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I’ve recently discovered Bloglovin’ (yes I know I’m VERY late to the party on that one!) and this week I have been transferring over for all the blogs I follow. I want to stay up-to-date on what all my friends in the quilt blogging world were up to, but I was getting SO MANY EMAILS!

 I was concerned that the blog owner wouldn’t get proper ‘credit’ for my page views, but after some research I realized I was wrong. And I’ve never been so happy to be wrong. Being able to see everything all in one place is amazing.

Also this weekend, I took some time to organize my scraps into submission! If you’ve been following me, you know I like to stay pretty organized. After finishing three quilt tops without proper cleaning up, my scraps were a little out of control.

This is how I keep my scraps:

I have three bins ( I love the small Sterilite bins that you can get for like $1.50 at Target)

Bin 1- scraps that haven’t been sorted- this is where I throw them as they are made. When this bin is full, it’s time to sort scraps!

Bin 2- Scraps cut into 2.5″ squares for postage stamp quilts or hexies

Bin 3- Scraps cut into 2″ strips for log cabin or strip quilts

 I also have three binders (organized by color) for scraps that haven’t been cut into my standard sizes.  I keep bigger pieces here that I really love and don’t want to cut small, as well as tiny scraps that I may want to use for paper piecing. The bigger pieces are in plastic paper sleeves while the tiny bits go in baseball card sleeves.  I’m careful to always keep these binders upright, because you can imagine what would happen if they were turned upside down! 

I keep my bins and binders on the top shelf in my studio with Bin 1 (the scrap throw pile) on top for easiest access.

I hope your Monday is finding you well and with time to do all the things you love!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Hi folks!  I’ve been meaning to write a post on this quilt all week! Since it’s Friday night, I figured I should get it done before the weekend.

This Farm Girl Vintage quilt was made for my mom for Christmas. I cut it really close, stitching up the binding on Christmas Eve!

This isn’t a normal palette or style for me, but I knew my mom would love the adorable chicken blocks.  The palette was drawn from her home decor and conversations about the colors she wanted to focus on most. I didn’t follow a layout plan for this one, but just placed my finished blocks on the design wall and filled in the negative space with low volume prints.

One of my favorite blocks was the tractor block… it was the first one I made.

I made a pieced backing that I fell in love with. I think the backing fits my style a lot more than the front does! For the quilting, I chose to do a really big loop-de-loop design. This quilt is made for snuggling on the couch, so I wanted to keep it poofy by doing minimal quilting.

I opted for a solid black binding.  Without a set grid, and with so much going on in the blocks and layout, I felt like it needed a really strong frame visually to contain everything.

 

My mom let me know this week that she’s been snuggling up in her chair with her quilt every night since Christmas. And that’s the very best review I could have ever gotten!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. In case you missed it on my Best of 2015 post, here is a picture of my parents getting their Christmas quilts.

 You can see a post about my dad’s quilt here. 

Happy Sewing!  ~L

Hi friends! We’re now a week into the New Year…. how’s it going for everyone so far?

I’m so excited about this weeks Color Play! Our photo this week was taken by me on our family vacation to Yellowstone. When we planned our trip, I had no idea that it would end up being one of my very favorite family vacations. I know everyone loves Old Faithful, but for me Yellowstone was all about the prismatic pools. And the Grand Prismatic Spring was simply amazing.

On these cold winter days, it’s nice to remember that warm summer day with my family and the heat and mist of the Springs!

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.

I love how the steam coming off the bright turquoise pool created some nice, hazy teals for me to work with. And they’re a perfect compliment to those gorgeous oranges. Can you believe that’s algea?! I also grabbed some grey from the steam and hills in the background. The neutral helps mellow out the palette a bit.

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Leah Duncan, Gramercy, City Lights in Day

Cotton and Steel Basics, Dottie in Cloud

Allison Harris, Hazel, Triangles in Teal

Andover House Designer, Chambray in Bluegrass

Heather Ross, Mendocino, Seahorses in Orange

Dear Stella House Designer, Asuka Dash in Orange

April Rhodes, Bound, Coming Home in Clay

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!

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 Lunchbox Laboratory from Trina.

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

Welcome to the New Year! I’m so glad to be back to Color Play Friday after a couple of weeks off.

2015 has come to a close, and everyone is making fun plans for 2016! This year, there’s a few things I’ve love to see from our weekly Color Play. First, I want to start occasionally making projects inspired by the palettes that I’ve created. I’ve discovered some amazing color combinations through Color Play Friday and I would love to turn them into actual quilts! Second, I would love to have some more people joining us! One of the best parts of Color Play Friday has been seeing Trina and Steph’s bundles- looking at the similarities and (usually) differences between what we each come up with. That’s where you come in!

   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

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 week photo is one of Trina’s titled First Snow in Arlington. I know it was taken last year, because Arlington has not had any snow like that so far this winter! All we’ve gotten is some slushy stuff that didn’t stick around to be played in.

I picked this photo, because I’m hoping for pretty, fluffy snow in this New Year!

Besides a little bit of grey in the tree trunk, the blue light in this photo pretty much gave me a monochromatic palette to work from. So, I knew that if I couldn’t create contrast using hue, I would have to do it using value (how light or dark a color is). My resulting palette is a an array of greyish blue ranging from almost black to almost white with a neutral grey thrown in for good measure.

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Sarah Watson, Garden Secrets, Bauble in Gray

Carolyn Friedlander, Architextures, Crosshatch in Blue

Joel Dewberry, Atrium, Eclipse in Slate

Hawthorne Fabrics, Triangle Mosaic in Sky

Ink and Spindle, Landscape, Chalk in Gray

Rashida Coleman-Hale, Bluebird, Bow Ties

When doing my bundle, I had some fun blue fabrics with chartreuse, mustard or orange that would have made a good contrast, but none of them seemed quite right so I decided to keep it a monochromatic bundle. If this was a quilting project, I would use one of these fabrics as a backing.

Clockwise from top left:

Hawthorne Threads, Forest Fables, Folk Tails in Indigo

Ink and Spindle, Landscape, Little Forest in Gray

Pat Bravo, Artisan, Intertwill Fervence

Sarah Watson,  Luxe in Bloom, Boucherouite in Silver

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.

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Hello quilty friends!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Yvonne over at Quilting Jetgirl posted an insightful review of 2015 and listed her goals and plans for the coming year. She then created a linky party and challenged us to write a planning post of our own.

I have some great plans for this coming year, but first-

The Big Announcement!

 

That’s right, friends! Laurel and Pine Design Studio is officially changing names to Laurel, Poppy and Pine.

As I looked at my business and the way I wanted my brand to grow, I realized this was a change I both needed and wanted to make.

To me, each part of the name represents a personality trait that I want to see reflected in my work.

Culture and Sophistication

Whimsy and a Child-like spirit

Risk-taking and a strong sense of Adventure

I’m so excited to see where this new brand takes me!

Which brings me to my plans for 2016. While planning this year, I first wrote down some guiding goals. These are the things I most want out of my budding career for this year. There are so many things to do in the wide world, it can be a bit overwhelming wanting to ‘do it all’.

But if you know what your vision is, then you know what to say no to. Conversely, you also know when to say a resounding “Yes!”

Let me just say before we start that I’m usually not one to show my cards like this. I like to make grand plans and then keep them to myself  until I know everything will work out. I’m not a big fan of failing when the spotlight is on me! But I think that by putting my goals out publicly, I’m helping you know what to expect from me and hopefully I’ll stay accountable to those goals because I know you’re watching.

Thank you Yvonne, for encouraging me to be a bit vulnerable and to put my intentions out into the world.

So- here we go!

Goal 1- Become a Color Theory Guru

So much of what I love about quilting and art in general is because of color.  I spent a lot of time in 2015 learning color theory both through books and hands-on experience. I want to add to that knowledge, spend time teaching what I know to others, and apply all that fun learning to actual projects as much as possible.

Goal 2- Make My Website a Resource

Up til now, my blog has been mostly about my quilting experiences with some helpful information mixed in here and there. My goal is to transition the blog to be a resource for my fellow quilters. On a practical level, that means pages with color theory help, tutorials and free quilt patterns.

Goal 3- The Book

That’s right, THE BOOK, as I’ve been referring to it in my mind, has been percolating for a while. Now, I have no idea the first thing about getting a book published. My goal this year is to start writing and then find out.

Goal 4-

Speaking of things I have no idea how to do but am doing anyway…. This year I will be a year of designing for me.  I will be building a (hopefully awesome) portfolio of designs to sell on Spoonflower and eventually start showing to fabric companies.

So there you have it! These are my guiding goals for the year. Once I had these in place, planning my steps for each month and setting up a calendar was easy. All the little work choices I make this year will hopefully be leading me towards these goals.

Like I said, when you know your vision, you know when to say yes and when to say no. 

Besides all that, I do hope to get some actual quilting done at some point too!

Happy New Year, and Happy Sewing, ~L

Well here we are!

Christmas is over, 2015 is quickly coming to a close, and it’s time to reflect on our year.

To help us all focus on our accomplishments, Cheryl over at Meadowmist Designs had the great idea to host a “Best of 2015” Linky Party. Be sure  to head over there to see everyone’s highlights from the year. And don’t forget to leave comments congratulating them on a year well done. A little encouragement to your fellow bloggers sure does go a long way!

When choosing my top five, I didn’t use any data points as criteria. I just picked the five posts that made me the most proud or that got a great response from you guys.

So, here are my Top Five of 2015:

1. My first post

It’s hard to believe that 7 and a half months ago, I was posting here for the first time. I had no idea how to create a link, center my photos, add buttons, make a header image or create new pages. I knew what I wanted my page to be, and I worked my butt off to learn the things that now seem so simple!

This post is on my top five because I’m proud of jumping in and putting my work out there for the world to see, even when I felt stupid and vulnerable for not knowing the first thing about blogging.

2. Color Play Friday: Sunset Near Cathcart

(If you’re unfamiliar with Color Play Friday, look here)

Color Play Friday has become a huge part not just of what I do here on the blog, but of my life. I find myself looking at color differently. I spent a good deal of time through the summer and fall learning all sorts of amazing things about color theory and putting it into practice in my work.

To me, this post best represents exactly what Color Play Friday is all about. I ended up with a palette I never would have chosen had it not been for the picture inspiration and created a bundle that I would love to own or make a project out of.

*If you would like to start joining us for Color Play Friday, please let Trina or I know! We’d love to have you!*

3. Shimmer Quilt Finish

What a great experience the Shimmer quilt has been for me!

First off, I got to start the quilt at a workshop with the quilt designer, Allison Harris. Besides the convenience of having a designer walk you through your first block, it was just a really fun day to hang out with her and some of the ladies from one of my guilds.

Then, it was featured on two of the linky parties I had joined:  Sew Cute Tuesday (Blossom Heart Quilts) and Needle and Thread Thursday (My Quilt Infatuation). Making things that I love for the people that I love is my top priority, but I have to say that having other quilters appreciate your work is very nice! Thank you, Alyce and Kelly for the encouragement!

Lastly, the Shimmer quilt has been a blessing because I was able to gift it to my dad last week for Christmas and he loved it. It was so much fun watching both of my parents open their gifts this year!

For all those reasons, I chose the Shimmer Quilt Finish post as one of my Top Five. The post also includes a Periscope video with quilting photography tips for you. Check it out here.

4. 7 Pitfalls to Great Organization in Your Studio

The Periscope video featured in this post got a lot of people talking! It may have been both my most liked and my most hated Scope, solely because it was a no-holds-barred talk about organization.

I didn’t really get any hate mail (although I know some of you wanted to send it), but the response I got from quilters who felt like it had really helped them was a turning point for me. It was the point I started to realize that I could actually make a bit of a difference on Periscope and with my blog and maybe encourage people in their quilting journeys.

5. Compass Quilt Top

Lastly, a personal favorite- the Compass quilt top!

I love this one because it was made for my husband, it took forever and I was so happy to finally have the top completed! Also, the photo shoot was a blast with my husband, our eldest son and I tromping around finding good spots for pictures and giggling at our inability to get good photos of the quilt because it’s so darn big.

This top is still siting in my studio. I was going to send it out for quilting, but I’m starting to think I may want to do it myself. Time will tell!

 

 

So there you have it: My top posts of the year according to me.  It was so fun to take a look back on the year before moving on to 2016. Thank you Cheryl, for hosting the linky party!

And stay tuned for my 2016 plans!

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl is hosting a linky party where we can talk about our goals and plans for 2016. That will be coming in the next couple of days!

Happy Sewing! ~L

 

 

Welcome to the last Color Play Friday of the year!

It has been so much more fun than I had even hoped when Trina and I began a few months ago. I’m looking forward to many more palettes and bundles in the future!

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:

• 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.
• We each create a palette using colors from that picture
• 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.
• We don’t see anyone else’s palette or bundle before we post on Friday.

That’s it! It’s going to be so fun to see what we each come up with.

This week’s photo was taken at a shop called Kris Kringl in Leavenworth, WA. It was cool that Trina chose this picture this week, because I was just there yesterday! We drove through on our way to Coeur D’Alene and decided to go in and buy our annual family Christmas ornament.

Here are the fabrics I chose:
Bari J, Petals and Plume, Seeing Stars in Violet
Bari J, Millie Fleur, Rippples in Pink
Cotton and Steel Basics, Sprinkles in Summer Camp
Warner Brothers, Silly Snowman, Snowflakes in Royal Blue
Robert Kaufman, Metro Living, Circles in Turquoise
Makower UK, Wonderland Christmas, Cars

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.

We will be taking a couple weeks off to enjoy some holiday fun with our families, but be sure to come back on New Year’s Day of the next Color Play Friday!

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

Welcome to Laurel and Pine!

**Update: Our winner has been selected and emailed.***Thanks for entering!!

I’m so excited! I’ve always entered the giveaways on Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day, but now I have my own blog and I get to be the one gifting something!

Quick introduction: I’m Lorinda; find out more about me here. My favorite social media platforms are Instagram and Periscope, but you can also find me on Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.

Here’s a few pictures to give you an idea of what I do around here:

You can also check out my Color Play Friday and Finished Quilts pages to see more of what I do.

Now let’s get to the real reason you’re here!

Today I’m giving away this fun little bundle of fat quarters and coordinating DMC embroidery floss. There’s the Geometry in Sunrise print from Allison Glass, Kona Coal, and Kona Pomegranate.

Entering is simple- just leave me a comment telling me a project you have planned for next year!

US entrants over 18 only, please.

The giveaway closes on Sunday, December 13th at 9pm Pacific time. A winner will be selected via random.org on Monday, December 14th.

Our winner will announced on the blog and notified by email.

If you’re a “no reply” or an anonymous commenter, PLEASE include your email address in your comment! If I am unable to contact the winner by December 20, another winner will be selected via random.org

Thanks for entering! Head back to the rest of the giveaways here. 

No purchase is necessary. Odds of winning are based on number of entries. One entry per person. Giveaway value is approximately $10. Void where prohibited by law.

Hi guys; happy Friday!  Let’s get right to it, shall we?

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 week’s photo is one of Trina’s. I chose it because I really wanted to play with all those pinks and purples! They were my favorite colors when I was little, and all these years later, I still can’t get over the combination.

This week was a bit tough for me. Honestly, I really wasn’t feeling that orange at first, but I just couldn’t ignore it either!

I really love the light coral Bari J print, but it just wasn’t connecting with the other fabrics.  Adding in the Tula Pink print really helped me soften the gap between the coral and all those purple fabrics. I chose bird-themed prints this week because we are looking at a picture of a beautiful sky… birds seemed appropriate!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Bari J, Millie Fleur, Ripples in Coral

Tula Pink, Eden, Mosaic in Magenta

Sarah Watts, Honeymoon, Snake Brush in Purple

Joel Dewberry, Bungalow, Swallow Study in Lavender

Sarah Watson, Biology, Floral Burst in Purple

Micheal Miller House Designers, Mod Basics, Argyle Me in Passion

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!

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

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

I’m so excited to say that I’ve finished the Shimmer quilt!

I started this quilt when my guild hosted Allison Harris from Cluck Cluck Sew in October. She was our speaker for our regular guild meeting and was kind enough to stay another day to do a workshop on this quilt pattern. It was fun working with Allison and the other ladies and seeing what everyone’s fabric choices were.

You can read my previous post on this quilt  here.

Last Wednesday, my daughter and I took Shimmer out on the town to photograph it. While we were out, we decided to do a quick Periscope about photographing quilts.

 

Here is that video. You can also watch all my past broadcasts on my Katch account and follow me on Periscope to get my broadcasts live.

For those who want to quick version, here is an outline of those tips:

1. Find great light
2. Beware of shadows
3. Make sure your quilt is level with the frame of the camera
4. Vary your location; find some good locations in your area
5. Take different types of shots, not just full-quilt photos

 

I hope you guys have a great week. I’m looking forward to getting lots of sewing done and will update you soon on my progress!

This week, I’m linking up to:

Happy Sewing, ~L