Newton's First Law of Motion: Inertia. A body at rest stays at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

This weekend I got stuff done.

I quilted this triangle quilt and stitched the binding to the front.

This improv quilt came back from the long arm quilter earlier in the week, so naturally, it got a binding sewn to the front, too.

While cleaning out the studio, I decided to finally quilt this orange and white top that I made way, way back in 2008. About time, huh? I pieced the back, sandwiched it, quilted it up, and attached the binding to the front.

Needless to say, there will be a lot of hand stitching bindings in the evenings this week. I'm looking forward to it.

The remainder of my Pacific Crest blocks were pieced, too. So maybe there will be another quilt top by the end of next weekend?

I'm on a roll, people. No stopping now.

Hello!

I disappeared. I didn't mean to, but life happens. Thank you to all that checked in to make sure that I am ok - I am! It's just been a crazy few weeks...

Jane graduated from 8th grade. So. Hard. To. Believe. And still, so right, you know?

I altered my painted portrait dress and wore it out. I love this pattern. There will be more. And more. And then probably even more.

I had my annual colonoscopy (I have ulcerative colitis). TMI? Probably. But, I had a lot (understatement) of anxiety leading up to it as my last two scopes were only so-so - not really bad, but not great. This time all was better than it has been in years. I am thankful and relieved and happy and will continue to take my meds and eat healthy and all that.

We packed up and left town for Mexico on Kate's last day of school. It was a great way to start the summer.

While gone, Fatty and I both suffered from food poisoning. That put a little damper on the trip, but it was still good to get away.

I read 10 books on vacation. TEN.

And my MacBook crapped out. It couldn't be fixed. Insert sad face here.

Two days after we returned home, I took a great class with Quilt Dad, John Adams. It was fun and I am super excited about how my quilt is coming together. It's Pacific Crest, the cover quilt from John's new book, Beyond Neutral, (affiliate link) which is A-MAZ-ING.

When I came home from sewing all day, there were flowers for me for Father's Day. Fatty is the best, I tell you.

My new computer arrived earlier this week. It is shiny and fast - yay!

I didn't turn it on until I cleaned the entire studio. It took 3 days, but it is also looking shiny, so there's that.

And now I am going to pay the bills and then get back to making things.

See you around.

About a month ago, I found myself sitting on the floor of my sewing room as I often do, sorting through fabrics, trying to decide what to pair with what. The picking and choosing, matching and coordinating is one of my favorite ways to relax and to recharge creatively. The options are limitless and I always walk away with at least one pile of fabrics to think about. Sometimes I need to sew right at that moment. This was one of those times.

I had seen all of the Dowry fabrics by Anna Maria Horner at the fall Quilt Market before they were released. I pre-ordered every single one. I most often buy half yard cuts, but this line had a few that had me adding yards to my shopping cart. Large scale florals often do that to me - they bowl me over with their good looks and have me momentarily losing my mind. How many quilt backs does one need in a year? According to my shopping habits, somewhere north of 20.

Although quilting cotton is not the best choice for most garment sewing, I do find that it is good for summer skirts. And that is what I must have had in mind when I bought two yards of this print (Twill Bouquet in Evergreen). But when I sat on the studio floor and contemplated the bright oranges and dark greens in the print and decided that it looked rather good with that peachy-pink and orange number (Going Up in Smoothie), I had just come home from Sew Down in Nashville where Anna Maria had taught a class that included needleturn applique. I was also working on a little something else with applique and so, as these things go, I thought, "Ooh! Applique that flower bouquet, Erin!"

And that is what I did.

I settled on my all-time favorite dress pattern which Anna Maria also designed, the Painted Portrait Dress and Blouse. This is one of the most versatile patterns around - Dress or blouse? Sleeves or sleeveless? Pockets or no pockets? Patchwork or plain yoke? It's also a great sew. I settled on a sleeveless dress for my fifth (!) version (version 2 here, version 3 here, versions 1 & 4 unblogged - I know, I know, I really should). After appliquing the bouquet to the yoke, I was worried that it wasn't going to work. I pulled out the perle cotton and just started embellishing without much of a plan. Slowly and surely, I saw it all come together and stopped when I thought it looked good. It was then that Jane told me to put french knots in the center of those flowers. She was right - it was the perfect final touch.

