Cosmic Burst Quilt Along Winner!

Did you guys think I forgot to do this?

I didn't, though I did get an email from Bree at 8:45 wondering if I was going to draw. I think she was impatient to find out who won! 

Sorry guys, I shipped everyone off to school and work this morning and then decided that since the babies were still sleeping I was going to get some more sleep myself.

Enough jabbering, I know what you're here for. 

The winner of the Dainty Blossoms fat quarter bundle via Random.org is...

...#8, Nat Hessey!

Nat made this gorgeous pink version as a retirement present for her co-worker, a 6 year breast cancer survivor.

Congratulations Nat, and beautiful job! I'm sure your co-worker will love it!

But wait, what's this? Another drawing? Well, remember back in the very beginning when I realized I made a boo boo with the fabric requirements? I felt SO bad about that and you guys were all so gracious about it and left me some very kind comments. 

So I'm going to pay you guys back in the best way I know how, by doing another drawing for more fabric!

I'm going to draw from everybody who participated this time, even if they didn't link up. And it looks like Dede is the only one missing. Dede, where are you? I know you finished! 

I'll put her down as number 10 and draw again...

#7, Rebecca!!

Rebecca made this fun coffee themed version

She's been worrying since before she even started cutting that it was too busy, but I love it. 

Rebecca, leave me a comment and tell me your favorite color (or two colors, or three, whatever) and I'll send you a surprise bundle of four fat quarters. (I'll shoot you an email a bit later in case you don't see this, the kids are ready to play so I have to run!)

Thanks so much to everybody for quilting along with me, I have really enjoyed seeing everybody's creations and all of the different variations of this pattern. And seeing all of the great comments from both you and your friends all over blog land as you've been posting pictures has seriously made my day! I hope you all had as great a time as I did!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS, MEGHANN!


Welcome to Distant Pickles!

If this is your first time here then welcome, glad to meet you!

If you've been here before then hello friend, good to see you again!

Let's get right down to business, shall we? We all know why you're here... the goods!

Up for grabs today is a fat quarter bundle of Brown Bear (Eric Carle for Andover Fabrics). This bundle includes 9 fat quarters and a panel.

(Images borrowed from the fabulous Fat Quarter Shop... sorry for the stock photos, but it's dark and I forgot to take a good photo of the goods!)

So how to win?

Only required entry is a comment. We loved reading all the funny stuff last year, so let's do that again... tell us a joke, a story.. make us laugh! This counts as one entry - only one per person, please!

For a second chance, follow Distant Pickles, and let us know you do! New and old followers alike, just leave a comment letting us know you're following, and it's a second entry!

That's TWO chances at an adorable fat quarter bundle. We'll leave it open for the week and pick a winner on Friday, May 25. Mr. Random Generator will pull a winner then!

This giveaway is open to US residents only, sorry international peeps.

And don't forget... today's the last day to link up your Cosmic Burst quilt top for a chance at the Dainty Blossoms fat quarter bundle from Riley Blake Designs!

Blogger's Quilt Festival-Julie

For my entry into the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival, I decided to pick my most recent favorite finish, Little Faces. 

If you are a regular around here then you know all about this quilt and have seen many many pictures of it in progress and then when it was finally finished.

Little Faces was a collaboration of 12 different very talented women, the ladies of the 12 Month Quilting Bee. This bee was the very first I ever joined and was so much fun to be a part of. 

My quilt doesn't have a meaningful story behind it like Bree's does. Her quilts always have wonderful tales to tell, don't they? Mine was just something fun. I can't take full credit for the design, I saw the original design here. I knew it would be great for a bee quilt!


The girls in the bee really went above and beyond with these houses. Many of them volunteered to make two for me, so when it was all done I only had to make three to finish it off.


Check out some of the fun, original ideas. They made the house match the little person!

I asked each of the ladies to make a signature block for me, and then I pieced them around the extra block and put it on the back. 

The other fabrics of the backing are what was left of the fabrics from the front. If you look closely you can see that the blue areas aren't the same fabrics throughout. I was trying really hard to not have to order any more of the blue fabrics and I was able to squeeze out just what I needed, which was no small feat considering this quilt ended up a twin size!

