Category: Virtual Sew Day

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Virtual Sew Day and More Patterns!

So I have been keeping up with Virtual Sew Day over at Quiltingboard.com, even though I haven’t been posting it so much here. Tomorrow is another one! Honestly I haven’t been doing much sewing lately (hence the quiet blog), but now that I am creating patterns, I am starting to feel the sewing bug again. Tomorrow I will be working on some of my new patterns and maybe a few other projects thrown in for fun. If you would like to join in, Virtual Sew Day is just a fun day where you sew at home, I sew at home, and then we chat about our progress to keep each other motivated. You can post here, or check out the post I will start over at Quiltingboard.com.

I have created quite a few new patterns. You can pick any of them up at my Etsy shop or my Craftsy shop. These are all fabric applique patterns. They are sold as templates only. Here are a few new ones I have added, I will post some of the actual fabric blocks tomorrow as well.

First up we have a large pack of alien monsters. These guys would look great as a whole quilt. The pack, however, only includes the templates not quilt instructions, so use your imagination to build something fun!! All these patterns are also sold individually.

Next up I have something based on our recent trip to Disney World. These Mickey ice cream pops were everywhere and really signified that you had arrived. This one has a big bite out of it, but I also have one with no bite in my shop.

To go with the alien monsters, I also created a few space themed applique patterns like this rocketship. I think these would look great sprinkled in with the monsters as well!

And lastly, I know it’s a bit odd to see food as a fabric applique, but I just thought it would be fun to see a quilt made of classic foods!! This pizza slice is one of the ones I have in my shop.

These are just a couple examples, I have more in my shop, so be sure to check them all out!! Tomorrow I will have some examples of what these look like when made out of actual fabric!!

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Come Virtually Sew With Me Today – 5/20

Welcome to my Virtual Sew Day!

I had so much fun last month, and I hope others will be joining me too this time around! This is very laid back, no real rules, just loads of sewing and encouragement. Here are the guidelines:
 
 
If you will be sewing today too, let me know. You can do this by putting together a post on your blog with your goals for the day (and link back to this post so others can join in too!). Then come and leave me a comment with a link to your post so I can see what you are working on. If you do not have a blog, just leave your goals right in my comments.

Then through out the day, be sure to update us on your progress by posting a comment here. We would also love to see progress pics if you have them. Post your pics on your blog, or link us to your pics on Flickr. This is really low key and meant to be a fun way to keep ourselves motivated through out the day to reach our goals!!

At the end of the day, be sure to give us a full update either by a new blog post with pics or by commenting below. Did you reach your goals?
 
 
My goals for today are:

1. Sew at least one block in my “Alice” quilt
2. Sew at least 10 block in my solids quilt
3. Work on a WIP that hasn’t been touched in a while

So what will you be working on? be sure to check my blog often as we will be offering up loads of encouragement right here in the comments!

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Dr. Seuss Quilt

I am so excited to be participating in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival again this year. Twice a year Amy, from Amy’s Creative Side, hosts a quilt festival to coincide with Quilt Market. It’s a wonderfully fun way to see all sorts of quilts across the blogsphere.

Today I will be showing off one of my more popular quilts using Dr. Seuss fabrics, but first I wanted to remind everyone about the Virtual Sew Day I will be hosting this Sunday, May 20th. I hosted one last month as well and it was a lot of fun! I would love to see more people join us this time though. There are no rules!! We just post our goals for the day (you can do so on your blog or in the comments of my post on Sunday if you don’t have a blog), then check in every so often through out the day. It’s a great way to get some sewing done and have support while you are doing it! If you are interested, be sure to check back here on Sunday for my official post. You can follow my blog’s RSS by your own feed reader, or I have a way to follow by email on the right there. You can also sign up for my newsletter over there. This way you can get updates and be reminded to sew with us … virtually!

Okay so now on to my quilt …

This quilt was made for a pregnant co-worker/friend that was moving back to Australia. At the time we didn’t know the sex of the baby, so I decided to use my stash of Dr. Seuss fabrics to make her something special.

These Dr. Seuss fabrics were the first time I had bought every single fabric in a line. I have been in love with Dr. Seuss for a long, long time. In high school I actually joined one of those subscription book clubs just to start collecting Dr. Seuss books for my future children. I dragged them around with me for 4 years through college before that baby was born! So when I saw these fabrics, I knew I had to have them. They have made some wonderful quilts for me so far.

The backing is a dot fabric that I had intended for another project, but it fit so well for this quilt that I decided to abandon the other project. It was going to be a purse, but I probably never would have made it anyway. LOL

I did a simple meander on the quilt to tie everything together. I love the look of a good all over quilting design.

And I bound the quilt in the same grey that is used on the front. I think it really ties everything together and frames the whole quilt.

This is one of my most popular quilts on my site, and I am happy to say that my friend’s son is now old enough to be getting loads of tummy time on this quilt. Recently I turned this quilt design into a pattern, if you are interested in seeing that I have it available in my Craftsy shop or on Etsy.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I can’t wait to get more inspiration for Amy’s Quilt Festival!

Happy quilting!
Rachel

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Slow Week

This week has been a slow week for project creation. I am working on something new that I am not ready to share with the world yet, but hopefully soon!! I haven’t gotten too much done on all my various WIPs (seriously am I the only one who has an upteen number of quilts in various stages of completion??), but with our Virtual Sew Day coming up, I am hoping to work on a few.

Speaking of, will you be joining me next Sunday?

Last time I had so much fun and I hope we can get a few more quilters to join us. To read what Virtual Sew Day is all about, you can check out the details from our first one here. I hope you can join in!!

In other news, I was able to get my first pattern, So Whimsy, to go live. If you are interested in purchasing this pattern …

I have it available in my Craftsy shop or on Etsy.

I think that is all for now!

Happy quilting!
Rachel

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Virtual Sew Day – Lunch Time Update

No pics right now, but I have gotten the binding sewn down. Originally I was going to machine sew it to the back, but since this is for a charity, I think I will go ahead and take the time to hand tack it to the back, so I may be doing just that for the rest of the day!! I probably will take a break in the afternoon though and sew a little bit of something else to break up the monotony.

I will have pics of this quilt hopefully by the end of the day!

How is everyone else doing?

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Virtual Sew Day – Mid-Morning Update

To learn about virtual sew day, be sure to check out this post.

I have been sewing now for a few hours and have gotten a few steps closer to my goals.

First off I started the morning by sewing up a few blocks for my solids only quilt. Which was goal #3. I do hope to get a few more done today, but I am happy to have accomplished at least one goal so far!!

I also got started on the binding for my first quilt. I was reading Mary’s goals today on her blog, Mary.Emmens.co.uk and discovered that she cut binding strips using her Accuquilt Go! I haven’t used my Baby Go! much and I couldn’t remember which dies I had picked up, but I knew I had one strips one. Luckily for me I had been smart enough to pick up the 2.5″ one, which is perfect for binding. Since my cutting board is currently being taken over by projects,

I decided to take Mary’s idea and give it a go (get it a Go!? hehehe).

I folded up the fabric so I could get 5 strips from my first cut. I was cutting through 6 layers of fabric on one side and 4 on the other.

It went through the Go! pretty well, but I could tell things were kind of bunching up.

There was not much scrap leftover from the cut, though i think if I had taken the time to clear off my cutting board and trim everything up and cut it with a ruler, I *may* have gotten one more strip out of it, but for the time saving and space saving aspect, I was okay with that.

The first set of strips were a little ruffley and pinch folded in spots,

but I think this was more my own fault for not ironing and not being careful as I ran it through the machine. The second set of strips was fine.

I had a heck of a time actually sewing mys trips together this time. Usually I never have to unpick my binding, but for some reason half my strips went on backwards so I had to do a lot of unpicking and resewing. I hate doing that, but I sucked it up and everything turn out fine in the end. Hopefully my binding goes on the quilt much easier than it went together.

So that’s what I have gotten done so far. Now I am off to keep plugging along. I hope everyone else is getting a lot done today too.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Virtual Sew Day – Come Sew With Me Today!

I am very excited to be sewing today. I hope that some of you will be joining me as well! If you will be sewing today too, let me know. You can do this by putting together a post on your blog with your goals for the day (and link back to this post so others can join in too!). Then come and leave me a comment with a link to your post so I can see what you are working on. If you do not have a blog, just leave your goals right in my comments.

Then through out the day, be sure to update us on your progress by posting a comment here. We would also love to see progress pics if you have them. Post your pics on your blog, or link us to your pics on Flickr. This is really low key and meant to be a fun way to keep ourselves motivated through out the day to reach our goals!!

At the end of the day, be sure to give us a full update either by a new blog post with pics or by commenting below. Did you reach your goals?

Here are my goals for the day:

1. Bind my charity rainbow quilt.
2. Make 2 Stripe blocks for my stripes quilt
3. Make a few blocks for my solids only quilt
4. Bind pink quilt for my niece

That is a good start. I have a feeling I may only get #1 done, but we shall see. I will have to be careful to spend as much time sewing as being on the computer!! 🙂

You can also travel over to QuiltingBoard and check out my virtual quilting thread there. I will be updating both there and on my blog.

So what are your goals for sewing today?

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Virtual Sew Day Tomorrow – Sunday April 15!

I just wanted to post a quick reminder about my virtual sew day tomorrow. You can read more about it here:

Virtual Quilt Day

I know I’ll have at least one blog reader joining me, and also some friends on QuiltingBoards. I am hoping to get more blog readers, but I know life is busy. Hopefully as the word gets out, we’ll have more friends join us in the future!! Either way me and my one blog friend, Mary from Mary.Emmens.co.uk, will have a lot of fun and get some much needed projects done! So will you join the two of us?

I have made a quick little button to go with our virtual sewing day:

If you want to put the button on your blog, here is the code you need:

Just copy and paste that right to your blog or blog sidebar.

There are no rules for Virtual Sew Day. I call it “sew” day now instead of “quilt” day because you can sew anything you want!! A quilt, clothes, purses, whatever your heart desires. Work on a much neglected WIP, finish up some swap blocks, make a new purse for an evening out, or how about a fun shirt? I love sewing with other people, but dragging my machine around is no fun, so I decided to have a virtual sew day so we can all work on projects and give encouragement along the way. Even if I am talking to only myself and Mary on Sunday, I know that I’ll get so much more done.

If you want to play along, look for my post tomorrow. I will have it up nice and early, so even if you are in another time zone, you can check in and tell me what your goals are for the day!!

Happy quilting,
Rachel

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Let’s Virtually Quilt Together – Sunday 4/15/2012

I love quilting (obviously) and I have always wanted to go to one of those all day sews held by a LQS. I have never actually done it for a number of reasons.

1. I don’t know anyone. I know this seems shallow, but I hate sitting in a room full of women and not be able to chat it up, because half the fun of these things is the social aspect. Now yes, if I actually went, they would get to know me more and be more chatty with me, but the first time is too overwhelming for me.

2. Dragging my sewing machine around does not sound like fun. Nope. Not at all.

3. What project would I work on? I have so many going on, and I very rarely work on only one at a time. So to bring just one would be boring, and to bring more than one would be a lot of stuff to drag around.

It is for these reasons and more that I decided it would be fun to pick a day and virtually quilt with other quilters all over the country. I love chatting with my virtual friends, I don’t have to move my sewing machine, and I can work on as many projects as I want. Win/Win/Win!!

I am going to have a thread on Quilting Boards for my virtual sew day, but I also want to host this on my blog. Who knows, maybe some of you will want to join me too!! I might even have some door prizes to give away!

Here are the deets for Virtual Sew Day:

1. Date – Sunday April 15, 2012 – start any time you can

2. Post your goals for the day on your blog, and link back to my blog so we can get more friends virtually quilting with us! Pick any project you want to work on!! No rules at all about what you can sew on this day.

3. Leave me a comment with your blog post address so I can see what you are working on (maybe I’ll even get a linky thingy if I can figure it out)

4. Throughout the day, check in either by commenting on my post, your own post, or creating a whole new post.

5. Be sure to check out all your friends that are quilting with you!

If you do not have a blog, feel free to leave your goals on the post I will put up on Sunday. We will keep the conversation and accolades going through there. You can even send me final pics and I will do a final post of the day and feature those that don’t have their own blogs.

If I do have door prizes, they will be picked at random among those who participate throughout the day.

So what do you think? Want to spend the day virtually quilting with me?

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

PS. I am going to get some kind of button made for this, but my Photoshop is being very mean to me right now. 🙂