Giveaway Winner + Wild Olive Stitch Swap

 

Today I'll wrap up my unintended series of posts featuring Lizzy House foxes!

First, I've drawn a winner of the Outfox the Fox pattern.  Congratulations to Melissa from blustitch, who said:

melissaApr 9, 2012 06:32 AM

i just planned on making a baby quilt from that pattern - but haven't secured the pattern yet! the idea is to use red, pink, blue and green!

Congratulations, Melissa!  I can't wait to see your baby version of the quilt.

I also wanted to share a small piece of embroidery that I recently completed.  I participated in the Wild Olive Stitch Swap, hosted by the very talented Mollie Johanson of Wild Olive.  I've been a big fan of Mollie's for a long time now -- pretty much since I first started embroidering and came across her blog (and her adorable patterns which can be found in her Etsy shop).

Mollie recently organized a small embroidery swap -- small not because of how many people participated, but because we only had to stitch up a small piece for our partner!  The idea was quite genius, actually -- we were limited to a 4" embroidery hoop, which helped this to be a very low-stress and manageable swap to complete.

I was paired with Julia from the U.K., who indicated that she loves woodland creatures, and her favorite colors include green and gold.  I knew immediately that I wanted to stitch up one of Lizzy's foxes.

First, I tried to stitch up a cute little silver fox on a green woodgrain background:

 

Err, I know foxes are sly and all, but you can barely see the little guy.  So I started over, this time trying out a gold floss with some dark green accents.

Yuck.  I just wasn't feeling that color combination either.  I decided to try one more time -- and this one had to work, because I don't do nothin' four times over.

Ah, just right.  I ditched the woodgrain print -- which was a great idea in theory, but I just couldn't make it work -- and went with bolder colors on a solid white background.  Much, much better.

Want to see the fantastic piece of embroidery I received from my secret partner?

This amazing little piece was stitched for me by Jen (aka eklundjen on Flickr).  I absolutely love the work of artist (and embroidery pattern designer) Cate Anevski, and Jen stitched up one of my favorite patterns for me.  Thanks, Jen!  This one is going up in my cube at the office.

Anybody stitched up anything fun lately?

More Outfoxed!

Some more Outfoxed goodness today.  Are you as in love with Lizzy House's Outfoxed line as I am?  I keep telling people it's my "signature line" -- that's how much I'm feeling it.  And of all of Lizzy's great prints, I think this one is the greatest:

So when Katy and Brenda (from Pink Castle Fabrics) hosted a blogger's bundle contest, I had a blast building a fabric bundle around the fox print.  Building off of the print's shades of purple, orange, cream, and brown, I came up with this:

I didn't win the contest, but Brenda must have liked my bundle because she has made it available in her shop!  She supplemented my choices with a few solids and other staples and -- voila! -- there appeared a fabulous booster pack for Lizzy's fox print.

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these bundles.  What kind of quilt should I make from it?  Pattern suggestions welcome!  And if you want to join me and pick up one of these bundles, you can find it here.  PLEASE NOTE: the fox print itself is not part of the bundle.  Be sure to get a 1/2 yard or yard of it to play the lead in your project, allowing these other prints to be the supporting players.

Thanks for the fun contest, Katy & Brenda!

Outfox the Fox | A quilt and a giveaway

Hello and happy Monday morning!  For those who celebrated, I hope you had a wonderful Easter Sunday and holiday weekend.  We had gorgeous weather here in North Carolina, and I also had a couple of very productive sewing days.  I'll have to share what I worked on this weekend on another day (no pictures yet!), but in the meantime I have a WONDERFUL quilt finish to share with you.

I recently completed this quilt, and it has immediately become one of my favorites.  I've loved the Outfox the Fox quilt pattern by Lizzy House since she released it last year, and a few months back I had the idea to make one using the awesome Miscellany fabric line by Julia Rothman for Cloud 9 Fabrics.

I decided to use black fabric -- and a lot of it -- as my background fabric.  This was completely new for me, since I usually default to white, off-white, or light grey when using a dominant background color.  Black was the perfect choice to highlight the Miscellany prints.  And, speaking of those prints, they're really too beautiful to chop up, which is why Outfox the Fox was the perfect pattern to show off those large-scale designs.

