More Retreat Makes

We're at the end of school crazy time around here and while classes finished yesterday we are now in the throes of exam prep. Each of them have 5 exams to write to write this week. I may lock myself in my sewing room to keep from incessantly nagging them to "Get the heck off Facebook and study!"  Honestly, how does anyone make it through university these days with all the social media they have to keep up on?

Ok, so I'm really dragging this retreat thing out, but here are a few more pics. My spring retreat buddies are French General Fanatics. When we retreat, they both just bring bags and bags of every line of FG. And I mean every line. Then they proceed to make the most beautiful quilts, pillows, pin cushions, table runners and bags out of it!

To start, here was our basement sweat shop! The set up was perfect - big cutting table, individual work stations, a heater and carpeted floor. Our iron was just around the corner in the laundry room.

Isn't Rossie's bed gorgeous?! That's my dresden plate pillow pattern on the right - she 

made a beautiful one!

This is the quilt top Sandi got together. That border print is a fav of all three of us.

Here are our farm fresh breakfast eggs from local friend Sue's hens. And a sweet table topper by Rossie under the rose glass bowl.

Rossie's hand-quilted couch throw was super cozy in the mornings.

She made this gorgeous 241 Bag with Martha Negley's Farmdale feathers print and a French General linen look blue solid.

I was the beneficiary of a few choice selvage pieces and had some of my own to add so I got a start on this pillow top and made a few little pin cushions of similar design with leftovers

My second Scrap Vomit top is together. This time I used Kona pomegranate and a grey/white dot for the accent blocks.

I started free-motion quilting my first Scrap top that's been basted for weeks already. I was struggling with shredded top thread (I'm using a gorgeous variegated Sulky Blendable in 40wt). I tried 90/14 and 100/16 topstitch needles but the problem wasn't solved. I said a few choice words and soldiered on, but it was very frustrating.

A neighbourhood of tiny houses destined to become tape measure holders. I'm making these for the Fat Quarterly retreat sample swap. Laurraine's pattern can be found here.

I also made my secret partner's nametag for FQRLondon. I have to get that in the mail this week! The idea is that we send them in advance so we can arrive all nametag-equipped at the retreat Friday afternoon.

I think that just about wraps it up for spring retreat 2013. Only 31 more sleeps 'till I leave for London and I'm running a day retreat next Saturday as well, so there's plenty more social sewing in my near future. Yay!

Baby Hourglass

My fall has started with a long list of projects. How did this happen? Even when I think I'm all caught up, suddenly I find a list of 8 things that need my attention. Although the recipient of this baby quilt isn't due to meet his or her mommy, daddy and big brother until the end of November, I thought it best to get this commission done to avoid any last minute pressure. Plus, you know how these things go, it would be just my luck the baby would arrive way early and I'd be caught with my rotary cutter in my hand, so to speak!

Here's Baby Hourglass. This is a companion quilt for the same family I made this vintage-look quilt for almost two years ago.

The momma-to-be chose Lily & Will by Moda and Penelope Four by Lakehouse Drygoods (in marshmellow) as coordinating fabric lines.  Both fat quarter packs were purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop. The baby's gender is unknown and we both feel there is enough blue, enough flowers and enough pink with a hint of green to satisfy either a boy or girl while keeping with the 'vintage' appearance.

The baby's 3 initials will be embroidered in the corner block once we know what they are!

I pieced the back from left over FQ pieces

The quilt finished up at 36" x 42" and I am happy to say that I was just able to make it all the way around with a bias binding made from one FQ of the blue plaid. Such a perfect binding.

The quilt is on it's way home as I type and I'm ready to get going on a few more small commitments (thread catchers and passport holders) before tackling a new quilt project.

Nice Threads!

Fat Quarterly Issue 8 launched today, so I can show you my fun new memory quilt.  If you're wondering why things have been so sparse here at Poppyprint since Christmas, it is because much of what I've been working has been under wraps. Lucky for all of us, it's sharing time!

I just love Fat Quarterly, so when the gang asked if I'd like to be part of their designer Spool Block challenge for Issue 8, I couldn't refuse (this is that special kind of 'working for free as long as it's for friends' stuff).  I think Brioni, John, Katy, Lynne and Tacha do an amazing job with their online magazine. You can't find a book's worth of project ideas for the price of one quilt pattern anywhere else!  The other Spool Block designers rocked this challenge and there are several very cool interpretations of the traditional block for you to try.

