I am always amazed at the paper piecing designs that my friend, Penny Layman, makes. Seriously wowed. And when I heard that she was writing a book, I was anxious to get my hands on it. I imagined that it would be chock-full of cute patterns and also all the information needed to paper piece successfully. I was right!

I admit that I am a huge fan of Penny and completely biased, but that aside, this is a great book. The Paper-Pieced Home by Penny Layman has 40 different paper piecing blocks and 14 projects all centering around house and home. The designs have a retro vibe and are all well thought out. The best part? The designs come on an included CD that makes printing the foundations a breeze. Just pop it into the computer and print what you need.

I have told Penny and I will tell you: paper piecing is not my favorite piecing method. There I said it. BUT when the block is as well designed as Penny's are, it does make for some enjoyable sewing. Take the oven mitt block that I chose for this blog tour. It includes many tiny bits and the thought of anything remotely fussy almost always makes me want to run. Not this! It was a JOY to put together and I was able to do it easily and confidently given all the information that Penny relays in her book. I think it took me about thirty minutes after printing the foundation. Not bad! And pretty cute, if I may say so myself! I did increase the overall size of the block by about two inches by adding a border. Of course, I plan on making this into a hot pad (perfect for an oven mitt, right?!?).

I encourage you to take a few minutes and check out the other stops on the blog tour. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by all the darling blocks people are making. Seriously, so cute.

The Paper-Pieced Home

Blog Tour Schedule

3/16       McCall’s Quilting / Sewing Machine Block
3/17       Love of Quilting / Review
3/17       Sandi Sawa Hazlewood  of Crafty Planner / Watering Can Block
3/18       Quilty Pleasure (Quiltmaker blog) / Review
3/18       Imagine Gnats / Rotary Phone Block
3/20       Verykerryberry / Lion Block
3/21       Artisania / Cast-Iron Skillet Block
3/23       Where the Orchids Grow / Lamp Block
3/24       Katie Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt / Layer Cake Block
3/24       House on Hill Road / Oven Mitt Block
3/24       Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced / BBQ Grill Block
3/26       Pink Penguin / Allie-Gator Block
3/26       A Happy Stitch / Giraffe Block
3/27       Bijou Lovely / Jar Block
3/27       Two Little Banshees / Saucepan Block
3/27       Charise Creates / Espresso Mug Block
3/30      Karen Lewis Textiles / Couch Block
3/31       Poppyprint / Clawfoot Tub Block
3/31       One Shabby Chick / Stack of Books Block
3/31       During Quiet Time / Sleeveless Dress Block
4/06      Pat Sloan The Voice of Quilting / Author Podcast Interview

More information on the book can be found here on the Interweave site:

The Paper-Pieced Home: Quilting a Household One Block at a Time

By Penny Layman
Interweave/F+W; $26.99
http://bit.ly/1zClNAv

One of the quilt kits that I have been working on is Traincar by Alexia Abegg. I was immediately drawn to the graphic nature of this design. The block is unique - simple and complicated at the same time - and definitely not something I have seen before. Also, who's kidding? I am a little bit in love with Alexia's Hatbox fabric that the quilt is made from. I love these Cotton and Steel prints in navy, coral, aqua and green - my kind of colors! It was really fun and liberating to just place an order and have everything I needed for the quilt top arrive on my doorstep without having to make any choices.

It's a very straightforward pattern starting with some easy strip piecing that is cut apart and sewn back together to make each individual block. While simple in concept, that is a whole heck of a lot of seams! 40 per block! (Yes, I counted.) And there is no room for error as every piece needs to line up when it is sewn together. I think my piecing is pretty accurate and I managed well enough, but if I were to make this again, I would make one big change. Namely, I would cut the pieces for each strip set 1/2" wider. I think there was sufficient fabric in the kit to do this (I haven't done the math, but I had big leftover pieces) and having this little bit extra would have allowed me to trim the sets evenly for a perfectly straight line. Instead, there were a few instances where the piecing was a teensy bit off and, as we know, a bunch of 1/16" mistakes will add up along the way. I made it work so the only thing it cost me was some time. No big deal.

The kit instructions say that it will yield a 60" x 76" quilt and that math is off. With the 12 blocks shown, each finishing at 15" x 19", the quilt top measures 60" x 57". I do have enough of the background fabric in my stash to make another four blocks, but I haven't yet decided if I want to do that. All those seams! But the bigger size would be more useable so I just may jump back in. In the meantime, I am going to admire what I have done so far and dream about how to quilt it. I'm leaning towards straight lines, but am very open to suggestions. Feel free to chime in!

Mini quilts are a thing.

I knew this, but I didn't realize just how crazy people are for mini quilts until I started seeing all kinds of swaps pop up on Instagram. (And I'm giggling now, because I never thought that I would say people were crazy about mini quilts or even quilts for that matter. But they are. They really are.) I never joined in for various reasons - too little time to spend making for someone else, deadlines looming, and, let's be honest, I didn't get it. The mini quilt craze, that is.

But then my book blew up. I spent my time knitting a dozen winter hats. I made my mom a quilt. I made two dresses, a sweatshirt and a blouse. I cut three kits worth of quilt tops and sewed 1.5 of them back together. I stitched on my needlepoint in the carpool line. All of this done in an attempt to keep my hands busy and my sanity intact. Makers gonna make and all that. What it boils down to, though, is that for the last four months, I have been going through the motions without feeling creative at all. AND I WAS OK WITH THAT. Really. Truly. OK.

What prompted it, I will never know, but when I saw that there were signups for a Cotton & Steel mini quilt swap, I didn't blink. I jumped in, reservations and nervousness aside. I got my partner pairing and began to think about what I would make. I had more than a few moments where I wondered why the hell I had done this. I wasn't feeling inspired at all. I was doubting every single idea that I had. But the deadline isn't until June so I decided to give it time. I went to Quilt Con. I participated in some classes, went to lectures, took in the quilts on display, hung out with other quilters. I came home overwhelmed, with a lot to process. I gave myself space. I returned to piecing the quilt kits. And then I saw a pattern that was promising. I started to plan how to piece it into a mini quilt and realized it wasn't very suitable. That gave me another idea. I revisited part of a pattern that would have been in my book. I adapted it, added a little improv and immediately I knew I had landed where I need to be. I got busy sewing.

I made a mini quilt. And I loved every second of it. I now totally get why people go crazy for these things. They are small, manageable and really fun to make. Maybe it is something about the small scale that makes them so fun? I don't know. But for me, every step was a delight. From searching for the right look for my partner to sewing the final stitch of the binding, it was joyful. I loved picking the fabrics and putting them in pairs. I happily cut a bunch of pieces, sewed them together, cut them again and pieced them into a top. I was giddy to applique a perfect circle to the center. I fearlessly tried a quilting pattern/method that I had never attempted. I didn't even get too upset when I had to rip some of it out. I fixed the quilting and I savored every single binding stitch.

For the first time since the book business, I enjoyed quilting. I felt like I could actually design something decent. That I had something good to say and that I could make it a reality. That my design had legs. That the creative spark was back. That I was actually good at what I love to do.

JOY.

Making a mini quilt gave me joy.

Silly, maybe, but true.

While this mini was made for a swap, I have decided to keep it. I cannot let it go. I have hung it up on the wall of my studio as a visual reminder of why I do what I do. I want my eyes to take it and remember that I am good enough. I want to walk by and have the memory of making it spark even more creativity. I want to see it and push myself to create, to play, to experiment, to take myself less seriously, to think less and do more, to stretch my creative muscles. Most of all, I want to look at this mini quilt and remember to CHOOSE JOY.

I do think my partner would probably like this mini. I'll just make her another one.

This one is all me.

I went up to the studio yesterday morning for the first time since I returned home. The first thing I did was vacuum. Right before I left for Quilt Con, I had a choice: make lanyards or vacuum. There really wasn't a contest because sewing (almost) always wins. Looking around, clean floor and all, I couldn't figure out just where to start, what to work on. Although I felt like sewing, I wasn't sure what I wanted to sew. Directionless, I went back downstairs to wait for a FedEx package that required a signature, telling myself that I would never hear the doorbell on the third floor (a very likely scenario). Later in the afternoon after the package had arrived and the kids were home from school, I saw Meredith ask for some help with a quilt on Instagram. I immediately went up to the studio and made quick work of the block she requested. It was the perfect gateway project: she specified the fabric and the block, I just had to do the sewing. And it was fast! And gratifying! Now on a roll, I pulled out one of the quilt kit projects and began working on it. Not as quick to sew up, but still very satisfying to take fabric and thread and make something. Or in this case, sew something, cut it up and then sew it back together. I'm anxious to work on it more today.

I left last Wednesday morning for QuiltCon and was back this morning at 2:30 a.m. Six extra hours of airport time had me very thankful that I packed some handwork from my Alison Glass applique class in my carry on. I started the day with one plus appliqued and finished with only 1.5 left to go. I have a lot to say about this (wool! over-dyes!), but I don't think I can string the words together right now. The whole weekend was great and fun and inspiring and overwhelming and exhausting and filled with friends (new and old) and lots of things to think about and creative exercises to try and more things to make. There is a lot of stuff swirling around in my head and I'm going to drink (more) coffee, wait for the dryer repair guy, stitch the remaining pluses and try to make sense of it all while attempting to ascertain just what groceries are needed and what to make for dinner. Then, maybe, I will unpack. Look for more snippets (or postcards, if you will) over the next week or so as I ease back into my days.

