Good Neighbors Pin Cushion Party plus a mini tutorial & giveaway!

It is a party! A pin cushion party! We're celebrating the release of Amanda Jean's sweet new fabric line from Connecting Threads called Good Neighbors. We've all made pin cushions to showcase the prints and there will be blogposts all month long.  You'll see at the end of this post an extensive list of bloggers supporting Amanda Jean - everyone is so excited for her and her first fabric line.  Although it was a really busy time, Amanda Jean and I did manage to meet each other at Spring Market and exchange a couple of hugs. I hope we will get to meet again one day and have more time to hang out and talk quilting!  I think that her contemplative, sincere style (and devotion to scraps) really come through in her fabric design.  Just look at these great colours and uncomplicated patterns:

I especially love Leaves Array (bottom left) and cross stitch (fourth row, the red/blue/grey lattice prints on the right side).  The stripes on the bottom row are ideal binding fabrics!

Good Neighbors is the perfect line of blending fabrics with all of the great colours and sweet little prints. I wanted to use as many of them as possible, so I added some tiny pinwheels to the Big Mouthed Threadcatcher pattern out of my book. I've been making these threadcatchers for so many years, in fact I know I've made well over 200. It's fun to change things up by adding some special piecing the thread bag.

I remembered to use quick piecing and cutting technique that I'd learned somewhere along the way of my quilting career...I just can't remember where! Perhaps a magazine, or a long-ago workshop?  Here's how it works:  you start with two squares and end up with eight 1/2 square triangles! For my thread bag,  start with two 5" charm squares RST, draw both diagonal lines, corner to corner. Sew 1/4" on either side of the lines. Make 4 cuts: cut on the drawn lines and the horizontal and vertical middle. Presto: eight 1/2 squares!!  I trimmed mine to 2" before piecing them into pinwheels/broken dishes blocks.

 

Connecting Threads would like to send a Canadian or US resident a charm pack of the Good Neighbors collection.  Just leave one comment here (your email must be linked OR written into your comment in order to win) and I will choose a random winner in a week's time. Good luck! {ETA: Comments are now closed, thank you for stopping by!}

9/1/2015 Amanda Jean – Crazy Mom Quilts
9/2/2015 Anna – Noodlehead 
9/3/2015 Mary – Mary on Lake Pulaski
9/4/2015 Svetlana – Sotak Handmade
9/5/2015 Debbie – Esch House Quilts
9/6/2015 Holly – Bijou Lovely
9/7/2015 Carla – Grace and Favour
9/8/2015 Faith – Fresh Lemons Quilts
9/9/2015 Vanessa –  V and Co.
9/10/2015 Anna –  Thimbleanna
9/11/2015 Krista –  Poppy Print Creates (you're here!)
9/12/2015 Erin –  Why Not Sew
9/13/2015 Lee –  May Chappell
9/14/2015 Alex –  Tea Ginny Designs
9/15/2015 Cheryl –  Nap Time Quilter
9/16/2015 Penny –  Sew Take a Hike
9/17/2015 Amy –  During Quilt Time
9/18/2015 Debbie –  A Quilter’s Table
9/19/2015 Anne –  Spring Leaf Studios
9/20/2015 Melissa Corry –  Happy Quilting
9/21/2015 Amber –  One Shabby Chick
9/22/2015 Nettie –  A Quilt is Nice
9/23/2015 Adrianne – Little Bluebell
9/24/2015 Cindy –  Live a Colorful Life
9/25/2015 Amy –  Diary of a Quilter
9/26/2015 Chase –  Quarter Inch Mark
9/27/2015 Rene –  Rene Creates
9/28/2015 Erin –  House on Hill Road
9/29/2015 Nicole –  Modern Handcraft
9/30/2015 Teri –  Connecting Threads

Look What Michelemademe

Awwwwww. Is this not the sweetest pinnie?

Thank you Michele for this super-fabulous-one-of-a-kind-upcycled-denim-sunshiney-pin-cushion. I absolutely LOVE it! You also get a prize for world's tiniest, most adorable handwriting. You caught me just in time, by next week I might not have been able to read it the way things are going with my close-range vision!

Check out Michele's blog. She's on a roll lately with all things tiny and inspiring. That girl is gonna put me in progressive lenses any day now.

