Quilting Arts Gifts Winner!

Sorry it took me a little extra time to pick a winner of the Quilting Arts Gifts 2012 magazine!  You all had some wonderful holiday strategies - everything from less is more, to making and buying all year long and Bailey's and coffee :)  Take a few minutes to read through them if you have a chance.

Without further ado, the winner is #9, Gill!  Congratulations, Gill - I've sent an email to get your address.

Are you thinking "Holidays"?

I admit I'm not one who gets started on my holiday shopping early.  I prefer to wait until the first two weeks of December when the holiday mood starts to kick in.  EXCEPT for things I plan to make - I try hard to start those gifts as early as I can.

The 2012 issue of Quilting Arts Gifts is here to help!  It's packed full of great gifts for those you care about (and a few you might like to make for yourself).  I have such a hard time resisting cute notebooks and journals and there are several colorful and creative ones in this magazine.  Also included is a fantastic variety of home decor items, pouches, bags, coasters, ornaments and lots more.  Cookie recipes are included again this year too.  Lemon bars and molasses crinkles, anyone?  Yum!

Carry-All Pouch, page 88

You may have guessed that I have a project included in this special issue.  I made a pouch like this for myself several years ago and couldn't live without it!  It lives in my purse to corral all the miscellaneous stuff I NEED to carry around with me.  It's the perfect size for hand sewing supplies or make-up too.  The contrasting piping and zipper add some great punch.  I have to say I'm a huge fan of the "long pull" zippers from zipit on Etsy - no relationship here, just a very satisfied customer.  These zippers are a little more heavy duty and can stand up to the wear and tear they get in my purse.  Plus, they look great too.

So, would you like a copy of Quilting Arts Gifts 2012?  I have an extra one to give away!  To enter, just leave me a comment telling me your best tip to avoid holiday craziness - and if you have any success in actually doing it :)

I'll choose a winner at the end of the day on Tuesday, September 25.  Don't forget to include your email address so I can contact you!

Love It, Pin It, Win It!

Puzzle Box

If you're one of my Pinterest followers, you probably noticed more activity than usual yesterday :)  Moda announced their "Love It, Pin It, Win It" contest.  So I created a new board for my Moda Bake Shop favorites.  Today, I went back and added a few words about what I like about each of the quilts.

Based on repins, I'm not the only one who loves this fun Puzzle Box quilt by Brigitte Heitland!  Brigitte's design company is called Zen Chic and I love her style.  Her new line of fabric, Juggling Summer (by Moda)  will hit the stores soon and I can't wait to get my hands on some!

Of course, I'm also pretty fond of my own MBS project, Neighborhood Charm :)  Sweetwater's latest line, Mama Said Sew is arriving in stores now.

It is easy to join the fun!  All you have to do is pin projects you love from Moda Bake Shop and add the hash tags #modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin.  Then you are entered into a drawing for prizes.  See the full details here.  You can also write a blog post and add it to the linky party.  The contest runs from September 14-22.

What's your favorite Moda Bake Shop project?

Martha Stewart American Made contest

I met Heather Jones from Olive and Ollie last Spring when we went to the IQA quilt show in Cincinnati.  I already knew Heather's name well because she had won three out of the four Modern Quilt Guild challenges over the previous year! She has also had her work featured in several magazines and books and she has a line of great, modern patterns.  Heather is a talented designer and super nice person.

Now, she is a finalist in the Martha Stewart American Made contest - so cool!  Anyway, she'd like a little help for the Audience Choice part of the contest.  You can vote for her once every day between now and September 24.  If she wins, she'll get a trip to New York and some other prizes that will really help further her quilting career.  I hope some of you will be able to help her out :)

QuiltCon Quilt Show

I'm so looking forward to the quilt show part of QuiltCon!  I've been to a few national quilt shows over the years and, while I always enjoy the creativity and workmanship, they often don't have many quilts that are my style.  Quilts that make me stop in my tracks and say "WOW".  I have a feeling that I'll be doing that quite a bit at the QuiltCon Quilt Show.

I'm working on a quilt I'd like to enter.  Of course, I decided several months ago that I needed to hand appliqué this quilt.  (Why do I do this to myself?!)  Now, I really need to kick it into gear if it's going to get finished in time!

Naturally, the quilt uses my bias appliqué technique that I'll be teaching at QuiltCon on Sunday :)  Are you planning to enter a quilt in the show?

Oak Beach

I just had to share a few beauty shots from our vacation last week.  We camped at Oak Beach on Lake Huron near Port Austin, MI.  It is right at the tip of Michigan's thumb.  I hadn't been to this part of the state before, but my husband used to go there sometimes when he was a child.  What a beautiful beach!

I'm not really a sit on the beach and get a tan kind of person (I burn easily), but we could see the lake and some of the beach from our camp site and it was a totally relaxing view.  We went over several times in the evening to walk around and explore a bit.  That's my husband checking things out.

I love this rocky area on the eastern end of the beach.  My daughter spent quite a bit of time sitting on the rocks and taking pictures.  I think the rocks were placed there to divide the public portion from the beach in front of the private homes beyond the rocks.

There is a lovely sandy bottom at the beach.  It was interesting to watch the pattern of the waves as they flowed over a sand bar not far from the shore.

We hadn't had a chance to do any camping for several years and it was just wonderful to be back outside.  We don't really "rough it" while we are camping.  We stay in campgrounds with bathrooms and hot running water.  We bought a pop-up camper when our girls were small and have gotten a lot of great use from it.  For us, it is the perfect compromise between true roughing it and camping with air-conditioning and TV.  One of my favorite things about a pop-up camper is how open to the night air it is.  Heavenly!

Linked Pillow-Along: Finishing

I'm back from a wonderful few days away with my family, so let's get those pillows finished!  Today we'll discuss how to put in a hidden zipper with a flange and how to bind your pillow.  Don't worry - there's no deadline to get your pillow finished.  BUT, if you happen to finish your pillow by September 15 and add it to the Flickr group (or send a picture directly to me (ehq at sbcglobal dot net) if you don't have a Flickr account), I'll enter your name in a drawing for a charming little pack of Mama Said Sew fabrics for Moda by Sweetwater.

OK, let's start with the pillow back.  After I cut the strips I needed for the pillow front, I had about 8" of White, 5" of Nightfall and 2" of Lime left over.  I cut each of these strips in half so there were two of each color.  Then I sewed them together into two sets of blue/green/white using a  ¼" seam allowance.

Press under 1¼" along one of the white edges.  Set these pieces aside for now.

Next cut two zipper tabs each 1" x 4".  (This size works for an 18" zipper - if yours is shorter, you will need to make your tabs long enough to add up to about 22").  I used some leftover pieces of my white strips, but any fabric will do.  Fold the tabs in half along the 4" side so they are about 1" x 2" folded.  Place the folded edge of the tab toward the middle of the zipper about 3/16" from the zipper stop.  The idea is to be able to sew along the folded edge of the tab and not have to sew "through" the zipper stop.  I like to pin the tabs in place so they don't move.

Open the zipper a bit and place the second tab on the open end in a similar manner.  I definitely pin here to keep the zipper teeth as close together as possible.  Sew along both folded edges of the tabs.

Place the part of the back that has the 1¼" fold, fold side up.  Position your zipper, right side down along the raw edge of the fold.  Using your zipper foot, stitch along the left side of the zipper.  Your bobbin thread will show on the right side of the pillow back.

Press away from the zipper for now.  Place the other half of the back and the zipper right sides together and sew the other side of the zipper in place.  Turn the pillow back right side up and press the flange back over the zipper.  Trim the back to 20" square.

Place your pillow back and pillow front WRONG sides together and pin in place.  Join the two 2½" blue binding strips at the short ends.  I often join my binding on the bias, but this time I used a straight seam and pressed it open.  Press the binding strips in half lengthwise.

Bind the edges of the pillow as you would any quilt.  I love hand stitching and if I didn't have 7,000 quilt projects I want to make, I'd hand stitch my binding every time.  But since I do (and for those of you who aren't fans of hand stitching) I use Rita of Red Pepper Quilts' method.  It takes a bit of practice to get the stitching on the back even, but it is so worth it!

The short version of her tutorial is:  attach the binding as if you were hand stitching - on the front of the quilt.  Press the binding to the back.  Pin it in place, covering the seam you just stitched, so you can see the pins from the front.  From the front, stitch in the ditch along the seam where you attached the binding.

Binding Pinned - View from back

Binding Pinned - View from front

Stuff the pillow form inside and enjoy!  As you can see, my new version of Linked likes to relax in the tree in my yard :)

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them here or in the Flickr group.  Have fun!