Cleaning out the kitchen last night, I stumbled across these artist trading cards that Jane painted last October. Using her own photos as reference, she used watercolors to render small snapshots of a trip that she and Fatty took to San Francisco over her fall break.  I find them completely charming and delightful - I think I will have them framed as a little memento for her. And I just love, love, love that she always finds a way to express herself creatively. She inspires me to continue my own painting practice and now I am itching to get to the studio later today. (Friday is painting day!!!!)

Finding these cards was perfect timing. One of my readers, Rose, has an active group of kids (ages 4 to 14) that swap artist trading cards like these. I told her that I would help her spread the word. I remember just how much fun my girls had when Blair and I hosted the kids atc swap six (!!!) years ago. If you think this is something you and your children would be interested in, you can find more information in Rose's group on Facebook.

Have a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!

I spent the better part of this past week's sewing time making new pillow covers for this little window seat nook on our front stair landing. It's been on my mental to-do list for the better part of a year and I have looked at home dec fabric from time to time with this project in mind. I wasn't sure how I was going to combine the soft blues and greens that I love with the yellow in our stained glass until I saw that bird fabric. The colors are just what I wanted, the aqua and teal, soft green and the gold and bonus points for raspberry!

I had the cushion recovered by my upholsterer. She did it so quickly - about a week! - that I wasn't really ready to jump into the pillows, but I did anyways. Smartest move ever. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the progression: fussy cutting the birds, making the aqua welt, moving on to the aqua pillows, layering and sewing down the flat trims, putting the brush fringe on the polka dots. What you didn't see was the good 40 minutes I fussed with an invisible zipper on the first pillow that just would not work. After a ton of wrestling and some swearing, I ripped that sucker out, threw it in the trash and decided to sew the pillow shut by hand. And I kept on hand stitching them shut as I realized that I had never once removed the covers on the previous pillows in 10+ years.

The result makes me happy, happy, happy! I smile every time I walk by. It was such a simple project - I am not sure what took me so long to get to it. But now that I have started, I may not stop. The family room pillows are looking a little worse for the wear....

(My tutorials on how to add a lapped zipper to your pillow and how to make piping for a pillow can be found here and here. I swear the zipper thing is easy - I just had a bum zip! Happy sewing!)

If you follow me on Instagram, maybe you saw a photo of my honest craft room earlier this week? A hot mess, for sure. I've been busy cutting and sewing and have not put a single thing away since the beginning of December. As I started to clean up, I noticed that the pile of quilts in progress contains more than I realized. I even woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I forgot about the Proverbial Quilt and another mystery block of the month I have going! It's a little out of control.

1. Foxtails quilt. This is from one of the kits I bought on Craftsy in 2014. I finished piecing it over the weekend. I am hoping to finish it up in the next two weeks for our school's auction. It doesn't need much, just time to get it all done.

2. 8th grade auction quilt. My friend, Jill, and I taught a group of 8th graders sewing this fall. For the school auction, they pieced this quilt top. On Monday, we basted it as a group. I will quilt it and then hand it off to Jill for binding.

3. Virtual Quilting Bee. This just needs the binding sewn. It's pretty small, too, so it shouldn't take much time. (Quilted by Laura Capello at Thread Up Studio - she does great work!)

4. This was one of the quilts for my book that won't be. I don't have a name for it, but I need to come up with one because I plan on releasing the pattern for it. It just needs to be squared and bound. (This one was quilted by Natalia Bonner - she did an amazing job!)

5. Speaking of Natalia....This quilt was made in a class I took with her this past fall. I want to add some large white borders and then it will be ready for quilting. It's a really cool pattern from her book, Modern One Block Quilts. (affiliate link)

6. This is my version of John Adams' Pacific Crest from his book Beyond Neutral. (affiliate link) I made this last summer in a class that John taught. He even pressed my half square triangles for me - what a guy! I am on the fence as to whether I am going to add some more solid aqua to increase the size or leave it as is.

7. Liberty feathers. Still a little bit to go, but I am anxious to finish this up. Liberty. Feathers.

8. Boxcar. Another kit purchase, I just started piecing this earlier this week. It's a fun one and should be pretty fast to sew up. This will go to our church carnival for raffling this summer.

9. Mustang (left) - also a kit purchase. This is all cut, but not sewn. Also slated for charity.

1o. On the right, another book quilt. This one I love, love, love, but am having a hard time going back to it right now. Some day.

There are also a couple other quilts for the book that are in progress, but I am not sure if I will finish them or not. One is out being quilted. And, realistically, if I am going to get all of these done in the next year, I will be sending more out.

What about you? Do you have a big pile of unfinished projects? Or are you a finish one before you start another type of quilter? I'd love to hear.