Change of {Quilt Along} Plans...

Ok, so there's been a change of plans.  For those of you who don't know who Elizabeth Hartman is, she's a fantastic quilting blogger, among other things, and her quilts are AMAZING.  You can find her at Oh,Fransson!  She just came out with her own book called The Practical Guide to Patchwork that is a fresh, modern and updated book about the basics of quilting.  It also features 12 beautiful quilting projects!  I have been waiting by my mailbox for this book since I preordered it from Amazon.com.  It wasn't supposed to arrive until November 19th, but it showed up THIS week and totally surprised me and made my day!

I WAS going to do a strip quilt for the Quilt Along with all of that lovely Tufted Tweets fabric (and as a XMas gift for one of our moms); however, I was looking through the book and found a quilt that is just perfect (in my mind) for those fabrics.  So now, the Quilt Along is going to follow one of the projects from this wonderful book called Kitchen Windows (p.77).  You can see what the finished quilt looks like here.  I chose this project specifically because it's perfect for making lovely print fabrics the focus, which is what I wanted for these Tufted Tweets fabics. 

To get your own copy of The Practical Guide to Patchwork, so you can follow along... pick it up at the link above or just click on the pic of the book cover above.  

Here's the Materials List for the Stacked Chairs {Quilt Along}:

• The Practical Guide to Patchwork book!
• 12 different 12" x 16" pieces of beautiful print fabrics for the blocks
• 1 5/8 yards contrasting solid fabric for the window frames
• 2 yards neutral solid fabric for the quilt borders and sashing
• 1 3/4 yards each of 1 large-print and 1 small-print coordinating fabrics for backing
• 5/8 yard binding fabric
• 56" x 72" batting
• 12 organizer cards

Can't wait to start this project with all of you!

Infinity Scarf {Tutorial}

As promised, here is the tutorial for how to make an infinity scarf.  I had some questions as to what an infinity scarf is.  It's a scarf with no end and no beginning... so a continuous circle, that you loop around your neck.  They've gained in popularity this year and I've seen them everywhere, so I thought I would go ahead make my own!  Here's how to make your own in time for the cooler weather that's on its way (or already here for some of you).

My appologies for the picture quaility, or lack thereof.  It was night time when I sewed this scarf and the lighting wasn't so great.

STEP 1:  Cut your fabric(s) to the desired length and width.  I used fabric 2 yards in length and 16" in width (enough to accomodate a full panel of Anna Maria Horner's Square Dance voile).  I used 2 different fabrics to make this scarf reversible, as well!

STEP 2:  Place your fabrics right sides together.

STEP 3:  Sew around the 2 long sides and 1 short side using coordinating thread and 1/4 inch seams.

STEP 4:  Turn your scarf right side out and press the seams.  One short end of the scarf will still be open. 

STEP 5:  Turn ~1/2 an inch of those rough ends inside the scarf and press these, as well.

STEP 6:  Insert the opposite end of the scaf into the open end to make a single continuous loop.  Sew the site of fabric insertion and your infinity scarf is finished.

You now have a completed infinity scarf! 

Wear all season long!

{Weekend Update} and Future {Quilts}

Ok, so this post is a bit late... my whole family has been fighting colds for a few weeks and I still feel run down.  My guest room (a.k.a. sewing project room) is full of drawers of soon-to-be quilts.  I admit I feel like I've been so busy (and sick) lately that I haven't made sufficient progress on ANY of them. 

I DID finish the scarves for the giveaway and they are officially off in the mail.  I'm posting an Infinity Scarf Tutorial tomorrow, so keep an eye out!

Here's the fabric for a future string quilt that will use 2.5" strips cut from the fantastic Tufted Tweets line of fabrics from Laurie Wisbrun. 

To make the fabrics pop a bit more in this quilt, I'm going to use Kona Solids in Coal and Iris.  This quilt is going to be simplisticly sweet and a great pattern for letting fabulous fabics be the focus.  Join me in making this quilt by following my step-by-step tutorials with the Stacked Chairs Quilt-Along!  The Quilt-Along will start next Monday and I hope you'll join in, or at least follow along and give feedback and comments.

So many beautiful fabrics waiting in the wings!

I will have one finished project to show off by the end of the week and it's for a very important little man.  Elliott's Lagoon quilt is almost finished!  I decided to go with parallel "wonky" lines for the quilting.  And, of course, I'm still working on the Folk Dance Quilt in lovely jewel tone fabrics.

Stay tuned...

First {Giveaway Winners} and Happy Friday!

As promised, it's time to announce the giveaway winners.  And the winners are: 1) Christa and 2) Beth.  Congratulations!!! 

Both ladies have selected to have reversible scarves made.  One lady has selected a regular and one an infinity scarf.  Since there was a question as to what an infinity scarf is, I will explain.  It's basically a scarf with no ends (thus, infinity)... one big loop that you can further loop around your neck or drape across your shoulders.  I'll put these scarves together this weekend and will also put together a tutorial for the infinity scarf for those of you interested in making one at home!

Both winners were selected at random using the research randomizer to select two numbers between 1 & 13.  Comments #2 (Christa) and #6 (Beth), where post #1 was the first reply and post #13 was the last reply, were selected as the winners.

Congratulations again on winning my first giveaway and keep a look out next week for that tutorail!  Happy Friday and I hope you ALL have a wonderful weekend.  Keep an eye out for giveaways in the future too!

~Ali