Meet Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew

Hi there!!

Today as part of my "Come sit in my Polkadot Chair" Interview series, I'm featuring Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew!

Last October at the Sewing Summit, I was VERY excited to take Allison's free motion quilting class. Free motion quilting had been on my "to learn" list for a while and I was a little excited (okay that's probably an understatement).  Excited enough that I asked a MILLION questions, but Allison was super sweet and answered them all.

After I got to talking to her for a bit I found out that she ALSO has a family of Dentists!  I thought I was the only one with a crazy dental family (well her family might not be crazy like mine). After that realization I knew I had met a kindred spirit!

Thanks so much Allison for agreeing to be interviewed today.

Q: Okay, to start... just the facts... introduce yourself. Do you have kids? How many?  Where do you live? Where did you grow up?

Come sit in my Polkadot Chair!

In the last 3 years since I started my blog, I've had the privilege of getting to know many other bloggers.  I love that you can meet someone you only know from their blog and have such an instant connection, like you've known them for years.

I live in Louisville, Kentucky... as far as I know there are not a lot of craft bloggers here. Other than some very dear friends that blog,  I've not had the opportunity to connect with many other bloggers in real life.

Handmade Christmas Quilt Along: Progress Report!

How's your Christmas Crafting coming along?  Are you guys getting a good start on your handmade Christmas gifts?

I'm doing okay...not great but not terrible. I've got a more realistic goal of what I can and can't make this year, so hopefully it will all get done!

I just thought I'd pop in and share an update with my Handmade Christmas Quilt Along Quilts...

First my son's quilt:

I started with 12 each, 2", 3" & 4" strips in random prints.

Thanksgiving Banner

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I've had fun making a few new decorations for Thanksgiving this year.  After I made the wreath last week, I decided to keep going and make a "give thanks" banner.

I used the Grateful Glam from Rhonna Designs again.  I just printed the cards and background papers out then glued them to the front of a chipboard banner I already had.

Some Pattern Updates

Ever since I made the July bag, I wanted to make it again but out of home decor fabric this time.  My trip to the Sewing Summit in October provided the perfect excuse to get it done.

This bag was originally designed to be a beach bag so I made it out of burlap, since it gave it a very rustic, summery feel.  I think I love it just as much made out of decor weight fabric!

I've updated the pattern to include directions to make it from fabric (it's essentially the same bag, you just don't need to reinforce the burlap). If you purchased the July bag in the past and want the updated pattern just send me an email, and I'll shoot it off to you.

Grateful Wreath Tutorial

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I've wanted to make a Thanksgiving themed wreath for a few years now, but never had good enough idea of what I wanted to make to get started.

Then I saw the new Grateful Glam digital line at Rhonna Designs and I knew I wanted to use it!

Handmade Christmas Quilt Along: Backing & Batting

I've received quite a few questions about the Quilt Along regarding batting and backing so I thought I'd answer some of them here today.

If your new here, I'm hosting a quilt along on my blog right now. It's a little different than a traditional quilt along in that we are not all making the same quilt.   Rather, the challenge is to make a quilt (design of your choice) to give to someone you love for Christmas this year (or other winter holiday).  The idea being to balance out all of the electronic buzz with some handmade goodness :)

I'm in the process of making 3 lap quilts for my kids.  I'll be sharing the steps along the way here incase you want to follow along with what I'm doing, and to keep myself on track.

Okay... now onto backing and batting.

Retakes

Two years ago I shared a double tutorial for this project over at Moda Bake Shop. To this day it's still one of my favorite tutorials.

Blingy Autumn Wreath

This post was originally published at ModernMom, as part of their Wednesday Crafternoon's series.

In our family we love to find ways to celebrate the seasons. The kids all get so excited when it's time to pull out our decorations for a special time of year.  This year I decided to make a new wreath for our front door to anticipate the arrival of Autumn this year. 

That's much better....

Just wanted to say a quick "thanks" to Sharon of Redbud Designs for the new digs around here.  

Last summer I finally admitted that creating content for blog posts and trying to design a blog layout were just too much for me.  I was happy to hire Sharon to work on a new design.  It turned out to be money well spent, I could not be happier with the new look!  I feel like she captured my style perfectly!

Thank you Sharon.

Microcrafts Book Review

When Quirk Book contacted me about reviewing one of their new titles, Microcrafts I was intrigued.  It seemed like a unique concept for a book and my curiosity was peaked.  My 10 year old son loves working on anything in miniature (he's a lego maniac) and I thought that some of the projects in the book might be good for us to make together.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received my copy of the book.  The projects in it while miniature, are not small on style.  I found it to be a great eclectic collection of crafts to make in miniature.

A few of the projects caught my eye.

Handmade Christmas Quilt Along: Start Sewing!

It's November.. that means it's time to start sewing your quilt tops together!  Hopefully you have all of your pieces cut out by now. If not, just take an evening and catch up. (if your new here, click here to catch up on what we are doing)

I thought today I'd share with you the "plan" for my 3rd quilt.  I finally got it figured out today.

I started with this stack of fabric: