Good morning everyone, happy Monday to you! I hope you had a great weekend. I must say, I did indeed have a great weekend, capped off my some super happy mail that was delivered to me on Saturday - the summer 2014 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited with my name on the cover. Seriously?! Yep, that's my name all right. Wow. Granted, that's not my quilt, but gosh, to see my name on a magazine cover is just beyond astounding to me.

The summer 2014 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited features an interview with me, which was a lot of fun to do, as well as several photos of some of my favorite quilts, and one of my favorite photos of the munchkin, working away in EQ on a sick day a few months ago. He was super excited when I showed him the picture of him in a real, live magazine.


There's also a pattern from me in the magazine, called Exploding Star. Exploding Star is (shocker) a paper-pieced star pattern that uses several different templates to create the exploding effect. I sewed this one up in assorted solids from Modern Solids II by Alissa Haight Carlton, and I love the sparkling effect they give to the piecing.


The quilting on this mini is done in several different coordinating shades of 50 wt Aurifil, my go-to free-motion quilting thread. There's several different styles of fmq throughout the quilt, in the different areas, which was a lot of fun to do. I also did some "faux" straight line quilting, where I use my free-motion foot and outline certain areas of the quilt. My relationship with my walking foot is a bit lackluster, so I rarely use it - instead I do straight-ish line quilting with the free-motion foot, which is way more comfortable for me.



This issue should be hitting your local Barnes & Nobles and Jo-Anns and such in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for it. There's some really fun patterns inside, including a fun pixelated guitar pattern by Penny Barnes. Have a great day!

Quilt Stats
name: Exploding Star
pattern: by yours truly, available in the Summer 2014 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited
fabrics: assorted solids from In the Beginning's Modern Solids II
quilting: linear L's, zig zags, pulleys, wishbones, and faux straight-line quilting all in assorted coordinating shades of Aurifil 50 wt cotton thread

The show is at 4pm EST today and you can listen live by clicking on one of the photos on today's post, or you can listen after the fact if you're busy right at 4! You can find the show on iTunes, by searching for American Patchwork & Quilting, or on Pat's website. If you've never listened to a podcast, you ought to give this one a try - it's just like listening to a radio show, but this one's even better because it's about quilting! I love listening to podcasts while I'm quilting, so it's a real kick to think that I'm going to be on this one today. Wish me luck and I hope you'll listen!

Ever wonder where on Earth my blog name came from?? You're not alone :) Today, I'm visiting over at my friend Cindy's blog, Live a Colorful Life, to play the Name Game. Cindy is a fantastic quilter, who recently finished up all 111 Farmer's Wife blocks, and after spending the last year or so emailing back and forth, we finally got to meet up in Kansas City at Market. I love the way Cindy uses color, and her blog posts are always so authentic and vibrant, just like she is. Check out my interview here and have a great Monday!

It's a new year, and at my house, that means cleaning and re-organizing...or as my mom used to call it "mad moving."  I inherited the "mad mover" gene from my dad, where I all of a sudden feel a need to have things spic-and-span, and in the mad dash to put things away, I often put things in odd places.  I had a big mad mover rush in my sewing room on New Year's Day but I'm pleased to report that the only thing that got "lost" in the cleaning was my sketchbook, which I have just found.  Yay!


This morning, you'll find my sewing space featured on Lawson and Lotti's blog, as a part of her Sunday Sewing Spaces feature.  Pop on over and peer into my sewing space!

Before I get to my works in progress....have you ever visited Stash Manicure?  If you haven't, you really ought to.  It's a great site for either salivating over the insane stashes that other blogging quilters and sewists have or seeing how other super creative people use scraps up in unique ways.  Have you seen the Quilt Cave?  Truly a jaw-dropping stash :)

Another super fun thing about Stash Manicure is their new monthly banner contest.  Every month, Madame Samm has a contest to fill up the themed Stash Manicure banner with various works of quilty goodness.  I happened to send in some snaps of my Christmas of Whirlygiggles quilt and one of them actually got picked for the banner!  Woo hoo!!  (That's me in the bottom right!)


Isn't it a gorgeous banner?  So festive :)  Makes me want to start singing Christmas carols.

And now, I get to put this lovely badge on my blog, which is about as far as I'm going to go in decorating my blog for the holidays!



If you're interested in submitting some of your own quilty goodies, Madame Samm is accepting entries for the January banner at the moment and she's looking for blue quilts.  Got one?  Send it to her at madamesamm(at)cogeco(dot)ca.  She's also always in the market for guest posters, sharing their scraps!

And now, to my not-so-exciting-by-comparison works in progress list for the week...

Finished:
Nada :(  Thanksgiving brought my sewing to a halt and I've had a hard time getting back in the swing of things, between holiday shopping and decorating, but thankfully I'm about done with both of those projects.

Minimal progress:
Checkbook wallet: I did pick up this project this morning...then I picked up my computer.  I've made the pocket, so far, and I will say the pattern is written beautifully.  Super easy to follow, I definitely recommend it so far.  It's Keykalou's Checkbook Wallet pattern.



Kermit the Frog applique shirt: Finally got my hands on the right fabrics for this one, as close to Kermit's two greens as I'm going to get.  I'm excited about this, because my son is so in love with the Muppets these days.

Super Why cape: My munckin has been in my sewing room a lot, so I've put this up on a shelf and promptly forgot about it until just now.

French Provence quilt: I'm half done with the binding, phew.  I'm hoping to finish this one up real soon!

Urban Lattice quilt along: The paper piecing aspect of this quilt totally intimidated me.  I'm making some serious progress here - stay tuned for a quilt along update on Friday!


That Girl quilt along: I've finished the back for this quilt and am getting ready to baste.  Stay tuned for a quilt along update on Friday!

New projects/waiting in the wings:
Christmas shirts for my munchkin: Last year, he had a shirt from Old Navy that said something about Santa being his homeboy.  Loved it!  But this year, I want to try to make him something myself.  Maybe a Christmas tree, maybe a Grinch, I'm not sure yet.

And...drumroll, please...I might be crazy, but I am officially starting a bee for 2011.   I'm really excited about this.  It's called the {Sew} Beautiful Bee, and will last the entire year.  Stay tuned for more information.

Weekly Wrap-up
Last week's total: 6
Finished: 0
New projects: 1
This week's total works in progress: 7

It's Follower Friday today over at Gen X/Y Quilters, and I'm the lucky follower being featured today!  Can you believe it?  I am indeed a Gen X/Y girl, still listen to a lot of alternative and grunge music from back in the 90s when I sew.  I have really enjoyed the blogs and bloggers I have found over there, and found some serious inspiration, so you really ought to check their blogroll.  There's some seriously inspirational quilters there, and I'm really proud to be in their group.