a winner!

congrats to sarah of pings and needles for winning the flea market fancy scrap pack! the random number generator picked her! i am hoping to have more giveaways soon, guys. i have been making hexies like mad and will probably end up using some for the next giveaway. better luck next time and have a great weekend!

some more hexies...

i used some really old fabric from my stash in these. i bought a huge bag of 3 inch fabric squares in 2001 and then they ended up in a box and i pretty much forgot about them. then they ended up in another box that i store my scraps in. i don't have a lot of just red and white fabric (what i needed for this block) so i thought i'd dig through my scraps and came across these fabrics! all but the two bliss fabrics are from the early 60's and are really great.

that deer fabric is one of my all-time favorite vintage finds. i actually took most of it out of that bag when i first purchased it and used it up. it's flocked and soft and really sweet. i wish i had yardage of it! it's so perfect.

it also helps me remember that i should stay true to the distinct taste that i feel like i have. sometimes when making things for other people i get too wrapped up in throwing together popular fabrics and i need to just let that go and make stuff that is really "me" because i always end up liking it so much more!

hello, hexies!

right now i am in the middle of so many projects! i belong to the [3x6] sampler quilt bee on flickr, and we just recently got our beehive information. this bee works a little differently than others i've belonged to. instead of sending out fabric and a block pattern, we pick a color group and our fellow bee-members make a block with their own stash. they pick the block pattern and then make a block for each color group we've picked. i can't wait to see what fun stuff they come up with!

for my block, i decided to do a hexie flower. i have one (sort of) put together and lots more hexies made.


my first finished flower is for someone who wanted green, grey and white. the ground for the block will most likely be a kona medium grey



some of the color groups come together really easily. this orange, red and white one was a breeze!



others make me realize what colors are really lacking in my stash. these two purples are the only ones i have! and they just won't do. i have to set this block aside until i go off my buying hiatus. the color group (yellow, grey and purple) is fun and i want to do it justice!

a link swap and a giveaway!

i have a feeling i am not alone in my fabric-related resolutions this month. i have decided that my stash is getting a little out of control and that i should probably ban myself from buying any new fabric this month. every time a new batch comes into the house, my boyfriend just shakes his head at me. even though i know there are plenty of quilters who have much larger stashes than i do, i still feel like it's a bit overwhelming.

so i decided to do a giveaway! i'm letting go of some of my beloved flea market fancy. i have been hording this fabric like no other. i barely use it for anything, actually! i've never used it to make anything for myself! i use it sparingly in the swaps i participate in, only because i know the love of the fabric may gloss over some of my amateur mistakes! a dirty trick, i know. but you gotta use what you can!

the rules for the giveaway are simple. since this is a fairly new blog, i'd love to build up a readership a bit. so i am going to hold a link swap! all you have to do is reply to this entry with your blog's name and let me know that you added my blog to your links. since it is a swap, i will be adding you to a special link swap page on my blog in return. i will be accepting entries until january 13th at 12pm and will announce the winner on january 14th! good luck!

a quilt challenge

monday was the first la modern quilt guild meeting of the year! at the meeting, we were all given a pack of charm square solids donated to us by the lovely folks at robert kaufman! we were also given the challenge to make a quilt using only these squares, plus one more fabric.

i have so many ideas of what i want to do going through my head... now to just pin it down to one! i'm feeling very inspired by my friend mary's monochromatic sampler that she's working on. it's really going to be great!

speaking of monochromatic quilts, i think i might be making one soon! the modern quilt guild just posted their second project modern challenge and i'm totally ready to take it on. i am really into solids right now and the idea of making a solids quilt all in similar hues is really appealing. i'd love to make one using shot cottons. i think the added texture would be a nice touch!