Join a Quilting Bee in 2015!

One of my favorite things that I did in 2014 was take part in my very first quilt bee! I saw on Instagram that someone was getting groups (or hives) together for a bee using a book my friend Lindsay wrote! (see book here). I had never done a bee before and thought it would be fun to try.

A bee, for those of you who havent done one before, is made up of 12 people, and it takes a 1 year commitment. This is because each person in the bee gets assigned a month that is "theirs." When it is your month, you chose the block and the color scheme, and the 11 other people in your bee make the block that you have chosen. I have seen bees where people mail out fabric to the other group members, but I really enjoyed seeing what other people had in their stash, and having the chance to receive fabrics that I had never bought or even seen before! The 11 other members are to send their completed block to you by the end of your month, and then, ideally, they have 12 (or sometimes 24, if the block is smaller) blocks with which to make their own quilt! Then the next month begins and you get a new block assignment from someone else!

Some of the blocks I have made in my bee this year

There was a lot that I loved about the bee (and I've written about it in more detail here). It was really fun and interesting to me to see what color combinations people requested, and it is fun to work in a palate that you dont normally work in. It's a good way to stretch your design sensibility, I think. I also liked that a lot of this bee took place on Instagram, a really fun way to connect and see peoples progress. Sewing is such a visual hobby, and has a history of companionship, back when quilt bees were worked on all together in person, and I like that Instagram can help create a modern version of this. For all the bad things that people say about technology making us more isolated and removed from human interaction, I think it also has the ability to bring you close to people that you wouldnt get to meet or interact with otherwise.

Good, old-fashioned fun! (image from here)

And that brings me to the bees I'd like to get started this year! What better time than now to start something new!

1. The Tennessee Local Bee (#tnlocalhoneybee)-- I'd love to start a bee of people living in or around Nashville (or just TN in general if there arent enough people interested in town). I would love to incorporate some of the in-person aspects of the quilting bee, such as coming together to help baste large quilts (and being able to take advantage of the large table in the store to make this so much easier!), to possibly having group quilting days, hanging out drinking tea, and having the option of choosing any fabric at the store to use and have it available at a discount. This can be open to all levels of skill, so dont be shy if you have never done a bee.

2. The Newbie Bee (#newbiebee2015)-- For first timers! A great place to start, and I will post throughout the year and be available to answer any questions that may arise. This will be for beginner-intermediate skill levels, and you will also receive discounts at the online Etsy portion of The Fabric Studio throughout the year.

3. Paper-Piecing/ Advanced Block Bee (#challengeacceptedbee2015)-- Is 2015 the year you'd like to push yourself to try more difficult blocks, and maybe learn a few new techniques? Maybe you've seen some of From Blank Pages' amazing paper-pieced quilts but thought there was no way you could ever make 12 of the same thing (I know I have). I think (and hope!) this bee will create some really spectacular quilts that just might not be possible on your own. Keep in mind for this bee people may be choosing paper piecing patterns that you would need to purchase (usually these are less than $10, though there are also tons of free ones available) but just think of it as a way to expand your pattern library and help independent pattern designers. Discounts from The Fabric Studio will also apply.

So, if any of these sound tempting and fun to you, please do join! You can leave a comment with your email and which bee you'd like to join, and I'll be emailing you with info in the next week. Looking forward to a fun and quilt-y 2015!!

Some of my favorite #moderninstabee2014 quilts
(from instagrm users @alexandra1008, @heatherisgr8, @tennjenny, and @tifray)

Happy New Years!

Well, we can' move forward into a new year without taking a quick look back first! Although I originally made little quick slid shoes of pictures, I can't get them to load here! So instead of showing you everything I made and did, I will chose to edit it down to 9 favorites in a few different categories!

Favorite Store Moments!

This was a big year for me, with the store opening and everything that came along with that! I absolutely loved taking and teaching classes at the shop, doing my first quilting bee, having the outdoor quilt show, and being able to spend so much creative, productive time in this sunny little place I'm building! There were so many fun new things, like going to quilt market, filming for The Sewing Party, the outdoor quilt show, participating in Sewvivor, and so much more! It hasn't always been easy, but it's always been interesting, and that's way better anyway!

Favorite Quilts, 2014

Now on to the favorite results of my favorite thing to make: quilts! My records show that I made almost 30 quilts this year, if you include a few minis (which I do, because they can still take forever!) And they all had a special place in my heart, but here are my top 9! I guess I can see a bit of a theme, color wise, as they dont look especially different from each other, so maybe 2015 i branch out? That or I settle into a signature style. See more here!

