Quilt Market: Pt 1

 

Last Thursday I hopped in my car and drove the 11+ hour drive to Portland, OR for Quilt Market. I was able to attend thanks to my super awesome and gracious friend Allison...who I mention quite a bit on my blog, because she's just that dang awesome. So after the long drive and getting lost in Portland, I finally got to the Convention Center. Thank goodness it was large because my legs certainly needed the stretch. As I came down the escalator to the entrance of the showroom floor, the first person I spotted was a wonderful lady, Melda Dean Johannes, who I met almost 8 years ago when I took engagements/wedding pictures for her daughter, and I haven't seen for a few years. Back then, I had no idea that the quilting community would give us several of unexpected reunions, much like the one in the Convention Center Thursday evening. After catching up with her a bit, I spotted several other woman who I know by name, but only know through the online quilting community. Including Camille Roskelley, Jeni Baker, Sandy Klop, Amy Smart, and many others. After being starstruck for several minutes I was finally able to meet up with Allison. We headed into the showroom and walked by several booths that I couldn't wait to see up close and in person. At one point, Allison turned away and said, in a very calm professional way, "Hey Heather..." I about choked when I realized she was talking to the one and only Heather Ross, whose booth was situated right across from Allison's. I about died. No seriously. Especially since I looked like I had 12 hours of car seeping from every pore of my body. EW, gross. But she introduced us and Heather shook my hand anyway, and I know she could tell I was a bit in awe.

Allison's Cluck Cluck Sew booth

Heather Ross's booth

Jay (Al's super funny and supportive hub) brought us Jimmy Johns and we ate before they had to go to another meeting. While she was there I was able to wander around a bit more; spotting people like Pat Bravo, Jeni again, Vanessa Christenson, and a few others. They were all super busy setting up there booths so of course I just smiled (keeping myself from screaming with excitement) and continued walking. I came back to Al's booth and Scott Hansen approached me and started talking to me about Allison's booth. It's a good thing I pretty much stay caught up with what she does so I didn't look like a complete idiot! But then I felt like a stalker. A little while later we headed upstairs to sample spree. By this time, the line outside the conference room was insane. We went it, set up shop, and got to look around a bit to see the layout of all the shops participating in case we wanted to step away and join the chaos. I spotted a couple things and then waited for the doors to open to let in the stampede of fabric hungry women. Since I was already in there I felt like it would be cheating to hit the ground running once the doors opened. So I waited a bit, filmed the entry with my iphone, and then aimlessly walked around amongst the crowd. I did manage to get the bundles I wanted.

All the Sample Spree vendors chatting, mingling, and getting ready for the doors to open.

Briar Rose (Heather Ross) - Summer Love (Pat Bravo) - Global Bazaar (Anne Griffin)

After Sample Spree, I headed back to my car and ticked off more than a couple Portland natives with my driving while trying to navigate the one-way streets to the freeway. I made it to my friends house in time to catch up and get some sleep before my Friday adventure at Quilt Market.

Quilt Market: Pt 2 coming soon!

Up to...

Wow...it's seems like time has just been flying by and I haven't been getting much done. But that's not true! I've actually been pretty productive lately. A little.

But before I get started on this post, how about a winner? Thanks everyone who participated in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway! I always have fun browsing through the great blogs! The winner of the 3 Heather Bailey fat quarters is:

I have emailed her and will wait for a response! Congrats!

Right now I'm in super ultra anxiety mode with Quilt Market coming up. I'm able to attend thanks to a very generous friend. I can't wait to see what the hype is all about! In preparation I made myself a 241 bag (pattern by Noodlehead) so that I won't have to wrestle with my purse and I can keep both hands on my camera. The front panel is my own fabric design that I printed through Spoonflower. I'm pretty happy with the quality (I went with the Kona base). The side panels are Bella Solids (scraps and not sure of the colors) left over from a quilt I shared a bit of once but need to update on. The strap and the lining are prints from PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda.

I was debating for days whether to take my DSLR or my "point and shoot", but in the end I decided my DSLR would be better later on. That way, when I share them here, I won't re-size them and you'll be able to zoom in and really see the booths. 

