Porch Swing Quilts: July 2014

29 July 2014

Fabric Tuesday: Christmas gift bags

If you missed my Color Mondays post from Monday, go check it out! I'm going to host a linky party, all about color. Every Monday. This week's color is yellow - my favorite!

Okay, nothing particularly impressive. Just some drawstring bags. I've come to prefer these to wrapping paper. One, because I'm awful at wrapping. And two, no extra trash come Christmas morning!

These ones are made from Jeni Baker's drawstring bag pattern. I found the twill ribbon on etsy. Love the colors. I think I'll make some designated birthday ones too. They're just so handy!

But still, they were on my 3QFAL list, and now they're off it. So I'm happy.

28 July 2014

Color Mondays: Episode Yellow

You guys rocked the orange palettes last week! It may very well be the new pink! Some of my favorites:

Lauren from Charlotte's gRACE for a Cure, and I'm loving the idea of using a fabric swatch.

And my ever loyal, always can be counted on pal Katie at Katie Mae Quilts

Okay, if you don't like yellow, well, I'm not sure we can be friends. I LOVE yellow.

I had a plastic yellow purse in high school.

I drove a yellow VW Beetle. Until I bought an orange one for myself.

Tweety bird was a favorite as a child.

Yeah, I love yellow. Daisies, lemons, roses, butter, bananas, sunshine.

But finding a picture of yellow that I loved was hard. For about five seconds.

So play along! Find your picture (or pictures!), blog it, and link up! Have fun! And next week is green, so start planning.

An InLinkz Link-up

25 July 2014

Friday Finish: Hello Sunshine Nine Patch

When your mother-in-law offers to watch your kids for five hours, you jump at it. And I did! And you load a quilt the night before so you can get two done the next day.

I got two quilts done on Monday. The first, my Wagon Wheels quilt, you can see in yesterdays Designer Thursdays post. And enter to win the patterns!

And today is my Hello Sunshine Nine Patch.

I've used this pattern a few times already, and I still love it. It's the perfect lap/throw size in our house. We like our lap quilts to bundle around our toesies.

Plus, they make for better quilt forts!

Bound in a cute green plaid print from the line, and backed in snuggly flower flannel (which will be so much nicer in October!).

Linking up with Amanda Jean, and crossing this one off my 3QFAL list. Wanna know how many I've finished so far?

One final note: if I've never responded to a reply you've left, you might very well be a no-reply blogger. If you don't have an e-mail connected to your profile, leave it in your comment so I can reply. I've had several lately (especially on giveaways!), and if you ask a question or enter a giveaway, I have no way of contacting you.

24 July 2014

Designer Thursday: Two Little Banshees

Happy to announce my winner from last week was Julie! Congratulations! And she was the first comment, so it can happen.

Now, I love a nice big quilt block. Means putting together a big quilt goes that much faster.

And this quilt is BIG!

(my little peanut, whose quilt this will be)

Granted, the pattern only does four blocks and I did more than that. So, um, mine ended up being about 88X124. I know. HUGE!

Loved making this quilt. Quilted all over. Backed in flannel, which isn't so cozy right now, but will be come October. Bound with orange flowers. And checked it off the 3QFAL list.

The designer is Kate Henderson for Two Little Banshees. I discovered her on Craftsy, and grabbed the Wagon Wheels pattern right off.

But just look at her other patterns:

In Bloom (I have a jelly roll just ready for this one!)

Fergus Fish

Sails on the Harbour

There are more animals (platypus, anyone?), and her Spring Rain quilt is to die for adorable. The Seattle girl in me desperately wants one!

And, like all the designers featured on my Designer Thursdays, Kate has given permission for pattern purchasers to sell items made from her patterns.

And it gets better! She's offered, as a giveaway, a copy of her Wagon Wheels pattern AND the pattern of your choice. You lucky ducks! But now you have to choose, and I don't envy you there. I want them all! So head over to her Big Cartel store and tell me which is your favorite.

23 July 2014

WIP Wednesday: Too Cute to Spook Hexies

I finally found the time, and space, to lay out my Too Cute to Spook Hexies:

It's gonna be big. It's gonna be fun. I'm super excited for October!

21 July 2014

Color Mondays: Episode Orange

First, don't miss out on the pattern giveaway from During Quiet Time. You have until Wednesday night to enter. Easy - just leave a comment!

Are you having fun with color? I know I am! And, thanks to my friend Katie, I learned you can add more colors. I was working with six. Who knew you could increase it to TEN! I'm so excited! Just click on the little plus sign when you're building your palette.

My favorites from last week (yes, the two link-ups, but they are so fabulous!):

My Washington friend Katie chose cherries, and I love the range of reds in there!

Andy my Australian friend Kirsten chose poppies, and I'm loving those greens in there too!

Now this week is going to be a challenge for some of my friends.

Orange.

Don't hate it. It's not the new pink, and it's not everyone's favorite, I admit, but there are so many pretty things that are orange. Like cake.

Okay, that's tasty.

But what about sunsets? Roses? Gerber daisies? Sunrises? Leaves in the fall? Tigers?

Ya with me?

Okay, let's play.

I did only one this week. Just to be fair.

I love citrus fruits. I did make a quilt with citrus in mind. Here's a picture, in case you've never seen it:

Alright! Time to share. The drill: find a picture of something orange, or with orange in the picture. Upload it to the Palette Builder tool. Play around. Save it, blog it, and share it. That's it! You have all the way until Sunday night, so blog it whenever.

As suggested by Katie, I'll also let you in on next week's color: yellow. See a pattern here? I've skipped indigo, but we're cruising through the rainbow for the next few weeks. So you can plan a little better. Each link party is open for 6 days, so you can blog it on Wednesday or Friday or whenever. It's all good.

An InLinkz Link-up

18 July 2014

Friday Finish: Cake Slice Mini

You've seen this one more than a few times lately, so I won't blab on and on. Here it is:

Trying to decide where to hang this girl. My kitchen? My sewing room?

Stats:
Cake Slice Mini paper piecing pattern available here (it's free!)
Fabric: from my stash - lots of PKM, some Simple Life and Michael Miller

Checking off the 3QFAL list. I'm motivated this quarter - making tons of progress!

You still have time to link up at my Color Mondays party. Check it out! And don't forget to enter the pattern giveaway from Amy at During Quiet Time.

17 July 2014

Designer Thursday: During Quiet Time

Guess what? It's my anniversary today. Not that we've got plans. We're twelve days from the bar exam, so I'm not entirely sure I have a husband. There's this guy who leaves early in the morning and comes home after I'm in bed, and he looks familiar. But I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing lots of him come August 1st!

Also, if you haven't already, go check out my new Monday linky party: Color Mondays. Every Monday, I'm going to post a color, or inspiration. You find a picture, make a color palette, blog it and link it. It's fun!

Now, if there was ever any doubt I had a thing for hexies, well, this should put it to rest.

Love this little pencil pouch. Directions were clear. Oh how we need more patterns with clear instructions. It was a little challenging, but a little challenge is a good thing every now and again, wouldn't you say?

Designed by Amy Friend over at During Quiet Time, it's just too cute. And, as usual, she allows you, the small independent sewer, to sell items made from her patterns. All she asks is that you credit her for the design. Lovely, lovely person, don't ya think?

Now, her Etsy shop is not overflowing with cute little bag patterns.

Nope. Paper piecing is the name of the game, and I'm in love.

My favorites:
The Vintage Bathing Suit (I need one in red gingham, aqua polka dots . . .)

The Cardinal - I need to make one for my bird-loving auntie

Garden Boot - I'll need two yellow ones please. And aqua polka dots.

I really love this one:

And a gorgeous quilt pattern called Indie Vibrations

Are you sold yet?

How's about a giveaway? Amy has generously offered one of you up to $15 in free patterns. That could be 2-3 free patterns! How awesome is that? Head over to her etsy shop and tell me your favorite pattern(s). I won't force you to choose just one, since I couldn't!

Giveaway runs through midnight next Wednesday, July 23. I'll choose a winner and post it Thursday morning. Good luck! And get yourself this hexie pouch pattern. It's too adorable!

14 July 2014

Color Mondays: Episode Red

Hi! Welcome to Color Mondays!

It's a new, fun linky party where you get to play with color. Mondays can be so blah, so boring, so overwhelming, that I thought it might be fun to brighten them up with color.

Here's how it will work:

Each Monday, I'll post the theme and my own take on the theme. You find a picture. You upload it to the Palette Builder tool at Play Crafts. Make a palette you're happy with. Blog it. Link it. Done.

Some weeks we'll do nature scenes. Ocean, sky, flowers, trees, meadows, mountains. Other weeks, we'll do city scapes, or Disney movie stills, or a specific color. Cupcakes. Macarons. Jam jars. Pretty gardens. Dream houses. Living rooms. We're just going to have fun, that's all.

There's no pressure here. Just do it for the fun of it. You might find a palette that you simply must use for your next project. And that's where the fun really comes in! The linky party will stay open all week.

I thought I'd start off with colors. We'll work our way through the rainbow for now, with all sorts of variations in between.

So we'll kick it off with one of my favorite colors: red! Don't hate me, but I totally love that Taylor Swift song.

Speaking of Taylor . . .

I want those shoes.

Red just has to be one component of your palette. Let's see what we come up with, shall we?

Here's another:

And just for fun:

Love me some RDJr. And Iron Man.

Now your turn! Just find a picture (I found mine on Pinterest), upload it to the Palette Builder tool, and start playing. Then blog your palette, and link it up! I'm working on a button (so far, no luck with online tutorials, but I shall persevere!). When it's ready, I'll share it so you can share it.

An InLinkz Link-up

10 July 2014

A finish for Thursday

I finished this cute little girl on Tuesday. I don't want to wait to blog it, as I'm hoping to get all my finishes done this quarter, so here she is:

I used some fussy cut scraps of "The Simple Life" and then I used some layer cake squares for the lining pieces. I'm loving how it turned out.

I also cut my binding strips at 2.5" this time, rather than 2.25. Made things a bit easier to work with.

Headed to a special friend's house soon! Checking it off the 3QFAL list!

Oh, and the winner of the Swoon Sewing patterns giveaway is (drumroll please!) . . . Renea, who said:

I really like the Dorothy Day Tripper bag and the Stella Weekender bag. But I also like the wallet pattern. LOL Can you tell I love all the Swoon Patterns? Thanks for the chance to win one of the patterns. (I sure hope Alicia will do the picking as I can't make up my mind on which pattern I really like because I like them all!)

Congratulations, but I think you're going to have pick your own! I'll be in touch so you can get your prize!

Oh, hey, I discovered this piggy bank challenge. You might want to give it a try too.

Here's my piggy bank:

Just a mason jar with a slit cut out in the lid, but still. It's what I'm going to use. Just have to keep it hidden from the kids. They'll raid it! If I put it by the cleaning supplies, they'll never find it . . . And when the year is up, I'm going to buy fabric. Lots (or maybe not lots) of beautiful fabric! Or maybe go on a retreat again. Or both. We'll just have to see, won't we?

09 July 2014

WIP Wednesday: Dorothy Day Tripper #2

You know how I get with bags.

So let's try to not be surprised that I'm making another one. Or two.

These patterns are just so fantastic. You still have time to enter the giveaway for the Swoon pattern of your choice. Promise, you'll love them. And they are so affordable, you'll buy the rest!

Using more of my little pastry prints. My two favorite things: pastries and sewing. What could be better?

Linking up! Oh, and you still have a shot at the Swoon Sewing Patterns giveaway. You could get the pattern for this bag, or another one of the awesome patterns they've designed. Go to this blog post to comment.

And checking this one off the 3QFAL list.

08 July 2014

Fabric Tuesday: Apple Mini Finish

I know I'm not the only one here who has done this.

You start something super cute. You get kinda bored with it, or you don't know what to do with it when it's done, so you don't finish it. It gets buried.

And when you find it again, you love it again and you finish it. And you now have the perfect idea of where it should go. And that's such a great feeling, to know you've got one more Christmas gift ready!

I used Lori Holt's pattern from her book Quilty Fun, only it was the free online tutorial back before it was in the book. Just used some scraps of fabric I had lying around.

I have a super special auntie who took us to an apple orchard in New York once. And we picked a truckload of apples. Even though she's in Florida now, I'll always associate her with crisp, fall apples, and beautiful fall colors. So this will go to her as a little table topper for her fall table.

Linking up, marking this one off the 3QFAL list - one down, thirty-two to go!

07 July 2014

3QFAL: July August September Goals

I know I'm known for monster huge lists. I know it's one of my quirks.

So don't freak out when this one isn't a mile long. I'm trying to be realistic. I'm only listing quilts that have a back already. And some smallish projects along with those.

Since I've started working and bringing in some extra cash, I've been able to buy some of the things I need to finish more of my quilts. With the awesome mum-in-law, I just might git 'er done this quarter.

Okay, so alphabetical worked really well last time around. But I'm going to change it up just a bit:

To quilt:
Alpine Wonderland On A Whim