Mad for Solids 2018 - Go check it out!!

What I made with my collection

If you need inspiration or just need some guidance - go check out @PBstudios on Instagram.  They have been hosting a contest where 16 people chose color sets of 8 fabrics.  Each day, two sets are pinned against each other in a fierce battle for color domination.  You can help - vote for your favorite.  I'm in the mix and I've been lucky enough to make it to the final four.  I can assure you.....this will be the only final four I'm watching this year (hahaha - just not much of a basketball fan).  So go take a look and enjoy the eye candy.  And don't forget to vote - there will be a fabric prize given to participants!!

PBStudio Fabrics blog

Heirloom Opal collection

Happy Stitching and Happy Easter!

Slow stitching....relaxing at the end

Heirloom Opal Bracelet is done!  I adore the colors and am very pleased with my finished wall hanging.  There's something very satisfying about hand sewing the binding.  Usually, I rip through binding and sew it completely on by machine but this one demanded quiet attention and sewing on by  hand.  Have you got a favorite piece of jewelry?  Maybe you could create a quilt around it.

Did I make you think of an opal?

love these binding clips...

slow and steady....

almost done....

Ahhhh.  Complete.  

Heirloom Opal Bracelet
31' x 21

Hope you've enjoyed watching the progress.  Onto something new....

VOTE on your favorite colors!

Today is the day I'm in the bracket for showing off my color group, Heirloom Opal which was inspired by the opal shown above.

Go visit PaintBrush Studio Fabrics at the locations below and you can vote at each one. 

PBStudio on Facebook

PBStudio Fabrics blog

@PBStudios   (their IG handle)

I'm working on a design that represents a silver bracelet with an opal on it.  The colors are just luscious and I hope I'm capturing the mysterious sparks and flashes of color you see in an opal.  I'm still working out the design (ahem....I've been doing some seam ripping today and after reviewing my photos this evening...just saw another mistake!!) but I'm getting close.  Sorry for the poor photography - I'm at a quilt retreat and the lighting isn't the best.

Can you catch my goof up here?

I'm using two shades of silver (not shown in my palette) to represent the bracelet.  I'll share all the color choices individually when I'm finished.  

Whether you find my color group your favorite or Stephanie's (@spontaneousthreads) - enjoy the eye candy and vote.

Enjoy!!

Shelley

Sew-cial media friendships....

No quilting on quilts here this week but there was quilting business going on.  I have had the lovely pleasure of the company of friends I met via Flickr and Instagram.  Social media is a weird thing to me.  I see our culture using it to communicate vs. actually speaking to each other.  I LOVE good old fashioned flapping of the jaws and laughing WITH people....  I find it odd that so many people use it to communicate instead of face to face meeting...

My dear fried Mary Menzer (@marymenzerdesigns) hosted some friends from far away places this weekend.  I was fortunate to spend some time with them and host dinner tonight.  We had a blast.  One of the lovely ladies told me how her husband was amazed at how we would all just...meet up ...not ever having met in person before.  But I guess that's the other side of social media - the magic of social media.  I felt like I knew them without ever actually having been in the same room.  Perhaps we were in a virtual room.  Filled with fabric and thread and quilts.

My husband - Grill Master and all around good sport!

So we ate tons of food, drank delicious spirits, and got lots of exercise through laughter.  We heard stories from our husbands (mine and Mary's) about the torture and extents they have to go to while holding our quilts for photography sessions.  We giggled about silly things we've done for quilting.  We talked about bugs we've experienced in different parts of the country.  We were amazed when we got to see the BEAUTIFUL tattoo one of our friends (endured) got which was from a Tula Pink print.  Yes - she got a Tula tattoo...  This was a pretty epic party.  

It was a lovely evening and I'm so honored to call these gals my friends.  We represented both coasts and the middle of the US... I'm telling you - EPIC party!!!!  I didn't see any paparazzi but I'm sure they were there somewhere....

 If you ever have the chance - reach out - plan a trip - meet in person - make a sewcial connection!!!  

Have you met anyone recently that you've met via social media?

Roaring to the deadline

CherryWood Fabrics held a contest.  Need I say more.  Ummm...yes - sign me up.   Of course, there was a nice lengthy time to enter before the deadline (a few months, I believe).  Per usual, I chose the work under pressure manner of creating - so in about 36 hours before the deadline - I was in.

It started like this.   It even came with a permission slip to encourage me to cut into those GORGEOUS fabrics....

And like a fearless lioness - I did just that. 

The theme was Lion King, The Musical.  If you had a chance to see any of their challenge entries from last year, based on the musical Wicked - they were amazing.  If you didn't catch it - by all means take a look.  Spectacular work.  I put the link below but you can google it and get even more things to peruse.

I was going to use the circle of life reference as my inspiration.

Finding all things circular for tracing

Lots of good choices for color

I toyed with this design but it was far too simplistic.  Didn't have enough "oomph".

So I mulled it over a night (wasted hours....) and then I got really juiced up and figured out a more complex and interesting design.  Which required...

A nice 9 degree wedge

The wedge really started working for me and I wound up with this:

 

I harnessed my super power : "working really fast under pressure" and the design began to form:

And eventually became this:

I called upon my secondary super hero power: "quilting the snot of out of a quilt".

And thus:

Mufasa is raw edge appliquéd with lots of tiny, slow quilting moves.

Totally worth the time....

Of course, what kind of sewist would I be without a little thread controversy....  Also per usual, I goofed a little (a lot) and had to do some unsewing.  Which leads me to my next tidbit to share.... I'm making seam rippers!!

I have learned how to turn these on a lathe and polish them into beautiful sewing tools.  If you've ever  held one of these in your own hand - then you know how good they feel.  If you haven't - you should absolutely take one for a test drive.  They feel luxurious.  I hardly minded unsewing while using this!!  More on this later...

So while the Mission Impossible them music played loudly - and despite the temporary slow down for unsewing, I was able to enter the contest (and I still had and hour and a half before the actual deadline!!!).

I'm pleased with my result (although those toes need some polish....) ...  What are you working on???

Wicked Challenge:Cherrywood Wicked Challenge 2015

Roaring to the deadline

CherryWood Fabrics held a contest.  Need I say more.  Ummm...yes - sign me up.   Of course, there was a nice lengthy time to enter before the deadline (a few months, I believe).  Per usual, I chose the work under pressure manner of creating - so in about 36 hours before the deadline - I was in.

It started like this.   It even came with a permission slip to encourage me to cut into those GORGEOUS fabrics....

And like a fearless lioness - I did just that. 

The theme was Lion King, The Musical.  If you had a chance to see any of their challenge entries from last year, based on the musical Wicked - they were amazing.  If you didn't catch it - by all means take a look.  Spectacular work.  I put the link below but you can google it and get even more things to peruse.

I was going to use the circle of life reference as my inspiration.

Finding all things circular for tracing

Lots of good choices for color

I toyed with this design but it was far too simplistic.  Didn't have enough "oomph".

So I mulled it over a night (wasted hours....) and then I got really juiced up and figured out a more complex and interesting design.  Which required...

A nice 9 degree wedge

The wedge really started working for me and I wound up with this:

 

I harnessed my super power : "working really fast under pressure" and the design began to form:

And eventually became this:

I called upon my secondary super hero power: "quilting the snot of out of a quilt".

And thus:

Mufasa is raw edge appliquéd with lots of tiny, slow quilting moves.

Totally worth the time....

Of course, what kind of sewist would I be without a little thread controversy....  Also per usual, I goofed a little (a lot) and had to do some unsewing.  Which leads me to my next tidbit to share.... I'm making seam rippers!!

I have learned how to turn these on a lathe and polish them into beautiful sewing tools.  If you've ever  held one of these in your own hand - then you know how good they feel.  If you haven't - you should absolutely take one for a test drive.  They feel luxurious.  I hardly minded unsewing while using this!!  More on this later...

So while the Mission Impossible them music played loudly - and despite the temporary slow down for unsewing, I was able to enter the contest (and I still had and hour and a half before the actual deadline!!!).

I'm pleased with my result (although those toes need some polish....) ...  What are you working on???

Wicked Challenge:Cherrywood Wicked Challenge 2015