rounded corners + a giveaway!

 

This weekend I fell in love with rounded corners and bias binding. I typically avoid bias binding in my quilts---straight-grain binding is so easy to cut and creates little waste---but while taking Tara Rebman's Quilt-As-You-Go Patchwork Bags class on Craftsy, I was inspired to branch out.

The kind folks over at Craftsy (an online video classroom specializing in a variety of crafts including quilting) recently gifted me a spot in Tara's class. I always learn new skills best by watching someone else demonstrate them first, so I found that Craftsy's video platform worked well with my learning style. In the class's first lesson, Tara walks you through the steps of the quilt-as-you-go technique, in preparation for creating a bag, which is how I came to make my scrappy potholder with rounded corners.

The quilt-as-you-go technique was a lot of fun to try, and I love how it uses up scraps of all shapes and sizes. I'm already brainstorming ways to use the technique on zipper pouches and pillows.

 

Thanks to the class, I'm also already thinking about ways to incorporate rounded corners into the quilts I'm currently working on for my shop. I think they add such a nice touch to a project. (Jolene over at Blue Elephant Stitches often incorporates rounded corners into her quilts---like this one---which I love!)

And now for the exciting part: Craftsy has offered to give one of my readers a spot in the class as well! To enter, simply head on over to Craftsy and sign up for an account right here. If you already have an account, you can simply log in here to enter. A winner will be drawn on Wednesday, July 31. Good luck!

Update 8/1/13: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Sarah!

recent commissions

I'm very lucky to have kind friends and family members who support my craft and commission me to make things for them and for gift giving. This month, I had the chance to work on two projects: a Kindle case for an aunt and a stuffed elephant for a college roommate's new niece.

I dragged my feet for quite a while on making the Kindle case (surely I'm not the only person who tends to put projects without a due date on the back burner!), but when I spotted Karen's iPad case, I was immediately inspired and motivated to whip up that case.

I pulled bright blue and green scraps from my stash, and pieced them at random until I had slabs large enough for the case's sides. I used batting scraps to add a bit of structure to the case, and quilted it with turquoise thread.

For the elephant, I returned to the pattern I used from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts to make Peanut, the Wee Elephant, last year.

Peanut gets easier to make each time I use the pattern, so luckily I was able to whip up this gray + pink + turquoise elephant in just a few hours.

The little tail is my favorite part! What are your go-to handmade projects for gift giving?

my etsy shop is back!

I'm so excited to announce that after taking a bit of a break, I've reopened my Etsy shop! It's currently stocked with quilts and a few other goodies, most of which I've never actually blogged about here.

I also have lots of quilt tops in the queue (and a new studio space to work in!), and hope to finish them in the coming weeks. I hope you'll stop by the shop and take a look around!

twin quilts

At the end of April, I became a proud, first-time aunt to beautiful twin boys. One of the best things about being an aunt, is having the chance to make lots of handmade things for my nephews; however, since they live in Japan, I have to spoil them from afar.

To celebrate their arrival, I made each of them a quilt. For the first quilt, I made yellow and gray half-square triangles using some of my favorite prints, and laid them out in a manner similar to my Prismatic quilt.

For the second quilt, I did scattered green plus signs, using Jeni's tutorial as a starting point. I included lots of fun prints, including some Alexander Henry cars, Ed Emberley elephants, and Heather Ross horses.

I loved making these quilts and can not wait to meet the boys they were made for---hopefully that will happen this fall!

architextures mini quilt

Do you ever fall in love with a fabric line and want to use it in all of your projects? That's how I feel about Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures line, which I first saw at Quilt Market last fall. I snagged a little mini pack (2.5" squares) of the line while I was there, and finally turned it into a small quilt last month.

The top was entirely paper pieced by hand, some of which I did while traveling to and from Quilt Market in Portland in May.

While at Market, I actually had the opportunity to meet Carolyn, who was incredibly nice and had an amazing booth.

I used chambray squares between each of the octagons, and backed the quilt with a vintage reproduction floral print.

I absolutely adore this quilt---now I just need to figure out where to put it!

What are your favorite fabric lines? In addition to Carolyn's work, I really love Leah Duncan's designs, and can't wait to get some yardage of her new line, which will be released next month.

hope valley baby quilt

After sharing the mermaid quilt with you this past weekend, I figured I'd go ahead and pull another never-before-blogged-about quilt from the archives.

Back when we were living outside of DC a few years ago, I signed up for a ticker tape quilt class at Stitch DC, a local yarn and fabric shop.

I was excited to try out a new-to-me quilting technique, and happy to finally use some of the Hope Valley prints from my stash. I opted to do squares for my layout, and stitched each one to my quilt sandwich. It washed up quite nicely, and the pieces frayed around the edges as they were supposed to.

Perhaps the best part of the class though, was the friendship I formed with Katie, one of only a handful of people I managed to befriend during my short time in Maryland. Katie's blog is beautiful and inspiring, and definitely worth a read.

P.S. Thanks to my friend Kait, the lovely model/quilt holder in the pictures above, for her assistance when I took these photos OVER A YEAR AGO!

do. Good Stitches: June Block

Have you sewn a lot of curves? I've done only a few, but I got some good practice in last week while making the block for this month's quilt for the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches. We used a restricted palette and Alyssa's pattern, and I think the finished quilt is going to be stunning!

Each month, I make quilt blocks for the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches, which our group then turns into quilts that we donate to Project Linus. You can see all of my past blocks here.