Happy Friday, everyone!

If you’re new to Color Play Friday, welcome! This is my fun way of taking a little time each week to expand my color knowledge and fabric-selection skills. Often, a picture will take me completely out of my comfort zone and force me to combine fabrics in a new way.

 You can head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks. You can also search #colorplayfriday on Instagram to see lots of palettes and bundles from the past! If you’d like to know more about participating in Color Play Friday, please feel free send me an email and I’ll let you in on all the details of how to join.

This is a photo of my friend Trina’s dog Sky. All the bright colors created by the amazing lighting really drew my attention.

I originally selected a lot of colors from this picture, but the greenery and the coral of Sky’s tongue was what really stood out to me.  I would love to make a little girl’s quilt out of this bundle!

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Here are the fabrics I chose:

Michael Miller Ta Dot in Moss

Lotta Jansdotter, Lucky, Etapp in Queen Olive

Lotta Jandotter, Hemma, Pojk in Citron

Designs by Dani, Vintage Daydream, Banner in Pink

Sarah Watson, Luxe in Bloom, Crystalline in Reef

Designs by Dani, Vintage Daydream, Aztec in Red

Sandi Henderson, Farmer’s Market, Apple Dot in Pink

I picked all of my fabrics this week using the Design Wall on Stash Fabrics website. All the links on this post are non-affiliate links. 🙂

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!

Next week’s photo is one of mine and is (very non-creatively) titled Colorful Rocks.

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Whew! It’s been a busy week for my family. It’s end-of-semester in our school district, which means finals week. I have two high schoolers and let me just say that finals week is ROUGH for those kids! Lot’s of studying… add in extra curriculars and my daughter being sick and it starts to feel like a bit of a whirlwind.

Speaking of whirlwinds, I have been busy in my studio working on some fun stuff for Quilt Theory. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen some sneak peeks. I can’t wait til later this year when I can show you what I’ve been working on!

If you’re new to Color Play Friday, welcome! This is my fun way of taking a little time each week to expand my color knowledge and fabric-selection skills. Often, a picture will take me completely out of my comfort zone and force me to combine fabrics in a new way.

 You can head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks. You can also search #colorplayfriday on Instagram to see lots of palettes and bundles from the past! If you’d like to know more about participating in Color Play Friday, please feel free send me an email and I’ll let you in on all the details of how to join.

This week’s photo is called Rain on the Pavement. I ran barefoot into my cul-de-sac to take this picture on a particularly rainy afternoon this winter because the reflection on the wet pavement was too cool-looking to pass up.

My first instinct when faced with a black and grey palette is to go very modern and urban, but I decided to stretch myself this week and try for a feminine bundle with these colors.

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Here are the fabrics I chose:

Wee Gallery, Adventure Awaits, Mini Grid in Black

Pat Bravo, Rock in Romance, Stardust in Midnight

Cotton and Steel Basics, Add it Up in Bone

Hawthorne Threads, Forget-me-not in Sky

Lizzy House, The Whisper Palette, Heraldry in Cloud

Katarina Roccella, Lavish Bejeweled, Seal in Ink

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 the other blogs and see what they came up with!

The following people are joining me this week:

 123 Quilt

Hazel Honey

Next week’s photo is one taken by Trina from In An Otter Life. 

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Happy Friday, friends!

If you’re new to Color Play Friday, welcome! This is my fun way of taking a little time each week to expand my color knowledge and fabric-selection skills. Often, a picture will take me completely out of my comfort zone and force me to combine fabrics in a new way.

 You can head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks. You can also search #colorplayfriday on Instagram to see lots of palettes and bundles from the past! If you’d like to know more about participating in Color Play Friday, please feel free send me an email and I’ll let you in on all the details of how to join.

This photo from Sarah at 123Quilt makes me long for warm days at the beach. With all those toys strewn about, it looks like it was a really fun day!

This week, it was my goal to capture the fun of a beach day as a kid, so I selected lots of bright colors and prints that looked hand-drawn. I ended up with a lot of Cotton + Steel!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Alexia Marcelle-Abegg, Flower Shop, Bow Ties in Grass

Alexia Marcelle-Abegg, Print Shop, Meadow in Citrus

Tula Pink, Tabby Road, Fur Ball in Strawberry Fields

Alexia Marcelle-Abegg, Print Shop, Moons in Pink

Alison Glass, Chroma, Pinpoint in Violet

Rashida Coleman-Hale, Kujira & Star, Waves in Blue Sea

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 the other blogs and see what they came up with!

The following people are joining me this week:

 123 Quilt 

Sarah Goer Quilts

Hazel Honey

Next week’s photo looks much more like reality to me! This is what most of winter looks like in my neck of the woods.

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Happy Friday, everyone!

If you’re new to Color Play Friday, welcome! This is my fun way of taking a little time each week to expand my color knowledge and fabric-selection skills. Often, a picture will take me completely out of my comfort zone and force me to combine fabrics in a new way.

 You can head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks. You can also search #colorplayfriday on Instagram to see lots of palettes and bundles from the past! If you’d like to know more about participating in Color Play Friday, please feel free send me an email and I’ll let you in on all the details of how to join.

I took this picture during a beach day with my kids last summer. Crab shells are a common sight along the beaches of the Puget Sound, but on this particular day the colors were just so vivid I had to take a picture.

Because the shell is the focus of the picture, I wanted most of my bundle to be made up of red and orange. I’m happy with the balance that the green provided to this very warm bundle.

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Here are the fabrics I chose:

Timeless Treasures, Hatch in Scarlet

Cotton and Steel Basics, Sprinkle in Pickup Truck

Alexia Marcelle-Abegg, Clover, Tiny Tiles in Persimmon

Lotta Jansdotter, Lucky, Etapp In Queen Olive

Laura Gunn, Painter’s Canvas in Grass

Dear Stella, Foxtail Fern, Scallop Dot in Seafoam

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 the other blogs and see what they came up with!

123 Quilt

Next weeks Photo is from Sarah at 123Quilt and is titled Beach Days.

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope you all had a good weekend and a productive start to your week.

I was able to knock two WIPs off my list this weekend, which felt great!

First off was this super simple jelly-roll baby quilt. I whipped up this top months ago for a friend and it’s been sitting on my shelf ever since. It was about time I quilted it up!

I recently purchased Christa Watson’s Craftsy class (non-affiliate link) and wanted to practice lesson one: wavy lines with a walking foot. I’ve quilted with a similar motif before on my AGF Denim Market quilt, but Christa shared some nice tips that really helped me out.

I found this quilting design really relaxing!

My second finish was my Christmas quilt. I first talked about it in December, and really wanted it done before Christmas, but there just wasn’t time for it.

I used the same wavy line motif for this one, but the quilting is a little more dense and the batting a bit thicker. It really gives this quilt a different look than the baby quilt.

I used this adorable Bonnie and Camille scallop fabric for the binding. I love the tiny bit of contrast the coral/pink gives against the red and white of the quilt. 

I did machine binding for both of these quilts. I love hand binding, but I really have been wanting to practice my machine binding skills. I’m thinking that from now on I’ll probably machine bind quilts for kids and babies because of the amount of washing they get. And the fact that it goes so quickly is a really great bonus!

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Happy Sewing! ~L

Hi friends! I hope you all are well. There has been a whirlwind of sickness at my place… no fun at all. We’re hoping  to all feel better really soon!

Well let’s get to the fun, shall we?

If you’re new to Color Play Friday, welcome! This is my fun way of taking a little time each week to expand my color knowledge and fabric-selection skills. Often, a picture will take me completely out of my comfort zone and force me to combine fabrics in a new way.

 You can head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks. You can also search #colorplayfriday on Instagram to see lots of palettes and bundles from the past! If you’d like to know more about participating in Color Play Friday, please feel free send me an email and I’ll let you in on all the details of how to join.

Here is our first photo from a Color Play participant, Airlie Gardens from Sarah at 123Quilt. Sarah is a beautiful photographer, and I love the perspective in this photo.

Although there are so many gorgeous greens in this picture, the greys are what stood out to me most. Of course, I had to add that fun pop of lime green too!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Dear Stella, City Life, Triangle Dot in Fossil

Dear Stella, Net in Grey

Isa Pearl Design, Blush and Blooms, Diamond Texture in Grey

Timeless Treasures, Hatch Basic in Ice

Cotton and Steel Basics, Netorious in Campout

Alexia Marcelle-Abegg, Print Shop, Moons in Grass

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 123Quilt and see what Sarah came up with!

