Blog Anniversary/1000th Post/Birthday Giveaway: Winners' Roll Call

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. –Oprah Winfrey

It's about time we gave away some fabric around here! I wish I had prizes for you all. Thank you to everyone who took time to enter. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments.

To choose the winners, rather than mess with drawing numbers and then counting through the comments to find the one that corresponds with the number, I printed them all out, cut them apart and threw them in a big roasting pan so there would be plenty of room for them to get nice and mixed up and not get stuck together and then I had the Not-So-Little Bugs draw for me. Grasshopper was really getting into it and drew one of the winners by picking up the slip of paper with the comment on it with his mouth. Here are the results:

• 4-Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway:
A jelly roll of Printemps by 3 Sisters, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop.

Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Sandra
at Sandra's Craft Corner



whose response to my question about favorite things about blogging or reading blogs was: Bloglovin follower here. I most enjoy the ideas, tips and pictures on the blogs.


• 1000^th Post Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle in a rainbow of beautiful colors and prints.

Winner drawn by LadyBug


Congratulations to
The4Rs
at Recycle, Repurpose, Redo and Renew


whose response to my question about favorite things to do in your free time was: Wow, I am the first! I love to read blogs and pin ideas to Pinterest. This year my goal is to actually try some of the ideas I covet! And of course, I love to craft and sew; always looking for inspiration. Love your giveaway, I think a rainbow doll quilt for a niece would be fun to make with it!


• Birthday Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you.

Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Alida P
at Quilting, Paper Piecing and Crafts


who said: Happy birthday fellow AYW designer I am so happy that I found your blog!! Bookmarked Happy birthday again.

Thank you again to everyone who commented! Winners, check your e-mail to see how to claim your prize.

Birthday Giveaway

If you always give, you will always have. –Chinese Proverb

Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be 21 with 20 years' experience. And I'm celebrating with a giveaway! 'Cause that's how I like to roll. The story goes like this:

Once upon a time, I won a a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo herself. It was pretty groovy.

The cool thing about half-yard cuts is that there is plenty to share. It is a mathematical law that if you divide something by half, you always have half left. So today I'm giving away a fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you. The fabrics have been washed, pressed and squared up so "fat quarter" is used loosely here.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite color combination. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter today's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted.
• Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Wednesday, January 15^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by 8:00 pm on January 16^th.

Good luck!

Brag Sheet: 2013

I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands.
Hope I get the chance to travel the world,-
But I don't have any plans.
–Wake Me Up, written by Tim Bergling, Aloe Blacc and Mike Einziger, performed by Avicci

I wasn't going to do a post about all of my 2013 projects because it didn't really seem like there were many. But I've enjoyed the other 2013 posts, so I looked over my index page and was surprised that even though it seemed like slow going, I got a nice bit of sewing done this year.

First are the projects I put together using Pat Bravo's Indie fabric line. I made two Stitchy Kits, designed by Lori Holt {pattern here}. I gave one away and kept one for myself. And I made a folded fabric star and put it on a tote bag. Somehow, Pat sussed me out and invited me to enter her Instagram contest, which I won. I received a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street as my prize {by the way, I still need a sewcation} and Pat used the photo of my folded fabric star as the header on her Flickr page. The post of the finished fold star tote bag is my most popular post of all time, with 9,822 9,823 9,826 visits to date.

I put together a few other non-quilty things this year: two Christmas ornaments in January, stragglers from Christmas 2012; a Christmas table runner for a lady I know whose birthday is on December 24^th; a new reversible ironing board cover; a Magicka Wizard's robe for Grasshopper's Halloween costume; and two little booklet holders.

Although this has nothing to do with sewing, I was inspired by Shay, who included her travels in her 2013 wrap-up post, and thought I'd throw in our family vacation with a few days at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, a few days at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming and a quick drive-by of Grand Tetons, Wyoming. Fun stuff! More family travel is definitely in our future.

