Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop - my turn

It is my turn on the RWB blog hop!

For my first block, I pulled all the red, white, and blue fabrics from my stash and this is all I could find. What to do, what to do???  How about an improv block!  I just started piecing the fabrics together and then added a star and some stripes at the end.

So, I liked it but felt it needed something - but what?  I tried some hand stitching.

Much better - well, at least I think so.  Um, except that little freehanded stitched star in the upper right corner - next time, I should draw it first and then stitch.

So, my block was finished with almost two weeks to spare - yay!  But then, the RWB blog hop began and you all were not only making wonderful blocks but LOTS of them!  I was inspired to make more - only problem was I had used up pretty much all my red fabric.  Fortunately, I remembered that I had recently received a charm pack of Vintage Modern which has reds in it - it wouldn't be a big deal to take two or three charms out of that pack, right?

This is what I made:

                               (I think this one also needs a bit of hand stitching!)

Hm, is there something wrong with this last picture?  I didn't even realize the mistake until I uploaded the photo for this blog post.

Much better! Well, I guess that is what my seam ripper is for!

For these blocks, I used a mix of traditional and modern techniques which resulted in a traditional block with a modern twist OR a modern block with a traditional twist, depending on your perspective!  I wrote more about this block here and I plan on writing a tutorial/pattern soon.

Want to enter this week's fabric giveaway?  Click here - it is open until Sat, July 14, 2012 at 8pm EDT).  For the details and/or if you are wondering about or are here for the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop, the Advice for New Bloggers series, the Let's Figure It Out Series,  or the Monday Link-up, click here.

Thanks for visiting!

And be sure to hop over to the other bloggers posting today for the RWB blog hop:

Cat Patches

quilting by dawn
Bobbie

Kathy H

Sparrow In Flight

WIPs and an HST with a Twist Pillow

WIPS:  

1. Circle of Geese (from Kelly's blog hop post )

2. Pop bottles (used this pattern from sewtakeahike)

3. and 4. I now have 27 9" squares for my crazy nine patch that I wrote about last week.  

5. and 6.  As I think I've mentioned, I am participating in the Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop (I'm posting this Friday - these are not my red, white, and blue blocks.)  I unfortunately realized that I didn't have very much red in my stash but instead of buying more fabric, I decided to use a few squares from a charm pack of Vintage Modern.  I only wanted to use a tiny bit of the charm pack so I had to improvise and figure out a way to use only a couple of charms.  Surprisingly, I actually liked what I ended up with (I can't show it until Friday) so I decided to use some more of the Vintage Modern along with some Essex Linen to experiment with my new "pattern."

Well, since I only had one charm pack, I used that up pretty quickly so I opened my drawer of 5 inch squares, cut them into HSTs, and tried some more variations.  What do you think?  I took lots of pics of the process so I'll write up how I made them soon.  I'm not sure what to call it - something along the lines of  (Traditional) HSTs with a (Modern) Twist - maybe?

I decided to make this one into a pillow and to quilt it by hand - alternating between stitching inside and outside of the diamonds.  I need to do that more often as I love the look of hand stitching.  Now, I just need to find the correct size pillow form.

Wow - I never feel like I get a lot of sewing done until I put it all together in a post and realize that I did!  I'm excited to see what everyone else is up to so I'll be linking up and visiting at WIP Wednesday.  

If you haven't already, click here to catch up with the blog hop news including a thoughtful post by Kati of From the Blue Chair, a great fabric giveaway, the weekly calendar and the Monday link up.

Blog Hop News Week 8 and a giveaway

Up this week:
July 10

    Jenelle from Echinops and Aster  

    Julie from Bedsheet in the Kitchen

July 12

    Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade 

    Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Today's guest blogger is Kati who blogs at From the Blue Chair.  Kati has written a wonderful guest post over on her blog reminding us all why we started blogging in the first place.  Click here to see the advice she has for us and while you are there, be sure to browse around her beautiful blog to find lots of quilty inspiration and some really great tutorials!







Social Media of the Week:  Instagram!!!  I just opened an account this week - find me by my user name PlumandJune.

So, I know you are saying - Seriously, Beth!  You want me to join yet another social media site?!?  Well, kind of.  I'm just trying it all out - seeing what I like, what I don't - basically, in a "you won't know until you try it kind of way."  So, try it and see what you think.  To help get you started, Lori wrote more about here.  Oh, and if you use Flipboard (which is awesome!), you can access all your social media in one place.

