Happy December! It's time for November's monthly report. See past reports here.

Side note: I'm going to set realistic expectations for myself this month and go ahead and say this may be the only post you see from me until next year. I have a cool gifty post idea, but I'm just not sure if it will happen, so no promises. Moving around the holidays is no joke!


It's an abbreviated report this month, because we are moving this coming weekend! We're actually much further along in the packing than the first photo in this post shows. The apartment is pretty much in disarray, but we're in the home stretch.

As you might guess, I have a lot of quilts to move. I went back and forth about how to pack them, and ended up landing on these ziploc space bags. I'm really happy with how they worked out and there are 30 quilts in that photo above!!


While we were home at the beginning of November, I found another vintage sheet in the packaging. I've found a few this year! Bonus, I've actually never seen/had this stripe before.


To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I'm tracking my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track my here. Here is how I did in November:

November Fabric
Used up: 118.75 yards
Brought in: 2 yards
Net: -116.75 yards
Year to date: -295 yards

November Yarn
Used up: 2336 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: -2336 yards
Year to date: -6067.5 yards

This is officially the lowest intake for fabric I've had since starting this challenge almost two years ago! Full-blown moving mode has made me really cut back on bring things home. The only fabric I bought this month was to use up a reward at a local shop here in Madison. I let a lot of fabric go in my destash sale (thank you, thank you!), and I destashed a bunch of yarn this month too. I am feeling good about my numbers this month, especially since I haven't been able to work towards my other goals.

Only a tiny bit of sewing happened this month and unfortunately I can't share any of it yet. There was some Christmas gift sewing and some work sewing for an upcoming issue of Quilts and More. I'm really behind on sharing those projects, hopefully I can get caught up in the new year.


George bunny definitely knows something weird is going on, but he has been doing great. We moved his play area into our bedroom so that we can stack up box in the main living space. Don't tell him that he has a few long car rides coming his way!

Have a great month!

Finished: Modern House Quilt

Happy Wednesday! I have a finished project to share, which feels so good! There hasn't been much sewing going on over here the last month or so, so I'm excited to have something new to share.


This Fall I set about making a quilt for my sweet friend Jacey. She is my crafty partner in crime, and I decided I needed to make her a quilt. She has great taste in color/fabric, so pulling a selection for her was really fun. I loved pulling prints that I knew she'd given me, we bought together, or that I knew she liked. I made sure there were plenty of animal/kitty prints in there too.


For the design, I used my modern house quilt tutorial that I shared in late August.


This quilt came together pretty quickly, the hardest part was trying to figure out how to lay out the blocks. I played around with a random arrangement and then a few other gradient arrangements before landing on this one. It finishes at 56"x70".


For the quilting, I did diagonal lines through each block. Sweet and simple.


The minimal quilting makes it nice and snuggly, my favorite!


For the backing, I used a print from Tule by Leah Duncan that I had in my stash. She's one of Jacey's favorite fabric designers, and it happened to match perfectly!


A few months before making this quilt, Jacey sent me some garment fabric leftovers from a few tops she'd made. One was this stripey lawn, which worked great for the binding! I was struggling to find something that worked with the front and back, but wasn't too loud. This stripe fit the bill and I love the difference in texture compared to the rest of the quilt.

Info on my custom woven labels here.


Over the years I've gotten a lot better about gifting quilts, I used to hoard them all! I still have a considerable stash (pattern/book samples are partially to blame), but I'm learning to let go of more. I find it is easier and more enjoyable to make a quilt specifically for a person. I love being able to tailor it to their tastes and add in special prints for that person.

Pattern: Modern House Quilt Tutorial
Fabrics: Stash

Happy Quilting!

Black Friday Pattern Sale

I promise this is the last bit of shop news for the rest of the year! It's time for my annual Black Friday Pattern Sale! This year, I'm making things easier for you and me by skipping the coupon code, all patterns are already marked down 25%! Sale will run from today (11/24/17) through Monday (11/27/17).

Shop the sale here.

Happy Sewing!

Teaching at Glamp Stitchalot Retreat 2018

Happy Wednesday! I'm happy to share today that I'll be teaching at next year's Glamp Stitchalot Sewing Retreat, hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics. Mark your calendars!


If you're not familiar with Glamp Stitchlot retreats, let me give you the run down! It's a weekend sewing retreat in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The weekend is packed with classes, sewing time with your friends, and social events.

Back in 2015, I taught at the first Glamp Stitchalot event! It was a lot of fun, and students worked on a medallion style collaborative quilt, with a different row/center taught by each instructor.

The 2018 Glamp Stitchalot Retreat is November 8-10 at the Sheraton hotel in Ann Arbor. There will be three hour classes from four teachers (Kerry Goulder, Felice Regina, myself, and one more to be announced). There will be lots of open sew time to work on projects, and giveaways too! Plus, Thursday dinner, three meals on both Friday and Saturday are included in your ticket. I'd recommend coming in early on Thursday to make a shopping trip to Pink Castle Fabrics HQ!

My class will focus on transforming a quilt design with color and fabric. We'll discuss how color selection and fabric placement can completely change a pattern, and put those skills into practice working on a big block you could turn into a pillow or mini quilt. We'll squeeze in a crash course on color theory for quilts too. 

I find these kinds of events really help to recharge my creative batteries. Especially since we interact with other stitchers on the internet a lot, it is exhilarating to be in a room full of fellow stitchers! And an opportunity to make new friends too.

Hope to see you there! There are payment plans available for 3, 6, and 10 months to make your budgeting easier. Buy tickets and find details about the event here.

Happy Sewing!