Tomorrow is a retreat day for the VMQG gals and a few other friends who will join us. The day before retreats, I am a multi-tasking fiend. So far I've made (since waking up this morning): spinach lasagne, turkey shepherd's pie, fresh salsa, two salad dressings, Southwest quinoa salad, garlic bread and a delicious latte (for immediate consumption - everything else is for tomorrow). Yesterday was baking day: orange Nanaimo bars (we're close enough to Hallowe'en for those), brownies and butterscotch oat cookies (recipe here, thanks e they are divine!).

No one is going hungry on my watch.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. The autumn sun is shining!!

Catching Up, Catching Threads

I am trying to complete my end of a few private swaps with friends in order to clear my TO DO list and move on to some projects for myself. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE swapping (as I think you know), but for some reason they tend to bunch up. I still owe a few things, but managed to complete these two the other day.

The one on the left is off to the UK to Katy while the one on the right is heading south to Terri. I took this pic before I filled the pin cushions with crushed glass.

I've had a few requests for a pattern for these thread catchers. I don't officially have one. Originally I saw these at a sewing show booth and then came home and figured it out on my own. I've been making and selling them at quilt shows and to friends for several years, but because I copied someone else's design, I sort of feel funny about publishing instructions. I truly feel that I can only write tutorials for original projects that I make up myself. Hope you understand. If someone totally copied one of my designs and wrote instructions for it and gave them away online, I know how disappointed I'd be.

Sometimes I get fancy and piece the pin cushion top. Or insert ricrac around the seams, or embellish the hem with printed twill tape (like the measuring tape in the first photo).

Maybe these photos will give you enough information to design your own! I can share that to keep the bag mouth round, a strip of fibre glass packing tape is inserted in the hem. This is the stuff that comes wrapped around bales of newspapers or boxes of xerox paper. My friends often save them for me, so I have a lifetime supply! I've also been known to collect them from the street outside flower markets, or news stands (are you reading Michele? Look at me recycling!).

I fill my pin cushions with crushed glass or sterilized quartz sand (from a building/landscaping supply company). You need the weight to hold it on the table....using non-skid slipper fabric (with rubber dots) on the bottom side of the pin cushion helps, too. I bought my slipper fabric at a general sewing/fabric big box store.

To get you started, the bag and lining are made out of pieces cut 9" x 18", folded in 1/2 width wise and seamed once. The seam is then turned to the back of the tube and you sew across the bottom. Make a 1" gusset in each bottom corner and you have your bag and lining! Stuff lining into bag, fold down top to make the hem.

There you have it. My not-a-thread-catcher-tutorial.

While The Quilter's Away.....

The postie will play! Eekgads, look what he left me:

We arrived home around 3:30 a.m. Toronto time after a horrendous flight (our 5.5 kg of neurotic dachshund was a nightmare of yelping, howling, whining, hyperventilating and general freaking out that I was completely stressed for 5 hours). I should have taken the anti-anxiety drugs that obviously did nothing for him! Obviously I had to save opening my goodies until I was well-rested and in a better mood this morning!

It's going to take a few days to share it all with you, because everything (and everyone) deserves their due, so I don't want to cram it all into one post.

Since she's waited the longest for me to receive this package, I'll start with Tiffany. First of all, her box was definitely the heaviest. Tiffany was my partner in the Pincushion Pass swap on Flickr (and you may recall she also won this giveaway). You'll soon see why she was the bestest partner any swapper could wish for...her work is beautifully constructed and made with such attention to detail. I could not believe it when I realized she had not only sent me this stunner:

but also two bars of her deliciously scented homemade soap, a fun collection of buttons, trims and notions....and THIS!!!!

Talk about spoiled! Tiffany really took my request for a multi-purpose pin cushion to heart. Both of these honeys sit atop jars to hold secret sewing treasures (and I brought some of them home from the cottage - vintage notions from my Great Aunt Pearl's sewing basket - more on that later in the week).

Thank you so much partner. Your generosity is astounding and I am so appreciative. ♥ Krista

Here is the threadcatcher I made and sent to Tiffany. I call it "Cut Out Domesticity". I think that the skull & scissor crossbones print is my all time favourite. I've made so many fun things with it. I checked first to make sure Tiffany was ok with a slightly rebellious swap gift. My fav story from her is that her skull & crossbones lanyard has become a "warning: I'm in sewing mode" sign in her house, hehe!

Photo by love2quilt7

So, for the next few days I've got lots to share with you, my bloggy friends. It's good to be back.

Come Saturday, I'll be lacing up my runners, slapping on the sunscreen and reporting to the opening ceremonies at 7:00 a.m. for my 60km walk for the Weekend to End Women's Cancers. I am not feeling 100% physically confident, but my head and heart are so excited to participate in this incredible event. I've surpassed my fundraising goal and hope to keep raising more funds right through to Saturday. Everyone who donates to my personal page will be entered into a draw for something fabulous made by me (just click on that link...that's it, the one with the walkers in my sidebar, if you would like to make a secure online donation to help put an end to cancers that affect women). I thank you!

.............back soon!

Poppies and Pins

Look what arrived in my mailbox yesterday!!! All the way from Wisconsin.

Carol, the queen of angel quilts for the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr, made this 'specially.... just for me. I am thrilled to have one of her original creations and more than impressed that she designed such an incredible 3D likeness of a poppy flower and bud in fabric!

The details are amazing! THANK YOU CAROL! If you want to see some beautiful, colourful and fun quilts, head on over to Carol's blog for a look-see. I'll be making her gorgeous Christmas Tree Skirt pattern over the summer (well, that's the plan, anyway). She even sent along some red and green scraps to help me out. She's so nice. It's fun when you are partnered with a blogging friend in a swap - it sure gives you the incentive to make something unique and fun. You should see the pin cushion that Carol received - it's equally as gorgeous as mine!!

I'd say the Scrappy Pin Cushion Swap was a great success. I just sent my Red Letter Day thread catcher off to my partner this week....I do hope she likes it.

It was really fun to receive some Flickr comments from Lizzy and Cherri House (the fabric designer & her mom) on my photos...that sorta made my day. Is that too dorky?

Pinnie Progress

Currently, I'm in a frenzy of swap commitments...and my machine is still at the Pfaff doctor awaiting a new take up lever, so I'm having fun in (almost) manual mode with my old 1212. I keep moving my right knee over, trying to hit the non-existent knee lift. Apparently I'm a creature of habit!

So, two pin cushions are done. This one is for the Scrappy Pin Cushion Swap on Flickr. It is for a secret partner. I do hope she likes it. In her favorites, she likes novelty pin cushions a lot, but to be honest I am not very good at making little animals and toadstools...etc. My hands just don't seem able to deal with tiny stuffed pieces. So, I'm hoping Lizzy House's "Red Letter Day" duckies (which I think are super cute) will suffice.

I'm all about useful pin cushions, so I love making, gifting and selling these threadcatchers. They are perfect to sit beside your machine and much nicer than a paper bag taped to your table! I fill them with sterilized sand (the kind that used to be in the ashtrays outside hotel elevators). The lumber yard is only too happy to sell me the 20kg bags of the stuff - as you can imagine with zero public-building smoking these days, there's not much demand for it.

The flying geese (or should I say ducks) around the blue ducky were drafted on paper and foundation pieced. They are 1" wide. It was fun to do since I had not foundation pieced anything for ages.

The second thread catcher I made is for my partner Tiffany in the Pin Cushion Pass....remember Tiffany won my Poppyprint in Print giveaway, so I will be packaging her winnings along with her pin cushion. It's a surprise for her, so that's why it's just a cheeky, sneaky peek at this point.

This may be my all time fav thread catcher that I've made (and I think I've made about 50!). I first had to check to see if Tiffany had a wee bit of rebel in her before deciding to send this. I've called it "Cut Out Domesticity" and you'll see why when she receives it!

I'm a bit out of sorts and rather tired today after waking up to a yelping, howling dog at 3:30. Flynn usually takes himself out for a pee around 3-4 a.m. and last night a raccoon met him in the back yard. Flynn is one feisty miniature Dachshund, but that raccoon got the better of him and he's got several puncture wounds in his hind quarters, hind leg and under his tail. Poor guy, the vet drugged him up on antibiotics and painkillers so he's sleeping now, but rather swollen and sore. We'll have to close up the doggie door for summer!