Weekly Inspiration Linky Party April 17, 2015

Happy Inspiration Linky Party Friday!!

Guess what's been inspiring me lately? My very own self!! Yeah, I know, how'd that happen? I have been so busy with ideas lately that I haven't had to look to the Universe for any inspiration at all(although I've been asking the Universe for inspiration a lot, so I guess it's the Universe after all!). I have been learning, learning, learning and apparently that is just what I needed to get my wheels turning. I had some fails,  and I would do some stuff different, but the best part is I learned from everything I tried, so really it's all a win! I've had a pretty awesome couple of weeks!

I took a workshop offered by my quilt guild, Camaco Quilter's Guild from Teresa Fusco who is a walking talking bunch of inspiration, I learned a technique for raw edge appliqué without using fusible stabilizer. She is a talented lady and great teacher, if you get the chance to learn from her jump on it!

This is still a work in progress, I have quilting to do in the background.

I went to a local florist with my photography club, The Photography Club of Cape May to take photos of flowers. Most of my photos were blurry, but I know why, I should've used a tripod and was too lazy to bother. That's a big lesson to learn, what a bunch of blurry, there's only one or two pics that were half way okay, no award winners here, but that's okay!!

My photography needs work, but I learn something every time I try, so I will keep on shooting!!

 I signed up for watercolor classes at my county library,  I am out of my element and it's a big ol' learning curve, but the teacher is good at step by step direction and I can handle that! This is my first try at a daffodil, it too needs work, but that's my specialty, trying again!!!

I drew the daffodil myself, not bad for a first try at watercolor!

So what's been inspiring you? I want to hear all about it!

Go make something! Nini~

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm Tired of Waiting, I'm Making My Own Spring!

I bought this pattern "The Nest" by Carrie Bloomston, at Such Designs, over a year ago in hopes of making it for last spring, that didn't happen so I thought I'd try again for this year! I'm almost there! It still needs to be blocked and bound, but as soon as my cold gets a little better I'll get right on it! It WILL be hanging shortly! I made it smaller than the pattern directions because I wanted to fill a specific place on my kitchen wall, it's such a free form pattern it didn't matter, I could manage the resize no problem! 

I quilted pebbles on the eggs.

 I also quilted the background with a few tree branches and leaves of a tree.

This is the upper part of the quilt over the nest. It looks like it's nestled in a big ol' tree!

I used all kinds of scraps and tore them into strips and stitched them all around the inner nest and eggs to make a nest just like a real bird!!

I quilted it on my domestic machine, once I got the tree branches in I wasn't sure how to quilt the rest of the background, but after consulting with my "moral quilt support group" I decided on vertical line quilting. The branches are horizontal so it helps the branches stand out. I like that this project was pretty quick and easy, and I promise I'll show the whole thing when it has binding and a new home!! Sew, it's Spring around here if you ask me!!

Go make something!

Nini~

Weekly Inspiration Linky Party!

This has been one of the best weeks of my life, I am so inspired, astounded and overwhelmed by the events of the last two days. I hope to be able to write about it here soon, but I need to digest what has happened, figure out how to relay my feelings about it and decide where I need to go from here. I am still speechless and grinning from ear to ear.  Stay tuned for more of an explanation of this crazy talk!

What's been inspiring me lately? The Universe!

I've been reading Pam Grout's book E2 (Squared) . You may have guessed that it has something to do with the above and you will have guessed right! Awesome stuff, I'd check it out if I were you!

I'm a member of the Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild in Ocean Grove NJ, they are very generous with their enthusiasm and inspiration. I am always amazed at the beautiful work they create. You can take a peak at what they're making on the blog!  

This beauty was made by Eileen, member of the Jersey Shore MQG.

Oh, I almost forgot......happy Spring!!! Yahoooo, I'm so happy it's finally here! Although we're getting rainy slushy weather here today, I have hope that it's going to get warmer next week and soon we'll be outside............

 doing this!

Many generations of our fun family crabbing!

Crabbing and enjoying the sunshine!

Go make something!

Nini~

An InLinkz Link-up

QuiltCon 2015, Goodtimes!

What can we say about QuiltCon and Austin, Texas? It was the biggest ball of inspiration and love! The restaurants and food were amazing! Everyone we met was oozing inspiration and everything we saw was colorful, eyecatching and beautifully executed. Thank you for all the inspiration and encouragement we will try to put it all to good use!

Chelsey and I took some classes and learned lots of techniques for making our own fabric designs. Being in class with others is such a good experience: you learn so much not only from the teacher but from the other students as well.

Chelsey pulling paint over a screen.

Screen printing with Celina Mancurti

Mod Corage with Anna Maria Horner

Block Printing with Lizzy House

My carved block and test prints.

The lectures were abundant and the speakers were well prepared. The topics were relevant and every lecture we attended were full of great information. What a bonus and surprise to get so much encouragement and ideas for future projects.

The Art Of Teaching With Jacqui Gering

Social Media Lecture with Christen Barber

The vendor booths were full of inspiration, we love how the fabric houses draw you in with color and style!

Windham Booth

Cloud 9 Booth (NYC Metro Mod Guild made the HST Quilt!!!)

The quilts were so imaginative and unusual, I submitted a quilt that didn't make it in.  It was good to see exactly what got in, learn from what was hanging, and how to make the next quilt one they will accept!

We were lucky enough to travel with Helen at Till We Quilt Again! We had so much fun eating and learning our way through Austin. There was a (real)tattoo booth and plenty of tattooing going on!! We opted for the fake tats from C&T Publishing's booth and had tons of fun taking pics!

As you can see we had a great time. We even got to share what we learned in class with each other after delicious dinners out. So glad I got the opportunity to experience QuiltCon in Austin.

Go make something!

Nini~

Weekly Inspiration February's Friday the 13th 2015!

Happy Weekly Inspiration!!

We're late and discombobulated, but without further ado, here's what's inspiring me lately! Nini~

Big Block Quilts

I like the idea of one LARGE block to make the entire quilt, I'm not a fan of making 50 of the same thing! This works for those with ADD!

You can get more info on Sunny in Cal's blog and first pattern here. I love the colors and the giant block!!

Half Square Triangles!!

This is just as good as a giant block quilt...it makes an overall BIG design within the whole quilt, it is like one big block! I've been struggling with making large quilts lately but this may convince me to make just one more! See One Shabby Chick's version of Katie Did's half square triangle quilt here.

Find Katie Did's value quilt tutorial here!

What's been inspiring you lately? Please share it here!

Happy Valentine Day, wising you all lots of love in your life.

Nini~

An InLinkz Link-up

Rag Quilts for Baby

One of my first attractions to quilting was the rag quilt, I like this raggy shaggy ends sticking out making a grid pattern on the front of the quilt. It took me a good 5 years to actually get to making one. I found the bird flannel fabric and thought it would make a cute baby boy quilt. The fact that I had no baby boy to give it to didn't stop me from making it! It went together easy enough I used my design board to help with placement of the squares so they looked randomly placed(does that even make sense?).

I used this book Made From Scratch Biscuit Quilts by Annis Clapp to help me with construction of the quilt, but I didn't use any pattern for it. I wanted to play around with the fabrics I had and figure it out myself.

To get the exposed seam allowances shredded and shaggy they tell you to put it in the washer machine a few times. This is after two washes, I think it needs more roughing up, but when I took it out of the washer it had so many pills and threads stuck to it that it looked like an old worn out quilt so I just put it aside for a long time. After talking to Chelsey about it I decided to try shaving it with a dispisable razor and this is what happened! It really did help it immensely! I'm not sure it's baby shower gift quality, but there's probably a little somebody somewhere that would love to be wrapped in the warmth and love I've sewn up!

I have a  little girl version cut and ready to sew but when I got the bad results from washing I couldn't get started on it. Now that I know about the shaving technique I will get started on this one!

Have you ever made a project that didn't quite turn out the way you planned? What did you do to fix it? Please share you secrets!

Go make something!!

Nini~

Mariella's Ruffled Elephant Quilt

Apparently I like ruffles!  So when I found this great tutorial from Make It Homemade for a ruffled baby quilt I was so inspired I had to make one!! I picked my fabrics and got to work (apparently I like polka dots too!).  I adjusted the width of the strips for maximum elephant placement, but followed Palak's tutorial closely for constructing the quilt. I finished mine with a ruffled edge. 

The ruffles get easier every time I make them. I bought a ruffler foot online for a good price and it works great!  It took some time to get used to...but it helped immensely when I finally decided to read the directions and oil it just like the directions told me! Imagine that.

My first quilt label!


I made this quilt for baby Mariella as a shower gift.  Make sure you see the blogpost about fun pink camouflage cookie favors we made for her special day here.

Go make something!

Nini~

Weekly Inspiration

Happy Friday!

Things are finally settling down at work!  I'm very thankful for an upcoming long weekend and to get some sewing time in!

Don't forget this is the first Weekly Inspiration Linky Party! I would love to see what's inspiring you. Link up below!

This week was pretty full of inspiration and I can't wait to share it with you!

1. Modern Bee Book

My mom has rented this book from the library twice and I cannot keep my hands off of it!  I'm especially drawn to the quilts assigned for May and September and can't wait to pick out some fabric and work on those little beauties!  Click on the link above to learn more about the book.

2.  Friendship Supernova Block Swap

Stephanie of Late Night Quilter and Sandra from One Million Stitches have put together this awesome block swap!  You can click over to their pages to learn more.  I have been paired with Michelle and we are so excited to get started!  We'll be using Amy Butler's Belle.  It is beautiful and springy and I am (im)patiently awaiting it's delivery.  Thank you ladies for hosting and making my inspiration explode!

Picture From AmyButlerDesign.com

Picture From AmyButlerDesign.com

3.  Moscato Mixed Drink
This inspiration came from Helen of Till We Quilt Again since she knows I'm a Moscato wine drinker.  National Moscato Day was last week and she sent me this recipe to celebrate!  Click above to view the ingredients and directions.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Cheers!

Show us what has been inspiring you by linking up below!  If you need some guidelines, click here.

Wishing you big waves and and artful day!
~C

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An InLinkz Link-up

1 Year of Quilting!

February marks one whole year since I began quilting!  I have learned so much more about fabric, thread, and sewing machines than I ever thought I would!

Table Runner - First completed quilt project!

Sailboats - Second Project

Some free motion quilting - Wicked Blog Hop

Quilted Mug Rug

Twin Sized Quilt - Quilted on a Long arm

Baby quilt from the book "Quilt Modern"

Love Swap - free motion quilted the three "loves" at the bottom

Quilt top made, not yet quilted

Huge thanks to my Momma, Helen of Til We Quilt Again, and my MomMom for teaching me the basics and helping me with any questions that arise.

Can't wait to see what lies ahead!

Here's to many more quilting years!

Wishing you big waves and an artful day,

~C