Remaking the Junk Room (aka Guest Room)

As of April 29th, we'll have officially been in our home for a year.
 

I'm just now starting a quilt for our guest room (which was previously known as the oh-crap-people-are-coming-over-open-the-door-and-throw-all-our-junk-in-there room).

I'm madly in love with the Pinterest board I made for it, and I now own about 90% of the things in it.

My favorite item by far is a custom wall hook I ordered from CountryFolksCreations. I had her paint 'Welcome' on it, because I'm going to put water & fresh flowers in the little mason jar before guests arrive. And I plan on sewing ribbon tabs onto our guest towels so they will be hanging in their room all fresh & ready for them :)

Before we even moved in, I knew I wanted to paint the room a grayish blue color, and that I wanted to make a Modern Meadow quilt for the bed (because it's my favorite fabric line of all time!).

In came Ali with a genius idea for a Flickr group where you could adopt other people's UFO's. Kelly had a giant stack of navy, aqua & green Modern Meadow Mixtape Blocks, which I promptly snatched up.

Instant quilt, right?

...well...except for the part where I changed my mind and decided I wanted to accent the blue guest room with yellow instead of green.

...and let them sit in my closet for 8 months.

...and then decided to remake half the blocks to include more yellow.

...and then had to find 4 more prints and make even more blocks, because I only had enough for a Double instead of a Queen.

...only to discover I was a coordinating print shy, and had to sneak in one DS Quilts print from her first Australian collection.

 Here are the first 6 of a total of 9 rows I'm organizing for the top.

Whiskers ran across my blocks and messed them all up no less than 3 times. And I might have shrieked at him and flailed my arms like a crazy red-haired banshee each and every time.

*sigh* Isn't this the most soothing fabric line you've ever seen? I want our guest room to be cozy, happy, and calming.

Because I love making people feel comfortable in my home.

And so does Whiskers, by strewing himself inappropriately across guests' laps so they can scratch his tummy. Welcome to the family! Have some black fur for your pants.

I was feeling too lazy for paragraphs tonight, because there's no time for that when I have Caprese Salad to eat and Parks & Recreations to watch.

Happy Thursday :)

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Block of the Month

I'm a really informal kinda gal, and I like to avoid a lot of rules and formality if I can. If the situation requires it, I'll lay down the law, but in general I prefer to keep things fast & loose and let everyone have a good time and do their own thing.

Where am I going with all this? Well, I'm the leader of our local New Orleans Chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild, and we're a pretty small group - maybe 10 members or less, and usually only about 5-6 people are able to regularly attend. We're all about the same age and have similar personalities, so we get along great and usually our meetings consist of chatting/gossiping, showing off our projects, and then sewing the remainder of the meeting. We've been doing that for about 2 years now, and I felt bad because I was worried people weren't getting enough out of the group, and that doing the same thing month after month might get a little boring. Our meetings are about 3 hours long, so I thought it might be fun if we used the first hour or so of each meeting to learn a new block from C&T's 99 Modern Blocks (not gonna lie, I might have been inclined to choose that book because my quilty BFF (and former member) Angela makes up a tenth of it *wink*)

We kick-started the block-of-the month in February, and our first block was the Pogo Stick (on left). Our March meeting was last Saturday, and we learned the Wonky/Parisian Star (on right). Can you believe I'd never made a Wonky Star block before? I've always liked the pattern, just never had an occasion to make one before. I couldn't believe how incredibly easy the pattern was!

I'm color coordinating my blocks each month so that I'll have a sampler quilt by the end of the year. And surprise! I'm using my new favorite combo - pink and navy (see here and here) - for this quilt.

And RE my post yesterday, hot pink is the only color pink that I openly love and endorse....pastel & "regular" pinks...not so much. I'm a giant bundle of contradictions - what can I say? LOL

I used a Free Spirit solid (Hot Rose) for the background, and that piece of Japanese loveliness in the center is a Suzuko Koseki scrap that Ayumi sent me. I heart Ayumi :)

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Cherry Blossom Mini

 

I finally feel like I'm getting back into a groove with my sewing. I'm able to sew for short periods without having to wear my neck brace, and I'm not sore afterward - yay! I still have to limit myself to hour or so sessions, because I don’t want to over-do it and land right back where I was at the start of this whole mess...but I’m fine with that little compromise as long as it means I can sew again!

