with some randomness, but not too much. 

Also, this fabric I used on the back kicks some serious awesomeness. I am sorry to report that I got it a million years ago (okay, about 3 years ago) at Ikea. It makes me happy, but it is probably gone from Ikea world. Except, I have a bunch.... future pillows, hmm...

I really wish I had not given this pillow away. Now I need one for my house. Yesterday. 

Pillow Stats:

Dimensions 18"x18" 

Fabric: Kona Cottons (various, message me if you want details), Essex Steel, and some random dottiness. Honestly, it is all from the stash and I have no idea.

Quilted: On my home machine with Aurifil (the bestest)

I am entering this in two separate linky parties. The final linky party for the Forest QAL (hosted by Shape Moth). Also, Ellison Lane is hosting a fabulous modern mini challenge, which pillows qualify as an entry. Woot! If you are visiting me from these fabulous parties, thanks!

PS - Photo outtake. Cat has to get involve in all things. I imagine he is thinking, "my paws feel awfully cushioned on this pillow. Thanks food-giver."

A Wonky Rainbow. A Quilt Top.

I got back from Tennessee last Thursday and I get to be home for 10 whole days (archaeology is so glamorous)! I came home with a serious obsession.

You know when you need to finish a project? I think it is like when you are reading a suspenseful novel and you just need to know who the killer is? I am actually just guessing about this because I am a huge wuss and I can't read suspenseful novels without getting nightmares (okay, back off this tangent, sorry friends).

I designed this block for my month of the Simply Solids Bee (Gamboge group represent!). I even wrote a tutorial, if you want to make your own. I mailed out long strings of super bright colors with some Kona Snow.

It was pretty wonderful to come home from work all April to happy rainbow blocks in the mail.

Then, they all arrived and I had to decide what to do...

So, I did what any rational person would do, and asked Instagram. I can't remember who had the offset idea, but it was perfect.

To give the eye a place to rest, I added the gray diamond. Or we could say it is some sort of artistic commentary? Bonus, this way I get to use one leftover block on the back.

So far this is just a quilt top, but the obsession is not over, and I suspect I am going to be quilting this week!

Okay, I am entering this in Rachel's Festival of Strings over at Stitched in Color. You should go get inspired, I totally am.