Hello, friends!
I wanted to do a blog post showing you some of the cool features on the Stash website that I’ve been using lately to plan my Color Play Friday bundles. Instead, I decided a video might be easier for me to prepare and for you to see how the features work.
Don’t forget that Stash is hosting a giveaway here and on the In An Otter Life blog. Check out this blog post to see how easy it is to enter.
Happy Sewing! ~L
But what is Color Play Friday, you ask?
Every Friday, Trina at In an Otter Life and I host a weekly challenge open to all our blogger friends. Every game needs rules, so here are ours:
It’s a great way to challenge ourselves, grow our color knowledge, and work with color combinations we never would have considered otherwise.
You can go to my Color Play Friday page for past bundles of mine or search #colorplayfriday on social media to see bundles from several of our participants.
This week, Stash Fabrics is sponsoring a “Burst Your Stash” giveaway of both my and Trina’s bundles. We will have two winners- one winner gets my bundle and the other Trina’s. How fun!
This giveaway will be open for entries until Wednesday, March 23 at 9pm Pacific Time. Winners will be contacted on March 24th and announced during next week’s Color Play Friday.
To enter, you must be subscribed to both the Color Play Friday monthly newsletter and Stash Fabric’s newsletter. When you subscribe, make sure you respond to the confirmation email you receive. Otherwise you won’t show up on our lists!
If you are a Color Play participant, don’t fret- you are eligible to win as well!
Whew! Now that all the giveaway fun is taken care of, let’s get to playing with color! This photo is one of mine, taken in a moment of giddy joy. I had bought myself a bag of Starbursts for my studio and when I poured them in the bowl, I realized I had bought a bag of FavReds. All red and pink Starbursts- I was one happy girl! It’s the little things.
So, like any self-respecting blogger, I took a photo for Instagram! lol
When picking my palette, I knew I had a lot of colors I could work with in the beautiful carnival glass dish. There was also the gray and taupe tones of the background. But, really, all I wanted to do was play with the glorious pinks, purples and reds of the candy packaging. So, I went for it with a palette ranging from red-violet to coral.
While picking fabrics, I set a rule for myself that the fabrics couldn’t contain any colors not in the palette. I didn’t want anything distracting from the color scheme I had chosen. On the other hand, I didn’t just want a bundle of blender fabrics! Fortunately, Lizzy House, Sarah Jane and Tula Pink all had great prints with several of my colors in them. It was like my quilty stars had aligned!
Here are the fabrics I chose:
Alison Glass, Sun Prints 2016, Grow in Salmon
Karen Lewis, Blueberry Park, Kite Tails in Melon
A note about scale:
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 us at colorplayfriday@gmail.com
I hope you can join us next week!
Happy Sewing, ~L
Today I took some time to catch up on my blocks for the Modern HST Sampler hosted by Blossom Heart Quilts. I decided I wanted to try another Lantern block, making this second one with two prints instead of just one.
I kept having to tell myself today that done is better than perfect, and I think you can see that sentiment in my piecing! I usually like to have everything lined up just right with no points cut off. I’ll rip seams and re-sew a block if I have to! But today I needed to just accept my blocks, misalignment and all! I’m ok with them not being perfect (at least I’m trying to be!), and I know that once this quilt is together, I won’t even see the problem areas.
Lantern
Plus, I know my recipient will love this quilt no matter what, and that’s what really matters!
Stepping Stones
The next block should be coming out in about a week. I hope to not get behind again!
Happy Sewing, ~L
This week, I’m linking up to:
Hi guys! Hope your week is going well. I’m working on a fun, secret project this week. You may have seen glimpses on my Instagram account.
If you’re new to Color Play Friday, head over to my Color Play Friday page to see the rules and my palettes and bundles from previous weeks.
This week’s photo was taken by Trina. I picked it because of the great greens in the photo. With St. Patrick’s Day nearing, I’ve been wanting to play with green a lot.
I originally planned on a mostly green bundle with maybe a little gray or blue, but as I went along, I realized I wanted more blue in there. I ended up with a bundle that has just as much blue as green, and no gray at all. It’s seems funny to me, since the focal point of the photo is this amazing gray building.
