HTH Part 2

Well, here is hoping we all still have electricity so we can work on this project in the wake of Sandy. As I write this on Saturday, praising the ability to schedule posts in the future so I don't leave you all stranded should we have a repeat of this fantastic hurricane nightmare, I promise that I already want to bop squarely on the head the next person who says "Frankenstorm". For the love of Pete, someone has to settle these meterologists down. 

So assuming you have electricity to read this, here's your next clues to the big old mystery.

1. Retrieve the 4 strips you made in the last step of Part 1, the ones with the 4" piece of background fabric on the left and a pieced strip on the right. To the right of the pieced strip, add a 2 1/2" strip of background fabric to each. Press as desired. Which I am sure I am not going to make as famous as "quilt as desired" but as you recall from Part 1, for purposes of this project it just makes sense.

2. Retrieve your 4" x 1 1/2" strips from Part 1. Measure 3 1/2" down from the top right side of one of the background/pieced/backgroud strips you just made and make a mark. Line the top of a 4" x 1 1/2" strip at the mark, and sew it on, right sides together.

3. From the bottom of that 4" x 1 1/2" piece, measure down 5". Make another mark, and sew on your next 4 x 1 1/2" piece. See the photo below for clarification.

4. Continue to sew the next two 4" x 1/2" pieces on, 5" apart, until you have four small strips on the side of your pieced strip. See below photo. Repeat for each of the other three pieced strips.

5. Make a mark down the center of the wide pieced strip, 1 1/4" from either side. Put these units aside for Part 3.

6. Now go find your Fabrics A and B, from which you cut various amounts of 1" and 2" fabrics. If you did not see the correction in the "Mystery" tab, you may have cut too many strips, but so much better to have too many than too few.

7. Sew the three 1" strips of Fabric B end to end, creating one long strip. Press open seams, and slice the strip in half, so that you have two strips approximately 1" x 66".

8. Sew three 2" strips of Fabric A end to end, creating one long strip. Press open seams, and slice the strip in half, so that you have two strips approximately 2" x 66". Repeat for second set of three 2" strips of Fabric A. You will have four strips of 2" wide Fabric A total.

9. Sew a 2" strip of Fabric B to the left side of a 1" strip of Fabric A. Press as desired. Sew the second 2" strip of Fabric B to the right side of Fabric A. Press again. 

10. Sew one of the 2" strips of Fabric A to the left side of a 1" strip of Fabric B. Press as desired. Sew a second 2" strip of Fabric A to the right side of Fabric B. Press again.

11. Repeat step 10.

12. You will now have three fabric sets which will look like this.

13. Lucky number 13! You are done! Go wallow in your awesomeness and see you next week. Don't forget to check out all the cool quilts at Amy's Creative Side this week and nominate your favorites starting tomorrow! 

Who needs Houston when you have BQF?

Yeah yeah yeah blahbity blah blah. We know, we know. Houston is where it is at this week. But for those of us who are stuck at home, this is truly the best way to spend our time: Blogger's Quilt Festival!

So I'm taking a little break from your next installment of the mystery quilt project to participate. Thank you to Amy from Amy's Creative Side for organizing it once again this Market-tide. And welcome to anyone who has never been here to QHH. Fingers crossed that you enjoy your time here and are inspired to come back, or at the very least don't leave screaming.

I really have been struggling with what quilt to enter in this year's event. On the one hand, I'd love to enter Kickin' Stash because I feel like it could be in the running for "best scrap quilt" (not that I am biased), but we're all way sick of hearing about it on this blog. Plus you would all think I have done NOTHING else this year, and that would only partially be true. There are plenty of things in the mix, but that rule of Amy's that it must be a completed project is killing me here.

So we're going back. Back three years, to the fall of 2009, those pre-Quilting Hottie Haven days, when I was writing "Once Upon a Time" and ignoring most other aspects of my life, and creating this quilt, "Rapunzel's Hideaway", which in going back through the blog I don't believe I have ever shown, discussed, written about, etc. Although some of the detail is in the photos section, I now realize. Anyway, it's hands down my favorite quilt from the book and it's time to give it some love as my entry into the "Favorite Wall Quilt" category.

One would think that having featured this quilt in my book for the love of Pete that I would have a decent photo of it right here at my fingertips. One would be wrong. One should also take into account the numerous computer crashes we have had around here since then, so it was easier to just to throw it up on the side of my garage as per ushe than wade through all of my external drives to find a photo.


Machine applique and embellishment combined with a scrappy castle shape - Oh. Em. Gee. It's my two favorite styles all wrapped up in each other happily ever after and for all eternity. Check out the different peaches that make up the castle. And the background is all different bluey lavenders for sky. So sweet, so easy, so scrap cleany-outie!

But then came the fun part. The embellishing possibilities of this castle were endless, and I loved playing around with all sorts of materials. Every one always loves the braid the best. And why not - it's way fun, and it's my favorite part too. All it is is a wad o' embroidery floss braided and tied with a ribbon and stuck on there with - oh yeah - Jewel-it. Please ignore the fact that the braid up close can look freakishly disembodied.

Here's an even more close up photo to show off those windowboxes and trailing vines. They were really fun to create using both ribbon and fabric flower trims and then adding the vines with machine quilting. Three guesses what material is holding all the flowers in the window.

I may have lied a few paragraphs back. Actually, I think my favorite part is the portcullis, because not only is it awesome but it may teach some new vocabulary. The door shape is smacked on and appliqued down, then I simply cross-hatched 1/8" satin ribbon and sewed it down, which let me tell you hotties was way easier said than done. All of you who do miniature quilts, remind me to bow down to you when we meet in person. To cover up the little ends of ribbon, I sewed a strip of flower ribbon in an arch, and then diverted your eyes to the flower garden made of green grosgrain ribbon grass and ribbon flowers.

To add to the princessy fun, there are several other blocks to applique and embellish, and I had lots of fun personalizing it for Paige, one of my three favorite princesses and the one who insisted this was to be her quilt in the end. So she got to pick out which appliques we used at the bottom.

All things the well dressed princess needs and all.

To make it official, I even was required to quilt her name into one corner, because Eva's name appears on the quilt on the cover of the book. Fairness is key.

Twins are so much fun.

The finished quilt measures 24" x 36" and not only did I quilt that fabulous name up there which I am now told "looks kind of messy, Mom", I did quilt the rest of the quilt as well. 

Thank you for stopping by! I hope to see you back again soon.

HTT - Part 1

Okay, so you've committed in some fashion to doing this mystery project with me - thank you! Having never run one before (and I may remind you of this often just so no one gets angry if something goes completely haywire), I really had no idea what to expect for response, so thank you to all who have decided to take their chances on me. I'm excited and hope you are too!

As you may have surmised by the amount of fabric, this is a fairly small project. I don't want to give too much away, but if we are organized and quick about it, you might end up with something special on your Thanksgiving table. Except me. House rules clearly state Christmas music, quilts, lights, etc are forbidden until the day after Thanksgiving.

So you've gathered and cut. Time to sew:

1. Place all of your prepared scraps in a bag or bowl near your sewing area. As you can see, Greta's trick or treat cauldron/Pocohontas' cooking pot is serving as my container.

2. Locate your muslin or ugly fabric strips. The uglier and more horrifying they are, the easier they should be to find. Note how mine stand right out in the above photo.

3. Grab two scraps and place them right sides together, angling them slightly. Sew them right on top of one of the strips as shown in the second photo. Press open.

4. Breathe deeply. We're about to get crazy.
5. Continue adding scraps to the strip until the strip is covered in scraps and you no longer are able to be offended by your ugly fabric selection. Vary your fabric sizes and angles as you are sewing them onto the strip. Don't worry that it is the wonkiest, weirdest thing you have ever seen. There is a plan. SPECIAL NOTE: If you don't go all the way to the end of the strip, that is okay. Leaving 4-5 inches at the end uncovered is fine. Just make sure most of it is covered. Vary your angles and sizes of scraps liberally. Press after each addition. Chain piecing of the strips is the quickest way to accomplish this step of the process. The following photos should help you see what I am talking about.

Cover the foundation strips one piece of fabric at a time. Note that in this case my ugly fabric ended up wrong side up. Since we won't see either side, it so doesn't matter. Neither does the angle of your fabrics or the quality of your 1/4" seam. Just get the silly things on there.

Chain piecing does make it go faster. Just line up the strips and add one fabric each time through, then cut them apart, press them all, and begin again. 

They should look something like this when you are done.

 6. Once the four 3" strips and the two 1 1/2" strips are covered, trim each by flipping them over so the foundation fabric is on top, lining up your ruler along one side of the foundation, and slicing off the excess. Flip the strip and slice the excess from the other side of the foundation. If your foundation piece has gotten slightly skewed along the way, don't panic. Just make the best slice you can as close to the edge of the foundation piece as you can get in most places, then use the grid lines on your ruler to cut the other side so that the strip ends up 3" or 1 1/2" wide. Truly, it isn't worth freaking out about.

Slicing the excess. I love this part.

7. Sew a 4" strip of your background fabric to one side of each of your 3" pieced strips. SPECIAL NOTE: If you have left 4-5 inches of ugly fabric uncovered at one end, make sure you sew the 4" strip of background to the left side of the pieced strip. with the covered end at the top (see next photo). If you are an overachiever who went all the way to the end, sew it to either side. Press toward darker side. If the darker side happens to be the pieced strip, as it was for me, please know that the fabric will not want to press that way because it is too bulky. So who cares, press it to the light. But since the rule is "press to the dark", and some of you will insist on making yourselves crazy if you press to the light, I'm going to just let you all do what works for you. I'll be over here breaking some more rules and having more fun.


8. Slice each of the 1 1/2" wide pieced strips into 1 1/2" x 4" strips. You should be able to get nine from each, but you really only need 16 total, so feel free to quit while you are ahead. You now have these pieces together.

9. Time for a hot beverage/wine/a game of Words, whatever. You are done for the week! See you next Wednesday!

Mystery Quilt Kickoff!

Yes, you read that correctly. With almost no warning whatsoever, I am throwing a mystery quilt at you, starting today.

It was yet another moment of shower brilliance. Why not run this latest pattern by a bunch of people who can test it while having a fun mystery project to solve? Since I could not come up with a good reason why I shouldn't, here we go.

Here's how it is going to work. Today, if you scroll down, or just keep reading because you know you can't resist me, you'll get the list of supplies and cutting directions. I honestly think you will have all that you need right in your stash, so it shouldn't take you too long to get organized. Unless you have to clean your entire studio to find your supplies. Been there, will be there again someday.

Then, for the next 3-4 Wednesdays, starting on 10/24 - two days from now, I'll be posting a new set of directions for everyone under the "Mystery" tab up there under my blog name. Astute readers will recall this said "Shop" last week, but I never could figure out how to get a shopping cart on here so this will be a better use. Even more astute readers will have noticed that it changed to "Mystery" on Friday of last week. That was me seeing if anyone was paying attention.

The directions for the entire mystery, which I am calling "Hot to Trot" because "Hot Sweet Lovin'" was a little risque, will stay on the blog through the end of January. So if you do this mystery, you'll get my newest pattern totally for free! Free! One of my favorite words! But it's a limited time thing, because after that I'll be making it bigger and better (ie more sizes, etc) as it enters the world of capitalism.

So quilt while the needle is hot, hotties. If that makes any sense at all.

Let's GO! Do you hear the drum roll and marching band???



"Hot To Trot" - My First Ever Mystery Quilt Project

What you will need and what to do with it:

•  Approximately 1 1/2 yards total of scraps in 2-3 color families - What do I mean by this? I mean go to your scrap buckets/bags/baskets and pull out all of the scraps you can find in two or three color families. Preferably families that go together, like blue and yellow or green and purple (yeah, they do, trust me). But if you insist on orange and pink, that's cool. This quilt also will be adorable in a holiday theme, like Halloween oranges or Easter pastels. I bet once you pull all your scraps you have way more than you need. If not, fill in with fat quarters and other fabrics. Or call your quilting buddies for help. Better yet, sign them up to do the mystery too. Prepare these scraps for use by pressing if need be and cutting them into pieces anywhere from 1" x 4" to 3" x 4". The measurements do NOT have to be exact nor do they even have to be perfectly square/rectangular.

•  1/2 yard muslin - or - 1/2 yard of the ugliest, most God-awful fabric in your stash that you truly don't know why you ever bought in the first place  - This fabric will be used in such a manner that you will never, ever see it. Why buy muslin if you have this beauty, or one like it, on hand?  Cut 4 strips 3" wide x wof (42"), and 4 strips 1.5" wide x wof                                                                                                                             

From my "I feel 98 years old today" collection

•   1 yard neutral background fabric - I am fully aware that for some of you, red is a neutral. Go for it. I do recommend a fairly tone on tone-y or solidish-y (totally a word, BTW) fabric for the background, though. Basically this fabric just needs to be able to show off your scraps, so whatever you think works. Cut 4 strips 4" wide and 4 strips 2 1/2" wide.

• 1/2 yard each border fabrics A and B - Something that goes with your scraps. If you are using two color families, I suggest one fabric be in one color family and one in the other. But it's your quilt, so what do I know? Fabric A: Cut 1 strip 1" wide x wof and 6 strips 2" wide x wof. Fabric B: Cut 3 strips 1" wide x wof and 2 strips 2" wide x wof
•  You will need your 6 1/2" square ruler - Here's hoping it isn't piled under everything in your studio.

So now you should be set. Here's a photo of my big pile of fabrics that I chose. I'm getting in the spirit with some Christmas scraps, but I was quite tempted by some aquas and limes. These won because there were more of them and I didn't feel like going out to the store for more of anything. Sometimes it's as simple as that.

Anyone up for a rousing rendition of "Which of These Things is Not Like the Others?"

I'm not requiring anyone to officially state their intentions to follow through with this mystery, but I promise that if you do comment that you are doing it/plan to do it, I will send you an email of thanks and would be interested in possibly using a photo of your finished product in the eventual pattern. Also, if you take on this mystery, I am hoping you will share your experiences with me, good, bad, ugly, and otherwise, as that is the only way I will know if it is working for you. Thank you!

A final caveat: since this is a work in progress, I cannot promise the directions are going to be utter perfection. Should an issue arise, I promise while waving my Girl Scout hand sign in the air that I will post corrections immediately once an issue comes to my attention. I am not anticipating big problems, but in the interest of full disclosure and expectation management, felt I should remind all of you of what I said in the beginning - this is a mystery quilt masquerading as a pattern test and vice versa.

Please don't let that scare you off. Let the rolling around in your scraps commence!

Our newest Christmas tree farmer is......

Amy Lindsay! Woo hoo, Amy! Get out the shovel and hoe, plant some trees, and I'll be along with Mr. QH and the axe in about 15 years.

Amy has won the lovely funky tree kit and pattern, so an easier way for her to plant the trees would be with fabric, and I am sure she'll do a lovely job.

I must thank those of you who entered the giveaway, and a special shout out to those who gave me some suggestions about my way blue log cabin and how to deblueify it a bit. I do like Kirsty's suggestion of a red border. I had not been thinking of leaning toward patriotic, but what the heck, maybe that is what it needs. Kyle is thinking kind of how I was - adding some dimension or something inside of the white part might work for me. Kelli does indeed get negative entries for suggesting a new layout when it is already put together. She can expect it mailed to her along with a seam ripper if we go that route, which is unlikely. Barbara and Angie bucked the "K-train" with their first names and had opposite ideas of what I could do, one telling me to add white, one telling me to splash it up with color. I love all the suggestions and I can't wait to see what I decide to do with it.

After it sits in the UFO pile for the requisite 16 months.

And why I care so much I don't really know. Eventually it is going to my cottage, where it will be pooped on by mice all summer long.

So Amy, come see me in Manchester - booth #29. I'll stick your prize into your hot little hands!

Fabri-lust

 
As much as I truly do attempt to sew for my designated design time every day, we all know life, in the form of closet cleaning, refinancing, Halloween costume making, Pinterest, laziness, and even a croupy kid home from school like we have today can all get in the way of me being the most prolific designer I can be.

I'm really good at being a prolific fabric shopper, though, and today while Greta alternates between acting like she is at death's door for 4 minutes at a time and then runs around like a nut for an hour or so - three cheers for croup! - I've been preparing yet another kit to offer at the Gathering in a few weeks with some yummers fabrics I found online at Fabric Diva.

If you are not colorblind - and if you are, I am doubly impressed at your quilting abilities even if I have never seen anything you have made - you can see that the kit will be in the black/yellow/blue theme. I had so much fun picking the fabrics and hope that this limited edition kit will sell for me! If not, I'm sure I'll find something else to do with them.

Plus you can all be very impressed by the fact that I managed to whip up this EQ drawing using the fabrics. I think I may be starting to understand that program after all.

Of course in person the fabrics are way cooler than in drawing form. But you knew that because you are smart.

If you haven't yet entered the other kit drawing, be sure to check out the previous post!  Drawing at 10pm tomorrow evening.

May the croup not be with you.

A Funky Little Giveaway

It's crazy prep time for the biggest show NEQDC has ever done, A Quilters Gathering, this year to be held for the first time in Manchester NH rather than 8 miles from my home in Nashua NH. I'm trying very hard to get over my bitterness about the move, but I won't lie, there is still work to be done on that front.

The Gathering is the first show I ever attended way back in the fall of 1995 when it was still in Westford MA (also only 8 miles or so from home, just saying) and I was knee deep in red and green triangles having just discovered quilting and using my skillz to create my iconic "Christmas Tree Standing on a Picnic Table". Those of you who have seen my PIO lecture know the joy and beauty of that little piece of quilted wonderment. Those of you who haven't can consider yourselves lucky that you have not had the need to avert your eyes in horror.

In any case, no matter where it may be held (she said begrudgingly), the Gathering is always a special show for me, and this year for the first time New England Quilt Designers Cooperative made the cut and we get to vend, which will be a four day odyssey of crazy fun. There is always such an energy to the Gathering, and the quilts and vendors are always amazing. We'll be offering our many fabulous kits, patterns, books, and notions, and today I put together a whole bunch of these cute little funky tree kits:

to sell either separately as cute folded fabric trees or along with my "Funky Tree Farm" pattern. I've tried them in the past and always had trouble keeping them in one piece, but I think I finally got that problem solved today and I am very excited about this new product!

I'll be taking some tonight to my lecture with Burlington Quilters Guild and use them as a test market, but I also figure why not give one away here? It's been a while since a giveaway and, in Greta's favorite words, What the Heck? You'll win a funky tree of my choosing and the pattern just in time to whip it up for Christmas.

Enter by becoming a follower either of this blog, on my facebook page, or both, or commenting on this post. The more you do, the more entries you get, just be sure to outline for me everything you did to enter in your comment!

In other news, the camera was hijacked by the children and I got about 35 photos of Antebellum paper dolls.

Apparently the South is preparing to rise again.

Also I finally got the latest group log cabin quilt put together.

Excuse the odd angle and the leaves on the thing. It is wicked windy here and you wouldn't believe how hard this was to photograph even in this half-assed manner today. I was not about to stop the presses over a leaf or two.

I love the setting, I love the blocks, for which if you read this post you may recall I gave very little direction other than "use blue" to those making them, and now I am finding that something is not turning me on about this quilt as much as I had hoped. I think it might be too.......blue. It needs something (beyond the obvious need for a border), but I have yet to determine what that might be. Ideas? Ooooo! Anyone giving me some ideas gets an extra entry to the funky giveaway!

I Love Me a Challenge

I missed my guild meeting last week since I'm just so popular that I had to share myself with another guild, and thus missed the official announcement about the 2012-13 challenge. Which I am totally digging.

Quilted calendar. Quilt your birthday in a 16" x 20" quilt, then the best interpretation of a birthday in that month will be put together into an actual calendar.

How flipping cute is that?

You would think my December 22 birthday would mean I am already pulling out my reds and greens, but no way. As much as Jesus is my homeboy, this is about MY birthday, and we are to interpret such as creatively as we like. I'm already doing research and finding so many fantastic quilts that could be made from the news events of my special day, I know every other Squanicookie will be seething with jealousy.

How about an exploding shoe quilt to commemorate the arrest of the crazy nutjob shoe bomber? Or maybe a bunch of appliqued dead cows to celebrate England admitting that maybe they screwed up re: mad cow disease? No, definitely a better choice would be a fully bejewel-ited Bernie Goetz wrecking vigiliante justice on the NYC subway.

I'm thinking maybe December 22 isn't the most fantastic day ever to have to replicate. Where's the spirit of the season, people?

But you know I have some good ideas. I can hardly wait to start!

All of my Babies are Growing Up

It's September 32nd, which reminds me that I forgot to celebrate EPQD's 7th birthday earlier in the month. Another stellar mommy moment. And a chance to have cake denied.

This realization that I am capable of such neglect toward my fourth baby led me to reflect upon how things have changed, and dare I say it - for the most part GOTTEN EASIER - as my girls and my business have grown, and let's face it, if I'm going to forget a birthday, it might as well be that of the non-human baby.

Way back in the day, when I was starting out momhood as a SAHM rocking the nursing boobs and double stroller containing two cute babies, my favorite comments from the general public, who by the way are generally doltish when it comes to comments they make to moms of twins**, were from the people who came up to me and said "Oh - twins! My twins are 9/16/28/32/45/or in the case of one adorable older lady 62; I really miss those days, but I promise you - IT GETS EASIER." Now while I was pretty sure I had a handle on how cool I was to be juggling two babies at once, every now and then in the midst of a screamfest I would remember their comment. Weirdly, no one ever approached me when Greta was the baby in the stroller to tell me "It gets easier", and she is the one I could have used the support with, but I digress.

Now I am the one who approaches moms with twin babies, tells them mine are 9, and promises them it gets easier, even while I muse in my head that perhaps it would be easier even at this moment if since it is 8:30pm and you are just arriving with your 10 month olds at a nice restaurant for dinner you are only asking for trouble, but I somehow manage to only judge them inside my head. My own twins are horrified if I happen to have them with me while I spout off my seeds of wisdom, but honestly, the memory of that adorable little lady telling me about her identical twin sons who were now grandfathers makes me so want to be her someday. So I'm practicing now.

While I would never be so crazy as to say that parenting is now nothing but sunshine and roses, a six year old and two nine year olds do beat the heck out of a one year old and two four year olds. Or any combination where one or more are the evil age of three.

Yep. I'll take this:

Over this:

 for sure, although of course I wouldn't change a thing and loved every minute yada yada yada.

At the same time, EPQD is growing up, reaching the ripe old age of 7 and having turned double digits pattern-wise a long time ago. Gone are the days when I would go straight from the 4am nursing session right to the sewing machine to squeeze in an hour or two of design time before all hell broke loose. By 10 am I would be ready for dinner, but we do what we have to do when we need to pursue a passion at the same time as raising a family. As I am preparing for a lecture tomorrow evening, I am struck by how much less of a planning nightmare this is for me these days, because gone are the days that I have to start packing three days in advance just to be sure I don't forget something. Now I can throw it all together in 45 minutes tops because I've done it so often, although I will admit to praying the stomach flu doesn't destroy my organizational skills if I let it go to the last minute. Gone are the days it took me 8 months to get a pattern out. Now it might be 8 months between patterns, but it isn't because I'm working on it for 8 months straight, it's that I've learned to have a life as well as design. I'll take where we are now over how it used to be any day as well, and I wonder if I'll say the same 7 years from now. I think I'd have to be able to pack up in 20 seconds and create a pattern idea to print in 4 days to feel that way, but you never know.


**Things that were actually said to me when my twins were babies:

• Are they both yours? Answer: Come on now. Twins aren't unheard of people.
• Do you have stay awake while the other one sleeps?   Answer: I would have to be insane.
• Did you use fertility drugs? Answer: Did you?
• What are their names? (After answer) Why didn't you give them rhyming names/A and B names/ (or my favorite) names that actually went together? Answer: I'll be sure to name my next one after your family rather than mine.
• OMG! Twins! I feel so sorry for you! You poor thing! Answer: WHY? Because I have two beautiful babies and know how to behave in public unlike you? Which yes, I actually said to her. 

Go forth and be normal in public, hotties.