Drop and Give Me Twenty - Challenge

Let me start by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!   May 2014 be a year of happiness, health, success, and lots and lots of quilting.

Secondly, check out my new mascot.  

Isn't she just adorable?  Thank you to Alexandra of Blue Chair Diary Illustrations for reading my mind and creating exactly the design I wanted.  She's a wonderful artist with a huge heart!

And Now...Raise your hand of you have a project or two (or ten) just sitting in a drawer or bin just waiting to be finished *waving hand wildly*.  That's kind of what we quilters are all about anyway, isn't it?

Beth at Quilting Hottie Haven the blog of EvaPaige Quilt Designs is having her 3rd annual "Drop and Give Me Twenty" in the month of February.  No, this doesn't mean you have to drop and do 20 pushups (although you can if you want)  it means you will commit to 20 minutes a day of sewing, every day in the month of February.  Why?  So you can finish up a few of your UFOs, WIPs, or whatever you call the unfinished projects you have piling up.  From what I understand, there were a lot of quilts finished up during the month of February last year and the year before with the DaGMT challenge.  I, for one, plan to add to that list for 2014.

It's going to be fun and you won't want to miss out.  Head on over to Quilting Hottie Haven for the official rules.  Here's the gist of it though...commit to sewing 20 minutes a day in February (easy peasy), tell the world that you're committing to DaGMT2014 either on your blog or Facebook page and link back to Quilting Hottie Haven so we can follow you and cheer you on, and get to work.  Seriously, how much easier can it be?

PRIZES...yes, of course there are prizes and several ways to get your name entered to win.  Head on over to Beth's page to see the official details of how to get your name entered and what wonderful prizes are up for grabs  (And thank you Beth for allowing me to be one of the sponsors of this event!!  I've got some fabric waiting for one lucky winner)

HERE'S MY COMMITMENT 

I vow to sew a minimum of 20 minutes every day in the month of February, although I'm going to shoot for more than that, so that I can get a few things finished up...

1.  Finish Ally's Birthday Llama Quilt (but hopefully it will be done before Feb even gets here).

Gotta love her fabric choices

2.  Remember the quilt pattern I tested several months ago for Beth at EvaPaige Designs (who just happens to be the very same Beth of Quilting Hottie Haven)?  If not, you can read all about it here.
Well, that quilt needs to be basted, quilted and bound.  I'm gonna get that done and get it listed in my Etsy store.

Ka-Bloom 

3.  I have a baby quilt that's been done forever that needs a binding so it can also be listed on my Etsy store.

4.  There are 4-1/2 quilts for charity that are patiently awaited their turn under the HandiQuilter to be quilted.  I would be thrilled to get these finished and back to the shop so they can find their way to the loving arms of a child battling cancer.

I promise to post my progress, which also means I'm committing to blogging a little bit more too.  Please follow me, join in on the fun, and share what you are working on.  Quilting is so much more fun in a group, and this will be a great group to be a part of.

Let's get 'er done in February!

PS.  If you didn't know, my shop has moved to Etsy and I have lots and lots of fabric just waiting to be shipped.  Follow me on Etsy if you'd like to know when new fabric lines are posted (which is fairly often)

Ka-Bloom

Ka-Bloom - Pattern testing

I don't know if you guys have any idea what goes into designing patterns, but it's not as simple as just creating the design.  It requires MATH.  Holy cow!  No thank you.  Not only do designers need a sense of style, color sense, artistic ability, a slight affinity for math, they also need to be able to put their directions into word combinations that the rest of us quilters can follow…

…Enter Pattern Testers

Testers have the fun job of following the directions exactly and offering suggestions/recommendations, making sure all the measurements work and fabric requirements are accurate.  Of course that assumes no mistakes by the pattern tester (more on that later).

A few weeks ago I saw this Quilt ------>

Ka-Bloom by EvaPaige Quilt Designs

and just loved it.  Shortly after, the designer (EvaPaige Quilt Designs) sent out a pleas for help.  She needed testers for the sashing and setting triangles portion of her pattern.  We were even told we could use "ugly" fabrics.  She just needed us to check measurements and fabric allotment.

My uglies (which may be your faves, and that's ok!

Perfect!  I responded immediately.  I'm in!!  I love the design and I love to help.  This business of quilting really is about sharing and lending a helping hand.  It's fun to be part of someone else's creative process.

I gathered my uglies.  So excited to use them for something and get them out of my stash.  My intensions were pure.  I swear!

But then this...

Sunnyside by Kate Spain for Moda

...kept taunting me! 

I swear Kate Spain's Sunnyside was speaking to me.  "Please, Ka-Bloom is perfect for us.  Put us to good use.  Don't put us in a drawer.  Make something beautiful."  What?  Doesn't your fabric speak to you?  So, pattern testing one portion of Ka-Bloom quickly turned into making the entire quilt.  Squeeee!!!  So exciting!

The pattern by EvaPaige Quilt Designs seen here has easy-to-follow directions, can be quite scrappy (as I have done with FQs) and comes together fairly quickly.  

It has a nice combination of strip piecing,

applique (done as easily or intricately as you'd like),

 and set on a diagonal with triangles corners and triangle setting border.  

Assembling Ka-Bloom was great fun!

And here's the really important part of my pattern review…this tester, ahem, was a little over anxious in creating this quilt.  Sometimes she does get a little ahead of herself and doesn't follow directions in order.  So said tester just might have mistaken a 12-1/4 inch cut for 12-1/2 inch and then found that sashing strips didn't quite match up and triangles had to be trimmed down.  I'm just saying…something like this may have happened.

Happy Days…because of Ka-Bloom's scrappy sashing, it was absolutely no problem to make adjustments and have my seams come together beautifully.

Check out those corners :)

I love a pattern that allows for some wiggle room.  A few nips and tucks later, the quilt came out perfectly aligned.

I give Ka-Bloom a huge thumbs up for design, flexibility, clear instructions, and as it so happens, Beth, owner and designer of EvaPaige Quilt Designs, is really, really sweet.  Bonus!!!

Please visit Beth at EvaPaige Quilt Designs or on Facebook if you're interested in purchasing the pattern for KaBloom or just to say hello.

Disclosure:  All opinions are my own and I was in no way compensated for this review.  In fact, I wasn't even asked to do a review (surprise, Beth!).  I'm just excited about this beautiful quilt pattern and want to spread the word.

Happy Quilting...