Just for fun, I added a few of the Miscellany scraps to my binding strip, and positioned them so that they'd  run along the top edge of the quilt.  It's an added bonus for the person laying under the quilt to catch a glimpse of the prints as he (or she, if I let someone else use it : ) pulls it up underneath his chin!

Like the quilting?  It was done by Bethany Pease from bethanyquilts.com (who, by the way, just released her first book, Modern Quilting Designs, with C&T Publishing.  Congratulations, Bethany!)

So, are you as big a fun of the big, bold, and modern Outfox the Fox pattern as I am?  Well, today's your lucky day!  Lizzy herself sent me an extra copy of the pattern to give away to a Quilt Dad reader, and I'll even throw in a charm pack of Lizzy's Outfoxed fabric line that I have on hand.  Simply leave a comment on this post and let me know what fabric you'd love to make Outfox the Fox with, including your choice of background color.  I'm curious to hear all of your fabric and color ideas!

Good luck!

Quick post on a few random things ...

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. Just wanted to pop in with a quick post tonight, since I don't have much to share. And besides, I'm wallowing in the loss by my UNC Tar Heels tonight. Boo.

I was hoping to show off a new quilt this weekend -- and launch a corresponding giveaway to boot! -- but it was rainy all weekend here in NC and I wasn't able to get any good pictures of my quilt. So stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few quick things ...

First, did you see this awesome new badge that Tula Pink made available on her blog? I love it! Be sure to grab one and add it to your computer desktop, your blog, your Facebook page, Twitter page, or whatever other social channels you're into these days.

(And speaking of Tula, I may or may not have just finished 2 (yes, 2!) quilts made from her upcoming Nightshade line. You may want to keep your eyes peeled for Fat Quarterly Issue 9 ... I'm just sayin'.)

A Flock of Starlings, by Terri Carpenter (thequiltedfox) as seen on Flickr

Second, I wanted to share this AMAZING mini quilt that Terri (aka thequiltedfox) made and shared in my QuiltDad is my Homeboy Flickr group. It's based on my Modern Starlings block pattern that I shared on the Generation Q blog a while back. And here's the crazy thing -- Terri's quilt is almost EXACTLY what I envisioned when I came up with that block, but haven't had a chance to make myself yet. Terri beat me to it with a similar vision ... and I LOVE it so much! You can read more about Terri's quilt, which she made for a mini quilt challenge, in her blog post here. Thanks, Terri!

Saw The Hunger Games last night. I'd give it a solid "pretty good". At the risk of sounding cliche, the book was better. I mean ... it always is, right? But I think it was pretty well done, overall. The casting and acting was good. I only wish there was a little more of the action from the book, and that some of the complexity of the games and the story translated better to the movie version. But I guess there's only so much you can do in a limited amount of time, huh?

I've also (finally) started watching Game of Thrones on HBO. I'm only just starting to catch up on season 1. I'm two episodes in, and I'm itching to start the third. It seems like something I'll definitely get hooked on. Anyone out there watching it too?

And lastly, are you playing along with our Modern Madness game over on the Fat Quarterly blog? If not, you can read more about it here, or jump right into the fray with our current voting.

OK, enough with the long, rambling, very-unlike-me post. Have a great week, everyone!

A way to collaborate, and then commemorate

I had a blast being part of the Week of Collaboration over on the Modern Quilt Guild blog. Not only did I get to kick the week off with my beloved Sew Connected quilt, but I was tickled to see that I personally participated in and contributed to several of the virtual quilting bee quilts and tutorials featured throughout the week. Then, I closed out the week with a new original project idea, which I call my Collaborate & Commemorate Mini Quilt / Signature Block pattern.

From my post:

To wrap up our week of collaboration, I’m sharing my idea to make a commemorative mini quilt where your fellow group members can each write their name and hometown, as well as dates and any other memories, funny stories, or notable quotables from the journey you took together. Or, you can piece this as a large block into the backing of your quilt for a lasting record of who you worked with to create the quilt together.

To read more, or to get the pattern, check out my post here.

Thanks, Modern Quilt Guild!!

It's all about the collaboration, people!