Blog Challenge for the Week:  Are you saying "What's this - something else for us to do???"  Yes - let's put some of the advice (from our guest bloggers and what you all write in the comments) into action - so here it is:  Enlarge your photos!  Save your photos at a size of at least 600px (if you don't know what this means, just skip this step), then after you upload them to blogger, click on the picture and choose medium, large, or even extra large - click preview and see what you think and then link up below!

Check out the growing list of tutorials from blog hoppers here.  And here are this week's highlights:
Reaction Buttons by Fabric Engineer
Making Photo Mosaics by Lori H. Designs
Blog and Social Media Buttons by Echinops and Aster

This week's giveaway is from Poppy Seed Fabrics.  Kimberly is offering one lucky person a $30 shoppe credit.  Choose from her wonderful selection of fabrics including some of my favorites like Lucy's Crab Shack, Summersville, and many more!  It is a great shop!

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post - any comment.  Want a topic - how about a quilting or sewing tip.  One comment per person for an entry.  This giveaway will remain open until Saturday, July 15, 2012 at 8pm EDT and one winner will be chosen at random.  And, please, unless you are sure that you are NOT a no-reply blogger, write your email address in your comment.  The winner will be announced in the Blog Hop News on July 18, 2012.

The winners of last week's giveaway from Kate Conklin Designs are: #28 Jenelle; #38 Anna V; and #69 Tracey.  Congrats!

The complicated rules:
1.  Anyone who is participating or following along with the hop can add a link that is quilting or sewing-related.
2.  For this week, please link up a sewing or quilting tutorial from your blog - old or new - and write the topic of your post when the link tool asks for your name.  
3.  You can also link up your recent post - when the link tool asks for your name, write the name of your favorite dessert.
4.  It is up to you but consider adding a link with your post to this page so others can join in as well.
5.  Please visit (at least) the person who links up before you and leave a comment to say hello!

Contrast Zip Pockets for Bags Tutorial

I really like having a zippered pocket in my bags to keep "valuable" items like my wallet, keys, and phone easily accessible.  I thought it would be fun to add the pocket as a design element as well as a practical one.  This method can be used to add the pocket to the inside or outside of the tote (I'll write a tutorial for my patchwork totes next.) 

I'll include my measurements but this tutorial is easily adaptable to your preferred size.

Supplies:

You'll need 4 pieces of 10x10" fabrics.  You can use 4 of the same, 4 different, 2 of each, or any other combination of fabrics.  From these fabrics, decide which piece you want for the front of the pocket (A), the lining of the fabric (B) and (C), and the back of the pocket (D) which will be visible as a second lining.

1 zipper*  

Let's get started:

Take fabrics A and B and cut a 2 x 10" strip off the top of each and place aside for later. 

Place fabric A right side up on your table.  Take your zipper and place it right side down on top of the fabric.  Place fabric B right side down on top of the zipper.  

Using your zipper foot, stitch along the top of the zipper.  I like to place my zipper a little beneath the top edge of the fabrics (as shown above) - this way I know I'm catching both pieces of fabric in my stitches when using the zipper teeth as a guide for where to sew.

Flip both fabrics so that the right sides are facing out, pull the fabrics taut, and top stitch (when I'm making a pocket for the outside of a bag, I like to use a contrasting thread here.) 

 Place the small piece of Fabric A right side up, the zipper (already attached to the fabrics) right side down, and the small piece of Fabric B right side down on top of that.  

Repeat the last two steps above.

Take fabric C and place it right side down, then place fabric D right side up, then take the fabric with the zip already attached and place it right side down (so fabric A is facing down.)

Starting in the upper right corner (as shown below), stitch around three sides using 1/4" seam (or as I did for this bag, using a 1/2 seam and then trimming to 1/4").

At this point, you need to open the zipper halfway - I'll repeat that because it is very important - open the zipper halfway!  Then finish stitching all the way to where you started.   Clip the four corners but don't clip your stitches.

Using the zipper opening, turn the bag right side out.  Stitch across the top of the bag about 3/8"- 1/2" down from the top.  This will depend on your seam from the previous step.  The reason for this line of stitching is to enclose the raw edges on the inside of the bag so try to feel where the raw edges end and stitch right below there.

Decide whether you want your pocket on the inside or outside of the bag.  For this tutorial, I attached the pocket to the lining.  Place the pocket where you want it and starting and ending just under the zipper, stitch around the three sides as shown.

You can either make a needle down turn at the corners (as in the blue stripe pocket) or reinforce by going past the pocket (onto the lining, cut your thread, and then turn your fabric and start the next line of stitches from the lining (as shown on the green pocket.) 

Stitch down a bit on the diagonal on either side on top of the zippers using either method shown above. And that's it.  You have a contrasting zip pocket for your bag with an extra pocket behind it - so, basically, a double pocket.  

If you don't want the double pocket, just attach all four sides to the bag.  And to save a piece of fabric, just eliminate fabric D but you can keep everything else the same.

*Okay, let's talk zippers.  I have figured out a few tricks by trial and error - though, installing zippers is still definitely a work-in-progress for me.  So, um, you know, use my techniques at your own (and your stash's) risk!  Oh, and keep your needle away from those metal parts.  But I would LOVE to know your zipper tips - let me know in the comments!  

Week 7: Blog Hop News, Advice, and Giveaway

Weekly calendar: (be sure to visit these blogs this week to meet these fun bloggers, learn more about them, and see their great tutorials prepared especially for the blog hop!)

July 3

    Di from Willowbeck Designs

    Jennifer from Knotted Thread  
July 5

    Sarah from Sarah Lou

    Catherine from Knotted Cotton

Click here to find links to the awesome tutorials from the last six weeks and to see some fantastic events currently being hosted by blog hoppers. 

This week's advice post is by Sara from Sew Sweetness.  I think I've been a follower of Sara's blog for awhile but she really stood out to me when she made the most adorable dress entirely out of one of my most favorite fabrics- Melody Miller's typewriters.  I've also been visiting her wonderful blog a lot recently to read all the great pattern reviews from Purse Palooza.  Here is what she had to say.

1.  What do you think is most important for new quilting bloggers to know?  Were you given some advice when you started blogging that you could pass on?
  
If you are a new blogger, I would say it's a great idea to join in on a weekly linky party (Canoe Ridge Creations has one, and Freshly Pieced has a W.I.P. (work-in-progress) one, both of which are really good.) The point of a linky party is to post your project for the week, and visit/comment on the other projects that you see posted. That way, you meet other bloggers and become familiar with the people around you.

2.  Is there anything you now know that you wish you would have known when you started your blog?
  
At the beginning, I thought I had to constantly run giveaways to get new followers. Giveaways are great for drawing people in, but they might not always be interested in continuing to read after the giveaway is over. I would say concentrate on sewing great projects that people enjoy seeing and are inspired by, and you'll get your followers.

              Image from Sew Sweetness

3.  What is your advice for growing readership?  Any advice on using social media to do so?

I like the idea of posting your projects/progress across several media outlets. I'm not saying to jump in and do all right from the get-go, because that can be overwhelming. But slowly add another over time. For instance, you've got your blog set up. Start by joining the weekly linky parties. Then, when you're comfortable, whenever you finish a project (or make good progress, or buy some new fabric), post the pictures on Flickr, with a link in the photo's description linking back to the blog post related to that photo. You can link up your blog to a Facebook page/fansite using Networked Blogs, which automatically posts the link to each blog post within minutes after you post it to your blog. You can set the same thing up with Twitter. Pinterest is also great for finding things you like via pinning other people's things (and hopefully they will see your blog and pin something of yours!). I'm not using Instagram yet, but that's another option.


The reason for having access to all these outlets is that everyone gets their fix in a different way. I favor Facebook over Twitter, but some folks are on Twitter all the time. If I spread myself out a bit, that maximizes the opportunities for people to see my blog posts.

image from Sew Sweetness

4.  Do you blog surf?  If so, can you pinpoint a few aspects of a new blog that would make you want to become a follower?  And is there anything that would make you want to never visit that blog again?


I used to use my blogger dashboard a bit more than I do now. I'm so busy, that I rely mostly on Facebook to find new blog posts. Everyone does it differently. I like when a blogger is friendly and replies to comments I leave on their blog (or other social media format) because it makes me feel included. If I've commented or asked questions a few times and don't get a response, it kind of turns me off (although people do get busy, so that's why I saw 'few times').

5.  What types of posts are most popular on your blog and what about those posts is it that make them such?  What is your advice for writing interesting posts?


I think, going in, that you should have an idea of what type of blog format you would like to have, and more or less try to stick with it. From the get-go I decided to write sewing pattern reviews every time I finished a project. My format has slightly changed over time, but I mostly stick with the same types of things I post about. For instance, I don't post cooking recipes, vacation photos, or talk about my kids. Okay, I posted one cooking recipe when I very first started! I've posted a couple photos of my kids wearing something I've sewn, but that's about it. I'm not saying that these things are wrong or bad, but it's just not something I wanted to get into on my blog. I think having a plan for your blog helps keep things looking cohesive. 

6.  What tips would you suggest we include in a blog checklist for new quilting bloggers?

                           Image from Sew Sweetness

-matching blog header/sidebar button (which can also be used for your Facebook/Twitter/Flickr avatars)
-clearly marked link or button for people to follow via e-mail, to follow in a reader, to follow on blogger, facebook, etc.
-clearly marked link or button to contact/e-mail you
-a button someone can click on to see groupings of what you do. For example, on my site I have a 'Tutorials' tab on the top of my page that someone can quickly and clearly see what tutorials I've written. In your case, you might have a tab for 'Completed Quilts' or 'Finished Projects' or whatever. Because as your blog posts get older and move farther down, sometimes someone might miss out on seeing something cool you've done. But if you have a tab or button that they can pull all those items up in, they will be seen again and again. :-)

7.  Thinking ahead:  (a) how and when should new bloggers solicit sponsors and (2) how and when should new bloggers seek out ways to be published.


I have never sought out sponsors for my blog; I don't really do much advertising on my blog (I have the BlogHer advertising at the top, but that's not really sewing-related). If that's something you want to do, I would say wait until you have a significant amount of content/followers to merit asking for a sponsor. You want it to be a mutual win-win situation for the sponsor and for you, not just about you asking for 'stuff'.

I don't think there is a minimum for getting published (if you're talking about in magazines.) If you have a good project, even if you're new, it will get picked up. And sometimes you might have to submit 10 things before one gets picked up. Having a completed project (as opposed to just a sketch) can also help a lot in that area. You also want to be sure you are able to write clear and concise instructions (pretend like you have to tell someone over the phone how to complete your sewing project...as sometimes magazines aren't able to publish many step-by-step photos or illustrations, you will be mostly relying on your written instructions.)

Thanks Sara for all your great advice!

I've created a page with links to all the great posts on blogging by bloggers participating in the blog hop and the advice series.   This page will be updated regularly throughout the hop.  And there will be more to come in this space in the coming weeks.  

And this week is Facebook week.  Check out this post that Claire from Sewing Over Pins wrote for the series to help get you started.  I haven't really used facebook yet for my blog but I'm excited to start - you can click here to see my facebook page.  

Also, one of our newest blog hoppers, Chrissie from Made by ChrissieD, just wrote this post about word verification.

Giveaway:

This week's giveaway is sponsored by Kate Conklin Designs.  Kate has designed several beautiful modern quilts that she sells in her online shop.  And she has offered up 6 PDFs for this week's giveaway  - so there will 3 winners this week and each of those winners will be able to choose 2 patterns from Kate's shop.  What will you choose?
  
To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post.  Leave any comment you want to enter but since it is always fun to have a topic, what about this - how do you use social media in your blogging life?  Any suggestions or questions for other bloggers?

One comment per person for an entry (replies to other comments don't count so reply all you want!)  The giveaway will be open until Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 8pm EDT and three winner will be chosen at random.  And, PLEASE, leave an email address unless you are sure that you are not a no-reply blogger.  The winner will be announced in the Week 8 Blog Hop News on Monday, July 9th. 

The winner of last week's giveaway from Contemporary Cloth is #37 Books_Bound (since replies don't count, all the comments were renumbered and only the first comment made by each person counted.)  Congrats!   

  Anyone participating in or following along with the blog hop can add a link.  Please either post the button or a text link somewhere in your post or on your blog and please visit (at the very least) the person who links up right before you and leave a comment!  For fun (actually, an experiment again), when the link tool asks for your name - write down your favorite dessert instead. We'll do that next week - I must have checked the wrong button - I'll blame it on the power outage!!)

WIPs, Blocks, and Pics

Just some photos from my week.

The girl's redecorated their "library" using a crochet blanket I made a few years ago (it is an old crib mattress on the floor and an old toddler bed mattress against the wall.)  Comfy!  (I can't remember if this is the pattern I used but it is very similar.)

I put together the July block from In Color Order's HST block of the month (love this one!)  You can see my others here. 

Needlepoint?!?

As Bethany wrote about here, we made a pact to try paper piecing this month.  The pic above is my attempt.  I have to say, Bethany actually made it super easy for me since she immediately wrote a post complete with links to video tutorials and she created the awesome pattern for this super cute "tanganimal" - with more animals to come soon.

Have I mentioned that before our little blog hop came about, I had signed on to participate in the Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop.  I'm up on July 13th.

After seeing this awesome quilt yesterday by Amber from One Shabby Chick, I knew what my next quilt project would be.  And the tutorial she used from Elizabeth is fantastic (as Oh Fransson tutorials always are!)

And click here to read a wonderful advice post by Sara from Sew Sweetness and to enter the giveaway to win some patterns from Kate Conklin Designs.

Linking up to a few of these..