Paper Piecing 101 Workshop

Posted in Tutorials and Patterns by StaceyinStitches

On September 28 at the Croatian Cultural Center in Vancouver, I have the pleasure of running my first workshop for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Iam teaching Paper Pieceing 101-Stacey Style!

Also referred to as Foundation Piecing, paper piecing is one of my favorite techniques to use when quilting, especially when I want perfectly matched points in teeny tiny spaces. I have half a dozen books on different techniques for paper piecing, and my method is a culmination of all those.

Here are some examples of projects I foundation pieced.

Fossilized Amethyst

Rainbow Star

Cartwheel Mini

The Long Road Home

By the end of the workshop, students should have at least one finished sample block, be able to measure and cut fabric for foundation piecing accurately, and have a basic understanding of how to number a blank foundation. I will also be spilling all my tips and tricks to keeping my thread tension tight, ripping paper, and joining small pieces into big ones.

The sample block is called The Goody Block. It finished 15″ square, so a single block can quickly become a pillow.

Poppin’ Pillow

A pair of blocks will make a small wall hanging.

And a group of Eight will make a dynamic Lap Quilt.

The possibilities are endless! I really hope the class fills up, I think it will be fun. I may even bribe with treats! *wink* The workshop is also open to non-members, so if you find yourself in Vancouver, BC at the end of September, why not take a workshop with yours truly? You can register at the next meeting, or email amy(AT)vancouvermodernquiltguild(DOT)ca.

28Jul2014

Hoffman Challenge 2014

Posted in Finished Quilts by StaceyinStitches

My fingers went a little numb writing this.

Today the Hoffman Challenge released it travel lists and winners. I am over the moon to announce that my entry, Fossilized Gemstones, won 3rd place in the Pieced Category! woo-hoo!!

Fossilized Gemstones

The design was my QDAD design from May 9th, and it fit the challenge fabric perfectly. I fussy cut the printed fabric to get squares of teh background, which looks like fancy spiderweb-flower motif, andthen fussy cut a pair of the butterflies from the print. The finished quilt reminded me of a piece of amber with an insect embedded in it. Thus Fossilized Gemstones was named.

Butterfly centers

The quilting was done once again by the esteemed Joan Nicholson of Maple Leaf Quilters. She got exactly what I wanted! I wanted some ghost blocks on the corners and then lines radiating outwards from the edges, with some complimentary quilting in the gemstones.

Ghost Block

I used a nice tight 2″ double fold bias binding for the finished edge. I played with the idea of a facing, but in the end the binding gave the look I wanted.

I used mostly solids with the challenge fabric. I scoured the internet for that purple. I has a tiny amount in my stash and nothing else would do. It is a discontinued color from Freespirit called Mulberry Wine. Its the right amount of purple and grey with a warm base. I also used some Kona in Snow, Silver, Ash, and Smoke.

You can see the entire line up of award quilts, jewelry, dolls, and accessories here. Its well worth a look, a lot of beautiful items all travelling around the country in 2014. I am looking forward to the next Challenge Newsletter, it is rumored to have a sneak peek at the next challenge fabric!

Happy Stitching!

8Jun2014

Quilt Design A Day- Day 90 and a Free Pattern!!

Posted in Quilt Design A Day, Tutorials and Patterns by StaceyinStitches

Today is the day I achieved the 90 day chip in #QDAD. It is definitely an achievement for me. I can hardly believe I have been able to pull 180 designs out of my head. They aren’t all winners, that for sure, but I do have some that I absolutely love.

Being part of the QDAD group sure has opened up a new world of creative possibilities for me. I am always seeing new and exciting things from the other group members, and we all give each other feedback and advice, or stutter around trying not to say “I love it” a million times even though that’s all you really can say sometimes! I have learned a lot about minimalist designs and using negative space effectively. I am happy to report that none of the floral inspired images from last month looked too Yoni. (Look it up, its hilarious)

Here are a selection of some of my favorites from last month.

May 11 Feathers

May 2-Palm Tree

May 5-Windows

May 7- Seascape

May 27- Succulent Garden

May 20- Storm at Sea

May 24 feathers

This last one is one of my personal favorites. The last week in May and the start of June seemed filled with feathers. We were turning into birds! This particular design was fairly literal, but it looked fantastic. It wsa a group favorite, so I decided to make the feather block a free pattern. The block had to be modified for easier piecing, but here it its! There is a string block included, but it might be fun to do some pearle cotton stitches instead, don’t you think?

Feather Block

Feather String

I Hope you enjoy the pattern, and of course if you have any question feel free to contact me. I would love to see your finished blocks!

Happy Stitching!

Stacey

25May2014

So whats the deal with Ryan Gosling?

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

Now don’t get me wrong, I love me a little Ryan Gosling eye candy. And the meme’s are just hilarious and fun. I just wonder where the idea took off from. Was it the Spoonflower staff challenge? Or does it go deeper? Does it really matter?

I don’t really mind not getting an answer, I just wanted a legitimate excuse to ~~go window shopping~~

er, do research.

For your Sunday Evening enjoyment!

From Patchworkduck.com

From mylittlepaperaddiction

From the Moda Blog but found on pintrest

from Pins and Bobbins

21May2014

The Secret is out!

Posted in Finished Quilts, Tutorials and Patterns by StaceyinStitches

That’s right! That is MY quilt hanging in the Moda booth at quilt market!! Wheee!!!!

I recently got on doing work for a local fabric designer, Stephanie Carter. She owns Lily Ashbury Design Studio, and among other things, she designs fabrics for Moda. She designs the quilts and then I get to make a working pattern from her specs. Its a whole lot of fun for me, since this is what I went to school for too many years ago.

Little Cabin by Lily Ashbury Designs
Sewn by Stacey Day, Quilted by Joan Nicholson

Fancy is the second collection I have had the privileged of working with. It is slated for release this fall, and I know that Fat Quarter Shop will be carrying it. The main prints are absolutely stunning!! You can see the entire collection here on Moda’s website.

The first collection is being released this month. Called Folklore, it is a stunner of a collection in all beautiful shades of lime, teal, aqua, yellow and orange.

I wrote two patterns for this collection, the first being Dewdrop.

Dewdrop by Lily Ashbury Designs Written and Sewn by Stacey Day

The second quilt is called Sunshine Garden.

Sunshine Garden by Lily Ashbury Designs

The Folklore fabric and patterns will be soon be available at your local quilt shop and online. It is currently available for pre-order at:

FabricWorm

Butterfly Kisses Fabric

Winter Creek Cloth

Hamel’s Fabric

I am so happy I can finally share what I have been working on the last few months.

The little guy even had fun, since there was no shortage of stairs at the office!

Happy Stitching,

Stacey

If you are a fabric designer and are in need of a technical writer/sample maker please contact me at staceydayquilts (AT) yahoo (DOT) com

6May2014

Vote for Stacey!

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

I recently submitted a block to the Accuquilt Win the Dream contest. My block is the Hummingbird Star.You can click here to vote. It finished at 16″ square, and is constructed using freezer paper templates and applique methods. The top blocks right now are very gorgeous, with over 608 votes there is still a ways to go, but its fun, and I will release a tutorial when voting is all over for the block!

Happy Stitching,

Stacey

18Apr2014

Hoppy Easter

Posted in Quilt Design A Day by StaceyinStitches

I hope everyone has a happy long Easter weekend! I took a solo road trip with the little monkey up to see my parents, and to presumably get some work done. So far I have actually managed to get some sewing done! AND my QDAD designs for yesterday. I am still very much enjoying the Quilt Design a Day challenge, although there are some days where I feel like I am doing the same thing over and over. I am not the only one however, so that makes me feel better. There are also a lot of repeating themes; macrons, fancy birds, doors….and some of the palettes make me cringe. That’s why it is a challenge right?

This weekend I am hoping to finished up my Modern Metallics quilt. The top is done, now I need to baste and quilt it. My grandma is going to be here, so I know she will be happy to help me figure out how I want to quilt it.

It feels strange to be sewing on a machine that isn’t mine. I keep automatically reaching for buttons that just aren’t there!

I will leave you with my designs from yesterday, inspired by this Design Seed.

Happy Stitching!

Stacey

Wheat Fields

Amber Waves

4Mar2014

Quilt Design A Day

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

Just when I thought I couldn’t do much more, BAM! I decided that joining the Quilt Design A Day group with Anne from Play-Crafts would be the best thing ever. And it TOTALLY is!

The idea is to use one of the two daily palettes from Design Seeds to make a quilt design inspired by the photo and use the palette for the colors. The designs should take no more than 30 min or so, and the whole point is to challenge yourself and have fun.