Next week’s photo is one of mine aptly titled Crab Shell:

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Hi friends! As I mentioned on Tuesday, it’s pattern testing week for the Quilt Theory designers. I decided that to test my partner’s pattern, I would make a quilt for my youngest son. I’ve been promising him one for so long, and he’s been so patient waiting for it.

I got a lot of what I needed from my stash, but I was short on low volume prints and also needed some more blues and greens.

There were a few impulse purchases this week as well, and I needed to replenish my stock of Aurifil white, which is my go-to thread.

Here is what I got:

1 1/4 yards Purple Dot N’ Square from Michael Miller

FQ Timeless Treasures Crosshatch in Clover

FQ Suds in Blue Hawaiian from Patrick Lose

1/3 yard each of Kona White, Bone and Silver and some random box-store white-on-white

and 1/4 yard of gorgeous floral canvas from Brother and Sister Design Studio

The floral was a total impulse buy that I couldn’t just leave behind. I’ll be making a pencil/makeup pouch with this. Total selfish sewing!

Here’s a close-up of the floral fabric. Isn’t she lovely?!

Happy Sewing! ~L

Welcome to the first Color Play Friday of the New Year!

If you’re new to Color Play Friday, welcome! This is my fun way of taking a little time each week to expand my color knowledge and fabric-selection skills. Often, a picture will take me completely out of my comfort zone and force me to combine fabrics in a new way.

 You can head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks. You can also search #colorplayfriday on Instagram to see lots of palettes and bundles from the past! If you’d like to know more about participating in Color Play Friday, please feel free send me an email and I’ll let you in on all the details of how to join.

You’ll notice throughout January that all the pictures this month are related to gardens and summer. Obviously, the cold weather is getting the best of me… I’ve been dreaming of beach days!

This photo was taken in my front yard and screams of warm weather to me… those bright colors make me happy!

I chose this picture for it’s bright colors, so I really wanted to get some bright fabrics in this bundle, particularly the yellow and blue. And as soon as I saw that rabbit meteor fabric, I knew it had to be a part of this bundle.  My garden was mysteriously invaded by rabbits this year, so a fabric with rabbits falling from the sky seemed appropriate!

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Here are the fabrics I chose:

Timeless Treasures, Hatch in Citrus

Joel Dewberry Aviary 2, Woodgrain in Dill

Timeless Treasures, Sketch in Pine

Alexia Marcelle-Abegg, Print Shop, This + That in Linen

Cotton and Steel Basics, Sprinkle in Peacock

Felice Regina, Luna Sol, Meteor Shower in Dusk

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 the other blogs and see what they came up with!

Sarah from 123Quilt

Next weeks Photo is from Sarah at 123Quilt and is titled Airlie Gardens.

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. As you may have noticed, things were pretty quiet here on the blog. I took full advantage of winter break: slept late, baked, and went on adventures with my family.

But now the kids are back in school, and I’m ready to hit the ground running!

First off, it’s pattern testing week for Quilt Theory’s second collection! I’m having a fun time reviewing and working on my assigned pattern. If you follow my on Instagram, you should see some sneak peeks over the next couple of days. I can’t wait for you guys to see these patterns- they are awesome!

I’m also so excited for the return of Color Play Friday this week!  We took all of December off, and it was just enough time for me to really miss picking all those beautiful bundles. In order to focus more on her other work, Trina has decided to step down as co-hostess, but will be joining us from time to time as a participant. And one more CPF change: because having ALL the pictures taken by me would be boring, our Color Play participants will also be submitting photos for us to use!  We have two this month from Sarah at 123Quilt, and they are gorgeous!

Aside from all that, I transfered my list of WIPs and upcoming projects into my 2017 Quilter’s Planner, and I am not comfortable with how long it is!  I need to get some things finished up!

Speaking of finishes! Today I want to share with you some details on my latest finish, a scrappy improv quilt called Leslie in the Sky With Diamonds. It was a Christmas gift for my sister (Leslie) that I started over a year ago.

The inspiration for this quilt was always about the process. My sister is the kind of person who makes art for the sake of the MAKING, not the end product. I used that example by sewing and embroidering bits and pieces of this over the course of a year or more, with a mad frenzy of creation right at the very end.  If you look carefully at my Instagram feed, you’ll see parts of this quilt coming together slowly over time. Because I made it as I went, it is completely improv. Once I had most of the blocks I wanted, I put them up on my design wall and started filling in the blank spots.

