EQ7 Winner

How I wish I could give each and everyone of you a prize, your comments were great!

As of this moment 'Apricots' is winning by 11%. Here's the link again so you can check out the results.





Yesterday I played some more with EQ7. I registered for the FREE online BOTM class on Craftsy by Amy Gibson. One of her February blocks is made with HST's and you know how they are my favorite thing to use in quilting, I knew I just had to make a chunky chevron quilt using the block she showed us.  I wanted to see how it would look in the color and size I wanted to make so I plugged it into my EQ7. Here's my finished result. The colors are much brighter, I'm going to use the Crazy Daisy fabric I ordered from FQS a while ago. There's so much that you can do with the program.

And just for fun I did this same design in the Quilt Design Wizard pretty easily too. The QDW is a great first step to use.

Now for the winner of the EQ7 program...

Here are your random numbers:

53 

Timestamp: 2012-03-27 16:57:40 UTC

Congrats to Leah! you are number 53 and the winner of the EQ7 program! Leah has a quilting blog called Leah @ L3 Designs and does some great work.

Come back tomorrow for the continuation of my blog anniversary celebration with a goodie from Fat Quarter Shop. To get you ready for your entry tomorrow check out the FQS's It's Sew Emma patterns. Come back tomorrow to see how you can get in on the fun!

Thanks again to EQ for taking part in my blog anniversary celebration!

Where have I been?

I hate when bloggers apologize for being absent on their blog and yet I find that I have been absent too long. All I can say is that life got in the way.

For those of  you that have emailed me, I appreciate you looking out for me :) I am fine now and will start blogging again this week starting tomorrow with some Fat Quarter Shop fun and the announcement of the winner of the EQ7 package.

Till tomorrow

Disappearing 9 Patch and EQ

If you are looking for the EQ7 giveaway click here!

On my last post I showed you some Disappearing 9 Patch quilts I made. Then I remembered this wonderful charm pack of California Girl by Fig Tree that I got and knew that I had to use those wonderful charms for a Disappearing 9 Patch project. Plus I have the cutest mini charm pack of California Girl to use for this also. I don't have enough for a big quilt, but I am playing around with some other blocks to add to this project from other Fig Tree lines.

What would a project be without some kind of tutorial from me? And given that the series for the week is EQ7 I got some more play time with my computer as well.

One of the great things about EQ7 is the ability to bring in your own fabric swatches that you need. It's great to have that ability to really see what the block or quilt will look like. I imported the California Girl fabric swatches and had tons of fun with it.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt. Note - I am thinking of putting all my tutorials on a separate blog to make the tutorials easier to find, what do you think of that idea?

Stay tuned for my finished Cali Girl quilt :) and a giveaway of a California Girl charm pack!

If you are looking for the EQ7 Giveaway click here!

Yesterday I went to the monthly meeting of Quilt Sitters at The Berry Patch. It's held the 2nd Saturday of each month from 1:00 - 3:00. My friend Gail leads it, she shows us different blocks and ways to use them in quilts. There's always lots of eye candy from Gail and others. Yesterday it was rainy and dreary and was the beginning of Spring break here so lots of people were missing, but I'm sure everyone will be back next month.

Yesterday we saw how to make a disappearing 9 patch quilt and lots of different ways to use the blocks. The first quilt I ever made was from a pattern called "Tossed Nine Patch" from Eleanor Burns. It took me a while to realize that it was really a disappearing 9 patch made with the same center block. Here's a pic of it and another quilt that I made with the pattern after that. You will notice that all the corner squares are green in the wall hanging. I have this hanging in my living room to show me where I started from. The seams don't all match (very few do) and I had no idea what 'stitch in the ditch' meant so I quilted a quarter inch away from the ditch. On the quilt below I used a white for the corner squares.

Here's another Disappearing 9 Patch quilt I made last year. My son Bryan stole this and rumor has it he can be seen cuddled under it a lot. I made this one scrappy and is the quilt I use for my background on this blog.

Every year Quilt Sitters picks a project to work on. Last year was a Border Round Robin that looked like lots of fun, I started too late to get in on the fun, but loved seeing every ones work. This year we are making Quilts of Valor. At last count they were over 300 quilts behind their goal. Gail showed us a wonderful patriotic quilt that was actually started on September 11, 2001. The group she was with had planned to start a patriotic quilt that day. Here's a pic of her quilt.

Isn't it great? Here's my friend Julie with the block she made from last months block pattern. She made one for the Quilt of Valor and one for a Baby Quilt we are making for Project Linus.

Then came the eye candy. Here's some of the quilts our members made.

So that's what I did yesterday. What did you do?

Blog Anniversary Give Away #1

Announcing the first of several great giveaways for the month!


As many of you have guessed the first giveaway is your very own EQ7! I know everyone wants to get their hands on this gem of a program and here's how you can get in the drawing.

You must be a follower of Craizee Corners to enter, but you don't get an entry for that (I can check very easily), it's just a pre-requisite.

For your entry go to the Fabric of the Month page on the EQ7 site and vote for your favorite palette, then come back here and tell me which one you voted for. Simple as that...no jumping thru hoops with a bunch of ways to enter.

And while you are there why not check out the other fun things EQ offers to go along with the program.

This giveaway will end on March 13th at 11:59 PM. I will call Tyler the next morning and ask him to pick a number randomly for the winner, it only seems fitting that he be Mr. Random for this giveaway since it is his quilt, Floating Squares, that I showcased earlier. 

Thanks to the Electric Quilt Company for celebrating my blog anniversary with me! Be sure to check out my blog post on the Quilting Design Wizard
So get to voting and good luck!

My EQ7 Adventure

Yesterday Sally shared some things she came up with when playing around with EQ7 and today it's my turn.

One of the things I love the most about EQ7 is the ability to take the same block or blocks and manipulate them different ways to decide on what you like best.

When I was designing the Floating Squares Quilt for my son I knew I wanted to use bowties and 4 patches. I wanted it to be an easy pattern to make. But that was the only thing I knew. So I started out with every other block a 4 patch and every other block a bowtie. Then I added a little color based on what colors I know he likes. It was as simple as coloring in the blocks. There's this wonderful function in EQ7 that lets you color in all the blocks at the same time or every other block at the same time. So after a few key strokes here's what I had.

When I started out I had no idea this was how it would look but I knew I was onto something Tyler would like.

Another thing that is great about the software is that you can move your blocks in different directions very easily and you can change the blocks slightly. Here's a few ways I played with the design

Using connectors on all corners



Opposite colors

Different Colors

Girl colors



After seeing all these choices I knew which design I liked best and luckily Tyler agreed. The rest fell into place. I added 2 borders and had my design. I do my own quilt math since I usually make my blocks a little different, and this one was very easy.

I also knew that I wanted to make this in girl colors at some point (It's almost finished by the way).

Here's my finished quilt

Since Tyler goes to school in Baltimore I knew this had to be a warm quilt. I backed it with flannel and its very warm, he loves it. By the way it's not really crooked, I just didn't pin it on that side.

Stay tuned for my first giveaway announcement later today!

 

Today a friend of mine is visiting to kick off the EQ7 part of the celebration! Last month I helped Sally transfer files from the Quilt Design Wizard to a JPEG file and when I saw here beautiful quilt designs I knew I had to have her visit Craizee Corners. She has some great new designs to show you and guess what? She is working on her very first pattern too. So make sure to visit her blog Sally's Quilting Corner often to see whats shes up to!


Hi quilters my friend Sharon at Craizee Corners has reason to celebrate. Her blog is one year old...She sure has had an exciting yr... All of her creations are so beautiful and the talent, well what could I say about her talent that everyone else hasn't already said...She graciously asked me to come visit her blog and tell her what I like about EQ7 because she is celebrating EQ7 week. Well I have a copy of Quilt Design Wizard and love it, but there are limitations then I was very lucky to get the EQ7 program and just love it!!!  The fabric selection along with the colors alone can be overwhelming because there are so many possibilities to work with... Then you get into designing your patterns with the block library and all I have to say is  OH BOY!!! I have been playing a lot with this program and I have created a few things that need some editing, but I thought I would share... Let me know what you think... I can't imagine if they add an update to this program, I may have to change careers...
The first pattern I created was from Quilt Design Wizard but I reconfigured things and created it on EQ7, and this is what I came up with. I called this wall quilt Crossflower Boxes. I think for my first one it didn't turn out too bad... What do you think...

Photo is the property of sallysquiltingcorner.blogspot.com and copying is prohibited, March 2012

Photo is the property of sallysquiltingcorner.blogspot.com and copying is prohibited, March 2012

Photo is the property of sallysquiltingcorner.blogspot.com and copying is prohibited, March 2012



These photos and design is owned by

www.sallysquiltingcorner.blogspot.com and copying of this photo is prohibited. March 2012.

I would like to thank Sharon for inviting me to share her excitement about the blog birthday and about celebrating EQ7 week... I hope you all have a good time seeing my creations.

Aren't those designs great? I know that I plan on making the Crossflower Boxes quilt as soon as the pattern is available. I'm thinking of using bright batiks, what do you think?

So now that you have seen the first special post of the month can you guess one of the things for the giveaway? I'll be posting how to win it tomorrow so stay tuned!

Fun With The Other Wives

Today is my stop on the Farmers Wife In Your Life Blog Hop! The challenge was to make something other than a quilt with at least 1 farmers wife block. I immediately knew what I was going to make...a zipper bag. I can never have enough of them and love giving them as gifts filled with goodies. And the best part is that I brought a friend along on this hop :)

I am a member of the new Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild and have met some great gals there. So I invited my new guild friend January, who blogs at Sew Sew Go,  to make a bag with me. It was a lot of fun teaching her how to make a bag, I don't know who was more excited to see her finished bag. And it was a pleasure since she is a very fast learner. Please make sure to visit her blog, you won't be sorry.

Since I have already done a tutorial on making a zipper bag in January, here's a link to the tutorial.

The only thing I changed is that I put a 1.5" border on the sides of the FW block, a 2" border on the top and a 2.5" on the bottom. This worked perfectly and the entire FW block is shown on the front without losing any of  the block to a seam allowance or the gusset.

Now for the eye candy. Here's the bag January made. She only had 7" zippers (lesson learned...always buy a zipper at least 14" long since you can always cut it down) so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out the quilt math. Once we had the border sizes correct it was a piece of cake. I just love how she fussy cut the top border, isn't is great?

And here's my bag

and a close up of the decorative stitching I did. I just love all the fancy stitches my Bernina can do and try to use them as often as possible.

This bag is going to quilting classes, retreats and sewing dates. It is going to be for my rotary cutters and scissors since my other bag is getting full.

I'd like to thank Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother for inviting me to be part of this fun blog hop. Make sure to check out all the other great projects from the other hoppers and to hop on board yourself on March 24th when the linky party begins. She has some great prizes!

Twist Along...The Big Finish!

Hi fellow Twisters! How did you do last week? From the great pics on the flickr page I think you all had fun twisting and have that move pretty much down pat now...good job!

This week we will be putting the outside border on. It's totally optional and a great way to increase the size a bit. I did a tutorial on how to add borders to a quilt during week 2 of the Twist Along which can be found here.

Don't forget to add your pics to the flickr page, I love seeing the quilts!

A Month to Celebrate!

This month I will be celebrating 2 things. First is my baby becoming legal! When did that happen? It seems like he was just a baby in my arms. The second thing is that on March 28th Craizee Corners will be 1 years old! I can hardly believe it. When I started I had no idea what I was doing and if I would ever connect with anyone. So to all the Craizee Corner friends thanks for sticking with me. I hope you have enjoyed the blog and will continue to enjoy it.

To celebrate the anniversary of Craizee Corners I have a busy month planned. There will be prizes...big ones and lots of eye candy from me and some friends too. And of course there will be tutorials and a new pattern by months end. I will also be guest blogging and blog hopping from time to time :). To start out the month I am taking part in the Farmers Wife in Your Life Blog Hop. Yes I know I divorced my 'farmer' a long time ago, but I got him to help me one last time for this event. For the divorce papers see here :) 

Farmer's Wife in Your Life is a series inspired by The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird. The series will focus on using 6" quilt blocks in everyday sewing projects. 

Here's the schedule:

March 4-Sunni is guest-posting on Jolly Jabber 

March 5-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 6-Craizee Corners 

March 7-Lilypad Quilting 

March 8-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 9-Clover & Violet 

March 12-Mommy for Reals
March 13-A Colorful Life 

March 14-It's Sew Kiki 

March 15-Lilypad Quilting 

March 16-Why Not Sew? Quilts 

March 19-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 20-Echinops & Aster

March 21-Life's Rich Pattern

March 22-Ellison Lane Quilts

March 23-Love Affair with my Brother

For more info visit Love Affair With My Brother, there's prizes and a linky party too!

Come back tomorrow to see what I did with my Farmers Wife block. I might even have a friend along for the ride :)

I was a Wild Thing!

Last weekend I attended a 2 day class at The Berry Patch. We made a pattern called The Wild Thing by Villa Rosa Designs. I don't have much experience with big prints, to me when you cut them in smaller pieces they are scrappier than I like. But in the interest of expanding my quilting horizon I decided to step out of my comfort zone and I am so glad that I did!

I had this fun fabric sitting around that is a very big and bold print, which was perfect for this quilt. It was pretty fast to put together, definitely could be done in a day.

There were 4 of us in the class and 3 of us finished our quilt tops. The other gal would have but she had to leave early. Hers was made for a little one and I just know it will be adorable. Here's the quilts that the rest of us made.

This is the sample quilt that Gail made. Seeing this made me want to take this class. Gail's classes are always great, if you in in the Fort Worth area you should take a class at the Berry Patch.

Here's the quilt Mindy made for her Grand Niece. Aren't these colors fun? I just love the focus fabric, well I love everything from Me & My Sister.

The new gal, Jennifer made this beautiful quilt. This is only her second quilt and I think she did great. I can see that she has a lot of wonderful quilts in her future.

And here's my Wild Thing quilt. I am going to call it 'Wild Weekend'

When I got home and showed this to my hubby he loved it. I was surprised that he was so Craizee about it since it's so bright, but that's what he liked about it. That man never ceases to amaze me, here I was thinking that he liked muted colors better. I still need to put a border on it and then I will get to play with it on the long arm. I will either do some swirls on it or I might do diagonals on my Bernina instead. Which do you prefer? 

Come back tomorrow to help me celebrate my 1 year blog anniversary, I promise to have lots of fun ahead.

Not So Scrappy

A few weeks ago Jess & Jo from Bloomerie sent me a six pack of fat eighths in the most wonderful color combination.

The challenge was to create something with these six F8s to show what can be made. This challenge was perfect for me since I have been working on being a bit more scrappy.
That F8 bundle sat and sat in my to do basket until yesterday. I am not ashamed to admit that little bundle of happiness was petrifying me. Then all of a sudden I had a moment of clarity. The quilt pattern that I make with jelly rolls that I have no plan for is the Jelly Roll Race quilt. I wasn't even sure of what the finished size would be, but that didn't scare me. Of course I could have figured it out by doing quilt math, but where's the fun in that?

I cut the strips 2" instead of 2.5" and got 4 - 2" x 21" strips from each F8. When I sewed them end to end I tried to be as scrappy as possible for me. Then I filled a bobbin and off to the races I went. I started the race at 10:51 and finished it at 11:38 including a 4 minute call from my son. and I sew very slowly, although if you have ever taken a class with me you would not think that. For some reason when I am in class I get nervous and sew very fast and haphazardly, but that's a story for another time.

So here's the finished product. The finished size is 24" x 29". It's a little big for a table runner, but perfect for a table topper when we have company and I use the covered desk as a sideboard.

I had planned on doing some free motion quilting on this yesterday, but for some reason the BSR is not working. I have been to the store 3 times to make sure I know how to use it and the foots just not working so off to the store I will go today. They are wonderful at The Berry Patch and I am sure that they will fix me right up :)

I'd like to thank Bloomerie for letting me take part in this fun challenge.

Stay tuned this month for lots of excitement. It's Craizee Corners 1 year anniversary and some of my friends will be around to help me celebrate in a big way!