Sunkissed Fabric...Nearing the End

About 9 years ago I found the internet quilting world. I also found on line fabric stores. My very first purchase was Sunkissed by Sweetwater. Now, maybe that's the reason why it remains my all time favorite fabric, but whatever the reason, I am still smitten these nine years later.

 I loved this fabric so much that I bought this art piece to hang in my sewing room. It shows 12 of the fabrics from the line, but there were many more. I bought yardage of some and a jelly roll so I could have at least a little of every fabric.

I made this quilt from the Moda Bakeshop to showcase the fabrics. This was my first "modern" quilt that I ever made. I love how cheerful and springy it is. It is still a favorite quilt and has had much use since I finished it in 2011. If you look in my archives for March you can see the beginnings of this quilt. I finished it in September, so there are more posts about that.

 Fast forward to today. I am making a 36 patch quilt and have decided to use ALL my most favorite fabrics and designers so I will always have a bit of them. It makes it easier to let some of this fabric go into other projects.

These are the two blocks that represent my Sunkissed crush that I have been nurturing for these many years. I don't think I have enough to do one more, but I might.

 So with my whole 'letting go' process I decided to make a new dress for Miss N. She needs one for spring/summer and this definitely fits the bill. I feel nothing but happy to finally put this fabric into something that will get some use, instead of sitting in my stash.

This pattern is the Geranium Dress by Made by Rae. I have used it countless times to make dresses for my girl. There are lots of variations so it doesn't always look like the same dress.

And now my Sunkissed tale has come to an end. There are still some small scraps that will get used up eventually. I have asked both Sweetwater and Moda if they will ever consider reprinting this line, but so far, no luck. But if they ever do, I will be on the lookout to purchase some again, because it is still my most favorite fabric ever. Tell me, do you have a fabric line you feel that way about?

Have a lovely weekend my friends.

My New 36 Patch

So, I believe I mentioned awhile back that I was going to make a new 36 patch quilt. I made one a number of years ago as a sew along with Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts. It has always been a big favorite of mine. I have long wanted to make another one. This time, I am using a bunch of my favorite fabrics by some of my most favorite designers. Here is my progress report:

 These are a couple of prints from Laurie Wisbrun. The way I assemble the block, some end up upside down, but no big deal to me.

      These are a couple of Lizzy House prints.

   These are some very sweet Heather Ross butterflies in two different color ways.

     These are two more Lizzy House prints.

 These are a couple of Sweetwater prints from my most favorite of all time Sunkissed. I know there isn't as much contrast in these two, but I love them all the same.

This is a Heather Ross print, paired with a Dear Stella Mini Confetti Dots. I used to have that dot fabric in almost every color way. I am sad it's gone.

 This is two Denyse Schmidt prints from Flea Market Fancy reprint. A bit hard on the eyes, but kinda cool.

 Two more prints from the Sweetwater Sunkissed line. I have a few more from this line to include.

 And two more prints from the Flea Market Fancy reprint. This is the last of the grey seeds that I have and I just had to include them here.

Here are two prints from Sandi Henderson. The green is from Meadowsweet collection and the red is called Henna Garden, a classic.

I am doing this quilt, not only because I love the first one, but to sort of immortalize all my favorite fabrics that I have either been hoarding or am almost out of by now. A nice way of keeping just a bit of each one.

If you want to do something like this, it only takes two 2 1/2 inch x WOF strips of two fabrics to make a block. You sew the two strips together with a 1/4 inch seam and press it. I like to press it open. Then, you cut these into 2 1/2 inch units and sew them together until you have the 36 patch block. You will have some extra pieces to use either on the back or in another project.

Once there are 36 of these blocks made, I will join them all together to make my quilt top. If you want more detailed instructions you can search Crazy Mom Quilts. I know her blog isn't active any longer, but all her tutorials are still up there.

Today I am hoping to finish the last side of the binding on my 100 blocks quilt so I can wash it and have it to show you, maybe tomorrow?
Have a lovely Friday.

Sunday Stash #35

Not much fabric procurement going on here. I am trying to finish up a bunch of projects and to not start too many more. But, you know how it is when you are sitting at the computer and you are just looking around. So I decided to Google Sunkissed by Sweetwater. My all time favorite fabric line for oh, so many reasons. And I found some!!! On etsy for a crazy low low price. So I had to buy it.

 I absolutely love these dots! The colors are so pretty and I know the lighting doesn't do them justice. If you had or have some of this fabric, you will know what I mean.

 The three top prints are all 1/2 yard cuts and the bottom dot print is a full yard, plus there is another 12 inch cut that is separate. All this goodness for...drumroll please...$12.99!!! Truly my lucky day!!

And, the seller included this panel for making a bag. It is Debbie Mumm for JoAnn Fabrics. I am going to stitch this baby up for spring farmers market shopping!!

Found this on a small bit that I am working with right now. I have been loving Moda Fabrics for a long time. I loved seeing this. Have a great week and I hope to see you here soon. Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash.

Not Only Did I Dare to Dresden...

...I took tons of pictures.  I hope you don't mind.  I started with jelly roll strips of red, white and pink polka dots.

 I loved the way they went together when I was chain piecing them.  So cool...

                                               More fun...

                            Then I started playing with arrangements...

 This is the one I finally went with.  It seemed to me to be the best for this application.

