Welcome to Color Play Friday, friends!

More about Color Play Friday:

Trina from In An Otter Life and I created Color Play Friday one day after a nice trip to the fabric store together.

 Here are the rules:

1. Each week, Trina or I will select a picture from our joint Pinterest board. These are all pictures that one of us has taken on our adventures.
2. We each create a palette using colors from that picture
3. We then create a bundle of 5-8 fabrics that is inspired by that palette. They don’t have to be an exact match to our palette, and we can throw in contrasting or accent colors, but the bundle should look inspired by the palette.
4. We don’t see anyone else’s palette or bundle before we post on Friday.
5. That’s it! It’s going to be so fun to see what we each come up with.

This weeks photo is from Trina.  I chose it because I love the vivid blues and greens. Although this one does look color edited, we really do get to see those beautiful blue and greens all the time in the Northwest, particularly in the summer!

This photo also happens to be taken right in the area where one of my most embarrassing moments occurred. I shared it on Periscope yesterday. If you missed it, you can see it on my Katch account. 

This weeks bundle is a tribute to the Northwest with whales, starry skies and raindrops, of course!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Ann Kelle, Remix, Ovals in Navy

Micheal Miller House Designers, Pitter Patter, Starry in Starlight

Lizzy House Natural History, Giants of the Deep in Blue  (I have been waiting weeks to be able to use this fabric!)

Ann Kelle, Remix, Triangles in Royal

Micheal Miller House Designers, Pitter Patter, Drip Dot in Fresh 

Ann Kelle, Remix, Plus Signs in Tangerine

I surprised myself this week because I only chose fabrics from three separate lines. I usually like to mix it up a bit more, and I had a lot of other potential fabrics from other lines, but these were the ones I loved the most and that flowed the best with what I wanted to convey about the Northwest.

A note about scale:

• While I believe scale is a very important part of fabric selection, the fabrics shown in my Color Play images are not always perfectly to scale. I do my best, by you should always double check scale before ordering!

Don’t forget to head over to In an Otter Life to see what Trina came up with and to Shimmy and More to see Steph’s bundle!

You can also head over to my Color Play Friday page to see my palettes and bundles from previous weeks.

Next week’s photo is from me and was taken at a carnival in my hometown.

Are you enjoying Color Play Friday? We’d love for you to get in on the fun and create your own Color Play post! You can create a bundle of fabric, select yarns or embroidery threads, or create a project inspired by our photo. Be sure to let Trina or I know so we can link up to you. You can get in contact with me via email, or by tagging me on Instagram.  

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

If you follow me on Periscope, you may have seen my SUPER LONG broadcast last week on organization in your studio.

I wanted to write up a quick post outlining the main points and link up to the video on Youtube. For those of you who’ve watched the video and didn’t take notes, you can review the content here. For those of you who did take notes: How studious of you! You’ve earned a gold star from me!

Here are the notes:

Everyone has their own working style. If you’re a person who functions well in clutter (I know there’s some of you out there!) and you’re happy with the way your studio looks, then this teaching is NOT for you. This teaching is for those of us who feel like they could work better in a cleaner space… who enter their studio and feel exasperated with themselves for not knowing where things are… who hate that their latest quilt top is on the floor…  who feel stressed about constantly moving things around to work. I find that most people I talk to feel this way.

You may be working in your dining room or in a huge studio. Alone or with little ones underfoot. The way you apply these principles to your own situation will differ, but the principles stay the same.

What am I doing wrong? 

Let’s get down to the main things we do to sabotage our efforts to stay organized.

1) Bringing in too much/ Keeping too much of what you already have.

•  A healthy, useable stash is fine, but consider whether or not you can use it in the next year or so. New fabric is being made constantly. How much are you bringing in, and how much is going out in the form of beautiful, handcrafted things?
•  “If everything has value, then nothing does.” Meaning, if you treat every last scrap or stray block as important as the top you just worked a year on, you need to reevaluate!

2) Not keeping like things together

Fabric goes with fabric, notions go with notions, etc.

3) Not having a place for everything. 

• EVERYTHING should have an assigned place- one that makes sense.
• If you don’t have a place for something, you’re just going to lay it down right on your work table.
• It’s ok to have a ‘deal with later’ space!

4) Keeping items you don’t often need in your work space 

You need designated areas for work space and for storage space

5) Not maintaining

A good system well maintained will SAVE you time (no more digging for lost projects!). It takes a lot of time up front to develop a good system, but maintaining only takes a few seconds.

6) Not being flexible

It’s ok to make changes to your system if it’s not working! You should have a general organizing structure that you stick with, but making tweaks and adapting should be expected.

** Your things (tools, fabric, finished projects, etc) are ASSETS! I’m not asking you to get rid of your assets (unless they’re weighing you down!) But, I want you to treat them in a way that shows you value them.**

Getting organized is not about having a perfect, pretty sewing space (although that’s a bonus!). It’s about improving your work flow and making you feel happier and more confident in your studio. I want you to walk into your studio and feel successful before you even start working!

And if you didn’t get a chance to see it yet, go ahead an click above to watch. Be warned, it’s about 45 minutes long, so you may want to grab something to drink and take a little potty break before clicking play.

Lastly, I did a follow up Periscope for those of you who are in the ‘organizing trenches’ right now. I thought you might need a little encouragement and direction! If you missed it live, you can find it on my Youtube channel, or on here sometime next week.

Here we are again: Color Play Friday! I have been working hard on all my projects this week. So hard, in fact, that I haven’t gotten a chance to update you here on the blog about what I’ve been doing. If you want to stay really up-to-date on what I’m doing, the best way is to follow me on Instagram. 

More about Color Play Friday:

We play with color each week along with Trina from In an Otter Life. 

Here are the rules:

1. Each week, Trina or I will select a picture from our joint Pinterest board. These are all pictures that one of us has taken on our adventures.
2. We each create a palette using colors from that picture
3. We then create a bundle of 5-8 fabrics that is inspired by that palette. They don’t have to be an exact match to our palette, and we can throw in contrasting or accent colors, but the bundle should look inspired by the palette.
4. We don’t see anyone else’s palette or bundle before we post on Friday.
5. That’s it! It’s going to be so fun to see what we each come up with.

Would you like to play along? You’re welcome to join in the fun by using the #colorplayfriday hashtag on Instagram and Twitter. If you want us to link up to your blog, just shoot me or Trina and email. 

This weeks photo is one of Trina’s.  I chose it because I just couldn’t get over those amazing wine tones. The pink light in this photo speaks to me of that peaceful time right after sunset when the day is done. I imagine Trina lingered over this dinner, relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous view.

It was all about the cats this week!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Lizzy House, Catnap, Kitty Dreams in Cranberry

Amy Ellis, Chic Neutrals, Bangle in Eggplant

Renee Nanneman, Fireworks, Red Circles

Art Gallery Fabrics, Round Elements in Apricot Yogurt

Lizzy House, Catnap, Purrfectly Happy in Cream

Makower UK, Cats, Dotty Stripe in Slate

Don’t forget to head over to In an Otter Life to see what Trina came up with and Shimmy and More to see Steph’s bundle!

Next weeks photo is one of mine.

I took this one a few Christmas Seasons ago. I was taking everything off my trees (yes, plural!) and sticking them in a cardboard box before packing them up for storage. I realized just how pretty they looked all together like that, and had to snap a quick shot of them!

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Yikes! My week has been flying by, and here we are to Friday already! I have to admit that I completely forgot to choose my palette until late Thursday night when Trina texted me asking what my picture choice was for next week. I was going to go to bed and just do this in the morning, but then the creative juices started flowing and I had to get it done!

If you’re new here, check out my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and the palettes and bundles from previous weeks. And don’t forget to check out Trina’s  and Steph’s pages to see their fabric choices. Getting to see what Trina (and now Steph since she’s joined us!) picked has become my favorite part of Friday morning (or very, very late on Thursday night!)

I took this photo at Mukilteo beach in Washington. My aunt was visiting from Minnesota and our family was taking her to all the touristy places in our area. Mukilteo is a great place to watch the ferries come in and out, climb on driftwood, and watch for seals and (if you’re really lucky) whales. I took this photo a little before sunset, and the sideways light really lit up the jellyfish and made it shine.

Here are the links to this week’s fabrics:

Suite 1500, Bombay, Elephant Damask in Black

Angela Walters, Athena, Aurora Medallions in Bronze

Makower UK, Sophia, Mini Triangles in Teal

Makower UK, Ahoy, Solid in Light Blue

Bari J, Splendor, Knotted Trellis in Gold

Jo Morton Woodlands Blue Feather Stripe

Lizzy House, Mini Pearl Bracelets in White

Art Gallery Fabrics, Prisma Elements in Dusk Zircon

If you’d like to join the party for next week, here is our photo:

You can find all the Color Play Friday photos on Trina and my shared Pinterest Board.

Hi friends!

I’m so happy!  I finally got this one off the design wall.

If you’re new here and haven’t seen me talk about this yet, this is the Sparkler quilt designed by Lee from Freshly Pieced.  I did change fabric placement of the pattern up a little bit to really play up the tessellation design. And because I like to make things more complicated than they should be.

This quilt is for my eldest son, who likes all things science and technology related. I haven’t decided on a backing quite yet, but the Mercury print (in dusk) from Alison Glass’ Sunprints it currently topping the list.  I just really want to add SOME color to it!

Also, I wanted to share with you all a little bit about Periscope. If you haven’t already heard, Periscope is an awesome new social platform where I get the chance to interact with my followers live. I broadcast from my studio and you can follow along and comment as I go. If you can’t watch live, broadcasts are up on Periscope for 24 hours following the original ‘scope’.

It’s been a really great way to connect with some of the awesome members of the quilting community and with other fiber artists.

I’ve been on there sharing fun talks, tips, tutorials and behind-the-scenes action, so download the app and find me under the username @laurelandpine

If you’ve missed out so far and watch to see some of my scopes from the past couple of weeks, check out my Katch account. 

Happy sewing (and Scoping!) ~L

This week, I’m linking up to:

(A special thank you to Kelly from My Quilt Infatuation for featuring my Sparkler quilt last week!)

Happy Friday, everyone!

It’s time for Color Play! This is always such a fun part of my week- posting my bundle and seeing what Trina’s bundle looks like. They are always so different, and it’s really fun to compare.

If you’re new around here, you can pop on over to my Color Play Friday page to read the rules and see our pictures from past weeks.

This week’s picture is one of mine. It was taken last spring at a ladie’s tea party we had at my pastor and his wife’s house. He grew up as a landscaper and they landscaped together in their ealy years, so this garden is always gorgeous. Add tables covered in quilts, antique shelves filled with teacups, and little ones running around in their pretty dresses… so much girly fun.

Before we get to the palette and bundle, here’s a picture of the walkway leading into the party- how magical is that?!

This picture was hard for me because there are so many colors. I tried to only focus on the colors that were really popping out at me: the greens, of course, the yellow and orange tones of all the baked yummies and the blue frosting on those delicious cupcakes. I really was hoping to get in the pink frosting and the red from the quilt on the back table, but they were not as prominent as the other colors and in this game, we’re limited to eight!

Here are the links to this weeks fabrics:

Timeless Treasures, Sketch Basic in Pine

Ana Maria Horner, Sealing Wax in Peridot

Brenda Ratliff, Pie Making Day, Lattice in Key Lime

Victoria Johnson, Whisper, Dashes in Butterscotch

Victoria Johnson, Whisper, Leaves in Butterscotch

Sarah Filke, Enchanted, Yellow Scatter Flowers

Petit Collage, Forest Parade, Mini Flowers in Blue

Jeni Baker, Curiosities, Curious Bunnies in Calm

A note about scale:

• While I think scale is a very important part of fabric selection, the fabrics shown in my Color Play images are not always perfectly to scale. I don my best, by you should always double check scale before ordering!

Be sure to check out Trina’s page to see what she chose for this week.

Are you enjoying Color Play Friday? We’d love for you to get in on the fun and create your own Color Play post! You can create a bundle of fabric, select yarns or embroidery threads or create a project inspired by our photo. Use the hashtag #colorplayfriday on social media to join in. Be sure to let Trina or I know you’ve joined so we can be sure to link up with you.

Here is next week’s photo:

It can be found on our Color Play Friday Pinterest board and is titled NYC Bus Tour.

Happy Sewing! ~L

Hi friends!  It’s been forever since I’ve given you a progress update on this quilt. I had to set it aside for a while while I waited on some fabric.

Here’s the story: my Joann’s has a limited selection of Kona cotton that I like to buy using my 50% off coupons. It’s a total steal that way, if you want one of the colors they have. I bought a half yard of Kona Charcoal to see if it was going to be a good match for this quilt.  It was, and I was thrilled and started piecing blocks, planning on heading back there the following week to buy the remainder of what I needed. Well, when I went back…. you guessed it: out of stock. So I waited, and waited…

Unfortunately, that was about the time that the Seahawks fabrics were getting put out and someone at Joann’s decided that Kona Coal was a perfect Seahawks grey. That meant bolts and bolts and BOLTS of Coal and no Charcoal. I swear I’m not bitter about the whole thing, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look at Kona Coal the same way.

Eventually, I got over the idea of getting it half off and ordered online. It arrived super quickly, and I was able to get going right away.

This is the Sparkler pattern from Freshly Pieced.

I’ve changed up this pattern a bit to play with the tesselation deisgn. I’ve got a few more four-piece blocks to finish, then it should come together really quickly.

I’ll be on Periscope later today to show the Sparkler Quilt and give a quick tutorial on how I made my design wall. If you’re not on Periscope yet, you should be! Come on over to Periscope and follow me @laurelandpine for some inspiration and behind-the-scenes of my fiber adventures!

Also, I wanted to give you a quick update on the Quilt of Champions. I’ve finished the binding, have bought a quilting hoop, and will be starting the hand quilting soon.

And can I say that the lime green in this quilt makes it a bit of a beast to photograph!? I swear it doesn’t look this blue in real life!

I’ll be checking in later this week to talk more about my current embroidery project.

Happy Sewing!, ~L

This week, I’m linking up to: