QuiltCon Post #1

 Here I am with my quilt, Orange Trails, at QuiltCon!  It took me quite awhile to find where it was hanging and I have to admit that I started to get nervous that I wouldn't find it - that it wasn't really there.  :)

I found my online quilting bff Alison's quilt too!  This is me waving hi!  I LOVE the background fabrics!

Here are some of the quilts that I saw.  Please forgive any blurriness or misspelled names.

It was fun to see this quilt in person.  I had seen it on Charlotte's blog and thought it was much bigger, but it is only about 12x18 inches.  The nerdy stats major in me loves the name!  :)

 I actually met Casey on the plane to Austin.  Sorry about the blurry picture.

 This is a reverse applique quilt.  All of the places where you can see the rainbow fabric have been cut out of the linen.

 

It was pretty amazing!  More pictures later!

We Had Fun!

QuiltCon was AMAZING!  But now I need to pay attention to my kids so more info later!

PS:  Isn't Becca the cutest thing ever?  I think so and everyone there told me so, so I guess it is true!  :)

Only 3 More Days!!!!

Becca and I out bowling with the family.

Only three more days until QuiltCon!  I cannot wait!  (happy dance!)  When not looking at quilts and vendors I plan on sitting in the back of the lecture hall (so many good lectures!!) with Becca Babe.  Keep an eye out for us and say hi!!!  As I am linking up with the QuiltCon Link Party, here are five things you may not know about me:

1. My name is pronounced li-la.  Not lay-la, lee-la or lee-eye-la.  It was a pronunciation nightmare in all my school life.  Leila is an Middle Eastern name that my father heard while he was on a college study abroad trip in Jerusalem.  Since he heard it in Israel  I was called li-la, the Hebrew pronunciation, not lay-la the Arabic pronunciation. 
2. I don't like the word "maxi".  Like maxi dress and maxi skirt.  It reminds me of maxi pads.  Who wants to wear clothing with a feminine hygiene product name?  Ick. ;)
3. I love to read, but have only read one book in the last 5 months.  :(  One of my favorite authors is Connie Willis who combines two of my favorite genres:  historical and science fiction.  My husband got me hooked on sci-fi a few years after we got married.  It took me a while to give in and try it but now I love it too.
4. To combine two taboo topics (edited: religion and politics):  I am Mormon, but I didn't vote for Romney in the election.  Sorry man, but I didn't like your plan.
5. In college I studied Conservation Biology with a Wildlife emphasis and a minor in Statistics.  I majored in it because I loved all of the classes, but have never worked in the field and quite honestly would have to get a PhD to do what I would like to with it.  But that's ok.  I am quite happy to be staying at home with our 5 daughters.

QuiltCon and warm weather here I come!  :)

WIP Wednesday

 This week I have been working on the Madrona Road Challenge.  I decided to make a mini quilt with ubiquitous (in modern quilting at least) wonky log cabins.   It measures 12 x 16 inches and just needs to be bound.

Earlier this week someone in blogland asked why there were never any messed up pictures on blogs.  So to fill the lack of ugly messed up pictures, here is a close up of the back of the quilt.  Arrggg!  I don't know what happened, but it is a mess in quite a few places.  Quite honestly, I will only fix it if it gets picked to be in the Micheal Miller booth - a long shot.  Otherwise it will hang happily on my wall with that mess hidden.  Because life is too short to worry about all of the behind the scenes messes.  I think we can all just assume that they are there.  People will take pictures of the prettiest blocks with the best quilting in the best light they can because we are trying to create and capture beauty in this world.

And life is beautiful.  So is this little butter ball who moments before this picture had rubbed snot all over her face.  You can't tell from this picture but she also has a double ear infection, :( was miserable last night and her sisters are running around like crazy because we are snowed in and there isn't school.  I think we can all assume, even if we don't see it on blogs, that there are points that don't line up and dishes that don't get done.  I'm just glad that there are so many things to take pretty pictures of.  :)

Friday Finds

I just wanted to give a shout out to some great resources that I have seen lately.

First the Make A Bag series at ikatbag.  Holy Uncontrollable Detail, Batman!  This series of post goes into amazing detail on bag shapes, straps, finishing and linings with more posts on the way.  It is not a series of tutorials, but an in depth discussion on bag theory so that you will be able to design and make your own bags.  You will want to keep reading even after the series is over to see the incredible things she makes for her kids from cardboard.  The woman is amazing!  And a hoot to boot.

The Curve it Up Quilt Along with the Quick Curve Ruler has been going for awhile, but I want to order a ruler and jump right in.  

