sewtakeahike

Happy New Year! (and new patterns!)

2016 is here, can you believe it? Happy New Year!

Although I try to keep Christmastime and the days leading up to it pretty low key in our home, December turned out to be a busy month for us. I traveled to Chicago right after Thanksgiving for the Bernina Ambassador Reunion and learned so much about Bernina, their awesome family and several of their machines.

 

 

I have always loved the Bernina brand and I am so thankful to have had that experience. I love Bernina!!

 

 

Then, a few weeks later, we were off to Long Beach for a few days.

 

 

What a great trip that was!

I did a ton of sewing in December and I'll save those project pics for another post!

For now, I'll leave you with a few new patterns I've uploaded into my etsy shop:

Both the Duke block and the Apple Blossom are 9" blocks and they look great together. Here's an example of a quilt layout you could do with those two blocks.

 

 

In fact, I designed the Duke block for my friend Vicky and several of us made this quilt for her and it turned out fabulous!

I'll try not to be a stranger, xo, Penny

 

 

Making Faces with Melissa Averinos

 

 

I fell hard for Melissa's pieced face quilt as I watched her progress on it on Instagram. Then when she posted that it was going to be on display at QuiltCon and she was going to be there as well, I had high hopes of meeting her!

Although our paths didn't cross at QuiltCon, fast forward a couple of months, and after a bit of back and forth, Melissa agreed to come to my house in Colorado for a weekend of teaching and a slumber party with a wonderful group of women I had in mind (she wrote a bit about that process here).

Melissa (and her teaching methods) are brilliantly mindful and thoughtful. I really had no idea what to expect, although I had a few preconceived ideas based on the supply sheet.

The class started with a lesson on face drawing. If you take a look at my before the lesson drawing compared to my after lesson drawing, you will see that her methods are very effective.

 

 

By the time we had practiced our face drawings for a bit, we were all restless to get to work with some fabric. Melissa encouraged us to work on a couple of faces at a time and not get too attached as we worked. I love how this method kept my personal need for perfection in check.

Here is a partial of the progression of one of my faces

 

 

   

I'm still working on redhead, and I'm fortunate that Fozzy hasn't discovered all those pieces on my designboard are not yet tacked down!

 

Here's the other face I started. I've started grid stitching her and will keep you updated as I get further along. 

 

 

I love this photo, it's really uncanny how much everyone's faces resemble the maker in features or personality. And then the proud (as she should be) teacher in the front.

 

Thank you so much Melissa for investing in us, we are so grateful to you and I'm so excited to see where the Making Faces journey takes you! You're an absolute treasure!

xo, Penny

 

Texting While Sewing

   

 

Amy is hosting her second round of Texting While Sewing and this round includes a zipper! She has tons of fabulous prizes lined up and guess who is the guest judge?!!!

 

 

You can find all the contest details here! Good luck!!

Good Neighbors

 

 

Amanda Jean has done it again! Not only does she make the coolest things, but now she has a line of fabric to make all those fabulous things with!

Her line of fabric with Connecting Threads is called Good Neighbors and for those of you who have spent any amount of time with Amanda, know that  is the perfect name for her fabric.

In celebration of her fabric line, the folks at Connecting Threads are throwing a pincushion blog party! Once again, very fitting for Amanda who must have hundreds of pincushions!

 

 

For my Good Neighbors pincushion, I used the Ann block from The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt book, reduced the block to 3" (!!) and paper pieced it.

 

 

I always color in my paper piecing patterns so I don't get the fabrics confused!

 

 

For the back, I crocheted a little 3" single crochet patch to sew onto the block, and stuffed it with wool scraps.

 

 

 

Here are the Good Neighbors pincushion party participants for you all to check out! There are lots of great pincushions featuring Good Neighbors (like this one by Krista! and this one by Faith!, and these by Anna!, so inspiring! 

 

9/1/2015	Amanda Jean	http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/
9/2/2015	Anna	http://www.noodle-head.com/
9/3/2015	Mary	http://maryonlakepulaski.blogspot.com/
9/4/2015	Svetlana	http://sotakhandmade.blogspot.com/
9/5/2015	Debbie	http://www.eschhousequilts.com/
9/6/2015	Holly	http://www.bijoulovelydesigns.com/
9/7/2015	Carla	http://carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com/
9/8/2015	Faith	www.FreshLemonsQuilts.com
9/9/2015	Vanessa	http://www.vanessachristenson.com/
9/10/2015	Anna	http://www.thimbleanna.com/
9/11/2015	Krista	http://poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com/
9/12/2015	Erin	http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/
9/13/2015	Lee	http://www.maychappell.com/
9/14/2015	Alex	http://teaginnydesigns.blogspot.com/
9/15/2015	Cheryl	http://naptimequilter.blogspot.com/
9/16/2015	Penny	http://sewtakeahike.typepad.com/
9/17/2015	Amy	http://duringquiettime.com/
9/18/2015	Debbie	http://aquilterstable.blogspot.com/
9/19/2015	Anne	http://www.springleafstudios.com/
9/20/2015	Melissa Corry	http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/
9/21/2015	Amber	http://www.oneshabbychick.typepad.com/
9/22/2015	Nettie	http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/
9/23/2015	Adrianne	http://www.littlebluebell.com/
9/24/2015	Cindy	http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/
9/25/2015	Amy	http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
9/26/2015	Chase	http://quarterinchmark.blogspot.com/
9/27/2015	Rene	http://www.renecreates.com/
9/28/2015	Erin	http://www.houseonhillroad.com/
9/29/2015	Nicole	http://modernhandcraft.com/
9/30/2015	Teri	http://blog.connectingthreads.com/

 

One last bit of exciting news, Connecting Threads is offering up a charm pack of Good Neighbors to one of you (Canadian or US residents only please!). Leave a comment on this post to enter, and I'll choose a winner in a week. 

 

Paddleboarding and a winner

 

 

 

I have always loved watersports and am willing to try most anything if it has to do with fun on the water. When I was a kid, my cousin Brenny would take us out on the lake with real jet skis that you could stand up on. We loved when she would call and whisk us away to the lake for a day or two on the weekends. And if we weren't with Brenny, we were lake camping/swimming as my dad was an avid camper/fisherman.

L-man and I have recently picked up a new water activity and we are having so much fun with it. Paddleboarding! We are so excited to travel with them and explore.

If you paddleboard and have any tips for us, we would love to hear!

 

 

 

 

Thank you for all the comments on the Noodlehead style giveaway post! I have chosen a winner and it is Linda M, who said:

"I am always a fan of blue and this one here is nice, but I like the blue with white flowers the best!  Tumble!"

I will send an email to you shortly Linda!

Happy Monday!

xo, Penny