WIP Wednesday and Frogs

I absolutely LOVE frogs… have I made that obvious yet? If not, I have completely failed at the true love I have for frogs. I am constantly asked why I love them and I truthfully wouldn’t have an answer for you. I often find myself asking the very same thing. The only thing I can remember last from any memory early on is after my parents separated and my mom bought a new home in 1993, my younger sister and I were able to decorate our bedrooms with the whole shebang. I remember telling her all about green and frogs, but I didn’t want a green room and I was not into all of the ‘fancy’ (prissy) colors (pink, purples, aquas, etc.); my mother told me how much a soft pink would look great with the green and all of the frog items. Looking back on it, how much I literally despised pink most of all, I have no idea how she convinced me to do so. Low and behold… my room was pink full of green and frogs. What I also remember, was going shopping for decor in the room and my favorite piece was this Silverchair Frogstomp poster. The best part, you ask? I nor my mother knew who they were, it was just perfect because it had a frog on it. I don’t know what happened to that poster but I definitely need to get another one. 

So following my absolute obsession and love for frogs, when I had seen Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts newest QAL had a frog block in it, I was all over it! Unfortunately I kind of found myself stuck on what fabric to use for the block as my idea was to use my vintage-y and older fabric in my stash. I had already used some pretty awesome fabrics to make super cute elephants for the #Elephantparadeqal but found myself not liking any of the fabrics for the frog block. There were tons of ideas, but nothing for the feel that I was going for in the fabric selection for this quilt. Until my wonderful #beehiveswammara ladies came through… with their generous giving of fabric scraps and frog fabric… one had sent me this adorable story time frog fabric and some other scraps (of course, mostly green). 

Once I had remembered about this, I immediately got to figuring out the rest… which wasn’t that hard as she had sent me scraps from her block that was made for me and it had the perfect green fabric for the legs! Off I went to sew one of the most adorable frogs… EVER! Isn’t he the cutest!?! I am obsessed with him! I love the frog sitting reading… I love the fabric on the legs… I love the eyes (which were another great steal from scrap fabric of mine that had those awesome circle designs on them) as they work perfect for frog eyes! 

I have plans to make lots and lots more of these amazing frog blocks! Thanks Lorna for these, they are going to be used tremendously by me! 

I am linking up and showing my stuff off today with WIP Wednesday w/ Freshly Pieced and Lets Bee Social w/Sew Fresh Quilts. Join in on the party and show your stuff off, too! 

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Elephants!

If you follow me on Instagram, then you have seen these dumplings already. I’m not sure if you heard or not, but Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts is doing an Elephant Parade QAL. Even though I have plenty going on, I couldn’t help but jump on the band wagon for this simply ADORABLE quilt she created! I really do love Lorna’s creativity and seeing where it all comes from and how it is then portrayed in her quilts.

When I decided to join the QAL I immediately decided that I would USE MY STASH! I have quite a collection of some older/vintage fabrics that I love to hoard but yet I don’t see me using them. I decided this would be the perfect QAL for it because of the prints and how old and ‘vintage’ I find Elephants to be. They are so graceful and elegant in their own form. I immediately fell in love with the larger Elephant and so I couldn’t just stop and not make some of the babies!

Come on, they are killing it with the cute factor, right!?!? Needless to say, I am eager to make the remainder of them and their additional friends (which even includes a FROG!) for part of the quilt. These are extremely simple to make and Lorna write really clear instruction for them. I was able to cut, sew and iron all of 3 of these in an hour or so. After I was done with these, I finally had to get back to what I was doing which was working on the “Spongebob Square Pants” block swap. I decided to do these with two other wonderful ladies last June (OH MY! Don’t judge). They have both sent their blocks to one another but I have yet to them and they have yet to me. ??? In any case, I finally got around to cutting the fabric for it and even got a block all sewn! The colors are beautiful!

I do have that block all sewn up now and I love it… now I just need to make 17 more! I don’t feel too terrible for not having these blocks done, as I had originally purchased 5 yards of fabric of that grey but then somewhere in re-doing my sewing studio I lost it and it has yet to be found. I finally gave up the cause for finding it and purchased 3 more yards of it. Progress is happening!

I am linking up today with WIP Wednesday w/ Freshly Pieced and Lets Bee Social w/Sew Fresh Quilts. Join in on the party and show your stuff off!

Abacus Quilt in Progress

It is Wednesday once again, and once again I am thankful that we are on the down slope of the week. I feel the Holiday pressure already. How about you? I had intended to have my Abacus quilt quilted and at least ready to be binded by this past weekend, but you know how life goes. This quilt design was created by Christa from Christa Quilts for her Fall Quilt-a-Long, and I enjoyed every moment of it! It isn’t ever too late to join in on a Quilt-a-Long and I think this can be done in really some fun ways for a baby quilt!

***WARNING***

Photos are horrible, as I am disliking the daylight savings time. By the time I get home it is already dark and I keep forgetting to bring my items to work to take during the day with the beautiful backgrounds.

I do at least have all of the ‘blank’ circles done through quilting as well as some of the exterior quilting. You can clearly tell my circles are by far perfect, but that is ok. I am quilting with my new sewing machine and well, I am just not a fan of free motion quilting on a domestic machine. I believe you need a long arm for it (at least for me). I can’t seam to ‘draw’ when I move the ‘paper’ (fabric/quilt)… I need to draw by moving the ‘pen’ (needle). I am only doing what I am calling a “stipple loop” on the exterior. I am loving the way it is turning out overall, I just need to get it done. The original design has it straight and not ’tilted’. I decided to do this as I always love ‘twisting’ things up and because I wanted it a little bit bigger (for no real reason). It was not as challenging to add the slanted parts as I thought it would be; however I am pretty sure I did it slightly the longer way than what a more experienced quilter would have done… either way, it got the job done! 

I intend to do the binding in the same teal color as I want it to give the effect on the front of a floating Abacus. Also, I think it would be fun for some people thinking the blanket is off kilter when in reality it is not. I may or may not have already had this happen to me a few times when I am holding it up. hehehe

I chose this practically hot pink with small white polka-dots in it (once again, no real reason). It was more laziness as I was going through my stash of fabric and when I pulled this out, it was literally the perfect over-size needed for the quilting. So… to save myself either piecing a back or cutting into another large bundle of fabric, I just went with it. I’m most certainly not a pink person by any means, but I still like it. It looks like I haven’t quilting all of the blank circles yet, but the circles now being created are the two shadow curved lines that I am quilting in between each circle, so up close they are almost boxy-type circles because of how it is creating it. I think the back will be almost just as fun as the front!

I am linking up today with WIP Wednesday w/ Freshly Pieced and Lets Bee Social w/Sew Fresh Quilts. Join in on the party and show your stuff off!

Sew Stitching Cute

Abacus Quilt Along with Christa Quilts

Happy Tuesday! Quick post today as I am super excited to be sharing with you my fabric selections for Christa Watson at Christa Quilts Quilt Along that she is doing! This is my first time doing a Quilt Along with her, as well as working with circles. Yet again, another project to push me outside of my boundaries and what is comfortable. This starts tomorrow, so it is still not too late to join in! Hop on over to her introductory of it and see the fabric requirements, I know many of us could end up pulling from our stash if we weren’t so protective of it. LoL Just as I did in the Foothills Mystery Quilt Sew-a-Long by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs which I spoke about here, I am going to go for something different than just “following along” and changing my fabric selection up as well as solids and prints.

Isn’t this an awesome teal… it is actually much better in person and it is from Bella Solids named Peacock. I am the type of person who likes to figure things out, but sometimes I prefer to be shown some awesome new things in order for me to have the confidence to go for it. I feel like I over analyze the way some things can be done which can halt my own creative mind. Anyone else have this dilemma or am I alone with the crickets here? In any case, the print are going to be the actual circles. I have been wanting to get my hands on some Cotton and Steal and figured this was the perfect chance. After reading the cutting instructions of what you needed for fabric and the dimensions of the quilts, I realized the circles will be 5”, therefore it was CHARM PACK usable! I decided to go with the Mustang Charm Pack from Cotton and Steal. The background fabric works well with any print in the Mustang line and I am excited about how this will be turning out!

