Day 2: Sew Merry and Bright book tour

Holiday Musical Chairs Quilt [Sew Merry and Bright by Linda Lum DeBono]

We are on day 2 of this little book tour of mine! Thank you to Carrie for a great post yesterday! You can still enter her giveaway. It's a cool one.

Today my guest is Sew, Mama, Sew!. I love their site and it is a great source of inspiration. Not only is Sew, Mama, Sew! a store but their blog is full of tutorials, giveaways and great information for quilters or sewers. The ladies at Sew, Mama, Sew! invited me to be a special guest and what does a special guest do? She brings along a special project, of course! Go and check it out. Say hello to Little A because he is featured too! Enjoy it!

On their shop site, you will find lots of great holiday fabrics. Some fabrics are too cute to cut up! What do I do? I design easy projects that have large blocks so that I can feature the fabric as much as the design itself. That's what happened when I designed the quilt above. I loved the hot pink fabric and didn't want to cut it up into little pieces so I made sure that I incorporated that into the design. The same goes for the easy placemat designs in the book. Great, easy projects that still maintain the integrity of the design of that favorite project.

Peace Place Mat

[Sew Merry and Bright by Linda Lum DeBono]

So hop over to the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog today for some fabulous fun!

xo, L

Your First Project?

Do you remember your first project?  I never took Home Economics in high school because we didn't have room in the class. Too many girls so I ended up taking metal shop and woodworking.

We had just moved to New Jersey and I couldn't work. I wandered into the local quilt shop because I was so bored with the lack of the hustle and bustle of the city life. I was hesitant but I wanted to make this quilt that they had on display. Susan, the maker of the sample, was working that day. I think that she thought I was a bit off of my rocker because I wanted to make this by hand. I didn't know any other way because I didn't have a machine. I bought some fabric and started to make several of the blocks by hand!

I found a few of the blocks a while ago. I look at them with amazement. I think that my piecing technique was much neater then. I don't have the patience now. 

It was fun to look back. Do you remember your first project?
xo, L

p.s. Yes, I know that I am an overachiever. I didn't go for basic squares for my first sewing project.

So Sneaky!

It has been one snow day after another. I think that we are going to have another one tomorrow! I finally broke down and bought a pair of boots yesterday! I think that I've been in denial all of these years of living in NJ. It couldn't have been as bad as when I lived in the Ottawa Valley, right? This year we've had a lot of snow in NJ and I think that it was destiny that I walked into the store yesterday to a 50% off sale and found a pair of good looking yet functional boots in my size. 

In the meantime, I've been working on so many different things that my brain is on overload.  Lots of stuff that I can't show completely just yet. Lots of proposal writing and magazine stuff to work on. Plus, I've been working on my project for the Aurifil Designer of the Month event going on over at the Aurifil blog. Did I tell you? I'm Miss February, you know. Come and visit me, won't you?

I also have that little project there below to show you in April when the episode of Quilt Out Loud makes its debut. Remember when my buddy Mark Lipinski and Jodie Davis came to visit me the week of Christmas? We taped two segments and it was fun!!!

I'm finally finishing up this little project for myself. Four years ago a lot of tragedy struck our family. One day, Liesl of Oliver and S, was offering up these lovely scraps. She had made a little hexagon quilt and I wanted to make one too. She sent the scraps to me and I made a little, doll-sized quilt top. I kept it on my desk for a long time but then I thought that it would be beautiful appliqued to a background and then framed for hanging. It's so pretty, soft and soothing.

Coincidentally, this past month's block for the Saturday Sampler program at my local shop, Kindred Quilts, coordinated with everything that I've been working on. I love the colors in this block. If you are lucky enough to have a shop nearby that's offering a Saturday Sampler program, take advantage of it. You'll learn something, make something beautiful and be guaranteed to keep a bit of creativity going each month.

xo, L

Aurifil Designer of the Month - January 2011

Good morning! It's great to announce the Aurifil Designer of the Month Event. This month's designer is Susan Brubaker Knapp. 

Here's a sneak peak at here free design. Gorgeous quilting! The rest of the quilt is gorgeous too! So, hop over to Aurifil's blog and read the interview that hostest, Pat Sloan, did for this event and to get the pattern. So awesome.

Let me know what you think! Susan's so talented, isn't she? I don't know how I'm going to follow her. I'm Miss February. I can't wait!!

Remember that if you make the top by the end of the month and load a photo to our Aurifil Flickr group, you will be in the running to win an Aurifil thread prize. So exciting!

xo, L