Give Away Just for YOU!

The whirlwind of an incredibly exciting weekend has just settled and now I'm alone in my quiet house trying to get a grip on all that happened! More on that later this week, but for now, as promised a special giveaway for all of you that hang here with me!

I'd like to thank my trusty pals over there in the "Follower" gang by offering you all a chance to win one of two publications of eye candy.

Jean Wells' incredibly inspiring book "Intuitive Color & Design" is a must-have for anyone wanting to explore quilting with solids, interpret nature and man-made patterns in cloth, or just try free-piecing.

I have read this book (well, not this exact copy - I bought this brand new one for you!) a couple of times and always discover new ideas. I was lucky to visit Jean's store two summers ago when a group of us drove down to Sisters, Oregon for their famous outdoor show. The cover quilt was hanging above the big stone fireplace in the store, and it is stunning!

Seeing quilts like the one above almost makes me want to get over my fear of working with green and try harder to love all colours equally (except you, evil brown, you would require an intervention).

Also up for grabs is the gorgeous new "The Art of Quilts" postcard collection published by C&T. I love postcards (so I bought two of these books, one for me and one for you!). Whenever we travel and visit museums and galleries, I raid the gift shop for post cards of my favourite works. They are inexpensive souvenirs and usually the photos are way better than the ones you can snap in the galleries (if photography is even allowed!).

"Coastal Strata" by Gloria Loughman

This collection features quilts by many of my favourite art quilters: Jane Sassaman, Ruth B. McDowell, Gloria Loughman and Katie Pasquini Masopust.

"Ikat Anemones" by Ruth B. McDowell

If you would like to add one of these to your inspiration collection, please leave one comment for one entry per person. First name chosen by the Random Number Generator will have their choice: book or postcards. Please let me know in your comment what your choice is in case you are lucky winner #1!! I'll leave comments open for a week, until Monday, March 7 at 8:00 p.m. PST. Good luck (and yes, of course I'll ship worldwide!).

Thank you all for checking in with me regularly here at Poppyprint. This blog has fulfilled everything I wanted it to with respect to keeping me motivated and providing a forum to record my creative work, but it has far exceeded my expectations for growing my circle of amazing friends and acquaintances worldwide! I have all 365 of you to thank for that. Wow.

Hugs.xxx

Comments are now closed - thanks for entering!

Tale of Two Kristas

Okay, it's not like I have tons of stuff to say at the moment except that one of 'the other Kristas' just called and she's safely over the border (apparently the truckload of fabric she's importing for retreat tomorrow didn't draw any undue attention). So, anyway, she just called and SHE'S GOING TO BE HERE IN ABOUT HALF AN HOUR!!!!.

Tomorrow I'm running a day retreat for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Krista (known to many of you on Flickr as lolablueocean) found out and asked if she could come. She drove up from Seattle on her own and is even going to crash here. I think it might even be her first visit to Canada!

I'm posting all this right now, because I'm actually so excited I don't know what else to do for the next 30 minutes.

I suppose I could make my kids some dinner. No wait, there's more to say.

This is the view from our retreat hall!! (just so this post isn't all talk, no photo)

This is extra exciting, because when I started blogging 18 months ago, I did really, really, want to make new international friends who shared my passion. I hoped they would live all over the world (and they do), but I didn't count on getting to meet people from not-so-far-away in person. This is so great. Plus, she has a longarm, so we need to be friends for reals.

Other, other Krista (Spotted Stones) we wish you were here!!!! One day we will figure out a way to be together (get me, I sound like a soap opera). And when that day comes, it will be Wonder Krista Powers Unite! Okay, now I'm Saturday morning cartoons. And guess what, there is a fourth Krista with a K just recently discovered on Flickr...she blogs here. We're going to do something fun together I think, a Special K swap, just the four of us.

AND... all of you are amazing. Well over 350 non-arm-twisted followers!!! A giveaway is in the works my pretties. Just for you.

