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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Whack-a-Bunny Quilt Pattern

I've gotten requests for more information on the Whack-a-Bunny quilt - like dimensions, yardage requirements, etc., so I've decided to post a brief pattern for you! Most of the instructions you need can already be found in my tutorial on reverse applique, but I thought I'd go ahead and give you all some basic cutting and piecing directions, as well as fabric requirements.

Fabric Requirements

• Twenty solid charms (5"x5") in graduated colors (I used part of a Kona Pastel Charm pack)
• 3/4 yard white solid
• 1/4 yard for binding
• 3/4 yard for backing

Cutting Instructions
Fold your white fabric in half, selvage to selvage, and cut four 6.5" x 44" strips. Unfold your strips and sub-cut into 6.5" x 6.5" squares. You should be able to get 6 squares from every strip (for a total of 24, but you only need to cut 20)

To create each block, follow the reverse applique instructions here. I didn't include this in the tutorial, but to help me center my fabrics (and traced circle), I folded and ironed my fabric pieces into grids (as seen below). and lined up the center points. Then I pinned and pressed flat again.

Once the blocks are completed, lay them out in color order in a 4x5 grid. Sew the blocks into rows (starting with the top row), and then sew the five rows together (starting from the top).

Layer and quilt. The binding yardage listed above is for 1/2" binding (which is what I used for this quilt). You'll need to cut three 2.5" x 44" strips, and then follow the instructions here to complete. 

Finished Dimensions: 24" x 30"

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Finished Whack-a-Bunny Quilt

I finished binding Bry's giveaway prize, the "Whack-a-Bunny" quilt, late last night. Sorry, but all you'll get today is a quick photo parade because the fam is coming over for dinner and they'll be here any minute!

Bunny #1 peeping his head out

Bunny #2 trying to duck back down

Bunny #3 diving for cover (head-first)

 All three bunnies in perspective

Check out how well the binding coordinated! It has bits of light green, blue, and pink.

The back

 It looks so summery on the back...kinda like a watermelon (except that it's orange on the inside instead of pink, lol)

All the prints (front, back, binding) mingling together 

 And here's one more shot of Bunny #1, just for good measure :)

This will finally be winging it's way to Bry tomorrow. Thanks for your patience and I hope it finds a happy place in your home :)

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A lesson from your Auntie K

Dear little children,

Tell your parents to close their eyes, because I'm going to teach you a bad habit today. You see, sometimes your teachers and parents are wrong when they tell you to always be on time. Because sometimes, just sometimes, it pays to procrastinate....like when you don't get around to binding a quilt for 2 months, and a new Spring fabric line comes out that includes a print which coordinates with your project more perfectly than you could have imagined.

Love,

Auntie K


(Hopefully Bry also thinks it was worth the wait...*crosses fingers*)

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Make Mine Modern Swap

I've had all of my small items for my partner in the Make Mine Modern swap planned out for months. But I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do for my big project. All I knew is that I wanted to use some of Kate Spain's Central Park line. I've always been kind of middle-of-the-road when it comes to her fabric lines...I don't like or dislike them....but Central Park I love (and I thought my partner would too). So I ran over to my LQS, grabbed a bundle of Ms. Spain's fabrics, and waited for inspiration to strike.

The design I came up with isn't revolutionary, but I love the simple look of it, and it makes me smile :)  The Seneca print from Central Park is my favorite, and I chose not to cut it into tiny pieces because I wanted the lovely Springtimeyness of the flowers to shine. So I cut some large (well...large for a doll quilt) 3" blocks and started playing around with things. I decided to make uber tiny pieced blocks to counteract the large-scale print (I have Crystal to thank for getting me addicted to the look of tiny 1" blocks), so I whipped out my scrap bins and went to work.

As of right now the quilt measures 22" x 17", but I may or may not add some additional sashing. I'm undecided because I also like the thought of leaving it as is and binding with an orange and white print. Time will tell :)

(Sorry this picture looks a little dingy, but I'm running on a couple hours of sleep and I'm too tired to mess with Photoshop right now!)

I love Joel Dewberry's coordinates. That honeycomb print is the cat's pajamas!

The deadline for both my Make Mine Modern items and my doll quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 10 is April 15th, so I need to shake a tailfeather! I'm gonna try and hunker down in my sewing cave this weekend and finish everything before Monday. Wish me luck!

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Final Giveaway Winners

So I'm about to announce the last of the giveaway winners, so things will finally be returning to normal around here :) It's been fun, but definitely hectic! This Friday "Scottie Watch" will make a reappearance, which I've kinda missed. I just didn't have room to squeeze it in the past couple of weeks with all the giveaways and whatnot...but the good news is that I have a ton of cool tips and finds to share because I've had weeks to store them up! And I'll be posting later today with an exciting finished project - woo hoo! It's been finished for a little while now and I've been chomping at the bit to share it with you all!

So here goes...

Ta Dot Rainbow FQ Bundle

The winner is...Comment #465

JESSICA!

 "I'm also a follower!"

Doll Quilt

The winner is...Comment #82

BRY!

 

"I am already a follower! :)"

So there you have it! I'll be contacting the winners shortly, and if I don't hear back from them by the end of the week, I'll notify you all on here and re-draw for the prizes. Thanks for playing everyone :)

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