Garment Makes 2014

I also explored the wide and wonderful world of garment sewing for the first time with any real success this year! From my first Briar Tee to dip my toes into knits, to the McCalls pattern I have almost successfully finished, to finally attempting button holes, I am proud of the things I tried this year! Though they weren't all successes, I am happy with the additions I have to my wardrobe, and the possibilities for what else I can learn in the coming year.

Thanks for following along on this adventure with me. Looking forward to sharing 2015 with you as well!!

xoxo
Nancy

The Ohio Quilt

Click here to purchase this pattern!

Hello all! Great news to report-- I have released my first quilt pattern for "The Ohio Quilt"! This is a really fun, pixelated version of the great state of Ohio. The making of the quilt pattern came about after Devon sent me a customer wanting an Ohio quilt based on the one she originally made, which can be seen here. Devon also awesomely made a tutorial for this quilt, which is very handy, but I know some people like to know exactly what to do, hence this pattern! I made it up for this order in these rich, bold colors, but I am also picturing it looking awesome in all reds with a grey background? Perhaps all low-volume? There are lots of options, all of which would look great!

O-H

This quilt is a combination of squares and rectangles, and the directions show you how to break it down into sections that become blocks, which are then joined together to make the full state.

I-O !

The pieces are fairly big, so the quilt top actually comes together pretty fast once you've cut everything out. I'd love to also try it shrunken down a bit, and using more negative space. Maybe some type of script Ohio appliqued on top? So many options!

Magical floating quilt

I used a Pat Bravo for Art Gallery gray and black floral print on the back, and I think the grey is a nice contrast to the bright, graphic front of the quilt.

Add caption

I also made the binding out of a few different prints and colors from the quilt to give it a scrappy look. The background is Kona bone, which is a nice off-white, and I quilted it with straight lines going up and down every 3".

Close up. 

And remember, the quilt pattern is available for downloading by simply clicking here!!

Nail polish mini

Nail Polish Mini

Greetings! Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Mine was pretty relaxing, just stayed in Nashville, closed the store for 2 days, drank some wine, ate some food, and, since this is Nashville, went to a concert. It was nice! As for the quilt you see above you, I recently signed up for my first quilt "swap," which I had been wanting to try for a while!

How swaps work is that there is generally one person in charge, and you sign up via a form that asks for your quilty likes and dislikes. You then get assigned a partner, and someone else gets you, so its all a secret. Then you look around (stalk) your partner's instagram feed and see what you think they might like! My partner was a nailpolish rep and likes bright colors, so when I remembered this block, I knew it would work!

Nail polish rainbow

The original pattern for this block comes from Fat Quarter Shop but it makes one large bottle. Then I found a mini-fied version at a blog called Bee in My Bonnet, so I went with that one so I could use more colors.

Close up on aqua Cotton and Steel polish

I picked out the background fabric first, which I dont know what brand or designer it is, just something i got on sale at some point, and then I picked nailpolish colors that matched the polka dots. And the lids is one of my favorite prints by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud9. The bottles are Cotton and Steel, Michael Miller, Art Gallery, and another old Cloud9, and they are all some of my faves! And I like them together too. 

Back and label

I made my first label out of a combo of embroidery and fabric markers, and I think it's cute! I hope my swap partner doesnt see this until she gets her package, but I dont know why she would, so I should be safe. 

The back

I thought making a quilt for someone I dont know was really fun! It was fun deciding on a pattern and picking colors. I hope she likes it, and I'm curious and excited to get mine in the mail this week too!

Hexagon Baby Quilt

Hexigon Baby quilt!

I recently got an order for a baby quilt from my friend's aunt- she has a new granddaughter and saw this quilt that I made for Angie and wanted to order one to match her granddaughter's nursery. The only pic I saw showed lilac walls and some embroidery hoops on the walls with blues, greens, whites, and browns. It was cute, and not a palate I normally work with, so it was fun to branch out.  

Half- hexis.... cheating?

I've also been wanting to make something with hexagons for ages, except they are usually hand pieced because of all the weird angles. I did briefly try hand piecing when I first moved to Nashville and was in my apartment for a week without any of my stuff. But... it did not go well. Then I remembered I'd seen them made by making rows, and each row is made up of a half hexagon. Then, when you sew them together they make the full shape. 

Close up

So I made a template that was 3" tall, which makes the finished hexagon 5" tall. It did take a while to make, but it was fun trying a new shape. I also experimented with using other fabrics besides just quilting cotton. I used that plus cotton lawn, voile, and double gauze. I must say these were not super easy to work with, especially the stretchy, shifty double gauze, but I like the look in the end!

