Am I a Quilter Yet?

I am happy to be hosting the Let's Get Acquainted Monday link up this week, just as I was happy about a year ago, when Beth at Plum and June invited me to join the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop. As a brand new blogger, it was a fantastic way for me to get to know other bloggers and bring new readers to my blog. I will always be grateful to Beth for that and am glad she is continuing to keep us connected through the weekly link up.

Not only was I a new blogger, but a new quilter as well. I have been sewing forever, but quilting was new to me and naturally I was nervous about sharing such a new journey. As I went along, I often wondered when I would consider myself a "quilter". The experienced quilt bloggers I followed had stacks of lovely quilts, hundreds of photos on Flickr and a multitude of tutorials, tips and patterns. I had none of that, just a passion and a few ideas.

But I continued along the quilting path and yesterday, I took this picture of some of the quilts I have made in the past year...

Am I a quilter yet? I think, yes!!

I am happiest when I have a project in the works and this week has been no exception.  I used a jelly roll of Tula Pink's the Birds and the Bees and an "almost solid" from Moda, and came up with this:

It is 30 rows of alternating 6" print and 4" solid bricks, offset 1" in a back and forth, wavy pattern. These fabrics are some kind of gorgeous, and I think really shine when the entire collection is used. Gotta love those pre-cuts (even if I don't love the pinked edges!) The hard part is to decide which of these lovelies to use as the back!

So, now it is your turn. Do you have a finish to share? Or just share what you are working on. We all want to see!!

1. Link up any recent sewing/quilting post.
2. In your post or on your blog, please include either a text link or a button letting people know       

about this link up and link it back to this post.
3. Visit at least the two bloggers who link up before you and everyone who visits you from this post.
4. When the link tool asks for your name, enter the name of your favorite summer vacation spot.

Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

Sunday Stash Link Up

There seems to be a theme to the fabrics I have been adding to my stash lately...red, blue/aqua, and black and white.

These cute little mushrooms are from Tasha Noel's Little Red Riding Hood. Of course I had to have them in all three colors. I can never have enough red and white polka dots - this one is from makower uk.

Text prints are still popular and I love these french words from Robert Kaufman's Mon Amie (yes, thank you and hello - about the extent of my french knowledge). Aqua leaf vine from V & Co.'s Simply Color and the little houses from Lucie Summers' Summersville.

These are from Amy Butler's Cameo collection. I had some of the blue and used it all up, but it is such a pretty shade of blue, I bought some more! All the above fabrics were purchased at The Rainbow's End Quilt Shoppe in Dunedin, Florida. An hour's drive, but totally worth it.

And this precious print is a DS Quilts fabric from JoAnn's. I adore it!! I am sure all these prints will find their way into various upcoming projects!!

Today's Sunday Stash link up is being hosted by Sew Happily Ever After. Link up and show us what you have added to your stash!

Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

W.I.P. Wednesday

Here it is Wednesday again and I have to admit I haven't done a whole lot in the past week. My oldest daughter was home from college and I put sewing aside to spend time with her.

After she went back for the summer term, I got out my bee block projects for May. I am a member of the Trust Circle at do.Good Stitches which makes quilts for "My Very Own Blanket".  Our recipient this month is a 7 year old boy who loves outer space and the colors red, blue and black.  Our quilter asked for one star block and one space block in his favorite colors. I immediately thought of Kathy Doughty's "Rocket Man" quilt in the book, Material Obsession (an all time favorite of mine!).

Here is my single block interpretation:

What can I say? This block just makes me smile!! The finished size is 12 1/2", with the corner squares 4 1/2" and the center 3".  I originally was going to put a wonky star in the center square, but decided that was just too small!

And for my space block, I fussy cut a rocket out of "Rocket Scientist" by Keri Beyer and In the Beginning fabrics. I framed it and added a saw tooth border.

The fussy cut numbers in the corners are counting down to blast off!! I think this is going to be a great quilt for a special little boy. You can see the other blocks as they come together on the Flickr page for do.Good Stitches.

I have made a little progress on the Bird and the Bees quilt, but not much! Apparently simple "sit and sew" is not as much fun as I thought. I get bored quickly and much prefer the kind of projects that I have to mull over each piece of fabric as I go along.