I had a really hard time deciding on whether I should add a thin border of the blue to help break up the busy-ness of the sashing and the colorful binding. Bree suggested adding a flange and it was the perfect solution.

I cut the pezzy print on the bias, the first time I'd ever made bias binding. I LOVE how it makes it look like it's wrapping around the quilt. I also like that you can see all of the colors of the print this way. I would have lost that had I cut the fabric on the straight of grain.

I found this fun quilting pattern at The Free Motion Quilting Project website. I agonized over how to quilt this one for probably a month or so. I finally remembered that site and zeroed in on this one straight away, it's the perfect fit I think.

This was SUCH a fun quilt to make, I couldn't have done it without the help of the awesome ladies of the 12 Month Quilting Bee: Erin, Melissa, Karen, Cassey, Amanda, Alix, Stephanie, Emily, Laura, Carrie and Leanne.

Blogger's Quilt Festival : Bree

Hey y'all!
It's been a while since I've posted, and I apologize for that. Life just... sucks you in sometimes, no?

I figured there was no better way to get back in the proverbial saddle than to link up to the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

My entry for this spring's festival is none other than my recent Warden's Cross quilt, made with the fabulous Stars and Stripes line for Riley Blake Designs.



This throw sized quilt was designed for Cutting Corners College over at RBD, and there's a full tutorial posted there. It's my first original pattern, and it's named for the seriously awesome man it was made for.

Y'all.... getting to give this to my grandpa was huge. I've talked about how much I've been wanting to go home for a visit, how close we've come to losing him this past year. The kid and I managed to make it home to give it to him, and my heart was so full when we gave it to him. My grandpa has Alzheimer's, and part of me is sad to say he didn't recognize me at all... but the other part is overjoyed at how happy interacting with the kid made him. How he smiled when he saw his name on the label. How he felt the quilt in his hands, over and over, and inspected every block, every stitch, every corner. How he knew it was him, even though he didn't quite know why. It was a good trip and the Warden's Cross is now hanging out in the common room of his nursing home, available for any and all patients to use.




Do you see his smile? Makes me happy, and proud to have designed this quilt for him.

I'm linking on up to the Blogger's Quilt Festival... and I'll be around more. I've been working on a craaaazy Crown Royal quilt (the liquor that comes in those purple bags) for a coworker, and it's consuming me, but I've got some fun stuff on the way... including some more tutorials over at RBD!

A Quilt Fit for a Prince

A Frog Prince that is.

Remember the sister who got married last year? Well, now she's having a baby, a boy.

When she was a kid she was dubbed with the nickname Tadpole. Obviously she was teased a lot when she got older about having to kiss a lot of frogs to find her prince. We have pictures of her kissing frogs even, all fake frogs of course. 

Who better to be on the quilt for her new baby boy than the Frog Prince himself?

Little sis happens to like jewel tones so the fabrics were just perfect from the start. I made the diamonds using half square rectangles, that was a new experience! 

The backing was made from the leftover fabrics from the front, it showcases the larger scale prints really well and I love that I was able to use a large piece of the Turtle Bay print somewhere, it's one of my favorites!

The fussy cut frog border was a bit of a challenge because the frogs were printed with the length of fabric and not the width. I had to order more than I normally would have needed to get a long enough piece to make the top and bottom borders without having to piece them. I love all of those frog faces looking back at me!

The "solid" that I used was actually a Bernartex print, it has really fine lines running through it. I meant to order something for it and planned to put it together at my quilting weekend back in March, but didn't get it done in time. I found this print when we went shopping and it happened to work perfectly! I think it having those lines on it gives it a little bit more depth than a solid would have. 

I think this may be only the second time I have completed a baby quilt before the baby was even born! I hope it brings him lots of warmth and so can't wait to see him snuggled up in it when he gets here!

Workin' it on Thursday

I totally missed the WIP Wednesday link up, but thought I'd go ahead and share what I've been working on anyway. I've been a bit quiet out there in internet land, my friends in a box are probably wondering where the heck I am right now. Don't worry guys, all is well!

I've kept the momentum rolling from my busy weekend and have been steady working on ongoing projects, one in particular actually.

