Sewing, crocheting, designing and planning (and a link party)

Sewing and crocheting at full speed!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Play with Me QAL - few more hours to turn the PP block. (see below)
   The next pattern is ready and will be shared on Monday!! 
2. WGACA projects
1. Jane T - paused until completion of other two
2. The SK project - one block done (see below)
3. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - no progress
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - 2 blocks done (see below)
4. Block Swap Adventure -  waiting for March partner assignment
5. American Quilt (previous known as Americana QAL) - no progress
6. Project Quilting (#5) - done! (see below)
7. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL - paused, not liking where this is going :(
8. Splendid Sampler - block 4 and 5 done (see below)
9. SECRET quilt for exhibit - FDJ planning started (see below)

The EverythingElse List:

1. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
2. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
3. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
4. As You Wish -  no progress
5. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
6. Memory quilt 2 - no progress

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Pat and Jane announced the Splendid Sampler and can I not join such a fun project? Of course not!! :)

But I had to find my twists to make my journey different than anyone else's.

Block 4

Block 5 (with the two crochet ones too)

To see all my blocks, check out My Sampler Journey page

Block 6 is out but I think I will slow down with this project because 2 blocks a week is a lot, considering that I have to make my own "fabric" with selvages first and that I want to crochet some of them as well. I may see if Block 7 (released tomorrow) is easier and start with that for next week.

I am really enjoying this project but it is taking over my (sewing) life! :) :)

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(Project 5: 2016 Finish-Along, from the list in this post)

Speaking of projects taking over my (sewing) life...

Another challenge of Project Quilting (Through the Eyes of a Child) was released last week and this is the piece I put together.

"MOOOM! Look, I colored Mickey"

8'' x 6.5''

I loved Mickey Mouse (Topolino) when I was a child... I cannot remember a time when I didn't have a Topolino comic book to read every day... from kinder-garden school to college :)

So my piece is a reproduction of a classic "drawing" from when I was little. And I put it on the fridge because where else would my mom display my art, right??

I am really pleased about how it turned out! I learned a lot about thread coloring since this is my first time (hence the wrinkly look).

About PQ challenges... I will have some reflections on this next week, since that is going to be the last challenge for the year... I have mixed feelings about the experience... but more on this next week :)

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Second project from my WGACA list  (to read more about this concept, read this previous post) was completed. I recently completed a page for this, and I realized that the initially empty page slows down my progress. I better get some progress on all three of the projects so the ball will get going!

Stephen King - Salem's Lot

Book cover

(Pattern available soon)

I am happy that I broke free from my own rules of making the book cover with paper piecing! I don't particularly like the process of raw edge applique, but I really like the result and the fact that requires much less time designing them!!

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Early last month I shared the second block for my Play with Me QAL

Look at all the different color combinations that people used in their game boards! So exciting!!!

If you didn't join, it's not too late!

Visit the QAL page for more details.

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I had an idea for a project for a long time... and now I think it could fit this exhibit so I will actually get the project out of my head and down to fabric.

The piece will be entered in special exhibit, Modern Quilts: Redesigning Tradition.

I cannot tell you more for now... except that the plan is on paper (and on my computer) so now I just need to get going!! :)

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And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

I haven't made any concrete progress here, but I pulled some fabric out and I am ready to assemble some strips into quilt backings! At least I have a plan now!! :)

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

How I keep my fabric organized, weekly updates (and a link party)

So much to share this week!! This month I have been on a roll!

The Ongoing List:

1. the SK project - 3 blocks done!! (see below)
2. the Valentine's blocks - one block almost done (cannot share)
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - no progress
4. Black and White pillow - done!! (see below)
5. Secret projects - last 2 small blocks done (see below)
6. New project! Embroidery calendar - just downloaded all the files, ready to start!
7. Color of the Year challenge- 36/36 small blocks done, cannot share, 1 big block missing.
   The deadline for this project is mid April! So the project is back on my Ongoing List ;)

The EverythingElse List:

1. Animal blocks for charity quilts - no progress
2. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - no progress
3. Reversible sewing machine cover - 4/8 blocks done
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag - 1 block done, no pattern picked for the bag, no idea how many blocks I will need
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - 6/15 blocks done
6. As You Wish - 8/16 blocks done
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging - 13/32 blocks done
8. Crazy optical illusion - 1 "row" done
9. D wall hanging - collected some fabric and some ideas
10. B quilt - to be designed

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I finished the pillow for the Free motion quilt Challenge (January) (I choose to use option 2 and 3).
I described what I did for the heart side in a previous post. I then quilted just half of the Yin Yang block with meander patterns and that's it!

Size: 15'' x 20''

This pillow has been filled with fabric scraps (crumbles) and batting scraps... and since I think this method works great (at least for me) I wanted to share how I organize my fabric in general (because I don't throw away even a single itty bitty piece... not even threads ;) ).
So this is my process:

(click on the image to make it bigger)

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I am still working on secret projects (that I cannot share), but these few "additional" blocks can be shared since they are not going to reveal too much :)
In a couple of weeks I will show you the finished project! I really like it and I hope you are going to like it too!! :)

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And finally 3 new blocks for my SK project are ready.

Opening lines of "The Talisman", "Wizard and Glass" and "Song of Susannah"

You can find the patterns on my The SK Project page.

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And now what are YOU going to link?

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Blogoversary to ME!!

Today is time to celebrate!!

I am TWO years blog-old!!

This second year has been amazing! I practiced many new things, learned a lot and accomplished enough to be pretty proud of myself.

Let's put it down in numbers and pictures!

Numbers:
- 140 posts (about 1 every 5 days!!)
- > 80000 pageviews
- 315 followers (between GFC, Blogloving and Pinterest)
- 104 original patterns created and shared for free on this blog (22 still untested!) - about 1 new pattern a week!!
- 1 pattern shop closed (issue with Craftsy)

So what did I made in this second year? Here are some pictures!
(click on the picture if you want to see it bigger!!)

If anyone is interested in pattern/instruction for a specific project, just drop me an email!! :)
All of them have been shared during the year, but sometimes it's hard to find things in blogs.

Color of the Year wall hanging, Cardinal pillow, Grocery bag, Music & Downton Abbey pillows, Xmas decorations, Bibs, Convertible bag, Evil Eye Wall hanging, Grocery bag 2, Dachshunds pot holder and pouch, Ties pillow, Convertible bag 2, Xmas coasters, Xmas table runner.

On the right - All the blocks received in my Block Swap Adventure.
On the left - blocks made for the Block Swap Adventure + 3 blocks (lower right corner) made for Jennifer @ Sewhooked for charity quilts.

Triangle QAL (baby quilt), Celtic Solstice + Celtic Sunrise (baby quilt), Topolino (twin size), Rainbow Starburst (twin size) & Message in a Quilt (twin size)

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And now let's stop looking at the past... and let's look at the future!!
I already posted the list of projects I have for 2015 (see the complete list here), but by now I already added several things to the list and I want to highlight few of the main projects I will focus my attentions on:

I will be running a monthly series of tutorial to learn new techniques or new tricks to known techniques ;) we have a pretty cool list of authors for the different tutorials.

Check out the SYS 2015 page for more information.

Bea @ beaquilter.com is hosting a Peanuts BOM with my patterns! I am not sewing more of them myself, but I designed new patterns because people seems interested in making bigger quilts with these characters! 

I will follow some QAL because I plan to collect animal blocks to make some quilt tops for charity. No specific plans for that, except that I want to use several orphan blocks that I have, so I need to make my collection larger!

I also run a weekly link party (MOP Monday) and I post every Thursday about my weekly Tangle (in the My Tangle Thursday series).

So yes, this following year will be busier than the previous one!!

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I want to conclude this post with an Happy Blogoversary to me... and a huge thank you to YOU ALL.
With your comments and support you fuel my passion for sewing and you gave me so much inspiration!! If you promise to keep the support going, I promise to keep sewing and sharing!!

Secret sewing, Test sewing (and a link party)

Again significant progress this week! I am on a roll!! :)

The List:

1. Pumpkin's play mat - general layout planned with the fabric I have left from the Mickey Mouse quilt!
2. the SK project - 1 block done (see below)
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - 2 blocks done (see below) 
4. Color of the Year challenge- 16/36 border mini-blocks done (cannot share)
5. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - second block done (see below)
6. Black and White pillow - second half done (see below)
7. Secret projects - 3 big + 2 small blocks done, 1 traced (cannot share the main ones, but the additional ones are shown below!)

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These are the latest blocks for the Tea Towel challenge/PPV BOM. They are the December blocks.
3 more blocks are missing and then border and the wall hanging top will be done! Very excited!!