After making these quilts for K2 and K3 in November, I planned to create one for myself exactly like this 4-block layout.  It's my quilter's memory quilt and includes selvages of all my fav designer fabric purchased, stashed and (ahem) maybe even used, in the last couple of years.

You'll find the tutorial for creating one giant selvage spool block in Issue 8. It is super easy and fun; they sew up really fast because the selvages are simply top-stitched onto a muslin base.  I grouped cool-coloured  selvages into their own variegated thread spools and pieced warm backgrounds of Essex Linen orange and Pure Organics Maize. The warm-coloured thread spools have an unknown aqua linen and Essex Linen lime backgrounds.  The whole she-bang is bound in an Echo print by Lotta Jansdotter (purchased at the divine Marmalade Fabrics), and the quilt's name "Nice Threads" is ripped off from the Alexander Henry print on the backing (rows and rows of colourful thread spools on a white background).

I think this grey spool is my fav

All of the spool ends are made with Rouenneries selvages. I have about 6m of the Rouenneries linen-look print stashed and happily cut off the gorgeous selvage for various projects. It's too pretty not to use!  Each spool has some hand-done running stitches around it with perle 8 cotton.

So, if you're not yet a subscriber, head on over to Fat Quarterly to buy your copy of Issue 8 on January 30th. You won't be sorry and I bet you'll want to make everything in it!

And now, just for Happy Zombie Monica, my favorite little quilt zombie:

More surprises coming soon!

VMQG Retreat Redux

If you haven't entered my follower's giveaway yet, please go here so you don't miss out!

Last Saturday I hosted a 13 hour retreat for members of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild and some other friends. It was the same format of the Quilt By the Bay retreats that I put on about every 6 weeks. We all had a wonderful day! Snow started falling in the afternoon, which was beautiful, but sort of put a damper on any late nighters at retreat - many people left early when we started getting reports from husbands that roads in the city were in really bad shape!

I am having difficulty getting photos off my 'big' camera, so those will have to wait, but I can show you the project that I completed. It is a wall hanging for my secret partner in the Urban Home Goods swap on Flickr. It looks pretty on that late season snow!

It's a good thing Krista did join me for retreat, because she brought the perfect fabric for binding along! It's the herringbone print from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow. Krista is using the blues/greens of that fabric line for her Single Girl Quilt and got a big start on piecing her arcs.

I did some running stitch by hand using my gorgeous new Presencia Perle 8 cotton from these skeins. I felt some more quilting was necessary in the white linen background areas, so did some echo stitching with Sulky 12 weight thread. Krista suggested some ditch quilting in the dresden blades to balance everything out and luckily Andrea had some grey Invisifil that I could use (two of the many advantages of retreating: great advice and unlimited supplies to borrow/share with friends!!).

So, the dresdens were pieced from a charm pack of It's a Hoot by MoMo for Moda. The background is Essex linen in white, and the backing is a print by Tina Givens that I won in a giveaway on Heather's blog last fall.

I hope my partner likes it!

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.

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.

Les Petites Mug Rugs

How about a little French cafe in the kitchen? Or on the desk? I took my own advice and made these two mug rugs out of my twofer HST's left over from my Dresden Plate pillow. No idea what the heck I'm talking about? It's all here.

Since these are made entirely of French General's La Petite Ecole line, I thought I'd throw a little French on the 'mug' side with some embroidered backstitch. D is enjoying Late Immersion (grade 6) and my French vocab is slowly coming back as I fulfill the role of 'Mother Who Speaks French comme une petite enfant" while simultaneously acting as "Homework Support Staff".

I'm the kind of person to put leftover HST's into a little ziploc baggy, stuff them in a drawer in my sewing room and never do anything with them again.

Not this time.

No way.

I am going to use every last scrap of the La Petite Ecole charm pack that I paid a whole $7 for!

I only have 2 full charm squares and some angled scraps left over from cutting Tracey's Dresden Plate petals. Not to worry, though, I have a plan! I'm going to use the scraps to make a pair of boobs for Mrs. Moen, using a design similar to my Allium rug rug.

I'm not yet sure where these 2 mug rugs will end up - teacher gifts are a distinct possibility. I just need D to do some covert mug sniffing on the teacher's desk to figure out who drinks tea and who drinks coffee!

Tomorrow night is the VMQG meeting. This month Felicity issued a nametag challenge. I best get working on that!