Look at the latest block they made in the series - The Curve it Up Log Cabin - tutorial found here.  I think I am in love!  Check out the flickr group for more pictures.  Links to the block tutorials can be found in the flickr group discussion or on the side bar of Jenny's blog Sew Kind of Wonderful.
What great things have you seen lately?

Sewing Day!

Sewing Day! was just as wonderful as I thought it would be.  This was my first all day sewing event and I have to admit I wondered if I was up for 14 hours of sewing, but it was totally awesome!  Of course I forgot my camera along with my extension cord, pins and baby toys but Penny, Melanie and the church's nursery came to the rescue!  But I don't have any pictures to share.

I cannot even begin to describe all of the wonderful projects people were working on.  There were:  low-volume quilts, pinwheels, foundation pieced sewing machines, weekender bags, feather totes, pot holders, squares in squares, floating shapes, Liberty patchwork, amazing applique, lots of cutting of beautiful fabric and so much more.  It was so fun and inspiring.

One thing I realized is that I have picked a very time intensive hobby.  I had always blamed kids and starting and stopping for how long projects took me, but having a large block of time all to myself with only Becca Babe made me realize how long sewing takes.  I worked on finishing up the borders for the Skill Builder Sampler quilts from 9 am to 4 pm.  Hello!  Yeah, I stopped to talk, feed the baby, eat and all, but really 7 hours to put on borders?!?  But I also saw that I was not alone.  Hours were spent quilting totes, making pinwheels and cutting out fabric.  Good thing we love it!  ;)

But by the time 4 o'clock came around I wanted to work on something that I could take home finished, so I took out the fabric I had just bought for new pillows.  When I showed my 12 year old the fabric and asked if she liked it she said, "I don't know, it is kind of light.  It might stain."  Very mature response I thought.  My husband said, "I didn't know we needed new cushion covers."  We might not have "needed" them, but after 8 years I sure did "want" to update them.  They crack me up.

So I made up two floral slip covers for the couch and a rectangular pillow for the chair in the living room.  Much faster and so nice to see every time I walk by!   I know some of you might be thinking, "Interesting color choice there, Leila" because I think that too!  I am not totally sold on the combo, but I wanted to bring in the colors from this stained glass panel into the room.

I think it totally pulls in the colors from the stained glass panel above the window and we will just have to trust the artistic judgement of the person who made the stained glass windows...or make a new cover later...

I hope you had a great weekend too!  I can't wait to go to Sewing Day again!

WIP Wednedsay

Thanks so much for linking up with pictures of your sewing spaces.  It was fun to see them all!  And I didn't feel like a no-link-up-loser either.  :)

This is what my sewing space looks like today.  I am working on the borders for the Skill Builder Sampler quilts.  Aggh...  It seems like borders should go fast, but these are taking awhile.  They are top priority though because in two more days the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild is having a Sewing Day and I want to have these babies basted so I can quilt them there.  There is going to be plenty of space to spread out and I want to take advantage of it.  

I am so excited for the sewing day!  

I keep on asking my kids, "Do you know happens in two days?!?"  

Blank looks.  

"SEWING DAY!"  Squeal!!!  Jump up and down!

Rolled eyes and mom is crazy looks.

14 hours of sewing and socializing!  Heaven on earth...

Where Do You Sew? (and my first link up!)

I have spent the last week cleaning my sewing room.  Yeah, a week.  It had gotten so bad with fabric and projects everywhere that I couldn't work anymore...sad....and rather embarrassing.  

As I was putting fabric away I decided to just pull everything out of the cupboards and move the shelves to a better position.  This picture was taken about half way though the emptying of the cupboards - that's right - it was even worse before this.  I found so much forgotten stuff and threw away so much junk (four garbage bags full!).  Somehow the cupboards are still full...hum...  But many hours later...drum roll please...

....this is what I walk downstairs to...sigh...much better!  I thought about editing the pictures to take out the yucky unfinished ceiling and to fix the weird lighting, but that is just how my space is - a well painted oasis in the dingy depths of the basement.  :)

The woman who lived here before me had these artist hanging racks (anyone know what they really are?) that I use to hang up my quilt tops so they don't get all wrinkled.  So handy.

My high tech design wall is a cheap tablecloth nailed to the wall fuzzy side out.  My fabric is kept in those beautiful cupboards - love them!

I keep all my notions in a clear plastic shoe rack hung on the wall.  I recently started storing my small scraps in the pockets too.  Love it!  Now I might actually use them!

