Friends are the best part of Quilting

Once upon a time, there was a woman that had a new sewing machine.  She knew she wanted to start quilting, but didn’t know how to do it.  She was very, very excited about all the different ways she could cut up fabric and put it back together again.

This woman has been gone a long time, changing into a woman that quilts every single week and even makes her own patterns from the pieces of fabric that now fill her rooms.

But she will never forget that first website she found with all of the beautiful blocks that were not as intimidating as full size patterns were.

I am stepping a bit outside the normal quilt zone a bit this month.  In my opinion, the best part of becoming a quilter has been the amazing community and friends I have met.  And all of you are some of the very best!!

Now, my sewing space has always been an after thought.  A corner of my bedroom.  But, I want to decorate that space to become a true creative corner, so I need things to hang on the walls.  🙂  That is my plan for the blocks this time around.

I am fairly open to the block choice and the size.  To tie it back to that little story in the beginning, I have picked a few blocks that I like from Quilter’s Cache.  Feel free to choose from them or browse and pick one of your own.  I have linked a handful of them below.

For colors.  I love my tertiary range.  Teal, Chartruese, Plum, Magenta, Burnt Orange, Golden Yellow.  Along those lines.  For backgrounds: White, Black, or Grey in solid or tone-on-tone (ish) would be great.  Here is a color palette page I have started.

I “borrowed” this photo.

As a little extra, if you want to include a label of sorts for me to add to the back I would be so appreciative.  Hand written or your regular label would be amazing (nothing fancy needed)!  I want the wall to be filled with friends and I will be making sure I add the labels to the back when I quilt them so I know where each one came from.

Here are some of the blocks I like from Quilter’s Cache – no need to limit yourself to these, but it will give you an idea & it is the styles I like, NOT the colors 😉

I really hope you enjoy making a block that suits you.  Like I said.  Any size, any block, any color.  I cannot wait to fill my wall with all the pretties!  🙂

 

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

I cannot believe it is September already.  My, how fast the year has passed.  I have known for a few months which block I wanted to do for my month, but I wasn’t exactly sure of the other details.  I narrowed down the colors pretty quickly, but what size did I want?  In truth, I want all different sizes.

Of course, I cannot for the life of me find the “name” of this block.  I have made it before, but I did not follow a pattern or tutorial at all.  If you know the name, please let me know.

What I am looking for is a star in 2 complementary, tertiary colors.  Think violet & chartreuse or amber & magenta or teal & marigold.  You can choose solids or prints, but please just have each part of the star read as that color.  Then for the background I would like grey.  Any shade of grey will do, just not black or white please.  Gosh, does anyone else feel like they are being bossy when they write out their requests?  I feel like I am micro-managing.  Ok, so… as far as size goes, I am writing out the tutorial to measure 12×12 finished, but you are welcome to make it any size you like.  I want the quilt to have all different sizes of stars.

Here you go, simple instructions for the block:

(4) 3 1/2″ sq grey

(4) 4″ sq grey

(4) 4″ sq color 1 (the photos show 4 1/2″ squares, but that was too big, 4″ will be plenty)

(4) 4″ sq color 2

• Draw diagonal on wrong side of grey 4″ squares

• Place grey squares right sides together with (2) 4″ squares of each color

• Sew 1/4″ on each side of drawn line
  • Cut along drawn line
  • Press
  • Trim to 3 1/2″ square using diagonal as reference

• Draw diagonal on wrong side of 2 of the remaining 4″ squares
• Place right sides together with other color
• Sew 1/4″ on each side of drawn line
  • Cut along drawn line
  • Press
  • Trim to 3 1/2″ square using diagonal as reference
• Arrange and piece together as shown in images below

And there you have it!  All done.  🙂

If you want to make a different size, you just add 1″ to the individual square size to get your pieces for the HST.

I cannot wait to see all of the beautiful stars you guys make.  🙂

 

Sue’s February Block

I finally got Sue’s block finished and in the mail.  FINALLY!  I had pulled out fabrics and put them back and pulled some more and put those back.  Sighed in frustration at my lack of fantastic scraps of a perfect size, then pulled out more fabric.  I really don’t know why picking out fabrics for the bee blocks has been so difficult for me.  I guess I just want these blocks to be perfect.  I am definitely finding holes in my stash though (which I am going to remedy this weekend at the Fabric Depot Warehouse Sale!  Woot!).  Why on earth I don’t have many low volume neutrals I will never know.

Either way, I finished the block and I am very pleased with it and I hope you are too Sue.

Sue wanted to know a little about where we each are from.  I would like to know as well.  🙂  I moved to Portland, Oregon almost two years ago and still have so much to discover about this place.  A few things I do know:  1.  It does actually rain as much as they say it does.  2.  It is as liberal and hipster as they say it is.  I still find myself amazed at the diversity everywhere I go.  I moved here from Montana where even the “cities” are a little bit “country”.  Portland has so many languages and so many lifestyles, you can find a place where you fit in no matter what.

Portland is a very beautiful city.  There is green everywhere, all year round.  When I first moved here, all I could comment on was how there would be a dense forest only 6 feet wide along the side of the road.  And so many different kinds of trees and plants.  To be honest, I haven’t ventured out into the many hiking trails and nature paths that are all around the area, but my sister does all the time and she shares photos of the scenic waterfalls and views.

The funny thing is that on the other side of the city, only a 15-30 minute drive there are hills covered in vineyards.  My aunt said it reminded her of Tuscany.  We were on a drive during the Lavender Festival visiting all of the different lavender farms surrounding the city.  Beautiful!

Then, you could drive west for an hour and be at the beach.  Have you seen The Goonies?  Yeah, that beach.  🙂

Even the scenery is diverse in my next of the woods.

Sue – I hope you enjoy your block. It was a lot of fun to make, so easy (after I decided on the fabric that is).   I can’t wait to see all of the different color combinations together.

Happy Quilting!

Colorful Block for Sharon

Thank goodness I was able to get my block in the mail last Friday.  My city has basically shut down due to snow and ice.  Portland is not prepared for this kind of weather AT ALL.  The roads are a mess.  

It was pretty for a day or two, but if you wanted to venture out you needed a lot of patience and luck.  I bet Home Depot sold out of chains and shovels.  🙂

On the plus side, all these snow days have given me lots of time in my sewing room.  Yeahoo!

I had a lot of fun making the block for Sharon.  It was about time for me to dig through my scraps.  They are getting out of control and I find that I am using them less and less because I never find what I am looking for.  After I finished the block, I took one of my color separated containers and dumped it out.  Pulling out the bits that were too scraggly and little to have much use.  I also tossed some of the not so quality fabric that I had used in the past before I knew what I was doing. -I have far too much of this fabric that I just won’t use on quilts anymore, so if any of you have suggestions for it, let me know. I am thinking of trying a rope/coil basket today.-

But, I did find some fun fabrics to use in the block for January.  I had bits of some of my favorites that were big enough.  I just love that pink and green stripe!  🙂

 

Thanks Sharon for choosing such a fun block!  I can’t wait to see how they all come together.

Introductions…My turn

Hello everyone.  I have a “Snow Day” off work today here in Portland, Oregon so I thought I would use the time to get some blogging done.  I cannot tell you all how excited and thrilled I am to be a part of this group.  It will be my first quilting bee EVER! *So be prepared for a lot of questions 🙂 *

I have been quilting for about six years now and do believe I have found my true creative outlet.  Quilting is my zen space and I use it to learn and grow as well.

For the first few years of my quilting experience I did not use any patterns.  I would look at an image and then figure it out on my own.  Sometimes reading or watching a handful of tutorials first.  I have finally learned to embrace a complete pattern and make it my own with fabric choices and placement.  I am all about things being unique.

More about me…  My name is Jen Rosin.  I am a single mother of a teenage boy and a sometimes frustrating, but always cuddly Shetland Sheepdog, Marius. Almost two years ago I packed up everything and left Montana (my home for about 95% of my life) to move to Portland.  It is a wonderful city and I am glad I made the move even though I do get homesick for that country(ish) life.

I work full-time as an Administrative Assistant for a restaurant headquarters and it keeps me pretty busy.  So, my quilting time is fairly limited.  If it was up to me, I would be at my sewing machine, or sketch pad, or computer (blogging) 5 days a week instead, but one must make a living right?  🙂  My blog is A Dream and A Stitch. I only started the blog in May of 2016 and have encountered so many benefits already.  The top of which being all of the amazing quilters I have met.

Again, I am looking forward to getting to know all of you and make some amazing quilts in the process.

Just to put a face to a name, here I am:

  Not a very happy photo, but it is the most recent one I have.

P.S. I am new to WordPress, so if there are any tips to make my posts better, just let me know.