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As mentioned last week, I have a new sewing machine... so I wanted to test the free motion quilting features that I didn't have in the previous machine (dropping feed dogs, larger quilting table, speed control). Since I don't like to make "useless" practice projects, I decided to join a Free Motion Quilting Challenge @ QuiltShopGal :)
There were many things I wanted to test with this project, so I adapted the project to my needs:

1. I wanted it to be a match with the Yin Yang pattern so I can make a pillow with it!
2. I wanted to use the pattern how variegated red thread looks on black and white fabric (I never used variegated thread before)
3. I wanted to see if I can do some FMQ without tracing. So I traced only the half of the heart on the white part, then mirroring the marked shapes
4. I needed to test the new setup (speed control, new space, etc) so I decided not to care at all if the stitches are not consistent or ugly :) just going with the flow and trying to enjoy the process was my goal.

So this is the result of my test:

I used the design that I saw on Joan's blog for the heart, and the one presented of 2012 challenge on quiltshopgal for the background. I really like the effect of the variegated thread both on the white and on the black. And I also like that the same color thread for the rest of the space: it adds texture without drawing the attention away from the center heart.

My FMQ skills need a lot of work, but I think I like the speed control of this new machine... still don't know how to use it properly but I have the feeling that in the long run it is going to be helpful! :)

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This is the second block from the QAL Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches!

POD 2015, week 2 (in my house colors)

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I started working on a secret project... and since it's secret I cannot share the main part of the project. But I needed some additional blocks to complement the main one, so I made these scrappy blocks. You will see how they are combined with the main block to create a fun finished object ;)
(Linking up at Oh, Scrap!)

(r and s pattern available at Fandom in Stitches)

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And finally another block for my SK project is ready.
Opening line of "The Waste Lands"

You can find the pattern on my The SK Project page.

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And now what are YOU going to link?

An InLinkz Link-up

Tutorial Series 2015 - Name revealed!

As we start unraveling the mystery around the series, where is the best place to start?

From the name of course!

The series will be called "Stretch Your Skills" or SYS (SYS2015).

What does it mean? Well, it means that we are going to learn new skills, try new techniques, hear about tips and tricks that we may not have known about!
We will push ourselves outside our comfort zone.
There will be plenty of things to learn for everyone (beginners and experts)!!

This is going to be our button!
If you want to spread the word, feel free to grab the code and include it on your blog!!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/p/tutorial-series-2015.html" title="Stretch Your Skills @ tweloquilting.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7mlGfdnONUY/VIuhBTByhvI/AAAAAAAAB60/soBg7KqCBfE/s320/ButtonSYS2015_small.png" alt="Stretch Your Skills @ tweloquilting.blogspot.com" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

But who is going to teach us all these new skills and techniques?
And which techniques am I talking about exactly?

More on that next week!!

If you are intrigued and you have not subscribed to our email list yet, feel free to stop by the SYS 2015 page and leave your contact information!

See you next week!

MOP Monday - I see the finish line!!

Many exciting progress from my side!!! 

-- MOP: The Xmas presents list --

1. Boxes of Rainbow (UO) - label done! (see below)

2. Topolino quilt (MPB) - 1 (big) block done (see below)
3. the Z quilt (CO) - quilted third section! with an helper (see below)
this is my project for Lovely Year of Finishes (Nov)

4. small pillow or table runner (VP) - no progress
5. convertible bag (IG) - no progress
6. coasters & table runner (MO) - 4 more coasters done! (but cannot share, see below)
7. something (SZ) - printed 2 patterns and picked the fabric!

Extras (because if I have tons of projects to finish I need to add some extras anyway O_o):
1. the SK project - 1 block designed

(Linking up at Let's Bee Social)

-- MOP: This week new blocks --

I quilted the top part of the quilt outlining the symbol and then doing some echo around it to make them look like lines in the sand of a zen garden

Obviously I was helped in tracing the quilting line by my special helper!

"It's a hard job, but someone has to do it" :)

"So how did I do?"

And for the first time ever, the label of this quilt is ready before the quilt!! :)
I designed this label for all my new quilts to acknowledge the great help of my special sewing assistant!
So I stitched one for my Rainbow quilt and one for my Z quilt!!

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The practice for the secret event that I am organizing for next year goes on!!
The pile of coasters doubled and one xmas present is almost complete ;)

More details are going to be revealed soon, I promise :)
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And I finally  completed one big big block for my Topolino quilt!
Topolino (Mickey Mouse in Italian) is also the name of the comic strip that I was reading every week when I was a kid (wiki says that "Topolino is an Italian digest-sized comic series featuring Disney comics"... that's the correct description ;) ).
Anyway this is the fonts/colors usually used in the cover of all my Topolini!

