January 25, 2010

Birthday Beers!


Happy Birthday Anne Marie!!!

My friend celebrated a birthday recently.  In the fall she went on an incredible trip to Ireland so I wanted to make a cake reminiscent of that.  So in an instant I knew I had to make beer mugs.  I mean what is more Irish than beer, right?


Here she is ready to cheers with her friend.

I added a little Irish detail on the "foam"


 Cheers to another year!

Take care mucho,
-Natalie

January 18, 2010

DC Modern is on Ning!


So I have had a good amount of people interested in getting together to start up our own modern quilt guild here in DC. As I posted last time, I am taking a lot of my direction from the original Modern Quilt Guild out in LA. If you are still interested in joining in on the fun go to our Ning network page, dcmodern.ning.com and sign up for the group. This is where I will be posting the most up to date info. Can't wait to meet everyone!

1st Meeting this Saturday 1.23 at Ebenezer's Coffeehouse! YAY!

Hope to see you soon!

take care mucho,
-Natalie

January 12, 2010

FQ Packs & Sharing


I know I talk about my love of my fat quarter packs all the time here, but I have decided to share in my fun!

My goal is to share a completed quilt made from one of these packs every other month. I will be posting it like a Quilt Along so if you are interested in following along please check back the first week of February. I will be using the pack pictured above.
I am going to start off with a bit of a simple pattern and progressively increase in skill and difficulty. I hope you enjoy it and learn something new.

I hope you join!
take care mucho,
-Natalie


Oh and if anyone knows how to create buttons for blogs I would really appreciate some help on that. Thanks :)

January 9, 2010

Wanna join DC Modern?


Alissa, form Handmade by Alissa, has really got me inspired to get a quilt group going here in DC. She has started a Modern Quilt Guild out in LA and I wanted to see if I could possibly get one start here at home.

If you happen to live in the DC area and want meet local modern quilters please send me an e-mail at schoolofcrafts@gmail.com. I have heard from a few people so far and I am slowly getting the ball rolling.

I would love to meet live people and not just through the internet :)

Oh and so far the only interesting name I could come up with is DC Modern... any other suggestions?

Take care mucho,
-Natalie

January 7, 2010

Are you in the DC area?


If you happen to be in the DC area and happen to have any young kids who are interested in learning how to knit I am teaching a fun little class in Alexandria, Knit Kids. It is through Alexandria's Park and Recreation programs. I know the likelihood of someone signing up becuase of this post is slim, though I thought I would give it a go.

EDIT: I forgot to put a link for registration... click here :)
*It was brought to my attention that the link wasn't working. I think I have found the glitch and fixed it.*

January 6, 2010

On a roll...



So I have been super productive it seams... I think it helped that I had two weeks off from work. I whipped up this next project out of pure necessity. The best part is that it didn't even cost me a penny because I had everything laying around. I used up selvages from a quilt I have actually finished piecing (will show pics soon) to create a checkbook cover. I used timex (great stuff!) to stiffen it up a bit because I hate not having a hard surface to write on. It was super simple to make and totally recommend for people to do because I did it in 1.5 hours, start to finish!

this is what the outside looks like all opend up.

Hope you are starting yout 2010 on the right foot.
Take care mucho,
-Natalie

January 4, 2010

The 1st of 2010

The first quilt of the year goes to my friend....


I know this isn't the best of pictures, but it is absolutely freezing here. Which means no taking pictures outside for the moment. This quilt turned out SO great. It is almost hard for me to give it away. It turned out way better than I ever envisioned it.

I had a 12 pack of coordinating fat quarters laying around so I put them too good use. It is all just 6 inch squares and soft minki fabric on the back !(that is the bonus on this one). Since I used the minki fabric I didn't want to to do regular quilting so I hand tied it at the intersecting points with coordinating dmc floss. I don't think I saved a whole lot of time doing it that way, but it was easy to do in front of the tv so the time flew by. I hope my friend gives it lots of TLC!

take care mucho,
Natalie

January 3, 2010

Bee Inspired Update...

As many of you know I have participated in a fun quilting bee called Bee Inspired. Stacey was assigned to November. She has asked us to make a fun scrappy Christmas themed block that she designed herself. I hope she like it!


December was our "by" month since there was so many things going on with the holidays and January is my month!!! I am SO excited and have been thinking and slightly stressing over what to ask everyone to do. I have come up with a small idea I will post about real soon. I want to make an example block for everyone to understand what I am asking to do. But in the mean time you can take a look at all the packages waiting to be sent off. I will be stopping by the post office tomorrow.
I am really excited to see what everyone will create.

Hope everyone has had a wonderful start to 2010!

Take care mucho!
-Natalie