"Quilting Isn't Funny" Giveaway Winner

And the winner of a signed copy of Megan Dougherty's new book, Quilting Isn't Funny is lucky winner 17!

Congratulations to DebraKay, who describes her proudest quilting "finish" of 2013 below:

 DebraKay Neiman said...

I am so happy to say I got the request for a wedding quilt that her guests could sign on the back from my daughter and I finished it just in time for the wedding 3 weeks later. Merry Christmas from Oklahoma, USA. 

Thanks for sharing your proudest 2013 finishes with me - -it was so fun to read about all you had been working on. Most importantly, thanks for dropping by to support Megan & her awesome book!

Happy stitching!

Kelly

"Quilting Isn't Funny" (except that it is!)

If you've been following along the blog tour celebrating the release of the super fab Megan Dougherty's new book Quilting Isn't Funny, you probably already know how hysterical and awesome this book is. If this is the first you're hearing about it, I will be delighted to tell you all about it!

You may already know Megan's work from Quilter's Home and Generation Q, or from her blog "The Bitchy Stitcher."  Well - long story short, Megan has published a book of essays, anecdotes, tales and stories about what it's really like to be a quilter - no, like, seriously what it's like - and the results are truly hysterical!  The book includes some of Megan's previously published pieces you know and love as well as two brand new essays for the book.  Megan also gives insight throughout the book as to how she came up with the piece - - I guarantee you, if you're a quilter, you can relate.

Megan's book is on sale now here, available in paperback or PDF/Kindle formats. You can read through a bit of the book with the "Look Inside" feature and check it out for yourself.

This giveaway is now closed. And guess what? GIVEAWAY!  Megan has graciously allowed me to give away a copy of the book to one of y'all. To enter, just leave a comment (one entry only please) on this post about what your proudest quilting "finish" is this year.  Entries close today (Friday) at midnight EST, winner posted on Saturday.

Please check out Megan's book. I truly think you'll enjoy the book, but Megan is also a wonderful person who is a huge supporter of the quilt community - - and I know we all want to support her right back.

Final thought: When the copyright page makes you laugh, you know you're in for a good ride...

Happy stitching!

Kelly





Keep following the blog tour:

Dec. 2 - Maddie Kertay  - Bad Ass Quilter’s Society

Dec. 3 - Sam Hunter – Hunter’s Design Studio

Dec. 4 - Carla Crim – Scientific Seamstress

Dec. 5 - Scarlett Burroughs – Craft Gossip

Dec. 6 – Jill Dorsey – Made with Moxie

           

Dec. 9 - Victoria Findlay Wolfe – Bumble Beans Inc

           

Dec. 10 - Lynn Harris - Little Red Hen

Dec. 11 – Teresa Coates – Crinkle Dreams

Dec. 12 - Joshua Helms - Molli Sparkles

Dec 13 - Liz Kettle – Stitch Journeys

Dec. 14 - Leah Day – The Free Motion Quilting Project

Dec 16 - Lisa Sipes – That Crazy Quilty Girl

           

Dec. 17 - Charlotte Newland – Displacement Activity

Dec. 18 - Teri Lucas - TerifiCreations

Dec. 19 – Cheryl Sleboda – Muppin.com

Dec. 20 – Kelly Biscopink – Stitchy Quilt Stuff   <<<<<<<< YOU ARE HERE!  :-)

Jan. 6 – Generation Q

Jan. 8 – Rose Hughes – Rose Hughes – Quilt Artist

Jan. 9 – Janice Ryan – Better Off Thread

Jan. 10 - Flaun Cline – I Plead Quilty

Jan. 13 – Heather Jones – Olive and Ollie

Jan. 14 – Meg  – Without A Stitch On

Jan. 15 – Laura Lochore – Quokka Quilts

Jan. 16 – Elaine Wong Haselhuhn – Dashasel Sews

Jan. 17 - Kim Lapacek - Persimon Dreams

House Blocks for Phoebe

The Charleston Modern Quilt Guild (of which I am a proud member, of course!) has been working on a bee for over a year now. When it was my month, the gals all made a block for my Scrappy Trip Around the World Quilt.

This month was Phoebe's turn. (Please note: She's my total bestie 4-evah, so I really didn't want to let her down!!!)  She gave us total freedom - - any kind of house block in any size, as long as we didn't use the traditional schoolhouse block pattern. She gave us "Painter's Canvas" in platinum (by Laura Gunn) to use as the backgrounds - - her quilt is going to be a neighborhood on a rainy day.

I made the following 3 blocks:

Quilter's Cottage by Quiet Play, available via Craftsy

Dwell block from Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley

House In The Woods by Bubblestitch, available via Craftsy

She got a lot of great blocks from other members at our last Guild meeting, and I can't wait to see her little neighborhood!

Hope you're getting to do some sewing today!

Kelly

Architextures Plus Quilt Finish

My Architextures Plus Quilt is finished and I can finally share it with you!

I made this quilt as a wedding gift for one of my college roomies, Adrienne, but I wanted to keep it a surprise. Well, Adrienne and Dave are now happily married, so I can finally post the pics.

This quilt was made using the Architextures fabric line and a few other prints and solids thrown in for added interest. I used 5 charm packs of the Architextures line. Using charm packs to make a plus quilt means - - no cutting! Just lay that sucker out and sew the rows together.

I chose Architextures because I thought the prints would appeal to the bride and groom. Adrienne is a graphic designer, so I knew she would be attracted to the graphic prints, and I hoped Dave would like it too——no girlie florals in this quilt!

My fab mom longarmed the one for me with one of my favorite all-over quilting patterns - - kind of a simple feather.

I think the backing fabric works nicely with the front. It's Olavi in Blueberry from the Glimma line by Lotta Jansdotter.

I hope my lovely friend and her new husband will enjoy this quilt for many, many years!

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Scrappy Trip Along FINISHED!

I finished my Scrappy Trip Along quilt!!!!  (Ok, I didn't do the binding on this one either, but under my new definition of "finished" it qualifies as done even without binding.)

This is the Scrappy Trip Around the World pattern from the Quiltville tutorial in case you'd like to make one yourself. Super fun, and a total scrap buster.

A bunch of gals in the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild are doing a bee, and when my month came around, they helped me make about 15 blocks for this king-size Scrappy Trip Along. THANK YOU!!!!

Mom quilted this bad boy with a Baptist Fan, which I lurve because it helps break up all the straight lines.

With this quilt currently residing on my bed, I can honestly say that I've never slept better.

What're you working on?

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Swoon is FINISHED!!!!!

Ok, almost finished. I still have to finish stitching down the binding but CLOSE ENOUGH!

I started working on this bad boy a hot while ago, but you know how things go - - - you move a few times, you start quilting it only to hate the quilting and pick it all out, you turn the whole thing over to your mom to long arm, and then next thing you know, it's 18 months later.

Whatever, I love, love, love this quilt, so it was all worth it!!!

I think this is my favorite block, but I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow.

This quilt was made with the Swoon pattern by Camille Roskelley, and it's a fabulous pattern - clear instructions, accurate materials lists—the whole 9 yards (no pun intended). It's entirely made of squares, rectangles, flying geese units and half square triangles. I made mine with a navy blue Kona background, and then a bunch of different greens from my stash.

My fabulous, wonderful, extremely talented mother longarmed this gi-normo quilt for me. Let me not understate how awesome my mom is, people. Not only did she long arm this sucker, she also ripped out the really bad long arming I did on the top quarter of the quilt when I decided I hated it and should probably just use the whole quilt for kindling at a fall bonfire. I'm a lucky girl.

Didn't she do a lovely job? I LOVE the quilting  - - hopefully you can see it. It's this really swirly kind of loop. Delicious.

I hope you're having a lovely day sewing!

--Kelly

Happy Go Lucky Table Runner

A friend of mine, Liz (who also is a quilter and a blogger), emailed me a few weeks ago telling me that her family was coming to my neck of the woods for vacation in August. Yippee!  And to add a little awesome, she suggested we do a quilty swap while she was in town. 

Done.

We narrowed the field of items to either a table runner or a placemat, and I pretty quickly decided to do a table runner. Having just received several Happy Go Lucky charm packs in the mail, I decided to play around with those for Liz's table runner.

 

For the backing, I used an extra block and Michael Miller "Put A Lid On It" in Nite.

The quilting is really simple straight lines. I stitched 1/4" on either side of each diagonal seam in both directions, creating a wide crosshatch. 

Binding is Moda Bella solid in Robin's Egg. (Also, my favorite color. FYI)

I hope Liz likes it!

What are you working on today?

Happy Stitching!

Kelly

Granny Square Block Mug Rug

Hey y'all!  I'm sharing a small finish today - - the Mother's Day gift I made for my mom this year!

This was a simple, quick and fun little project: I made a single block and turned it into a mug rug. For this one, I made a Granny Square block using this tutorial.

Then, just quilt and bind to make a perfect little mug rug. I did a simple crosshatch quilting pattern on this guy. (Also, can we talk about how much I love that text print from the Mama Said Sew fabric line? It makes me drool, that's how much I love it.)

I found these cute little labels a million years ago, and bound one into the binding as a final personal little touch. (This label had my dad convinced that I had bought the mug rug, not made it.)

I packaged the mug rug with a fancy teacup from Anthropology and a box of Charleston peach tea - yum!

Did you give or receive any handmades for Mother's Day?

Happy stitching,

Kelly

Green Tea and Sweet Beans Quilt (in progress)

Hi y'all!

I know it's been a hot minute. Or maybe even two hot minutes.  But I'm back!  My move is over, I'm (mostly) unpacked, and my sewing room is officially up and running.

phew.

I'm working on the Green Tea and Sweet Beans Quilt by the truly unbelievably talented Jen Kingwell (Amitié Textiles).

I'm just doing a block at a time on this bad boy. My goal is scrappy-liciousness, so I'm just kind of picking what I want to use on each individual block and seeing what happens. Here are a few that I've made so far:

I'm clearly all about the bright colors, but what else is new?   More to come on this project!

What are you working on? Any new projects have you all amped up?

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Giveaway - - Winner!

Hey there friends!

We have a winner in the Stitch Craft Create giveaway!  I'll be in touch to get your address, so watch for my email!

The Random Number Generator selected entry #25:

 crysm said...

Allow yourself to be 'good enough' so you have more time for the FUN things in life!

A huge thank you to all of you who participated - - thank you for the congratulations, and for all of the GREAT tips!  Seriously, that was some good, solid advice, and I definitely will be following it.

What have you been working on?!  New projects? Finishing stuff up? What's UP, folks???

xo

Kelly

Stitch Craft Create Giveaway!

Hi friendships,

I'm back after a bit of a lengthy absence. I have good excuses. I bought a house (my first!) and moved (for the second time this year {double sigh}), and as such, all of my stuff (including my sewing machine and my camera) are in boxes. So please forgive, and I promise to have everything back up and running soon. Because, frankly, I'm going nuts without my sewing stuff available.

To make it up to you, I at least have a giveaway for stickin' with me! I'm giving away a copy of the spring issue of Stitch Craft Create to one of y'all. The lovelies over at SCC were kind enough to do a feature on Modern Designs for Classic Quilts, and I have a copy to share.

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for participating!

TO ENTER: Just leave me a comment giving me a good tip for a new homeowner, or a housekeeping tip in general. One entry per person. 

This giveaway will close 11:59pm EST on Saturday, April 20th, 2013. A winner will be announced on Sunday, April 21st, 2013. 

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Don't forget to follow Stitchy Quilt Stuff on Facebook, Bloglovin', Twitter (@stitchyKelly), Pinterest, Instagram (@stitchyKelly).

BlogLovin' and Bee Blocks

Now that Google Reader is saying "ta-ta," please keep getting updates from Stitchy Quilt Stuff via BlogLovin'!

Just click the link below, and then click follow.

Follow me on BlogLovin'

 I've been using BlogLovin' for awhile, and I really love it. A pretty, clean layout, good search feature, and daily email updates - woohoo! I think you'll like it a lot!

In other news, I finished up 2 blocks for the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild's monthly bee. This month is Alice's block, and she chose the "Pinball Machine" block by Jessica Brown from the book Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers.

Alice provided the white background fabric, and asked that we use a red/white print from our stash for the other fabric. A few of us are making 2 blocks, switching the background and red print for the second block, so that Alice has an additional design option when she lays out her quilt.

I love how these turned out —I can't wait to see this quilt all together!

What have y'all been working on this weekend? Were you stuck indoors with bad weather?

Happy stitching!

Kelly

Prism Quilt with FQS Blogger Bundle

So, I haven't blogged for a few weeks because, well, I've been sewing and I got distracted. A worthy excuse, right? Maybe? Anyway, one thing I've been working on is on the blog today.

A few months ago, Andie and I got to put together a "Blogger Bundle" of fat quarters for sale at Fat Quarter Shop. This was, essentially, a fabric lover's dream come true: we got to browse their online inventory and put together any assortment of fabrics (12 prints and 3 solids) for a 15 FQ bundle.

Due to my adolescent love of rainbows... (Seriously, this is a thing. Ask my Mom. I remember sobbing when I was 5 years old because the only thing I wanted in LIFE was to see a rainbow and I was convinced that I would never ever see a real one.) Anyway, due to my love of rainbows, I lovelovelovedoublelove putting things in ROYGBIV order. Soooo, we decided to put together a "Rainbows & Unicorns" bundle full of modern stash builder geometrics.

And then, I got to play with the fabric! I decided to remake the Kaleidoscope Quilt ("Risky Business") from our book, Modern Designs for Classic Quilts.

My remake is a bit different than the 2-fabric quilt that I made for the book, but the basic pattern is the same, and this bundle offered a lot of great playroom.

For the background fabric, I used a FABULOUS black and white text print from Ikea, a gift from the best Phoebe in the world.

nom

There's a lot going on in this quilt and, I'll be honest, as I was playing with the layout, I did NOT love it. But I kept going...

Playing with a random layout:

"meh."

 Playing with an organized layout (1 color per block):

"double meh"

And then it hit me. The reason I love this bundle is because of my ROGBIV-lovin' obsession with rainbows. Once I started arranging the blocks with a rainbow in mind, I started to like it a lot...

"RAINBOWS!!!!!!!!  GIMME!"

And here's the finished top, all together and ready for some quilting!

The circular optical illusion is less pronounced than in the kaleidoscope quilt I made for the book, but it's still there.

I'm calling it "Prism" because it reminds me of a refracted rainbow. (That was probably self explanatory...)

Now, quilting it! Any suggestions? I'm thinking a large circular motif to enhance the hidden circles, but I'd love suggestions!

The basic pattern for this quilt is found in my book, and you can get the blogger bundle at Fat Quarter Shop. So if you've got a nickel burning a hole in your pocket  . . . . . . . .

    

Hope you're all having an excellent week! Please leave me some quilting suggestions, and just let me know what you're up to in general.

Happy stitching!

Kelly