Gold Medal Tuesday

Hey! Link up your holiday projects here! Because it's the cool thing to do! 

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...so I woke up today and realized it was Tuesday.

And then I realized that I'd been sucked into the Olympic vortex. I think I've probably watched all 16 hours of Olympic coverage on NBC every day. The TV is on if I'm awake.

Table tennis? You can wipe your face after every 6 points.

Beach volleyball? The Brazilian women's team goes by their first names only.

Regular volleball? You have to be prepared to hug after every point.

Badminton? The fastest hit was recorded at 265 mph.

Dressage? Whaaaaat? FYI, the horse doesn't get a medal, which I think is unfair.

You're welcome for all that knowledge. I'll be sure to give you an update in a few days.

Now, on to the Olympics of sewing. Otherwise known as the only event I'd get to compete in because I'm exceptionally average [oxymoron? yes/no?].

I need 510 charms for my queen-sized quilt.

I have 280. And no more fabrics that work with my color scheme. Epic fail. So I think that I don't even make it to the medal podium for that effort. I wish I'd won gold so I could pawn it for some fabric money...

I started working with a new project earlier today. In various shades of green paired with Essex in Natural. I'm not sure what it will become, but I've toyed with a triangle design for my king-size bed quilt, so this is helping me see if I like it.

Here we have a very orderly layout of triangles

And here we have a haphazard turning of triangles. I'm leaning towards this.

I know I want to make bigger blocks next time though. Maybe I'll keep making baby triangles and turn this into a shower curtain?! [slowly but surely letting patchwork take over my house; don't tell Stephen].

Because I like the project so far I'm going to award myself the silver in this event. 

::the crowd roars its approval::

And today is the day that Issue 10 - Sew Britannia of Fat Quarterly is available for purchase! Aka the issue with my Twirling Clamshells pillow.

You have to buy the issue to see all the good stuff!

In true Olympic spirit in honor of the issue, I win a gold medal for that pillow! Because...42 pictures in that pattern people, 42 pictures.

[In case you were wondering if it's worth buying the issue...it's 111 pages. Chock full o' goodness]

PS, I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. I'm a terrible Olympian. And human.


*Linked with Quilt Story

Exciting news!

So how fun was the first day of Christmas in July?! Who's already working on some quilted holiday cards or a paper pieced snowflake table runner/wall hanging?! And don't forget that you can enter the giveaway on Jessica's tutorial for a chance at a JOY charm pack!

And now I have some more news!

Back in March I was hard at work in the Pillow Talk Swap, making my partner a pillow of clamshells. I decided to be brave and submitted my project idea to Fat Quarterly [which is oddly nerve-wracking even though it was just over the Internet and not face-to-face with possible rejection]. If you're not familiar with this publication, it's an e-zine run by 5 fabulous quilters, and publishes...wait for it...quarterly. Plus they do bonus editions all the time, like the one out right now, which is focused around the Fat Quarterly retreat that just happened!

So I think that some of the coolest things about Fat Quarterly is that it's online, so you get instant gratification when you want it. Plus it's only $8, and is loaded full of projects. Legit. That's like the price of one regular pattern. But you get MORE patterns. That's math I like to do, people. And even though it's online, you can preview the projects before you buy it! And they put pictures of those projects up on their Flickr. It just gets better and better, amIright?!

So anyways, all gushing aside, my project was accepted a few months ago. Yay!

I've had many people email me and ask for a pattern for the pillow, and I've had to be vague and say no. I felt terrible every time. So here you go, everyone! A pattern! For you to make your very own crazy clamshell pillow.

Issue 10 of Fat Quarterly will be released at the end of July and is all about the Olympics and pageantry and royalty and England. Specifically the theme is "Rule Britannia." I love the Olympics, and I personally know an Olympic runner [she just qualified for the London games yay! Jenny and I ran cross country together in high school and she's the world champion in the 1500 m!], so I think it's a pretty cool theme. 

I re-made the pillow in jewel tones and the pattern comes with probably more pictures then you will ever need to make the pillow cover. In fact, the pattern comes with 42 pictures. And, after sewing the 54+ curves that make up the clamshell part of the pillow, there's no way you won't be a pro. Don't let those curves scare you though, because I walk you through everything nice and easy!

Also, I love all the free-motion quilting that I did! It was so fun!

So, mark your calendars, because I'm sure this will be a super fun issue, even if my project wasn't in it. But since it is, the issue will be that much better ;)

*Linked with Quilt Story

On being published

Have you ever submitted something for publication? If so, how was the experience?

While I'm a little shy about admitting it here, I just finished submitting 2 ideas to a popular sewing/quilting magazine. I also have something in the works to be included in a project later this summer, but it is not in a printed format. It would be really cool to see my name in print, but I must admit that I don't have too much hope that my ideas will be accepted.

And by the by, sewing lessons are still going. We've logged about 15 hours this week on Amanda's quilt [it's amazing how much slower she sews than I do! Was I ever that slow and careful?]. She was so excited to see her first giant t-shirt Polaroid. I'm not going to lie, I'm glad she took my suggestion to make them Polaroids and not just sew them together as-is.