A Little Mother-Daughter Sewing

I am back from a wonderful weekend of Mother-Daugher sewing!  I went to the Ponderosa Quilt and Sew Retreat this weekend with some of my buds from Sew South and their moms.  We had an amazing time! 

Ponderosa (photo by Lee Monroe)

Here's the back story:  My mom and I both went to Sew South this year, and we met Chrissy (Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts) and Lee (May Chappell).  Both of their mom's sew. Awesome!  So, Chrissy thought it would be amaze-balls to have a weekend of sewing with our moms.  She got the ball rolling and we made it happen this past weekend. The place we stayed is owned by the Moda rep that Sew Lux buys from, Kim, and she is awesome.  Her center is huge, has plenty of room for sewing, laying out, ironing, whatever.  And talk about tools:  we were like kids in a candy store.  She had every ruler know to man, plus more.  I got to try the Go! Baby AccuQuilt for the first time.  So awesome!  She has a ton of dies, so that was fun.  

The retreat has great beds, a fantastic kitchen and it's just outside of Asheville (in Waynesville).  Super easy to get to.  The weekend was so fun and so productive!

Look at all the books!  (photo by Chrissy Lux)

The kitchen

Lee finished, 2, count 'em, 2, quilt tops from her awesome new Lazy Sunday quilt pattern.  You can get it as a kit through Sew Lux in both Sweet Serenade and High Street. See Lee's quilt tops below.

Lazy Sunday quilt pattern by Lee Monroe (photo by Lee Monroe)

Two finished quilt tops (Sweet Serenade-left, High Street-right; photo by Lee Monroe)

Ann, Lee's mom, finished up a awesome Lazy Sunday quilt top made from Sweetwater's new Road 15 line.  Sew Lux sells this too!

Road 15 quilt top in progress (Lazy Sunday pattern-photo by Lee Monroe)

Amanda turned out some awesomeness:  a wall hanging, mini quilt and quilt top!  They looked amazing!  Sew Lux sells the mini quilt as a kit.  So great for Halloween!

Amanda's quilt top (photo by Chrissy Lux)

Beverly (Amanda's mom) make a cute apron and make her very first quilt block.  She's hooked now.

Linda (Chrissy's mom) brought several UFOs.  She finished 3!  

Chrissy finished a Super Tote in Kate Spain's new Sunnyside line!  They have it in the shop!

Chrissy's tote! (photo by Chrissy Lux)

Vickie (my mom) brought a mug rug kit to make (available at Sew Lux) and a cute fabric bucket to make.  She cranked out both of these!  

I finished making the blocks for my cousin's baby quilt.  I even got most of the piecing done!

Churn Dash quilt in progress (prior to piecing)

We all had such a fun time that we've planned another one for early 2014!  It was great to connect with my mom and get to know my friends' moms too!  I can hardly wait for the next one!

Happy stitching!
Nicole

Thursday Threads link up

I am working furiously to finish up a baby quilt for my cousin's soon-to-be-here baby boy.   My whole family is super excited about this new addition, as my cousin will be the only other one to have children (except for my sister).  Babies are sooo fun!

I have a stockpile of Violet Craft's Madrona Road from my own stash and the MQG challenge from earlier this year.  I have had this pattern drafted up for a while and just needed the motivation to get started on it.

Here is the progress:

It's a crappy photo!  Sorry for the hotspot!  Anyway, the idea is a multiple sizing of churn dash blocks.  I'm using mainly 6", 9" and 12" blocks.  Yes, that is a teeny 3" block.  It was a test and I'm not sure if I'm gonna stick with those.  

I hope to have more progress made to share by Monday, but I am going to Winston tomorrow to visit some of the quilt shops there.  Amanda Murphy is coming to Sew Original tomorrow and there is the Quilt Carolina event going on in the Triad and Triangle!  My pocketbook is gonna be hurting after this weekend!

Y'all have a good one!

Weekend Sewing and Stuff

Hi!  How are ya?  I have been away from the blog but have  been getting my sew on!  I have a couple of finishes to share with you:

Seth's quilt

Seth and me with his quilt

This is a quilt I made for my nephew.  It is a late birthday present for him!  I had the top pieced for a month and just hadn't put it together.  I took my machine with me on our family beach vacay and finished it up there!  Seth is learning to sew, and as you can imagine, he was fascinated with seeing the quilt come together.

The pattern is from Jeni Baker's Modern Plus Quilt Tutorial.  Check it out here.

I used the blue color way from Emily Herrick's Hall Of Fame line.  I backed it with a panel of the Pennant fabric and a gray Colton sheet I picked up at Target.  I also bound it in the Pennant fabric. He absolutely loves it!