Photo Courtesy: Missouri Star Quilt Co.

I hope you either join in or stick around every week on Wednesdays for how this turns out. Hopefully your week is still starting off well, mine sure has even though it has been busy.

Sew Stitching Cute

Better late than never…

So I discovered the Foothills Sew-a-Long from Meadow Mist Designs about two weeks or so ago. I knew I wanted to jump right in, even if I had a little bit of catching up to do. Well… I finally got my fabric selection in last night! In fact, I received THREE packages last night… happy mail!

This mystery quilt allows for either scrappy or for one fabric for each set, totaling 3 ‘sets’ of fabric. The only thing stated was to make sure the colors contrasted well. For about a week I searched a few places, waiting for something to call out to me from what I was envisioning of the design (as this is all a mystery quilt and you don’t know what design it is making). I did decide I was going to do one fabric for each set and keep it simple, because my normal is to go with scrappy (I can’t help it). I want to push myself outside what I normally do.

Here is what I needed:

Fabric Set A – 1 3/4 yards

Fabric Set B – 3 yards

Fabric Set C – 5/8 yard

I do not like to split fabric up from 1 yard increments unless it is at the end of a bolt and I decide to just take it with me… so these yardage requirements are always rounded up for me, no matter how little I need of just that one yard (you never know… future right?!). So I needed for A: 2 yards, B: 3 yards, C: 1 yard. 

Fabric Set B

I have had this lovely pink fabric for about a year now, and I have 20 yards of it. I decided that this quilt would be the one I go ahead and use the first bit of it. It will be Fabric Set B, the background. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what this is called or where it came from, as I got this from the lovely lady whom I received/purchased so much fabric from that I shared here; I had loved this fabric so much I took the entire bolt. ;o) 

Fabric Set A

Now that I had my background fabric selected (high five for using stash), now it was time look for (to purchase) the additional fabric. I am obsessed with green, and really thought the right green would look great with the contrast with the medium pale pink. It seems a bit brighter than what it is… it really does play well. It is from Robert Kaufmans Kona Cottin Solids in Sprout. This is Fabric Set A which is the ”main design” of the quilt… so I really think it will work well to show off the pattern. 

               

 

It then called for Fabric Set C, the ‘highlight’ design of the pattern. I have been obsessed with coral this year but have yet to make anything with that color, and once again… I thought it would be perfect to push me outside my normal color arrangement. I am LOVING this and it unfortunately shows it a bit more orange than it is; however I love that it is versatile in that one direction (left photo) it looks like a flower, but flipping it around (right photo) it resembles a jelly fish. Coral Reef would almost have been a great name for this fabric; it could be the coral in the reef or the jelly fish in the coral reef. It is Helen’s Garden – Pirouette Coral Yardage by Tamara Kate for Michael Miller.

Is there anything you have created that you were unsure of from the very beginning, yet kept going with it? How about anything you still want to, yet haven’t? I say let’s go for it!!! Hear us quilters roar!
I am walking unsteady with this one, yet confident. I will be cutting into this tonight (if you follow me on instagram, you have already seen a sneak peak)… and I have full faith it will be Sew Stitching Cute!

Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild

During the month of July as I basically reorganized my home and well, bluntly… my sanity I also had spoken to someone who informed me about the Modern Quilt Guild for Kansas City. Immediately in my mind, I had party streams and whistle blowers going on all around me and I had the Cheshire Cat smile (no joke). On the outside though, I was excited but reserved about how many people I was informed are part of this Guild… an running active member list of 150+. Each months meeting can bring regularly over 100 people. All eyes on you, you newbie!

I ordered these charm packs about a week ago and I received these beauties over the weekend.

Either way, I was still really excited as I am really quite bubbly and I am known for making everything a huge excitement and milestone no matter what it is. I find more happiness in others than I do in my own self. I am ok with that, because I like people. I didn’t jump on the band wagon that moment, or even that night or next day… not even the following week. It took me about two weeks to read and look into it enough to finally say, “Ok, lets do this!”. So I did. I have now been a Kansas City MQG for approximately 3 weeks now! :::round of applause:::

Along with that, I joined just in time to be invited to do a challenge with Michael Miller’s Cotton Couture Pastels which is the Michael Miller Spring Cotton Couture Challenge category for the 2015 QuiltCon. It is a fairly small sized challenge that I thought would be perfect to join in on my first Guild meeting that I participate in. It isn’t until August 14th, so wish me luck! 

I am now in the process of looking into to joining the American Quilting Society…..

Sew Stitching Cute

Morning Madness and Time Wasted

Ok, it is Friday and I should feel so much better about today. Unfortunately, I don’t. It is Friday and I will be at work late, let alone I have some major quilting to be doing this evening!

I am very excited though to show off the label that my husband made for me. We have gone through a few mock-ups, and this ended up being the result. I have the empty space for a specific reason and will have others that don’t (those are in the process of being produced). The only thing different with these ones will be my name will be made larger by one point because the letters run into one another too much for my last name. All in all, I am quite pleased and my husband has done a great job! Thanks babes!

This is what my ironing board looked like this morning as I got up early to try to get some sewing/ironing in so that I could be more prepared when I got home from work. 

 

Aaaahh! I have added the borders and what not; however when I went to work on the back last night so that I can begin basting and quilting this… I ended up spending ONE HOUR (YES, ONE HOUR) on designing the back. I was trying to be creative and trying to give a little something extra to the quilt. In the end, I ended up doing a much simpler plan (you will see once all completed) and I was mad at myself for allowing such good honest time to be wasted on something I wasn’t and didn’t even end up doing to begin with!

I ended up finding my balance once I reminded myself that I can use this for another back… or even the front of a quilt top! Sometimes I stress myself out more than I should, just because you want it to be loved and perfect, the exact way you see it. 

Well, that was and is my Friday as of now. This is all sitting at home waiting for me to finish it up. I’m hoping to not be stuck too late today this Friday. Wish me luck! I wish you all luck in your weekend activities and/or sewing projects… did anything this week frustrate you?

Sew Stitching Cute

Late WIP Wednesday

I’m a little late on WIP Wednesday, although I did share a picture on my Instagram. It may not be Wednesday, but it is still a Work In Progress and there is no stopping on this one. Every free moment is being dedicated to it and I am almost excited to work on it. I spoke about this baby quilt a few weeks ago, introducing the layout and the process of selecting the layout.

All cut, squared and ready for chain piecing for HST

This fabric selected is absolutely gorgeous and precious, all for a new baby girl, named Emma entering the world in a few short months! I have been loving having this fabric between my fingers, it is absolutely so soft to the touch that it will be perfect for a little baby girl. The prints selected are:

Sunshine Rose – Pink
Sunshine Rose – Hanky Panky Pink
Rosey – Roses and Mums Green
Bella Solids – Weathered Teak
Kona Cotton – Peony

I decided to do my HST not on the bias, for the simple reason that this is a commission quilt; that means more nerves on how well the quilt turns out and me freaking out in my head. For this method of HST, I cut my squares at 6 1/2” (1. because I like extra room for triangles, more accident prone. 2. because I have a 6 1/2” square rule. 3. because I can). I then put two squares Right Sides Together and drew a line down one of the backs. I simply placed a pin to hold and not loose which squares are to be sewn together.

I then got to sewing down the line, using the line at my 1/4” seam allowance ON BOTH SIDES. I chain pieced all the way down one end and chain pieced down again on the other side. I never even broke the chain when I went down the 2nd time, made it much easier having one after the other trailing right behind!

The green-brown color is truly a nice pale chocolate brown – terrible lighting.

I then cut each square down the drawn line, between the two 1/4” seam allowances just made. You are then left with quite a few double sided triangles. 

Head to your ironing table, set your seam, open up your triangle and press down your seam again however you like your seams to be. I decided to go one direction for this, all towards the darker of the fabric it was matched with. You are then left with your HST! Now… to get to snipping those little corners AND re-cutting. The joys of accuracy and my OCD!

I’m not done with these, but I should be tonight. There is about an extra 1/4” extra over a 6” HST. I am trimming all with straight edges to 6”. Once it is done, it will be a Sew Stitching Cute Chevron baby quilt!

2014 Blog Hop Introduction

Plum and June

It has come around to my turn of introducing myself and my blog… So welcome to Sew Stitching Cute! My name is Megan Jorrick, I am married to my husband, Michael and I am obsessed with him, quilting and frogs. I am pretty eccentric and I believe the smallest of things also deserve huge applause and gratitude, as they seem to be the most heart felt. I was born and raised in Southern California until I moved to Kansas with my husband a little over 4 years ago. Huge change and I am still adjusting, I am not a fan of winter longer than 2 weeks.

Here I am!

I am being stubborn and not finishing my quilts until I take my Tin Lizzie Long Arm Quilting class on June 29th, which I am gaining more and more anticipation each day. I have too many WIPs (did I really just say that?). I wanted to share with you completed projects from when I crocheted and a glimpse of what I have going, these were the last of my final products before I went full force into quilting about two years ago but have only devoted true time to it since last August when we moved. I like to push myself outside of the normal comfort boundaries I tend to steer with, I am always looking for something exciting and something to challenge me outside the box. I love meeting new people and especially when you find someone else with your love for being expressive in color and art, blanketed around the world.

 

 

 

 

Please be sure to check out yesterday’s post for a 2014 Charm Pack fabric swap/exchange… I still need people to join and swap with me!

   1. Blogging Tip: Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Easier said than done as I struggle with it, always finding and admiring more and more, then questioning, “no way will anyone love mine like they do theirs”. Yet, that is not why I began blogging. I enjoy writing and being expressive, sharing with others is just a bonus let alone a way to show what you’re proud of. I decided to blog for my memories alone and wanted to still share with others. Just always stay original, as that is what makes any one individual thrive as a human.

   2. Quilting Tip: NEVER be afraid to ask a question! Every quilter has been there, done that at some point or will… And you will only be there and do that when you choose to recognize you aren’t alone and every quilter continues to learn. I see sew many mistakes made more crucially from not asking (yes, speaking from experience as well).

   3. What drives you to read someone blog? What interests do you tend to draw yourself to when it comes to color, shape, size, etc? I love reading let alone quilting, and sometimes I am more drawn to reading others blogs than actually quilting as I get lost with all the creativity I am reading!

   4a. Your Dream Vacation Spot: Australia or Africa
   4b. Favorite book: The Love Dare
   4c. Favorite movie: Dirty Dancing
   4d. Favorite TV show: orange is the New Black… But I’m not an over achiever of watching shows.
   4e. Random fact about me: Nobody would be aware of or think I have any tattoos, let alone as many as I do have. They are a part of me and the creative body art, each holds some meaningful part of me. Just so you know, this is how crazy I am about frogs. To top it off, I quilt and well… Friends and family call me Grandma Megan and I say I have a genuine old soul.

I have truly been honored to be a part of this blog hop as I am loving the others I am meeting and speaking with, learning more and more each day. I hope you continue to stop by, and I hope you continue to for the following others that are a part of this as I think every person a part of it is worth following!

Carole @ Fresh Off The Frame

Camelia @ Camelia Elliott

Nurdan @ Hug a Bit Quilts

Paula @ Mud Pies and Pins

Lori @ Sew Psychd

Kitty @ Night Quilter

Christina @ Wips and Tuts

Diana @ Sew Crafty Chick

Marcia @ Cozy Capatiller

Judy @ Quilt Paradigm 

Jasmine @ Quilt Kisses

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts