Bento boxes!

I have been on a bento box kick lately, first with bee blocks...

Not sure what a virtual quilting bee is? Check out this post from Oh, Fransson! and the ever-fabulous Quilting Bee Blocks site.

These are for Julie from the bee in my bonnet. Julie asked for a 13" and a 5" square-in-a-square block. She sent a ton of fabric, so I made an extra big block. Julie was inspired by this Film in the Fridge quilt, but asked us to make the rings whatever sizes we wanted.

It was so much fun, I decided to whip up a quick Halloween wall hanging with some fat quarters I got at my LQS while out looking for fabric to send out for my month of the bee.

I got to use my walking foot for the first time quilting the straight lines on this baby. It's loud, but I don't know how I ever lived without it!

I also used my free-motion/darning foot to create a spiderweb pattern with the quilting. It shows up better in the close-up photo. I'm getting a bit better at free-motion quilting, but I'm still struggling to keep the stitch length consistent. I'm really liking the gray thread, too. It looks like a real spiderweb, sometimes it looks invisible and sometimes it smacks you in the face.

Do you have any holiday projects going on?

My quilty day

Happy Monday, y'all! The blog re-design is almost complete. I am in full orange and aqua mode with a new header and template! I just need to create some pages for tutorials, finished projects, etc. What do you think of the new look?

I haven't been sewing a whole lot lately. I've been knee-deep in planning mode for my geese and coins quilt. But I did have a very quilty day on Thursday. As many of you know, I have an odd work schedule, so Thursdays are my "Saturdays." I whipped this little wall-hanging up Thursday afternoon using the free template from Denyse Schmidt:

Thursday was also the August meeting of the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. I was so excited to finally be able to attend a meeting. The meeting was in north Austin, about a 20-30 minute drive from my house. Rather than battle rush hour traffic — in Austin on a Thursday afternoon, this is definitely not something you want to do, especially if you want to be in a good mood when you arrive at your destination — I headed up north early to visit the two awesome quilt shops nearby. (I can obviously find any excuse to go shopping!)

I was determined not to break the bank, so I just got a bunch of fat quarters (rather than any larger cuts). One shop neatly folds their fat quarters, while the other rolls them up into fun bundles (which is what's going on in the top picture).

One thing I don't like very much about buying fat quarters is that you don't always get a piece with the printed selvage info. So while I recognized some of these, some are a mystery to me. I know I got some Urban Landscapes by Kathy York, some Alexander Henry (the print on the bottom left is the same design I used on my purse, but in a very bright colorway), and some Amy Butler. I haven't done the research yet to see what the rest of it is. Do you know?

After my shopping spree, I went to the meeting. I got to meet some fabulously fun and talented women who live right here in Austin. I had so much fun chatting and playing show and tell with fellow quilters! With advice from the meeting, I was finally able to conquer the inside corner binding for my hexagon quilt. I took a bunch of photos, and I'm working on putting together a tutorial.

One of the Austin Modern Quilt Guild members used to teach sewing classes, so she led a tutorial on needle-turn appliqué. I'll be honest, until last week I had no idea what needle-turn appliqué was. But by the time I left the meeting, I had sewed a circle onto a square! I didn't actually use the needle to turn the fabric under like you're supposed to (hence the name), but the circle is on the square, so I think I did just fine.

Of course I have no idea what I'm going to do with this little guy:

Ideas?

Back from my deathbed

OK, that's a little dramatic. I was by no means on the brink of death, but I was holed up in my apartment with chicken soup and water for days this week. I woke up Tuesday morning with a 101.5° fever! I chalked it up to a summer cold, called in to work, took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep. A few days later I broke down and went to the doctor, and I'm glad I did. It cost me an arm and a leg (oh health insurance, how I miss you...) but I got antibiotics, and I'm all better now!

And since I'm all better, I finally got to take the mystery wall-hanging to its new home! It's a housewarming gift for my friend Erika and her husband, who recently bought their first house. (Erika, you'll have to send me pictures when it's hung up!) Since the gift has been gifted, it is no longer a mystery:

I wanted a way to let the text prints shine (and be legible), so I made them the center of some star blocks. The windowpane border is a print from the Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope collection that I picked up at my LQS. I've been using it a lot lately (in my purse and some bee blocks), I need to see if I can pick up some more before its gone.

To keep the outer border of 4½" squares a little more interesting, I quilted stars echoing the shape of the stars in the center blocks. I used a programmed stitch on my machine in the center of each windowpane strip.

After mapping it all out, but before I started cutting, I made a tester block out of some charm squares that wouldn't make it into the top (front?) of the wall-hanging. After leaving it on my "design wall" for a few weeks, I decided it would make a perfect label (but evidently I didn't decide to take pictures of it!). The rest of the back is simple muslin. I made a sleeve and added loops with embroidery thread so they could decide how they wanted to hang it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, even though I think I stretched the backing a bit when I basted it.

I was hoping to post some progress in the Hexagon Quilt Along, but I don't have any pictures to show yet. Before I got sick, I finished quilting it (I took the easy way out, but I still like the effect), and on Friday I sewed the binding to the front. I intended to hand-stitch the binding down last night, but those inside corners really threw me for a loop, so I put it away. I'm determined to finish it, as well as my August blocks for the Bee in my Bonnet, before I start cutting into this:

How are you motivating yourself to finish projects this week?

Wall hangings galore

I finally got paid last week, and I went on a mini-shopping spree :) I finally got some graph paper and colored pencils, which allowed me to sketch up a little design for a wall hanging I'm working on:

This sneak peek is all you get for now. It's a gift, so no more pictures until it is at its new home.

I also finally finished the yellow and black wall-hanging I've been working on. I tacked it to my wall for a while, ultimately deciding that the more it hung, the more the quilting stood out. So I slapped some binding and hanging tags on it and now it's decorating my living room:

(oh how I wish I could paint those walls...)

I used this awesome tutorial for hanging loops using embroidery thread from Aneela at Comfort Stitching.

I'm really excited to play with my graph paper and colored pencils... I don't know if I've been this excited about colored pencils since elementary school :)