Eeeeeeep!!!

No I am not scared because it is Halloween - I am freaking out because I am so happy and excited right now!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE International Quilt Festival.  I love how quilting fever basically takes over the city.  The shops are in high gear, everyone online seems to be getting ready to come to the city and I feel like everywhere I turn there is more fabric I should by.

I don't know if many of you guys know this but I am president of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, and to make it an even better week we held a Market Meet Up on Saturday and SO MANY PEOPLE CAME!! Seriously, I was scared everyone would be too tired after a full day of market to come and it would just end up being our guild members hanging out having a beer (which would still have been fantastic!) but seriously like 50 people came!!

I was totally starstruck like 20 times!!!

Some in attendance were Houston's own Cherri House and Lizzy House (omg her new Outfoxed line is to die for), Aneela Hoey, Laurie Wisbrun, Ann Kelle, Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Fabrics (one of my fave online retailers!), the original Mama herself - Krinstin Link of Sew Mama Sew,  John aka Quilt Dad, Julie of Jaybird Quilts, Pokey Bolton,  Rashida Coleman Hale (whose new Washi line has me near fainting), and so many others.  Plus there were people there from modern quilt guilds all over North America including LA, Philly, Albuquerque, San Antonio, and Calgary just to name a few..

Oh and not exactly quilt related but Bobby King of the Houston Texans was at the bar too!!Although not exactly for Market!

The sad part was that I didn't get any pictures of the night because there were just so many people and I spent the majority of my time talking with people and handing out door prizes.  I was even lucky enough to snag a charm pack of Lizzy House's Outfoxed fabric which I have already made a pillow out of!

Another awesome thing this week was the Cherri House invited me to talk to the Houston Chronicle with her about modern quilting!  This meant I got to go down to market, get a badge, and a sneak peak at the exhibition.

I was so excited and had a lot of fun chatting with her as we walked through the exhibition hall and pointed out modern quilts to the lovely lady from the newspaper.  Plus I loved getting to check out the show before the festival starts, but was pretty bummed the winners of the quilt show hadn't been announced or hung yet.

After we were done talking I went upstairs just to watch people start taking down their market booths.  Y'all may not know this about me either but I work in a very large museum and part of my job includes installing and deinstalling the exhibits so I have a pretty good idea of the time it takes to load and unload a room that size, and the fact that they basically do it between monday and wednesday night BLOWS MY MIND.

 

Sorry the photo came out a bit blurry, the window on the second floor I took this through wasn't the cleanest. 

Either way it is GOODBYE MARKET, HELLO FESTIVAL!!

And if any of you lovely readers are going to festival be sure to join us Saturday night at the Hyatt hotel bar at 8pm for the HMQG Festival meet up.  There will be TONS of prizes, people, and chatting!  And seriously, the prizes are awesome - just take a peak at the sponsers! 

Modern Quilt Guild Market Meet Up

The time has come!

This Saturday is the Modern Quilt Guild Market Meet up hosted by us here in the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.

The details:

Market MQG Meetup:

Saturday October 29th

The Hilton Lobby Bar

8:00 PM

We are having some crazy awesome door prizes from some amazing sponsors. 

And next Saturday we are having a Festival meet up! At which there will be EVEN MORE PRIZES!!

Festival MQG Meetup:

Saturday November 5th

The Hyatt Lobby Bar

8:00 PM

 

All are welcome to either event so please come and enjoy!

Helpin' A Girl Out

Last weekend a couple of us Houston Modern Quilt Guild girls got together to help a fellow member churn out a quilt top for an soon upcoming wedding gift.  Fi had a great idea for a quilt inspired by Ashley's recent creation.

The idea:



Which was followed by cutting by Amy (in blurred action!):



Sewing by me and Fi:



And ironing  by Liz:



(I caught Liz mid amusing story, which made me love this picture even more!)  Saf was also there but somehow missed out on picture time.)

By the end of a couple of hours sewing we made our way half way through the top!



And holy cow is this thing going to be huge!! Its made of 12x12 blocks and its 7 x 9 blocks!

I love it that the guild has helped us all find some kindred quilting spirits in this huge metropolis of ours! 

Last weekend I also got a HUGE amount of personal quilting/sewing done but more on that later when I can get some pictures taken. This weekend I plan on doing the same - getting some sewing done, relaxing (as I have to travel for over a week for work next week), and watching all the 9/11 memorials on tv on Sunday. 

Best. Weekend. Ever.

Seriously.

Not only did I get to do a lot of awesome non-crafting stuff like play with a baby bunny, go to a book signing with the AMAZING Patricia Briggs, and hang with one of my best friends, but I also finished all my bee blocks for the month and got new fabrics!

SO PRODUCTIVE!!!

First I worked on a drunk love style block for Beth in my bee String Me Along. She sent some super yummy Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush strips and a bunch of Kona greys!

Then I worked on my row for Liz for the HMQG Round Row! I am loving this traditional indigo and white color scheme!

The only problem I had...well you see I am blond, so even though I did the math I ended up doubling it somehow and cut and sewed enough for 2 rows! Oops!

Also I completed my 2 blocks for the do. good stitches Joy circle. Our leader for this month asked for star blocks in a light colored color scheme so I used charms from Kate Spain's new Central Park line (which I ADORE!) and Sweetwater's Sunkissed line and this tutorial.

Also, I finally got off my butt and created my blocks for the 3x6 Bee! I really hope the girls from Beehive 24 love them!  I especially loved working on the green, yellow, and grey color scheme!

I also got these fabulous fabrics in the mail!! YUM!! 



Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels FQ set.



A FQ set Jay McCarrol's new Habitat line in the plum colorway.

And just to make you go AWWWWWW - this is the new baby bunny  I mentioned way back at the beginning of this post! 

 

Me and the Bunny! I <3 Bunnies!

Sewing Obligations...

Wait...obligations is too strong of a word.

Especially when I enjoy it this much!

So lets call it Happy Sewing for February instead!

This month I worked on Beth's Row Robin for the HMQG!



Her original row is on the left and my addition to it on the right!I adored her fabric choices and it was so easy to pull matching colors for this!

I also made blocks for do. Good Stitches! This month we made Starburst blocks using the amazing Ashley's (from Film in the Fridge) tutorial.



Working on that block on the right was when I managed to have my blond moment of the year. Oops.

Can't wait to get to next month's Happy Sewing! 

HMQG Goodness , Rounds, and Awards?!

Today was the January meeting for the Houston Modern Quilt Guild and it was awesome!  We had almost 20 people gathered into my house for sewing, food, fun, and laughter!

And scraps! Lots and lots of scraps thanks to Cherri House and my own hoarding of every tiny piece of fabric.  And when I say lots I mean 2 garbage bags...



And a bag of FQ's and 2 jars full of precuts!



I had intended to make scrap bags for all the members but in the end didn't want to choose for people and decided to just let them all loose upon the scraps like a 4 year old in a candy store.



We also switched Round Rows today! I had Fi's whose round is so awesomely bright and loud and I loved working on it! My addition to her piece was the purple stripe and hexagon border.



After eating and taking care of some business we all sat down to sew! This was my set up as I was working on some HST's for a lap quilt for my great grandmother.



To make this day even more awesome I was given the Leibster Blog Award by both Megan and Amy!  Seriously I am pretty shocked as I have only been blogging for a few months! The Leibster Blog award is given to those bloggers with less than 300 followers.  The idea is in order to accept the award, you have to pass it on to a few fellow bloggers.  But oddly enough I think all the people I would have chosen to be nominated have already been so!  But just in case here are my nominations anyways (even if they already have it!)

1. Don't Call Me Becky - I have been reading this blog for ages and LOVE the quilts Rebekah has made as well as her travel photos, and many knitting projects! I personally have never managed to 'get' knitting so I like to live vicariously through her's! 
2. Blue Elephant Stitches - Jolene has such a wonderful eye for color and pattern!  I especially love her Moon Tree quilt and seeing it's creation evolve through her posts.  
3. Crafting My Way Through Life - Lisa's blog is just awesome.  Her bee blocks are fantastic, her creations inspiring, and humor is wicked.

Hope those blogs are 'new' to you and they provide you with some laughs and inspiration!  Super thanks again to Amy and Megan! xoxo

Waka Waka Waka

For the HMQG we did a Secret Santa Ornament Swap and I got Sean, our Token Male member.

I decided to go old school.



I didn't include Pinky though as he is not a fan of pink. And of course I couldn't forget the ghosts alter egos...



These were so much fun to make and so easy! I was really pleased with how they came out and I think he liked them as well!

The fabric is called Black Ghosts by Timeless Treasures.

Round and Round We Go v. 2

You know I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person.  I have a graduate degree, I have common sense.  I can even do calculus - but can I do simple math when working with half-square triangles??

Apparently not.

Good grief...I cut it close with Safieh's row for the Houston Modern Quilt Guild Round Row Robin (only finishing it last night when the meeting is today) because I messed up the math on not only the original HST triangles, but on the borders I had to add to try and make the blocks big enough.

In the end though, it finally came together, though there was a bit of swearing on my part.  Either way I am super happy with the final look and I hope Safieh is too!

Round and Round We Go v. 1

Yesterday I got to spend the day reorganizing my overflowing mountain of craft and sewing supplies, and working on this great piece. We are doing a Round Row or Robin in the Houston Modern Quilt Guild and I got to work on Jennifer's which I was super excited about from the moment I saw her photo of it on Flickr.

So here is my addition to it! Jennifer's original row is on the right and my addition is on the left.  I can't wait to see this top once it has made its way through all the other members. I think it will turn out super pretty. Hope you like it Jenn! 



This is my original row that a fellow member has right now. I so can't wait to see what others have added to it! (Photo by Beth)