I offered to make a baby quilt for the husband's boss. His wife is expecting a baby boy any day now and I was a bit late getting started. I ordered the fabric ages ago and had a plan in mind for about the same amount of time, but I just kept putting it off. For some reason the pattern I picked just wasn't speaking to me. 

Fortunately I showed it the husband one more time before getting started and he nixed it and quickly found an alternative. Unfortunately for me, the alternative meant a lot of applique, which I despise doing. I love applique, as long as I'm not the one that has to do it. So slowly but surely I have been making appliques.

Here's a little sneaky peek, courtesy of Miss Sassy Pants

I'm trying really hard to finish this one by the weekend so I'll share more pics and details later, promise!

I went to help out at the quilt shop last weekend. There was a festival downtown that day, which happens to be where the shop is located, and I figured it would either be really busy from the increased foot traffic, or really dead because people were enjoying the festival and the locals who weren't attending were staying far away from the area. Unfortunately it was the latter of the two. Rhonda and I got a good gab session in though and I took my double wedding ring fabric with me and managed to finish cutting all of the solid for it! Yay!

I really hope to start working on the piecing for this soon.

I made a plan for the backing for the Hideaway Off the Rail quilt too and got some cutting done. Like my mock up? Who needs graph paper? 

What I really want to be working on are my entries for the My Precious Quilt Along. The Castle Peeps top I did will be my May entry, quilt tops only are acceptable. I don't know what I want to do for the backing yet so I won't stress over it just yet. I want to finish up the Neptune wall hanging for the June entry since it's the closest to being done and I actually have what I need to do it. 

This though, this is what I really want to be working on right now.

I'm only three blocks in on my Prince Charming quilt and I really want to have more done. I had a lot of fun with these three and the fabric just sits in the corner of my cutting table, teasing me. This will be my July entry if I can get some time to work on it. 

Sigh....

I have a couple of finishes to share with you guys, I'll post one of them tomorrow so be sure to come back. I think I'm going to link the other one up to the Summer Sewing Series, I need to find out the details on that and see if it's eligible, I'll share it real soon though. If you didn't know I was a Tula Pink fan before, you'll definitely know it by the time I get done showing you what I've finished!

Cosmic Burst Quilt Along-The Linky Party!

I do apologize for being so slack in getting this posted, but I was really enjoying my weekend and am just winding down now, at 10:00 PM Sunday night. I went and helped out at the snazzy new quilt shop all day yesterday and worked on a new project after I got home. What is it about being around all that yummy fabric that makes you want to dig in and start sewing!? 

Then today we spent the morning trying to break into the hubster's truck because he locked his keys in it. Ok, that part wasn't very enjoyable, but the sewing after and the fantastic dinner at mom's with the whole family (followed by playing in the yard with the kids and the grass fight with my sister) really was fun. The kidlets are all tucked in bed for the night and the husband is asleep, so finally some quiet time to work up a blog post!

Tonight I'm going to do some sharing. I'm not going to just share my stuff though, I'm going to share yours too! 

Your quilts have been looking so amazing in the Flickr group. I am really loving everybody's interpretation of the pattern and all of the fun fabric combinations. I'm really loving how creative everybody is getting with the center square too!

This one is Ella's, made with Parisville by Tula Pink. I am a total Tula fan, in case you haven't already figured that out, and am LOVING the way this looks in Parisville!

This one is from Nathessy, who made it for her co-worker, a 6 year breast cancer survivor!

This is from fordhook1, I really love the patriotic theme she chose for hers. She ended up including a pine tree and embroidering the name Lake Alamanor on it, since that is where she'll be keeping it. You can see her finished center square if you pop on over to the Flickr group.

This one is from Cassie. I love the vintage feel hers has and how she made the small diamond in the middle of the center square and used the same color as the star points around it. It really pops!

This one is from Karen, my real life friend who I go spend a weekend sewing with each Spring (and who also did the tube quilting tutorial here on the blog!). She went super bright and bold to bring out the colors in her focal fabric. These colors are totally outside of her norm and so much fun!

And last but not least, this one is from Dede. I love her fabric choices here, the way the reds radiate out from the middle, the way the green gives it just a bit of a pop and how the black really says "Hey, look at me!". This is such a fun color grouping! She's having a hard time deciding on her middle piece so go over to Flickr and help her out!

Aren't they all just gorgeous!? They seriously make me smile every time I see a new one. There are many more people working on theirs, just a tad behind, so make sure you go check out their progress and cheer them on!

And now here is mine all finished! I chose to quilt mine by following the seams inside the solid areas only, just like I did for the mini. I wanted to do minimal quilting and keep the focus on the lines of the pattern for this one. 

I kept the back really simple, just pieced a strip of a print going in either direction to make the solid piece that I had large enough to accommodate the quilt top. You can see the sleeve I made for hanging across the top. 

Well, I hope everybody had, or is having, a great time putting this one together. As much as I hate making HSTs I find myself flying through this pattern and wanting to make it again and again. There is actually already another one being planned for someone special, I'll share the details on that one later because I know you're waiting for the linky party.

Ok, here goes! At the very bottom of this post,  you will see the linky party. Link up your finished quilt or quilt top (it has to be at least a finished top) by Monday, May 21st. That will give everybody one last full weekend to work on it and then a full day to get it photographed, blogged (or added to Flickr) and then linked up. 

On Tuesday, May 22nd, Bree and I will use Random.org to draw a name from the linked up quilts for the fat quarter bundle of Dainty Blossoms, courtesy of Riley Blake. 

Let us know if you have any questions or need any help with anything, we're always here!

Cosmic Burst QA-Finishing it up

I've decided I'm going to split the finishing instructions and the linky party into two separate posts so that you can find the link up much easier when it comes time to add your quilt. If you aren't ready to link it up right away all you need to do when you come back is click on the Cosmic Burst Quilt Along link just under the header, and then you'll find the link for the linky party there. Easy peasy, right?

Since I, and many other people, already have instructions for finishing a quilt posted out there in blog land, and because I think most everybody probably already knows what they're doing anyway, I'm not going to make them all over again. Instead I'm going to give you links to where you can find these instructions. Sound good to you?

Now that you have a finished quilt top you need to create your backing so that you can baste it. I'm a big fan of piecing my backings using scraps leftover from the front and some yardage. 

I said in the fabric requirements that you will need 3 yards of fabric for the back (for the 50" quilt). If all you are planning on doing is using one fabric for the back then you will take those three yards and cut them in half at the 1 1/2 yard mark, that will give you two pieces of fabric that are 54"x44". Sew them together along the 54" sides and that will give you a piece that is 54"x88", which is much wider than you will need and will give you something for your scrap bin.

If you want to get fancy and create a pieced backing, Julie at Jaybird Quilts has a great tutorial for that.

How to Create a Pieced Backing

Photo courtesy of Jaybird Quilts

Once you have a backing for your quilt, you'll need to baste it. I prefer to spray baste and have a tutorial here. At the bottom of that tutorial will be a link for pin basting if you prefer that method.

Basting Your Quilt

After basting you are ready to quilt!

Quilting your quilt

Now you're ready to bind it

How to Trim and Bind your Quilt

My instructions call for cutting your binding strips on the straight of grain, if you prefer to cut them on the bias, Jennifer has a great tutorial for that. This is the tutorial I use when I cut mine on the bias.

How to Create Bias Binding

Photo courtesy of That Girl...That Quilt

Bree also has instructions for binding using double fold bias tape

Double Fold Bias Tape Binding Instructions

Just use whichever method works best for you.

And one more tutorial for you, if you plan on turning your quilt into a wall hanging like I am. I found this one just the other day and it's been the best one I've seen so far for larger quilts. I usually put the folded triangles in the corners for wall hangings but this quilt is much larger so I found one that shows how to hang it using a sleeve. So courtesy of Amy A La Mode...

How to Hang a Quilt

Photo courtesy of Amy A La Mode

That should cover everything! As always, we are available in the Flickr group if you have any questions. Be on the lookout for the final post that includes the linky party. I'm going to try my best to get it put up today but life has been getting in the way this past week and I'm running a bit behind on things. I'm being serenaded to the sounds of cello practice as I'm writing this as a matter of fact. It will be up by the end of the weekend for sure though.