And finally, even though it didn't feel like it, I got a few quilts done; a Drunkard's Path, Ripples, for a friend for her birthday; a 4" square mini for LadyBug's report on Pennsylvania {which is where the Amish live and the Amish are famous for quilting} and which ended up as a quilt for her Guard Lizard, Gilbert; a scrappy baby quilt, Little Boy Blue, for a friend's new baby; a framed Double Wedding Ring, Echoes of Eternity, for a wedding gift in the bride's colors; a zig-zag quilt, Miss Butterfly's Flower Garden, for my niece, Miss Butterfly, to use on her bed; a batik quilt, Sea Glass, for a friend for her birthday; and even though I didn't make the quilt top, I'm counting the quilting I did for P. on her String Ring Dresden as a finish for me as well. At 75" x 95", it is the biggest quilt I've done.

I'm excited for 2014. My goal for this year is not to over commit. I have loads of Ph.D quilts that I want to work on and I've made out a mental list of things I want to work on, but I'm leaving it open to see what inspires me.

Today's post brought to you by:

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Sea Glass

It was all a part of being trustworthy—of being a piece of sea glass. High tides, low tides, storms, sand and mistakes all contributed to the polishing process. Though difficult to endure at the time, the demanding elements helped smooth the surface, transforming one into a better person, not worse. A person who learned from the harsh environment, who knew the storm would end, and who felt confident she would still be in one piece.
–Maria V. Snyder, Sea Glass

I'm really excited to participate in Blogger's Quilt Festival again! I hope you're enjoying the show. Thanks to Amy for hosting and welcome to visitors! {For those of you who've been here recently, I hope you won't mind if I show off this quilt one more time.}

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
Quilt Name: Sea Glass
Finished quilt measures: 65” x 71”
Quilted by: Melissa Kelley at Sew Shabby Quilting
Blogger's Quilt Festival Category: Quilt Photographer

I made this quilt for a dear friend for her birthday recently. She was going through a difficult time with some health issues and I wanted to do something special for her. As I worked on choosing fabrics, colors and a pattern for this quilt, it was with a prayer in my heart that I would make something that would be special to her and let her know how much I respect, admire and care for her and her family. Step by step, the quilt came together. The colors reminded me of the sea. The batiks framed in dark brown reminded me of stained glass. I did a little research and decided to call the quilt Sea Glass. The name seemed to fit.

When I took the quilt to my friend on her birthday, I told her why I decided to call the quilt Sea Glass and what I know of it. She told me that she and her family loved to vacation at the beach and that the quilt reminded her of a trip to Catalina Island when she and her family had taken a tour in a glass-bottomed boat and the sun had illuminated the water and sea-life below. At that point, I knew I'd been guided in the making of this quilt. But when I was looking for a quote to go with this post it just underlined how much everything about this quilt was the right for my friend. Even though she's been through a really difficult time, I see her with a smile on her face quietly and faithfully going about her duties.

The photo above is my official entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, but I wanted to share a couple more pictures. The top left photo was taken when I took the quilt to my friend on her birthday. She's on the right.

And this is the back. I like to include an embroidered label with the name of the quilt and details about it. I'd originally planned on quilting this myself, but ran out of time. My first label is in the bottom left corner. When I asked Melissa to do the quilting {she was so great to work with and squeezed in a rush order for me}, I made a new label, the one you see in the quilt back. Unfortunately, her last name will forever be spelled wrong on this quilt. {I'm sorry!}.

Read more about this quilt:
Fabric selection & partial assembly
Finished quilt top {and why this quilt is a Palindrome}
Almost finished
Finished and delivered

Today's post brought to you by:

Sea Glass

Earth and sky, woods and fields,
Lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea,
Are excellent schoolmasters,
And teach some of us
More than we can ever learn from books.
–John Lubbock

Finishes have been few and far between around here lately. I'd almost forgotten that awesome “got it done” feeling. And so I'm completely thrilled to show you my latest quilt, finished in time to be delivered to a very dear friend, Michelle, on her birthday last Saturday.

This amazing lady and her family have a special spot in my heart {see also; Birthday Aprons, Jazz Jammies, Baby Frolic and Echoes of Eternity}. Seven weeks ago, she had a serious health issue and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I wanted to do something special for her. And by special, I mean make her a quilt. I tossed around ideas of finishing a quilt that I already had cut or one of the ones that I already had partially assembled, but nothing seemed to fit. With a prayer in my heart to find the right design and the desire to make something simple and fast enough to get it to her when she needed it, I rummaged through my stash and came across a page I'd ripped out of a catalog and put with some cute prints with the intent to use them to make that quilt. A plan began to form.

