Bad lighting + blurry shots + weird angles =

Today I wanted to show you some awesome pictures of a project I finished up this week, but after uploading the photos I see that none of them are up to par with the standard of photography I try to keep.  Bad lighting + blurry shots + weird angles = not so good photos, so pics of the new project will have to wait.... sorry.

I've also been getting a little piecing done as well as some embroidery and some quilting, but alas, no pictures of those projects either.

I'll try to get some more pictures taken today, but until then I'll leave you with a picture I did manage to take this week of my new baby.

I got the Janome Sew Pretty Sew Perfect machine both as a travel machine and also as a beginning sewing machine for the little girls I teach to sew.  It's 3/4 size and slightly slower speed I hope will make it easier for little hands to learn on.  How cute it is is just a bonus!

And while you're here, I should take the time to mention that my fabric mosaic for Rachel of Stitched in Color's "Softly Against Black" mosaic contest has made it into the finalist round.  You should be sure to check out all the finalists and vote for your favorite mosaic while you're there!

Oh! and P.S.  This is my 95th blog post.  I'm planning something big for #100, so be sure to stick around!

Bloomerie Scrap Challenge Entry

Greeting from Silent Valley Campgrounds, Banning CA!

My husband and I took a few days off to go camping with his mom to celebrate her 63rd birthday, so that's where I've been for the past few days.  I had to jump online today though to share my completed entry for the Bloomerie Scrap Challenge hosted by Rachel of Stitched in Color and sponsored by Bloomerie Fabrics.

I received the stack of 7 fat sixteenths of fabric from Bloomerie a little over a week ago but couldn't decide what to do with them until the day before we were supposed to leave to go camping.  When I first heard that I had been selected as one of the 4 contestants I thought I'd make a wallet but decided against it.  Then I thought I'd make a cool quilt block and use it to make a pillow or a notebook cover, but I didn't really like that idea so I scrapped it. 

Then I got the idea to make a wall hanging to go in my sewing room.  I've never made anything to go in my sewing room and the thought of making something that was 100% just for me was appealing, so that's what I went with.  For some reason as soon as I decided to make a wall hanging the words "SEW. QUILT. LOVE." came to mind so I decided that a paper pieced wall hanging with those words would be the perfect way to use my scraps.  I used the refrigerator magnet pattern from Elizabeth at Oh! Fransson for the pieced lettering and made my own pattern for the spools of thread.

We were allowed to add one additional fabric so I chose Kona Ash.  It's very versatile and I thought it looked great with the cool summery colors of the bundle Bloomerie sent me.  I was lucky and had a large piece of Kona Asparagus left over from a different project and that just happened to be the same solid green that was included in the bundle and so I used it for the backing.

In addition to adding one more fabric to the bundle we were allowed to use as many trims or embellishments we wanted, so I used some silvery-white perle cotton embroidery thread and hand quilted around the word "QUILT." to make it stand out from the other words.  I had originally thought to hand quilt around all the letters but once I saw how busy it made the wall hanging look I decided to stop at quilting around "QUILT." (plus it just makes sense to quilt "QUILT.").

I managed to get all the paper piecing done before I left for my camping trip but the binding and quilting I did while camping.  I discovered that it's not as easy as I thought to keep a project clean while roughing it outdoors.  Luckily for me my MIL is also a sewist and has an iron and ironing board with her on this trip so I was able to wash the finished wall hanging in a tub, line dry it in the sun, an then iron it so it looked pristine again before taking photos.

I'll definitely take more photos of the wall hanging once it's in its rightful place hanging on the wall in my sewing room.  For now though I hope you like the few photos I was able to snap of it on my little point and shoot.  I'll be back to civilization in a few days so hopefully you'll hear more from me then!

-Stephanie

More New Fabric! + Bloomerie Scrap Challenge

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's been so quiet over here.  I started working on a new dig (when I'm not quilting I'm an archaeologist) and the long days in the sun digging have just been so tiring that I have no energy to do anything in my sewing room when I'm home.

I do have a quilt in the works that I hope to make progress on on my weekend off.  Hopefully I'll have pictures of it soon.  I'm loving how it's coming out so far.

In the mean time here are some photos of my fabric purchase from my trip to the LQS last weekend:

Here they are broken down by project;

Fabric for a quilt for my Mother-in-Law's birthday

 

Fabric for a baby quilt for a friend's new baby boy

 

My color choices for the I Love Kona Charm Swap- I just need to cut them into charms now and send them off to the hostess!

Impulse buy fabric.  I love gnomes and the Better Gnomes and Gardens fabric was too cute I had to get some.

Remnants!  Who can leave the fabric store without buying themselves some remnants?

And speaking of fabric.......  I've got some exciting news!

I've been selected to be one of 4 contestants in Rachel of Stitched in Color's Bloomerie Scrap Challenge!!!!  You can find the post talking about the challenge here and the post listing the contestants here.

I'm still working on what it is exactly I'm going to make with the fabric Bloomerie sent me for the challenge, but whatever I make I'm looking forward to using it!!!!

-Stephanie