When I was a teenager, Leslie took an embroidery class. She would come home from class each week, come into my room, and teach me the stitches she had learned. So of course, I had to have embroidery on her quilt!

The name of this quilt comes, of course, from the Beatles song. When she was very young, Leslie thought the song was about her, and we always put her name in there.  Heck, I STILL sing the lyrics “Leslie in the sky with diamonds.” In keeping with that theme, I incorporated lots of night skies and stars in this quilt.

Now, it wasn’t all peaches and lollipops for me! As I was finishing up the quilting on this, I just wasn’t thrilled with the look of my free motion quilting. That happens, I suppose, when you’re inches away from it instead of looking at the whole quilt. I actually had to step away and take a nap and convince myself that I don’t actually suck at sewing. Sometimes you need a break. Sometimes you need to tell that critical voice in your head to shut up. That day, I needed both, but I got over the slump and got it done!

Busy quilts are not my normal style, but I got the best compliment I could get when she said that she felt like I really captured who and what she is in this quilt. I hope she has many happy nights snuggled under it!

So what have you all been working on now that the holiday season is over?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Happy sewing, ~L

                    

Hi Friends!

Tis the season for staying cozy in the studio sewing with fun, holiday fabrics! Now, if I were smart, I’d get a head start and do my Christmas sewing in late summer or fall when the kids go back to school. But I really do enjoy sewing with the season, so my projects will just have to have short turn-around times!

I thought I’d share with your today a little of what I’ve been doing lately.

First up was a little half-apron for my daughter. She is 14 and an aspiring chef. She jokingly calls herself a 1950’s housewife and says she was born in the wrong era. That is, until you remind her there were no iPhones in the 50’s!

I wanted to make her a little 50’s-inspired apron at the beginning of the Christmas season. It just makes holiday baking more fun. In my stash, I have a small bin for anything that’s not quilting cotton. In there, I was lucky enough to find this little vintage red and white clover canvas that I bought at a garage sale years ago.  And there was just enough to make a short half-apron! Add in some green Kona Cotton, and you’ve got yourself a project!

Making this was quite simple. First I made a wide tube with the Kona and turned it inside out to create the waistband/ ties. I made the ties fairly long in order to be able to have a nice, big bow on the back of the apron.

I hemmed the bottom and sides of the canvas and then gathered the top before stitching it to the waistband.

To gather fabric, first sew a line of stitches where you want your ruffle using your longest stitch length, leaving at least 6 inches of thread on each end. Next, tie the threads on one end into a knot. Separate the threads on the other end and gently pull just one thread out while holding the fabric to begin gathering it toward the knotted side. The trick here is to not break your thread- be gentle.

Once your fabric is ruffled up to the length you need, tie the threads on that end of the fabric into a knot and even out your gathers.

After completing the apron, something just wasn’t sitting right with me design-wise…. it needed more. And I decided that the ‘more’ needed to be a cute little green pocket. I’m so glad I added it… it really upped the ‘cute’ factor.

Next up was a new tree skirt. I used a simple circle skirt design. In order to have it be a little thicker, and to make it look nicer, I lined this instead of just hemming along the bottom.

I cut two circles of fabric, sewed them right sides together leaving a small hole, and then flipped the whole thing inside out before overstiching around the whole thing. And Bonus: It’s reversible!

While cutting fabric for the tree skirt, I accidentally cut two linings instead of one. Instead of putting that fabric in my scrap bin, I figured why not make another apron?!

I widened the ‘waist’ part of the tree skirt lining (My daughter is slim, but not the size of my Christmas tree trunk!), added the waistband and hemmed the bottom.

Note that there was no need to gather this apron like the clover apron because it was made with a circle of fabric as opposed to a rectangle. Those pretty ruffles just appear naturally!

So, what’s a girl to do three weeks before Christmas when she has out all her Christmas fabric for making aprons and tree skirts? Why, start a CHRISTMAS QUILT, of course! I really am overly optimistic.  But I figured that if I made it a simple patchwork, I could probably get it done in time, am I right?

Look at those adorable little squares waiting to be made into something grand.

And…”TA DA!”, I finished the quilt top! Now, I’m *hoping* to baste this (along with another secret Christmas.gif"alignnone size-full wp-image-6361" src="https://laurelpoppyandpine.com/img/2016/12/file_0071.jpg" alt="file_007" />

I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday season, and Happy Sewing! ~L