Would you like a 241 Tote? Giveaway Day begins.

Welcome to Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day. I am giving away this 241 Tote, which I made from the pattern by Anna Graham at Noodlehead. It is made from Amy Butler fabrics that were in my stash.



The inside features a large pocket and a snap closure. I had a lot of fun making this tote and I recommend the pattern.



My name is Leanne and welcome to my blog. I hope you might take a minute to look around at the quilting projects that I share here. You do not need to follow this blog to enter the contest, but if you like what you see, I would love you to follow along.



It could be hanging on your door handle. If you would like to enter to win this tote you need to leave me a comment on this post. Only one comment per person, please (I will remove extra ones). I plan to relax a lot over the holidays, so please recommend a book or a movie to enjoy while sitting by the fire.

I will draw a random winner after 6 pm on Friday December 16, 2011. If you have not attached an email to your profile, please leave it in the comment. If there is no way to contact you, I will draw again immediately. I am happy to ship anywhere in the world from my home in Canada.

Edited to add: Already I have a bunch of "no-reply" comments. Please add your email to your comment if you are not certain your email address is attached to your profile. If I cannot reach you and you are the winner, I will draw again.

I am also giving away some fabric - Echo by Lotta Jansdotter, so if you have not entered that contest, please click here to do that now. And click the button to go back to Sew Mama Sew so you can enter the rest of the give aways.

Thank you everyone, this giveaway is now closed. The winner is Debra! 

Enjoy the contest hopping!

Best,

Leanne

Swaps are fun!

This wonderful mug rug was made for me by Dawn, who is guiltquilter on Flickr, for the Christmas Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. There is no way a mug will ever get near it - it is going on the wall in a place of honour.

And for the photography types, that picture made it to Explore on Flickr.



Look at those embroidered reindeer, even Rudolf with a red beaded nose - they are beyond cute.



The trees are decorated too, with carefully placed beads.



And here is the whole package, Dawn really spoiled me - she was a great partner to draw.



This is the close up of a corner of the mug rug I sent Dawn. This swap was not secret, instead we were assigned partners. As a result, the pictures we posted as we went were only sneak peaks.



This is another sneak peak. You can see the fmq star I made. I think you might see those stars again on another project soon.

And here is the entire mug rug. I paper pieced the tree using this a free pattern from Forest Quilting. I  thank Karen from Laughter in Quilts for the inspiration. She used the tree in her wonderful table runner (do click that link and take a look, it is wonderful) for the Modern Christmas Table Runner Swap and pointed out the source of this lovely pattern.

When I made this mug rug, my plan was to just make the tree. But as I looked at it, I realized that it was unlikely anyone would put a mug on it. So I added the 1" patchwork squares which make a big enough surface for my large size mugs.  This fabric is 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain and was the left over scraps from the Wonky Christmas Stars Quilt I started last year.

By the way, this photograph also made it to Flickr's Explore - pretty cool.

I am working on the hand quilting on the Wonky Stars Christmas Quilt and will soon show it off, but hand quilting is slow and my fingers hurt.

Come back tomorrow, as I will have a couple of give aways for the Sew Mama Sew give away week.

Best,

Leanne

Sewing curves is not hard - Seriously

I came home from work today and opened my Google Reader to see that a friend was having trouble sewing Drunkard's Path Curves. So I was compelled to make a real video and post it on Youtube. I enlisted my youngest son to be cameraperson and also technical advisor.

This video was made in one take (since all he did was  pause the video game he was playing) - there was no time to practice, set up, rehearse, or write a script. The video is 1:18 minutes. It shows you exactly what I do in exactly the time it takes. The only editing was to add the title screen at the front via iMovie and then we uploaded it to Youtube.


Here is the unit from the video, after I pressed it. I did not invent this approach but maybe it will help you to see that I can do it, and I am not a quilting superstar or pro or anything but a still relatively new quilter.

Here are the tricks to sewing Drunkard's path curves:

1. Remember that the two fabrics need to meet only at the point of the needle.

2. In the video, I mention that I am lining the pieces with my 1/4" foot because I have one that I use for piecing. But you don't need a 1/4" foot, just line the pieces with the spot on your usual piecing foot where you usually line up the fabric to piece with a 1/4" seam. The point is to have the pieces lined up at the 1/4" mark as they go under the foot. Then they will be at that spot when they get to the needle because the foot will hold them in place as the feed dogs move the fabric forward.

3. Don't pull hard on either of the fabric pieces, they will stretch if you do because you have cut curves which are therefore cut on the bias of the fabric.

4. Keep the top piece up while you are sewing, like in the video.

5. Sew relatively slowly, but it is not a slow process.

6. When you iron the unit, press the wrong side first and press the seam allowance from the L shape side to the curve shape side (toward the the orange side on this one) gently, then turn and press the front toward the curve shape (orange part).

That's it.



Here is one of the blocks I have been working on again so you can see the curves, all nicely pressed. No curve was pinned and not one was ripped out. I did trim the quarter circle units down to size for this butterfly block. This block was inspired by Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations tutorial which is here.

You too can sew curves easily, without pins or special stuff. Seriously. You can.

Let me know how you do.

Best,

Leanne
ps. I will edit this post as people point out things that are not covered or that don't make sense.

Wednesday's progress - new projects, old projects.

This is my first attempt at hand quilting. After doing the first two stars on Sunday night, I asked my internet friends, via Flickr, for encouragement. And encouragement came - loads of it, so I carried on. Now I have 5 stars outlined, this is four of them.  I am learning to embrace the large and uneven stitches as folksy organic (I am editing this and am going with Marg's expertise on this - see her comment) and adding texture and colour. Fine needlework, this is not, I need a lot of practice.



Here is the entire Christmas Wonky Star quilt. I made this top last year about this time, sandwiched it and put it away. I hope to get it finished in time for some holiday TV and movie watching. So, it is an old project, but feels new again.



You might remember the blocks I did for the 5 x 4 Bee this fall. Well, I am not done with the funky butterfly version of the drunkards path block. My blocks were inspired by Megan, at Canoe Ridge Creations' tutorial.

I think I will make 12 or 16 blocks and then sash them with larger white strips so the butterflies float. This fabric is Terrain by Kate Spain. This photograph does not do the colours justice. I promise to take the next project photograph in the daylight, but it is dark here a lot of the time now.



And these are just for fun. I purchased a pattern called Summer's Blush from Bloom (you should click through to see her version, the name is perfect for her fabrics) because I loved the bold geometric block. The sashing will add another light square so that there will be a nine patch at each corner. The fabric I am using is a layercake of Reunion by Sweetwater that just appeared at my LQS a month ago (the fabric is not out yet).

So there is a story to these blocks. First, they are a joy to put together, almost no tricky seams and the pattern is easy to follow.

But, I prewash every fabric I can and so I threw the layercake in the washer and dryer. Well, it shrunk, as all fabric does. After the wash the pieces were 9.25" x 9.5" instead of 10" x 10". This pattern  cleverly uses the 10" x 10" layercake very effectively so I did not have big enough layercake fabric pieces anymore. I have adapted the size of each pattern piece, so my blocks are not quite the same as the pattern, but they are still good, I think.

I still have to decide if I am sewing anything for people for Christmas and if so, get moving on that. Also, it is time to start knitting some hats to give away.

And I am happy to report that the ROYGBIV quilt has reached Claire and she was immediately all wrapped up in it - clearly a success!

Lee at Freshly Pieced has taken a well earned break from WIP Wednesday for the month, so no link there but I am linking to my Canadian friends. I hope you have time to give them a visit, they are a talented group.

Best,

Leanne

Ta Da! The ROYGBIV Log Cabin quilt is all done!

The ROYGBIV Log Cabin quilt for Claire is all done. It is washed, dried and had a short visit outside.

By the time I got out, it was late afternoon. The light was already turning a bit purple. But even still, the colours are more true in the outside pictures.

Here is the back, I am so pleased with how square this giant log cabin managed to end up.

Here it is on my king size bed. The quilt has finished at about 70" x 90" - designed to fit a twin bed with lots to spare on the sides.

The back makes a nice alternative front.

This picture of the back is actually before it was washed.

Here is some detail of the quilting on the front before I washed the finished quilt. All the fabrics on this one were pre-washed in warm water and dried in a regular warm dryer.

A closer shot of the quilting before I washed the quilt.

This is a close up of the quilting after the quilt was washed and dried, again in warm water and in a regular warm dryer. You can see how the washing shrinks the batting and thread a bit, pulling the stitches in just a bit. The entire quilt lost about 3" - 4" in both directions after it was washed.

Another close up shot of the quilt after it was washed. You can see how it has become more bumpy and soft. The drape of this quilt really softened up after the wash too. It is very snuggly now.

Tomorrow or the next day, I am packing it up and sending it to Claire's dad. It is for her, for Christmas. I hope she likes it - I sure do, and it was just a joy to make.

This quilt was made from a pile of fabrics that Claire chose and then I just cut strips off of most everything bright and colourful that I had. Most of the fabrics are cotton but there are also some flannels, some linen blends, some decor weight. They all play nicely together. The blocks feature red centres (or pink flannel cats) - the red centres in traditional log cabin blocks symbolize the warm hearth of the home.

I am fairly sure there are more ROYGBIV quilts in my future. I highly recommend them, they just make you smile all the time.

As I made this quilt, Rhonda from Quilter in the Gap and Rachel from Contented set up the Duo QAL (see my sidebar for the button) and this quilt became my contribution to the QAL, - where I enjoyed loads of help with free motion quilting and lots of friendship too.

I have linked this post to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, I hope you will go and visit the lovely projects linked up.




Best,

Leanne