Back of Seth's quilt

Believe circle of do.good.stitches

March quilt for Believe Circle of do.good.stitches

Finally assembled the March blocks into this cute quilt!  This was my first foray into free motion quilting.  It was lots of fun and I learned tons!  The quilting is not pretty, but the final product turned out so cute.  I had the ladies use the Wonky Cross tutorial from Elizabeth Hartmon.

Baby Cooper's Quilt

Baby Cooper's Robot quilt

This quilt is for my friend's brand new baby!  They chose a robot theme, so, of course, I had to make a robot quilt!  The top is a panel by Kokka, the back is snugly orange flannel.  I bound it with a navy dot. I had so much fun quilting this! I took the opportunity to practice my free motion skills!  There are pebbles, stars, pinwheels, wrenches, lightening bolts, loops, swirls, a road and skylines!  I sure hope they like it!

Modern Mini Quilt Chllenge

Hi Friends!  I've been away from the computer for awhile.  Did ya miss me??

Well, regardless of the answer to that question, I've missed blogging!  I've been busy sewing, but just haven't taken the time to blog.   But, since Jennifer, of Ellison Lane, is hosting the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge, I thought I'd better do a post so I can enter!  

So here's my entry:

I made this pillow, from my very own design, from my very own brain, for Jennifer H of the TMQG.  Her Flickr and Pintrest photos showed lots of log cabin and courthouse steps inspired pillows and quilts along with pinks and oranges.  She also indicated that she was really getting into Anna Maria Horner.  Well, I have very little AMH in my stash, really only scraps, so I knew I didn't have enough to pull together an 18x18 pillow.  So, I pulled out my FQ bundle of Saltwater and some creamsicle-ish solid and got to cutting.  And here's the result:

Front

Back

Front detail

Back detail

I used a variegated Gutterman thread that was in our swag bag from Sew South.  I really like the effect!  I think the pillow was well received; I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I'm linking up to Ellison Lane's Modern Mini Quilt Challenge!  

See you soon, peeps!

My Very Talented Friends

At Sew South, I met some very awesome, very talented peeps!  So, I thought I'd share what a few of them are up to.

Lindsey Rhodes of LRStitched has her wonderful cosmetic bags featured on Pellon's blog today.  You too can make these bags!  Lindsey made these as her Sew South swap item.  I wasn't lucky enough to be in her group, but now, I can make one myself.  Go check it out!

And, Kim, of Windsor & Main, is hosting the Easiest Sew-Along Ever!  She has lots of give-aways, but more importantly, you'll actually finish a project!  Imagine that!  The rules are simple:  do what you can, with what you have, at where you're at.  Check out Kim's site for details, prizes and other information.  I can't wait to see what we all come up with!

I Heart the 80s

I was in a Flickr swap that just finished up and I'm so excited to show you what I made for my partner, Courtney.  I was so excited to get her name, because I'm in the Believe Circle of do.good.stitches with her, and I absolutely LOVE what she posts up on Flickr.  I mean, the girl does amazing work!  So, I knew I had to bring out some good shiz!

Courtney left wonderful hints, and she was easily stalkable.  She is a little younger that I am, so our 80s references overlapped, but we different just the same.  My original idea was to make a modern day version of the bermuda bag.  I carried one of these in middle school and they were all the rage and I LOVED MINE.  I mean, you could change out the covers; I had a monogrammed one, a corduroy one, a pink and green one . . .  

I recently purchased Stitch Savvy, by the very talented Deborah Moebes, and in that book, is her version of the classic bermuda bag, The Classy Lady Elbow Bag.  When I saw this pattern, I knew I would make this for Courtney.  I purchased some awesome cassette fabric from the Geekly Chic line as well as some Robert Kaufman pink animal print.  See, Courtney was a Jem fan, and, well, that pink lepoard fabric would be perfect to make the cover!  I found a Jem patch and ordered that, thinking that it would be the most awesome finishing touch.   However, that patch has YET to arrive . . . and the deadline for sending my swap item out was April 30.  

Bag fabric . . .yeah, those are sparkly handles!

So, last week, I came up with another idea.  Courtney is a HUGE fan of John Hughes films.  Someone in our Flickr group posted a discussion topic about what your favorite 80s movie quotes are.  Lucky for me, Courtney posted several.  With this info, I set to creating a 16 candles pillow for her.  It turned out fab, if I do say so myself!

I am still waiting on that Jem patch.  I'm gonna finish the purse cover when that comes in, and I'll send that on as well.  So, yeah, two gifts!  Not a bad deal!  She is awesome, so she deserves it!

Classy Lady Elbow Bag

Y'all have a great day!

Claiming my blog

Following Lee's lead and claiming my blog with Bloglovin!  Now that Reader is going away, I wonder how long Blogger will be around too . . .

Sew South post coming today!  Stay tuned . . .

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