wip Wednesday - Pretty star

I need a name for this block pattern I'm working on for the SewLux Christmas tutorials with SewLuxFabric.

It will be up tomorrow morning... right now, the top contender is "Pretty Star." :)

I had a different plan, but this felt more inspired. 

I do not love paper piecing, so I needed to test the pattern to write it up, and figure out the cutting sizes, etc. 

I had this pretty stack I was really anxious to use...

Gah! See??? Pretty star. :)

It took me 3 quadrants to get measurements I was happy with, so I would only need to cut once. :)

Now to stitch it up in this pile! See you tomorrow morning! :)

Christmas in July

I'm happy to announce I'll be participating in a little Christmas in July sew along with Sew Lux Fabric.

I will be working with this beautiful bundle of 25th and Pine

And here is my inspiration for my tutorial! Won't this make the cutest Christmas pillow?

Here's a little more info!

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While the holidays arrive at the same time each and every year, it never fails that they seem to sneak up on so many of us.  Our goal with this series is to help you get a jump on your holiday sewing by sharing tutorials as well as providing an opportunity to link up your projects and win some great prizes !  Like last year, we've enlisted the help of some friends who will be working with one of six different Christmas in July bundles and preparing a fun holiday tutorial for the series.

With bundles from designers like Kate Spain, Basic Grey, Gina Martin and more there's something for everyone!   And this week you can save 10% on all of our featured Christmas in July Bundles with coupon code NICELIST.  Offer ends 7/13/14.

Here's our Schedule of Events for the Series:

• July 7th - Series Announcement & Bundle Sale
• July 14th - Solstice Wreath Mini Tutorial (See that cute wreath in our series button image? We'll show you how to make it here on the Sew Lux Blog!)
• July 21st - Sewing with Winter Wonderland - Lee of May Chappell
• July 22nd - Sewing with Be Jolly - Chrissy of Sew Lux
• July 23rd - Sewing the Folk Art Holiday - Sarah of Stitching & Bacon AND Megan of Quilt Story
• July 24th - Sewing with 25th & Pine - Tessa of The Sewing Chick AND Tracey of traceyjay quilts
• July 25th - Sewing with Solstice - Christen of Love by Hand AND Stephanie of Quarter Incher
• July 21-August 4th - Linky open to link up your projects
• August 5th - Winner Announced

Sew with Us!

To encourage you all to also get a start on your holiday sewing, we're offering up some prizes!  All you have to do is make a project using one of the tutorials from the series and link it up by August 4th!  You can use a bundle or fabric from your stash - it only has to use one of our 9 tutorials from this series!

Prizes

There will be two winners chosen at random and announced on August 5th. International friends are welcome to participate - your prize will be included with your shipment upon redeeming your gift certificate.

• Grand Prize: $50 gift certificate to Sew Lux Fabric, a set of 6 You're Sew Nice cards, and an assortment of three patterns by May Chappell
• 1st Prize: $25 gift certificate to Sew Lux Fabric, a set of 6 You're Sew Nice cards, and a pattern by May Chappell

Who's excited?!

Happy Sewing! :-)

Cotton + Steel 10" square swap sign-up!

All Full!
If you filled out the form, you are in (as long as you buy your fabric and pay shipping & handling). :)

It is time to sign up for the Cotton + Steel swap! 
(Note: Just filling out your form doesn't guarantee anything - I will be in contact to finalize things, and I'll close form when we're full)

This is your registration link here.

How the swap works:

1) Fill out your registration form. I will close it when slots are filled.

2) Buy your fabric from our sponsoring shop, Intrepid Thread. (you are not buying a specific print -- all prints will be covered from her. To participate in this swap, you must pre-order through Intrepid Thread)

*I will provide Julie with a shipping list; only people who are registered for the swap will receive fabric from this listing.

3) Send your shipping & handling payment.

4) US people: Get your fabric and cut it and send it back to Tracey Jacobsen (address will be provided of course).

5) Int'l people: Wait patiently and smile.

6) Receive your Cotton + Steel layer cake!


Terms of this swap:
EVERYONE:
- Pre-order 5 yards of a single Cotton + Steel quilting cotton print from our sponsoring shop Intrepid Thread. Her price (link below) includes a 10% discount and shipping in the price. She is reserving 5 yards of each print so that all of them will be covered. I will try to give you one of your top 3 picks, but it might not happen -- first come, first served!

US participants:
Cut your fabric in to 68 squares, 10" x 10". Mail them to Tracey within 2 weeks of receiving them (dates will be announced when the shipment comes in). Pay Tracey $12 shipping & handling through paypal, check, or cash. You will not receive any fabric back until shipping & handling have been paid. Shipping will be via priority flat-rate padded envelope.