(10'' x 50'', pattern available here)

I also decided not to make all the block that I initially planned for this quilt because, let's face it, I want to have it done for THIS Xmas, not the next one :) so I will add just one more block and then start putting it together (into sections to quilt separately).

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And finally I can share with you the blocks I made for my Block Swap Partner of October (Agnes). She asked for a wonky house block with the crazies fabric I had: I went pretty crazy I think ;)


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And now, what are YOU going to link?? :)

An InLinkz Link-up

MOP Monday - Around The World Blog Hop

I have been tagged!
It's just great because this week I didn't have much progress to share so this tag comes at a perfect timing ;)
But remember to link up your progress at the end of this post because this is the last week of my trial linky party ;)

The wonderful person who tagged me is Susan @ TheBoredZombie.
To describe how wonderful she is I wanted to show you one of her projects, but I cannot pick just one because honestly, how can I?? There is an amazing Futurama quilt, a Pac-Man purse, an Addam's Candy Bag, pixelated quilts, Super Mario cross stitching, ... I mean, I could go on forever...
OK, I picked one, and it's my favorite just because I am a geek and geeks cannot resist to anything that have binary code on a black background!!! and in her tutorial she also provides a link to translate a secret message in binary code!! I mean, do I need to say more?!?!?!

Ok, so now a little about me :)

1. What am I working on?

A super secret event that may or may not involve one or none of the people that nominated me ;)
If everything goes as pictured in my mind, I suggest you to follow my blog in 2015 because there is going to be a lot to learn from many talented fellow bloggers!!

I am also working on encouraging people to share their crafty weekly progress with me!! So please check the linky party below and think about adding your last post there!

Oh, and did I forget to mention the 4 quilts (out of which only one top is done) that I need to get done for Xmas? And probably  a couple of bags too :) well if you want to know more, just check my previous post below! you will find a lot of pictures of my WIPs ;)

And I started some to draw some Zentagles! This may or may not be connected to the super secret event as well... in some way... maybe ;)

These are my first ever zentangles... some are nice, some are less nice but I am learning, because there are no mistakes in zentangles! :)

(Pages of my Zentangle journal. On each page, on the right there is the main pattern in "basic" shapes, while on the left there are variations in terms of color, shapes, scale, etc. I really like playing around with these!!). If you want to see more details, click the picture and you should be able to see it more closely!!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? 
3. Why do I write/create what I do? 
4. How does my writing/creating process work?

Let's answer to all those questions together!
My work differs from others just because I am a big fan of some specific themes from my childhood and not everyone likes the same things! and I create patterns starting from those images/quotes and I share them all for free on this blog!
My most recent works are revolving around Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Alice in Wonderland and Stephen King.

And let me conclude by saying two things about me that maybe you don't know (but please don't sue me for those):
1. I don't like solids. I cannot work with solids, they are just "boring" to me. Not in the final piece, they may be perfect for the final look of a block, but while I am sewing, I need to see some fun prints to keep me going, otherwise I would never be able to finish a single block!
2. I don't like quilting :) ok, then my blog name looks weird right? well when I started I thought that quilting was "piecing" not "quilting-quilting" :) but now it's too late to change my blog name and maybe it will become true one day ;)

And these are my tags:

Jennifer @ Sewhooked (or @ Fandom In Stitches)

(Trick or Treat Sue)

Jennifer is the reason why I started sewing!! I was looking for a pattern for a fandom pillow and I discover one of her sites (Fandom In Stitches) and paper piecing. Since then I never stopped stitching!! :) Jennifer has been creating fandom quilt patterns since 2005. She is a designer, crafter, webmistress and instructor. She is best known for her Harry Potter Paper Piecing effort, her many designs at Sewhooked and for her weekly inspirational craft vlog, Talk To Me Tuesday. She is an amazing woman, that on top of all her crafts, also coordinates many charity efforts for fans in difficult times.

Esther @ ipatchandquilt

Esther is an art teacher from the Netherlands and she designs very fun paper piecing patterns (that I had the chance to test once) and she is a very talented quilter! I am so jealous of her quilting skills (see my previous comment about not liking quilting ;) ).

Kristel @ wipgirl

Kristel is another great inspiration for me because she has an amazing taste in fabric, she is incredibly talented (just check the fun pouch above!! Do I need to say more??) and she also shares her progress in the Talk To Me Tuesday community. You should check out her work, because she has so many amazing projects going on!!

And finally, please remember that this is my last trial week for the linky party... and the previous 3 ones passed the test, but is it this one do it too? It's up to you!! :)

Let the game finish (trial linky party, week 4 :) )

An InLinkz Link-up