Kickin' up my heels at the Festival of Scrappiness

I came across Stitched In Color's blog last week, and I am so happy I did. Not only is it a fun place to visit, but I was just in time to plan my entry for her Festival of Scrappiness (and how "me" is that name?) today through Wednesday. It's a fun linky party where you can enter any scrap quilt you have completed in 2012.

Might I pause to mention that I love that by "completed", she means the top is done. A woman after my own heart. So given the fab linky party name and the flexible definition of done, I obviously had to participate.

You think you know what I am entering. You are only half right.

It's "Kickin' Leaves" - my second group quilt sample of Kickin' Stash, top completed last Thursday and until today unseen by almost everyone in the world. So now, direct to you from its recent engagement hanging off the side of my garage, I give you, "Kickin' Leaves".



This quilt was the second of the two group quilts I was able to make when I was inundated with volunteers to participate in my latest group project/block exchange. For more on that and where this quilt had its beginnings, you can read this post so that I don't send everyone who is painfully familiar with this project screaming from my blog, never to return.

I absolutely love this block and the resulting quilts I've made from it (three so far this calendar year!) because it is a scrap buster of immense proportions. The fabric requirements for each block are so minimal that if you have a 6" x 10"ish piece of fabric, you've already got 1/4 of the block taken care of. The widest of the pieces are only 2 1/2" wide, too, and what does that mean? Even the leftovers from jelly rolls are perfect for this block. Which all means that other than background fabric, you most likely have all the fabric you need and then some to make way too many of these blocks already in your sewing studio.

Suffice it to say that the inundation of block sewing volunteers for my project and their enthusiasm for block making lead to owning way more blocks than I could use in one quilt, so lucky (greedy) me, I got TWO! We can also suffice it to say that this tidbit of incredibly poorly thought out direction-giving: "Any color family will do. Really, I cannot stress enough how little I care which color family you choose" led me to more than one fit of distress as I tried to organize the blocks into two attractive quilts. But I think I did pretty well. (The other group quilt, which is done, bound, and already on the pattern cover can be seen here), along with a bunch of blocks that were sent to me. Again, I don't want to bore anyone who has seen it a million times already!



I love the batik tan I used for the border and spacer blocks. It really sets off all the different creams in the backgrounds of the blocks, and is a great fallish blender color, too. The scraps for the border came from my own scrap stash, and I so love that when I showed it to some guild friends last week one of them gasped and said "Wow - all of the pieces in your border are the same size! I didn't think you ever did that!" Why yes, I don't normally, but now and then one has to prove that they do actually know how to follow a quilting rule or two.

The plan is to get "Kickin' Leaves" quilted at my guild retreat this weekend. But I'm fresh out of good ideas how to quilt the thing. So....got an idea? Please feel free to comment!

Another plan is to make a fourth KS quilt at the retreat, from all blues with a cream background, due to the fact that my blue bucket of scraps was threatening to come to life and smother us all in our sleep. Here's my pile of pieces, ready to go:



Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the linky party! Always a great excuse to check out some beautiful quilts while getting nothing else done all day.

Poached? Fried? How about Stuffed?

I do not think Mark Lipinski sleeps, so prolific is he about scouring the internet to bring his FB fans 569 new projects a day to keep us too busy to die. Most of the time, I just go, "Hmmmm. Cute. But I'm not doing that because it involves a trip to the store/I don't own enough buttons/blue food is outlawed in my home, etc", but last week he posted a photo and link to a tutorial (http://retro-mama.blogspot.com/2009/03/easter-is-in-air.html) by Retro Mama on these adorable fabric Easter eggs.

Which, by the way, I would like to point out he typo-ed as Eater eggs, which I loved because for those who give up something joyous in the food realm for Lent, that's an awesome typo.

I decided to go for it and make some.



They really are so cute. My biggest problem, though, is I don't have the cute basket she had to put them in, so now I'm throwing them anywhere I can think of to show them off.

On the candlesticks?



On the mantle?



Neither location is working for me. But neither is the random glass bowl on the dining table, because certain short people who live here think it appropriate to touch them during dinner.

I'd also like to know how on earth Retro Mama made hers so firm looking. Mine are stuffed to the hilt and still fairly lumpy. But here is yet another place where my mantra of "everything looks great from 15 feet away" applies.

In any case, they are a vast improvement over those horrid plastic eggs that are the bane of my existence every Easter.

It's Giveaway Day!

Wowsa.

I am so completely overwhelmed by the number of visitors to this site over the last 24 hours, since Quilter's World linked our prodigal quilt story to their FB page. I can only say that when I checked the stats last night for the day I quite literally shrieked and fell out of my chair, and not only because Greta had just snuck up on me out of nowhere and said "Mom!" in my ear, although yes that was part of it.

So WELCOME to all new followers and visitors. I am so excited to have you find me and I hope you will return now and then to see what we're up to here in EPQDland.

I thank you all for not pointing out that 9:07 has come and gone and I didn't post this in time. There were a few technical difficulties in my random giveaway of a copy of the April Quilter's World.

1. Cars cannot run on fumes forever, and I had to finally stop and get some gas this morning.
2. I have no idea how to post a random number generator and finally gave up.
3. However, said random number generator didn't help me in the least because it kept choosing people who were "no-reply" bloggers, so I couldn't contact them to tell them they had won.

I mention this not to shame anyone, because I only JUST within the last 5 weeks or so found out that I too was a no-reply blogger and had to do some such thing to fix it, so trust me you are not alone in your blogging bliss of thinking you have done everything properly! I can't recall exactly what it was I did to fix it, but I'm pretty sure I must have googled how to fix it because google solves all. Anyway, if you are a no-reply blogger, your email is hidden and therefore I have no way of contacting you. So I had to move on to someone else.To see if you fall in that category, click on your name in your comment, and if your profile shows up without a link to an email, yes, you are a no-replier. Just a little techie tip for the day, which coming from me is always hilarious.

So after several stops and starts, my winner is...........Julie! From her profile, I learned she's a fairly new quilter who embraces the Friends, Fabric, and Fun of quilting and what more could I ask for in a winner? Oh, but there's more. She also loves soft rock from the 80s. Okay then. Sold.

Congratulations, Julie! I'll be sending you an email, because I can :), to let you know you won!

Thank you all for participating and I'll hope to see you back soon. If you haven't done so, check out my FB page....now and then I get a hankering for just giving something away randomly on there and I think I may feel a hankering coming on soon.

Thankfully, it wasn't full of mysterious white powder

Last week, on a gorgeous beautiful ridiculously warm spring day, I skipped to my mailbox, because skipping is what you do on such a day, hoping to receive something fun rather than the electric bill.

Imagine my surprise when what I found was this package:

A little less wrinkled and for sure unopened, but interesting nonetheless. Plain brown paper bag wrapping reminiscent of 5th grade textbook covering night the first week of school, blockish printing, and return address the same as the recipient address. Clearly the message here was "I don't care if I put enough postage on here or not - she's getting it even if it arrives postage due."

With slight amounts of trepidation, I opened the package. I mean, when you are as famous as me, you never know who might be stalking you and sending you weird stuff in the mail.

In my dreams, anyway.

Inside, I found two items. This, which reads "This reminded me of you". Oooh. Spooky.

And this, which is an older book I am sure many of you own/have read/have at least heard of.

That's it. No note other than the ransom-note-esque veriegated thread wonderment on muslin. Repeated twice for emphasis, I might add. So either the sender believes I embrace dorky, or s/he thinks that like the author, Lisa Boyer, I am the "Erma Bombeck of quilting." Maybe a little of both.

So having determined that this was not a dangerous missive, I got out my oversized magnifying glass and cape and looked for clues as to who might have sent this. My conclusions:

1. Someone who feels they know me well enough to know that I will take dorky as a compliment any day.

2. Someone who read all 9 "Principles of Dorky Quiltmaking" on the front and back covers and saw me in each one, from "plan on cutting off about half of your star points" to "start with really bright colors" to "plan on running out of border fabric when you are 3/4 finished". I actually have a 2 minute bit about that last one in my PIO lecture. It's totally my MO every time.

3. Someone who knew I would not be insulted by any of that.

4. Someone who likes to use black marker.

5. Someone who used black marker only weeks ago when mailing me some KS blocks.

6. Someone who when using that black marker only weeks ago when mailing me some KS blocks wrote my address in exactly the same hand.

7. And for good measure, someone who snowbirds it in Bradenton FL, from where it was mailed.

Dianne VV, you can't fool me! Thank you for the lovely gift! I love being a dork with you.

Kickin' Stash Kickoff blogaround - March 12 to March 17!

One of the projects I completed during the crazy sewing month of February was my newest pattern, "Kickin' Stash". Actually, I completed two sizes of "Kickin Stash", plus three quarters of a third, but who's counting. The cover quilt is my absolute favorite and is made from 20 of the blocks gleaned from my Scrappy New Year swap - so I didn't have to do as much of the work and I still get an amazing quilt for my cover. Stick with me long enough and I'll teach you all sorts of tricks for being lazy.

You've heard about it enough from me, now it's time to hear about it from those who participated in the group quilts. I've lined up several of the ladies who participated in the block swap experience who also blog to help me debut my new Kickin' Stash pattern with a little blogaround this week, and I encourage you to visit each of their blogs to get their perspectives on what I think is a really fun pattern - but of course the jury is still out. Maybe I'll regret this by Wednesday.

Monday, March 12 - Deb Donovan (Aspen Hill) http://aspenhill.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, March 13 - Kelli Fannon (Seriously....I think it needs stitches ) www.thatlookslikeitneedsstitches.blogspot.com

Wednesday, March 14 - Anna Dzik (West Third street Designs) http://www.westthirdstreetdesigns.com/

Thursday, March 15 - Marianne Nowacki (Hillside Quiltworks) http://hillsidequiltworks.com/

Friday, March 16 - Linda Pearl (The Patchwork Pearl) http://www.thepatchworkpearl.blogspot.com/

Saturday, March 17 - Terri Sontra (Purple Moose Designs) http://www.purplemoosedesigns.com/weblog/

These ladies are all so talented and made this project almost too easy for me, and they are great bloggers to boot, so you're in for a treat. Set your Outlook alarm to 10am (or whenever) every day and see why "Kickin' Stash" is our new favorite scrap pattern!

For the week of the blogaround, I'm offering Kickin' Stash exclusively at Patternspot.com (http://patternspot.com/products/2070) for an introductory price of $7.50, which is a bit of a savings off the $9.00 print price, plus you get it immediately, with no shipping costs, and can instantly start whipping your scraps into a frenzy. There's nothing more satisfying than an emptier scrap bin replaced by a fantastic new quilt!

The Prodigal Quilt Returneth and a Giveaway in its Honor

Oh happy day! The Boys in Brown stopped by just before the school bus did yesterday and delivered a box that I knew was going to send Eva over the moon. The poor child has been separated from her cover girl quilt for close to a year and yes, this is indeed the biggest tragedy to befall her, ever. Just ask.

The reunion was celebrated by a scream, a ripping open of the box, a fight between her sisters over who got to pop the bubble wrap, a demand that everyone stop what they were doing and come watch her put it on her bed, and a sharp reprimand from me as she ran across the kitchen, dragging it on the not so clean floor.

And we wonder why she wasn't allowed to touch it before we sent it off.



After the bubble wrap was sufficiently mutilated, Paige joined her upstairs to finally put her own version of "Quite Contrary" on her bed. Her quilt had been finished for almost the same amount of time as Eva's, but in order to maintain a world in which I do not have to listen to "It isn't fair!" 900 times a day, I didn't let her put it on her bed until Eva's came home.

In good news, they seem to work well for lounging.


Pei Pei the panda is also thrilled to have a new quilt. Isn't it pretty in pink, too?


Here's hoping neither of those photos made any realtors who might be reading run from their computers screaming due to the rather wild paint scheme in their room.

So just like in the Bible, we feel we should celebrate the return of our progeny with a party. As there is no fatted calf in my yard to kill and offer you as a prize, I am instead going to give away a copy of the magazine featuring "Quite Contrary" to one lucky winner. Here's how to enter:

1. Become a follower of this blog. One entry.

2. Become a follower on Facebook (www.facebook.com/EvaPaigeQuiltDesigns). One entry.

3. Already a follower on one or both? Share this blog post on FB! Easy to do from the EPQD page. One entry.

Comment on how you have shared, follower-ed up, or whatever to make your entry (ies) official. Winner will be drawn on Monday, March 12!***

***UPDATE: Carolyn and Amy from Quilters World saw this post last week and decided to promote it on the Quilter's World Facebook page on 3/15. So I'm extending the giveaway drawing until 9:07am on Friday, 3/16. This will give me time to get back from dropping Greta at school and time for all who may wish to enter to do so. WELCOME to all those who are reading and I hope to see you back soon!***

Here's hoping the Boys in Brown bring you something fun this week.

So now what?

You are either in withdrawal from my daily posts during the month of February, or you are disgusted to see me back so quickly. Either way, HI! Here I am again!

The "Drop and Give Me Twenty" challenge, aka "Sew Your Face Off in February", may be over, and you may think I gave my sewing machine a much needed break, but no. This weekend my husband earned his daddy stripes well and pretty much took over so I could (almost) finish another top. Man my studio is an utter disaster again after all this sewing. I think my next challenge will be "Who Can Clean Their Sewing Studio the Fastest" as that is the only thing that might motivate me.

But my biggest excitement this weekend was learning that the April/May issue of Quilter's World had softly begun creeping onto newsstands, and since I had not yet gotten my hands on a copy and therefore had not yet seen the actual article, Saturday afternoon I went out in search of this elusive beast. Imagine my joy when I found a stack of them at Shaws supermarket. I'm imagining your shock when I tell you I actually left a few there.

Did my little happy dance in the magazine aisle, then decided I would pay for them (I'm not a criminal, after all) and drive over to Barnes and Noble where I could get a tea and read it at my leisure. A lovely plan.

Reality: I barely made it to the car before I had to tear the thing open and gaze at my pattern in there.



I apologize for my geekiness, and I promise that by my ninth or tenth time as a cover girl, I'll cut it out. Maybe.

"Quite Contrary" was written as a "stash management" project and as much as I love the fact that I made it onto the cover, I also really really love the project, which is unbelievably easy, uses supplies you likely already have at home (hence, stash management), and is great for showing off big, fat, modern prints. I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think!

So on to March and what is next. My major February project of getting my group quilt blocks made up into a cover quilt for my next pattern and writing said pattern will all result in a pattern debut next week. Stay tuned for the "Kickin' Stash" Kickoff blog-a-round March 12-17 (see blog button above), and you'll get an opportunity to check out some blogs by some of the quilters who participated in the group project and find out how much fun they had. I've got some really cool blogs lined up, and you won't want to miss them!

Also in blogland, I'm planning to have guest bloggers here at QHH during the month of April. (Side note, everytime I write QHH I think it looks like a home shopping network. Not a line of work I want to get into.) If you might be interested in being a guest blogger during the month of April, please email me at evapaigequilts@charter.net and let me know. We'll work out all the details!

Thanks for your continued reading!