color

Finished: Scrappy Rainbow Quilt

I recently noticed that although I have been pretty active on Instagram, I haven’t been updating here with my finished projects! This one has been done for a while, but I hadn’t taken decent pictures of it. So today, my son and I went outside for a quick little photo shoot.

For this quilt, I shopped my scrap and FQ stashes to get lots of variation in my fabrics. I made random strippy panels (similar to a jelly roll race quilt) and then cut the blocks from them. It wasn’t the most efficient process to make the blocks, but I knew it would force me into a randomness that I wouldn’t get using foundation strip piecing. I know myself- I like controlling things too much!

This was my first project on the long arm, and I was happy with the way it turned out. I am definitely still learning, but with as many tops as I have to finish in the next few months, I should be an old hand at it soon!

I love laying this one out for BBQs and to relax in the back yard, but she is currently hanging in my studio opposite my design wall keeping my works-in-progress company. I love coming in each day to this view!

Happy Sewing, ~Lorinda

Linking up to:

Color Play Friday: Kla Ha Ya Days

Hi Guys! Thank Goodness it’s (Color Play) Friday!

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.

I took this week’s photo at Kla Ha Ya Days, a festival held each summer in my hometown of Snohomish, Washington. There’s normal festival entertainment: carnival, parade, icecream eating contest… Then you have the more quirky events: hot air balloon glow, bed races (yes, real beds on wheels), a baby crawling race, and the classic frog jump contest. You can’t make this stuff up.

8061e351dd217cdccdff8206b2265bbb

A couple of summers ago, my family went to watch the balloon glow and stopped at the carnival beforehand so the kids could go on some rides. This photo was a failed attempt at trying to get a picture of my son on the ride, but I liked how the movement created a blur. It almost gives you the same sort of dizzy feeling you get when you are on a carnival ride with lights whizzing by.

It was a bit of a magical night watching the rides and dancing with my kids in a field while waiting for the balloons to fill up. It ended up being too windy and the balloon glow was a bust, but the time together as a family is one of the best memories!

Laurel and Pine Balloon Glow Dancing

So, here’s my palette and bundle!

I loved in this picture how the bright colors of the swings contrasted with the slate grey of the sky at sunset.

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Alison Glass, Ex Libris, Grey Panel

Zen Chic, Figures, Daisy in Ocean

Micheal Miller, Dumb Dot in Lilac

Karen Lewis, Blueberry Park, Allotments in Coral

Me and My Sister Designs, Ticklish, Joking Around in Yellow

Bari J, Petals and Plume, Rumpled Sour

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.

Here’s the photo I chose for next 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. 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

Color Play Friday: Christmas Ornaments

Wow- all I’ve been posting lately is Color Play Friday! I’ve been busy sewing Halloween costumes, but that’s done now. I do have some quilting projects in the works, and should be starting to show them soon. To really keep up-to-date on what I’m doing, your best bet is to follow me on Twitter, Periscope and 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:

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 weeks photo was taken by me a couple of years ago after Christmas. I was taking all the ornaments off the Christmas trees and sticking them in a box so I could pack them nicely later. Suddenly, I looked down and saw all this Christmasy wonderfulness piled on top of each other and had to snap a photo.

Christmas Ornaments Palette and Bundle 1

Christmas Ornaments Palette and Bundle 2

WAIT A MINUTE?! Two palettes?! Two bundles?!

That’s right, I’m a big old cheater pants this week. As I was selecting fabrics, I found myself torn between a literal interpretation of what I was seeing in the picture, and how the picture made me FEEL.

So I figured two is better than one and went for it!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

Bundle 1

Makower UK, Christmas 2015 Scandi, Snowflakes in Beige

Makower UK, Christmas 2015 Scandi, Linen Texture

Kaffe Fasset, Shot Cottons, Woven in Mulberry

Kate Spain, Solstice, Hemisphere in Berry

Robert Kaufman, Metro Living, Ogee in Scarlet

Whistler Studios, Glisten Metallic Gold

Joel Dewberry, True Colors, Scrollwork in Green

Basic Grey, Blitzen,Creatures in Evergreen

Bundle 2

Makower UK, Christmas 2015 Scandi, Hearts and Stars in Red

Bunnyhill Designs, Winter Wonderland, Candy Cane Stripe,Tonal Redwork

Bunnyhill Designs, Winter Wonderland, Redwork

Doodlebug Design Inc, Santa Express, Santa Stripe in Red

Jo Clark, Organic, Festive, Gingerbread People

Micheal Miller, Glitz Metallic Quarter Dot, Pearlized Glitz

Makower UK, Wonderland, Houses

Victoria Hutto, Holly Jollies, Dots in Black

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 Pike Place Market from Trina

I hope you can join us next week!

Happy Sewing, ~L

Color Play Friday: NYC Bus Tour

Happy Friday, everyone! On Fridays we play with color, and today we have some pink!

If you’re new around here, check out my Color Play page to see the rules.

I chose this picture of Trina’s because I just couldn’t wait to play with those bright colors any longer! The combination of that yellow tour bus and her adorable raspberry-colored tights was so much fun.

Her tights made me think of a grown-up ballerina, so I knew right away what my main fabric would be! The pink ballerinas from Tiger Lily! I’ve been looking at this print for weeks, and was so happy to finally get to play around and find a bundle to feature it.

So, without further ado, here’s my palette and bundle!

Here is the list of the fabrics I chose:

Alexia Abegg, Mesa, Dining Car is Coral

Heather Ross, Tiger Lilly, Ballerinas in Pink

Alexia Abegg, Hat Box, Palm Springs in Pink

Kimberly Kight, Lucky Strikes, Dime Store Dot in Navy

Alexia Abegg, Paper Bandana, Paint Dot in Cloud

Timeless Treasures, Sketch Basic in Daffodil

Laura Gunn, Painters Canvas in Yellow

This week was unusual for me, because I had four fabrics from Cotton and Steel, three of them from the same designer. I usually mix it up a bit more than that. But they worked so well that I just had to include them all!

Don’t forget to head over to In An Otter Life and see what Trina came up with this week.

Updated to add: Steph from Shimmy and More got in on the fun! Check out her post to see what fabrics she picked for this week.

If you’d like to join in for next week, just send us a message letting us know so we can link up with you. We’d love to see everything our creative friends come up with!

Next week’s photo is one of mine and is titled Jellyfish. It can be found on our Color Play Friday Pinterest Board.

Happy Sewing! ~L

Color Play Friday: Jetty Island Driftwood

Welcome back to Color Play Friday!

Today we have an image that I took on a family boat trip at the very end of last summer. We had spent the afternoon in the Puget Sound and stopped at Jetty Island for a little bit before the sun went down. Jetty Island is a fun little place that can only be reached by boat. In the summer months, the parks department provides a 60-person, pay-by-donation ferry to shuttle people back and forth to the island. Sometimes you can wait an hour or more to get on, but the ride takes all of two minutes and is a total hit with the kids.

I loved the look of these tree roots in the ‘almost-sunset’ light and the way the orange moss just lit up. The main thing in this image that I knew I had to feature was the complimentary orange and blue. I also chose to add in the green from the grass to give it more color, since the palette was looking really brown.

I’m not usually a huge fan of brown or orange, but am in love with all of these fabrics! I especially love the Tiger Lily print, as I think it ties everything else in the palette together nicely.

Jetty Island Driftwood Palette and Bundle

Don’t forget to go check out Trina’s palette at In an Otter Life!

Here are the links to the fabrics in my bundle:

Heather Ross, Tiger Lily, Floral Medallion in Brown

Amy Ellis, Modern Neutrals, Patchways in Cocoa

Zen Chic, Reel Time, Lenses in Ochre

Cotton and Steel Basics, Dottie in Gnome Hut

Art Gallery Fabrics, Prisma Elements in Albite Latte

Heather Rosas, Sea Life, Ripples in Cream

Fig Tree & Co., Aloha Girl, Lania Shirt in Lagoon

While I think scale is a very important part of fabric selection, the fabrics shown in my Color Play images are not always to scale. With the editing I do to get them all in the image, it just takes too much time to make sure they’re all perfectly sized. Do your research before making any purchases!

Color Play Friday: Stilliguamish River at the Big Four Mountain

Happy Friday, everyone!

I’m so excited because today is the relaunch of our Color Play posts!

A couple of months ago, I had a chat with my real-life quilting buddy, Trina from In an Otter Life. She thought it’d be fun to play along, and together we thought of some ways to make Color Play better and even more fun. Here are our rules:

Each week, one of us will select a picture from our joint Pinterest board. These are all pictures that one of us has taken in 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 the other person’s palette or bundle before we both post on Friday.
That’s it! It’s going to be so fun to see what we each come up with.

Our first photo comes courtesy of Trina and was taken at a very popular hiking spot here in Washington. This river eventually makes it’s way down through our little town.

Big Four Ice Caves River Palette and Bundle

Stilliguamish River at Big Four Moutain Palette and Bundle

The thing about this picture that jumped out at me was the broad range of greens in the water and trees and the blue grey of the light reflecting on the water’s surface…. how gorgeous is that river?! Makes me want to hike up there just to wade in.

Here are links for all the fabrics in my bundle:

Cotton + Steel Basics, Sprinkle in Summercamp

Joel Dewberry, Pristine Pop in Basil

Joel Dewberry, Mosaic Bloom in Asparagus

Kristen Berger, Sharrows in Blue

Cotton + Steel Basics, Dottie in Cloud

Don’t forget to head over to In an Otter Life to see what Trina came up with.

Happy Sewing!

Color Play: June 25, 2015

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Color Play. I skipped last time, since it was my kids’ first week off of school and the hubby was out of town. But I’m happy to be back at it.

This week, my color inspiration is my daughter Lauren. Nearly thirteen, this girl is just coming into her own in her fashion choices. She had been begging dad to let her dye the tips of her hair blue and was allowed to once school was out. She is a wise, godly, brave, strong and beautiful girl and I am in awe of her.

This first picture is from our ill-fated first boat trip of the year. We got to the lake and realized the inner tube wasn’t inflated enough, then we ended up broken down in the middle of the lake (which I’m sure will be a funny story eventually).

But at least she looked adorable. I was inspired by how the colors in her bathing suit, top and hair worked so well together. And I love the pinks in that rose. Next is just a snapshot of her in our yard. I think black, white and red are such classic, bold colors to wear, and wanted to play around with the addition of teal into that mix.