Free EPP Pattern: Winding Rose

Today I want to share with you a free pattern I found from the wonderful people over at Paper Pieces. This pattern is called Winding Rose and was originally created for Andover's Downton Abby fabric line. 

Winding Rose

The center star by itself would make a cool looking accent pillow, especially when made with metallic or shimmer fabric.

Pausing For "La Passion"

I've seen this quilt popping up time and time again in my Google searches for hexagon quilts. I finally decided to investigate this glorious quilt. It is  called "La Passion" and is made by Grit of the blog Grit's Life.

(photo credit: Grit's Life)

This quilt is just freaking beautiful. I am in awe every time I look at it. Seeing quilts like this inspire me to continue studying the humble hexagon. It is just amazing that can come out of one simple shape.

What's even better then the "La Passion" quilt? Making your own, of course! That's right, Grit has provided a free pattern for us to duplicate her wonderfully intricate quilt. Many quilters have taken up the challenge of making this quilt. Grit even has a blog site just for people to show off their progress.

I am highly tempted to start working on this quilt. It looks like it would be both a challenge and a beauty to put together. But alas, I have several other English paper piecing projects on the burners at the moment. maybe I can convince someone to do a "La Passion" quilt-along in the near future.

She Almost Drowned

August of 2014 I went tubing down the Salt River in Arizona. For those who don't know, Salt River tubing is one of those things that locals do to keep cool during those extremely hot days under the Phoenix sun. I was introduced to it by my husband and his family who have gone dutifully year after year. Now living in San Diego, we went to Arizona to visit family and took the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of tubing.

This time around my husband and I were joined by his niece and her boyfriend. It was a typical day at the river with a mixture of both locals, tourist and college students. Thanks to some good rains over the winter, the water level was high.

Halfway through the trip down the river we hit one of many rapids that are found throughout the ride. Usually you hold tight to your tube and enjoy the rough ride. The most injury you would get is a few bruises on your butt from hitting the tops of the submerged rocks.

But this time was different. When I hit the first part of the rapids, my tube hit a rock too hard and flipped over. Before I realized what happened I found myself being pushed under the water by the rapids. Every time I tried to come up for air the waves would slam me back down again. My back was slammed into the side of a large rock. I started digging my hands and feet into the ground in an attempt to brace myself. Eventually I grappled my way onto another large rock. When I could see clearly, I realized that I was alone in the middle of the rapids. 

I was cold, my body felt numb and I was shaking all over. People- groups and individuals- passed me by. I had a hard time finding my voice. I was able to mumble the words 'help me', as people passed by. But either people were too far away to reach me or the rapids made it impossible for them to grab a hold of me. I was stuck in the river with no way of getting out. It felt like forever before a large group of college students came by. They were floating along on a giant tube. Two of the girls saw me and both reached out to grab me. The rapids and my weak state made it impossible for them to pull me onto the tube, so I hung on the side of their tube, my legs dragging across the bottom of the river.

When we got to a safe stopping point, they started pulling me to the shore line. My husband's niece saw me and frantically jumped into the water to help. They got me up onto the sand. I remember someone giving me a bottle of water. My husband came running from down the river. I found out that he had ran down the shore line to where my tube had flipped over, hoping to find me.

I put on a brave face and made light of what had just happened. I joked about it and even encouraged us to continue down the river. We did, until my husband flipped out of his own tube over another set of rapids. We then decided that was enough excitement for one day and went home.

I continued with my brave face, even proclaiming that such an event would not put me off from tubing again. As I was still numb all over, I asked my husband to help me into the shower. Standing their watching the sand wash away from my body, I looked down to see the extent of the damage. My legs were covered in cuts and scraps. The tips of my fingers were bruised and cut open from when I dug into the river bed and from clinging onto the rock. There were bruises on my chest and as the numbness started to wear off I could feel the ones on my back.

My knees suddenly gave out and my husband caught me before I fell.  I started crying uncontrollably. He wrapped his arms around me. I could hear him getting choked up as he spoke. "I thought I lost you. You were so brave. You were so brave."

It would take about two weeks, half a tube of Neosporin and several prescription pain pills for me to physically recover from my near-drowning. I have still yet to mentally recover from it. Making this quilt has been part of my healing process. It has been painful re-living that event, but somehow transforming it into a quilt has helped to solidify it for me. Like a marker on a road, showing that I was there, that this actually happened to me. 

A little bit about the quilt itself: It was made using scrap fabrics. Several of the scraps were old Moda fabrics. The quilt is an improvisational log cabin design. It is tied down in reverse, meaning that the  ties are in the back of the quilt. I did it this way with the ties representing the hidden rocks within the river. I rough stitched patches onto the quilt that spell out the words, 'help me'. There are two swirls on this quilt. One is drawn on while the other is hand stitched. Both can be barely seen on the front of the quilt and only one can be seen from the back. They are the twisting rapids - the ones on the surface and the ones underneath. Somewhere on the quilt I wrote the words that I prayed to God as I was being pushed under the water.  I will leave those words unspoken.

This quilt is simply titled, "She Almost Drowned".

