80's Geese Charity Block

 Hello everyone!!!

Last month I was presented with the amazing opportunity to test a new block called "80's Geese" by Diane from From Blank Pages fame. I've tested patterns by her in the past and they have all been marvelous. Seriously. Marvelous! If you've never worked from one of Diane's patterns, you need to! Okay, enough fangirl-ing.

The best part about this block is that Diane asked some of her testers to make the block for a charity quilt! I love that so much and here's why. I have never sewn or quilted for charity before but recently I have felt the call on my heart to do just that. I was looking for a way to give back when this opportunity came along. Of course, I jumped at it. The lovely Jill from Crafty Giraffe (@crafty_giraffe on IG) will be putting together all the blocks into a quilt top. Here is a sneak peak of the blocks so far (I totally swiped this picture from Jill's IG feed.)

This quilt is going to look so good and I can't wait to see it when it's finished!

Here are the details:

The block is a 12" finished, paper-pieced pattern by From Blank Pages called 80's Geese. The pattern comes in 4 different block sizes - 6", 9", 12", and 18". It is available as a PDF purchase from Diane's pattern shop. You can purchase each size separately or you can purchase the bundle with all four sizes. And if you sign up for Diane's newsletter you get a nifty 20% off discount code! The pattern is chock full of goodies. It comes with coloring sheets, design ideas, cutting templates (my personal favorite), and cheater templates.

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Here are some From Blank Pages patterns I've made in the past.

Simple Celestial Mini - blogged here and here

Rockstar Mini - blogged here and here

Star Gazing block - not blogged

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Linking up with:

Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts

Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrication

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

and

Finished or Not Friday @ Busy Hands Quilts

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Until next time!

- Sarah

Friday Finish #2 - Simple Celestial Mini

Here's a little mini to brighten up your day.

I blogged about this little guy here, so I'll keep this post on the short side. Or perhaps it'll be a "mini" post...? Lol, I crack myself up.

I mentioned before that I loved this block so much that I was going to turn it into a wall-hanging. Enter some FMQ, some quick binding and BAM! A finished project!

For the FMQ, I did a micro (a mini? Lol, again) stipple in the white fabric to really make the prints pop.

Stats:
Name: Simple Celestial Mini
Pattern: Simple Celestial by Diane Bohn of  FromBlankPages
Materials: Unknown print, white solid, Warm and Natural batting, Essential Thread by Connecting Threads in White.
Date: Started/Finished - May 2015
Size: 9"x9"

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Linking up to:
- Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Fridays
- Confessions of a Fabric Addict - Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - ROYGBIV

Hello and welcome! If you are stopping by for the first time from the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, please stay and have a look around. For those of you that don't know me my name is Sarah and I love color, design, and fabric! Here are some of my past projects.

I've really enjoyed the BQF in the past years but this is my first time actually entering a quilt! I'm entering my Rockstar mini in the ROYGBIV category.

Rockstar is a paper pieced pattern I tested for Diane Bohn from FromBlankPages. You can read my thoughts on testing the pattern here. It really works up beautifully.

I kept the quilting simple because I wanted the rainbows to really pop. I did do a little FMQ in the center square though. When I say "little" I mean that literally! This is a mini after all and I had to do some micro quilting in that center. The design is meant to mimic the shape of the rainbows. 

Quilt Stats:

- Name: Rockstar Mini

- Size: 12" x 12"

- Pattern: Rockstar by Diane Bohn

- Materials: a variety of solids, Warm and Natural batting, Essential Thread in "White" and "Stone" from Connecting Threads

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out all the other amazing quilts in the BQF!

Simple Celestial - Pattern Testing

I really do enjoy testing patterns. I’ve tested a few patterns for Diane who blogs at FromBlankPages and I’m happy to announce that I’m waiting in the wings to test for some other people as well. Anyway, here is the latest.

This is Diane’s new pattern called Simple Celestial. It’s a simplified version of her Celestial Star pattern; so if you feel intimidated by the complexity of that pattern, you can easily get the same look with this pattern. Make sense? Good.

I love the versatility of Diane’s patterns and Simple Celestial didn’t disappoint. I spent many, many (way too many) hours creating different designs and coloring in the coloring pages. I think I came up with 14 different designs in total, and some of those had multiple color schemes! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the hardest part of Diane’s patterns is picking a design!

I really struggled with picking a design on this one. I liked all my options but I wasn’t happy with my fabric pulls or I didn’t have the right fabric for a particular design. Do you ever have that problem? Finally I spotted this fabric.

This ¼ yard of no name fabric had been sitting in my pile of ‘”uglies” for a few years. You know the “uglies,” the fabrics that you just don’t like and can’t for the life of you figure out why you ever bought them in the first place, but you don’t want to get rid of them because maybe one day they will be perfect for a project. I figured I’d give this one a chance because, hey, it had the right number of colors I was going for.

I wasn’t sure about my choice as I started fussy cutting and I was even less sure when I started sewing.

I think it was right about this point that I knew this fabric was perfect for this project. In the end it felt like fate, destiny …kismet?

As it turns out, I LOVE this block. I’m turning it into a mini wall hanging which is something I never do; that’s how much I love it, lol.

Until next time,

- Sarah

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Linking up with Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday!

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts Let's Bee Social!

Testing a Few Patterns

Thanks to my new Instagram addiction, which may require an intervention soon, I got the opportunity to test a new pattern by Diane who blogs at From Blank Pages. The pattern is called Rockstar and it is amazing!

This is actually the second pattern I've tested for her; about a month ago I tested her Star Gazing pattern… and then started writing a blog post about it, and then got distracted and never published it. Oops! More on that later. Here is my little Rockstar block.

I LOVE it! It’s the 6” pattern so it’s pretty small but totally doable. I believe the pattern will also be available in 9”, 12” and 18”. There are a couple different blocks in the pattern and they all mix and match so you really get a lot of design options! Consequently, I have added about six more quilts to my quilty bucket list. Oi!

Okay, seriously, be still me heart. This is how my block looks when repeated. It is so different from any of the design options Diane provides and I’m so happy about that. Not that Diane’s suggestions aren’t gorgeous (they are!) but I really wanted to challenge myself with this one. The last time I tested a block for Diane, the Star Gazing block, I made one of her design suggestions in the exact same color way she used. Here it is. I love this one too!

Like I said though, with the Rockstar block I really wanted to stretch my creativity. I think I pulled it off. :)

Until next time...

Holiday Gift Recap

It's that time of year when it seems as though everybody you know gets sick. I thought we might dodge the bullet at my house this year. *Sigh* Maybe that was just wishful thinking. What this really means is that I haven't been able to sew in days. I'm going to take this opportunity to show off some sewing projects I gave as gifts over the holidays.

First up is a paper-pieced throw pillow. My niece loves Twilight. I mean lurves! I had the brilliant idea to make her something that highlighted the four book covers from the series. I quickly realized that paper-piecing was the way to go and I completely lucked out and found that Cat Magraith had already made PP'd patterns for the books and they were free. Yep, free! I found the blocks on Fandom in Stitches.

So, it's confession time. Obviously, that is not the finished pillow, it's just the top. I don't think I ever photographed the completed pillow. :( I'll have to do that the next time I visit my niece. Next confession, I totally deviated from Cat's version of the block on the lower right (I think that's the cover for Breaking Dawn). Cat's block calls for PP and applique but I decided I needed a challenge wanted all the blocks PP'd, so I did up my own pattern for that one. Also, Cat's blocks finish out at 5" square but I sized mine up to 8". Last confession, this was my first foray into PP. It was so EASY and I love how the blocks turned out. Seriously, if you've never paper-pieced before you need to try it!

Moving on, the next crafty/sewing gifts I made were some library totes for the kids of some friends. The mom wanted bags with the kids' names on them. I was inspired by this pillow tutorial by Shruti from 13 Woodhouse Road. I used generic canvas bags from the craft store and a different variegated thread for each bag. 

Here is a close up.

These bags were super fun to make up and super fast and easy. For those of you who aren't used to FMQ, it's a great way to get comfortable with the technique and the motion of moving the fabric around under the needle. I think next time I'll make a pillow for myself like Shruti did. 

Okay, that's it for today. I hear some coughing in the background which is my cue. 

Have fun sewing!

- Sarah