I started this project because I wanted something small and manageable that I could finish fairly quickly, and because I wanted to feel like I actually accomplished something for the first time in months! Binding this quilt has been slow going because it requires me to look down the whole time, which is the hardest thing for my neck (and it makes some of the fingers on my left hand go numb pretty quickly). So I wanted to start this small, second project so I could work on it when binding the other wasn’t in the cards :)

 

The finished mini quilt top measures 18" x 18", so each blossom is 6" square, and each "petal" is 3" square (pattern found here). I raided my pink scrap bin for the blossom fabrics, and for the center of the blossoms I used a leftover scrap of a Sweetwater "Sunkissed" print in Gray. The background fabric is Annie’s Seed Catalogue in black. I normally hate pinks and blacks (especially together, because it makes me think of Debbie Gibson and the 80’s), but in photography, art, and other mediums I always see those sweet little pink Cherry Blossoms paired with blacks and grays, and IMHO they just don’t look as pretty paired with anything else!

I have to laugh at myself over my color choices though, because I can’t help but think of what my friend Angela would say about it! I’m picturing her chuckling to herself at her computer as she reads this, since it contains so many colors I have repeatedly professed to hate, lol! I remember telling her on multiple occasions that I hate both pink and black, so she always enjoyed pointing out how much pink was in my stash whenever she came over ;) I told her it was a necessary evil, because a quilter needs a little bit of every color (especially if you sew mostly for other people!).

Well, despite all my protests to the contrary, it seems Angela knows me better than I know myself! Because I truly love this quilt :)

The next hurdle will be deciding on the backing...I have about 10 different ideas swirling around in my head, so I need to sit down and make some executive decisions this week. It's times like this I miss having Angela just down the road from my work - I really need another lunch-break brainstorming session with you Ang!!!

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Plugging Along

I managed to finish 2 more Tallahassee / Cherry Blossom blocks yesterday, which I should be happy about, but I can't help but be annoyed by my slow progress. I long for the days when I could marathon sew and finish this mini within a week! (*forlorn sigh*)

One thing I AM happy about is that pink Flea Market Fancy block. Even though that print wasn't included in the recent reprint, finally having my hands on a ton of new FMF has made me feel more free to use what's in my hoard.  It felt good to finally use my scrap of Pink Tiles for this project, because it looks so darn cute as a wee cherry blossom....much better than it did sitting folded on my shelf for years! Plus I like knowing that a good friend will eventually have this treasured fabric hanging on her wall :)

And I guess I can't be too crabby about my tortoise-like sewing, when I receive giant packages full of Orla Kiely goodness from dear college friends (you know, the one I have annual craft swaps with...here and here)! My friend Dana lives in NYC, and as she was strolling through town the other day, she stumbled across a shop with an ungodly amount of cheap Orla Kiely goods!!! Knowing I'm as obsessed with Orla as she is, she offered to be my personal shopper and pick up an extensive list of goodies for me :) 



I have to admit, a few hours after I clicked "send money" on Paypal, a little bit of buyer's remorse kicked in, because I went slightly crazy. But as soon as I felt the scarves for the first time yesterday, I knew I'd been right to get 5 of them! They have an amazing hand and feel like wrapping a cloud around your neck. And I mean, c'mon, they were only $12 each! Yes, you heard right - only TWELVE DOLLARS for Orla scarves that feel like heavenly clouds of fluff.  Ahhh.....





And the tank tops are pretty darn cute too. Can't beat $20 for a designer tank with a stick! I bought an extra of the bottom one so I can turn it into a pillow for my sewing room :)

And being the wise and all-knowing friend that she is, a tiny trio of chocolate bunnies from a fancy NYC chocolaterie was slipped into my package. Unfortunately, Mr. Dark Chocolate Bunny met an untimely demise before this photo was taken. RIP - you were delicious Mr. Bunny and a credit to your kind.

