Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Thursday, October 22, 2015

2016 The Quilter's Planner

**As an update to this post: Watermelon Taffy didn't actually make it into the 2015 The Quilter's Planner as planned, but the tutorial can still be found on my Tutorial page. The Quilter's Planner is a wonderful tool and contains the works of many talented bloggers that I am happy to call friends and I hope you will check it out.**

Stephanie from Late Night Quilter completely made my day 100% happier when she sent an email Tuesday to let me know that my pattern for the Watermelon Taffy Block would be included as one of the 52 free blocks in her upcoming 2016 The Quilter's Planner.

I read the email twice and did a happy dance. Ten months ago when I started my quilt blogging adventure I would have never dreamed that I would write a pattern for a block, let alone be included in an amazing project such as this one. So a huge thank you to Stephanie for all of her hard work on this project and also allowing me to contribute!

Now let's talk a bit more about this planner. I think quilters fall into two distinct categories; extremely detailed and organized or hot-mess chaos. I can admit that I fall into the later category. If you love details and making sure everything in your life is organized this book will allow you to do that in one great convenient place. This is the book for you. If you are a hot-mess of chaos, like me, this book will provide an opportunity to get your thoughts down in a organized fashion and keep track of all the things you forget to do. This book IS for you.

Let's talk about all the great things that she's included in this planner:

Monthly and Weekly Calendars

Prompts for goal setting (a study shows people who wright down their goals accomplish more)

Project planning pages

Graph paper, space to practice free motion quilting and savings swatches

A reference section for quilting calculations and common piecing techniques

52 original quilt block designs (from various bloggers like me) and 8 full quilt patterns from Cheryl Brickey (Meadow Mist Designs), Yvonne Fuchs (Quilting Jetgirl), Amy Garro (13 Spools), Lee Heinrich (Freshly Pieced), Mandy Leins (Mandalei Quilts), Pat Sloan (Pat Sloan), Kitty Wilkin (Night Quilter) and of course Stephanie (Late Night Quilter) herself.

And art work pull-outs by Kelsey Boes (Lovely and Enough)

The Quilter's Planner 2016 became available for pre-order on October 22 on Indiegogo and should ship out sometime in December (early January at the latest). I know I already have mine pre-ordered and am looking forward to a more organized and productive 2016, thanks to all of Stephanie's hard work.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the Dog Gone Cute Blog hop going on every Tuesday and Thursday this month. I day on the hop has come and gone but you can check it out here.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Scraptastic Award--Part 2

Several weeks ago, I posted about a Scraptastic Award I received earlier in the year, when I inherited the scraps of my friend's very talented grandmother. Boxes and totes full of tiny scraps she had saved over the years.

At the end of September when Kat over at Kat and Cat Quilts put out a call for scrappy string blocks for her charity Covered In Love, I knew that some of Grandma Carver's scraps had found a home. So last night I pulled out a tote of sorted scraps.

Don't worry, I still have more to sort through. My thoughts were to channel my inner Mrs. Carver, reach in with my eyes closed and grab two heaping handfuls of fabric and let her guide me in the chaos.

A side note, if you are also working on another project, say a mystery quilt, and already have small squares sitting on your work space, move them before placing a large pile of scraps on the table. After a bit all the fabric starts to look alike. Luckily in this story no mystery quilt pieces were harmed or discarded.

I started out by following Kat's suggested method for making the string blocks by using an 11" base block and sewing my strips on as I go. When Oliver heard me talking about Kat and Cat Quilts he automatically assumed this meant that an actual cat had to be present and help with the project.

I never let on and gave him the task of guarding the garbage bag I keep on the chair to make sure I didn't toss something of importance.

After I had covered my block in random strips, it was time to turn it over and trim it down to 10.5."

After trimming away the excess fabric and flipping the block over, what was left was a perfectly squared completely scrappy string block.

So after several more sew-press-flip-repeat I had four blocks that I will send out today to Kat.

I would like to think that Grandma Carver would approve of the blocks and their destination. Thanks to her ~~hoarding~~ collection, a family that is in desperate need of a hug might be able to find some comfort in a quilt.

With practically almost all of the scraps gone, what will I do?? Try typing that with a straight face. You can hardly tell that I have made a dent in the mass of scraps, but that's ok, I have several other ideas in mind for them. If you would like to help a fellow quilter in her quest for making quilts for those in need, pop over to Kat's site. There is still 11 days to makes some string blocks to send out.

And always remember, sort your scraps thoroughly, you never know what you may find.

Come join the party! Today I'm linking up with: Sew Fresh Quilts, Freemotion By The River, Blossom Heart Quilts , and Quilt Story.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Where has October gone?

October has turned out to be a very crazy month that has left little time for sewing, let alone writing. It's mainly been a time for family and running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. (Hope that wasn't too graphic) So what the heck has been going on??

I did finish my two quilts for the Dog Gone Cute Blog Hop hosted by Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts. The blog hop is going on every Tuesday and Thursday in October with a linky party in November. You can check out my adorable little pooches in my Dog Gone Cute Post and find a list of my blog hop litter mates.

And the sewing for the most part has stopped right there. But that's okay, because I have been celebrating things like my daughter's birthday and her first homecoming. Finding my daughter another year older, I find myself asking where did my baby go? It's kind of scary how fast time passes.

With all of the birthday excitement, it was also time to watch her cross another milestone (milestone in a teenager's book) and prepare for her first real dance. With the help of my bff Jackie, my daughter felt like the belle of the ball. With Jackie's magic touch Jen was able to score the Pinterest hair win she was looking for. Thank goodness for friends!