Canadians:
Pre-order your fabric and it will be shipped to Tracey Jacobsen to cut. Pay Tracey $30.00 for cutting + shipping & handling back to you via Priority flat-rate padded envelope.

Other International friends:
Pre-order your fabric and have it shipped to Tracey Jacobsen to cut. Pay Tracey $33.00 to cover cutting + shipping & handling back to you via Priority flat-rate padded envelope.

Everyone promises to play nice and keep in communication with Tracey if there is a need to. You also promise not to post anything rude about traceyjay quilts or Intrepid Thread if there is an issue, but let them know and trust that we will work it out together.

Disclaimer from traceyjay: My home is smoke-free; however, I do have one dog. I will vacuum before I sort all the piles, but be aware that a stray hair may find its way to you. My plan is to have everything shipped back to you within 1-2 weeks of receiving all the fabric. In order to maintain consistency, I will not do any sorting until I have received all 68 prints, and plan to make all the piles in one sitting.

To summarize:
You must order through Intrepid Thread for this swap.

You can send the money to me through paypal via the "send money" link.

I will post here when we reach 68 people!

I hope I've covered everything! :)

- Tracey

Gauging interest?

*ATTENTION -- SIGN-UPS ARE HERE ON JULY 2 AT 9 AM PST!*

I am considering organizing a 10" square swap of all the Cotton + Steel prints, and gauging interest ahead of time. It would involve the quilting cottons only from the designers' individual collections, which you can see here. 

Comment below if you're interested, and more details will follow if it looks like we can get 68 people to play along!!! :)

what am I thinking??? Not sure... ;)

stashing - Dowry from i don't do dishes

I knew I would get it as soon as I came out.

This is Anna Maria Horner's new line, Dowry. And I was so happy to have snatched up a bundle from Caitlin at idon'tdodishes.



That Anna Maria knows how to do color so beautifully!



Caitlin sent me the bundle all stacked together so pretty; it was almost hard to untie it.



While I was there, I picked up some of the Bluebird Park textures too. I love them. :)



It has been a week around here... big ups and downs that have left me utterly grateful.

And speaking of grateful, I wanted to say thank you for those who voted on my Roundhouse quilt... it won a viewer's choice award at the Blogger's Quilt Festival. So thank you!

Hopefully I'll be back over here soon.

I have two quilts I have to finish before I get to keep playing with these (planning to add my Dowry FQ's in here), but I'm considering making it a quilt-a-long. But only if I can finish it first. Because I have learned too much about quilt-a-longs and myself and that I have to have the quilt finished before I make it a quilt-a-long. So maybe I'll just do a block tutorial instead. ;)

WIP Wednesday: more treasure boxes

I have another custom quilt I'm working on.
In purples, with a splash of aqua and yellow.

This will be a slightly modified Treasure Boxes design, where I plan to off-set the rows and I sized the blocks to finish at 11" each. The little owner of this quilt will be turning two shortly after Scarlet, so I need to hurry!

I caught my little lady trying to help me finish it up. :)

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It's still harvest time here, and the harvesters keep breaking down (sad!)... so it's been a little stressful around here. I do what most quilters do when they get stressed -- buckle down and finish something... pull pretty fabric and start something new!

At the retreat I went on a couple weeks ago, Amanda let me sleep with her velveteen backed quilt. And I needed one of my own. ♥

No idea on the design yet... got any suggestions? I want it to be a wintery quilt... hmmm...

Linking to Lee's!
and listening to this.

crazy fabric love Friday

Oh my goodness.

I didn't know this was going to show up at my house yesterday. But I was pretty happy (happy being a total understatement and trying to figure out how I could send my kids to their grandma's two weekends in a row)... ;)


These are the True Colors fabrics from Free Spirit fabrics' new line of blenders (they'll have them at Market and I believe they're being released in November). These are the lines from Anna Maria Horner and Joel Dewberry, and they are the most magical fabric thing I've seen in a long time. Seriously. I've got an upcoming design that will be featured in American Quilter, and these were the fabric line my heart was set on to make the quilt, and they are here!

Here they are by print:

and in color order:

And the ones from AMH (who I like to think I have a bond with because she's held my daughter)...

See? Magical. ♥

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Something I DID know was coming yesterday was a really fabulous order from Julie at The Intrepid Thread.  I probably would have resisted had I known the True Colors fabrics would arrive so swiftly, but I'm glad I didn't. Next weekend, I'll be heading to the SewOn Retreat, and I needed something to work with (such a lie - I have plenty, but Heather Bailey is my other favorite, and she hasn't released a new line for so long, so I *had* to get these).

There's a FQ bundle of Lottie Da, some of Leah Duncan's Tule, a few blenders from Acacia and Bungalow, and some Koi. All so pretty.

