Around the World Blog Hop

I'm excited to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop! I've seen several bloggers I follow get tagged and if it came to me I knew exactly who I was going to tag. Well, she tagged me! The lovely Izzy of Dizzy Quilts is my partner in the Supernova Friendship Swap. Izzy and I have participated in several of the same quilt-a-longs and it's been fun to follow her and develop a friendship with someone I've never met in a part of the world I've never been.

So the blog hop has four questions I'm supposed to answer so here goes...

1. What am I working on?

- So I used to be a monogamous quilter. I wouldn't even look at other fabric let alone buy any until my current project was completely bound. Well, now I'm no longer faithful to any one project. I've come to appreciate the ability to sew my wild oats, so to speak. You can see my Q3 FAL list on the side of my blog here. They are linked when complete. At the start of this quarter these were all the projects that I had everything I needed to complete them - including binding and backing fabric.

This is my current project. A pixelated BYU quilt. Tutorial found here.

 

So here is what I spend all my time dreaming about when I'm with my BYU quilt. Isn't it awful? I can't even be with one project anymore - lol. I have plans for these, big plans.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?  

- You know - I don't know that it does. I think the only way it can be different is that I don't let what other people love influence me. If I make a quilt or use a fabric line I don't do it because it's popular or because everyone is making them. I do it because I really want to try out that fabric/pattern/technique. Some times that makes my work modern, some times super traditional. As long as I'm true to myself I think that's good enough for me.

Just so you can have a picture to do with that question here is my current favorite quilt. It's my Kate Spain Charming Stars quilt. You can read more about this here.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?  

 - I quilt because I love it! I love so much about the process. The excitement of finding new fabric, the precision of cutting, the relaxation of piecing, the growth of quilting, and the joy of finishing it off with a fun binding. I find the whole thing rewarding and I love that I will leave something behind and with my skills have made the world a warmer and more beautiful place. I love to give quilts as gifts - especially to people who appreciate their value.

I made this quilt for my SIL who just adores Harry Potter. It was such a fun project to work on for her and you can read more about it here.

- I also have an Etsy shop - That's Sew Julie. There I sell things to help fund my projects and to buy little extras for my big family. I have a few quilts there but it is mostly crochet things like hats. I adore crochet about as much as quilting. It's relaxing and I can do it while watching my kids. Here's a collage of some of my creations...

This is some of what is in my shop. I love to create custom hats so I let you choose your yarn colors and size from Newborn to Adult in nearly every hat. Visit my shop here.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

- This is a tricky question for me because I'm really all over the place creatively. I can either get my inspiration from fabric and find a pattern that works well with it or I find a pattern I love and search for the perfect fabric. Rarely do I create something I love just from my brain without the use of a pattern. I'm okay with that. Not all singers write their own songs or even have to in order to create beautiful music - I'm mostly the same way. Every once in a while inspiration will strike and I will create something I love that is solely me. Here are two examples...

This one was all me from the fabric choices to the design and the intense echo quilting. You can read more about it here. I used a double wedding ring template and turned it into appliqued flowers and I just adore how it came out.

 

For this quilt I combined a lot of different things that I love to make an all-new quilt. These are a collection of my favorite stars popped into a layout found in Vintage Quilt Revival. You can read about this quilt here.

Thanks for stopping by! This is the part where I'm supposed to tag someone else and keep the hop moving. Well, most of the bloggers I follow have already done it. If you're interested let me know and I'll keep searching for someone to pass it on to. I'll update the post with a lucky someone when I find them. ;) As for now I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.