And before I even finished the project I had in mind for these, inspiration struck again, so I quickly jumped on it before the idea could be lost.  I still had a bit over a quarter yard of my Ombre Dots!

 Sew I fussy cut them to come up with this arrangement.  I used almost every scrap in this, but I love it.

 I put a dark green Kona circle in the middle, and then I stitched in the ditch up and down the fan blades with my machine.

 And I did accent stitching with Perle Cotton.  I was thinking maybe pillow, but once I did the accent stitching, I wanted more.

So I think I am going to make more of these and make them into a quilt, because I just can't stop at one.  Now about that first Dresden...this is what happened to it:

 I wanted to make a pouch, but I sort of forgot that it would have a flat bottom.  I forgot to compensate for that...

 So a lot of it ended up on the bottom.  At first I was bummed, because it didn't turn out like I had pictured it, but it is sort of cute after all...

I used Anna at Noodlehead's wide mouthed pouch tutorial.  I love the way those turn out every time!
Could I stop now?  NO! I had to make more...

 I wanted to see how small I could go...these fan blades are 2 1/2 inches, but the circle in the center is still too big.  They are Sunkissed by Sweetwater and the center is the new Noteworthy line by Sweetwater.  I realized I needed to make the narrow end even narrower to get a smaller center.

This one became my new mug rug for my desk and I love it.  More stitching around the outside with Perle Cotton.  But I still wanted a smaller one...

                       This is more Sunkissed, I am almost out of it now. 

I adjusted the size once again to make it smaller still.  The small Ackfeld hanger is 5 inches wide.  Want a little perspective?  Here you go...

That's what I wanted to achieve!  I love this little cutie!  And now, my tale of Dresdens is done.  Thanks to Madame Samm and Christine at Quilt monster in my closet.  Another fabulous hop and I learned so much and I thought I didn't really like making Dresdens.  Who knew?  Here is the rest of the schedule for today.  Enjoy the hop.

 January 28^th, 2013

A Reformed Heath'n

Meadowbrook

Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”

Stitch Duchess' Crazy & Sane Quilting World

Grammie Q’s

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sunshine Girl

Spiral

Butjenter Quilter

Blooming Where I am Planted

Quilting Lodge

The Tilted Quilt

Life in the Scrapatch

Pretty Bobbins
In The Boon Docks

Sew Much and More

Threading My Way
Pink Ribbon Quilts
Thimble Mouse & Spouse

Texting While Sewing #3

This is my third and final entry for Amy Friend's During Quiet Time Texting While Sewing Contest.  It is number 3 in a set of blocks that will become a wall hanging.

 This one is made using Bonnie and Camille's Vintage Modern.  I had a layer cake of it (pun not intended) and thought the stripe in a gentle pink made a perfect cake.  I used the same Make Life and Sunkissed fabrics for the cake stand and the frame so that all three would look like a set when put together.

The topper of this cake is a tiny fussy cut strip of what I think look like strawberries, again from the Vintage Modern fabric layer cake.  This whole cake looks sleek and modern to me.

So in case you missed the other two, here they are again:

I want to thank Amy for this great idea she had.  This was so much fun to do and really made me work outside my comfort zone.  I loved making these.  And thanks to my daughter who helped me with the idea and the initial sketches of these cakes.  As a baker, it should have been an obvious choice, but she pointed me in the right direction.

Texting While Sewing #2

This is the second cake block I made for Amy Friend of During Quiet Time, Texting While Sewing contest.

This is actually the first one I made. 

Here is a closer look.  I like this one too.  I used a soft pink floral for the cake and the same Sweetwater Make Life print for the cake stand.  I also framed it with the same Sunkissed text fabric.  I feel like each cake got better than the one before it.

Texting While Sewing #1

Amy Friend of During Quiet Time  is hosting Texting While Sewing this week.  I love some text fabric.  I knew I wanted to play along.  Some of these are really cool.  I ended up doing three as a set.  This one is my first and most favorite.

 I used Riley Blake Ombre Dots for the cake.  I love the look of the gentle fading from layer to layer.

 The cake stand is made from Sweetwater's Make Life fabric line.  I thought it was perfect for this.

The "frame" of the picture is Sweetwater's Sunkissed line text fabric in grey and pink.  I tried to mimic the lightly drawn flowers as the topper of the cake.  As I said, this block is my favorite.  But in other posts, I will show you the other two, as this turned out to be a set of three which will be wall hangings.

Spoolin' Around

Spent a bit of time working on my Spools quilt top today.  I like how it's coming along.  It's a very easy pattern and so easy to get into the zone and just sew.

 I had to do three complete spools to see how they were going to look.  I need that gratification to keep me going sometimes.  The "thread" is Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree.  For the spool ends I am using 3 different fabrics, in keeping with using my stash: grey dots from Vintage Modern, grey stripe from Sunkissed, and grey tiny zigzag from Reunion.

 Chain piecing is definitely the way to go with this pattern. It's so easy to do too.  It also helps me to remember which way to orient the corner pieces and stitch them correctly.

 Here is a bit of trimmings from the spool ends.  I think these triangles are way too small to keep for any reason at all.  Into the trash they will go.

And neatly put away until next time, there are far fewer pieces in the project box now.  I love when I can see the progress.  Have a great weekend.