Happy Zombie

A funny thing happened on my way to Portland Modern Quilt Guild at PNCA last summer - I met THE most amazing, talented, friendly, fun and enthusiastic women ever.  One of those incredible PMQG women happens to be Cherri - and this last Saturday Cherri held an open house to celebrate her new studio with all her friends and PMQG members.   The night before, I was excited like a kid who couldn’t sleep in anticipation for the big field trip the next day, and I almost put a dress out… and shiny shoes… and stockings… and then I remembered I hadn’t shaved my legs.  Hello blue-jeans.

Cherri’s studio space is in the old Columbia Sportswear building in the Cathedral Hill area of the St. Johns neighborhood in Portland.

My first time to St. Johns - what a darling/artsy/quirky neighborhood.  I fell in love.  It was my first time across the St. Johns Bridge too (I’ve traveled under it, just never on it).  As we enter the building, we can’t help but be in awe of the views, light, beams and space. Retreat fantasies begin.

A peek of what’s inside the Sew On studio.

Something Crafty inside peeking at us.

Violet and her girls (one of which belongs to the pink boots, both of which belong to the peek’sters above).

Mingle, mingle.

If you spotted Kristin (in the tan coat) - she’s one of the a winners of the Project Modern Challenge 1!!

Ice cold milk.

Cookies cookies, cookies!

Traci demos the party favors - adorable little color pencils.

One of Cherri’s WIPs.  GENIUS use of fabrics.

Beautiful finished quilt.  Stunning.

WIP Wall.  These blocks make me want to dance they’re so beautiful.  Cherri has an eye for color and makes each piece sing to my eyes. Eye music.

Sew On Royal Security Force

I love when art happens… the coats, the quilts… all the colors go so beautifuly together.  Planned?  Spontaneous?  Or maybe it just happened because someone put a bird on it.

A gorgeous quilted and embroidered prezzie for Cherri made by Jen.

Another prezzie for Cherri - Marcia made the cutest little bag (a mod’d mini version of Alicia Paulson’s Jane Market Bag - with birds on it and goodies inside, and it even matched what Marcia was wearing. Art happens yet again. Birds.

IRL tutorial… Jen shows us nifty tricks on putting in a zipper and making a clutch bag - which she gave to Tamara (after Jen finished it in only a handful of minutes).  I worked hard at trying to convince Jen she needed to re-do the demo - about 8 more times.

Traci tutes her daughter - Social Media 101.

Cherri lets us all have a turn trying out her new Handiquilter long arm machine.  Rachel so kindly gave everyone a quick lesson and lots of supportive guidance (thank you, Rachel!).   Joan, Jill and Traci take a whirl.  It’s so much fun, and dang it… now I want one, too.

In the queue to be quilted.

Cherri’s inspiration board - it’s a like 3D version of Pinterest.  I’d like to repin some of that FMF right onto my board.

Cherri tells us what’s the haps are on her inspiration wall - hopefully we’ve convinced her to do a tute on her blog to make that cool knot block. Cherri has a gift - she’s got insights and ideas and she knows how to convey them and share them. Cherri could find a way to make the phonebook into a work of art - and she’d be able to teach you how to do it, too. Even without a bird. I’ve learned some of the neatest things from Cherri - from how I look at things to how I do things. And she’s a kick in the pants and a kind soul on top of it. Everyone needs a Cherri in their life - and we’re so lucky she’s in ours!

Joan and Jen have also blogged about our amazing day, and have more to tell + have beautiful photos to see.

And speaking of a funny thing that happened on our way to Portland Modern Quilt Guild at PNCA… we found the Mug Rugs’ birth mother.

L to R: Traci, me, Violet, Joan and Elizabeth.

Edited in: Cherri’s quilt that hangs by her entrance is her version of “Starry Night” - from the Better Homes & Gardens bookazine “Antique Quilts: Classic Favorites & Modern Remakes”.

ME!  No.  Seriously.  I feel like such a winner after reading all those lovely comments in my Moda Bakeshop Progressive Dinner post.  Holy honey bun and them some - thank you!  I especially loved hearing how many people have made my projects.  Me knocking on the inside glass of those people’s monitors… psssssst… hey, it’s me (does your monitor make me look skinny?  I hope so)… so I hear you made one of my projects - OHH EMM GEE, I’m dying to see what you made!!!!  Will you show me?  I’d love to see it (and I bet others will want to too).  I have a pool you can drop your kids off at (I kill me) - I’d love for you to join my  Happy Zombie HQ Flickr Pool and post your pics.

Enough of ramblings! The grand prize winner from Moda giveaway will be announced by the Moda Bakeshop later on in February, so be sure to stay tuned to their blog. My winner big of the Moda fat quarter bundle and a copy of Fresh Fabric Treats giveaway is comment #670 Sarah of Pings & Needles!

Congratulations, Sarah! Great ready for an amazing prezzie from the wonderful peeps at Moda and Stash Books!

I admit I have the Keep Calm fever - and I can’t help myself from making my own after I stumbled upon the keepcalm-o-matic website. I made mine in Photoshop - but not until after I surrendered an hour of my life to the keepcalm-o-matic. I’m sure there’s many a Queen’s unauthorized and unapproved motivational slogan just waiting to be made!

And because I have Portlandia fever… I put a bird on it.

I’m so excited to be participating in the Moda Bakeshop Progressive Dinner celebration… to ring in the new book from Stash Books called Fresh Fabric Treats!  I’m one of the “chefs” in the book - which sounds kinda funny to me since “chef” is what I’d be called if Phoenix froze over. (please don’t remind me that it snowed there this winter)

Almost exactly 2 years ago I wrote a post about this new project called “Moda Bakeshop” I was asked to be a part of… and now almost 2 years to the day I’m writing about the MBS book.  A freaking book!  I would like to think that in 2 years from now I’ll be making a post about the new adventure & theme park called Modaland.  No doubt the Moda genius/superstar/sweetheart Lissa Alexander is right on that!

If this is your first time to my blog, here’s a sampling of my projects at MBS:

I’m not supposed to talk about or show what I’ve made. Top blahblahblah secret yadayadayada. But no one said I couldn’t go all Perez’y on the back cover.

So now about you! Here’s the deal - goodies for you from Stash and Moda. And good goodies. Hot, steamy good-goodies. Fresh from the oven hot, steamy good-goodies - imaginary hand delivered to you by Fabio from Top Chef. All you have to do is enjoy the progressive dinner tour by:

[1] Leave me a comment on this post, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Fresh Fabric Treats AND a Moda FAT QUARTER BUNDLE (it’ll be a surprise what fabric you get - something that’s not even available to the public yet!!).

[2] Visit all the chefs on the progressive dinner tour - and leave each one of them a comment on their tour post and you’ll be entered to win $200 worth of Moda pre-cut fabrics and a copy of Fresh Fabric Treats!  HOLY HONEY BUNS, how cool is that.

Progressive Dinner Tour:
January 19
Stash Books
Moda Bake Shop

January 20
Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts
Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom
Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.

January 21
John Adams of Quilt Dad
Monica Solorio-Snow of Happy Zombie (hey that’s me!)

January 22
Kimberly Walus of Bitty Bits and Pieces
Melissa Mortenson of The Polkadot Chair

January 23
Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
Vickie Eapen of Spun Sugar Quilts

January 24
Rachel Griffith of P.S. I Quilt
Lissa Alexander of Moda Lissa

January 25
Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts
Sweetwater

January 26
Angela Yosten
Jenny Garland

I’ll be drawing a name for the give-away on my blog on January 28th. Good luck and enjoy the tour!

Click on the FQ button and see what the good peeps at Fat Quarterly are doing if you donate to the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal. Every $5 can make a difference.  Check out Toni’s blog and see what needs to be done… and what can be done if we all give a little.  We all can make a difference. Oi. Oi. Oi.

There’s soooo much goodness out there that you can donate via and possibly win something - you’ll find it all on Toni’s blog.  I do want to shout out to my sisterfriends Sarah and Natalie and their donations.  Sarah is donating this quilt to support the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal …

… and Natalie is donating this quilt to support the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal…
These and soooooooooo much more CAN BE YOURS!

A personal appeal to anyone reading this to spend a little. I know times are tough - my own family is a victim of this bad economy.  My husband is on unemployment and we’re dipping into my dwindling savings to just buy groceries. Not to get too personal or too sob story-ish… but I DO KNOW how tough a spare $5 or $10 can be.  I also know what it’s like to live in a disaster and have help come from far and wide.  A little over 3 years ago we had a huge storm (20+ hours of hurricane winds and rain) - we lost part of our roof and dozens of trees; no heat, water and power for a week; no roads because they were under fallen trees; no phone, radio or tv; we were cut off from the world.  My little city was a sea of blue tarp’d roofs and roadways of fallen evergreens.