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The great American weekend

I did a little more paper piecing this weekend! I find it's the easiest type of sewing for me to tackle right now with my neck issues, because there's no rotary cutting involved. I just grab some scraps, piece, and then trim the seams down.

I stumbled across this pattern a couple weeks ago whenever I was looking for star blocks, and bookmarked it for future reference. I didn't really have a set plan for using it, but then I had a moment of inspiration a few weeks ago, and thought maybe if I used different fabrics for the center and background, it would look like a little cherry blossom!

I tried it out with some pink fabric this weekend, and I think it totally passes the test :) What you see is just 1/4 of a complete block, so each block will contain a total of 4 little "cherry blossoms". It's intended for a mini quilt for a friend, and I think I'm going to make it 2x2, so the final measurements will be 24" x 24" and there will be 16 blossoms total. I haven't decided yet if I want to use 16 different pink prints, or do 2 each of 8 prints - we shall see...

So. Right about now you're probably wondering why the heck I titled my post "the great American weekend". Well, I couldn't help but laugh yesterday because I did some of the most stereotypically American things possible all within the span of a day. Not only did I quilt, but we had some apples that were spoiling, so I made an apple pie yesterday morning - and what's more American than apple pie? I totally wore my favorite flouncy apron while I was doing it. And gazed out my kitchen window while I made the crust.

It's basically a deep-dish apple pie that you bake in a cake pan (I used a springform pan instead because I thought it would make removal easier, and I was totally right). The filling was so rich and fantastic - instead of slicing and seasoning the apples and calling it a day, you place them in a dutch oven and cook them down into a soft filling with some butter, cinnamon and lemon juice. For those of you from the south, it was very similar to making fried apples. So yeah, imagine fried apples stuffed inside a thick pastry crust - pure heaven!

My husband and brother-in-law are are such good sons and spent the past two weekends helping their dad put a new roof on the house he and my mother-in-law just purchased, so I took this over to their new home yesterday morning. I figured there would be some hungry men coming off the roof for breakfast, so the 5 of us ate it as a sort of breakfast pastry with coffee. It was delish. And it was gone within 2 hours ;)

The recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Nick Malgieri's Modern Baker. I haven't found a bad recipe in it yet!

Item #3 on the list of uber-American things to do on the weekend? Grilling burgers. We made buffalo burgers with fresh basil, avocado and goat cheese. YUM!

So between the quilting, apple pie, and burgers, I should probably borrow Rex Kwan Do's American Flag pants to round out the weekend. "Nobody wants a round-house kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys!"

So what did you all do this weekend? The weather has been beautiful in New Orleans the past two weeks, and it makes me excited for summer to arrive! Hope you all have been having similar luck with the weather where you are :)

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Tardy for the Party

Ulrike's Quilt Top

About this time last year, my friend Ulrike contacted me about finishing a baby quilt for her. She lives in Germany, and the recipient is here in the States, so as you can imagine, mailing a finished 60" x 60" quilt overseas would be quite expensive. Therefore she mailed me the top, and I promised to make the back and finish things up. Only, this simple project took quite a bit longer than I anticipated...

Ulrike's Quilt Top

You see....*insert sheepish grin*...I'm just now binding it (these pictures were taken quite a while ago and I never got around to posting them), and I feel really terrible about taking a full year to complete the project for Ulrike :(

Part of the problem is that it took me forever to decide on the backing. I got the quilt in late Spring/early Summer and the top was so completely fabulous that I couldn't just do any old quilt back, and it took me a full 3 months (!!!) to figure out what I wanted to do. I'd decide on one thing - and then the next time I'd walk in my sewing room and see it - I'd hate it! And that's pretty much how things went for a couple of months, until I finally found a combination I loved - some Kona Cyan, Ann Kelle rainbow stripes, and scrappy Suzuko Koseki paper piecing!