Speaking of DSLR and Portland...I'm splitting up my market time so I won't get overwhelmed or wear myself out. So my afternoon's are pretty free if anyone in the Portland area is in need of family pics, senior pics, etc. Just get in touch with me before Thurs. evening and let me know!

I have been getting some of my WIPS done. Including FINALLY getting the binding on this baby boy plus quilt.

I also joined a sew along! (Goodness me, can't I just complete what I already have on my plate?) It's called the Easiest Sew Along Ever and the point is to make what ever you want, but only using what you have in your stash. NO BUYING ANYTHING! These scraps came out of my bin after I cut all my pieces for a Scout quilt I have in progress (I know, I am so horrible...I haven't even shared that quilt with you yet). I quickly pieced all those left over pieces together and now have this little panel. I plan on making a quilt like Allison's Sweet n' Sassy quilt. So this quilt is being dubbed Sweet n' Scrappy.

A couple weeks ago, while it was still pretty cold here in East Idaho, I made my kiddo a library tote for this summer. I LOVE the heavy weight fabric I got at IKEA. I lined it in black Bella Solid left over from the NERF quilt and I upcycled a karate belt for the strap. 

 And since next week is the last week of school (what?!), I used a pattern from Allison's NEW book Growing Up Modern, and made this cute colored pencil wall hanging for my kiddo's teacher. I hope she likes it!

Well, that's about it over here in my neck of the woods. I hope you all are doing well, and I'll try and post really soon after I get back from Quilt Market!!!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Hey All!

Welcome to Finding Sweet Land!

My name is Jayme and I'm a stay at home mom to two trouble makers and sewing keeps me sane. :)

Since today is Giveaway Day over at Sew Mama Sew, I'm giving away 3 FQ's of Heather Bailey fabrics. I LOVE Heather Bailey's designs. They are gorgeous, bright, and fun!

So what do you think? Want a chance (or two) to win these fun fabrics??

Here are the rules...

Giveaway is open to U.S. residence only (sorry int'l friends! shipping outside of the U.S. is ridiculously priced!)

You need to leave your email in your comment if you are a no-reply blogger.

• Leave ONE comment telling me what you think you'd use these for if you won.
• BONUS ENTRY: Become a follower of Finding Sweet Land on Bloglovin' (use the widget in the tab bar on the right that says "follow this blog" and has a blue plus sign and leave me a comment telling me you did.)

That's it! Remember, for every 100 followers I have giveaways!

I'll be back soon with updates on what I've been up to and what I've got going on for the month of May. Very exciting stuff, for me at least!

GOOD LUCK on all the giveaways!!

 <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3536939/?claim=jsy2dhjkzw6">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Sweet Contrary...a mosaic contest

For contest rules and information, visit STITCHED IN COLOR

Please REPIN this Pin on Pinterest...

That's a lot of P's!

Bernina and Benartex teamed up to sponsor an amazing contest open to aspiring fabric designers. Right now, I have an entire line of 20+ designs that I'd LOVE to see in print, and this contest may be my foot in the door! 

Unfortunately, 9 of my 10 submissions have gotten lost in internet land, except one:

I'm begging all my awesome followers to REPIN the folloing pin on Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/22025485650167473/

THANKS A TON!!!!

 

Swap goodies, 70's spreads, and a new list

I'm finally home and have the biggest mess in the living room that I'm ignoring to bring you this blog post! Right before I left for California I received two packages. One was from the Covert Robin Swap, and the other was from the Monthly Fabric Swap Group.


For the Covert Robin Swap, I received this super lovely pillow from Amy. I love that it's scrappy!!

Then for the MFSG I received these gorgeous FQ's from the Les Amis line (Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller). I LOVE this line, espcially the fox print and the wood grain print! Gorgeous!!! Thank you to my partner Alisha for these!

Now for some fun vintage goodness... while in California I went to a couple estate sales. I just love estate sales. And came across this awesome stack of sewing books. The collection is called The Art of Sewing with 6 books that touch on different looks that were all the rage in the 1970's. The cool part about each of these books in that each one is covered in a different type of fabric and pattern and the books have several patterns in them (none that I see using at any point in my near future but I love the books none the less.) I just love the first page spreads...these are some of the better ones.

Quarter 2 of the Finish-A-Long over at She Can Quilt has begun. Since I didn't finish all my projects from the first quarter, I'll be taking a stab at those items that were left on it. So here's my new list for Quarter 2:

HUB QUILT
LEFT OVERS QUILT
BABY BOY PLUS QUILT
LIBRARY TOTE (for my 6 year old)
MIL's ANIMAL PRINT BABY QUILT (quilting only)

Finish-A-Long Link Up...D

Hello from Sunny California!

This past weekend was filled lots of driving and family gatherings. On Saturday my neice Baylee was baptized and confirmed a member of the LDS church. Then on Sunday (Happy late Easter!) my newest nephew Liam was blessed by his dad in Orem, Utah. So first thing Sunday morning we left Idaho and drove the 4 hours down to Orem to be a part of that ordinance and special occasion. Afterward, my mom and I hopped back in the car with my two boys, (my husabnd stayed to drive back up to Idaho with my sister and her family) and drove from Orem to the East Bay of California. We got in around 2 am. I'm staying here in Cal for a week which means that all my pics and bloggy extras are at home and not available to me. And since the first quarter for the Finish-A-Long has come to a close I'm stuck reporting my progress from an unknown computer.

This was my original list of things to get done:

2 baby boy plus quilts (currently cut out and on the design wall - sorry about the bad iPhone pics and the stickies i left one them. I originally had these combined into one, but I figure I'll actually get them done if I make them 2 smaller quilts, instead of one bigger one.)

"Left Overs" baby girl quilt (put away somewhere)

2 Reunion baby quilts (put away somewhere - need more fabric)

Hilary's A Walk in the Woods baby quilt (ready to baste)

Hub Quilt (<----more on that later)

2 swap items: One for the Doll Quilt Swap, and One for the Pretty Little Pouch Swap

 

 

And this is the progress report:

 

Doll Quit Swap: Doll Quilt Complete and on time. I LOVED this quilt and was sad to see it go. But I know that my partner liked it too so I'm glad it went to a happy home. Taken from my phone...

 

Pretty Little Pouch Swap: Complete and on time. I attempted to make a Triple Zip using the tutorial from Deb at A Quilters Table. I was pretty happy with it even though I had issues understanding the last couple steps of the tutorial. 

2 baby boy plus quilts: 1 DONE, and 1 left to be bound

 

"Left Overs" baby quilt quilt: I pulled this one out and realized that I didn't want to make it a baby quilt. I added a few more blocks and pieced the top and when it's completed it will be a lap quilt.

 

2 reunion baby quilts: The girl version was quilted and then when I started squaring it up, it WOULDN'T square up. So what started out as a large baby quilt, ended up being a mini quilt. Yeah. I had one of those OCD moments and wouldn't stop cutting until it was perfect...I finally gave up. So, I haven't even started on the boy version. 

Hilary's A Walk in the Woods baby quilt: This was my first finish. Since it wasn't mine, it was in and out before I even got a chance to take a picture. And because it was a gift for someone else, once I sent it back to her, there wasn't a chance to ask her to get a picture for me either. 

Hub Quilt: Since I'm in California and will be missing my hubs birthday and our 8 year anniversary, AND since my back went out during the trip he took where I thought I would be able to complete it while he was gone, I finally just gave in and told him I was making a quilt. I'm using Allison's Squares and Strips pattern, and using a variety of David Butler fabrics from either of his Parson Grey lines. I'm very excited for this one to be done. I'm done piecing all the blocks, now I just have to lay them out and sew it together (twin size).

I've gotta say that I'm pretty happy with my progress. I completed 4 out of my 9 projects and made excellent headway on the others. If I didn't have my back issues and if my hubs wasn't gone for 4 weeks this quarter I may have completeed a lot more but it is what it is and I'm good with it all!

Hope everyone has a great week and I'll be sharing my NEW list for the second quarter when I get back from Cal! Stay tuned!