This will get done, though, as I am loving the fabrics so much!!

Also still in progress, the wonky house blocks - all are sashed but I still need to make one more block.
The Sew Stitchy quilt still patiently awaits, just needs to be quilted and bound.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. I am looking forward to reading all about Spring Quilt Market that starts in a couple of days. Are you a quilt market junkie, too? I thought so!!

Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

Giveaway Winners!!

Thank you to everyone who entered my one year anniversary giveaway! I really enjoyed reading all the comments and appreciate all the good wishes you all sent me. I would send everyone a prize if I could!!

Random.org picked the winners. I still have not managed to number my comments, so I triple counted to be sure I got it right. I also want to point out that there were a couple of comments that got entered more than once. I deleted the duplicates and did not count them. This is not a perfect science but I do want to be as fair as I can be! The winners of the rainbow of fat quarters are:

Congratulations ladies! I have sent you an email for your mailing addresses!!


Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

A Finished Quilt

This one is finally done!! The top was completed some time ago, but it sat in a pile of W.I.P.'s with several other quilt tops. It sure feels good to have it finished. The fabrics are mostly from the Ruby collection by Bonnie & Camille along with some other reds and aquas from my stash. The "white" solid is Kona in Snow.

The back is a not-quite-big-enough piece of Paula Prass Flights of Fancy that I have been hoarding. A strip of red and white dots down the middle stretched it to fit!

The quilting is straight lines, 1/4" on either side of the square seams. Simple, but I think effective on this quilt. The binding is a tone on tone Ruby pin dot. Borders are Moda Bella solid in aqua.

Finished size is 44"x 52", a good size for a toddler or baby quilt.
I used 100% cotton warm and white batting.
Pieced with Aurifil Mako 50wt. in white


Linking up today with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.


Thanks for stopping by today,

Tessa Marie

W.I.P. Wednesday - A New Project

After quilting and binding my Churn Dash quilt (I am saving that for Friday), I decided it was about time I cut into this...

A delicious jelly roll of Tula Pink's The Birds & the Bees and  Michael Miller's Painter's Canvas. It's a wonderful fabric when you want a solid that has depth.

I was inspired by Tula's Spiked Punch pattern, and am making rows of bricks, alternating solid and prints.  The finished stacks of bricks will make a wavy pattern. I've cut a big stack of these...

and these...

Tula's fabrics are amazing and these are no exception - they are beautiful!

One row down, 29 to go.  I am looking forward to some easy piecing for a change - just sit and sew.  Unless I get too obsessive about the placement of the prints!!

Linking to Freshly Pieced.

Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

Threadbias Design Contest

 

 

 

 

If you haven't joined Threadbias, now is a great time. Not only is it a great place to keep track of your projects and share them with others, but they have launched their Quilt Design Tool - a subscription based, online tool for designing quilts.  And right now, you can try it out for free. Threadbias has joined up with Pink Castle Fabrics and Windham Fabrics and created a design contest using Heather Ross' soon to be released Briar Rose fabric.  Using the Quilt Design Tool and Briar Rose fabric "swatches", create your own one of a kind design and enter it in the contest. You have until May 5th and then voting begins. Heather will choose the winner from 5 finalists voted on by Threadbias members - the winner will receive enough fabric to create their design. The contest is open to all members of Threadbias, you don't need to have a subscription to the Design Tool - they are making it available free of charge. If you think this sounds like fun, I recommend watching the Design Tool tutorials first. I tried figuring it out for myself - fail!! The videos show you everything you need to know to design beautiful quilts. 

 

Here is my design:

    If you think this sounds like fun, head on over to Threadbias and give it a try!!

 



Have you entered my Blog Anniversary Giveaway yet? Read about it here.

Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

Blog Anniversary and Giveaway

Happy Monday friends! This one gets a little wordy, but I promise there is a giveaway at the end so bear with me.

April marks the one year anniversary of my blog. I have had this post on my mind for a while, trying to figure out how I could possibly find the words to say thank you. Thank you for taking the time to read my posts, look at my pictures and leave comments offering support, encouragement and kindness.

This blog has connected me to a wonderful world of passionate sewers, quilters, fabric lovers, moms, and genuinely good women.