Problem was, it was early Fall by the time I got the backing together, and once the holiday season hit, I just didn't have time to do anything else with it. I emailed her at the start of the year and swore up and down I'd have it finished and mailed within the next few weeks, but then the ol' neck started acting up...and here I am...Mid-March and just now in the final stages of binding. Sorry Ulrike :( ...I'll try and track down that nun from Blues Brothers and have her rap my knuckles a few times for it...lol!

My Quilt Back

But for now, I like to pretend to myself it's a good thing I'm super late, because the recipient will be extra surprised about receiving a present this late in the game (it's been a few months since the baby was born and Presentpalooza ended). Ludicrous, I know...but it helps me sleep a little better at night ;)

Front & Back of our joint quilt :)

I wish I'd taken some close up shots of the pieced letters and numbers at the time, but alas, I didn't...I think my camera died on me or something and I didn't feel like fooling with it any more. I'm almost finished though, so once I have it bound and washed, I'll snap a bunch of detail shots.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I got the patterns for the text from Suzuko Koseki's 318 Patchwork book. That book is a treasure trove of awesomness.

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High Fives All Around

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day.

I came home to a fun little package on my doorstep yesterday. More good things to come *wink*...

And even better, last night we found the Flight of the Concords box set on sale for $16.99 at the Best Buy down the street!!! I freaking love that show. I hear Ray walking around the house humming "Business Time" to himself all the time...."cuz you know when I'm down to my socks it's business time, that's why they're called business socks!"

I don't think I've ever confessed my other addiction (besides fabric) on here before, so here goes. My name is Kaelin, and my husband and I are movie addicts. We have over 600 DVDs/Blu-Rays (that don't all fit in this gigantic case anymore), and that number is slowly growing...eek!

We're pretty eclectic in our tastes. We have everything from Thor to Chocolat to Heavyweights to The Sound of Music, and whenever I'm not sewing, I can usually be found lounging around with Ray watching movies. We're about the most content married couple you'll ever meet. Most people would probably find us boring, but we're happiest when we get to lay on the sofa together on the weekends and have movie marathons under a pile of quilts with Whiskers (with some intermittent napping mixed in - click here for visual). One of our weekly rituals is to come home from church, put in The Fellowship of the Ring, and take a "Baptist Nap". Ray always looks over at me as the movie is starting and says, "I'm gonna try to make it to Moria this time, but I probably won't". And 10 minutes later he's passed out, snoring quietly with his mouth open. Life is good :)

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Swanky Squares Quilt

This block is one of the many new projects currently hanging out on my design wall.

This particular quilt has been a long time in the making. Remember when I posted this bundle last June? Well it's taken me 6 months to actually get started on it because of time, and also because I was having difficulty finalizing the pattern. I knew what I wanted to do...I just didn't know how I wanted to do it!

It all started when I decided to make my friend Amanda a quilt for her wedding gift, and she told me she would like a Mad Men inspired one (to go with the styling of their ubercool city loft). A few weeks after our email exchange, I was surfing through Shutterstock at work looking for images for a flyer, when I stumbled across this image. After that, I became obsessed with finding a way to not only easily piece a square with rounded corners, but with one (or more) squares nested within it.

Now that all my Christmas sewing is out of the way (if I have to sew another bag or pouch I will shoot myself!), it's time to get back to my quilting roots. I already have 3 quilts in the works right now, but this project is definitely my top priority since I'm 6 months behind....*sheepish grin*

I decided the design would look a lot cooler and bolder done in solids, so I edited my original stack down to the following, and I'll be using an additional charcoal gray solid for some background sections, plus (maybe?) this Lotta Jansdotter print for the backing...but I'm not 100% committed to it yet. I wanna wait and finish the top before I make a final decision. More to come...

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Black Friday

So how was everyone's Thanksgiving? I'm still feeling a bit sluggish from all the food I ate - is it possible to have a food hangover?

But more importantly, how was your Black Friday shopping (especially the quilting-related kind)? Are you a rabid shopper that lines up at midnight? Or a sit-back-and-watch-the-mayhem kinda person?

I'm in the latter category - I have more fun wandering around and soaking in the mayhem (by the way - did you all see this crazy story? Hope she enjoys those aggravated assault charges....people are nuts!) The hubby and I had some birthday gift cards to spend, so we woke up at a normal hour and braved the mall to pick up a few items while everything was on sale. We parked far away instead of cruising for hours for a prime spot, and wandered around the mall holding hands and people watching. Then we went home after a few hours, ate Thanksgiving leftovers, and watched Christmas movies. All in all, it was a great day :)

I knew Joann's would be insane on Friday and there was no way I was gonna stand in line at an understaffed cutting table for hours, plus the deal I really wanted didn't start until Saturday ($1.99/yard Quilter's Showcase prints), so I waited until Saturday morning. The place was a graveyard, and I was in and out within 45 minutes. I snagged some seriously good deals:

I had one of those coupons for 25% off your total purchase, so for $40 and some change I got: 2 giant spools of Gutterman thread (buy 1, get 1 free), 2 large buttons (buy 1, get 1 free), 1 24" zipper, 2 yards of gray houndstooth, 4.5 yards of Daisy Mae, and 10 yards of lightweight fusible interfacing.


The houndstooth is for my mom's Christmas present. Love of houndstooth is a genetic trait passed on from parent to child in our family. My grandmothers, mom, dad, sister, and myself all share a robust love of houndstooth.

I had a coupon for 50% off one item, so I grabbed the yardage of the Denyse Scmidt Daisy Mae to use as backing for a new quilt I'm working on....

 ...and in case you all are partial to Denyse's new line for Joann's, from Dec. 1-3 all Premium Quilting Cottons (including all the DS Quilts lines) will be on sale for 40% off. And if you have a VIP Card, you can get another 10% off that price. Score!

I also ordered these ribbons from Stitch Steals early last week, and they arrived on Friday. Once I figured in shipping, I ended up getting them for $0.75 a spool. Can't beat that with a stick!

So what did you all score on Black Friday? Any awesome deals from Joann's/Hancocks/Hobby Lobby/Local quilt shops you wanna share?!

And as per the fabric policy, here's my "out" pile for the shop. I've got some AMH Garden Party, Amy Butler & Denyse Schmidt Home Dec, Heather Ross, and some out of print Alexander Henry Noah's Ark. Most everything's listed at $5/yard, and as always, you can use the coupon PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off anything in my shop :)

By the way, since I've started my new in/out policy, I've been getting fewer cracks from the hubby about how, "if it were up to you, all of our money would be spent on fabric and I'd be naked in a corner somewhere" LOL! So yeah, I'm using that as my gauge for success on breaking the fabric addiction ;)

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The Queen of Last Minute Gifts

Why do I constantly do this to myself? I always decide to make super-complicated presents mere days before the event. I can only conclude it's because I'm 1) insane, or 2) masochistic..(or both - LOL!)

This baby quilt has to be finished by Friday morning (so I can bring it to work with me).

This is where I'm currently at...

...wish me luck!

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DWR Quilt Along: Assembling a Block

I mentioned this earlier this morning, but I got my dates a little mixed up when I edited the schedule two weeks ago. I posted the date for assembling the blocks as August 19th, when it should have been today. I went ahead and fixed it on that post. If you click over and check, you might see something else that's a little different...after careful thought, I decided to add another step because the schedule jumped straight from assembling the blocks, to assembling the entire quilt top, and I felt that was too big of a leap for 2 short weeks. So...my next post in two weeks will show you how to put the rows together, and once we've finished those, we'll tackle the top as a whole :)

So let's get this party started! Here is how to assemble a Double Wedding Ring "block" (I'm using that term loosely since it's really a circle, lol!)...

First, grab one of your center medallions and transfer over the corner markings from the medallion template (the one printed on the pattern) with an air or water soluble marker. It's a big, black dot on the template that's impossible to miss. Make sure you mark all four corners with this dot, because it's the point where your different pieces meet up and you stop sewing.

