Ayumi of Pink Penguin (such a great blog) asked me to be part of a little group making coasters for Japanese designer and author Suzuko Koseki. You can read about Ayumi's idea in this post on her blog. And read more about Suzuko in this post. Many of you might know Suzuko from this book.
Each of us took a letter from Suzuko's first and last name and made a 4 1/2" coaster with that letter in the coaster, also putting a bit of fabric from Suzuko's designs into the coaster. My letter was S. I put an S in the door of my little house. The strawberry window shade and the roof are fabric from Suzuko's lines. I used binding from some fabric Lori Holt gave me in my snowman box.
Oops this pic got put sideways. Taking pictures from my iPhone and getting them on the blog is not always easy. Anyway, I used this linen blend from the new Ruby Star Rising by Melody Miller. I forgot to take a finish photo. These pics were obviously taken while I was binding the little coaster. Oh, I also put in a little tag showing that I made the coaster. I hope Suzuko loves what everyone has made.
I'm making myself a quilt in 2011 that is just for me. I started it and I'm going to work at it a bit at a time so I plan on finishing it by the end of the year. It will be a flag quilt showing my heritage. I'm 50% Slovak, 25% English and 25% Danish and of course, 100% USA. So my quilt will have 4 flag designs when I'm finished. I got the idea from Amy. This is as far as I've gotten with the UK flag. Check out Amy's quilt. I love it.
Shelbie helped me make my own ironing/pressing spray over the holidays. I even made my own label. I used a bottle from the dollar store. Here is the recipe and idea at Tinkerfrog. I did notice a little corn starch powder at the bottom of my bottle. Mr. Hive suggested next time we heat it (just bring it to a boil) to make sure the starch is all dissolved. So far though, I love how it works. I just shake the bottle before I use it for now. I used geranium oil I ordered at some Internet site. Essential oils are sold lots of places. It smells really great.

So I've been doing several things. I realize it has been a while since I've actually shown some sewing!

-nanette

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Isn't the combination of blogging and the internet just the most amazing thing? It is incredible to realize that people around the globe could turn on their computer and see what Nanette in little Alpine Utah recently made! It is almost magic. It is hard to imagine that the first pattern I recently sold for Dreaming Princess was to a quilter in Sweden. It is like bringing the world into my sewing room.

Two international experiences recently came my way:

Last year I had an email from Tineke, the editor of a quilting magazine in the Netherlands called Quilt & Zo. Tineke asked me if I would provide the magazine with a photo of my String Spool Quilt and let them publish the tutorial for the quilt in the magazine.
Quilt and Zo is a fantastic magazine with wonderful projects. I was very flattered and happy to have my quilt published in the Netherlands for people with interests the same as mine.
They did a lovely job with a full page color photo of my quilt and then instructions on the opposite page. It is written in Dutch, of course, but you can access my tutorial here.
I really love this quilt. This quilt is one that I thought of in the middle of the night. I hadn't really had exposure to string quilting before I made this quilt years ago. I just had the picture in my mind of what I wanted to make and that I wanted to use my scraps to make it.
It is an easy quilt and very dear to my heart. I remember my mom, Freda, having some olive green wood spools of thread in her sewing room that I thought were really pretty compared to the natural wood spools. My quilter, Wren, did an amazing job quilting it. I think this quilt is 6 years old or so.

My 2nd international experience is shared with several women from all over the world and was sparked by Ayumi from Pink Penguin. If you haven't been a follower of Ayumi, you simply must start. She's an amazing, lovely girl (and newlywed) with a fantastic eye and boat load of talent.
Ayumi and I have a love of fabric that overlaps. We like much of the same types of fabric including Suzuko Koseki fabric. You can read about Ayumi's project that she involved me in here. Ayumi asked me if I wanted to group with other women and make coasters to give to Suzuko. I also blogged about it here.
This is the photo from Ayumi's blog where she talks about the wonder of meeting Suzuko and seeing her talent first hand. You've got to go read about what is going on in Suzuko's studio.

It is incredible to me to have my coaster living with Suzuko in Japan and the photo and tutorial to my string quilt in the Netherlands. Fantastic. Isn't life full of surprises?

-nanette

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Hello everyone. I hope everyone has had a productive week. It has been a very very busy week at the hive with most of my family here. My house looks like a bomb exploded but I hope everyone will help put it back together soon. HINT HINT Girls.
Ayumi from Pink Penguin sent me a little package of Suzuko fabrics. They are really fun. Plus I think the pink Alice fabric is from Ayumi herself. Thanks so much Ayumi. If you haven't looked at Ayumi's blog in a few days hop on over and see her vintage and new fabric union jack block. Wow. So inspiring.
These are lovely fabrics. I am really happy to get a little gift from Suzuko. I don't want to use them but of course I shall.
I love the simplicity of the rich colors with stripes. I'm going to save them on my cutting table in my baby colander. Thanks so much Suzuko. I ordered some vintage fabric from Kimberly of Niesz Vintage Home and Fabric. Kimberly always has really wonderful great quality vintage fabrics. I opted for some small scale prints and Kimberly sent me a pack of gift cards along with my fabric.
I love the cards. This is such a great idea for fabric scraps. Kimberly did such a professional job. Thank you Kimberly!
This little yellow bud fabric has tiny butterflies in it. So pretty and petite.
The baby strawberries are perfect for my strawberry fabric collection and my ideas to use them. I just love strawberries. The scale is very simple.
I also got this fabric from Europe. I really need to finish my Red Riding Hood quilt and I thought this might add some whimsy to my quilt. I love the fanciful wolf.

It is really snowing hard here at my house. I was going to Costco this morning but that will have to wait. I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow so I'd better hurry and finish the baby quilt for my grandniece to be. Have a nice weekend everyone.

-nanette

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I have a nice book library of quilting books in my sewing room already so I try not to purchase more books unless I can get them at a great price and or I simply must must MUST have them. I love used quilt books. But these are brand new.
I've had these 3 books since earlier in the year and I have kept them out to page through and admire. Sometimes I've got an idea in my head for a quilt I want to make and paging through books will spark color or pattern or even help me decide the way to put together what I've been puzzling over. And then very occasionally I will make something right out of a book and actually follow directions! Amazing, huh.
Teapots always draw me and this one is so so cute.
I've always wanted to make a leaves falling from a tree quilt.
I'm itching to make a new apple quilt. I have an idea in my head and this really makes me want to stop the world and sew apples.
I am also thinking of projects for my sisters/nieces at our next reunion quilt retreat I think this quilt above is a great beginner quilt. It is interesting enough to keep all levels interested in the project.
This is from Suzuko's book. I love the courthouse step pattern. I would like to make one inspired by Suzuko's.
I always love potholders. They are truly mini quilts at their easiest and best.
I'm really liking the simplicity of log cabins right now. This one with so many different kinds of fabric hits me really where I live. This block is in my head and I love it. I think a courthouse step version would be a great quilt for the retreat in September, too.
I guess the reason I've been really going through my books lately is to help me plan my (shh) graduation quilt for my 18 year old daughter, Laurie. Laurie likes clean lines and plain fabrics. I don't want to make it too pastel but these are colors I think she likes. I'm not making a quilt from any pattern here or any that I've seen. I'm going to make a quilt inspired from the L in her name. So we'll see how it works out. I will say that the photos in the books really helped me get my mind right for Laurie's quilt and helped with my planning. Laurie knows I'm making a quilt but it is kind of a surprise what fabric and design I pick for her until the quilt reveal after graduation. I'm excited about it. I just have to try to keep things tucked out of site when she is around to keep the suspense.

-nanette

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Have you heard about the 2012 Sew Scraps Along at Jodi's Pleasant Home blog? Today Jodi is kicking off her month long of giveaways, tutorials, ideas and more and I'm her first guest designer using my tutorial for a Picnic Quilt.
If you are a regular reader you will be familiar with my scrap busting Picnic Quilt tutorial. We used this tutorial for my family quilt retreat last year. If you are a new reader, my free tutorials are on the right sidebar. January is a great time to clean out your scraps and make a quilt for summer.I keep my scraps in a (clean) trash bin under my cutting table. When I have scraps I just throw them in the trash bin and then recycle them in other quilts or give them away.
If you want to participate in the scrap giveaway here or at Jodi's blog, leave a short message and make sure your name and contact info are included.
I've loaded up a scrap bag for giveaway with some very recent and some distant scraps/pieces.
I've even included some of the scraps from my Row by Row PKM quilt.
I'm also including a Japanese Quilt book by Suzuko Koseki with my bundle of scraps. If you are interested in receiving my scrap bag and the book, head over to Jodi's blog for instructions and leave a comment here with this post.

This post will run through the entire week. Saturday January 7 at midnight MDT is the deadline to leave a comment. I will post the winner for the giveaway Monday January 9.

It is a new year people and time to clean things out and use up those scraps and good intentions.

-nanette

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Hi everyone. Time for a great giveaway. I have been wanting a Go! Baby cutter for a while now and I finally have one. And now it is your chance to get one too. First I'm going to tell you how to enter the giveaway and then I'm going to show you what fun you can have using the Go!Baby.
There are just 2 things you have to do to enter the giveaway. 1. You need to visit the AccuQuilt website and register your email to get their free patterns. Hey, free is great. Go HERE now and then come back for the rest of the post. 2. At the end of the post leave me a comment telling me you want to win a Go!Baby and that you have registered for the free patterns to your email address. If you have already registered your email at AccuQuilt previously then just let me know in your comment.
Before you leave your comment I want to show you what I've done with my Go!Baby. I have 3 of the Go!Baby Dies. The one I chose to use first is the tumbler.
It is so easy to use. You put your fabric on the bottom die cutting plate and then the plastic cover goes on top of the fabric. With a short crank of the handle your fabric is cut into your desired shape. It reminds me of making sugar cookies with the cut out shape and the little bit of left over around it.
I made the tumbler shapes out of my Joann's Denise Schmidt fabric.
I used my design board to lay out my tumblers into a bow tie pattern.
Then I sewed the tumblers into rows vertically. This is my first set of 4 rows. I am not sure yet how big I want to make this project.
To add some fun to the bow tie pattern I wanted to put buttons in the middle. But I used cheater buttons from fabric. I've been wanting to use this Yuwa fabric by Suzuko Koseki for some time now and this seemed the perfect project.
I appliqued the buttons onto the center seam of the tumbler bow ties made with matching fabric.
The buttons look so real but if I decide to use this as a baby quilt it will be child safe. I think it turned out really cute.
There is so much to do with the Go!Baby. I am excited to use it for upcoming projects.

Now leave me a comment telling me you registered for the free patterns through email and that you want to win a Go!Baby. I'll pick a winner with a random number generator on Friday July 22, 2011. Good luck everyone. The giveaway is open to everyone. Check back on Friday.

-nanette

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