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Quilts Bind Us Together

Posted on March 29, 2018by Tisha

Making new friends as an adult is not easy. However, having a common interest makes it much smoother. Helping start the Indy Modern Quilt Guild was one of the best decisions I ever made.

When I’m at guild meetings or around these women I feel at ease. They get my quirkiness about fabric, design, and know the language. It’s a different type of support that I get from other friends in my life. Maybe it’s acceptance?

Some of my closest friends are quilters. Over the last five to eight years we have grown from barely knowing each other to being great friends. These women who were once just guild members with me have left an impact on me. We have supported each other through births, losses, new homes, weddings, and life in general.

Recently life threw a rough patch my way. You may have noticed the blog and my social media has been quiet. Everything is fine now and I don’t plan to share more than that. It was nice to see texts from them to just be there if I needed it. Hell, someone brought me tacos and it made my afternoon.

Luckily, I had a quilt that Rachael had gifted me. Do you see all this NEPTUNE? It was just sitting in her pile of quilts and she didn’t use it. That is friendship.

If you don’t belong to a quilt guild, you should consider it. Where else can you want into a room of people and they get you. They understand that you love this designer, hate this line, won’t try this, etc. My guild is pretty awesome at being your cheerleader when you’re stuck too. Try it, you may just find some new friends too.

Bonus if they share their scraps and life with you.

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2018 goals
...
- Blog
- scraps
- sewing
- stash
- stitch

My Crazy Sewing Goal for 2018

Posted on March 1, 2018by Tisha

When I started planning for 2018, I knew immediately what I wanted my word to be. Confidence, the one area I was really struggling with personally and professionally.

However, writing out my other goals for 2018 haven’t been as easy. March seems like a good time to share what I’ve been pondering over the last few months. What could I do this year that would really challenge me and encourage some stash management?

I had been aiming for one baby quilt per week during 2018. Then life hit and I realized that goal wasn’t realistic. Funny, I found this post below right about the time I was rethinking the goal.

I fell off the wagon

My new goal is 40 baby quilts in 2018. Allows some flexibility with life, but more importantly challenges me to use what I have. Bring on the scraps and stash to make this goal happen.

Also, if you’re drowning in scraps I will gladly take them. Hint hint.

Gorgeous Grannies made for #5 out of 40. I have a few more in the works.

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2018 goals
...
- Blog
- scraps
- sewing
- stash
- stitch

Gorgeous Granny Squares – Finished

Posted on February 27, 2018March 5, 2018by Tisha

Granny square quilt, modern baby quilt, modern design, modern nursery decor, scrap quilt, jewel tone colors

Welcome back readers. Thank you for your kind words on the quilt top post. These Granny Squares are just GORGEOUS! Am I right? Blanche Devereaux, well this version, is ready for her introduction to the world.

Let me tell you a little about finishing this quilt. I rushed to quilt this one and paid the price. TWICE! I started quilting the first time and my tension was off. It appears little hands may have turned a knob on my machine and I didn’t realize it. I turned my tension down and then down some more. Then when I thought I had it right, I ripped out all the stitching to start fresh.

Then the tension still wasn’t right. A second pass a quilting and it was off. After getting pissed off, I walked away from this project for a couple of days. I put it in time out.

I came back and the quilting went smoothly. Thank goodness as I really didn’t want to straight line quilt this one. This quilt gave me a bit of sass, much like Blanche.

Have you seen this fun quiz on Buzzfeed? Take it and tell me in the comments which character you got. I will tell you mine below.

Backing

I bought around five yards of this Art Gallery print a few months ago. I knew I had some girl quilts coming up that it could be perfect for. Plus, it’s Art Gallery so it’s buttery soft.

This quilt is ready for it’s new home and can be found here on Etsy. By the way I’m a Dorothy Zbornak.

2018 Baby Quilt Goal 5/40

Linking up with Flamingo Toes Show & Tell Party

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inspiration
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Five Reasons You Should Go To A Quilt Retreat

Posted on February 21, 2018by Tisha

Does your quilt guild offer a retreat? If you haven’t been because you’re nervous let me highlight why you should be going to a retreat. Indy Modern Quilt Guild has been hosting a retreat for five years and we have had newer members join us each time. Were they nervous at first? Absolutely.

1. These are your people

Quilters get each other. We understand your obsession with a designer or getting sucked into a quilt-a-long. This is a place where you are among people that understand that need to create. You all may have different styles, but that’s part of the fun. You also get support, see #3.

2. You have time to create

Time away from home, your commitments, and potentially Wifi give you that time to tackle your sewing list. Maybe you want to make 4 quilt tops, maybe you want to quilt a massive quilt you haven’t had time to do, or maybe you want to tackle a pattern that you may want help with.

3. You have support

You have built in help over the weekend. Not sure about a design choice? You can get instant feedback and make a change. We like to call it quilt by committee at our retreat.

