In a couple of weeks, my local high school will be putting on yet another amazing drama production (not that I’m biased or anything!). My daughter didn’t audition for this play, but is instead helping the costuming director with measuring students, making costume adjustments, and doing any needed repairs as the production goes on.

In order to be as productive as possible, I knew it would be helpful for her to have her own sewing kit backstage. That way, she wouldn’t be hunting down the costume director for thread or trying to find an extra pair of scissors while on a time crunch. And, of course, it gave me a good excuse to make something cute! I mean, why use a boring, store-bought bag when you can have a fun, custom one?

My first task was to find a bag pattern that would work for her needs. For that, I turned to my Instagram followers. They did not disappoint- there were a few really great suggestions. Ultimately, I decided the Sew Together Bag would be the best one for the job.  This thing really is so roomy! And I loved that there were lots of different compartments to keep all the little notions that she’ll be carrying.

Next step- fabrics! She chose this gorgeous Bari J Millie Fleur print for the exterior and several different gray solids for the interior pouches. Then she kicked it up a notch by choosing Cotton + Steel Sparkle Canvas for the binding. Because its canvas, it adds a lot of sturdiness to the bag, and because it’s glittery, it makes my heart happy.

The bag pattern was fun and fairly easy to assemble. There were a few times that I had to re-read instructions, but that is to be expected the first time making anything! Now that I’ve done it once, this will be a cinch next time I make it. (And I WILL make it again because I LOVE this pattern)

My final step, of course, was filling the kit with everything I thought she might need as a costuming assistant. I will admit, that I may have gone a little overboard here- I know the costumer will probably already have buttons- but I wanted her to have a complete kit for any future work she does too. Plus, it was fun!

Here’s what I put in the kit:

Snips

Needles

Pins in a pincushion

Masking Tape (for quick hems)

Seam ripper

Small ruler

Tailors Chalk

Bobbins (I did six with various colors of thread)

Safety Pins

Wonderclips

Measuring Tape

Woven Elastic

Snaps

Buttons

Hook and eye closures

Interfacing scraps

Velcro

Patches

In the future, I will probably also add a thimble and pinking shears. Oh, and maybe my Clover mini iron… yes, it actually fits in there!

Anything I missed? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Sewing! ~L

Happy Monday, friends!

I am so happy to share with you today my latest pattern for Quilt Theory.

Introducing the Kayak Point quilt!

As some of you may know, for this collection, the Quilt Theory designers limited ourselves to a palette of 12 colors that we could use in our quilts. I knew right away which of the 12 colors I wanted to use. They just made me so happy! And I also knew right away that I wanted to use a selection of Michael Miller prints and solids… they’re so gorgeous!

As I was designing, I kept in mind that I wanted to make this pattern pre-cut friendly with very little waste. I’m happy to say that I succeeded- this quilt top uses almost two full jelly rolls or one jelly roll with yardage for the background.

I named this quilt after one of my favorite beaches here in Washington. I spent countless hours there with my dad and sister playing, crabbing, and learning to fish. The elongated diamond shapes remind me of kayaks lined up in rows. So of course, I had to do a little photo session out there!

 

I really pushed it down to the wire with this one… I finished the hand quilting on the afternoon before I was supposed to deliver it and took it out to Kayak Point to photograph it that night! Although time consuming, I think the hand quilting was worth it! Aurifil was kind enough to provide me with coordinating 12 weight thread to hand quilt each diamond, and I love how it turned out.

 

 

 

Giveaway Time! 

To help us celebrate, Michael Miller was gracious enough to offer one lucky winner a jelly roll of Modern Basics in Ocean AND 3 yards of Bright White Cotton Couture. That’s enough fabric to make a Kayak Point quilt top of your own!

My giveaway closes on October 22 at 12 am Pacific Time. Sorry international readers, this giveaway is only open to United States residents 18 and older. Winner will be randomly selected by Rafflecopter, and I will email them on the 23rd. If I don’t hear back from the first winner within three days, a new winner will be selected. Click the button below to be brought to the giveaway.