All of my fabrics this week came from Stash Fabrics. I had fun this week playing around with their design wall feature. It was great to be able to save fabric choices with a click, move them around, and enlarge them to really see how the fabrics I was picking worked together. Here’s what I chose:
Leah Duncan, Lore, Anecdote in Gray
Carolyn Friedlander, Architextures, Crosshatch in Cadet
Tula Pink, Moon Shine, Dear Me in Indigo
Micheal Miller, Ta Dot in Moss
LB Krueger, Downtown, Tonal Floral in Green
Sarah Watts, Tokyo Train Ride, Fox Shrine in Green
A note about scale:
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 us at colorplayfriday@gmail.com
Click below to sign up for the monthly Color Play Friday newsletter. In it, you will find a recap of the month’s bundles from Trina and I, updates from both Laurel, Poppy and Pine and In An Otter Life, and announcements about upcoming special events.
I hope you can join us next week!
Happy Sewing, ~L
Hello everyone- happy Friday!
For rules and past week’s palettes and bundles, see my Color Play Friday page.
Also, we now have a monthly Color Play Friday newsletter! In it, you will find a recap of the month’s bundles from Trina and me, updates from both Laurel, Poppy and Pine and In An Otter Life, and announcements about special upcoming events. We have something fun planned for this month, so you’re going to want to check it out!
I took this week’s photo last summer. I had been coming home to this poppy everyday for a while, but on this particular day, I just HAD to snap a photo.
I wanted to capture the feeling of that hot summer day with birds chirping and bees buzzing through the flowers. Those of you not from the PNW always hear about our rain, but we do actually have a dry spell in late summer- last year especially. Let just say after last summer, I was happy to get rain and start seeing snow on our mountains again!
The toughest part of this week was finding a fabric with just the right shade of Tiffany blue. Everything I was finding was just a little ‘too blue’. I was thrilled to find the Tamara Kate print with just enough of a green tint to make me happy.
I was really happy this week to discover a new-to-me designer- Dena Fishbein of Dean Designs. Her Teja print was the perfect fabric this week to tie everything else together.
Here are the fabrics I used:
Bari J, Petals and Plume, Rumpled Sour
Tamara Kate, Nature Walk, Tall Grass
Dena Designs, Kumara Garden, Teja
Timeless Treasures, Pink Flamingo, Triangle Geo in Candy
Francis Newcombe, Cherie, Les-Points in Rose
A note about scale:
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 one of Trina’s called Minneapolis and can be found on our Pinterest page.
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 us at colorplayfriday@gmail.com
I hope you can join us next week!
Happy Sewing, ~L
As you know, this is a year of joining for me, and one of the things I signed up for this year is the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club. Each month, we have a different instructor who sends out a lesson and a challenge on the first of the month. We also get a mid-month check-in with encouragement, extra tips, and answers for questions they’ve received.
This months challenge was Minimalist Improvisation from Season Evans.
I didn’t get going on this challenge until halfway through the month, just because I was busy with other things. I don’t shy away from improv or a challenge, but I did have a hard time using no color and all solids. As you can see, I decided to make my focal fabric a print, although a very simple one.
Another strange part for me was cutting with my scissors instead of the ruler and rotary cutter. It made perfect, straight lines nearly impossible, but I guess that’s the point!
The impression I wanted to give on this one was of things being impossibly balanced and everything being just a bit off kilter. I put a lot of my own busy, stressed, ‘balancing my life’ emotions into this quilt, so I was glad to have it done.
I’ll be putting it away for a while until I can appreciate it for what it is and not think about what I wish I had done differently or better on it. I really do love the look of it, but the first time you try something new, you learn so much about making it better the next time around. That’s why I’m so glad I’m doing these challenges: to stretch and grow and try things that are just a bit out of my comfort zone.
Thank for stopping by, and happy sewing! ~L
Hi there! This week had been a productive one. Lots of sewing, and lots of planning for the future. This weekend I’m watching two little girls for my friends who are at a conference.So if you need me, I’ll be painting nails and watching princess movies for the next 48 hours!
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:
Trina took this photo in New York while on a tour bus. I love all the taxis and the diagonal movement in the picture.
I am expecting a great-nephew this summer. So as soon as I started picking colors from this picture, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do. A super-fun, bright, little-boy bundle was what my heart needed this week!
In search of adorable fabric, I knew to go to the Riley Blake website first. Turns out, it’s the only place I needed to go this week. There is SO MUCH CUTE on their site, and it seems their ‘boy’ collections were made with this palette in mind.
