A Beach Blanket Quilt

Back at the beginning of the summer, Stash was approached by the local portion of the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases for contributions to their silent auction portion of a fundraiser they were planning for later in the season. We put out a call for donations, and I committed to making a quilt. Since the fundraiser’s theme was going to be “Beach Party” (referencing the movies that made Ms. Funicello famous), I attempted to go with a beach blanket theme for the quilt. I’m not sure I’ve quite captured the idea, but this is the quilt that resulted. …

Tutorial: Blackford’s Beauty

Over at Stash last month, we held a little Christmas in July event. One of our activities was a Block Challenge: make a block (any block!) from any of our Christmas fabrics, bring it to the shop, and vote on your favorite of all the blocks on display. We announced our winner in early August. ‘Course, none of us who work there were eligible to win, but that didn’t stop us from making up some blocks of our own. And because I seem chronically unable to pick the simple project, I made up a complicated block called Blackford’s Beauty. Had …

Shattered Glass Blocks

I didn’t really want to but I had to take a break from Sew.Quilt.Give. in July, despite the call for any star block I might want to make. I love star blocks and star fabric and stars in general. One secret ambition: to make a starry night quilt, something that’s sort of a mash up of Van Gogh’s painting and those deep space nebulae photos. Yeah, someday… Anyway, August blocks! These Shattered Glass blocks come from this tutorial from the Undercover Crafter. These are a lot like theses blocks I made for the Craftsy 2012 BOM (which I’m still working …

Another Finish!

Hooray for another finished quilt! This one is my “Blogger’s Block of the Month” quilt, begun in the fall of 2011. I wasn’t able to stay current with all the months, but of the three (!) BOMs I started at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012, this is the only one I mostly kept up with. I’d like to say that I’ve learned from this experience: either keep it to one BOM at a time or don’t sign up for things with a specific schedule. The latter seems unreasonable and the former seems unlikely. Oh well. The fabrics in the …

A little Christmas in July

Over at Stash, we’re attempting to sell down leftovers from last December with a Christmas in July event. (Unfortunately, Stash’s online store has been closed down for logistical reasons – if you’re interested in any of the fabric, email me and I’ll figure something out.) Everyone was supposed to make a little something to showcase the fabrics. I made drawstring bags, because, well, that’s what I do. The fabric is Dear Mr. Claus by Cosmo Cricket for Moda. It’s got a retro feel to it, with this apple-cheeked whistling Santa and the tiny snowflakes. It’s a sizable collection, with a …

Tardy Bee Blocks

Ah, summer! That time of year when we manically swing between “It’s lovely and gorgeous, let’s be outside!” and “It’s hot and miserable, when will it rain?” The season for overcommiting and taking on just one more thing, trying to shove ever more activities in the every shrinking temporal space. I finished and got the June blocks for Sew.Quilt.Give. into the mail at literally the last minute. We used this tutorial from Film in the Fridge. Easy blocks, which is good since I apparently am overbooked this season. The fabrics all came out of the scrap bin. I see the …