Fall weekend

Looking forward to going to Heritage Day at historic Oak View County Park.


Capital Quilters will have a quilt auction and raffle (see flyer here - beautiful raffle quilt). 


Made a small makeup bag for my sister - another birthday!  (Remember, I've 6 sisters.)  She just went to Paris.  Her birthday was actually 2 weeks ago but I kept delaying trying to decide what to do.  I went with a simple bag.  The quilting (diamonds) was done with my walking foot.

Happy Stitching!

Dresden Plate

I am still making a decision on the background for my first  Dresden plate block.  I used Central Park charm pack.

Pillow or mini quilt?


Happy Stitching!

12 Days of Christmas BOM progress

Quality time with my sewing machine and working on a BOM I purchased from Fat Quarter Shop.   Although this BOM ended months ago, I've only managed nine blocks so far.  Many of these were a lot of fun to assembled.  As you can tell, all of these still need to be trimmed and they will each get a border.  (For the photo shoot, I just laid 2 blocks side by side.)


The basket and the stocking      I like both of these.

House and large ornament.  The house was fun to put together.

No idea why blogger turned these around...   Candy and more Ornaments.  I think i made some errors on the candy blocks.  If you look carefully, some of the corners are square and some are not.  I will take this apart and fix it.

Again with blogger.


Gift packages and a wreath.  This wreath pattern is quite fun to assemble and I made a small mini quilt from it last year.

And, finally, a stocking cap.  This is my least favorite color combination.  I may remake the block.

While I love many of the prints in this line, 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain, there are a few colors that I don't really like.  I did some substitutions at times.  Once all twelve blocks are done and laid out with borders, I'll get a good look at color.  Fat Quarter Shop is very generous with their fabric cuts so I've enough extra to redo a block if necessary.


Ho Ho Ho.


Happy Stitching!

Giveaways and more giveaways....

There are still 5 more weeks to go in the amazing Wantobe A Quilter campaign at Sew We Quilt.  Quilters can enter Tuesdays & Thursdays.  Wantobe Quilters on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.  It isn't too late to join the fun - there have been 40 winners so far!!   You'll need a blog sponsor to enter - I'd be happy to sponsor you - just drop me an email or a comment!


And then there are these blog giveaways - 

• Sew Bitter Sweet Designs is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her new blog.  Click out the link in upper right hand corner.

• Life's Rich Pattern is also have a giveaway of fabric - amazing color.

• Leona's Quilting Adventure has a giveaway to celebrate 200 posts.  Congratulations!!

• Samella's Mom has a charm pack giveaway for Buttercup.

Rainy day here in NC so will be spending some quality time with my machine.


Happy Stitching!

Mini quilt

Finished the binding on a small quilt for my sister's birthday.  It is roughly 18 inches square and was made using batik strip scraps and is shown with an (empty) wine glass on it to suggest the start of a fun evening.  Last year, I made her a small makeup bag with similar scraps and she really loved it.  Happy Birthday Sis!

My focus is now shifting to planning a quilt and crack open my layer cake of Countdown to Christmas.  I've got an idea that involves applique in the center and then surrounded by blocks - stars and geese.  Now I need to draw it out and see what additional fabric I might need.


Happy Stitching!

Killer Robots

It was a cold and rainy day here in NC on Saturday and I managed to make good use of the indoor time for a couple of projects.  For starters, I made a good dent in my Fat Quarter Shop 12 Days of Christmas BOM.  Yes, this was last year's BOM.  Yes, I am way behind.  I've now got 8 blocks done, 3 more cut out and ready to sew and then 1 more to cut and sew.  I want to get this done by the end of November and already reserved a slot with my LAQ for Dec 1.


I also whipped together a mini birthday gift for my DH.   Family joke around Killer Robots (don't ask) so I made two pot holders to use on our dinner table.  I just love this Robotics fabric.  I am fussy cutting each of these robots.

Happy Birthday to my DH!!


Happy Stitching!

BOO .... FNSI results

Recently, I seem to be addicted to small projects and quilting with my walking foot.  I have a layer cake of Countdown to Christmas that I want to break into but I haven't yet figured out my quilt design.  Until then, I keep moving through smaller projects.  Last night I had a productive 2 hours with FNSI and almost completed my Halloween table runner.  

I used a disappearing 9 patch block and a charm pack of Trick or Treat!.  (Sew together 9 charm squares and then cut apart as pictured.)

The table runner is pieced and I decided to use my walking foot and quilt spider webs all over the quilt.  I am about halfway done with the quilting and hope to finish  this weekend.  (I will try for outdoor photos when I'm done.  These colors don't look true to the fabric.)

And from the back

Thanks Heidi and Bobbi once again for getting us together virtually.  I'm looking forward to visiting the other blogs.


Happy Stitching!

Zig Zag Bag

I am in between major quilt projects so have been spending time on some smaller fun things.


My daughter always has to have at least one book and her Nook with her on any car ride.  She asked for a bag that would make it easier to keep all her stuff together so that it didn't get lost in the general car clutter.

I had great fun putting this together.  I've been experimenting with line quilting (is this the name?) instead of FMQ and just love the texture of this bag.  Essentially, with my walking foot, I started in the center and kept straight line spiraling out the design.

Dimensions are roughly 12 by 10 by 2.   I completely made this up as I went.    

Different item - for those of you who live in North Carolina, have you heard about  Quilt Carolina which runs from September 15-24th.  Visiting any or all of the 9 quilt stores participating can earn you savings on your purchases and the chance to win great prizes.  You need to purchase a passport for $15 to enter.  This passport gives you a banner pattern and then each store you visit give you a banner block coupon.


Happy Stitching!

Robots

I've several nephews under the age of 12 who will be celebrating birthday's this fall.  I found this Robotics fabric and decided to make a pencil bag (or a bag to hold whatever).

I just love the way it turned out and hope my nephew will as well.  (I know he will like the gift card to Target I slipped inside.)

Posing with the bag is a Dalek.  (My DH, DD and DS are big Dr Who fans.)


Happy Stitching!

Remember

I remember the day well - I was at work and on a conference call with a woman who was in NYC.  She made some reference to something going on - an explosion of some sort - and she needed to leave the building.  Couldn't get to any internet sites because of traffic issues so I joined others in the break room and watched the horror on tv.   I came home early from work that day to grieve at home for all who lost their lives and their families.  I remember walking my son (then 7) home from elementary school and explaining what had happened and wondering how must of this he could understand at that age.

(The woman I was on a call with was in a building across the street.  She was not injured.)

Remember.

September

My latest Schnibble is complete (minus the mandatory trip through washer/dryer). 

I am very pleased with this one.  It just screams Fall, Pumpkins, Autumn and I decided to call it September.  <grin>

The important stuff:

• Fabric was 2 charm packs from Sandy Gervais Grand Finale. 
• Backing was a print from that line.  Binding was a solid from a previous Sandy Gervais line.
• Pattern was Hot Cross from the first Schnibble book.  (I've the second one on order.)
• Quilting was a basic meandering.  Hadn't done any FMQ in awhile so it was good practice.

Happy Stitching!

Sweet Tea goes home

My Sweet Tea quilt is off to a new home.  First a photo of her with binding and fresh out of the dryer.

I started this quilt because I saw a pattern at Moda Bake Shop for a jewel box quilt.  I had purchased this beautiful layer cake of Summer Breeze.  I enjoyed putting together this quilt and the pattern is likely one I will do again in a very different color palette.


When I was making the quilt, I had this feeling I was making it for someone.  Shortly after the quilt top was pieced, I found out that a good friend had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  This lovely Carolina native is  true southern girl so the name Sweet Tea fits her new quilt and really her outlook on life.  I hope this quilt brings her a little bit of sunshine each day.  (Ignore the flipped photo from blogger - this is my quilt label.)

One last photo of the wonderful quilting Kathy Kirk did - the quilt pattern is called Pretty Posies and the quilt is 65 by 58 inches.

This pattern is a twist on the Jacob Ladder pattern.  I've decided to join a Jacob's Ladder QAL sponsored by the Empress of the Universe.


Happy Stitching!

Sandcastle

My quilt Sandcastle is back from the LAQ.  As always, Cathy Kirk did a beautiful job.  

The quilting pattern was called Waterworld, and was an edge to edge design.

My next step in the process (besides the binding) is to embellish the castle a bit.  I'm going to do simple things like embroider the flagpole.   But I am also thinking about other more elaborate things - perhaps adding some words.  I see a lot of blogs lately talking about adding embroidery to the quilt and I want to give it a try.

This quilt is 56 inches square.  I used batik strips for the border and my own sandcastle design for the center.


Happy Stitching!