CIrcle Quilting

I also had a lot of fun quilting this! I used my walking foot but did concentric circles instead of my usual stand-by of straight lines. I traced 3 circles in 3 places on the quilt, that did a circle 1.5" out from all of those, then just kept moving outwards until I liked how it looked. The 3-4 inner circles were kind of a pain to do, but after that it went pretty fast. 

Embroidered name and birth date

I also hand-embroidered the baby's name and birthday, which I think is really cute. I like that its inside a circle too :)

The back!

For the back I used one of the cotton voiles by Art Gallery and they are so luxuriously soft, so this will be a great quilt for a little baby to crawl around on! I also like how the circle quilting looks on the back, although my pics arent the greatest. Time to invest in a camera??

I bound it in Hoppy Dots by Tula Pink, which is kind of a grey-ish lilac polka dot fabric with little bunnies scattered about too. Can't wait to send this one off to its new home! Thanks for reading!

Pretty in Pink Spiderweb Quilt

Pink Scrappy Spiderwebs!

I am so excited and happy to have this quilt finished! When I lived in Indianapolis and went to the Modern Quilt Guild meetings there we had one meeting where we learned how to do this block, called the Spiderweb block, and I get really hooked on making them! This was back in 2011 I guess? I used all my pink scraps and a pink kona solid, I believe called Baby Pink? It was really fun to make something with just scraps, and it's even more fun now since they're older and the remind me of projects I did a long time ago.

Scrap-tastic

I did get a little overwhelmed by all the pink so in the end I added 1 1/2 aqua webs, which are now maybe my favorite part. Plus, it is hard for me to make a project without using aqua! So I think I finished making all the blocks while I still lived in Indy, and then I moved home for a bit, where I pieced the top. Also while at home I made a different back, more scrappy (and not at all lying flat), and attempted to start quilting it.

Close up of the actual final quilting, by Sarah Russet (strawberries!)

It did not go well! I hated it, and I couldnt think of a good way to quilt it and I didnt want to ruin it because I liked the top so much! So I packed it all up and moved it with me to Nashville! Where it sat in a box for over a year. Sad!

Remade back! Heather Ross and Michael Miller Glitz in pink and gold. 

When I decided to send out my bee quilt for quilting I thought it would be great to send out this one as well, to have a professional do something that wouldnt ruin my hard work! I remade the back so that it would lie flat and not be as scrappy. When I saw Sarah's strawberry quilting design and knew that would be perfect! I had also already made the binding ages ago, in the same pink as the front so that it didnt take away from the scrappiness of the spiderwebs. And mom was kind enough to hand bind it while she was visiting so it looks nice and clean and perfect!

Brown legged quilt

I am so happy with this quilt! It's kind of smaller than a normal throw-size, but would be perfect for a little girls room. Or a little boy! I had originally planned on giving this as a gift or selling it, but now that it's been on this muli-year and multi-state journey with me, I think I need to keep it! It feels so good to have a quilt out of the storage bin, and I like seeing all the scraps of fabric that I have used on so many other projects. Do you have any long-term works in progress lying around? What keeps you from finishing? I know its hard when you no longer like things you started ages ago-- makes it harder to find the motivation to finish things. Luckily this one has stood the test of time!

Happy Non-Spooky Halloween!

Ombré Half-Square Triangles

Ombre half-square triangles

My most recently finished quilt, which was ordered by a friend of a friend, is for a baby who lives in Bermuda with his parents who just moved there from Chicago. The pictures of the nursery showed it to be really modern, mostly white with dark, dark grey-ish blue walls.

Peak of the back

I didnt really have a plan going in other than that she wanted some fabrics having to do with the beach/ocean and some having to do with the city. The city ones were a bit harder to find, but there's a line from Art Gallery that just came out called Gramercy that has a cool black print with brownstone-type buildings on it.

After I had the fabrics picked out I grouped them into light, medium, and dark tones, then cut them into squares and matched them with a square in a similar color shade family. Then I just made a big stack of half square triangles!

I tried a few different layouts, and eventually had to make a few more light-colored squares. I tried having it light in the middle, radiating out to dark, but I think this way worked out a little better. And it kind of reminds me of the ocean too!

Embroidered initials and birthday 

I used teal thread to quilt with, and did my usual straightline grid. The aqua really only shows up on the light sections, and then it blends into the background. Its a good color though! The back fabric and binding are all Art Gallery prints, which are extra soft.

The back

This quilt is a little outside of my comfort zone, with all the dark colors, but I hope the recipients like it! I also thought it was fun to do the half-square triangles in a random arrangement, but with color as a guide. Just something new and fun to try!