The Supermoon

So did you see the moon the other night?

Apparently it was the closest the full moon would be to the earth all year.

Supposedly May 5th was the best night to view it, but I was about 20 minutes too late to catch it first rising. So last night I got into position about an hour in advance and used my nifty skyview app to track the moon.

Next time I’ll try more long exposures and see if I can get a crisper shot. But I’m happy I caught such a gorgeous sight!

Sneek Peeks and a winner!

Wanna take a sneek peek inside Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume  5?

My Lil’ Matryoshka block is #415 and can be found on page 31:

Oh I’ve already found some favorites…

And this precious little one which belongs to a good friend of mine..

 

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So onto the prize drawing!

Omg, thank-you all so much for your A-MAZING and wonderful comments! I’ve been grinning like a fool for the past few days! *tears*

The winner of a free copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 5 is:

Alda, who said:

# 296 Alda

May 2, 2012 4:58 pm

Congratulations on having your block in the volume. It’s beautiful.

 

Congratulations Alda! Look for an email from me! Enjoy the magazine, it’s a really great issue.

From what I understand, the official onsale date for this issue is May 8, so it should be in stores pretty soon. Locally, I’ve often found Quiltmaker magazine at Save-on foods, and Pharmasave.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the blog tour!

 

 

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 5 Blog tour!

Hey everyone! Welcome! Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Anyeung He Casayo, Hola!

Are you as excited as I am to see what treats are in store in this new issue chock full of pattern goodness?

Without further ado, here is my fun block. I call it: “Lil’ Matryoshka”

Oh did I have fun with this one! As usual, it’s paper pieced, and all of the facial details are embroidered with a double strand. I designed their tummys to be a great spot to showcase your favorite prints, and I fussy cut some of my favorite elements from Spring Street from P&B textiles. I also used my favorite Quilter’s Linen and Kona by Robert Kaufmann.

Can’t you see the myriad of project possibilities with this one? *wink wink*

Let’s see, we have the Mommy:

….her teenaged daughter, who reminds me of my niece..

…and the little sister who is quite mischievous despite that innocent smile..

They were a lot of fun to make!

Now I thought I’d show you how I embroidered the faces…

There is this amazing stuff called Glad Press n’ Seal which you can stick and peel off of virtually anything several times. It’s perfect for tracing embroidery elements.

I love how you can so easily position it exactly where you need it.

I separated all the floss I used down to two strands.

And grabbed my trusty embroidery hoop..

I went with a simple back stitch to outline everything..

And a satin stitch (just over the outside of the outline, and just to the inside of the inner line) to fill in the lips..

And again I used a back stitch for the black smile line..

When you’re done, just gently tear away the press n’ seal. Sometimes I need to use some tweezers.

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So if you would love to win a copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 5, leave me a comment below , make sure I have some way of contacting you! and I’ll choose a winner on May 3rd!  Comments are closed and the winner will be announced shortly!

Good luck! And enjoy the rest of the blog tour!

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Make it, Earth Day and Modern LAQ.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Anthropologie, Columbus OH

I’d love to start by thanking all of you wonderful friends for your amazing and heartwarming comments left on my most recent posts! I LOVE designing patterns and it really makes my day when I can share it with so many creative sewists! I’m thrilled over how many people have been downloading the Vintage Mason Jar Lanterns and the Singer Featherweight patterns! Thank-you so much, and I will be stalking the two flickr groups for photos of your blocks!

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I have just a few things I’d love to share with you on this fine sunny and warm spring Vancouver day:

First, is the Make It Handmade Revlolution happening right now until 5pm at the Croation Cultural Centre at 3250 Commercial Drive in Vancouver.

The monkey and I are on our way to catch the last afternoon of crafty goodness!

I also really want to share Krista Withers’ new blog:

She’s the mad genius behind the free motion quilting that adorns my Halloween Quilt of Awesomness:

Even if you’re not in the market for a fabulous Modern Long Arm Quilter, click over to her blog anyway to drool over her past projects. Good gravy this woman has some mad skillz!

And since they’re so amazingly gorgeous and inspiring, here are some of the breathtaking window displays from Anthropologie across the US,

Anthropologie, Edgewater, NJ

Anthropologie, Annapolis, MD

Anthropologie, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY

Anthropologie, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY

Anthropologie, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY

Anthropologie, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY

Have a wonderful day, and Happy Sewing!

Vintage Mason Jar Lanterns

Welcome SewHooked Blog Hoppers!

Have you been enjoying the amazing collection of free paper pieced patterns so far? I love this project, and when Jennifer put the call out to designers, I just couldn’t resist!

So here is my free Garden Party themed pattern: Vintage Mason Jar Lanterns.

When it comes to outdoor parties, my all-time favorite decorations are the lights in the trees. While researching what kind of lights I might want to design, I came across this photo:

And fell in love this this antique mason jar…

I mean how could I resist?

I used a 3 stranded stem stitch for all of the embroidery. You can certainly use a simple backstitch instead, I was just feeling fancy at the time!

So this is definitely an advanced pattern due to the number of little pieces and multiple sections. But you don’t have to make them all. You can just choose to make one jar if you like.

or you can skip the tiny piecing altogether, and make some colorful lanterns instead, by treating that entire jar outline as your first piece:

or by treating the diamond shape surrounding the jars as your first piece:

So there you go! Click here for the free pdf pattern, and be sure to share photos of your block to the Garden Party Blog Hop Flickr Group.

Happy Sewing!

The Singer Featherweight

A few months ago, I received an invitation to join the Sew Out Loud designers on Flickr.

At the time, I was completely swamped and just couldn’t see how on earth I could participate.

So time went on and the group got started, and the most amazing designs began to emerge every week:

This is my favorite, designed by Amy:

And I must say I adore this one designed by Charise:

And then I noticed an open design challenge portion of the sew-a-long. Sewing and Wordplay was the theme and is to be judged by the infamous Suzuko Koseki none the less! Suddenly my brain went into overdrive, and I drew this:

I’ve been wanting to play around with the idea of using letters to create the shape of something, and well this was just the inspiration I needed. (never mind that I was still unbelievably swamped)

So today, I finally sat down at my computer and whipped up the pattern.

It’s paper pieced, and I would rate it advanced due to the number of little sections you need to sew together. All of the letters, the needle holder and the ends of the spool are embroidered.

I debated about whether I should keep it for sale, and in the end I decided to join the fun and add my pattern to the group! Since I design patterns for a living, I’m officially withdrawing myself from any prize drawings. I love the designs already submitted and I’m curious to see who gets picked!

Now I don’t have time to actually sew this up, so be on the lookout for any mistakes!

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Edited to add: I found some mistakes! I’ve corrected them and updated the Pattern link below. The new file is called The Singer Featherweight Pattern 2

Click here to download the revised Singer Featherweight Pattern 2!

And be sure to post photos of your block to the Sew Out Loud Flickr Group!

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Blog tour coming soon!

Yes my dearies, it’s that time of year again, when lucky designers across the globe get to blog about their blocks in the latest issue of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks. We’re up to Volume 5, and even though it’s going to be blurry as all get out, see if you can read that first name listed on the left under From today’s top designers:

* think I’m going to die from excitement*

Or from embarrassment as it is blurry and well, could very well say “Seangea Cattagham” But I’m keeping my hopes high! And for those of you eagle-eyed readers, see if you can spot my block up there on the cover. *hehe*

Oh right, my day is day one, so mark your calendars for April 30th! And be sure to pop back over here to read about my happy little block.

Hmm.. I’m going to be in Calgary that day – let’s hope this automatic post thingy actually works for me for once!

A Sew Hooked Sneaky Peeky

Just popping in to give you a little taste of what’s to come on April 21st…

Are you following the Sew Hooked Blog hop? You should, there’s a free paper pieced pattern posted every day in the month of April!

I Love My All Stars Quilt Pattern

Have you liked Quiltmaker’s facebook page yet? If so, then you’ll have already had a sneek peek at my latest quilt pattern I designed for Quiltmaker’s May/June, 12 issue hitting newstands by April 10,12.

It’s really no secret that I really do love my converse, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I’d honour them with a whole quilt pattern LOL! Now I couldn’t imagine how I could fit the making of this quilt into my schedule so I let my editors choose someone else to sew it up. I’M SO HAPPY with how it turned out! Paula Stoddard created this masterpiece, and I just adore all the funky fabrics she threw in there!

Yeah, one day I too, will own 23 pairs! Quiltmaker always does a nice job covering every possible detail of making my patterns. Donna Smith did a wonderful job with the quilting.

Although I’ve been on a mission lately to design patterns for boys, I think this quilt is perfect for anyone who loves kicking around in their Chucks!

This pattern comes with 2 versions of the straight on view and the side view, and is so versatile. I can see mug rugs, and placemats, pillowcases, or sports bags donning personalized converse, can’t you?

Tutorial – Needle your thread and tie your knot

Hey everyone!

As promised, here is a quick video tutorial showing how I prepare my needle and thread for any hand sewing or embroidery I need to do.

To give credit where it’s due:  I learned the needle your thread thing from watching my left handed mom, and I’m pretty sure I learned the quilter’s knot from a blog post from Anna Maria Horner. Thanks ladies!