Celebrate Color Finalist

Woo! The monster hat I made for my son was selected as a finalist for Celebrate Color. :)

Please head over and vote on all the wonderful projects!

<3 Kelsey

First 4x5 Bee Block

Here is my very first block for the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee. This will be my first time participating in a bee where I get to do whatever I want with the quilt in the end. I love helping others, but I am super psyched to have a quilt all my own as well. So far we've given away every quilt I've made lol.

This first block is for The Busy Bean. She requested red & aqua for her color scheme.

The pattern is the entry from Quilt Dad into Quilt Uber-Fest earlier this year. I slightly modified the pattern to remove one seam in the arrows to keep the raindrop print from being broken up as much.

One down, four more to go. :)

<3 Kelsey

My little monster

I have another crochet finish to share with you all today. Sticking to my orange and blue fall color scheme of choice, I made my little man a most awesome hat.

I used this pattern from The Train to Crazy, with some slight modifications.

First, instead of crocheting the hat to fit his cute little head, I made it much larger using a wool yarn, and felted it down to the correct size. This gives it a different look and feel compared to the original.

I also decided to put the spikes down the back, rather across his head.

I added a little yarn chin strap so he'd leave it on his head for more than 2 seconds (though not without trying to get it off yet). He still hasn't quite figured out hats.

My husband has already put in his request for an adult size version. :)

<3 Kelsey

This is my last entry into Celebrate Color.

San Bruno Quilt Update

First, and most importantly, my husband's coworker mentioned in this post was released from the hospital shortly after the accident with only minor injuries, including some burns.

Here are all the blocks (and one partial block) I received as of 11/20/11 laid out together on my floor. Pardon the terrible lighting, but I didn't have a space large enough to photograph these outside. I'm still behind notifying people that I've received their block - I'm a bad organizer and will catch up on that soon.

I'm hoping to finish up the blocks and begin assembly on the top this weekend, with the white sashing between the block that is missing in the picture above.

One generous volunteer offered to send an entire baby quilt for the recipient family's upcoming baby.

 I absolutely adore the quilting on this one.

Thank you again to all of the generous volunteers who have contributed to this project, I know it is going to be a special gift for this family.

<3 Kelsey

Autumn Sky

I love fall colors. The beautiful reds, oranges, and golds are so bright and rich. But the fall days that really leave me in awe are when the sky is that crystal clear blue - the contrast with the warm colors just makes them seem that much more vibrant. Like this beautiful photo I found on Flickr:

Click through to see the original source.

So when I won a gift certificate last year from the generous Zibeline Knits via Momma's Kinda Crafty, I had to get this beautiful yarn:

From the Zibeline Knits shop.

Doesn't it just scream fall? I didn't get a chance to use it last fall since I was busy with a newborn, but this year I decided to take the time to crochet myself up a nice scarf.

The yarn was self-striping, and through a little playing, I was able to work it so one row was exactly one repeat of the yarn, so it created consistent stripes all the way along the scarf.

I felt this way I could really see the vibrancy of each color. I love the way the stripes look wrapped around my neck. I feel like I am wearing a sunburst.

That's me!

I'm entering this into the last month of Celebrate Color. There are always so many fantastic entries (I never even place lol) - do go and check it out if you want to be inspired by fall.

<3 Kelsey

The 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge

I'm in!

<3 Kelsey

Heather Ross Fabric on Spoonflower for a Limited Time!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to pass on that Heather Ross has posted a few fabrics up for purchase on Spoonflower for just a couple of days: Under Water Sisters, Busses, Horses, and Wild Flowers. You can find them all here.

Already ordered myself some Under Water Sisters! :D

<3 Kelsey

UPDATE: Sale over.

do. Good Stitches November 2011

This month we were asked to do Modified Bento boxes in Americana colors: "turkey reds, faded reds, dark blues, dusky-grayish blues, tans, beiges, browns, an occasional gray or black". This was a real stretch for me since, as many of you know, I am generally drawn to bright, saturated colors. I also discovered I have almost no reds in my stash, and the few I do have are florals or juvenile. Note to self: keep an eye out for more modern reds.

I ended up going with mostly solids to stay true to the color story. For some reason, the natural beige keeps showing up too white in the photo. I promise its really a nice beige color keeping with the theme.

These will get cut up and reassembled, similar to the quilt below (click through for reference).

It's always good to stretch ourselves, right?

<3 Kelsey

Want some Lark?

Been thinking about buying Amy Butler's newest line, Lark? Quilt Taffy is having a 40% off sale, including her fat quarter bundles of Lark. That means it comes out to just $1.92 at fat quarter! ($2.10 if you count shipping just the one item in the US.)

Sale price is $57.57

There are tons of other great goodies 40% off over there too, like FFA3 guitars, Echino, Secret Garden by Sandi Henderson, etc.

Just wanted to pass the info along in case some of you were considering buying. :)

<3 Kelsey

Pillow Talk Swap 6

Here is my pillow for Pillow Talk Swap 6. I don't want to give away too many details about my partner since it is still a surprise for him/her, but suffice it to say, I'm pretty sure they like Parisville, so the whole design was based on how to feature that line.

Here was my original design as I first brainstormed:

But as I was sewing, I felt like this was getting too busy. Plus, I was running out of fabric. :P So I presented two alternatives to the group to see what people liked more:

I felt like I liked the way the left side looked more, but then it lost the chevron effect it had in the original and began to look more like log cabin quarters. I also thought the solids on the right might give the eye a place to rest, though I think that they weren't big enough to really have the effect I was picturing in my mind. Turns out the internet was divided, so I just went with the one that I felt was most aesthetically pleasing.

So, without further ado, here is my first pillow for PTS. Please pardon the fact I didn't have a pillow form and have just shoved a regular bed pillow inside folded in half. 

I kept the quilting light with a little hand quilting around the cameo with perle cotton. There was already a lot going on without adding to it.

Major accomplishment this project: my first Y seams! I had never had to do these before. Going slow and precise seemed to be the biggest help in getting these right.

I sure do hope my partner likes it. Off to the post office!

<3 Kelsey