From A - Wonky Star Quilt

Kelsey sent me a text message a few months back asking if I would like to make a quilt for our Great Aunt together. I immediately agreed and Kelsey started sending me digital palettes of the most gorgeous shot cottons. After a few back and forth emails, we placed an order (and even sprang for some amazing Oakshott cottons).

We settled on a wonky star design using this tutorial as inspiration. We divided up the fabric when I was in Calgary back in July and gave each other the homework of making our respective blocks before Sewing Summit so that we could piece them together and have a finished quilt top before the weekend was out.

Kelsey, of course, finished her blocks...I started cutting mine the morning before I arrived. I finished my cutting on the first night of open sew and managed to get them all sewn together on the second night. With a little bit of teamwork, the amazing vibe at open sew and the benefit of the communal design wall in the sewing room, we settled on a layout and sewed everything together.

We are both really excited about how this turned out. These fabrics definitely glow. We used some Essex yarn dyed linen blend in Flax for our background fabric which added a really interesting texture to this quilt in contrast to the luminescent shot cottons.

I couldn't resist this photo of the wrong side. I am really excited to see how Kelsey quilts this. I think it'll make a perfect 90th birthday gift!

From K - Sewing Summit Recap and Photos

Last week Amanda and I were very fortunate to attend the third annual Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City Utah, and I feel like I can't possibly convey what an amazing time we had - but I'm going to try my best in this post!

Oh look, a photo of me and Amanda... like together in a photo! ^

We each took 8 classes and surprisingly only 2 of those overlapped. The first class we both took was Fabric Design with Pat Bravo on Day 1, and we were blown away with her presentation. It was really fascinating to hear what inspires her and what process she uses when designing new lines.

Pat Bravo teaching Fabric Design

The second class we took together was Stash Mixology on Day 2 with Elisa from Stitch Outside the Ditch. This class was easily one of my favourite courses and I learned so much about how you can give your quilts depth and impact. Seriously people, this class was the bomb and Elisa was the perfect way to wake up after a nearly all night sew fest the night before.

Olivia Omega's presentation on Personal Branding was the perfect mix of engaging, hilarious and completely enlightening. I think a lot of us left her course feeling empowered in who we are as bloggers and people... and maybe a few of us debated a way to steal her super cool comic book skirt!

Here's a shot of Shannon, Olivia, Erin and I after the Personal Branding class.

I learned a lifetime of information in Melissa Esplin's Photography course and I hope to improve my photo skills really soon! I apologize in advance for how yellow many of these photos are - the hotel lighting left much to be desired unfortunately.

Melissa posted a summary of her presentation yesterday on her blog and I strongly suggest you check it out - she has some very unique tips that are worth the read.

One of my favourite classes was learning how to make an Equilateral Triangle Quilt with Jeni Baker from In Color Order. It felt so freeing to purposely jumble up my triangles and then sew them together in a completely random fashion. It was the perfect after lunch hands on class and I'm excited to share my progress with you soon.

It was really neat to put real faces and voices to blogs that I love and have followed along for ages. I had more than one fangirl moment at this years' summit. Here's a shot of Katie, myself and Jeni. These girls have truly inspiring blogs and they were some of the very first I started following.

While the classes were fantastic, I have to say though that without a doubt this past weekend was incredible if for no other reason than because of all of the amazing new friends that we met. I have never felt so at home in a room full of strangers before in my life, and after only a few short days I wouldn't consider using the term 'strangers' again. We met so many wonderful people and I would be happy to bring them all home with me (seriously friends, visitors are always welcome!). Few experiences are as fun as late night open sew and the energy and enthusiasm in the room each night was infectious.

Here are just a few of the incredible people we met last weekend:

Amanda, myself (Kelsey), Shannon and Shannon. ^

Middle eastern cuisine for supper - yumm! Amanda and Erin. ^

Late night open sew with delicious delicious iced tea. Me and Shannon. ^

Sara and her incredible quilt. This lady was a basting machine, I only wish I could be so speedy! ^

Lynn, Christine and Kate in class being super studious. ^

Shop hop stop at Quilter's Haven with Shannon, Megan and Anna. ^

Elena (who may just be the world's sweetest person) taught the metal frame purse class and was really encouraging. I'd love to bump into this lady again someday. ^

 

I think Amanda and I averaged about 4-5 hours of sleep each night so we're still catching up on zzz's but it was worth it in every way. I have some pressing deadlines to get cracking on and I hope to have more to share soon (including a 30lb shop hop, yarn and swag post yay!).

From A - Stash Down

There hasn't been much sewing happening in these parts lately. On Friday, the moving truck finally arrived with our furniture and belongings...all 7,500 pounds of them. The good news is that I finally have a chair to sit in and I'm no longer eating my morning cereal out of a former styrofoam ramen noodle bowl. The bad news is that I'm living in a cardboard obstacle course.

I did manage to get most of the stash unpacked last weekend (you've gotta have priorities) and was shocked to discover how much it has grown since I packed it up last April to stage the condo.

The difficult combination of expanding stash, 20% reduction in living space and 50% reduction in storage space means that it's time to get the stash under control or the Christmas Tree might have to live in our living room year-round. This means that for the next few months, I'm going to shop the stash before buying supplies for a new project. So far, so good. I was able to pull this stack to make Camille Roskelley's On A Whim Quilt which has been on my "to make" list for years now.

It looks like the stash will even be obliging enough to provide backing and binding fabric when the time comes. I'm so excited to finally use some of these treasures! How do you show your stash who's boss?