Bacon Punk

I had trouble putting words on this screen to talk about this quilt. 

It is everything I love about a quilt. It is everything I love about quilting. 

Recently, I have been trying to shift my quilting focus towards trying all the hard things. I want to look at patterns and designs and feel empowered instead of scared. I want sewing and quilting to feel like a journey. Personally, I believe that perfecting my craft is part of the fun and that you have to know the rules in order to break them. I am proud to consider myself a quilter within the tradition and I embrace my quilty forebears. Someday, we can sit down with a cup of coffee and I will share my opinion on all the divisions quilting (modern, traditional, art, oh my). For now I will just say, we are all quilters.

When I first saw Jen Kingwell's Steam Punk quilt, I loved it. But then, the little voice inside my head told me that I could not make that. It was too hard. Templates. Curves. Appliqué. 

On a whim, I went for it. I ordered the pattern, I ordered some acrylic templates. I opened my scrap bins. I combed through my stash.

Each block was an adventure. I didn't have a plan. I just started making blocks. There was some intense fussy cutting and a large number of cats (honestly because I have a lot of cat fabric in my stash, no particular design plan). 

Because rainbows. 

Then, all of a sudden, I had all of the blocks. 

Over a couple of work trips, I hand appliquéd. It seemed to go fast.

Scraps on the back. I guess we could call this improv?

It is not perfect, I could probably point out all the mistakes. It is mine and I am so proud of it.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Bacon Punk

Size: approximately 71" x 71"

Pattern: Steam Punk by Jen Kingwell

Quilting: Shell free motion quilting with Aurifil white thread

Finished: April 2015

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.

Sunburst: A Baby Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

Okay friends. Let me just be real for a second, I waffled about what to enter in the festival. In the end, I chose my stars align, because I didn't read the rules thought that was my number one choice.

Turns out we can enter two!

This baby quilt it one of my hands down favorite things I have ever made. Honestly, if it had not been baby sized it would have never left my house. Also, it is for my bestest friend's older brother, who is practically my older brother. He just had a baby boy, who is hopefully enjoying this quilt (well, honestly the baby probably doesn't care).

It is inspired by Denyse Schmidt's, Crazy Star Quilt (in Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration). I am saying based, because I did not so much follow the pattern as look at the picture in my book. Then I decided to make a quilt that looks sort of like it.

I pulled all of the strings out of my scrap bin and the solids from my stash. They were curated to be gender neutral and cheerful. 

For the quilting, I fell in love with Denyse's quilting design and decided to fill up the negative space with a free motion, sort of organic (read: messy and unplanned), loops. I just made them on my home sewing machine while watching old episodes of TV on Netflix. I think it works.



The back is made up of some Kona strips I had left over from another quilt, some of the Kona Steel (I think?) from the front, and a single strip of Madrona Road (Haystack?) to mimic the bright star on the front. The binding is scrappy. 

I suppose my special technique was foundation paper piecing. I used paper foundations to make the star, nothing special, just scratch paper. 

Quilt Stats.

Category. Baby Quilt

Name. Sunburst Baby QuiltSize. 45"x43"
Fabrics. Kona Steel for the front background, scraps for the star, the back has some Madrona Road Haystack, and assorted Kona blues from my stash.
Pattern. Based on Crazy Star (from Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration)
Piecing. 50wt Aurifil thread
Quilting. Free motion loops (à la Denyse Schmidt) with 50wt Aurifil thread

Check out more pretty quilts at Amy's Creative Side

Actually Unpacking from Sew South

It took me awhile to unpack from Sew South. Partially because there was so much stuff, partially because putting stuff away meant it was all over.

I know that blog posts talking about tons of awesome free swag are a little annoying. I will try to keep this short. I just need to show you some pretty fabric and pattern photos. You understand, right?

 So I made some pretties. That duffle bag has already gone on two trips so far!

Max loves the duffle too. As soon as I took the stuff out, he hopped right in.

We had a secret sister swap and it was so much fun! I had a blast sneaking little gifts to my sewing sister. Then, at the end of the weekend we found out we had each other! I got a clutch purse frame (I am addicted to these now), zippers, a miraculous add-a-quarter ruler, a key chain, some swanky thread, wash tape, and the cutest tote bag which I have been traveling with for two weeks.  Not pictured, a bunch of tasty dark chocolate and yogurt (maybe not around to be photographed). Shockingly, I did not take a single picture of the gifts I made her. They were cute though.

Then... we had a sample swap. I made four little zippy pouches and then we divided into groups of five and I traded for these pretties. I love them all so much friends!

There were door prizes all weekend and I won this little print from Pen & Paint.

At the end of the weekend, Jennifer told us that she had a surprise for us. Then she opened the doors and these carts of giant bags were there, full of presents! It was a very Oprah moment. Patterns, fabric, notions, batting, books, and magazines!

Fabric from Windam, Joanns, Andover, Birch (Fabricworm), Moda, Michael Miller, Art Gallery, Alison Glass, and labels from Spoonflower.

 Coats and Clark thread and zipper (in this adorable tin), Aurifil, and Dritz pins, cutter, and mat.

Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe (from Martingale, I actually won this on the field trip), Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee (from Stash Books), Modern Patchwork and Generation Q magazines.

Patterns from Green Bee, Straight Stitch Society, My Favorite Things, Kati Cupcake, Kwik Sew (for our pajama pants, which I have not finished), and Studio Cherie (for the duffle bag)

I don't have a picture of my fancy washi tape from Downtown Tape or my sugar scrub from Old Red Barn Co. Other sponsors include The Warm Company, Pellon, Oliso (for the irons we used during the retreat), We're So Creative (where we shopped in Charlotte, awesome store), While Baby Naps donated the frames for our purses, Brandy Lynn's donated the graphic design, Free Spirit, Rowan, Ty Pennington Impressions, Fat Quarter Shop, Havel's Sewing, Rachel Gresham Designs, The Intrepid Thread, and Swatch Buddies.

Thank you Jennifer! Thank you sponsors!