 

 Last but certainly not least, be sure to stop by each designer’s website this week for more info on all the Collection 3 quilts and lots of fun giveaways! Like, seriously, I wish I could win this stuff!

In case you missed it, here is the Blog Hop schedule:

Friday 10/13 – Quilt Theory

Saturday 10/14 – Michelle from Michelle Bartholomew Handmade Quilts

Monday 10/16 – Lorinda from Laurel Poppy and Pine (you’re already here!)

Tuesday 10/17 – Kitty from Night Quilter

Wednesday 10/18 – Stephanie from Late Night Quilter

Thursday 10/19 – Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl

Friday 10/20 – Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs

Saturday 10/21 – Quilt Theory

 

 

Happy Sewing! ~L

Happy Friday, friends!

My second entry for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival is vastly different than my By Your Side Quilt.

I made this one over the course of a year as a Christmas gift for my sister. It was all about the process on this one- experimenting with techniques, playing with color. I took my inspiration from the way my sister created a mural in her bedroom- bit by bit over time as she felt inspired, with lots of different-looking elements that blend together. My only guidelines were the color palette (I pulled all my fabrics before starting) and that I wanted lots of night skies and stars. You can see my original post about making this quilt here.

This one is so removed from my own style, but my husband paid me a huge compliment when it was on my design wall and he said, “Even if you hadn’t told me, I would know this was for your sister.” Because it was for her, I made sure it was something that she would enjoy. A couple of times over the last year, I’ve gotten texts from her with pictures of different parts saying, “I just noticed this!” I love that she’s still discovering new things after so many months.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Sewing, ~L

It’s time again for The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. It’s such a fun thing to get to see what everyone’s been making this year!

My first entry is my By Your Side Quilt. It was my second pattern for Quilt Theory.

I designed this quilt to honor the friendships in our lives and all the ‘links’ that bind those friendships together. You can read more about the inspiration here.

I am absolutely in love with the fabrics in this quilt. I used RJR solids combined with five Cotton + Steel Basics, which are pretty much my favorite thing ever.

I had lots of fun quilting this one with some meandering lines that let the quilt design shine. I have a friend who lovingly calls this ‘drunk quilting’. Whatever you call it, I really dig the texture it creates!

This quilt has found a comfy home on the couch at my new house. I love that it has become a focal point in the room.

Thank you for stopping by! Tomorrow I will share one more quilt for the festival that is completely different than this one, but also holds a very special place in my heart.

Happy Sewing, ~L

 

 

The word ‘busy’ for the most part annoys me and stresses me out. That being said, I can honestly say that my life has been very FULL lately! In case you haven’t been keeping up to speed on Instagram, here is a (hopefully) quick recap of what’s been going on in my life since I last posted.

 

First off, we finished packing up our house in preparation for our move. I really didn’t think I had that much stuff, but when you have to put everything you own in boxes…. well, apparently I DO have lot of stuff after all.

Four years ago, we promised our kids that we would travel to Oregon for the solar eclipse because my husbands hometown was in the path of totality. Now, at the time we didn’t know that 1) Nearly everyone else in the world was planning the same thing and 2) We would be moving the week after. We decided to go anyway because we wanted to visit Ryan’s grandmother (seated, with the patchwork quilt) who had been very sick. I am so glad we went, because she sadly passed away two weeks after this picture was taken. I am so glad we had that time with her and got to experience something so amazing together. She told me this one was “much better than the one is ’79” because there were no clouds blocking the view. It was a truly profound thing to see.

Our trip home was an adventure as well. Traffic was terrible, so we went off our route and came north along the Oregon coast. We stopped at a couple of beaches along the way to play in the sand and surf.

 

After getting home, I finished the Kayak Point quilt, my latest pattern for Quilt Theory. I took it for a quick photo shoot at (where else?) Kayak Point, the beach it was named after. I can only show you the dock today, but the pattern is coming out next month and I’m so excited to show you! The following weekend, my family took a day trip across the mountains to bring the quilt to Michelle so it could be photographed.