Disclosure: I'm not getting paid to blog any of this by Free Spirit, American Quilter, or The Intrepid Thread. Free Spirit graciously supplied the fabric for my upcoming design (thank you!!!). I have a side pattern editing gig with American Quilter magazine, and if you have any questions about submitting your own designs with them, and partnering with fabric companies to make the quilt, feel free to email me! I'd be happy to answer questions or get you in contact with my wonderfully upbeat, gracious, and fun editor Michele.

Happy weekend! It's harvest time around here... so that part about wanting to drop off my kids with Grandma... that was all true. 

Though I bet I'd miss them as soon as I dropped them off. The little loves. ♥ ♥

(My kids don't pay me either...but they are lovely little creatures)

WIP Wednesday - big crushes

The kids got to go see their grandma last weekend, and I was all by myself for most of Friday.

I woke up, knew Jay would be going to work, and thought to myself, "I can do whatever I want today."

That "whatever I want," turned in to turning those low volume squares I cut previously in to some background blocks, and getting started on what would become these. (All while watching a Harry Potter marathon -- not sure what it says about me that all I wanted to do for my free time was some scrappy sewing and HP watching).

There are twenty-five of them.
The colors, from the top left and snaking through the rows (and yes, I had fun naming them):
wine, red, cerise, hot pink, candy pink, pink, peachy coral (x2), tangerine, orange, goldenrod, sunshine yellow, mustard yellow, lime green, kelly green, mint green, ice blue, aqua, teal, blue, periwinkle, lavender, mauve, grape, and plum.

Oh I have such a crush on them.  They will be combined with some low volume prints and make me happy.

Though you should see the mess of stash I have to fold and organize now!  Ufta! (Not to mention the big pile of laundry that was neglected, but that's fairly normal around here unfortunately).

You can see up close pictures of most of them in my flickr set.

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I also got a little more fabric.
I have a big crush on this new line, The Sweet Life, from Cori Dantini (for Blend fabrics.)  I got my prints from Theresa at The Meandering Thread. (There's also a Collage print that snuck in at the bottom of the stack).



They're so artsy and pretty.  And have great panels. (You can find them here.)

I need to think of something to do with them. :)

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Winner of the Roundhouse template and magazine is Diane!  (I'll need your address)

And linking to Lee's!

(And one more cute picture, just for fun.  The little man and little miss were watching Scooby Doo together) ♥

Big crushes I tell you.

This and that and a giveaway...

Thank you for all the love and support on my Roundhouse Quilt!
I got my copy of the magazine in the mail last week, and it was a really good feeling.  I think my favorite was how excited my husband was to get the magazine, or showing the picture to Steiger and asking him if he recognized anything (because you can bet that he's running around in the background of all my quilty photo shoots).  He sheepishly said, "That's Mommy's quilt." Making an all Anna Maria Horner spectrum quilt was on my quilty "bucket list," so it was extra exciting to be able to publish it.  And I really love the pattern too.



I have a few extra copies of the magazine to sell with the templates that are up in my little shop.

The cover quilt, made by Amy Friend, is amazing! I just love her creativity here!



I want to give away a copy of the magazine and a template.  If you'd like to enter - leave a comment here!  Pin the Roundhouse (or share on facebook or be a follower) for an extra entry.



Can you believe I hadn't bought any fabric since April?  (I checked and double-checked my statements to confirm that!)  But then placed a few orders to celebrate.  And then I think I might have got a case of "one yard is too many, and twenty aren't enough."

Here is a FQ bundle of Anna Maria's re-released Hand Drawn Garden (you can get it here from Beth at Stash Modern Fabrics, or from Amanda at Westwood Acres).  The social climber is one of my favorite prints; I'm going to need to get yardage to make something with that (or back a quilt or something).  And I actually used a lot of my AMH stash to make my Roundhouse quilt.  It *clearly* needed a bit of replenishing.



I also got this great bundle from Beth at Stash Modern Fabrics today.  Mostly Briar Rose and a Squared Elements, with a couple others thrown in.  I LOVE this stack, and plan to use some of it this weekend.





So pretty!  This is why I quilt! I can't help myself!

I have been loving my little pattern editing gig with American Quilter, but one down side is that it takes most of my sewing time.  But I'm all caught up on assignments, and this weekend I plan to do some sewing.  I took this pile of low volume background pieces outside this week to cut while the kiddos were playing (I love doing that - and p.s. most of these came from Amanda at Westwood Acres).



Hopefully I'll have something to show you soon with these!  That's the plan at least!  (Along with a couple custom quilts, a couple patterns to write... you know the drill!) ♥

Anyway - if you'd like to enter to win a copy of the August/September American Quilter magazine, with an acrylic Roundhouse template, don't forget to leave a comment!  (Or you can just buy one).