I keep most of my quilting fabrics that are more than a quarter yard folded and sorted by color in one cupboard.  It is hard to put something in the middle of a stack though.  I might need to rethink my storage but for now it is good.

Below that I have a pull out drawer that has my small cuts of fabric - anything fat quarter or smaller but too big to be in the scrap area.  The other cupboards are full of pillow forms, clothing fabric, backing, solids, patterns and fabric set aside for specific projects.

Next to the cupboards is my sewing area.  I also finally hung some of the mini quilts up this week too.  I love them!

I really appreciate the counter height area next to the sewing area.  Perfect for cutting.  I have all of my current works in progress out there in boxes so I will hopefully actually work on them.  Right now I just like going down there and and looking at the cleanliness.  :)

Now it is your turn.  Where do you sew?  What does your area look like right now?   Is it clean, messy, organized chaos?  Leave a comment or even better, link up with a photo.  I would love to see where other people do their sewing!

Ok, don't leave me hanging people...this is the first link up I have done (because I really do want to see where real people sew, not just fancy-dancy people).  Don't make me feel like No-Link-Up-Loser-Leila.  Go ahead and share a pic!   :)

WIP Wednesday - New Year's Edition

For the last two years I have made goals to finish up old WIPs and have had a varying amount of success.  I feel like I have a lot of irons on the fire right now, so I decided to list and prioritize all of my WIPs.  Here it is!

Skill Builder Sampler Quilts - I need to add borders to the large ones, but I have already quilted the small one and just need to finish the binding.

Meadowsweet Star Quilt -  I love this fabric!!!  I need to make 4 (?) more star blocks, sash the 8 inch blocks up to 12 inches, and put it all together.

Gold HST Quilt - need to put all of those hst together and quilt.

1930's Sampler - need to add borders and quilt

Dresden Plate Quilt -  need to applique all of the plates and centers on a background and quilt.

Red and White Sampler - I have a bunch more of these 4x5 Bee Blocks, but no picture.  I need to put the blocks together and quilt it.  I think I want to donate this as a raffle quilt to my very, very, very small local library - we need more books!

These last two I would really like to finish up sooner than later but I don't think that will be happening.  Most of my handwork time is in the evening and now my evenings are spent rocking and feeding the baby - I'm not complaining (for the most part) but handwork is not going to happen until she starts going to bed before 10 pm.  ;)

Flower Garden - I need to applique on the borders and find an amazing long arm quilter.

Hexagon Flowers - I've worked quite a bit on this since this picture, but I need to finish the last row, applique on borders, add applique flowers and hand quilt - this might not get done this year...  :)

I think that is enough to work on right now!  ;)  But of course, I want to start making a couple of baby quilts and other projects.  Thank goodness we are having a guild sewing day in a few weeks.  I need it!  What are you working on?

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday!

Christmas Traditions

On Sunday my 12 year old moaned, "Why don't we have any Christmas traditions?"

Me (defensive) : We totally have Christmas traditions.
Her:  What traditions?
Me:  We have ham and potatoes for Christmas dinner.
Her:  (Raised eyes, apparently food does not make a tradition.  It is just what you eat on Christmas.)
Me:  (Looking at the tree)  We wrap our presents in fabric every year.
Her:  That is just because you don't want to buy wrapping paper.
Me:  Noooo.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Her:  O. K.  (if you say so, mom, tone of voice)

 Me:  We make a Christmas ornament every year.  (Here is this year's made out of sequins stuck with pins into a styrofoam ball.)
Her:  Oh, yeah...we do.
Me:  And we make treats to bring to people.

 (From left to right, princess angel, shepherd, tambourine angel, Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus and wise man.) 

 Me:  And we read Luke 2 and act out the Nativity each Christmas Eve.  And Santa leaves you stuff in your stockings and we open presents!  (getting kind of desperate for traditions).
Her:  Ok.
She wasn't convinced, but traditions don't have to be big deals.  Just spending time with family can be the best tradition.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  :)

 On a quilting note, I have lucked out two years in a row at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild holiday swap.  Last year I received the beautiful rectangular pillow in the back from Jill and this year I was lucky enough to get the square pillow from Amy.  (Amy, it has been loved, snuggled, thrown up on, washed and snuggled some more this month.  Thanks!)  Making and getting pillows is one tradition that I would like to keep going.  ;)

This is the pillow that I made for the holiday swap.  Remember those selvages that I sewed up during the summer?  I made this pillow out of them.  I love it and am going to make myself one next year.  (The trees are just raw edge appliqued on with the ticker-tape technique so they will have fuzzy edges.)

I hope you all had a great Christmas!  Stay safe and warm this holiday season!