Next, fold the medallion in half. Press. Now open the medallion back up, fold the opposite way, and press. You should now have neatly pressed folds that divide the medallion into quadrants. These will help you center your arcs when you're pinning and sewing.

Grab four of your pieced arc/melon pieces (the ones that look like a football) - two with intersection print #1, and two with intersection print #2. The picture below will give you an idea of how the finished block will look.

Take one of your "footballs" and line the center seam up with one of the center folds on the medallion (at this point, it doesn't matter which side you choose). We'll follow the same procedure for this step as we did for piecing the melons & arcs. Always pin the center first, then the tips, and then the in-between areas.

 Now take a look at the seam where you joined an intersection square to the end of that arc.When you pin the tips in place, you want your corner dot to line up perfectly with this seam. In the photo below, my ruler is lying directly on top of this straight seam, and you can see how the dot touches the edge of this seam. Pin in place. Repeat on the other side, and then pin the remaining areas.

Starting at the corner marked on the paper template, begin sewing. Sew directly on top of the solid black line until you reach the other corner. Backstitch and stop when you reach this point.

FYI: Someone asked me about sewing over pins after my last post, and I wanted to include the answer for all of you. For the Double Wedding Ring pattern only, I do sew over my straight pins. Normally that's a bad idea because it can snap your needle, your pins, or both...sending metal shrapnel flying about. I can say from personal experience that I've had a needle tip or two shoot at my face...it's not an experience I'd recommend. HOWEVER, for the DWR alone, I sew over my needles because it's nearly impossible to keep the fabric from shifting if you don't. And surprisingly, I'm not all that worried about it, because I sew much more slowly than normal when I'm working on this pattern for accuracy reasons. If something does fly at me, it's not going to have much force behind it because of my grandma-like speed.

Once you finish attaching the first "football" to the center medallion, flip it over. If done properly, the beginning and end of your seam should line up with the dots you made.

 Fold the pieces right side out and press.

 To attach the second football, you'll use the same process. Line up the center points and pin.

Flip it over, and continue pinning (tips first, etc.). Attach the second football exactly as you did the first.

Once your first two footballs have been attached to the center medallion, your block should look a little something like this...

Next we'll attach the sides. Grab your 3rd football and pin at the center.

When you go to line up and pin the tips, make sure you open them up and pin that way. The tendency of the fabric might be to fold over, but you don't want this! If it's folded, you'll end up sewing over that seam allowance and it will make your tightly pieced corner all funky.

Once you're done pinning, it probably won't be pretty. As you can see, mine looks like a hot mess.

Once you're done pinning the medallion to the football, you need to pin the intersection squares together at each end. The medallion doesn't extend out this far, so you're actually pinning the footballs directly together here. Starting at the tippy-top, sew a 1/4" seam. Try to be as accurate as possible when sewing the intersection squares together, because you don't have any paper to guide you. When you reach the paper, keep on trucking - you should only have to pivot your fabric a little to maintain that 1/4" seam.

 Do the same when you reach the bottom. See how I plowed straight ahead from paper to fabric?

Open that bad boy up and press. Your corner should look a little something like this...

Repeat on the other side. When you're finished, make sure you clip notches along all of your curved seams on the back side (just like we did when piecing the arcs & melons). Hooray - you're done!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Don't worry if your fabric doesn't want to lay perfectly flat, because the paper is foiling your plans for DWR Domination. It doesn't allow the arcs to give as much as your center fabric, and therein lies the problem. Once you assemble the top and tear off all the paper, it will look much, much better - cross my heart and hope to die!

As you can see, mine looks a little puckered in the photo below. Hopefully that makes you feel a little better if yours isn't crisp and perfect :)

Before you continue making more blocks, PLEASE RE-READ THE PATTERN! If you scroll down to the 2nd page, you'll see that you only need to make 4 full blocks like the one above. The remaining blocks require various combinations of 1-3 footballs, and the pattern provides you with detailed diagrams and quantities.

Happy Sewing! As always, please feel free to post questions in the comments or email them to me directly :)

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