4. You can try new tools

Is there a ruler you’ve been wanting to try? A machine you’ve been eyeing? Good chance that someone on the retreat may have it and let you try it out. At our recent retreat someone was struggling to sew a bag on her machine, so another member offered to let her try her machine. It’s the machine she’s been contemplating buying. Now she’s saving up for that machine. Hello free test drive on something you will make.

Someone brought their Accuquilt cutter. I had not played on one and tried to use it. Ugh, not my jam right now. However, someone else used it to cut into a fat quarter bundle she wanted to play with.

5. Girl time and time with friends.

I don’t think many of us get enough girl time in our lives. A retreat is a wonderful opportunity to truly connect with someone else. Learn about their lives, hear their story, and start supporting them. Some of my close friendships were bonded at the retreat years ago.

Bonus if someone brings things to help you relax. Facial masks, a massager, and/or wine helps.

The next time your guild hosts a retreat, go! Don’t hesitate because this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on.

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Gorgeous Granny: Fresh and Modern Granny Square Quilt

Posted on February 12, 2018by Tisha

Granny Squares are one of my favorite patterns outside of just patchwork. It’s a staple in my designs. This version is a bit darker and feels stormy. You guys, these fabrics were all scraps and stash.

Picking Fabrics

On Instagram a few weeks ago I saw someone destashing 2.5″ squares. These are of course right up my alley. Once the scraps arrived the idea for this quilt came to life. The colors just spoke to me. It did take some sorting and adding scraps to get just the right colors.

My goal was to make as many blocks as possible. I had enough to make 31 blocks. To help with speed, I set them up to able to chain piece the rows.

There was a slight panic as I was cutting into my light gray. Was there going to be enough? Not really, but I had some scraps to throw in. That still wasn’t enough so an SOS went out to nearby quilters. No one had any in stock so I had to trek to JoAnns on a Saturday afternoon to get more. To my surprise it wasn’t an awful experience. The store was packed and busy. However, I walked right in to what I wanted and walked right back to the cutting counter. There was some Kona Ash in the remnants bins as well. BONUS!

Blocks

Look at these blocks, they are gorgeous.

Hence the name Gorgeous Grannies. This quilt will be named Blanche Devereaux in honor the wonderful character from the TV show, The Golden Girls. You’re welcome for this. Plus, I’ve been to a few Galentine’s Day events recently. The show perfectly sums up celebrating the friendship of ladies.

This top is just too good.

I was worried the colors wouldn’t balance out as well in the top as they did. Too bad I didn’t have more of these fabrics to make a bigger quilt to keep for myself. Love the colors and fabrics in this top. What do you think?

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2018 goals
...
- Blog
- etsy
- sewmystash2018
- snuggle
- stitch

Boundless Fabric Gender Neutral Half Square Triangle Baby Quilt

Posted on February 8, 2018by Tisha

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small compensation. All opinions are my own.

This is my first time using Boundless Fabric by Craftsy. I bought a layer cake from someone having a destash and got right to work. Over the last few months, I had been wanting to remake the All The Way Up quilt and I thought this may be a good palette to try the design with. I cut the layer cake into 5″ charms and separated out the fabric.

The colors are a mix of bold and muted, creating a wonderful contrast. For the random look I like to go for, I make 4 stacks of the squares, and then started pairing them up. Do you ever gravitate towards having some colors together more than others? I found myself going towards the same pairings and had to rethink a few. I kept telling myself to keep the pairings random.

Piecing all of the squares took no time. Cutting them into half square triangles was easy. Porter helped me press them and loved it. Then, I went to layout the quilt as I envisioned and it wasn’t right. Rather than move forward, I picked up the squares and put them away for a couple of nights. P and I designed his quilt and that gave me time to rethink the layout.

Rather than recreate the quilt, let’s use it for inspiration. I started laying out the blocks with the triangles all going the same way. It was growing on me. Since I had let go of the urge for everything to be perfect with Porter’s quilt, I decided to just create this top and run with it. It was hard because I wasn’t absolutely in love with it and I wanted to do more. However, keeping it simple can work out too.

Once the top was finished I starched the hell out of it and got everything flat. One thing that had not changed from my original vision was using a black and white print with these fabrics. I decided it needed to be the backing and dug around in stash. A simple Lotta Jansdotter print to the rescue.

For quilting I opted for straight lines to accentuate the triangles. It felt good to do straight line quilting again. Once I washed the quilt, it was just the way I wanted it.

There was just enough of the binding print to finish off the quilt. It pulls many of the colors from the quilt, but doesn’t take away from it.

Overall I’m happy with the way the quilt turned out. I’m proud that I didn’t let a layer cake just sit around and put it right to use. That was weird for me.

The quilt is currently listed in my Etsy Shop here.

2018 Baby Quilt Goal 4/40

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