I'm really excited that the Modern Quilt Guild invited me to be a guest blogger today to kick off their week on collaboration, part of their 100 Days of Modern Quilting series. For me, the whole appeal of quilting, sewing, blogging, Flickr-ing, Tweeting, Facebooking lies at the heart of where they all connect, and it can be boiled down to one word: collaboration. Simply put, I play this game because I love the people I get to play it with and -- more importantly -- I can help create things more beautiful, ambitious, and inspired than anything I could ever create alone. Sure, swaps and bees are the most obvious points of collaboration -- but I believe that even taking the fabric and artwork created by a designer and then making something new and different from it is a form of collaboration.

In my post, I highlight a quilt that I've never shown off in all its completed glory here on the blog: my SewConnected quilt. I just recently finished binding it up, and it immediately became one of my favorite quilts. Ever. I love the happy colors, the gorgeous prints, the modern block designs, and the fact that I now have a little bit of 12 other fabulous quilters living in my house with me. Thanks Jacquie, Amy E., Meg, Stefanie, Dee, Amanda Jean, Amy D., Audrey, Buffy, Sarah, Rita, Tracy, Lyssa, Jessica, and guest block-maker Rachel for sharing your time, skill, and talent with me.

See more pictures of my quilt and read more about my thoughts on quilting and collaboration here.

January & February Quilting Bee Blocks

Thanks so much for all of the kind words about my tie-front tote bags from my last post! Don't forget, there are still a few days to enter for your chance to win a free e-course from Trish Preston of Two Peas in a Pod. Just head over to my post on the Fat Quarterly blog to enter.

I'm sitting in the waiting room of my local Honda dealership waiting for my minivan to have its oil changed, so I figured it was a good time to catch up on some recent quilting bee blocks that I've made.

Over in the Bee Tweet group, January was Rebecca's month and she requested fun little house blocks. I was so happy to see this, because I always love making house blocks. I ended up making two blocks for Rebecca from the fabric she sent. First, a church or schoolhouse:

And second, just a funky little cottage:

Here they both are together. I hope you like them, Rebecca!

I joined a new virtual quilting bee that started in January. It's called the Free Bee and I was invited to join by the fabulous Lynne of Lily's Quilts (and also of Fat Quarterly, of course.) The bee is placing its emphasis on free and improv piecing. Really, how could I refuse?

Krista of Poppyprint kicked us off in January and posted this AMAZING photo as her inspiration. I just fell in love with it -- it has such a modern, faded, beachy driftwood-type feel to it, doesn't it? I'm holding on to this one for future quilt ideas.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid Jansen (wood & wool stool) via Flickr

I had a great time shopping for new fabrics for Krista's quilt, and wound up buying a whole lot more than I needed for just three quilt blocks. So stay tuned .... you're going to see these fabrics again!

Here are the three blocks I made. One large:

And two small:

Can't wait to see Krista's quilt come together!

OK, ready for February? Back over in Bee Tweet, Leigh sent a really great assortment of fun blue and green prints and asked for quarter log cabin blocks inspired by Nettie's Square Deal quilt from the Block Party book.

First, I made one 13" block that I chopped down into 4 - 6.5" square blocks:

Then I made one other large 12.5" block ...

... and two more small 6.5' blocks.

As you can tell by the number of blocks I made for Leigh, I had a great time making these!

Things began to get challenging over in the Free Bee in February. The group is chock full of some amazing artists and quilters -- and I use those two terms together, because the bee sometimes drifts closer to the realm of art quilts than I've even been comfortable with before.

Case in point: for February, Marianne requested urban industrial blocks inspired by the work of art quilter Elizabeth Barton (here's a gallery that Marianne set up, and here's another set of urban inspirational photos). Gorgeous, for sure, but how could I pull this off? Elizabeth's work is a far cry from what I am used to making. But that's what I love about this bee -- the opportunity to push myself into new areas of creativity that I haven't tapped into before.

I was drawn to this photo that Marianne took inside the Montreal metro, and took my inspiration from it:

Here's what I created:

I went heavy on the texture with some Moda Cross-weave fabric in grey and tried to add some urban grit by adding in Grunge solids in yellow and orange. I attempted to give the block some dimension and, for fun, stitched on a few hexagons to represent industrial cogs.

You should definitely check out the other blocks that people are making for Marianne -- I'm truly blown away by the skill and creativity in this group. And wait until you see what I need to make for this bee in March ... eeeeek!