WIP Wednesday / Announcements

Come visit me over at Freshly Pieced today, where I am guest posting for WIP Wednesday! I actually have some quilty progress :D

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Be sure to visit these stops on the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop:
July 17
 Katie from Kati's Quilting
 Claire from Sewing over Pins
 Caroline from Quilting in the Cold

 July 19
 Jamie from Sweet Baby Jamie
 Janine from Rainbow Hare Quilts

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The giveaway for a paper copy of the Groove Quilt pattern is still open until 12pm CST tomorrow (July 19). Click the link for more details!

Totally Groovy QAL & Pattern Giveaway! [CLOSED]

Alyssa over at Pile O' Fabric is hosting the Totally Groovy Quilt Along, which is sure to be a blast! This is a very cool quilt and there are a ton of fantastic prizes, so I hope you'll join in! I am giving away one paper copy of the Totally Groovy Quilt pattern, see the end of this post for more details! 

Pile O' Fabric has partnered up with Carolina Patchworks (Emily Cier) who is an amazing quilt designer and writer. She wrote Scrap Republic, Quilt Remix, and Pixel Play (coming soon). You can see her work in Modern Blocks, and she is one of the 16 Iconic Quilt Designers in the newly released book, We Love Color.

For this Quilt Along we will be using Emily's Groove Quilt Pattern, which Emily will be offering at a discount for all QAL participants. It might seem a bit intimidating, but Emily assures it is much easier than it looks! This will nevertheless be a challenging Quilt Along in Solid Color Selection and Curve Piecing, but still achievable for the newer quilter—and rewarding, too! As you quilt along there will be wonderful tutorials and advice on fabric selection, piecing curves, and quilting techniques from amazing quilters. Emily's patterns are very easy to follow and always have instructions for crib, lap, twin, queen, and king. You are welcome to make this quilt any way you see fit, so if you prefer to use prints then go for it! It will be neat to see everyones own interpretation.

Here are the current scheduled posts for the Quilt Along. We will be learning the ins and outs of curve piecing from amazing quilters Emily Cier, Jacquie Gering, Amanda Woodruff, and Kate Conklin. We will also be getting some Groovy Quilting tips from Quilting Extraordinaire Angela Walters. This will be a fantastic learning experience, and a great opportunity to meet some new quilting friends!

• August 2nd - Planning and Choosing your Fabric (and if you need fabric, I’ve arranged for a 20% discount on Kona Cotton at Fat Quarter Shop)
• August 9th - Meet the Totally Groovy Designer, Emily Cier
• August 16th - Cutting your templates
• August 22nd - Intro to Curves Piecing by Alyssa Lichner
• August 23rd - Piecing Traditional Curves by Jacquie Gering at Tallgrass Prairie Studio
• August 30th - Piecing Curves without Pins by Kate Conklin at Kate Conklin Designs
• September 6th - Piecing Curves without Pins by Emily Cier at Carolina Patchworks
• September 7th - Piecing Curves with a Curve Master Foot by Amanda Woodruff at A Crafty Fox
• September 13th - Putting all the pieces together, finishing your quilt top
• September 20th - Choosing a Backing Design
• September 27th - A Look at Emily Cier's New Book Pixel Play
• October 4th - Totally Groovy Quilting Tips by Angela Walters from Quilting is my Therapy
• October 18th - Wrapping up and linky party begins
• October 25th - Submissions do for Grand Prize Winners
  
  
  

Throughout the course of the QAL, participants will have the chance to win AMAZING prizes from the following Sponsors. For exact prize details you can visit Pile O' Fabric

The Pattern

Carolina Patchworks will be offering all QAL Participants a discount on her pattern.

• 20% off 2 or more (a great chance to get another one of Emily's wonderful patterns) code: TOTALLYGROOVY
• 15% off Groove Paper Pattern code: GROOVEPAPER
• 15% off Groove PDF Pattern code: GROOVEPDF

 

The Fabric

Fat Quarter Shop is offering all QAL Participants a 20% Discount on all KONA cotton from now till August 30th using code: Sewing101

Pile O' Fabric is having a giveaway for a Totally Groovy Quilt Package! Everything you need to join the fun $75 to The Fat Quarter Shop to get your fabric and a Groove Quilt Pattern to Quilt Along! This giveaway ends July 31st.

Flickr Group

Join the flickr group, which can be found here. This will be a great place for us to come together and share photos of our progress and get to know each other.

 

Totally Groovy Button

If you’d like to let people know what fun you are up to or invite your friends to join here is a button!

<div align="center"><a href="http://pileofabric.com/post/1001884-totally-groovy-quilt-along-with-prizes" title="Pile O' Fabric"><img src="http://pileofabric.com/Events/totally-groovy-qal/button_sm2.jpg" alt="Pile O' Fabric" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Sign up and be entered into a drawing to win a pattern!

Pile O' Fabric would like to get an approximate head count of you all. If you plan to join and Quilt Along please fill out the sign up form, this will NOT commit you to anything. If you sign up you will be entered into a drawing to win 1 of 10 Groove Patterns (paper).

For complete details of The Totally Groovy Quilt Along you can visit Alyssa at Pile O' Fabric.

 

Promotional Partners

If you want more chances to win a Groove Pattern then check out these other blogging friends who have offered to help promote the QAL. Some will be giving patterns away!

• July 14th - Taryn @ Pixels to Patchwork
• July 16th - Jacey @ JaceyCraft
• July 17th - Angela Walters @ Quilting is my Therapy
• July 18th - Tessa @ The Sewing Chick
• July 19th - Erica @ Kitchen Table Quilting
• July 20th - Kelly @ Live. Love. Create
• July 21st - Jacquie @ Tallgrass Praire Studio
• July 22nd - Jennifer @ Ellison Lane Quilts
• July 23rd - Heidi @ Fabric Mutt
• July 24th - Beth @ Plum and June
• July 25th - Barbara @ Monumental Quilts
• July 26th - Allegory @ Sew Allegorical
• July 27th - Danny @ Mommyforreals
• July 28th - Penny @ Sew Take a Hike
• July 31st - Amanda @ A Crafty Fox
• August 1st - Kate @ Kate Conklin Designs

Okay everyone time to get your Quiltin' Groove on!! :)

GROOVE QUILT PATTERN GIVEAWAY Would you like a chance to win a paper copy of Carolina Patchworks Groove Quilt pattern? I am giving one away to one lucky commenter! To enter, leave *one* comment telling me your favorite Kona solid color. Mine changes a lot, but it is currently Papaya! This giveaway is open to everyone. Valid email address is required. If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please be sure to include your email address in your comment so that I am able to contact you if you win. This giveaway will close Thursday, July 19th at 12pm CST! I will use random.org to choose the winner.

**COMMENTS ARE CLOSED**

The winner is comment #33, Anonymous! Congratulations! Thank you again to everyone who entered!

Happy Monday!

My first (finished) zipper project! I have started a couple of projects with zippers, but I usually start quaking with fear over the zipper and setting the project aside indefinitely. After making this pouch, I feel silly for avoiding them for all these months! I used the zippered pouch tutorial at Make it Perfect for the actual pouch construction, but I did my own thing for outside.

I used Colorful Turtles/Tortoise on Blue (How cute are those turtles?!) and Amy Butler Full Moon Polka Dot in Cherry for the outside and Hello Pilgrim Dusty Blue Stripe for the inside. I added a ribbon and monogram. I wanted to add charms on the zipper and found the cute turtles at Hobby Lobby. I also found crystal beads I liked and used a headpin to make them into a beaded charm. This 8"x 6"pouch now lives in my purse, being useful. 

I kind of want to find a way to incorporate a zipper into everything now. ;)

I seriously underestimated the amount of time hand-stitching class would consume...and I signed up for Wild Olive's The Embroidery Project Re-sized too! I am about 2.5 projects behind on the first class and the second class started today. I'll have a lot of time to myself this week, so I hope I can catch up!

For the Handstitched Class Sashiko Coaster project. I used Essex Linen in Dyed Black, Hot Pink, Medium Aqua and Lime. I am obsessed with the dyed black right now. I think it has great texture. I am still having a terrible time with transfer paper, so I ended up taping the template on a window and tracing it onto the fabric with a disappearing marker. I decided not to use high contrast embroidery thread because my stitching is still wonky, but my favorite one ended up being the pink one with the most contrast! The Sashiko embroidery is really relaxing and I felt as if no time had passed when I finished the embroidery for each coaster. I would love to work this embroidery into a quilt someday!  

I also did a few sewing room updates this past weekend. My rulers are now on the wall! This has been great, because they usually end up on the floor ready to be stepped on or lost under disorganized piles of fabric. There is still one missing ruler, hopefully I find it someday so I can fill that space! The Command Utensil Hooks ended up working the best for me. I originally found the generic Command hooks, which worked fine for the flexible rulers, but not so great for the thick plastic ones.

I spray painted the ironing board. I don't have a before picture, but it was an awful powder blue color. I spray painted it Grape and got a new ironing board cover. It is much more fun ironing on a board that doesn't have interfacing plastered all over it (OOPS!).

As for quilts, they are still in the sewing together phase! I will be taking a pictures when they reach a more photogenic stage!

Don't forget to visit this weeks stops on the Let's Get Aquainted Blog Hop!
July 10: Jenelle from Echinops and Aster & Julie from Bedsheet in the Kitchen
July 12: Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade & Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks