Big News.

So I'm pretty excited to publicly share some big news about a project the Momcat and I have been working on.

We're publishing a book with the American Quilter's Society! 

We submitted a proposal for a book about making containers out of fabric using our nifty English Paper Piecing technique. And they accepted it for publication! Woohoo! Our manuscript is due in November, and we're hoping the book will be published in Spring 2014. 

I wrote a longer post on our new website www.prairiesewnstudios.com. We're (well, mostly me!) a bit nervous and anxious about this adventure, so any support or comments on the new website would be much MUCH appreciated! 

Off to keep writing and sewing! 

Christmas Tree Bargello Wallhanging

So it's been a while again since I posted anything here. I figure it's my blog, so that's ok with me. It's been a rough spring, but things seems to be looking up now. AND it's finally warm outside so, woohoo!

One thing I'm working on in 2013 is finishing up some of the flimsies that are sitting around in my closet. Some of these projects are years old, just waiting for quilting. Some of them are for babies that aren't quite so baby anymore. And some just bring up lots of feelings and emotions so it's hard to get any traction on them.

First up for the year is the Christmas Tree Bargello. I'd actually posted about this this back in the fall of 2012 as a link up to Leah Day's Sunday UFO day. I was super excited when she chose my UFO to respond to on her follow up day, and also that several very nice quilters came and commented on my own blog post!

I actually finished this wallhanging in February of this year, and even managed to take pictures but with everything going on in my life just haven't been able to post them until now.

Tada!

In the end, I decided to STOP worrying so much about choosing a perfect quilting pattern. Since I'm still very much learning how to be comfortable with free motion quilting, I knew that the quilting itself wouldn't be perfect (I mean, really, will it ever be? no). so I should just make the commitment to getting it done and ready for next winter!

In the borders I used Leah Day's icicle lights, but just did it going one direction instead of two.  I liked how they invoked the feeling of twinkly christmas lights, and I think the gold Isacord thread is sparkly and festive. 

In the sky background I went with just a simple swirl. There are couple of places where I tried to add a five pointed star, but wasn't really feeling it was working so I didn't too too many.

On the tree itself I just did a simple meander, focusing on not crossing back over any of the stitching. Lesson learned here-be careful with scale. I started out on a scale that was probably a little too small for the look I really wanted, but again just decided to run with it once I got started. Definitely something I'll keep a closer eye on next time. 

Shot of the back, with the label. The backing fabric was very shiny, and went well with the front of the quilt and the red and gold finding. I didn't take a picture of it, but I actually followed the AQS guidelines for adding a sleeve as an exercise in doing it right. Gold star for AQS having a YouTube video to help me along!I'm actually quite pleased with how that sleeve turned out, so I'm happy I took the extra time to do it the "right" way. I'll probably keep adding that extra effort for all of my future wall hangings, instead of my usual "OMG I'm almost done just slap something on there" effort. 

So with ONE finish done for this year, I'm working on my next one! Hopefully I'll get some pictures taken this week. I've got several other VERY VERY exciting quilting and sewing projects going on, but since I don't want to get burnt out on just one thing I'm going to try and spend a little time doing different things to keep it fun.

The Travelling PicStitch Bloghop

I can't believe it's already the end of November and my turn to post for the Travelling PicStitch Bloghop! I actually had quite a bit of trouble choosing a picture for this project as I tend to have more pictures of people than landscapes. After auditioning several pictures (including a lovely double portrait of me and a goat at the petting zoo) I came across this picture of Daddo and BabyBrother that the Momcat took on a trip they took out west a couple of years ago. I'm pretty sure this picture is from their time in Rocky Mountain National Park.

As I mentioned in my sneak peek post last week, I decided to stick with my favorite English Paper Piecing pattern of Grandmother's Flower Garden. I used 3/4" hexagons from Paper Pieces, which is where I get all of my papers for English Paper Piecing. 

I used two different Stonehenge charm packs for the flower petals and red and white for the centers. I'm not sure how I'll put them all together. I laid them all out together but I'm not sure if it's too much and might not be better with a row of white between each flower. 

I have plenty of pieces left so I'll be able to figure it out-now to just find the time to sew some more flowers! 

This post is part of the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.  From 1st October - 30th November we are hopping all over the world EPP-ing in some fantastic locations.  Check out the full list here and be sure to check out the other participants.

On 30th November it's over to you to link up for a chance to win these fabulous prizes!

Sponsored by Paperpieces.com, FabricwormPink Castle Fabrics ,  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop, WantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil.

Full details for competition entry can be found here.

Baby niece baby quilt.

I'm excited to finally share the baby quilt that I made for my niece, the first baby in the family. I actually gave it to her (well to her parents really since she's only 10 months) at Halloween, but didn't get a chance to share the pictures until now. 

I started the quilt just over a year ago when I went back to Omaha to visit the parentals. The Momcat should know by now that anytime I'm standing in her quilting space and start a sentence with "so I was thinking it might be fun to..." that some new project is about to launch. Just ask her about my brilliant idea to make wall hangings for my bridesmaids and a quilt for my new in-laws before my wedding. 

Momcat and I looked through her extensive collection of books and landed on a churn-dash in a straight setting with cornerstones. I'm proud (or somewhat terrified depending on how you look at it) to report that ALL of the fabric in this quilt comes from the Momcat's stash. I like to think I'm doing my part in helping her use fabric so she can buy more. You can thank me later, Daddo. 

I put the Momcat to work, and by the end of my short visit home we had the whole top pieced together, with just the border left to sew on. 

Each block had a fussy cut fairy in the middle of it, with more fairies appearing in the corner stones and in a corresponding print on the backing.

 I worked on the quilt off and on while the N-boy was in Russia. A couple of other projects (Prairie Sewn Companion) kept me busy and out of trouble during this time too. Finally after the N-boy came back and we settled into the Fall semester I set out to finish it in time for the Halloween party.

I'm SUPER proud of how it turned it. This was my first real-project attempt at free motion quilting and it was lots of fun to work on. Except for when my thread kept breaking. That was less fun.  But I"m  happy with it and I hope that niecy-niece loves it.

I did a swirly-loopy-vine in the sashin and pebbling in the cream and gold rectangles in the center. I also did stitch in the ditch to stabilize the whole thing before I started. In the borders I did a simple meander. I got a TON of help and inspiration from the materials on Leah Day's blog. She's an amazing quilter and her videos and blog posts made me positive that I could do this.

It's a little hard to see in this photo, but the back print has fairies in the center with more of the sashing fabric framing it like a picture frame. I used the same pink for both the border and the binding.

 I'm actually looking forward to working on quilting more of the tops that are languishing in my closet now. The free motion quilting wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, and it made me feel really good to get a project that was important to me out the door to its intended recipient.

UFO Sunday-Christmas Tree Bargello

I'm really trying to work on my UFOs this fall; I had 7 flimsies sitting in my closet just waiting to be finished. All of them are completely pieced and just need quilting and binding. I finished one last week and can't show pictures of the whole thing yet, but here's a peek at my pebbling. I'm pretty proud for my first attempt!

Here's the one I pulled out for this week; it's a bargello Christmas tree that I made in a class when we first moved to Indiana. Four years ago. Oh well. I'd really like to have it done in time to hang up for Christmas this year (it's a large wall hanging).

I'm not entirely sure how to quilt it, especially since I'm still very much feeling my way into free motion quilting. I've been practicing, and I'm not afraid to try something new, but I'm still not sure what to do.

Possibly tree bark on the trunk? 

Occasional round ornaments on the tree, with different free motion patterns filling each one? 

Stars in the sky? 

Trace the holly in the borders? 

Suggestions are most dearly welcomed! 

Hexagons everywhere.

I'm finally starting to feel better after the stomach flu of death earlier this week. Work was a little rough on Wednesday, but after forcing down some more ramen and cherry coke I really started to turn around. I even managed to eat two pieces of pizza at a work event Wednesday evening before coming home and promptly collapsing on the couch. 

Luckily I have the perfect project for sitting on the couch. I didn't have the energy to sit at my machine and quilt for an hour for National Sewing Month, but I did have the energy to hand baste some hexagons. These are for a new project idea I've been working on for Prairie Sewn Companion for fall and winter craft shows.

Do you have go to projects for when you're low on energy? 

National Sewing Month

So apparently it's National Sewing Month. 

I'll be honest, I didn't actually know that there WAS a national sewing month until I read about it on Bonnie Hunter's blog. Bonnie is using this month to get to work on some of her languishing hand sewing projects. Oddly enough, I haven't had any problems working on hand sewing hexagons lately, but I HAVE had the continuing problem of flimsies withering away in my studio, stitched together but in want of quilting (and binding, although binding is one of my favorite parts so I never seem to have trouble with that final step). 

A big part of my problem is that I get overly anxious about the quilting being perfect, and since my free motion machine quilting skills are somewhat lacking, I am terrified of messing up a top that I've worked so hard on. I've taken the quilting classes, I get the theory, I just need the practice and the self acceptance that these aren't show quilts. No one but me (and maybe the Momcat) is going to look closely at the stitching and know if something isn't perfect. It's silly to have projects (and presents for people!) pining away upstairs when they could be out bring quilty joy to the world.

So while the N-boy hunkered down with Minecraft, I headed upstairs to my studio and dusted off my sewing machine. First step-warm up and practice. I already have pre-assembled quilting practice kits ready to go thanks to the Momcat. I know I need lots more practice, but I was pretty goal oriented today so I just did one practice piece.

Then, I put in the first project I want to finish; it's a secret project for someone so I don't want to show much of it. Not too shabby. Not perfect (or even close!), but I'm happy with it. 

Up close and personal with the quilting.

And of course no sewing session is complete without assistance from the helper cats. These pictures make them look cute and innocent. Not shown are the MULTIPLE times that I had to forcibly remove each cat from the quilt, in the machine, while I was sewing. Fail, cats, fail. 

Catcat.

Friday.

I can only machine quilt for about an hour at a time before my wrist and arm start bugging me (tendonitis), but since Bonnie's challenge is for one hour a day that works for me! Now if I can just keep this up I might actually get this quilt finished! And then move onto the next one! 

What can I do to keep my momentum going??

American Quilter's Society-Day One!

The Momcat and I left South Bend bright and early this morning to head down to Paducah, KY for the American Quilter's Society Annual Quilt Show! This is our fourth time going down to this show, and I think we've FINALLY gotten this whole adventure down to an art form, leaving bright and early and stopping at the Outlet Mall for a few hours for mid-afternoon break. After driving a few more house and checking into our hotel, we headed into Paducah for our first stop at Hancock's of Paducah!

I'll take some pictures of the inside tomorrow (so you get the full idea of the craziness), but needless to say we found a few things! 

These are our happy "we love fabric!" faces. 

After our first shopping adventure we headed to Texas Road House for dinner. It's become one of our traditions to go here each year, and this was the best night in our schedule to do so.

One of my favorite things is how so many of the businesses welcome the quilters with special signs and banners! Yay for quilter love! Last year there was a lot of tension with the local community and the quilt show because of evacuating from the flooding, so I'm hoping we'll see more of a welcome this year.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where I photographed the damage for the day:

Mondays are for Muggles...or Moms!

Holy smokies that weekend was FAST. Luckily I only have one day of work this week before the Momcat and I head off to Paducah for the AQS show! [insert ridiculously happy and muppet like dance here]

This last week was highly unproductive, in part because I was super busy trying to catch up from being at a meeting last week, and in part because I just had other things to do. Like accompanying friends the Apple store, because clearly my supervision was required.

I did however:
-Work out two times
-Host book club on Monday night
-Have a good time at the craft fair on Saturday with the Momcat

-Feel like we're almost-kinda-sorta ready for our trip

Not bad for a busy week with lots going on.

This week I will:
-Have a great time with the Momcat!

Seriously, that's all I want us to do. Have fun, be safe, and buy lots of fabric! This show always reinvigorates our love for quilting and give us lots of new ideas. Our hotel has wifi, so I'm hoping to post as we go through the week this year with updates from our adventure.

Festive for Friday...What Quilters Do

I came across this somewhere out in the Blogosphere and thought it needed to be shared. These memes have been all the rage on Facebook, and you could probably find one for just about any category of people!

Also festive on the start of this lovely three day weekend, Prairie Sewn Companion (post on this to come soon!), the sewing and quilting company that the Momcat and I started this year are going to be at a craft show in Goshen, Indiana on Saturday. It should be lots of fun, so come by and check it out if you're in the area!

Studio Space-Fabric Storage

I think this is the time of year when lots of people look at spaces in their homes and get the urge to reorganize. For me, that overwhelming desire to go out and acquire coordinating boxes and new organization system always seems to hit home the hardest in my studio. When my studio is clutter and messy, I have NO desire to go in there and work on projects. This is compounded by feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of UFOs (Unfinished Fabric Objects) and WIPs (Works in Progress) that I have sitting up there.

When the parentals were here over Christmas, we stopped at Ikea after I took the N-Boy to the airport for his flight back to Siberia. I wish I could live in one of the little displays at Ikea. Seriously. I could spend hours there. I have on occasion, been there so long I have to eat multiple meals. And when the Momcat and I are together...well I wish I'd gotten pictures but Daddo would just take his kindle, find a nice couch or chair in one of the displays and wait for us. When we'd catch up, he'd just go on ahead a few and do it again. He knows what this process is like when the two of us get together. I think the N-boy was VERY happy to be on an international flight during this latest Ikea excursion.

And again I digress.

ANYWAY one of the items I was looking for at Ikea was some kind of cupboard or storage unit to store my fabric. During our annual pilgrimage to the American Quilter's  Society Paducah Show a few years ago the Momcat and I discovered Polar Notions. They are these plastic inserts that you use to make mini bolts with your fabric. They are super easy to use, and make it so much easier to store and see your fabric. Previously, I'd put a lot of my fabric onto these bolts, but they were begin stored on their sides in big canvas under-the-bed style boxes. So while they were protected from the sun and from the Helper Cats, the setup was less than ideal.

When I was home in October, the Momcat showed me how she'd started putting her fabric onto Polar Notion bolts, but was putting them into bookcases with doors on them. I liked the new system an awful lot, and so wanted to get something similar for my studio. After looking at every possible bookcase/shelving unit/storage case on all three floors, the Momcat spotted this beauty in the "As Is" section.

It was a floor model and was still in great condition. And the doors! Look at those doors! It was perfect and so I bought it and loaded it into the car. It was a VERY tight ride home, but at least it fit and we didn't have to assemble it.

Then it was time to load it up with the goods!

The bottom shelf has holiday fabrics and fabrics that I have already planned for projects. The next shelf up has backing fabrics, panels and Jinny Beyer border prints.

Third shelf up has the majority of my fabric cuts that are at least one half yard, but most are a yard. Fourth shelf up has some solids and some I just purchased that coordinate with each other. There's also a very small pile of precuts.

Next shelf up hold fat quarters. I'm not happy with this shelf yet, but it's better then it was before. And then the top shelf is a bit random. Up there right now are some odds and ends for a specific project, and some larger pieces that have already been cut into in weird ways.

In the three months since we set this new system up, I've managed to keep it fairly tidy! Fabric has more or less ended up on bolts and on as shelf, even if it sometimes takes a few days for that to happen. I'm exited to pick up more of the bolts at the Paducah show at the end of this month, which I will then have to load with all of the fabric that I'll also buy there! 

Christmas Mug Rug

Can it really be almost three months since I have posted a blog entry? Yes. Sad. 

Have I been busy? Well, somewhat. I've been continuing to work on the Paducah Challenge Quilt, which incidentally is due on Saturday. I'm almost finished, but not quite.So I haven't been able to post pictures of what I've been working on given that it's a secret challenge with the Momcat. Still, no excuse. 

I have, however, just discovered an app that will let me upload photos from Audrey (my iphone) directly to my Picasa album, from which I can pull photos into this blog. Are they the bestest quality of photos? Well, no. On the other hand my photos with my camera are not the best of quality. Although is due large in part to my lack of skill as a photographer, and is no fault of the cute little canon camera.

I do think this will help me be less lazy. I rarely have my camera with me, but always have my phone. I hate dragging out my camera cord to connect to my computer. Yes, I really am that lazy. 

So without further ado, here's the little package I made up for our office coordinator. He just started with us this last May, and has been a SUPER person to have in our office. 

I made the little rug mug from scraps I made; log cabin pattern. He really like it, and even took it home to show his wife!

Here's to being less lazy!

Finished for Friday: Cutting the Challenge Quilt

So it seems that I'm only capable of posting anything in Friday's lately, but at least that means I get to participate in Finished for Friday hosted over at Lit and Laundry's wonderful blog.

Some might remember that each April the Momcat and I take our annual (you can call two years in a row annual, right?) trip down to Paducah for the AQS show. We take classes, we see the show, we meet celebrities, and we buy lots of fabric. Very fun and festive. 

One thing we buy fabric for is our "Challenge Quilt" where we each get the exact same pieces of fabric and are allowed to add one additional piece of fabric to produce a finished quilt top by Christmas. I'm getting a bit of a late start on my project this year, but last week I finally figured out what pattern to use. After cutting and testing one block, I spent the last week cutting the rest of the jelly roll (this year's challenge fabric) and putting together little kits for each block! I finished them up last night for total of 36 blocks ready to go together!

Since it's a surprise challenge and the Momcat reads this blog (hi mom!), I don't want to post a picture of the finished block. But I can post a picture of the content of each block kit! This will keep her guessing!

Tonight I head off to join some of the other quilter's in my guild for a retreat weekend at a nearby YMCA camp. Some of the women have been there since yesterday, and I can only imagine how much they've already gotten done. I've packed all the block kits for the Challenge Quilt , as well as another piecing project and my John Flynn Quilt Frame! Needless to say, the car was awfully full this morning when I drove into work!

Be sure to check out what others have Finished for Friday!