Go-Retro Scraps + Stitch Magazine Give-away!

I've been looking for a fun way to do a little give-away to celebrate my Stitch Magazine Go-Retro quilt project and came across this Blog Hop Party on the Quilting Gallery today. So without further ado, here is the skinny:

Leave a comment below to enter a chance to:
1. win a bag of Pendleton Eco-Wise scraps from my Go Retro Quilt
2. and a copy of the Winter 2012 Stitch Magazine with the instructions to the project (and a ton of other amazing projects and articles!).
*For a second chance to win, follow my blog and mention in your comments that you are now a "Happy Camper!"

The give-away will be open until September 3rd and I'll pick the winner using the Random Number Generator on September 4th. The scraps are indeed my scraps from the project. You will get a small piece of each of the colors I used, but it won't be enough to make the entire project. I know the winner will make something wonderful with these scraps and I can't wait to see what they create! I won't be able to ship internationally for this give-away.

Make sure to check out all the other amazing give-aways on the Quilting Gallery website from quilt bloggers from around the world. It is quite the extensive community over there with directories for quilt guilds, blogs, shops and tutorials.

Good luck!
Thanks for visiting :-)
Michelle

PS
For fun I checked out who else from Oregon had blogs linked to the Quilting Gallery and there are 89 of you there! I hope to be the 90th! Here is the link to check out my fellow Oregonians' blogs.

PSS
This is my 25th post! I won't mention the numerous other blogs I experimented with before I landed on this format. Happy to be here. I plan to stay for awhile!

Go-Retro Wool Quilt in Stitch!

I am just giddy! I have two quilt projects in magazines that just came out. This is so cool! And a bit terrifying... Okay, drum roll please: Here is my Go Retro Wool Quilt!

This was such a fun project to make. I was over at Susan Beal's house one day and was telling her about my idea for a retro-inspired quilt I was planning to submit to Stitch 2012 for their Winter Wool issue and noticed the vintage Cannonburg Temporama cup she had served me coffee in matched the colors of the Pendleton Eco-Wise wool that I was working with. I knew that was what I had to make, I also had that china at home and had always loved the pattern on it. I went home, drew out the pattern and planned the design.

Eco-Wise wool is amazing to sew with. I joke at work that it 'sews like butter' but it really does! The Pendleton Woolen Mill blog gave this a really nice shout-out as well. Susan has two terrific articles in it, one about the history of wool in America and another about pattern making with Portland designer Colette. There are tons of great project, one by another local Portland designer, Daniella Caine, that also uses Pendleton wool. I am so proud to have a project be in this issue among all the other terrific designs!
My Go-Retro Quilt is on p. 53 of the magazine, the project instructions (which I wrote and illustrated) start on p. 98 and you can download the template for the pattern pieces for free on the Sew Daily website. I will admit, I have butterflies in my stomach: it is one thing to be close to a project and feel really proud about it and another thing to put it out into the world and hope that other quilters like it too. Let me know what you think! And let me know if you make one - I'd love to see some creative versions of this project out there!

Modern Quilt Guild Meet-up Weekend

I find the ferry culture in and around Seattle so intriguing. I'm sure it must get old for those folks who depend on it for getting places everyday, but as a tourist it really is quite wonderful, especially on a day like it was last Saturday morning: crisp, bright, the fog layered on the water. The bonus was that I got to spend a whole day quilting on Vashon Island at Island Quilters for the first ever PNW MQG Quilt Meet-up!

I hitched an early ride with Jen (aka bettycrockerass) and Amber, and even in my coffee-deprived state the buzz of the room when we arrived did wonders to motivate some serious sewing! It was fun to sew surrounded by quilts from the PMQG, which Island Quilters had displayed in their bright gallery space. It was also fun to hang out by 'Park Blocks' which hasn't been home since Sisters!

I met so many new people from Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. and really enjoyed 'sew'cializing with them. All together we made six quilt tops for charity. I really enjoyed working with Katie Pederson, the president of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild and the author of the blog Sew Katie Did. We made 'stitch and flip triangles' from her book Quilting Modern. (And seriously, I am so sorry for stepping on your bare feet in my clunker Danskos... I owe you a drink for sure next time!)

Another group worked with Susan Beal the president of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild and author of the blog West Coast Crafty. They made four modern cross quilt tops from her book Modern Log Cabin Quilting. It was a treat to watch them go together on the design walls. (And I'll add that I also got to share a room with Susan, who is super kind and generous and I win the bad room mate award for waking her up at 6am. Sorry Susan!)

I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Holly from Holly's Red Bike. She is the president of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. The good news was that I didn't step on her toe or wake her up too early!
A group of us went to dinner that night. I can't get facebook or twitter or instagram on my phone right now so I got to watch everyone posting around the table. It was funny to feel so old fashioned, but I ended up having fun talking with the folks I was sitting next to who also weren't hooked up to the internet.
The next day was a shop hop and as much as I tried, it was just impossible to go home empty handed. I bought a few goodies at Drygoods Design that I couldn't resist. I'm stealing this photo of me hugging my fabrics from Monica's (aka Happy Zombie) instagram.

On the ride back to PDX we stopped at Patricia Belyea's home. She collects and sells Japanese Yukata Fabrics. Susan, Petra, Heather and I were absolutely smitten with the beautiful prints and rich colors of these fabrics and I'm certain you will see us sneak them into a project or two soon!
There are lots more photos over on the PNW MQG Meet-up Flickr page. I can't wait to do this again!