A Review of Quilts from the House of Tula Pink

I have been waiting for this book for so freaking long. Wait can I say I am a big time member of Tula's Troops. And it was worth the wait!

The photography in this book and the over all styling is just gorgeous! You can tell how much work went into every photo and the colors are so bright, cheery, and homey.

Sprinkled throughout the book were these fabulous little "Tula says..." boxes full of great little tips, anecdotes, and inspirations!

The illustrations and directions were hand drawn and so sweet.

One of my favorite non-quilting projects is this awesome lampshade embroidery decoration. Its so cute! And I already have the perfect lamp from Ikea to try it on!

The absolute BEST part of the book though was the story behind the quilting of each quilt. Tula explains why she wanted certain motifs and designs, and that the quilting adds another dimension to the quilt as a whole. Its not just about the design or the fabric or the piecing. It's about everything all together, and the quilting plays a big part in that.

All in all this book is an awesome addition to my sewing library. True I am a bit biased as I love her fabrics, but still this is a valuable tool for those looking to learn to quilt and those more experienced sewers who need a little bit of inspiration in their lives!  GET IT!

Do you see what I see?

Yeah....

Houston we have a problem.

or...

This is what happens when you mix hand sewing and a good white wine.

or...

OOPS. Now where is my seam ripper.

Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth

Yes. That one.

I was lucky enough to spend all of last week in beautiful Orlando, Florida and Walt Disney World.



But don't worry I am not going to completely overwhelm you with photos. Just going to share a few of my favorite Hipstamatic shots. (And download the Hipstamatic app - you'll love it. I promise.)

There where parades.





There were shows.



There were rides.



There were animals.







There was fun.





And I realized that even though I am now 2,000 miles away from my family and friends in Texas we can still always meet up somewhere amazing in between us. It's a small world afterall.



Until next time my lovely readers when I share with you a new favorite artist and a review of Miss Tula's new book - Goodbye!



And heres a bit of magic to send you on your way :)

Time Consuming Much?

Hexies are awesome.   They are addictive, easy, and fun!  Plus you can make them anywhere!  At home, in front of the tv, or in the car while moving yourself across the country!



I have been working on these hexies made from Tula Pink's Parisville line for a while now, picking them up when I have time, and have made quite a bit of progress!



I do have a plan a design a vague idea of something or other in my head for a baby blanket made from these hexies. Until then I just love love taking them out and staring at the pile.



I made these hexies from two charm square packs and 2.5" inch hexagons.  The best part was that the charms were sometimes cut so perfectly as to look fussy cut!







Now I have been making hexagons for quite a bit now, and thanks to Fat Quarterly Issue 8 and its coupon inside for PaperPieces.com I decided to branch out and try a bunch of new sizes!  So hopefully soon you will be seeing triangles, squares, and diamonds in this gorgeous line too!

If you want some inspiration for paper piecing I highly suggest you check out this flickr group!

The New Kid

Yesterday I got to be one of the new kids at the Boston Modern Quild Guild's meeting.  Thankfully it was a great turnout and I was only like 1 of 5 new kids!  Gotta love company! Everyone was extremely sweet, kind, and welcoming, and I really enjoyed myself.  They did show and tell, talked about an upcoming retreat (which sadly I am too late to sign up for), and an upcoming quilt show they are participating in this fall!

After the meeting the amazing ladies behind Sew Fresh Fabrics invited us to their "store" to do a little bit of shopping!  Normally they are not open to the public, and only sell through their etsy shop, but they were awesome enough to the members of the BMQG to come over to their space, paw their bolts, drool on their fat quarters, and make a significant dent in their inventory!  And please note, I have NOT been asked to blog about the shop, I simply feel that when I receive excellent customer service I should share it.  So if you have never shopped with Sew Fresh Fabrics before I highly recommend them. 

Also, Amy from During Quiet Time took some great pictures of their space and stock! So be sure to check out her post! 

They have a fantastic selection of Japanese fabrics, including this gorgeous alphabet panel that I snatched up immediately.  

 Any idea what I am going to do with it?  Of course not - but how could I resist it?! The colors are bright, the texts sweet, and the pictures adorable. 

These are just a few of my favorite panels on this adorable piece!  And the great part is that 1 panel is 2 complete sets of these tiles!

They also have sooooo many modern lines - I was damn near drooling on the bolts.  So many of these lines I hadn't gotten to see in person yet, including Lotta Jansdotter's Echo line.  I have seen swatch pictures, quilts, handbags, skirts, and tons of other things made from these prints, but was never all that attracted to the line.

But seeing it there in front of me - all those bolts in these deep jewel tones with pops of pink and aqua was just too much for my poor wallet to resist.  Suddently I LOVED THIS LINE!

And then I found a fat quarter bundle pre-cut and just waiting for me to take it home, love it, pet it, and transform it into a cuddly, super warm, blanket!

Plus to make this even more irresistable Sew Fresh Fabrics makes Kona Cotton solid bundles to match the line!  This way I don't have to wait till I get home, pull out my color card, and try to match up solids myself!  The work is already done for me!

I got both the warm and cool colorways....of course.  They match the prints gorgeously!  Colors include Aqua, Sage, Ash, Candy Green, Glacier, Nightfall, Snow, Ochre, Curry, Amber, Sable, and Coffee.

Plus they label all their konas, which I LOVE.  Seriously, I have so many konas and 95% of them are not labeled despite my best efforts and I no longer have any idea what they are.  

Ahhh, so lovely!  I cannot wait to cut into these beauties!  Of course I need to finish the quilt currently attached to my machine....hmmm....details.

Also I can't do much new sewing before I leave on vacation this week!  When I get back get ready for several pictures from one of the happiest places on Earth!  

Until then my lovelies!

365:January

Well I have been keeping up with this project pretty well which frankly suprises the hell out of me! 

Seriously I thought I would have quit this about 2 weeks in but it has been proving an excellent way to document my move and my crazy new life.  Although I wish I was better about always using hipstamatic and not just my regular camera. 

Anyways, without further ado,,,my life for the last month!

 

1. 365:1, 2. 365:2, 3. 365:3, 4. 365:4, 5. 365:5 i love vintage mailboxes. Sometimes i think i was born in the wrong decade., 6. 365:6 packing my life away to move on sunday!, 7. Not available, 8. 365:8 Cleo was soooo good on the trip up to Massachusetts., 9. 365:9, 10. 365:10 welcome to the snowy north! The land of the snow shovel!, 11. 365:11 a good fortune for my new life!, 12. 365:12 there ws a whole window full of Harry Potter stuff at a store in Salem!, 13. 365:13 My new apartment has lights up in the living room! They are so pretty!, 14. 365:14 quincy market in Boston!, 15. 354:15 watched my favorite movie Pride and Prejudice with a fantastic friend!, 16. 365:17 My favorite thread!, 17. 365:18 My Baby :), 18. 365:19 A clover necklace which is so appropriate for living in Boston!, 19. 365:20 Snow in my Neighborhood, 20. 365:21 Where is my car??, 21. 365:22 Cleo sitting in the window, 22. 365:23 i <3 my kindle, 23. 365:24 the cozy i won from last years sew mama sew giveway!, 24. 365:25 yet ANOTHER new coat!, 25. 365:26 I'm all offical!, 26. 365:27 I love Boston architecture - but all i can think is "dude, wheres my house??", 27. 365:28 My favorite piece at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 28. 365:29 The courtyard at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum., 29. 365:30 A church thats down the street from the museum., 30.

Why can't I make this the correct size?!?! ARGH!  I make it large its only this big, I make it extra lange and it takes up almost the whole screen! Super annoying.  

Oh well, such is life!

Enjoy this glimpse into my current insanity!

I'm not dead, but I am a Popsicle.

HELLO PEEPS FROM THE (currently no so) SNOWY NORTH!!



This is my first post from my new home in Massachusetts! The last 4 weeks have been exilerating, stressful, fun, intense, tiring, thrilling, and like 27 other emotions founds on the farthest reaches of a spectrum.

I have changed my entire life by picking up and moving 2,000 miles away to a place where I had never been, to a place where I didn't know anyone, to a place that is drastically different from where I have always lived.  So sorry about things being a bit quiet around here while I have been getting settled and attempting to adjust.

Oh and I want to apologize for those of you that just read the blog for crafty things because while I have pulled out all my sewing stuff and set most of it up its not done and I haven't sewn a stitch on my machine! Although I am making some good progress on hexie paper piecing. Oh and all these photos have been taken on my iphone since my SLR is still in Texas and my point and shoot camera is still packed away somewhere that I have yet to find.

I am lucky enough to have one friend up here but she lives about 40 minutes from me so I wont get to see her to often. But my first weekend here she took me shopping to get all my winter gear and took me up to Lake Winnipasauke so that I could see snow for the first time!









We stayed at her parent's cabin right off the lake. It backed up the woods and was surrounded by other cute homes. It was gorgeous and peaceful and I totally got at that moment why people would live in all that snow!











I loved getting to see snow and I had so much freaking fun playing around in it! Then the very next weekend it snowed where I am living! It snowed from about 9am to 5pm and I enjoyed every second of it. My house and the surrounding houses looked so adorable and lovely covered in that snow but my car had no idea what the hell was happening! LOL! Oh and here the mail stops for no one or nothing! I was amazed.







Cleo was a bit freaked by the snow too! She sat in the window almost all day, her little head constantly moving, very jerky, as her eyes shifted from one falling snow flake to another. In her fascination she was would get to close to window pane, touch her nose, realize how FREEZING it was, freak out, jump off her window perch, and run about 10 feet away from the window. Then within about 5 minutes she was back at the window watching the flakes!



I also took a quick little video from one of my windows of the snow falling! So peaceful and pretty!



So y'all I hope that has given y'all a bit of insight into my crazy, fun new world! I will have of my recent adventures to share with you all soon!

I just want to thank all of you for being patient with my silence (and now craft related scilence) as I have adjusted to my new surroundings. But my first project up is finishing quilting a quilt I was working on before I left Houston, and am trying to have it done by Valentine's Day so there is that to look forward to!

Heart y'all!
Bry