This pattern sewed up just as easily this time around as it did the first time. It always takes me longer than I think it is going to, but I never mind that because it is such a joy to put together. Luckily, there were no serger incidents - phew! - and I was able to find the perfect green vintage button to tie it all together. I added 2" length in the torso, but forgot to take in the back seams as I have in previous versions. Those alterations are on the docket for the coming weekend. As soon as I complete them, I know this dress will be in heavy rotation this summer.

Malka Dubrawsky is one of the quilters I admire most. I am constantly inspired by her use of color, her graphic fabrics and quilt designs that look difficult, but are really straightforward. She uses shapes and patterns in the most interesting ways.  Her latest pattern, Klee's Trees, is no exception.

In Malka's words,

A while back I traveled to Switzerland and saw so many amazing things, but not the Bern Bears. Rather, I opted to visit the Klee Museum and view an extensive array of work by the artist, Paul Klee. I was especially struck by his drawings of trees. They were simple, stylized and abstracted.
I came home knowing I wanted to translate those drawings into a quilt pattern and, after several attempts, came upon a block design that I feel captures the essence of Klee’s trees.
This simple-to-piece block is graphic and clean and has a decidedly modern feel. Craft it in solids against a dark or light background or play with warm and cool colored prints to differentiate the “trees” from the “forest”.

I was happy that Malka asked me to share this pattern with you. More specifically, I was excited to make the block and have a chance to play a bit! While I love Malka's use of solid fabrics, I was intrigued to see how the modern shape would translate if I used a more traditional fabric for the tree. I chose a guava colored shot cotton and a Liberty print from my stash and just love how they look together. Even with a fussier print as the main fabric, this block still has a decidedly modern feel to it. Can't you just see a whole quilt of Liberty Klee's Trees? I can!

You can get your own copy of Malka's Klee's Trees pdf pattern in her etsy store.

She is also offering TWO copies of the pattern as a giveaway to my readers. To be eligible for the random drawing, please comment on this post before Sunday, May 18th at 5:00 pm EST. Good luck!

I have seen many projects that I think I'd like to make only to not jump in because they involve needle-turn applique. Of course, I know that I could modify these projects and machine or raw-edge applique the pieces, but I don't. I love, love, love the look of needle-turn applique, but it just seemed so fussy and time consuming to me. The thought of hand stitching tiny bits of fabric to a background did not appeal to me at all. It wasn't the by-hand part, per se, or even really spending hours doing it. I like to knit. I like to crochet. I've dabbled in embroidery and I oil paint. All by hand, all time consuming. Rather, my train of thought was long the lines of "Why do something by hand, when you can do it faster by machine?" And, man, what a limiting outlook that is.

I tried it.

Turns out, I was wrong.

I like needle-turn applique. I maybe even love it.

I love it for many of the same reasons I love needlepoint and knitting. I can take it with me. It's easy to put down and pick right back up. When my hands are busy, my mind is at peace. I can have conversations with my friends, family, the other people in the waiting room while I applique away. I like to make and it allows me to squeeze in a little bit of making time when life is busy and time is short. Most obviously, it's fabric and thread - two of my favorite things.

Yes, it is time consuming and a little fussy, but in the best possible way. I am savoring the time spent stitching fabric to a background. I am dreaming about what I can applique and how to work it into more things. It's making me take a second look at projects I have passed by before.

I'm so glad I gave it a go. I'm having so much fun! How about you? What is something you want to try, but haven't? What's stopping you?

Have you seen the new four week classes that Creativebug has been producing lately? First there was line drawing with Lisa Congdon and then garment making with Cal Patch. I've taken parts of both of these classes and they are fantastic. It is so great to be able to learn more about a subject in depth versus just learning how to execute one project. And I can come back to it again and again. Talk about value!

The newest Creativebug four-week class is Log Cabin Quilting with Susan Beal. It starts next Tuesday, May 6 and each week a new segment is posted. Susan covers the basics - measuring, cutting and piecing log cabins - along with a look at the history behind this well-known quilt block. She provides a wide range of projects - pillow, baby quilt, table runner, tote - that will get your creative juices flowing and teach you some good skills along the way.

I had the opportunity to make one of Susan's projects on Monday night and it was so fun! This pillow is the project for the first week of the class and it came together easily and fairly quickly. The hardest part was choosing what fabrics to use!

I decided to use some of Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee fabrics. As I was sewing this together, I realized that I had bought these at one of Denyse's workshops I took in Portland with Susan! Totally meant to be.

Take a minute to watch the trailer for Susan's class over at Creativebug and I think you will agree it looks great. Her class includes a weekly live chat so you can even ask her questions as you work on the projects - so cool! Additionally, if you sign up to take the class, you have access to all of the site's content and classes for one low subscription price - $9.95/month. There is so much to discover! I like to watch classes when I have a block of free time and I also have found that Jane and Kate have enjoyed watching them, too.

Lucky for you, there's a giveaway involved! Creativebug is offering a free 3-month subscription to a House on Hill Road reader. To put your name into the hat, please comment on this post and tell me what kind of classes you would like to watch on Creativebug. I will close the commenting on Sunday, May 4 around 12:00 pm EST. The winner will be all set and ready to start learning to log cabin quilt on Tuesday when Susan's class goes live. Best of luck to everyone!

Full disclosure: I have a Creativebug subscription of my own that I use often. At times it has been given to me free of charge and at other times I have happily paid for it. As always, all opinions are my own and reflect my personal experience.

While in Nashville a couple of weekends ago, I finished this quilt top. These are the improv blocks I made last month, sashed with various widths of Kona Snow and sewn together with a few empty blocks. It's about 6o" square - a nice throw size.

This is one of my favorite kinds of quilting. I keep saying that, don't I? The freedom of improv lends itself to fun, and when I am having fun, I am definitely my most creative. I need to remember this for those moments when I'm doubting myself or feel stuck. If I put aside what is giving me trouble and just sew fabric together without too much thought, the other work tends to sort itself out. Light bulb moment, friends.

I have another improv project in the works at the moment that I am trying to spend a little time on every day. I'm using it as a warm up for another, very large, work project going on. That project is one of those long-term ones, that is printed on paper and put between two covers. (Wink, wink.) The best kind of work! I am super excited to be doing this again and, while I can't share what exactly it is, I can say that it involves lots of sewing. As such, my personal sewing time has been happily cut down to almost nothing during the week. I am relying on these little bursts of improv for fun and to keep me inspired and creating my best work. While I can't share the work sewing, I can share the fun sewing and will do so as I go along.

I drove home from SewDown Nashville last night. What an amazing weekend! I am completely exhausted, but am filled to the brim with new knowledge and inspiration. Plus all of the ladies were great! Yay for new friends!

Today I'm having a hard time getting motivated. That is what staying up to midnight sewing two nights in a row, plus 4 quilting classes will do to you. Still, I have work that needs doing so I made myself a promise that I would clean the studio (done) before any of my new purchases and projects were brought upstairs (not yet done). I was reading blogs (procrastinating) and came across Meg's creative assignment. Go read about it. I'll be here when you get back.

Smart lady, right?

Not five minutes after I read it, I had everything carted up the stairs, the machine set up and scraps gathered to make my egg.

Inspiration:

(source: Hannah Blackmore Photography)

Interpretation:

Drawn with thread, using my sewing machine and free motion quilting, this took all of 7 minutes. It's kind of weird, but I like it. Plus, it got me creating. I challenge you to make your own egg. I think it is a superb idea, really fun, very freeing and a great kick in the creativity pants. Now that my machine is set up, I'm itching to sew more. (Let's not think about putting away all the other stuff, ok?).

I'll be back tomorrow with a giveaway. You won't want to miss it! See you then!