It has been a life saver.

I opened a Google account back in 2009 when I first discovered sewing blogs. I wanted to be part of it. But I held back because that is what I always did. Tentative. Hesitant. Full of what ifs.

Then in 2011, a health crisis struck me - breast cancer.

Faced with my own mortality, all I could think about were all the things I had wanted to do, but didn't. I took on the treatment as a challenge, embraced it even and am happy to say that it all went well and I am cancer free. When I was finished, one of the first things I did was start this blog. I basically didn't know anything about how to do it, but I jumped in, leaving the old tentative me behind.  I didn't know if anyone would see it or read it, but then I got my first comment and a follower. I figured things out as I went and now one year, 125 posts, 54,000 page views, hundreds of followers and  dozens of new friends later I am here, happier than ever and filled with gratitude!

So thank you, all of you, from the bottom of my heart for bringing new meaning and joy to my life.

Now about that giveaway...

I have two fat quarter bundles of this rainbow of lovely fabrics. I wish I could give all of you a gift, but two will have to be enough! Just leave me a comment, tell me anything you want, maybe something that you are grateful for!! I will leave the giveaway open until Saturday at 8:00 - I know lots of you catch up on your blog reading on the weekend! Then I will have Mr. Random pick two numbers. International entries are welcome, too. I love my followers from England, Australia,, New Zealand, Japan.... If you are a no-reply blogger or don't have a Google account, please leave your e-mail address with your comment!

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED.

Some of these are favorites from my stash, some I bought just for you, but I tried to get a good mix of florals, geometrics, and dots. Starting with the black and white and going clockwise, the fabrics are:

Remix, Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman
Running Stitch, Lush by Patty Young for Michael Miller
Remix, Anne Kelle
Oval Elements, Art Gallery
Alix, Anna Griffin for Windham
Summertime, Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup for Henry Glass & Co.
Swing Toss, Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit
Henna Garden, Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller
Scrappy and Happy Baby, Janet Selke, Northcott

Good luck!!

I am linking this post to Beth at Plum and June. She was a big help in getting my blog noticed with the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop last year. I was thrilled she asked me to join in and am glad she is a blog friend. I hope to meet her for real some day.




Now, I have a cupcake to eat...

Happy Sewing,

Tessa Marie

Sunday Stash Link Up

 

 

Happy Sunday! Here are a few recent additions to my fabric piles...

 

First up, from the Moda line, Glamping by Mary Jane...

This purchase went something like this...Oooh I love the aqua and pink flowers, I'll just grab a half a yard.  Oh look at the cute aqua dots, I do love aqua and that would be really useful. Oh and it comes in pink, too. Well then I may as well get the camping (I mean glamping) print too. And that is how I came to own half a yard of fabric covered with campers!  I sometimes think that I will buy anything that comes in aqua.

To keep the novelty theme going, I also got these fun typewriter prints (again, aqua!).  The collection is called "Type" by Julia Rothman for Windham Fabrics.  When I bought these, my 11 year old daughter was with me and she heard us talking about the typewriter print. She said, "What's a typewriter?" Ha - I think she was kidding.

 

The typewriters measure about 3 to 4 inches across. I only have that little sample piece of the yellow text print; they didn't have it at the shop where I bought the yardage.
 I am going to try to track some down online!!


Because they were cute and on sale at Fabric.com, these Kokka prints found a home on my shelf.   I don't even have little girls anymore, but you never know when you are going to need to make a gift!

The squares measure about 1 1/2" and have "pinked" edges. I think these could be used as one piece or fussy cut the little squares and use them individually.

 

When I go to JoAnn's, I sometimes check the DS Quilts section just to see if there is anything there that I like. I am usually unsuccessful - the colors aren't bright enough for me.  But last time I looked, I found these!

 

 

I LOVE THEM!! Just vintage enough but still fresh colors, and the double polka dots - swoon!

I can see these making their way into lots of projects.

 

I leave you with a question today - Some quilt shops cut fabric with scissors, some with a rotary cutter and a few even tear it. Do you have a preference?

 

 

Linking up with Fiona at Finding Fifth.


Happy Stashing,

Tessa Marie