 

Then it was time to say goodbye to our old home and say hello to our new one! Ryan and I were so happy to sign the paperwork! We have a family tradition of camping out on the floor the first night we get keys to a new house and moving the following day. Our first dinner was Chinese takeout on the floor- very fancy!

A week after moving in, it was time for the kids to go back to school! Getting back into a routine has been really nice!

 

 

At that point, things were feeling pretty hectic, so took some time out for bunny snuggles and to enjoy the scenery at the new house.

 

I also took a little time to look at the fabric swatches from my past designs, take stock, and think about what to work on next. I decided to finish the collection with the cute little bees. Being in the forest is inspiring all sorts of new ideas, so I bought a new sketchbook just for that collection and have started compiling those ideas. It’s going to be cute!

 

Last Friday, I decided it was time to ease back in to my studio by sorting all my scraps! I also got some super happy mail. My Highland Tile quilt– my pattern from the first Quilt Theory collection, came back to me! It had been over a year since I saw it.

Over the weekend, it was time to put my focus back on the house. We have A LOT of branches and logs on the ground in the forested parts of out yard, so we spent the day chopping, clearing, and stacking up wood.  We still have so much more to go, but made a pretty good dent in it!

Last but not least, I ended out my weekend with some free motion quilting on a quilt I’ve been working on forever. I have about a million WIPs, so I’m really going to be working hard in the next few months to finish a bunch of things… hoping to have plenty of quilts to give away for Christmas!

So there you have it- the last month of my life! I’ll keep you updated as I (hopefully) bust out these WIPs over the next few months.

Happy sewing! ~L

Happy Monday! Today I’m down in Oregon watching the eclipse, but that certainly isn’t stopping me from enjoying the Blog Hop celebrations for Christa Watson’s new book, Piece and Quilt With Precuts!

Today I get to share with you the project I made using the third pattern in the book, Frequency. Also, I’m hosting a giveaway for an e-copy of the book! Details below.

But before all that, I’ve gotta talk a bit about the awesomeness of this book! Christa has done a great job making this a resource for both beginning and advanced quilters. Her opening chapters give a ton of information not just about basic quilting, but her favorite materials and lots of great tips. With each pattern, there is detailed instructions for a possible quilting motif.  She keeps the patterns simple yet beautiful, and gives tons of options for mixing and matching the patterns and quilting motifs. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure quilting book!

My first task was fabric selection. I wanted something fall-themed, but not in-your-face fall themed! I started with the navy floral, Magnolia Nightfall from Amy Simbaldi’s Charleston collection. It had exactly the sophisticated fall palette that I was looking for. From there, I pulled blenders to coordinate.

Because I was pulling from my stash, cutting strips was the most tedious part of the process. I like Christa’s plan of using precuts much better! But once they were cut- oh boy- were they gorgeous of what?!

Chain piecing the strips was really fun because I got to play with combinations of background and focal fabrics and it all went super quickly. I love patterns where the process is so enjoyable!

When it came to quilting, I wanted to take advantage of the mix-and-match fun in this book. But of all the quilting motifs included, I really felt like the zig zag that Christa suggested for this pattern was the best for my project.

I decided to make four blocks from this pattern to make a baby quilt instead of a full-sized one. It will be donated to a local charity through my guild. I added a scrappy binding by machine for durability and to save time. I love hand binding, but I think that in the future, my quilts for kids will probably be machine-bound.

I love how it’s such a fun and quick finish, but has a lot of visual impact. It’s a great pattern to really draw attention to a beautiful fabric collection.

Now that you’ve seen my project, head on over to  Masterpiece Quilting and  Stitch This! to see what they made out of the same pattern. 

This book is a great resource to have. I will definitely be using it in the future to make more pretty things.

And because I love it so much, we’re doing a giveaway for an e-copy of the book! (Thank you, Martingale!) 

Simply leave me a comment letting me know which project out of Piece and Quilt With Precuts that you’d like to try.  I’ll be randomly selecting a winner at the end of the Blog Hop.  Giveaway is open to everyone over 18. I’ll notify the winner via email, so make sure you’re not a no-reply blogger or leave me your email in the comment in this format:  laurelpoppyandpine(at)outlook(dot)com

Good luck!

And if you don’t want to wait to see if you win, or want to score a SIGNED copy,  visit Christa’s website to purchase a signed copy of the book directly from her!

Thanks for stopping by; happy sewing! ~L

Hi friends! I’ve been super busy packing up and preparing to move, but I wanted to give you a heads up that today is the start of the Blog Hop to celebrate Christa Watson’s new book, Piece and Quilt With Precuts.

I knew I would be busy this month, but when Christa asked if I wanted to celebrate with her, I just had to say yes! Here’s a sneak peek of my project.

This book is great, friends. Lots of beautiful patterns and quilting instruction, but I’ll share more about that on my scheduled Hop day!

Speaking of schedules, here is Christa’s blog post with links to all the participants for each day.

And here’s something fun: You can purchase a SIGNED copy of Piece and Quilt With Precuts here.

(Incidentally, it is also Christa’s birthday, so make sure to wish her a happy day when you stop by her site.)

Looking forward to sharing full pictures of my project with you on Monday.

Happy sewing, L

Hi all! As you may have noticed, my weekly What’s Up Wednesday and Color Play Friday posts haven’t been happening for a couple of weeks. In the hustle and bustle of moving prep, planning a trip, and having kids home for summer, I just haven’t gotten to my computer much.

Here’s what’s been going on in my studio:

I’ve been packing!

Because I need to focus solely on my next Quilt Theory quilt until the move, I was able to pack up all my other WIPs and my fabric stash. Of course, that has left me digging through bins more than once looking for something I thought I wouldn’t need!

I needed a couple of quick finishes this week, so I finished quilting my Improv Flower panel and then made both it and my Domestic Weave panel into throw pillow covers for the media room in the new house.  Both of these patterns are from classes I took with the amazing Mister Domestic. Mathew is a super fun teacher- you should take a class with him if you ever get the chance!

So that’s really it for now! I’ll be posting fairly sporadically through August, but will be back at it in September once I’m settled in to my studio.

Oh, and don’t forget to keep an eye on my Instagram account for sneak peeks of my new Quilt Theory quilt as I finish it up!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Oops!  I was super busy this afternoon, and I hosted a party this evening, so I’m just now  getting around to posting. Technically I’m not late because in Washington state it’s still Wednesday!

So, what have I been up to this week? Well, my most exciting news is not sewing related… I sold my house! Whew! We’re waiting for our inspection results, and if all is well (as we’re expecting), I can finally start relaxing a bit on keeping this place show-ready. As for the new place: finish work has begun and we’re starting to feel like we’re in the home stretch. (No pun intended!)

There has been some sewing happening in my studio lately, though never as much as I’d like!

This week, I attended a fun workshop with Mister Domestic put on by Seattle Modern Quilt Guild. We worked on Mathew’s Improv Flower pattern. I really love improv projects, and this was no exception. I love that each project is completely unique- just like flowers!

 

And today I finally started my Stash Fabrics Design Star Challenge entries. (If you’re unfamiliar with the contest, find details here.) I’ve been busy with house stuff lately, and got going on it later than I would have liked.  But now that I’ve started the process, I never want to stop. I think curating cute bundles of fabric is pretty much my dream job. You can visit my Instagram to see what I’ve come with so far. There will be many more bundles in the coming weeks.

I hope that you’re week is going well- halfway to the weekend!

Happy Sewing, ~L

As busy as things have been for me lately, I always love taking the time to gather fabric into cute bundles.

This week, I have another cute and bright bundle for the Out on the Farm prompt.

 

I knew right away that the red apple fabric would be the start of my bundle.  I then added the cherry fabric, because cherries are in season right now. My trees out back are going crazy! I knew I wanted a second color in my bundle, so I pulled the green from the cherry leaves and picked a few green fabrics. I had to be careful to keep everything from looking like Christmas, so I added the coral dots and triangle fabric to help keep things fun and summery.

I hope you enjoyed my bundle this week; next week’s prompt is:

Happy Sewing, ~L