Accuquilt Pattern for February

Spring is just around the corner. 

And I just love all those colorful happy quilts that come with this time of year, don't you?

Why not start the season with this lovely quilt pattern. 

For Valentine's Day, AccuQuilt is offering this  Sweethearts Wall Hanging for free. 

Be sure to check out this and other patterns HERE.

A Civil War Inspired Quilt

This is the quilt that I am currently working on. I found these quilt pieces as I was digging through my fabric stash. I sort of remember working on it. I had saw a quilt like this in a book about blacks serving in the civil war.

I didn't have any kind of a pattern for the quilt. I just cut out the pieces by hand based on how I thought the quilt was put together.

The fabrics are a combination of brushed polyester, denim and upholstery cotton.  I'm wondering why I choose these fabrics. Being a poor college student, I'm thinking they are remnant pieces that I bought on clearance at Joann's or Hancock fabric.

Two rows of this quilt have already been pieced together and it looks like I had planned on using small rectangles of fabric sewn together as the boarder.

I'm not sure what originally inspired me to want to make this quilt, but looking at it now, I'm feeling compelled to complete it, to see what the finished piece will look like.

Blue Hot Pad Finished!!!

Remember the hot pad I talked about a shot while back? If not, you can read about it here. Well, I was determined to get it finished before the new year.

So this morning found me locked in my bedroom sewing down the binding to this hot pad. This was another new skill for me since I have never done binding on any of my other quilts.

I got out some vintage- yet, very strong- black thread, my favorite thread conditioner and a thimble.

Here is a peek at the insulation layer inside the quilt-

I saw how Jacquie Gering on her Tallgrass Prairie Studio blog clipped her quilt together when binding. The clips she used looked very professional, but since I don't have the money for such a luxury at this time, I decided to go with some cute paperclips that were given to me back when I graduated from college.

My daughter thought the paperclips made my work look 'fancy'. Well, I guess it's not everyday that you get to have butterflies and blue birds hanging around your quilting.

 I had forgotten how much fun it is to do a blind stitch. I remember doing them all the time in theater. I was always taking up or taking down the hem on a skirt or slacks. To be productive with my time, I would do all the hemming by hand during my bus rides to and from work. (I know, I'm a weirdo. I claim that title with honor).

Here is the finished piece, all nice and pretty. I'm proud of myself for having finally finished this little quilt. I think this is a great way to end the old year and start with the new.

Table Runner Surprise

This week we have been pulling out the Christmas decorations. My in-laws are coming over for the holidays I want to make sure our home is all decked out with Christmas cheer.

As I was pulling out the table runner that we use for the Nativity Set, I realized that I had made the runner. It was a quilted runner.

Table runner on hallway table

How could I have forgotten that I made this? I had originally made it for my mom to use on her dinning room table during the holidays. But when she decided to change her color scheme she gave it back to me. I have been using it every year since my husband inherited his great-grandmother's Nativity Set. An now today it just occurred to me that this runner was quilted.

Backside fabric of the table runner

The runner is made from shimmery rayon fabric with a solid piece of the same fabric covering the back side. There is no batting on the inside. I'm thinking of maybe opening up the runner, adding a fusible interfacing to it and then hand quilting the the piece for more stability.

I can tell that I worked the piece in two sections and then joined them in the middle

Looking at the runner, something tells me that I may have copied the design from something I saw in a quilting magazine, but I'l not completely sure.

All the pretty little triangles

I'm now wondering, "Where did I get all this shimmery rayon from?"

I think I had meant to add tassels to the ends of this runner. I think the ends will hang a lot better with a little weight on them.

March Is National Craft Month

Yup, it's that time of year again. Time to break out of your crafting rut and try your hands at something new. That's right, its National Craft Month!

Oh how I love this wonderful month. It's like having a free pass to shop at your favorite yarn shops and craft stores. Local craft stores will be offering tempting classes in everything from scrapbooking to cake decorating. Yarn shops are stocking up on fresh spring colors and patterns that you just 'have to' cast on.

I actually have three knitting projects in the works for March and a plan to get two of my patterns on Ravelry. I plan to back some cookies that my local church gives to an assisted living home.  And, I've also made it a goal to finish a needle point project that's been hanging around the house for far too long.

Stuck in a rut of what to do to celebrate the month of crafting? Why not let charity be your motivation.

You can bake cookies and take them to your local nursing home.

Crochet a prayer shawl for a friend going through a rough time.

Sew a quilt and donate it to a local shelter.

Surprise a friend with a week's worth of prepared meals.

Pull out those canning jars and can the last of the winter vegetables and fruit in your area. Then send them in care packages to a friend or loved one who just moved away.

Knit some socks and donate them to military members overseas.

Make baby blankets for preemies at the local hospital.

Embroider a handkerchief to give to a bride-to-be.

Teach someone, (older or younger) how to crochet and/or knit.

The list of things you can do are endless. And if you don't consider yourself very crafty, then why not use the month of March as a time to learn a craft that always interested you. Just don't let National Craft Month go by without sharing the love of crafting.