Here I go!

I didn't think I'd be doing this but I've decided it's time to join in the fun. I'm not a professional writer or quilter by any means. A little over a year ago I was wondering what I was going to do with all the stuff I had been sewing... I wanted to make more stuff but didn't want it taking over my house. I decided on I would put a few things out on etsy and see what happened - I mean what's the worse thing that could happen, right?!  I was honestly shocked when I sold my first quilt. It's this one right here:

It was a star quilt with a woodlands theme with fabrics from a line called Serenade by Kate Spain from Moda. Anyhow, back to my blog! My dear hubby has been encouraging me to start a blog instead of just talking about it so I am. I plan to write about quilting, sewing, family and our cocker spaniels!

I live in Wisconsin with my hubby and our two cocker spaniels. We have one son who just joined the Marines and is currently at basic training in San Diego. The 'parti' in Modern Parti Quilts comes from this guy

That's Peanut. He's a buff and white parti-colored cocker spaniel... with the saddest eyes and cutest freckles in the world. He's an older model, we adopted him in 2004.

I had two sewing goals this week 1) learn to install a zipper and 2) finish quilting a dog quilt for a fundraising event in two weeks. One out of two isn't bad I guess. I managed to install a zipper this week, not just any zipper but an invisible zipper. I looked at lots of tutorials before finally deciding to follow this one by Stitched In Color. Great instructions! I started out making this pillow top for Halloween, which was inspired by a pillow in the book Pillow Pop. I used the paper piecing method for putting together the string blocks, then cut each finished square into fours and stitched them back together in a diamond configuration. The size of my paper squares was 6 inches before cutting into fourths. Finished square size is 2.5 inches. I pressed using a lot of starch after I removed the paper; it's easy for the small squares to become distorted.  I added a thin white border followed by a scrappy outer border for the pillow.

I really loved how the top turned out! The fabrics were from my scrap bin and a line called Haunted Mansion by Sanae from Moda. I happened to have a burnt orange zipper in just the right size which seemed like a good fit. I managed to install the zipper on my first try! The finished zipper

Front and back:

I chose a grey and orange abstract tree print for the backing, also from the Haunted Mansion line. The pillow top is available in my etsy shop.

Next week will be the one year anniversary of my etsy shop.  I plan to offer 15% off on everything in my shop all week to celebrate! Use code 1YEAR between Sunday, August 31 to September 6 to enjoy!

Best,
HG

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