For a warm your heart read check out Fate of Chance--You Decide, a story I wrote about Jackie and her husband. It will make you wonder if some people are just meant to be together.

After a few waves of a magic wand, a proud daddy was ready to send his princess off.

Now that things have slowed down, hopefully I can find a bit more time to finish some projects.

This is a pile of my finished blocks for Pat Sloan's Vacation Time Mystery BOM I have been working on this year. At the beginning of October Pat released the final instructions for constructing this quilt. This is my number one goal right now...must finish this top.

After a bit of work last night I have one row complete, so I'm hopeful there will be a reveal next week and hopefully come up with a cleaver quilting plan. Stay tuned. Then the only thing left will be to catch up on the Midnight Mystery Quilt and Gypsy Queen Mystery Quilt Along. I'm so far behind on the Gypsy Queen one I question if you can really say I'm participating.

The last random event in my mid October adventure is the discovery of an online personal shopping site called Stitch Fix . Because I am barely 5' tall and well...very curvy, I find it draining to shop for clothes. The only textiles I truly enjoy shopping for come neatly wrapped on bolts. (Can I get an Amen?) Stitch Fix is a company where you fill out a style profile and personal shoppers send you clothes to try on...wait for it...in the privacy of your own home. Normally, (I'll be honest here) if someone told me they were doing this I would probably laugh (long and hard) at them, but I hate shopping so much, I thought why not. I'll let people who like to shop, shop and I'll quilt. Basically, they send you five items, you keep what you want and mail back (in a prepaid envelope) what you do not want. I thought worse case scenario I send back everything and I'm out $20 and I'll eat some ice cream. Plus there is no commitment. After receiving my first "fix," I was over all pleased with the results, but I'll talk about that later (you have been pre-warned).

So that pretty much wraps up my October so far. I think it's time to catch up on what some of my quilty friends are doing out in blog land and run back to my machine. I always love hearing and seeing what you have been up to. Until next time...lets all go touch some fabric.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Dog Gone Cute

A few weeks ago while catching up on the blogs I follow, I stumbled onto Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts newest pattern...Dog Gone Cute. She had me at first glance of these darling little canines. September 1st she kicked off a quilt-a-long for piecing some of these precious pooches. Today kicks off a blog hop highlighting the different things we have made using her pattern.

The pattern includes instructions for making a 60" x 60" quilt or a 30" x 30" wall hanging. I chose to keep things small and make two wall hangings.

For my first quilt, I would use C&S Sprinkles fat quarters to make my puppies. I had originally planned on using fat quarters of Modern Background Essentials as well, but decided on a nice white on white polka dot. The second quilt consisted of some very pretty batiks I picked up at a LQS.

I have to say I enjoyed every moment that it took to piece this quilt. I drove my family nuts every time I finished a block. I would hold it up and exclaim, "Look how cute this block is!" Then when my husband would roll his eyes and I would give the block a small shake in his direction making the puppy go, "Arf! Arf!" This went on for all twelve blocks.

My best quilting buddy, Oliver was not so much feeling this project. He like felt I was betraying him. I got many dirty looks and saw mainly his backside.

From the beginning of the project, I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to quilt my puppies. Then one night I had a crazy idea. I would create random width lines going behind the dogs and fill them with FMQ fillers.

As quilting commenced, I realized I might have bit off a bit more than I could chew, but onward I quilted.

The clocked ticked and I realized my date for the blog hop was sneaking up on me. Could I finish a second quilt in a week?? Of course I could. My second quilt went together much quicker than the first one because I didn't need to reference the pattern as much.

In no time at all my sewing machine had given birth to a new litter of twelve puppies. I chose to keep the quilting on the second quilt a bit simper and quilted vertical curvy lines.

How can you not go Dog Gone Crazy over this quilt pattern???

Even Oliver eventually caved and decide to love his new house mates.

Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I asked a few furry friends of mine what they thought of the Dog Gone Cute quilts.

Ellie the guinea pig, loved the quilt and even had a small pick-nick while enjoying a sun bath. She admitted if all dogs were like these little cuties, she might start liking them.

Tonks the cat, thought the quilt was just perrr-fect. Then as most cats will do, claimed the quilt and threatened me if I took it from her.

Petey the Pug thought it was a great place to relax among friends andMcGhee the Boston Terrier was extremely excited. He thought he had found his lost litter mates.

Princess Caroline may have been a bit too young for this quilt. So many puppies in one place made her a bit uneasy...silly Caroline!

So everyone I talked to agreed, Dog Gone Cute is 100% Dog Gone Cute! So much so, I think I will have to make one that is 60" x 60."

Along with hosting the blog hop, Lorna is also giving away some pretty awesome prizes from some very generous sponsors. Make sure you hop over to Sew Fresh Quilts to check them out.

Now a bit about the blog hop. Every Tuesday and Thursday in October some of my kennel mates will be sharing their Dog Gone Cute creations. I hope you can take some time to check them out and leave them some puppy love.

And don't forget to hop over to Sew Fresh Quilts and pick up a copy of this adorable pattern.

Tuesday, October 6th

Karen of Run Sew Fun

Kris of Kris Loves Fabric

Anja of Anja Quilts

Kelly of Quilting It Out

Thursday, October 8th

Carol of Just Let Me Quilt

Nina of Inchworming

Doris of The Quilting Queen Online

Brandy of Pampered Pettit

Leena of Creative Instincts