Here are the fabrics I chose:
Simple Simon & Company, Four Corners, Triangles in Black
Lori Whitlock, Play Ball 2, Stars in Gray
Nadra Ridgeway, Bloom and Bliss, Stripe in Yellow
Bella Blvd, Rover, Paw in Orange
Riley Blake, Colorfully Creative, Crayola Color Me Alphabet in White (Coming June 2016)
Zoe Pearn, Lucky Star, Circle in Red
Natalie Lymer, Greatest Adventure, Main in Navy
Lori Whitlock, Play Ball 2, Plaid in Navy
A note about scale:
You can also head over to my Color Play Friday page to see my palettes and bundles from previous weeks.
Here is the photo we’ll be using for next week. It can be found here.
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 us at colorplayfriday@gmail.com
I hope you can join us next week!
Happy Sewing, ~L
As I mentioned last month, I am participating in the Bonfire Sampler Block of the Month swap with Quilting Mayhem and In an Otter Life. Each month, we make three blocks and exchange them at the beginning of the next month.
As of the beginning of the month, I still had not found an orange I was happy with. I went to one of my local quilt shops a week ago , and I found a great option! It’s Oval Elements in Peaches ‘n Cream from Art Gallery Fabrics. I also used it for the Orange blocks I showed you on Monday. I only got a half yard because I think I’m also going to find a slightly brighter orange to incorporate into my Bonfire blocks as well.
So, here are my blocks for the month! I made last months blocks on the very cool end of the spectrum, so I wanted to balance these ones a little more. In the summer months, I may make some really warm-toned blocks to help balance out the cool blocks from January. It’s funny how the season effects what fabrics we choose.
It’ll be so interesting at the end of the year to see all 24 blocks made over 10 months by three different people. I can’t wait to see this quilt top, and it will be such a sweet reminder of my quilty friends.
Speaking of my quilty friends, be sure to check visit Trina and Mindy today to see their Button blocks.
Happy Sewing, ~L
I’m linking this post up to:
Happy Monday, friends! I hope your week is starting well!
Just wanted to touch base really quickly and show you some of the blocks I was working on last week.
These blocks are for an exchange with my modern guild. A block design and color is chosen each month. You can sign up at the meeting to bring blocks for the following meeting. This month, our color was orange. Orange is not one of ‘my colors’, but I’ve been stretching myself lately and just had to sign up. Plus, at this time of year in the Pacific Northwest, working with a bright, warm color cheers you up!
There are 11 members who signed up, so I did 11 blocks. I’ll probably end up making one more for an even twelve once we do the exchange. I did several variations- here are some of them:
I can’t wait for the next meeting to see what my guild mates came up with!
Happy Sewing, ~L
For this post, I’m linking up to:
How did a whole week get by again without me posting anything?! Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess. And I had a great time this last week!
First of all, I designed a fabric for the Spoonflower “Love is in the Air” challenge. As soon as I heard the theme, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. You can see the fabric I entered here, or go here to see winners from last week and to vote on this week’s contest.
I’m also working hard to finish up all the swap blocks I’ve committed to doing this month. I signed up for an orange block exchange at my last guild meeting, and it turned out that 10 other ladies signed up as well! So, that was 11 blocks to sew. And today I need to finish up my Button blocks for the Sister Sampler Bonfire Swap.
Add to that Trina’s Woodland Postcard Swap and all my other WIPs, and you’ve got one busy sewist- good thing I love it!
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:
This sweet guy is named Skywalker. I met him when I was in Eastern Washington with my mom visiting her best friend and her best friend’s mother. We were picking apples and Skywalker (the neighbor horse) was the happy recipient of our rejects. When I snapped this photo, he was trying to steal an apple from my hand- rotten boy!
This week, I decided to ignore the green grass and just focus on Skywalker’s amazing colors. Having a neutral palette that includes a lot of brown, my natural tendency would normally be towards a very masculine bundle. But instead I really wanted to capture the feeling from the weekend….. two mothers and two daughters drinking tea, picking apples and sitting on the back porch watching nothing in particular. As a result, I ended up with a very floral, feminine bundle.
Here are the fabrics I chose:
Lella Boutique, Into the Woods, Cozy Stitches in Dark Bark
Elizabeth Olwen, Morning Song, Lush Lullabye in Gray
Elizabeth Olwen, Park Life, Leafscape
Lizzy House, Mini Pearl Bracelets
Robert Kaufman, Whisper Prints, Leaf White
Hawthorne Threads, Norwegian Wood, Wallflowers in Onyx
A note about scale:
You can also head over to my Color Play Friday page to see my palettes and bundles from previous weeks.
Here is our photo for next week, simply titled NYC. You can find it here.
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
laurel poppy & pine 