I bounced ideas off Mr. Bug as I auditioned fabrics. I knew that batiks were the way to go. I {re}discovered two yards of a very pretty brown batik in my stash. That amount of yardage is unusual for me. Most of the time I only buy half-yard cuts. The majority of my batik stash is fat quarters {because Connecting Threads sells fat quarters at regular yardage prices. Woot!}. When I bought the piece of brown, probably a year or more ago, the lady at the cutting counter asked me what I was making. I told her that I didn't know, but the fabric was pretty and I had to have some. When I came across it, I knew it would be perfect for the borders and the long rectangles in this quilt.

At first I was thinking of going with a rainbow spectrum for the colored squares. But the turquoises, greens, blues and purples really stood out. They reminded me of the ocean and I started turning over names for the quilt. Enchantment Under the Sea? Cheesy movie reference. How about just Under the Sea? A slightly less cheesy movie reference. And halfway through the second verse of the song of that name from The Little Mermaid, I realized two things. First, I know the whole song, which just goes to show that you never know which bit of useless information is going to stick. And second, I couldn't name the quilt that or everybody would be singing that song in their head every time they saw the quilt. I dug a little deeper and Sea Glass came to mind. The name was perhaps inspired by the sea colors combined with the stained glass effect the batiks create. Or maybe it was an echo of a memory of a quilt that Kelly called Sand and Sea Glass. Maybe it was both.

When considering which solids to use, I wanted something with a similar weight and feel to the batik fabrics. I'd worked with Pat Bravo's Pure Elements solids and knew that would be the perfect fit. I choose Creme de la Creme {reminiscent of sand} and Coffee Bean {because the pattern called for a dark sashing}.

Then I did a little research on sea glass, to see if I was headed in the right direction with the name. What I found was pretty interesting. According to Wikipedia, sea glass is physically and chemically weathered glass found on beaches along bodies of salt water. Sea glass begins as normal shards of broken glass. The glass is rolled, ground and tumbled in the ocean for years until all of the edges are rounded off and the slickness of the glass has been worn to a frosted appearance. Most sea glass comes from bottles, but it can also come from jars, plates, windows, windshields and ceramics, either from waste discarded into the ocean or even from shipwrecks. Among the most common colors are white {clear}, brown and green. Blue is less common and purple even less.

Sea Glass seemed to fit perfectly for this quilt.

I set to work and soon discovered that I would not be able to finish this quilt in the short time period I'd set for myself. I debated back and forth and back and forth again on whether I should have it quilted by a long-armer or do it myself. I decided to extend my deadline, quilt it myself and make it a birthday gift. But time got away from me and my second deadline was looming close. I made a rescue call to Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting, who fit in my rush order and enabled me to finish the quilt in time for Michelle's birthday. {The Voices, Reason and Passion, had a lot to say about that and I couldn't get them to stop arguing. But a third Voice, Experience, kept saying “wash the quilt.” And she was right. Once it was washed and crinkly and soft, I absolutely loved it and it didn't matter anymore that I hadn't quilted it myself. All the Voices were satisfied. Passion did a beautiful job with the colors and precision piecing. Reason got it to the long-arm quilter because that was the only way to get it done in time. And Experience knew how to make Passion and Reason play nicely together.} You can see my original quilt label at the bottom left of the photo below, which was for when I was planning on doing the quilting. I cut the Sea Glass portion of the label {made of French knots in 20 different colors of floss so as to look like bits of sea glass arranged on the sand to spell out the words} away from the rest, made a new “information” section, giving Melissa quilting credits, and sewed it into my strip of fabric along the seam of the quilt {top right photo below}.

As a side note, not only is the top of the quilt a palindrome, but the back of the quilt is as well {cream, chocolate, brown batik, chocolate, palindrome [more or less] strip of colored fabrics w/label, chocolate, brown batik, chocolate, cream}.

This was a fun gift to deliver. Upon opening the quilt, Michelle asked the name of it and curious to see if I'd put anything on the back, she flipped it over and looked at the label. I explained that the colors inspired the name Sea Glass. She told me that their family loves to go to the ocean. Many of their summer vacations are spent at the beach. She told me that they had been to Catalina Island once and took a tour in a glass-bottomed boat. She said that the sun shone through the waters and made everything look vibrant and the quilt reminded her of that.

