Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop

Welcome! Today Sewing Over Pins is a stop on Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop. Here's a little Q&A about me and how I like to sew!

How long have you been quilting?

I learned to craft with a needle & thread as a kid. I've dabbled in some crochet, needlepoint, cross stitch, and embroidery over the years. My mom has a lifetime of garment sewing experience and my great-grandmother was a prolific quilter. I (mostly) hand pieced and quilted a queen-sized double wedding ring quilt eleven years ago as a freshman in college. I took a break for ten years ;-) and started quilting again in the summer of 2011 when the online blogging community inspired me to dive back in!

Favorite quilting tip:

Stop when you get too tired.

Favorite blogging tip:

Turn off your word verification for the love of Pete! Here's how.

Favorite fabric:

I'm still in love with Kate Spain's Terrain line. Tired of hearing me talk about this fabric crush? I also love her new Cuzco line ;-)

Favorite quilting tool:

I love that by dropping my heel on the pedal, the Bernina 1630 will lift or drop the needle!

Favorite entertainment while sewing:

Whatever's in my Netflix queue! Recently it was Brothers & Sisters. Right now it's Breaking Bad. Up next is Foyle's War and Friday Night Lights. I generally save hand stitching for road trips when Mr. Pins and I listen to episodes of This American Life.

Binding - by Hand or Machine?

A quilt has to be pretty special (and small) to get a hand stitched binding. I haven't done one of those since February. I've got my machine-sewn attachment process down pat, though, so I'm very pleased with the finished product!

Favorite finished project:
My Marine Den quilt has to be my favorite finish thus far. This design floated around my head for months, and I was so happy to develop the skills to actually put it together. I'd love to make an improved version and write a pattern for it soon!

It took two weeks for me to finish piecing, quilting, and binding this baby quilt back in April. I'd love to do the next version in blues!

Here are the other quilts that have kept my hands busy over the last year.

I've also pieced blocks for Austin Modern Quilt Guild donation quilts and hand stitched some Rose Star blocks thanks to selfsewn's great English paper piecing tutorial.

There's plenty of quilty goodness to talk about on the blog, so you won't hear too much about my husband (Mr. Pins), my mishaps in the garden, our two parrots, or my efforts to exercise more often than I eat queso. I love being a part of the online quilting community. Seeing other sewists' creations has definitely inspired me to push my limits, pick up new skills, and take on ambitious projects I would have otherwise been too scared to attempt.

There's lots more fun to be had on the blog hop! Poke around and make some new friends :-)

Last Thursday:
Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade
Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Today:
Kati from Kati's Quilting
Caroline from Quilting in the Cold

This Thursday:
Jamie from Sweet Baby Jamie
Janine from Rainbow Hare Quilts

English Paper Pieced Rose Star Block 11

I managed to finish this block on a road trip this weekend. English paper piecing is the perfect hand sewing project for the car! It wasn't all sunshine on this trip. We did run into some rain, but we saw some rainbows, too, so no complaints.

I love this print with the chair. It's from Daisy Cottage by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet for Riley Blake. Fussy cutting can really enhance the structure of these blocks, but it's also fun to feature a quirky print in the middle. 

If you need some summer sewing for the road, check out Clare's tutorial for English paper piecing on her blog, selfsewn.

I'm linking up with Sew Happy Geek, Polly Want a Crafter, and Keeping it Simple.

     

Summer Sampler Series: Evening Star

Thanks so much for all of the kind words about my WIP update yesterday! Here's a closer look at the Evening Star block that I pieced from a Summer Sampler Series tutorial. 

This is one of the many paper pieced blocks in the series. You can see how it is assembled kind of like a pizza. You piece each wedge, then sew all of the wedges together. This made it very easy to create a mini color wheel with the eight radiating triangles.

I decided I wanted to go for the same effect with my first attempt at the Kansas Dust Storm, the last Summer Sampler Series block. This block is intense. There's a reason the series builds up to it. You have to print twelve different paper templates. I organized and labeled all of the templates before I started sewing just to try to keep it all straight. 

I wanted to create the same mini color wheel with the circle of diamonds in this block. However, I didn't take into consideration the difference in piecing between this block and the Evening Star. Since two colors are on each outside corner template, the colors are reversed when you flip them over to the fabric side. This really threw off the color wheel, but there's no way I'm redoing it. It'll just be a colorful block when it's all said and done.

I highly recommend trying ambitious things from time to time. I always learn a new skill whenever I mess it up on the first go 'round, and it's great to learn new things about sewing ;-)

I'm linking up with Somewhat Simple and The Girl in the Wild West.
  

WIP Wednesday: Terrain Summer Sampler Blocks

Wednesday is here! This is what I've got on my design wall these days.

Rose Star Blocks

I've got ten of these done, now. I pieced all of the blocks I cut in May, so now it's back to the Olfa mat to prepare some more. I cut pieces for another two blocks this week. If you want to make some of your own. Claire's got a great English paper piecing tutorial at selfsewn.

Summer Sampler Series Blocks

Flower Garden Path

Evening Star

I got back to making some of these this week. These two blocks are all Terrain, and I like them even more than the other blocks I've made mixing Terrain with other fabrics. I think I'll use my original blocks for something else and just do a set in Terrain. There's a lot of changing plans midstream around here ;-)

These are the Summer Sampler Series blocks I made to swap and donate to the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. The goal was black and white blocks with a pop of color. This is the end of the swap, though, so you won't see any more in this color scheme.

Summer Sampler Series Donation & Swap Blocks

I can't wait to see everyone's WIP updates! I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced, Sew Much Ado, Whatever Goes Wednesday, and Rae Gun Rambling.

   

Block in Progress: Evening Star

It was a big day in the world of quilty education. As soon as I woke up, I did my online enrollment for classes at International Quilt Festival in Houston. Woohoo! Anyone need a hotel roommate in Houston for the week?

In other exciting quilty education news, the workshop and lecture info for QuiltCon was released today as well. The lineup is amazing! I'm glad I have some time to look everything over and make some tough decisions before enrollment opens on my birthday, August 30th!

In actual quilting news, I worked on an Evening Star block from the Summer Sampler Series in some beautiful Terrain fabrics today. It was a little slow going, but I got this far before some crazy weather blew in. I had to take pictures outside to get enough light, and all of the pieces were blowing away. 

Right after I took photos, the bottom fell out. I also realized that I forgot to cut out some of the fabric as I was piecing this section. The orange shows right through. I'll have to snip it out carefully. Oops. That's how the process is, though. Sometimes mistakes are made ;-)

I hope your crafting was mistake-free today! I'm linking up with Sew Happy Geek, Polly Want a Crafter, and Keeping it Simple.

    

English Paper Pieced Rose Star Block 10

Ahhhhhhh! Crafted. Favorite Rose Star block so far :-D 

Look how cute it is! Let's pet it. Oooooh, pet, pet, pet. So purdy. 

Ok, this block was a great success. Now, it's back to the chaos of picking fabrics and designing and cutting for new blocks. I've now depleted all of my design work from May. I determined it takes an hour to pick and cut fabrics for the 31 pieces in each of these blocks. I'll try to time myself this go around to see if I'm faster.

These Rose Star blocks are so perfect for when you can grab a few minutes of sewing here and there outside of your sewing space. You can do it, too! Just check out Clare's tutorial for English paper piecing on her blog, selfsewn.

I'm going to have to get a leather or silicon thimble, though. Marathon stitching sessions have resulted in the blunt end of my needle poking through the skin on my middle finger. First aid was necessary. Metal thimbles have proven too ridged for me to use with any amount of control. 

Remember, you can use coupon code SOPBlog20 for 20% off anything in the Purple Daisies store through Sunday, July 8th. Get it while it's hot, crafty crew. This coupon's for you ;-)

That's right. I rhymed. Happy Crafting this weekend. 

X Marks the Spot Block from SewCraftyJess

I'm the circle host for Cheer, the latest do. Good Stitches circle! I'm so glad folks post about their participation in these do. Good Stitches quilting circles. Otherwise I might have never known about this fun opportunity.

Essentially, Rachel of Stitched in Color organized an amazing way for sewists from all over the place to get together and make one quilt a month for a good cause. For our first quilt, we're following a tutorial that Jessica posted on her blog, SewCraftyJess. 

These blocks will end up being blue and white, and I can't wait to see them all as they come rolling in the mail. I'm the quilter for this first go 'round. 

It seems like I signed up forever ago to host a quilting circle, but I'm so glad enough people joined in to make a new circle this summer. There are some amazing quilters lending their talents to these quilts, and I can't wait to make beautiful work with them. If you're interested in participating in the next circle, check out the details on the main do. Good Stitches flickr page and sign up on the wait list.

I hope everyone stateside got to see some great fireworks last night!

I'm linking up with Somewhat Simple and The Girl in the Wild West.