By no means were we a Katrina or Queensland flooding… but it was a disaster and we needed help.  And we got it.  There is no feeling like it in the world to see people from lands far and away come and give you aid and love. Strangers who’ve left behind their families to come help yours.  Our little Oregon community was flooded with emergency crews and utility crews from all over Oregon as well as California, Montana and Idaho.  Washington was kinda busy with The Storm themselves - and yet we still had crews come from Washington.  Amazing.

The kindness of strangers, no matter how big or small… makes a difference.

No matter how tough times are for me, and no matter how little or big I can give… I always want to be someone’s Mountain Power of Idaho and hope you can too.

I’m sure every quilter has the same kindling and thrill I do - you see a square of fabric and it begs you to transform it into something new.

So I turned 2 squares into 1 hourglass.  A magic hourglass.  One square of a print, one square of background fabric.  Any size square will work as long as two rules of thumb are followed (more on that ahead).  For my potholder (which is headed to Heather’s new red & aqua rockin’ kitchen), I made four magic hourglasses starting with 5″ squares - and each one finishes at almost it’s original size no matter what the size of square you start with.  All seams are ¼”.

1) For each print square and background square - cut in half diagonally.  Red fabric by Patty.

2) Cut each triangle in half long-wise.  Rule of thumb #1:  Find your half measurement.  It does not have to be an exact half, but do use the measurement you’ve chosen consistently on all your blocks of that size.  Aqua fabric by Mo.

3) Trim ⅝” off (and toss) one end of the trapezoid. Rule of thumb #2 - this measurement is etched in stone and is used for every size block.  Charm, Layer Cake… whatever size.

4) Join a background triangle to print trapezoid/print triangle to background trapezoid to make a triangle unit.  Press to the print. Because you’re working with the motherload of bias edges, press gently with steam.

5) Audition triangle units - another option beside a double hourglass is to make a square-in-a-square-ish block (how cool is that!).  Red fabric by Bari, aqua fabric by me.

6) Join triangle units to make magic hourglass block.

7) Trim of dog-ears, join blocks and make something.

And now I will cook something. Hahahahaha - I kill me.

I having a head spinning heart swooning love affair with my new boyfriend, George.

George Pinterest Glass.

Oh yeah, he’s hot. So hot I don’t want to climb out of bed - and just be with him day and night, night and day.

A snapshot of my kool-aid board.  No reason to explain why I can’t get out of bed and out of George Pinterest Glass’ loving arms (right arm: keyboard and left arm: trackpad).

My boards - like pretty little shoe-boxes where I hide away all my dreams, desires and delectables.  Any photo or image I see in Internetlandia - bam, one click to my “pin it” button on my toolbar - and into one of my selected pin boards it goes.  My boyfriend George is that good. And the best part… my friends (old and new) who are also on Pinterest - I get to see into their shoe-boxes AND get to socialize with them.  Gravy.

Pinterest = Lovefest.
Want your own Pinterest boyfriend or girlfriend, too? If you get one - please don’t say I didn’t warn you about Pinterest’s sexy, sexy spell.

Editing in a Q & A. I’m no expert… just passing on what I’ve learned.

Pam allegedly asked:
[Q] Do I need to know someone with an account to get an invite?
[A] No… but if you do know someone - I would offer them some chocolate for an invite. If you don’t know someone, just click on “get one” at the bottom of my post - it’ll take you to a request.

Sherri allegedly asked:
[Q] … can you request to see friends’ boards???
[A] You can see friends’ boards even if you don’t follow them or they don’t follow you. No friendship requests… just following. If you do follow them, their pins will show on your feed - exactly like your twitter feed shows tweets of those you follow. You can also unfollow boards within a user. Example: I follow Person-XYZ, but I’ll unfollow their “jewelry” board so I don’t see all their jewelry pins in my feed.

Pat allegedly asked:
[Q] Okie dokie… so am I supposed to get notified if the people i follow post something new? How about when someone comments on my photo? Or repins?
[A] Yes - you just need to set up your preferences here. I haven’t been getting all of my notifications, but I think Pinterest is working on that.