Win on both points!

Since I am not a big user of solids, this is quite a challenge for me, but its getting easier every day. My favorite design so far is from yesterday.

Yesterdays palette: Floating Tones

Yesterdays Quilt:

I initially made the lily block as the quilt, but it seemed to much like a block trying to be a quilt! I played with the block, offset the appliques, and added an Irish Chain variation for the background. The quilt layout is an on point with 9″ blocks. This one might actually get made as a small wall hanging. I really like how the background gives the impression of rippling water.

So far my favorite design is the one Anne showed on her blog inspired by the Artichokes. I want to see a full pattern from that!

Everyone involved have been super supportive and encouraging to each other. I am having the best time, and every day it gets a little easier.

Happy Stitching!

Stacey

29Jan2014

My first pattern….In Print!

Posted in Finished Quilts, Tutorials and Patterns by StaceyinStitches

This is my very first published pattern, and I am so excited to be able to FINALLY share it with you!

I always have quilt designs floating around, and when Fat Quarterly put out a call for submissions for their scraps issue, I knew exactly which quilt to make.

Presenting Putting on the Ritz!

Putting on the Ritz

We took the pictures over the holidays at my parents home. It’s always a gorgeous winter wonderland up on the mountain. Nothing like fresh air and snow to get your heart going! It also makes the perfect backdrop for a fun, colorful quilt shoot.

You can’t see it from here, but there is a drop off behind the bend that goes down a few feet. My darling hubby scaled the embankment just so I wouldn’t have footprints in my pictures. I’m a lucky gal!

You can find Issue 16, and pretty much any other Issue, here. The Scraps issue is chock full of fantastic scrappy patterns that will bust through those scraps in no time!

I would love to see your version of Putting on the Ritz! Send me a photo of the completed top or quilt and I will be sure to share it on the blog.

Happy Stitching!

Stacey

23Jan2014

The Very Finished Caterpillar

Posted in Finished Quilts by StaceyinStitches

Today was a perfect day.

I spent the morning taking a lesson from Joan at Maple Leaf Quilters on her long arm!! WOOOOOO! It was so much fun! I love quilting on the long arm! (can’t you tell I am happy?)I had always wanted to take a lesson from her, and finally found a day to do it. It was very different from free motion quilting. You use your whole body. Its like a dance, the Gammill Two-Step. So of course we had to blast some 90’s pop hits to rock out to. =)

Quilting!

I brought my son’s Hungry Caterpillar quilt with me to finish. It was going to be his 1st birthday present, but now it can be his 2nd birthday present. Strike one off the WIP list! I chose a simple large stipple called Inkblot and some rainbow variegated thread. It looks great, and the rainbow thread is both colorful and hidden at the same time.

Maple Leaf Quilters is located in beautiful Tsawwassen, BC. Yes its spelled correctly =) Its 1 block from the waterfront and a lovely, light filled space perfect for quilting. If your going to be in the lower mainland for a time or don’t mind sending your quilts out, I highly recommend them! I will be using them for all my large quilts from now on. I love the look of a long armed quilt, and it is very hard to achieve the kind of tension on the layers you can get from the long arm set up. My space is also limited behind my machine, which makes quilting larger quilts….. challenging, as a nice word.

When I got home the little guy was so excited about his quilt that he couldn’t wait for mommy to bind it, out of the bag and on to the floor for a game of “Night Night Baby” Normally he tucks his Pooh-Bear under all the blankets and cushions in the house, but this time it was all about him! He was not happy when I took the quilt to square and bind, and insisted on “helping” me sew the binding on. Read: press the Automatic Thread Cutter every 8″ or so. But I don’t mind, because he is warm and snuggly, and very much a little boy who doesn’t want to be snuggly, so I take what I can get!

Night Night Baby

The afternoon was spent at the park with the family for an afternoon of play and a photo shoot. The bright colors really stood out in the playground! It was a rare sunny day today, normally it rains from November to April, so we took full advantage.

Hubby is getting really good at holding quilts. No fingers or toes sticking out!

As an added bonus to the day, there was a pair of bald eagles sounding off in a tree in nearby. They really are huge, majestic birds, but the sound they make seems so undignified! Squawk Squawk! Maybe trying to trick the resident seagulls a little closer, or fighting over who has to clean the bathroom? Either way, its one of the very few times I wish I had a mega zoom lens.