Back to School Craftsy Style!

With all the excitement about going back to school I decided to enroll in a few classes too. We recently had a presentation at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild about the on line classes at Craftsy and I got inspired! I am going to take Elizabeth Hartman's Modern Quilting class on Monday. You might know Elizabeth from her popular quilting books The Practical Guild to Patchwork and Modern Patchwork. She is also a founding member of our quild.
I'd love for you to join me so we can have a fun chat about it! Here is the link to sign up.

I also am happy to tell you that anyone who signs up from this post gets a 25% discount on the class. How cool is that! Craftsy has a ton of really great online classes and it is free to join. Hope some of you will join me over there!
I am planning to take the class first thing on Monday morning and I will write about it and post my thoughts and blocks I make on Tuesday. I pulled all my fabrics and am looking forward to going to class in the morning!

And the winner is...

Comment 10, Connie!

Congratulations Connie who writes the blog Freemotion by the River and thank you to everyone who commented and participated in this giveaway. It was super fun to read all your comments over the last week. It took a while to delete all my replies so I could get an accurate count to put in the random number generator (oops! I'll know for next time!) and the final count was 104!

I will be sending Connie this collection of Pendleton Eco-wool scraps from my Go-Retro quilt that is in the Winter Woolen Issue of Stitch Magazine. And she gets a copy of that magazine too!

And this is exciting -- the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store has generously put together a few kits with all the fabrics you need for this project for -- wait for it -- $55! That is less than a yard of Eco Wool! And if that wasn't good enough, they are putting it on sale TODAY for their annual Fall fabric sale, so it will actually be 40% off and only cost $35. Thats really affordable! Whoot Whoot! They ship anywhere too, and they also carry Stitch Magazine there!

I am looking forward to chatting with all the new happy campers who joined my site. I have hopped over to many of your blogs and have had fun exploring them. Well, off to finish sewing a project for the spring issue of Stitch! After I go get something I forgot to pick up last trip to the fabric store. Typical me!
Have Machine, Will Travel,
Michelle

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!

Improv Robots - say what now?

The challenge for the Design Camp [think outside the block] June Camp 2 is Improv Robots. Super cool idea, but a bit daunting. The idea of making a robot-anything is hard enough, but make one without a pattern or plan? Yikes! It took me a while to figure out my method, but here is a snapshot of what I did.
Step one: research images vintage robots. This was super fun and inspiring. I found this image, printed it out and hung it over my work space.

Step two: Cut out the basic shapes
I thought it would make it easier if I started with the main body pieces and filled in the details. Here is what I started with:

Step three: Details! I just went for it. I started to build out the sections bit by bit, adding sashing to fit the parts together. I think the face was the hardest part. The expression was going to give this guy his overall mood and I wanted him to be happy. A tall order and alot of tiny pieces later here is Robot-guy!


I want to give credit to Linda from Surrounded by Scraps for inspiring me to try this without over analyzing the project. She was the first in the group to post her robot and it is adorable! She shared her process on her blog which helped me to get started. Thanks Linda!

My 13 year-old daughter thought this was the 'coolest thing' I've ever made. She has requested I make her an improv dinosaur quilt. Sure - that should be easy (not!). The other challenges this month have also been fun: Camp three is 'frame it.' Melissa asked up to 'create a work of art' and then frame it with the Kona Snow sashing. Here is my block for that camp:

And for Camp 1 we are doing 9" x 12" mini quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. More to come on that project soon!

Park Blocks: Quilting Between the Vines

Okay, truth be told: I enjoy a good pun or play on words. Please indulge me, forgive my cheekiness, and let me share my first digitized quilting pattern with you: Vines!

I designed this for my Design Camp [think outside the block] Bee Park Blocks quilt. After I had pieced the top and the back I just kept thinking it needed vines. I thought about quilting it by hand, but wasn't sure this was the right project for that; mainly because I needed to finish it for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show PMQG exhibit in July. I decided to try a different approach. I had this image of vines in my head, so I drew it in an Illustrator file and sent it to my go-to longarm quilter Nancy Stovel.

Nancy gave me a call when she got the digitized file back. We played with it on her computer, creating the layout and scale of the repeat. I should add that Nancy is VERY patient and always spends way more time with me then I deserve (Thanks Nancy!).

I was super nervous and excited to pick up the quilt. I couldn't have been more pleased! Now I can't stop thinking of all the possibilities for new digital quilting designs! I also picked up a beautiful linen cotton at Cool Cottons for the binding. It matches the tea-dyed muslin color perfectly. I know what I will be doing this weekend!