And have a great weekend!

♥ Tracey

Hello.... Happy Mail.

The mailman was good to me the last couple days. ♥ ♥

I don't know what it is about this line exactly, but I couldn't get it out of my head. It's called Hello Gorgeous (by Iza Pearl for Windham fabrics), and I just liked it.  And had to have some.

I had no specific plans with this line, but the colors were so pretty, and I like the flowers.

I thought worst case, they'd make cute clothes for Scarlet.

I haven't quite finished this (it still needs something for the bodice), but I added this little ruffle to a t-shirt for Scarlet (she's tall for her age, and when she bends over, her shirts come up too high, ruffles solve this problem).

Tutorial coming soon!  I already took the pictures!

Still trying to decide what to do with the top.  I was thinking of appliqueing one of the big flowers on there, but am worried of what else it might resemble. :-/  So maybe I'll do something 3-d or something.  It'll probably need a hair bauble too.

I got my Hello Gorgeous from Sprightly Fabrics (coupon code 'Welcome' for their new dot com site!) and Beth at Stash Modern Fabric.  

While I was at it, I added a few of these Art Gallery blenders (also from Sprightly Fabrics).  

I got one more piece of happy mail today.

These are some promotional copies I got from the Editor of this magazine.  

They've decided to give me a go as an assistant pattern editor.  (!!!!!) 

I've got started on my first couple patterns, and it makes me feel smart and a little slow at the same time.  But I usually end up feeling smart by the end so I think that's good.  I'm really excited.  And SO grateful!  And still pretty much in awe that I have an official "job" in something quilting related!  

And no, I still can't believe it.  :)  I just hope I can do them proud.  (and P.S.  -- even though a lot of the patterns in here might be done in different fabric choices than I customarily make, there are some awesome designs!  And it's really a great deal for a lot of patterns.  The paper is shiny too if you feel like checking it out.  They also give you access to all their past digital copies when you're a member, which is pretty cool!). ;)

I'm going to leave you with an excerpt from the new editor, Michele Duffy (some of you might know her from here) that makes me really excited to be a part of this magazine.  After she gave some great analogies about people like Renoir, Picasso, and Klee and their styles, she summarized with this:  "We are a textile art community and, as such, have the choice to honor, respect, support, and encourage one another, even when we don't hold the same opinion or style... In the end, we are all quilters, we are all artists, and we all create from a place within ourselves..."

I just really like that.  

(and I hope it was OK I put it here Michele!  I'll ask next time, but you're 3 hours ahead of me, and hopefully not still at the office!)

All stages of WIPs

First up --

All my patterns and templates are on sale for 20% off until Monday in my little pattern shop or on Craftsy.
I also still have a giveaway going for my Cosmic pattern and templates bundle. If you'd like to enter, go here!

Yesterday, Krista at Poppyprint Creates blogged the Cosmic star block she made, and let me borrow her picture.  She used Lipari shot cottons, and different colors, and her results are quite stunning (not to mention her points; I can't tell you how relieved I was that the templates worked for someone other than me). ;)  

photo: Krista at Poppyprint Creates

It's quite a different look than all one print, and so inspiring!

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Now for the rest of my WIP report!  I've got one day left this month to finish my "Just Three" goals!

Still though, I find myself going in quite a few directions...

In the almost completed stage, I've got just a few more inches of binding left to stitch down on my "Starcrossed" quilt!

I'm piecing a stack of soft and pretty star blocks from Fig Tree's new Avalon line.

Something new - I've pulled a new stack and started diagramming!  The palette was inspired by this super cute book that Kelly sent me!

Linking to Lee's! :)

Sprightly Fabrics

Just a little FYI --

Sprightly Fabrics is a new little sponsor around here, and they are having a sale through tomorrow!  If you use the coupon code "Turkey" (from their facebook page), you get an additional 10% off their (already good) sale prices!

I got some of this pretty Flouressence print,

and I think I want some of this new Notting Hill plaid.  (They also have the whole bundle for a great deal too.)

I also love shopping at their little shop "I Felt Sprightly" for supplies for Scarlet's little hair baubles.  The fold-over elastic is so nice for headwraps (soft and colorful too!), and I have bought their die-cut felt pieces too.  It makes personal little hair accessories super easy!  (I have a few I'm working on right now, and I'm hoping to type up a little tutorial!)

We are in crazy cleaning mode at our house right now, including Mommy's sewing/fabric supplies.  

At least this kind of cleaning is pretty. ♥

My Treasure Boxes top is almost done, and I'll be posting the link-up!  I apologize for the delay... everything takes longer around here than I anticipate... 

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  and here is a little gratuitous picture of the two little people I am most grateful for.  (that one on the left -- she has started walking ALL OVER, by the way.)