Happy Zombie

I’m so digging my new Mexican Loteria stitchery from Sublime Stitching!

And I’m especially diggin’ the “all you need” drawings of the hoop, needles, scissors, floss and “something to stitch”. I think I’ll embroider those, too! Love, love, love!

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May The 4th Be With You, originally uploaded by Happy Zombie.

Auditions for colors happening right now.  Madly adorable pattern by Mollie Johanson at wildolive.blogspot.com

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While I’m on the subject of the Olympics - also revisited is my Happy Sochi Yum Yum blog post from May 2011 (Wow, really… 2011?! That seems like a lifetime ago.)

In 2011 we first got a glimpse of the patchwork we’d be seeing in Sochi. I loved the previews and even more I love how the patchwork has become so prevalent at the Sochi Olympics. Wow. Just wow. Olympics + Sochi patchwork is pinging my two loves. I hope there’s some fabric company in talks right now with Bosco/Sochi Olympic Committee to license the patchwork design into fabric. I need to say that again… I HOPE THERE’S SOME FABRIC COMPANY IN TALKS RIGHT NOW WITH BOSCO/SOCHI OLYMPIC COMMITTEE TO LICENSE THE PATCHWORK DESIGN INTO FABRIC.

IMAGE SOURCE: Roustem Adagamov

My family and I are huge fans of the Olympics.  HUGE fans.  Especially the Winter Olympics.   The Olympics transcend sports and competition, but through sports the world comes together.  In peace.  In awesomeness.  Global conflicts are set aside (for the most part), and people represent countries - not the politicians, or monarchies, or leaders, or dictators, or rebels, or evil doers… but people like you and me — our kids, our siblings, our parents, and our friends.  Global happy.  I get really irritated with the Internets dogging the Olympics (I’m talking to you AV Club), and I feel bad when the magnitude of the Olympics is just. not. got. Go, happy, go!

When the last Winter O’s were in Vancouver, BC, we drove up there just to be there. No events. Just to be there. My blog post about our trip Vancouver is here.   I heart Canada people. Go, Canada, Go!

One of my favorite things about the Vancouver Olympics was the Norwegian Curling team’s uniforms. Pretty much my MOST FAVORITE THING EVER, Olympics or not. And the Norwegians are at it again (and some other teams, too). My head exploded and little bubbles of joy floated out of my skull’s cracks when I eyed this on google images today:

I got all nostalgic thinking about Vancouver, and I how I want to celebrate with fabric, needle and thread again. So for now, I’m revisiting my Norwegian Curling Pants Market Bag project. I heart curling people. Go, curling, go!

In other Olympic awesomeness, this story made my heart swell - and I bet even the anti-olympicite Internets would experience some heart swelling from this, too.

RESOURCES:
– My trip to Vancouver, BC
– Make my Norwegian Curling Pants Market Bag

My dog is a kitty bed - my cat is a doggie pillow.

A few months ago our younger Golden, Madison, passed. Both Liberty (our older Golden) and York (our cat who thinks he’s a dog) were inseparable and snugly with Madison. I think they’ve been sad and missing Madison, especially Libby. And then today Libby and York “discovered” each other (previous pic), and tonight they sealed the buddy deal.

This makes me so incredibly happy and comforted, and it’s such a beautiful thing to witness that I just had to share.  I’m convinced pets are just really, really hairy miniature people.

Wow. I was at my friend Katy’s blog today and I noticed a button on the top right, and thankfully I clicked on it. And then I had THE MOST happy surprise ever… Katy is doing her own video series! If there was EVER a person who should be behind the camera and teaching, it’s Katy. Seriously, I don’t know why Katy doesn’t have her own show on BBC (you hear that, Great British Sewing Bee?!), or HGTV, or her own show on Bravo (you hear that Andy Cohen?!).

Prepare to be enchanted.

Seriously, Katy is amazing behind the camera.  Just as she’s amazing when there’s no camera.  I love Katy’s message and thoughts on quilting, and to top it off she’s crazy super nice and adorable.   I super-love-crush on Katy.  That is all.

I’m so excitied that today is my day for the Quilty Fun Sew Along book tour!

PHOTO CREDIT: Fat Quarter Shop

First off, Quilty Fun is no ordinary book, and written by my dear friend Lori Holt. That would we THE Lori Holt, Queen of All Things Cute. Not only is everything one can make in Lori’s book cute, and oh so yummy - but so are the peeks inside Lori’s adorable home. Lori’s style is a fresh, happy twist on vintage.  Lori’s style is evident in her patterns (and gorgeous fabric collections), and is in a style that sings to my quilting core… where traditional meets modern, yesterday hugging today. Quilty Fun is a seriously yummy book.

Here’s what Lori’s finished sew along sampler quilt looks like. It’s also a peek inside Lori’s book.

PHOTO CREDIT: Fat Quarter Shop, QUILT CREDIT: Quilty Fun Sampler by Lori Holt

Want to jump in on the sew along? You can follow along at any time, but if you play along this week with me and make the Honeycomb units you’ll get to enter the Fat Quarter Shop’s giveaway of two boxes of Clover Wonder Clips and a packet of Alphabitties.  One can never to be too rich, too thin or have too many Clover Clips. Seriously. The winner will be chosen from the pool of submissions on the Flickr group and will be announced on Fat Quarter Shop’s Jolly Jabber blog on Monday, 3 Jan, 2014.

TO ENTER:
1. Buy the Quilty Fun book
2. Get the Honeycomb companion pdf
3. Make the Honeycomb units (pg. 108 in book) and photograph it.
4. Enter your Honeycomb photo at the flickr group (which is how you enter)

(note: the book is required in order for the companion cutting instructions to be usable)

TO MAKE SAMPLER:
1. Buy the Quilty Fun book
2. Get all the companion PDF’s

Here’s my Honeycomb (snowballs) that I made with Violet Craft’s Madrona Road and Robert Kaufman’s Essex Yarn dyed in Steel.

The way I make my snowballs is I sew on all my background corner pieces to the snowball fabric. I flip it over and then square-up by trimming off the excess (Steel) background fabric using the (yellow) snowball fabric as my guide. How my corners get so off kilter is beyond me, so squaring-up is a must for me. A serious, serious must.

I then press the background fabric’s corners to the back.



Next I trim the excess off of the back and corner backs of the block, leaving a ¼” seam. Pressing before cutting is a trick I learned from watching Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting on PBS. Super slick and my seam is perfectly flat every time. A crisp, shiny, happy seam.

And bam, the messy truth-pic.

RESOURCES:
– Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet
– Tour info, companion PDFs, and Bloggers
– Buy the book:  Quilty Fun by Lori Holt
– Get the Honeycombs companion sheet (pdf)
– Enter to win + join the flickr group

I love fabric auditions. Next best thing to fabric shopping and maybe just as fun.

Camille & Bonnie and PamKittyMorning have made it through to the finale. Third and final golden ticket goes to Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed Steel.  As for Kona White and Essex Flax - it was an agonizing decision, and were both amazing background artists… but were not picked this time. I have no doubt Kona White and Essex Flax will make it through on the next audition.

I’m so excited to be a part of Lu Summers blog hop for her fantastic new book, Quilt Improv! Lu knocked this out of the park (but then she does that with everything)!

Wow, Lu’s book is breathtaking. Not only are the projects enticing and interesting, the entire look and feel of the book is freshly gorgeous. It is so worth a trip through the entire Quilt Improv Blog Hop to see all the assorted photos sprinkled on peoples posts. Seriously, clicking here is like a passport to beautiful quilts and the English countryside. And not just any people, Stitch Craft Create UK assembled some pretty crazy talented people for this hop, so totally worth a look just for that. I’m so honored to be amongst them!

I’m a picture-reader more than I am a word-reader, and Quilt Improv is a yummy feast for my eyes.  Part of what makes me love Quilt Improv (besides who its author is!), is that even a picture-reader like me can get SO MUCH out of this book. My guess is that word-readers will get a lot out of Quilt Improv, too.

I’m so loving improv quilting/quilts, but I’m that quilter that likes pieces cut in precise dimensions and joined precisely by a ¼” to another precisely measured piece to achieve a perfectly inch’d unit. Improv quilting scares me a little because there are a lot of what-ifs involved. With Lu’s help and gorgeous illustrations I can grasp letting go of precisely measured pieces and units, and enjoy being free of the piece-anxiety. My bag of scraps has new purpose and meaning!

It didn’t take me long (or any anxiety) to gather like length’d pieces and join them into rows. Before I knew it, I have a handful of rows made. I’m kinda shocked still how fast this went. So it turns outs that eyeballing is hella faster then measuring. I feel a little bit liberated from that ball n chain known as math. Well, for today any how. Tomorrow I might be back on the 2½” x 4½”, 3⅞”, 5¼” juice.

I haven’t decided if I want to turn this little quilt top into a pillow or make a small wall quilt. Probably a small quilt because I’m a little giddy about having a binding opportunity.

But for today my little quilt top serves as a reminder that I need to take my Christmas lights and dec down first. And by first I mean March 1st.

RESOURCES:
– Lu Summers
– Quilt Improv for UK buyers
– Quilt Improv for international buyers via Amazon
– Quilt Improv Blog Hop
– Stitch Craft Create UK

GIVEAWAY:
F & W Media is generously giving away a hard copy of Lu’s book to one lucky reader of my blog.  Just leave a comment here on this post and I’ll have random.org draw a winner on Tuesday, Jan 21, 2014 noon ish PST. Giveaway is open to UK, US, everywhere and the moon.

Want a comment question to answer? If you could be in any country to receive the winning copy of Quilt Improv - what country would that be?

Edited in: The giveaway has now ended, and using random.org for comments 1-171, the winner is #95 by Jennifer from Purrfect Stitches. Congratulations, Jennifer!!

The Walking Foot…

The Walking Dead…

Photo credit: Andrew Kolb of kolbisneat.com, used with permission

The Walking Quilted…

The Walking Quilted flickr group…

I can NOT wait for Sunday night’s Season 4 Premiere of the The Walking Dead. Up top, Sheriff Rick.

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