I remembered the prayers I'd had in my heart while I worked on fabric and pattern choices and when to get it to her and knew that they had been answered.

Today's post brought to you by:

Random Bits: Vol. 10

A destiny is not realized until we let go of the illusion of control.
–Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda

Getting Warmer
With a little help from Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting, the quilt I've been working on for a friend is right on track to be finished and delivered on time for her birthday tomorrow.

I started this quilt a little over six weeks ago, but have been bouncing back and forth between projects trying to get something finished. {You think I might have figured out by now that picking one thing and sticking to it would get me to “finished” a little faster.} My friend had a pretty serious health issue, which included a trip to the hospital. I wanted to do something special for her during her recovery and I was thinking I could throw together a simple quilt and get it to her in a week. Not so much. The quilt pattern wasn't as simple as I thought {especially since I didn't actually buy the pattern, but sort of reverse engineered it from the photo and dimensions listed} and I debated back and forth about sending it out for quilting to get it done quickly. In the end, to take some stress off I decided to make it a birthday gift, and put it aside to work on other pressing projects thinking I had all the time in the world to get it done.

But at the beginning of last week, I realized I only had two weeks to finish it. Last Saturday, with one week to go and the borders to put on the top and bottom and back to piece, I was really feeling stressed about having enough time to get it done. In desperation, I called Melissa and asked if she could help. She kindly accommodated my rush order and did a lovely job with the quilting. I picked an all-over pattern, dropped my quilt off and in a few days, I had it back, ready to be bound, washed to crinkly softness and given away.

The two voices, Reason {a.k.a. What I Can Do} and Passion {a.k.a. Go Big or Go Home}, are still arguing in my head. Passion says I should have done the quilting {edge-to-edge is usually not my first choice; I think it often masks the piecing. I like to “color inside the lines” and try to quilt a design that accents the piecing}. Reason says that there is no way I would have had time to get the quilting done {especially since I've had a migraine since last Friday night. I'm hoping it is finally gone, but the jury is still out} and finished is better than perfect.

I must pause here to say that Melissa did a great job on the quilting. Her prices are very, very reasonable, she was seriously awesome to work with and the quilting is beautiful. Would I recommend her quilting services? Absolutely. Especially if edge-to-edge is what you're after. Will I use her again? Definitely. I have at least one quilt in the pipeline that is a great candidate for edge-to-edge.

The tug-of-war going on here is my choice to have edge-to-edge quilting done on a quilt that might have been better served with a custom job. The choice to send it out for quilting lifted a huge amount of stress off of me and made it possible to have it finished in time for my friend's birthday. Although I'm not 100% certain, I think the trade-off might have been worth it. At any rate, I'm hoping it will all come out in the wash.

Getting Colder
On Tuesday, we had a new air conditioning unit installed. I like to be prepared.

OK. The real story is that we needed to have our furnace replaced. Last winter was the coldest we've had in as long as I can remember. We kind of limped along with our furnace and had a few times where we wore multiple sweaters and borrowed space heaters while we waited for our repair man to come and fix it. Just when we thought we'd made it through winter and were well into spring, we had one more week-long cold spell and the furnace left us, well, out in the cold. We decided we'd better have it replaced.

But once it turned warm again, it wasn't such a pressing issue. The air-conditioned summer months lulled us into a sense of false security. But the temperatures have dropped early this year {I'm hoping we're not in for another deep-freeze of a winter, but I've heard rumors that it has already snowed in some areas} and we had to get out the space heaters and sweaters again. And the time was ripe to replace the furnace.

As it turned out, though, it was the air conditioner's fault that we needed a new furnace. It has something to do with the coil and condensation and rust dripping down into the furnace. They offered to knock $500 of the cost of labor on top of the pretty fabulous discount we negotiated through our handy, dandy repair man. We decided it would be in our best interest to just do it all at once.

The new furnace is chugging along and we're all toasty warm. It's just too bad we didn't replace the furnace in the spring because, we could have saved quite a bit of money on the electric bill this summer, since in this case it was a package deal.

Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascending
The Piano Guys are at it again. This time on the Great Wall of China. Seriously. Check it out. And if you're wondering how they got the piano on The Wall, check this out.


Available for purchase from The Piano Guys or on iTunes

Palindrome

“Madam in Eden, I'm Adam.” Thus the first words ever spoken were a palindrome. –Unknown

Palindromes are words that read the same backwards and forwards. There are simple ones like mom, dad and Anna. Radar and rotor get a little fancier. And my favorite of all time is racecar because it's a too-cool-for-school sort of word disguised in an every day vocabulary kind of way. There are longer single-word palindromes, mostly in other languages. But tattarrattat {the sound a drum makes} is a pretty long English one.

I asked Mr. Google what he knew about palindromes. It turns out that aibohphobia is the fear of palindromes. And, palindromes are not limited to single words. Sotades, an ancient Greek poet with a somewhat shady character, is credited to have been the first to use palindromic phrases. Like their ancient Greek counterparts, lots of the modern-day-written-in-English ones are just nonsense. But every once in a while a one of them makes sense. Mostly. Here are a couple of amusing ones.

Never odd or even.

Do geese see God?

Murder for a jar of red rum.

And for party schools — Campus Motto: bottoms up, Mac.

Palindromic numbers, sometimes called Scheherazade numbers {in reference to the storyteller in 1001 Nights} are pretty cool, too. I like to watch the odometer in the car every once in a while to see how close it is to the next Scheherazade number. Last I checked, Mr. Bug's odometer was approaching 247,742.

There are also 2D palindrome squares which read the same left to right and top to bottom and take palindromes to a whole new level of coolness.

--

About six weeks ago, a dear friend had a very traumatic health issue, which included a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. I wanted to do something for her, so I decided to make a quilt. I chose a simple pattern, pulled out my stash of batiks, held auditions, ordered some Pure Elements by Pat Bravo in Coffee Bean and Creme de la Creme and got to work. The Pure Elements solids are very similar to the weight and feel of the batiks and the two fabrics worked together very nicely.

And as it turns out, quilts can be palindromes too. The pattern of colors in the rows from top to bottom are Turquoise, Green, Turquoise, Blue, Purple, Purple, Blue, Turquoise, Green, Turquoise. I kind of love it.

I just finished the top this week. Even though I thought I'd picked a quilt that was going to be simple, it has 793 pieces. A few days into piecing, I realized I wasn't going get this quilt finished quickly enough to use during her recovery. So, I took my friend and her family dinner and decided to finish this quilt as a gift for her birthday. It is this coming Saturday. With a little bit of help, I think I'm going to make it. I'll keep you posted.

More Pretty Modern Fabrics. And Too Many Projects. I Need A Sewcation.

I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. –Charles C. Finn

While I was busy visiting Yellowstone and other outdoorsy places last week, a cute little package arrived on my doorstep and was promptly whisked away by the mail collectors. My first priority when I got home was to get said package. Seriously. We'd been home for less than an hour when I was calling my neighbors to find out when I could come and collect it.

Courtesy of Pat Bravo, a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway was waiting for me when I got home. It's even more groovy in person.

I immediately knew what I wanted to do with these fabrics. Jess at The Elven Garden showed her Retro Flowers Quilt during the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival and I loved it. I knew these fabrics would be perfect in that quilt. So I tracked down the pattern. Then I rummaged through my stash and found that several of the Pure Elements Solids I'd got when I ordered Pat's Indie fabric line work with Carnaby Street too! {Well, I'm not sold on the dark purple [Cabernet], so we'll see on that one.} I also threw in the Squared Elements in Watermelon that I recently ordered and thought that worked pretty well too.

Now I need a sewcation so I can work on any or all of the sixty-eleven projects I have going on.

Feelin' Groovy

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.
–Paul Simon, 59^th Street Bridge Song

Once upon a time, I fell in love with Pat Bravo's Indie fabric line. I was so in love that I bought a half-yard of every print. And I decided to share the love. I gave away a fat quarter bundle. I made some Stitchy Kits, one to keep and one to give away. And then I made a Folded Fabric Star tote bag to tote my Stitchy Kit and stitching projects around in. Lori Holt, designer of the Stitchy Kit left me a comment on the post about that. I love it when famous people comment on my little blog. Ryan Tilby, bass player from Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband left me a comment once. It was awesome. Then he came back and commented again. But that's not the point of this story.

Just over a week ago, lightning struck again. Pat Bravo left me a sweet comment and invited me to enter her Groovy Instagram Contest. I was so flattered. I signed right up for Instagram and spent the next day fiddling around with it and entering my tote bag and Sitchy Kit ensemble in Pat's contest. There were 85 entries. She announced two winners on July 8^th and on Monday she announced two more winners.

A half-yard bundle of Pat's newest line, Carnaby St in the Cool Peace colorway is on its way to me. The happy thing about a half-yard cut of fabric is that there is enough to share. And fabric this good is meant to be shared. Just sayin' .

Thank you, Pat, for a really fun contest. And thank you for making the world a little more beautiful.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Echoes of Eternity

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity. –Henry Van Dyke

Welcome to those stopping by for the Blogger's Quilt Festival {and thanks to those of you who've been hanging around for a while}! The Blogger's Quilt Festival is always so much fun. I mean, how could it not be? It's got “festival” right in the name. Thank you to Amy for hosting and to her sponsors for the fun prizes! I'm really excited to share this quilt with you. I love that two entries are allowed this time, in two separate categories. You can see my second entry here.

I made this quilt as a wedding gift for the daughter of a very special friend. This young woman often babysat my children and it was a blessing to be able to get to know her. She is a wonderful example of love, service and kindness and so I wanted to do something special for her when she was married earlier this year. I used her wedding colors and made this double wedding ring for her to hang on her wall.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
Quilt Name: Echoes of Eternity
Finished quilt measures: 19½” x 19½”
Special techniques used: Curved Piecing, Templates
Quilted by: Me
Blogger's Quilt Festival Category: Art Quilt

I included this note with the gift: The wedding ring pattern, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes eternity. The purple center circle represents the responsibility a husband and wife have to strengthen and protect each other and their family. The green circles, of which you can only see part, represent the ways a family can branch out from the home by showing love and service to others. The flower represents the constant care and nourishment a marriage needs and the beautiful thing it can be when each partner gives 100% to their spouse and the marriage. The interlocking circle pattern symbolizes that each marriage partner and their choices are individual and unique but are intertwined in the lives of those around them. The square frame that cuts off the pattern, which is shabby and worn but still beautiful, alludes to the fact that life, though sometimes difficult, is only a small portion in our eternal existence. The pattern of the quilt continues well beyond the boundaries of the frame and it could possibly go on forever much in the same way that our lives on earth are only a small part of our existence.

I gave myself only three weeks, from start to finish, to have this project ready in time for the wedding. I planned to have it custom framed in a shadow box, every framer I talked to said it would take two weeks. I barely finished the piecing and quilting in those three weeks and wasn't sure what I was going to do about a frame. Discouraged, I almost gave up, but I found a frame that was the right size, removed the artwork that was already in it, painted and distressed it and pulled it all off just in time.

I knew the frame needed something. I mulled over paint options for several days before I finally settled on one. I was worried that a true white would be too much white but felt the dark frame, as it was, would overpower the quilt. I considered metallic and crackle paints, but in the end, I went with a slightly-off-white paint and I'm glad I did. I think it is the perfect color. I really love how the distressing highlights the pretty pattern in the frame and lets a little bit of the dark paint show through.

To mark my quilting design, I used blue painter's tape. I made a paper template for the pattern in the center, cut it out, traced it onto the tape and then cut it out with an Xact-O knife. I used a walking foot for most of the quilting because I knew it would give me the best chance for even stitches and straight lines. I only used a free-motion foot for the feathers in the purple blocks where the arcs intersect and for line of circles in the arcs. I also used the painter's tape and a couple of circle punches to mark those for quilting. And I used Stampin' Up!^®'s Crystal Effects {works better than E6000} and a lot of patience to attach the cyrstals. It is mounted on foam core board and the quilt itself, which is just the pieced top and a layer of batting, wraps around to the back of the foam core board and is pinned in place with tiny sequin pins. The inner dimension of the frame is 19½” square.

This was a fun project. You can read more about it here:
Fabric selection and project deadline
Quilting in progress
The finished product

Today's post brought to you by:

Folded Fabric Star: Tote Bag Edition

Though my soul may set in darkness,
It will rise in perfect light,
I have loved the stars too fondly
To be fearful of the night.

–Sarah Williams

Once upon a time, I saw a really cool folded fabric star. And so, of course, I had to make my own.

I went to the tutorial, decided I was definitely not going to make a pot holder, got my fabrics ready and made a tote bag. Geta deserves the credit for the tote bag idea. I made the straps nice and long so that I could comfortably put it over my shoulder and not have the bag hitting me just under the armpit.

I had most of this bag finished before I dropped Grace off for her three-week spa vacation on April 10^th. As a matter of fact, on the day I took her in I only needed to put on the binding around the top of the bag, but didn't dare take the time to do it for fear of missing the repair man's pick-up time {which is not an exact time; just whenever he gets to the shop on that particular Wednesday} and have to wait another week. By the time I got Grace back on May 3^rd, I'd moved on to other things and this bag sat for another couple of weeks. Sometime very early this week, or maybe even late last week, I lost my mojo. I got kind of worried there for a bit, when my funk lasted for more than a day or two and my desire to sew completely vanished. I picked this back up with the hope that doing something easy that would lead to a quick finish would put me back in my groove. It didn't really. I finished this several days ago and wasn't super excited about it. Eventually my mojo came back all on its own, though, and I am really happy with how it turned out.

The red center of the star isn't quite large enough. While I actually did read through the directions, when it came time to place the fabrics, I just looked at the pictures and missed the part about moving the second fabric ½” down from the first and leaving ¼” between fabrics after that. But there was no way I was unpicking. Next time I'll remember. And there probably will be a next time because I need a cool tote bag for church. I added an extra color, using nine fabrics instead of just eight. To compensate, I increased the base fabric and the width of the fabric rectangles by ½”. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I kept the quilting simple. Actually, I just copied the quilting in the tutorial, not wanting to distract from the star of the show, the folded fabric star. And I didn't think the bag itself needed anything fancy, either. I just did straight lines on the front and diamonds, or intersecting lines at a 45˚ angle on the sides and back.

I'm using this as my “go bag” for hand sewing projects. I almost always take a little something to work on when I know I'm going to be sitting and waiting, like at the doctor's office or the driver license division or a book signing. I've been using ziplock bags, which keep the project clean, but they're a little tricky to juggle when the waiting stops and the business to attend to commences. I'll keep my Stitchy Kit inside it all the time, and I'll probably still use ziplock bags to hold my projects, but I'll slip those inside the tote bag when it is time to go. Functional and fabulous, no?

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Echoes of Eternity {Mission Accomplished}

And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed! –Dr. Seuss

It was a little iffy there for a few minutes. That one and a quarter percent almost got me, but I finished and delivered the framed double wedding ring, which I have decided to call Echoes of Eternity, to the bride-to-be. She was feeling pretty miserable when I stopped by earlier. She has strep, a double ear infection, and her eardrum burst last night. The wedding is tomorrow, so I'm sure she could use all the prayers and good thoughts she can get.

Is it OK to say that I love how it turned out? It didn't even require an all-nighter. Almost. But not quite. I finished gluing the little crystals on at 2:00 this morning.

I wasn't sure if it was going to come together but I love how the frame turned out. I got cold feet about painting it after I brought home some white paint {read more here} , but with a little encouragement {thank you, Shay}, I decided to make another trip to the hardware store to find an eggshell white, which was how I originally pictured it in my head. Usually I shop for my crafty things alone, but Mr. Bug came with me to the hardware store the first time {who could resist, right?} and that, combined with the lack of selection in flat {versus glossy} paint threw me off my game. I'm so glad I went with my gut. The frame as I originally bought it would have overshadowed the quilt. Painting it white white would have been too much white. This eggshell white is just right, I think.

To mark my quilting design, I used blue painter's tape, the kind that isn't supposed to leave a residue. I made a paper template for the pattern in the center, cut it out, traced it onto the tape and then cut it out with an Xact-O knife. I thought of my dad a lot while I was doing that. He used to paint big diesel trucks for Volvo. If the customer wanted a special design, my dad would do it. He used tape to mask stripes and other designs {see also, 1968 VW Bug}. I also used the painter's tape and a couple of circle punches to mark the line of circles in the arcs.

This was such a fun project to do. It was fun the first time, and it was even more fun the second time. You might even say it is my favourite thing this week . Can I get a whoop, whoop? Some day {soon, I hope} I'm going to do a double wedding ring quilt for my bed. Here's one last photo, because I just can't resist showing this off a bit.

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