Golgibody

Nope. Golgi body is not another Word Verification. As you'll see when you leave a comment about how AMAZING T's science model is (coming below), word verification is a thing of the past here at Poppyprint. In over 24 hours since I turned it off, not one icky spam comment offering to enlarge any of my body parts! How come no one's trying to do the reverse? Magic pills for smaller parts, please! Did you see Ayumi and Nina-Lise's comments on that post? Apparently both of them could use one of those words in a sentence and get this: it's the same word!!

INGEN means "green beans" in Japanese AND it also means "none" in Norwegian. That's so much fun. Thanks for all of the comments and advice on that post. Clearly, I am not alone in the word-verification-is-a-pain-in-the-ass club.

Okay, on to my incredible son. Two days ago he came home from school and headed straight to the kitchen, took his own life in his hands by opening the Tupperware cupboard, and emerged with a clear square container. He asked if he could use it. Uhhh, sure! What for? He needed to make a cell. More specifically, a model of a plant cell, for his 8th grade science class. On his own accord, he then headed down to the art area (the place under the stairs where we store all manner of craft kits, pipe cleaners, glue gun, markers, crayons, Perler beads, felt, paper....etc.). Oh, he also asked if I had any whole peppercorns. What?

Look what he made!!!! And he only asked 2 questions. I did nothing (B did coach some hacksawing). Pretty cool.

I've come to learn that any school project involving the glue gun is 100% more likely to be finished before the due date than, say, an English essay. This plant cell model comes complete with recycled bottle caps and a butter tart tin to hold various little cell bits (Michele, are you watching?). You have to understand, while I'm fairly handy with needle and thread, I am not really a crafty momma. My recycling goes in the blue bin, not the art area!

The Mitochondrion is my fav: that was always my favourite cell word in school, too. I like squiggly things.

The nucleus is a golf ball hacksawed in half and coloured with a sharpie. Once the cell project was labelled and safely encased in a protective layer of plastic wrap, T then went about trying to figure out how to stick the other half of the golf ball to some part of his body so it looked like it was imbedded by a killer slice (of the golf variety) gone awry. Boys.....

aren't they awesome?

Just Verifying

Can you use any of the following in a sentence?

VISMON

ZATABULL

LELYZDY

SQUISEEN

REARIZU

KUMP24

OVENG

INGEN

DEPANITE

PLATOM

AEUPUM

Me neither. Well, maybe I'll be squiseen a lemon into my glass of water later. This is a list of all the word verifications I had to enter in order to post comments on my regular blog reads yesterday (I'm a habitual commenter - I like people to know I appreciate their work, plus I am a major chatterbox). So, here's the thing. I read/follow a lot of blogs. I'm starting to get a little annoyed with the extra 'word verification' step every time I want to share some love. There is a word verification on my comments here at Poppyprint, too, but maybe I'll turn that off so it doesn't annoy YOU! Does it annoy you?

For those of you that don't have word verification employed, do you get random weirdo comments from interweb trollers? People trying to sell you stuff? Cuz if none of that ever happens, I think I'll turn it off.

Please advise.

{ETA: Okay, I've ditched word verification based on the # of people who are (a) annoyed by it (like me) and (b) say they don't have verification for their comments and don't get any spam. Thanks for the great feedback!!}

Pile of Perle 8

This is not what I went shopping for this morning.

But I had visions of this dancing in my head and I thought these delicious Presencia perle 8 cottons would stitch the wee woodland faeries up so beautifully.

I especially love the variegated ones. These are made in Spain and are definitely eye candy for the sewing room! I'm much more inclined to buy and display these perle cotton balls than use floss skeins anymore. No separating strands involved, no stray floss leftovers, no re-wrapping around plastic cards. Presencia has DMC and Anchor colour conversion charts available here.

I have only stitched one project with this cotton and I enjoyed it, so am anxious to do something more substantial. I must say that I wasn't thrilled with their machine threads. I've sewn with the 50wt and while it's got a beautiful sheen on the spool, I couldn't believe how linty it was! I've never had thread fill my bobbin case and machine with so much lint, so quickly. I'll let you know how the perle goes!

Or, I might just put it in a pretty jar and stare at it for a while....

Wee Bit of Weekend Work

I managed a bee block over the weekend. While my family watched our homeboys, the Vancouver Canucks, kick some serious Dallas a** last night (sorry Texas bloggy friends, but I ask you: is hockey really supposed to be played in Texas? Seriously!), I was busy next door in my sewing lair creating this for Amy :

Amy sent lots of fun fabric, plus the white and peach borders, and asked for a block made with only triangle shapes. Fun!

The sun shone brightly all weekend. I considered cleaning up all the dead stuff from last fall still standing/lying/dying all over the garden. I considered it again. Then decided to photograph the new stuff that isn't clued into the fact that it's only February 20.

Like the hellebore. An early spring keener, who loves her spot and grows defiantly where no other plant cares to grow: under the cedar tree.

Even the poppies are anxious. Fuzzy foliage is up 8 or 10" already!

I used to have hundreds of crocuses, but now only a hardy few remain. Truth be told (as has been done here a few times), I am a confirmed "plant it and hope it lives" gardener. My garden doesn't get a whole lot of Tender Loving Care from me - it is on its own. The lawn is another story. I love me a good push-mower session.

Is your garden still sleeping under a blanket of snow? I fear mine may be in for a nasty late-winter shock. We had a thunder and lightening hail storm on Friday night just to remind us that winter may still have a few plans for us yet!

School Auction Season

Seems like many bloggers are busy preparing projects for their children's school auctions. I've read about very ambitious projects here and here and undoubtedly there are many more in the works elsewhere!

My children's former elementary school is having a James Bond "Casino Royale" fund raiser this weekend, and even though my kids have moved on, I am happy to contribute. I mean, Rae's sweet Buttercup bags whip up so easily (especially when you've already made about 20 of them for other gifts and auctions!). I think every Bond Girl mommy should have one of these on her arm:

This one is so pretty - it is made from Amy Butler's "Nigella" home dec weight cotton, which is simply gorgeous. A google search found it for a shockingly reasonable price of $13.95/yd here. (hope you're not on a fabric diet).

The lining is a Kona solid which just might be Herb. Unfortunately, my machine didn't really like the only pink thread I had for topstitching, but after picking out twice I decided to leave the few little thread blobs on the bag's inside (man, I really dislike those. I tightened up the top tension, changed the needle, cleaned the bobbin case, all to no avail. My Pfaff and Mettler thread are like oil and water). I was afraid of damaging the home dec fabric with repeated needle-punches....you know how it can get little runs in it? It looks perfect on the outside.

So only me and the generous buyer, and 338 of you need to know (you won't tell, right? Thanks).

Speaking of which, I am completely stunned that so many of you have clicked on that little 'follower' button. Yes, stunned, thrilled, happy, appreciative - all of that and more. That you all want to hang out here and see what I'm making/photographing/blathering on about is incredibly special to me. Thank you so very much. Every time that little counter goes up by one, I feel like I've made a new friend (and no matter what anyone says, that's a kindergarten feeling that I think everyone still loves). A giveaway is in order when that number reaches 350, don't you think? Definitely a milestone I want to celebrate with all of you!

Now, I've mentioned it here before, but if you would like to make these sweet bags to sell at craft fairs or to friends, Rae has a licensed version of her pattern for sale at a ridiculously reasonable price of $10. I bought one just because I was making so many bags and wanted to support her generosity. Her blog sidebar is full of other wonderful FREE tutorials, so definitely pay her a visit.

Woodland Faeries Freebie

So, I was catching up on all of my regular blog reads, when suddenly I gasped here. I adore Natalie Lymer's whimsical, dreamy embroidery designs for her Cinderberry Stitches pattern line, but her latest little Woodland Faeries may take the cake as my all time favourite. This adorable design debuted at Fall Market in Houston (see cute pic of Natalie in the Lecien booth on her blog).

Image & design by Natalie Lymer

Wouldn't this make the most adorable baby girl gift? The best part: you can download this beauty free!

I am a bit late to some parties, and I definitely missed out entirely on the fact that Lecien offers TOTALLY FREE patterns!! And not just giant log cabin, or square-in-a-square "let's get a free pattern done with this new fabric line" quickie quilts, either. Nope, these are some really fabulous quilt designs - all free for the making. Check them out (that is, unless you've already done so, like 6 months ago, and just forgot to tell me).

happy valentine's day

iPad art by C.F. Baker

(I didn't ask permission, but I'm pretty sure she will

be tickled that I posted her fabulous heart here.)

C.F. Baker is, after all, the infamous SIL

Hexagon Park

If you are looking for a fun and easy project for that layer cake you've got lying around. Look no further. My super-fabulous and hysterically funny friend Lynne has designed the sweetest quilt for her Moda Bake Shop debut today. Lynne is lucky - she got her hands TWO Sherbet Pips layer cakes. One for her quilt and the other one for ME!!! Well, first I have to win it, but I've had a word with the random number generator and I'm pretty sure it's for ME!!!

Congratulations Lynne. You've used Aneela's adorable fabric to wonderful effect and your recipe is clear, easy to follow and bound to yield successful results! Massive Applause!!!!

Head on over to Lynne's to enter the giveaway (just for fun, because as mentioned, it's really for ME!!!!!). Then read her recipe on Moda's site - it's easy peasy.

The most amazing thing is that Lynne created this wonderful project all the while "on a horse" backwards? She astounds me.

HSTravaganza

Here's my latest V.I.Bees block for Kelly.

She send the gorgeous AMH fabrics with some Kona Ash and asked for a 12 1/2" block made up of half square triangles. It's so fun to see how everyone interprets instructions like this and makes completely unique blocks from each other! Kelly is going to have a gorgeous quilt.

Have yourself a fantastic weekend!

Linen-y Lone Star

Sigh. It's here.

Somehow she knew. Good friends are like that. I've always wanted a Lone Star quilt but have never tackled one. I know there is an 'easy' method of strip piecing so you don't have to deal with all bias edges, but still. Tracey's piecing is perfect and I love it that she used a natural linen as the background.

There is a huge contrast in texture here: the star is made of buttery soft Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile that just begs for you to pet it! And those points are all neatly contained in the (by comparison) rather coarse linen. Dreamy!!

Just look at those colours...I hadn't seen many of these prints in real life yet and I can't believe the gorgeous intensity of the colours. I can see now why so many people are embracing the voile for quilts, both for colour saturation and the amazing hand.

Thank you so much Tracey for noticing I was reading about a lone star quilt in this book, for making me this gorgeous quilt from such special fabric and for being such wonderful, supportive friend!

Speaking of supportive, do you know about Tracey's endeavour Quilt Hope In? I am in awe of how she turned inspiration into action and set up a charitable Etsy shop where 100% of purchase prices go directly to support expectant mothers and children in Haiti. Do you have a quilt you'd like to donate? Looking to buy one? Visit the blog for all of the info!

100 Wishes & Prayers

Kendra's family is awaiting a daughter from China. To help welcome her, Kendra has asked her Flickr friends to send charm squares with wishes or prayers for the baby girl she has yet to meet. I had never heard of this Chinese custom of making a 100 Wishes quilt (typically out of squares of clothing or scrap cloth collected from family and friends) and I think it is absolutely beautiful.

This is the charm I'm sending:

This little girl will have three big brothers to love her, keep her safe, and hopefully read her stories like this big brother bunny.

I wish that Kendra's daughter will have the self confidence to try new things, believe in herself and be positive. Three qualities that I most admire (and should work on myself!) in my own daughter.

My not-so-little-anymore energizer bunny atop Blackcomb Mountain, Whistler, BC last weekend.

Snowblossoms

Here are all of my snowblossom blocks. Seven of these are for other members of the Quilting Divas (mini) Sampler Bee. In this bee, we all make the same block for the other bee members, but each person set their own colours + one Kona solid background. I requested jewel tones plus any shade of Kona grey (I made myself the block that is second from the right on the bottom row).

I like this bee because it's all wrapped up in a month! These blocks were super fun to make once I got the size organized (they needed to end up 12 1/2"). There is a lot of fussy cutting in these blocks (check out the Eiffel Towers!) which is a terrible waste of fabric, but so much fun!

For a closer look at any of the blocks, click on the mosaic and you'll end up on my Flickr photostream where there is a close up of each individual one. You can find the foundation patterns here, thanks to Marcia Hohn of the Quilter's Cache!

Unlike everywhere else in North America, Vancouver is completely devoid of snow (except for up on the local mountains). In fact, the Snow Drops have bloomed in my front yard and my hellebore isn't far behind! You lucky Texans!

Queen of the Dresdens

Tracey received her Dresden Doll Quilt/Pillow cover so now I can show you the whole thing!

She wrote the nicest post about it and made me blush all over with the sweet things she said about me. It is a joy to make gifts for fellow quilters who really appreciate the effort you put into your projects.

This 20" square was made using almost every charm in a French General "La Petite Ecole" charm pack, one fat quarter from their Rouenneries line, some charcoal yardage for binding, ricrac & buttons on the closure and Rouenneries yardage for the pillow back (this is a textured fabric almost like tea toweling).

The dresden blades were easily cut using Nifty Notions 22.5 degree dresden ruler (at the narrowest end). You can get two blades from one charm with this ruler! I machine pieced the blades together, but then hand appliqued them to the background using the Piece 'O Cake method I learned from Becky Goldsmith in a workshop a few years ago.

The flying geese in the border were also made using charms from the same pack! Luckily, one charm had the crown sitting right in the middle, perfect for fussy cutting the dresden centre, and perfect for naming this Queen of the Dresdens for Tracey (who has made MANY dresden plate blocks!!).

Thanks to the encouragement of many of you and some of my guild members, I plan to make this into a pattern this year, both for teaching a workshop and (gasp) maybe even selling. That would be a big step for me, but you could help by telling me what your preference is: paper pattern or .pdf download?

Personally, I have bought several .pdf downloads spontaneously and only ever made one of them. I think it's because I forget they are somewhere on my hard drive!

It's a Block Party!

No potato salad required! Quilt Story is hosting a fun contest this week and it's all about blocks.

Modern, Traditional and Creative Blocks. The only rule is that the blocks must have raw edges - in other words, not yet pieced into a quilt.

I have some blocks to share! I will do a mosaic of all my Quilting Diva mini Sampler Bee blocks in a couple of days, but this particular one will be my Block Party entry for traditional block (although the fabrics are modern, this is the 12" Snowblossoms block by Marcia Hohn of the Quilter's Cache). Why this one out of the seven different ones I've made? Because the fussy cutting in the centre turned out so darned well!

Here a block I 'designed' (it's a cross made up of little 1" squares, hardly patent-worthy!). This is my modern block entry. I call it Rescue.

And finally, my creative block. I designed this little cutie originally for a potholder I made for Amy's Pot Holder Pass swap on Flickr (the original one is red/aqua). I call this block Place Setting.

Click on the Block Party button to go see all of the other blocks people have entered...it's really inspiring!

Red Sky Morn

Check out this sunrise last week. At 7:50 a.m. on February 1st, this amazing sky welcomed February to Vancouver. Only fitting, since we'll be all red and pink for Valentines soon enough!

