Forest Abstractions Bunny + Giveaway Winner

Posted on October 31, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Halloween, everyone!

My little guy is getting excited for trick-or-treating tonight, and I’m excited to get some more sewing time in this weekend. We carved some jack-o-lanterns last night:

Jack-o-Lanterns!

Recently, I had the great pleasure of meeting Violet Craft in person at an open house at a local quilt shop called the Pine Needle. I’ve been eyeing her paper pieced Forest Abstractions pattern for a while so I went ahead and purchased it. I love paper piecing, but haven’t done much of it during the past year. I’m going slow and easy, working in the blocks in between other quilt projects.

I decided to use a variety of low-volume prints for the backgrounds instead of using solids. I picked up a fat quarter stack of lovely fabric from a quilt shop in Spokane called Charming Lulu when I met my sister there for a little shop hop several weekends ago. They carry a wonderful selection of modern fabrics, and I hope to visit next time I’m in Spokane.

I haven’t found a website for Charming Lulu, but they are on Facebook.

Field Guide Fat Quarter Stack

Charming Lulu Quilt Store

For the bunny, I chose some wonderful purple and magenta fabrics that I picked up at a quilt show last year. I’m pretty sure that I’ll use different colors for each critter in the quilt, but we’ll see.

Forest Abstractions Pattern and Fabrics

Here’s a look at my completed bunny block:

Forest Abstractions Bunny

I hope to make another block from this pattern soon.

If you participated in the Black Cat Crossing blog hop, I offered a giveaway on my post here. I used a random number generator and the lucky winner is . . . .

Carole (her blog is From My Carolina Home).

Carole, I will be emailing you today to make the arrangements.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the blog hop. I do hope that you enjoyed all the wonderful Halloween creations.

Stay tuned because I’m participating in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Blog Tour in November. I have a block published in the next issue, and I can’t wait to show it to you!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Black Cat Crossing Blog Hop + Giveaway

Posted on October 21, 2014 by thequiltedcat

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Greeeeeetings, my dears! Today is my day to share with you the creations that I stitched up in my cauldron for the Black Cat Crossing blog hop. Many thanks go to Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt for encouraging people of all skill levels to brew up something to share with us. I also want to thank our fabulous cheerleader, Wendy of Why Knot Kwilt, for organizing this blog hop!

I picked up some of the Black Cat Crossing fabric by Maywood Studios at a local quilt shop that recently opened in town. I love supporting my local shops!

For my first project, I decided to do a wool felt project with just an accent of cotton fabric. One can never have too many pin cushions, right? Sew off I went to stitch up a little witch hat to keep me company in my sewing room. The hat band uses a strip of fabric from Black Cat Crossing. I used black Aurifil thread for the piecing and midnight glitter hologram thread by Superior to add some sparkle to the brim. The finished pin cushion is about 4.5 inches tall.

This pin cushion is designed by Jennifer Clemen of Cottonwood Creations.

My stitching assistants ensured the quality of this little pin cushion:

Tiger likes the witch hat

Cow is planning his revenge

Now that I had a pin cushion ready to go, I stoked up my cauldron and set to brewing up a special creation using only Black Cat Crossing fabric!

For this project, I stretched my skill levels by creating a mini quilt and by practicing some heavy free motion quilting. I used an Aurifil cream thread for all the piecing and quilting. The pattern is Mini Swoon by Thimble Blossoms.

I modified the pattern slightly so that I could add the Black Cat Crossing border fabric in between the swoon blocks. I’m calling my finished mini quilt, “Black Cat Swoon!”

For the backing, I used left over pieces plus my label:

I just love how this mini quilt looks, and I can easily display it in various locations around the house during the fall season.

For more inspiration, please visit my fellow Black Cat Crossing participants today:
Creatin’ in the Sticks
Living With Purpose
Moose Stash Quilting
The Quilted Cat (you are here)
Lines, Colors, and Art

For my giveaway, I’m offering up 2 fat quarters from Black Cat Crossing. Just leave me a comment on this post for an entry. You get a bonus entry if you tell me how you follow my blog, and I’ll draw a random winner from all comments on Halloween, October 31st. I’m willing to ship internationally. Sometimes WordPress and Blogger do not communicate well together so make sure that I have a way to contact you!

Black Cat Crossing Giveaway

I hope you enjoyed my Black Cat Crossing projects, and that they inspire you to make something beautiful!

Happy quilting,
~Jennifer

New Quilt Shop in Oregon

Posted on September 3, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Recently, my son and I visited a local pet store to pick up some supplies. While parking the car, I saw the word “sew” out of the corner of my eye! Wait, what?

With 9-year-old in tow, I walked down the sidewalk and found that a new quilt shop has opened in Oregon, specifically in Wilsonville. The store is called Sewn Loverly and has its grand opening this Saturday, September 6th starting at 10:00 a.m. This store is owned and operated by a mother/daughter duo, and I’ve already stopped in 3 or 4 times. They know me now, ha, ha!

Here’s the store front:

Sewn Loverly

I picked up some fun Halloween fabrics to use in a blog hop that I’m participating in this October. I’ve got a cute project in mind, but can’t reveal it quite yet. I posted this photo earlier to Instagram: