A Mystery - Part 1

I'm working on my first mystery quilt. It was published in the January/February issue of McCall's and goes for 3 issues.

The first task was to pick 4 fabrics. I choose Alegria Blue Birds in Blue and Hearts in Pink, and Nature Elements in Ocean Breeze as well as white.

The blocks so far are 40 4-triangle pieced triangles and 20 3-triangle pieced squares.

One my fellow Piece Makers is keeping the patterns a secret, can't wait till next Monday for the next installment.

Denver National Quilt Festival

Ava and I went to the quilt festival here in Denver today. It was a little challenging keeping a 16 month old engaged, but she definitely liked all the bright colors and definitely had her favorites. I might have to sneak down on my own this weekend.

Hobo Progress and Nook Sleeve

I've been working on a few projects this year. Some of the ladies from my quilt group and I are making a quilt from the book Hobo Quilts. In order to have it completed by the end of the year we need to do six blocks per month. There are 60 6.5 inch blocks. There are a few mistakes in the cutting instructions for some of the blocks in the book, but it hasn't been too difficult to overcome. There are mostly pieced, a few applique and even fewer paper pieced blocks. I decided to go with a lighter, more modern palette, and I think I like the way it's turning out.

I also sewed up this gadget sleeve for my son's Nook Color. It came together very quickly and fits like a glove.  You can find the tutorial here on DixieMango.com. I think I'm going to do one for my Kindle too.

Fabric ATCs

Well, life with a new baby and three boys has been very busy this year. I wanted to try something that I could accomplish easily in a couple of hours or less. Fabric ATCs(Artist's Trading Cards) seemed just the thing. I joined a group on Yahoo and immediately signed up for a major swap. I've got to make 10 of these little 2.5 X 3.5 inch mini quilts. I finally found inspiration in my home state of Vermont and have been churning them out reasonably fast ever since.

I've never really done any art quilting, but I really liked the stretch. I definitely think I'll be doing more of these. I've tried my hand at beading, embroidery and applique.

Volunteer Sewing and Family Pics

I'm hemming scarves for my sons' music teacher. In true Heather fashion I heard sewing and signed up without knowing exactly what I was going to have to do. Turns out that she needs this really sheer fabric hemmed. Well, I panicked a little bit, but then decided to go to my local Bernina shop and sure enough they have a foot for exactly that purpose. It's called the Roll and Shell Hemmer. It worked out quite nicely and the hem looks pretty professional, still working on the corners though.

Thought I'd also share some family photos, we had our portraits done at JCPenny this last weekend. I found out that it's nearly impossible for all six of us to face the same way and smile at the same time. I like that they aren't perfect though, it shows everyone's personality.

Check them out here.

One block is better than none

A wonky log cabin, I really like the freedom of the block, we're doing a round robin/swap in my quilt group, and I think I'm going to request wonky log cabins in this color way.

And I just had to add a photo of little Ava, hard to believe how big she's getting!

Connecting Threads Custom Kit

There's a contest at Connecting Threads promoting their new Kit Builder feature. It's actually quite fun trying different combinations of fabric. One of my designs is here.