Handmade by Alissa

Denyse Schimdt is coming to LA!

June 8, 2011 in MQG Posts with 7 Comments

Hope you can make it if you’re in the area!

All finished.

June 6, 2011 in Finished Quilts with 9 Comments

The Nice Baby Quilt is all finished. So simple. It was perfect for needing to sew up a quick gift for friends.

I used lots of linen and Kona Ash which are very close in value. They really make the greens, yellows and bit of pink pop out of the blocks.

I used up my last bit of this Castle Peeps pink stripe with the binding and it was just a bit too short so I added some solid pink to make it long enough.

I’m finishing up my day job this week and will be back at full time quilting shortly! So many project and plans to tackle… I can’t wait!!

The Nice Baby Quilt

May 31, 2011 in Quilting Works in Progress with 13 Comments

I got some good sewing time in this weekend after weeks away from my machine. It was so nice to be reunited. I took the time to work on a baby quilt for some friends having a baby girl. Their last name is Nice so I made The Nice Baby Quilt!

I picked fabric…

I pieced…

I basted…

And I got the whole thing quilted and bound!

Just the hand stitching of the binding now and I’ll be done. Sometimes it’s really nice to sew up a fast quilt.

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekends as much as I did!

All Block Party all the time!

May 18, 2011 in Block Party with 18 Comments

The reason I went to Market in the first place is that Kristen and I were promoting Block Party.

We did a schoolhouse (which are these 30 minute presentations) to tell shop owners about the book.

We talked and talked (something that Kristen and I have no problems doing! ha!)…

and we showed all of the quilts that the Block Partiers made for the bee and book.

Jacquie and Rashida, who were both in the bee, were nice enough to help us out with the quilt holding!

Then the next day we had a super fun book signing!

From here, keep an eye out! We are organizing a blog tour and the book is going to be on shelves so soon!!

And if you’re interested, you can see all of my Market photos here!

Spring Market MQG Meetup

May 17, 2011 in MQG Posts with 0 Comments

A quick little recap post is over on The MQG blog! Check it out!

Market Whirlwind

May 16, 2011 in Other with 11 Comments

Wow. For a couple of years now I’ve seen the blog posts about other people going to Quilt Market and it always looked like so much fun. I wasn’t wrong. It’s an amazing time! It flies by and it’s tiring and your feet hurt at the end of every day but it sure is a hell of a lot of fun! It is almost surreal (but oh so wonderful!) to suddenly have everyone you know online all in one place together!

I’m going to blog about a couple of events that happened soon, but meanwhile, my three favorite things that I saw at Market (aside from people or things I was involved in):

The Michael Miller inspiration wall.

This booth!

And Yoshiko Jinzenji’s amazingly beautiful fabric:

Back soon with more!

Are you going to Spring Market?

May 9, 2011 in Other with 5 Comments

I’m headed there on Wednesday and I hope to see you there!

Please join us:

The Modern Quilt Guild Meet Up
Friday, May 13th at 8:00 PM
at the Marriott’s Destinations Lounge

Looking forward to meeting so many of my online friends in person!

A plea for your vote.

April 30, 2011 in Other with 14 Comments

Hey all!

I’d mentioned it before, but just one more time, would you mind please clicking on over to Apartment Therapy and voting for my sister’s super cute house in their Small Cool Contest?? She is close to winning her division but she has recently slipped to second place. Think you could help move her to the top?

There’s so many of you reading, and it would REALLY make a difference if just 50 or 60 of you please please vote! Voting ends Sunday at noon (EST) and you didn’t hear it from me but her competition has a wagon wheel coffee table. So let’s just do the right thing and vote for Cate, pleeeeeeeease!

Thank you so much!!

Quiet

April 25, 2011 in Quilting Works in Progress with 13 Comments

Things certainly have been quiet over here on the ol’ blog, huh? Hope you all had great weekends. I finished up a quilt that you’ll see more of down the line. Lots of behind the scenes sewing happening over here!

Later this week I leave town for the first of three trips, all happening in May. I’m so excited for Quilt Market! Mellow blog means busy life, right??

Block Party…

April 15, 2011 in Block Party with 42 Comments

For REAL!

I got an advanced copy earlier this week and it’s so crazy to finally have it here in my hands! Monday is my birthday and I’d say that this is a pretty great present!

It’s been a long process getting to this point. In October of 2008 (!) Kristen emailed me to see if I might want to start a bee with her. It was just one month later that she mentioned the idea of a book and we were instantly off and running with the idea.

Block Party is about quilts and community. In finding quilting a few years ago, I also found community and I really think that the book captures the spirit of that. There have been great friendships made through the bee.

And needless to say, it’s a huge thrill that Denyse Schmidt, whose book inspired me to start quilting in the first place, wrote an amazing foreward for us!