That is my neighbour's weather vane atop their clothes line pole. I took this photo looking east from our back deck.

That's not all the amazing colour that was in my life last week. This luscious stack of fabric also arrived:

This is Heather Ross' Far, Far Away II collection printed on 75% cotton/25% linen blend. I really love all of the colours combined with grey and the sweet fairy tale illustrations of Rapunzel, The Owl and the Pussycat and the Princess and the Pea. Adorable! The coordinating print of wee flowers in an organized grid is precious, too.

I need to say a big thanks to my generous friend Terri for sharing her FFA II stash with me. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to thank her, but you can be sure there will be something sweet heading her way soon!

B took the kids to Whistler for a couple of nights and one day skiing on the weekend, so I had the pleasure of sewing in the well-lit dining room with fabulous friends. Bonus: we went out for dinner each night, too! Sewing AND eating with friends is the best. I corrected my bee Snow Blossom block foundations and only have 2 more to complete. They are really beautiful - hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day so I can take some pictures for my bee buddies and you, too.

Andrea and I also caught "Barney's Version" last night. Now, that is a fantastic movie! As is "The King's Speech" that my SIL and I went to last weekend. Those, along with "Winter's Bone" are the only Oscar nominated films I've seen...how about you? Do you make any effort to watch all of the movies up for an Academy Award and make your own predictions before the big night?

Back to the cutting mat

I was so proud of myself, finally seeing some progress on my Quilting Divas mini sampler bee blocks. In this bee (only the second one I've ever joined), there are 7 people in my group. Each of us will make 6 blocks that will finish 12" (7 if we make one for ourselves). Every block is the same design, but each participant has requested specific colours and one Kona solid for their background.

I scoured the Quilter's Cache for a pretty block. Since this is a sampler bee, I wanted to find a traditional, but not so common block to make. Plus, I wanted big enough pieces that would show off some pretty designer fabrics. The Snow Blossom block was the winner. After printing the foundation patterns, I double checked to make sure the 1" test square on the pattern had printed to scale (in other words, it was indeed 1" on all four sides). Check. I was ready to go.

See how pretty this block is? Only these 2 are duds. Epic Fail, as my son would say. When all was said and done, they are EXACTLY 1/4" too small. ARRGHH! I carefully sewed on all of the printed foundation lines. I am Irrrr-i-tay-ted (I say this in my best remembered Afrikaans accent from working in South Africa. No one says 'irritated' in English like an Afrikaaner, complete with rolled 'r') . I actually lost sleep last night I was so disappointed.

I just love this block, so I'm back at it today. I'll make the long outside background pieces larger than the foundation, then trim them back with my 12.5" square ruler after the block is pieced. I hope it works. It will work, right? This time I'll make ONE block and check the results before forging ahead on block #2.

Every mistake is a lesson learned. And as my Flickr friends have already pointed out, now I have the beginnings of two lovely, coordinating pillows that just might look really fab on our red playroom couch!

Bitten by the Dresden Bug

They are just so much fun to make! At retreat last Saturday, I got a start on my Urban Home Goods Swap. I was lucky and got a great partner who gave me lots of ideas in her sign up message. This is what I've done for her so far:

I used a charm pack of Momo's It's a Hoot and cut 5" dresden blades using the narrowest end of the 22.5 degree dresden ruler from Nifty Notions. After piecing the entire plate (and the quarter plates) I machine appliqued them onto white quilter's linen using a blind hem stitch. This is a great stitch for machine applique - here I reduced the stitch length and width to the smallest setting my machine would allow. In the close up below, you can see the 5 straight stitches that are made into the white background and the one left hand zag that goes into the applique piece. You just have to take care at the corners and pivot at the right time. I don't get too fussy if the zag lands right at the corner. It all looks great when you stand back a metre!

I'll have some pretty bee blocks to show you soon.

Slow and steady, that's my sewing mantra these days.