Dallas Quilt Show

I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas Quilt Show, for the very first time, with an old friend and a new friend. I cant believe I have never gone before! It was so much fun looking at fabric, sewing tools, amazing show quilts and everything else quilt related.

Some of my favorite show quilts: (sorry for the cruddy phone pics)

Ive been wanting to make a patriotic quilt to put out around Independence Day so I was really liking these two:

Gorgeous cathedral window quilt. This was made a little differently allowing the windows to literally pop off the quilt giving it a 3D effect.

These next two are all appliqued. I thought this one was a print at first.

So much detail in this one too!


This mini quilt has the tiniest stippling ever! Pretty incredible.

Here's a little size reference. Incredible how it goes all through and around the ribbon flower (which were done before the quilting.)


I went in saying I wasn't going to buy anything, and of course wasn't able to stick to my guns. My favorite fabric find was this cute stack. I loved purple in high school and I guess I got sick of it because I've hated it ever since. But for some reason the combination of the gray, navy, and purple really struck a chord with me and I couldn't let go of this stack. It's Art Gallery Spellbound from Material Girl.


I also had to hunt down a pair of these awesome scissors after hearing so much hype about them the night before at the Dallas Modern Quilters Guild.


I had such a great time. I'm definitely going every year from now on!

Mistakes...

...they happen to us all, but you rarely hear about them in blogland.

I always like to hear the "real" story from the more experienced crafters and how to fix problems. So I figured I'd share mine...

Remember the post that I first showed this?

For Christmas, my Mother-in-law had a special request for a laptop case. So I took measurements and then went to work. Well sure enough, on Christmas morning it didn't fit. This is always my biggest fear (the same reason I don't make clothing.)

I had no idea what I was going to do fix it and not make it look terrible. My initial thought was to add a couple of inches onto one end, which wasn't really an option because it would look totally obvious. So I thought and thought, and finally figured it out...add a couple inches to the middle!

So I basically cut the whole case right down the middle. Cut some red fabric strips and batting to size then stitched the middles back together. I also quilted straight lines down the new middle section (since the original pieces were also quilted and to help hold it all together.)

I actually like the final version best! Love the contrasting red stripe down the middle and cute yellow button!

Fussy Cut Bee block for January

It has taken me a long time to get back into sewing since the holidays. I guess life has gotten the best of me lately...seriously, there is no end to the pile of laundry!

But I was finally able to finish my January block for the Fussy Cut Bee.

Love the fabrics and block design Lucia!





credits~
fabric: Nest by Tula Pink
block tutorial found here

Need help choosing matching fabrics?

Hawthorne Threads has recently become one of my favorite places to shop online for fabrics. Why? Not only do they have almost every modern print you could ask for, but their website boasts some amazing features.

Have a print that you'd like to find some additional fabrics to match with it? No problem. When on the web page of your fabric, just scroll to the bottom and find the color blocks. These are the colors that are present in the fabric. Click whichever block contains the color that you'd like to have in an another fabric, and up pops tons and tons of fabrics containing that color. And not only that color, but you can change the options from the color being a high or low dominance, and even a "very close color" match or "somewhat close." This is such a great tool when trying to build a stack of fabrics to work with for a quilt or anything else!


Don't have a fabric picked out yet but have a color in mind? Just click on the color grid! Choose any color and tons of fabrics containing that color will pop up. It's really fun just to click around on the grid and see what comes up!

So next time you're in a bind trying to match fabrics for just looking for suggestions, try these awesome features over at Hawthorne Threads!