Peer Pressure

I've been following everyone's preparations for QuiltCon on Instagram. It's getting me  psyched for the show! People are sharing photos of things they're making for the event. Everything from tote bags to dresses to lanyards.

While I did think about making a tote bag (hey, I even went so far as to buy a zipper!), I decided to make a lanyard for myself and my travel and quilting friend Kathy F. She's been keeping me supplied in selvages and since she's so into Kaffe Fassette, I pulled out all of the selvages from his fabric for Kathy's lanyard.

Okay, so now that the fabric selection is taken care of, I have to find a pattern. So I Googled "fabric lanyard" and lo and behold there was a link to a pattern Anne Marie Chaney has posted on her genXquilters site. Looks easy peasy. Picked up the hardware for both lanyards at a big box store for $1.87 and I already have the plastic holder for our QuiltCon IDs so I'm ready to go.

Because I'm using scraps, first step was to sew the strips together to about a length of 45". Since my scraps are narrow, I sewed two long strips together.

 Fold in half and press and then fold in the raw edges and press (Ann Marie has this all explained very nicely on her site) then stitch.

Next I simply folded the raw edge up  and stitched to keep in place. I made my lanyard first and learned that because I pieced my strips, I have extra bulk. I put in a heavy duty needle and I took it slow and I'm happy to say my needle didn't break! Now add the hardware and fold up again and stitch.
 

Voila! A fabric lanyard!

Now I'm officially ready for QuiltCon!

iPad Case

I like to sew and sometimes I like to make something that can be completed pretty fast. You know what I mean; instant gratification!

My husband got me an iPad for Christmas. Shortly after opening the box I knew I wanted to make my own case. I went onto Etsy and found a very cool cover in Katie's Modern Nest shop. Not only was it designed so the iPad could be propped up, but it also had a couple on fun little pockets.

I downloaded the pdf of the pattern and read it over to see if there was anything tricky involved. I'm happy to say there wasn't and I was able to see that the sewing part of it would be pretty darned easy.
 

To tell the truth, what took the longest amount of time was selecting the fabric! Because so little is needed, I was able to use my stash. Yeah! I didn't want to be matchy matchy so I kept pulling out fabrics that coordinated and then finally had such a stack, I had to eliminate some.

I purchased two sets of the inserts that help the case prop up so now I can make another!

Getting Ready for QuiltCon

I'm all about color. It energizes me. Gives me a positive attitude. Scheduled for a tough meeting at work one day? I'll be there in fuchsia or electric blue. Wear black on a Monday? Oh no, not me. No way to start the week. I'll be in something bright and peppy. My mood is influenced by the color around me. I share this psychological babble because I'm excited that color will be in the forefront of the classes with Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr at QuiltCon.

 QuiltCon is right around the corner. And this year I'm excited to be registered in a couple classes. One is with Weeks Ringle, and the other with her husband, Bill Kerr. They do fabulous work and were some of the first "modern quilters".

For Bill's class I need to take small pieces of fabric from my stash. Same for Weeks' class, but the class description mentions along with fabric scraps, we can bring a project. So I figure if I am going to have some one on one time with Weeks, why not have a project.

At the Columbus Modern Quilters meeting last week, one of the women had a quilt she had worked on that was really quite interesting. And even better; she explained how to make it and it's a pretty simple concept. Win win!

So I went to my stash chanting ROYGBIV...you know...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I thought I'd try to put my squares together based on the color wheel.

Here's my Green selection before it was pressed:

Next I trimmed it into a square and then cut corner to corner:

Now just a little switcheroo of a couple of the triangles and Voila! A very cool block:

Here are a few of the squares on my design wall. I threw in the black and white because I just love the feel it gives with the other intense colors, don't you?

Hope the color speaks to you too. Now go to your stash and design something energizing!