Sewvivor- Throwawenchintheworks- Ella

I'm taking a risk.  I'm entering Sew-vivor.
I'm always encouraging my students to take risks and stretch their abilities in new and exciting ways.  This seemed like a fitting challenge to take as I approach my 40th birthday!

Rach over at Family Ever After is hosting it!  It's kind of a sewing version of Survivor.  Right now it's audition time.  (It's not too late if any of you want to enter, too!)  They are picking the top 16 to compete.  I'm super excited that it's focusing on quilting challenges this time.

If you've never visited my blog before, let me introduce myself.  My name is Ella.  When I'm not attached to my sewing machine or cutting mat, I can be found working with elementary age students (I'm a teacher).  You might also find me shimmying somewhere in the Atlanta area.  (I've been bellydancing for almost 14 years.)  I'm not currently dancing in any restaurants but rumor has it I may be teaching dance soonish.
The feet you may see under some of my quilt pics are most often my husband's.  We have a dog that is part American cocker spaniel and part Muppet.  Our cat is mildly evil and sports tuxedo markings.

I learned how to sew from my mom when I was little.  My first quilt attempt was for my dorm room and involved stitches...ironically from a sliding glass door, not a rotary cutter.  I come by my bruises honestly.  I'm the tail end of a long line of klutzes.  I didn't sew for quite a while in between that quilt and now.  Fast forward to 2011 when I had an actual summer with nothing else going on.  I decided I wanted to learn something crafty and came across a bunch of quilt sites online.  I made a blog..which led me to meet a ton of awesome folks, inspired travel, and resulted in a LOT of sewing projects.  It was really hard to choose one for my entry, but I finally did.



I picked this quilt to enter as it's the one I've worked on the hardest.  It was the result of a Penny Sampler class from Rachel over at Stitched in Color.  I worked on a lot of techniques that I either didn't know prior to the class or I generally avoided.  I loved the paperpieced bits of the quilt...the horses and the flowers.







 I fussy cut some octopi.





 The Octopi from Salt Water are still one of my all time favorite fabrics.  Ahem.  I may have some hoarded..er...saved...to make a dress at some point.  I appliqued, both by hand and by machine!  I anchored the blocks in a simple stitch in the ditch on my machine and debated FMQ options. In the end, I decided I had to hand quilt the monster because my FMQ skills couldn't be trusted with a quilt top I had worked so hard on.

So, there it is.  Hat thrown in the ring.  Risk taken.  Wish me luck!