Urban Candy on "Steroids" & "Tame" Urban Tiles

I felt a little bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this past week.

First for my Dr. Jekyll experience:  I finished piecing and quilting up my small version of Urban Tiles.  Jenny had asked me to write up the pattern for Urban Tiles, so first I pieced four Urban Tile blocks.  Jenny's was really scrappy so I made mine very uniform to give it a different look.  I like how it turned out and it feels very tame compared to her original version.  This look is safe, pleasant, controlled, etc.  Very Dr. Jekyll...

Now for Mr. Hyde:  I decided I was going to piece and quilt a version of Urban Candy.  I love the line "Mod Century" from Jenny Ski of Moda Fabrics and new it would work great for this pattern.  Jenny (my Jenny not Jenny Ski) and I thought it would be fun to reverse the background and prints from the original pattern.  I bought the layer cake and 1/3 yard of yardage for all the background pieces and Kona gray for the the solid curves.  I was a wild quilty lady on Friday: I bought the fabric, cut the pieces, and sewed up the entire quilt in 1 day.  Very MR. HYDE...  Yesterday I quilted the vertical lines to give it a little peace and sewed on the binding for a break from the scrappy background.  My 17 year old son said it looked like a quilt on Steroids!  I really LOVE how it turned out and I have sat and looked at it now for about an hour just mesmerized by the randomness of the background fabric and the beauty of the gray curves.  Working with the "Mod Century" line was just as exciting as the fabric is...

It was kind of exciting being Mr. Hyde because I am usually only a Dr. Jekyll......

Helen

I TRIED... but I just can't do it anymore!

I'M DONE........(in the immortal words of Jacob from one of the Twilight Movies that my 16 yr old son laughs about whenever he hears this phrase)

I have been quilting for over 15 years and as time goes by my quilting likes and dislikes have changed.  We all change...we change how we cut out fabric, we change how we do binding, we change which blocks we like to make, and we even change the kind of fabric we are inspired by and purchase. 

For years I bought and sewed with traditional fabrics.  And I have a lot of it still floating around my sewing room.  When Jenny and I decided to do the "Curve It Up" QAL with traditional blocks we each wanted to use different fabrics to show the blocks with alternate color ways and fabric choices.  Jenny knew right away she was going to use the orange, turquoise fabrics she had.  I couldn't decide, so I procrastinated until the first block was going to be posted in a couple of days, and I hurried and made it out of traditional fabric I had and I thought I would feel great about using up some of my stash.

Well.....after four blocks I'm done!  I am not even inspired by my own blocks!!!  It is my turn tomorrow to do block #4 and I was dreading using the traditional stuff.  I made my block yesterday and did a draft of my post and was depressed about it again.

 So here they are in all their muted safe boring glory!  And now they're gone.....

The new me for the Curve It Up QAL series will now look like this!  I am challenging myself to use just one print and multiple solids for each block.  It will stretch my imagination a bit.

For suffering through this post with me, if you LOOK you can figure out what block #4 will be...(hehe)

Much better.....Helen

QCR Ruler-Pattern-Quilt Kit Giveaway with "Sew Mama Sew"

Giveaway is no longer open.  Thank you to all who participated!  Winner will be announced Saturday, December 8!

This week is Sew-Mama-Sew's wonderful giveaway week with hundreds of items being given away.  Thanks for visiting my blog!

I am participating by giving away a  Deco Tumbler Quilt Kit and Quick Curve Ruler!

Even if you have never sewed a curve before, with the Quick Curve Ruler and Deco Tumbler Pattern this quilt will work up very fast!  I chose Kona Iron for the background and 4 great red/white fabrics for a very modern/contemporary combination!! Red/White/Gray is my new favorite color combination....

If you already have a Quick Curve Ruler or Deco Tumbler Pattern then you can check one of your quilty friends off your Christmas list;0)

Here is a full picture of Deco Tumbler - 56x76

International Entries are most welcome!
Give-away is open until December 7 at 5pm PST.

To enter the drawing please leave a comment about your new favorite color combination that is inspiring you to be creative!!!

For a second chance to win become a follower of my blog and leave a second comment indicating that.  If you are already a follower leave a second comment telling me that also.

Good Luck and 'MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!'

Happy Sewing!
Helen

More QCR quilts......and Mulqueens

I have been busy making some store samples for one of my local shops, Mulqueens, which now carries the Quick Curve Ruler and QCR patterns.  I demo'd the ruler at the Rusty Barn Craft Show in Phoenix in November at the Mulqueen's booth, and I will demo again with Mulqueens in January at the BIG Rusty Barn Craft show in Phoenix and at the Arizona Quilters Guild Quilt Show in March at the Mesa Convention Center.

Mulqueens is this crazy busy hive of activity.  They sell and repair vacumes and sewing machines, irons, notions, rulers, patterns, long-arm supplies, fabric and 225 bolts of KONA SOLIDS. ( yes, they have every color)   My Gammil Long-Arm was all out of sorts last June, and I took it in and they fixed it in a day and had me back to sewing so quick I didn't even get a break. Lol.  

I sat by Pam and Ginger in the Houston Airport after Quilt Market and we were chatting about quilty things and Ginger said I know you.  You come into Mulqueens and buy long-arm thread and needles and then it dawned on me how I knew them.  Anyway, after chatting a bit about Quilt Market, the Quick Curve Ruler and the QCR patterns they said Mulqueens would probably want to carry them in their store where they both worked.  So that is how simply this whole thing started and today I am taking in three shop samples.

I made Urban Chained, Urban Abacus and Deco Shimmer for their shop.  They gave me the fabric and I used it at the Rusty Barn Show a few weeks ago as my demo samples which worked great because after three days I had all my blocks cut and pieced and I just had to square-up and assemble the rest of the quilt tops together.  They are getting a flimsy of Urban Chained and Abacus, but I decided yesterday that I should quilt up Deco Shimmer since it is in Christmas fabrics and it should be displayed before this holiday season is over.  I quilted an all-over holly vine and used my favorite holiday red striped fabric for binding.

This is my own quilt of Urban Abacus and their store sample is done in the same colors.

This is my own quilt of Urban Chained.  Their store sample is done up in similar colors.

Mulqueens has long-arm machines set up in their store and they will quilt up the store samples as they demo their machines.

Happy Sewing

Helen

A little long-arm action...

Over the past month I have finished a few customer quilts. I want to share some beautiful quilts.

I always enjoy quilting for customers and working on a variety of quilts that I could never get around to piecing.

This is an updated version of my Tic Tak Deco pattern.  Really fun and graphic!  New pattern photo soon!

Toni's super fun and happy quilt that I jazzed up with ribbon candy quilting and swirls.

Of course, I had to use my favorite back-n-forth filler:0)

Toni had me use this SUPER long fuzzy minke backing.  Kind of weird to quilt on.  Toni said over time all the fuzzies come out of the stitching and it just looks fuzzy on the back and you can't see the stitches....

Karen had pieced this great geometric quilt.  I did a free-hand spiral square on the center blocks and repeated the linear lines in the border to frame it.

Karen wanted pine cones and moose on this earthy table runner.

LOOK close....there is the outline of a moose.

A little fun background fill...

I always love this pattern that creates the illusion of curves without sewing a curve.  I always use my Quick Curve Ruler to make the curves in my quilts...Lol

Happy Sewing, Helen

Practice - Practice - Practice

I have been working on a curved four patch block.  I am trying to get the final block to measure 8.5" square.  It only took 7 tries to get the dimensions I wanted.  Here are three of my tries. This is your teaser for next week's post on our 'Curve It Up - QAL.'

Happy Sewing, Helen

Cyber Monday Sale!!! 25% OFF

Good News!  To go along with every other great thing on sale today everything in my store is 25% off!!!

This includes all patterns AND the Quick Curve Ruler!

 

But HURRY this sale expires at midnight tonight!  Just enter the code "save" in the discount code box.

Happy Shopping and Sewing  :0)

Helen