Happy Halloween!!

Thanks to all of the followers who entered my one year blog anniversary giveaway.


Random number generator has spoken!!

Congratulations to Carla who both won the giveaway and thought my pumpkin quilt was awesome (!)

Carla, look for my email in your inbox - send me your address and your charm pack will be on the way!

Happy Stitching!

Saving Sunday

Pumpkin carving with my daughter.

(Went non traditional -it is the name of her favorite groups new album.  Celtic Woman Believe.)
Happy Stitching!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Infinite

Excited to be participating again in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.


My entry for today is Infinite.  I blogged about this creative process in the spring/summer because it required considerable experimentation before I designed the templates that I used in the quilt.  

 This is a fractal quilt that I made for my son who is now off for his freshman year of college.  (My son is a whiz in math and computer science so I wanted a quilt with a mathematical theme.)

This is what it looked like in the dorm room on the very first day

We went to visit the quilt my son for parents weekend last weekend.  This was the first time I had been to campus.   I love his school and am so happy to see the way my son has clearly adapted to college life.  He clearly uses the quilt - it was in a big bunch at the bottom of his bed!


Please go visit Amy and enjoy the blogger's quilt festival.  Many wonderful quilts and blogs to visit.

For those new to my blog, I am celebrating my first year of blogging with a follower's giveaway.  See this post to enter.

Happy Stitching!

Overrun with spiders

Well, not exactly.


Just one very cute little spider I added to my Halloween table runner. 


First, I quilted the table runner with spider webs!  This photo is of the back of the quilt so you can see the web quilting.

Then, the spider!  (Stay away from the Hershey's bar!)

If you look carefully at the fabric, you'll see some cute 6 legged spiders with smiling eyes.  I decide to make mine with 6 legs as well.  (Mine doesn't have eyes yet!)


I wanted the body to have, well some body, so I cut a circle of fabric and a circle of batting.  The batting is slightly smaller than the fabric.


Then I pinned the batting where I wanted the spider to be and used the zigzag stitch on my machine for his legs.  I tried different combinations of setting to get the look I wanted.

I then pinned on the body and zigged

and zagged until he was done.

The final table runner is done and ready to go!

Don't forget to comment on my giveaway post celebrating my first year of blogging.


Happy Stitching!

Trick or Treat!

If you haven't entered my giveaway celebrating my year of blogging, please do so on this post


I finished my Halloween table runner with a Moda charm pack of Trick or Treat using a disappearing 9 patch pattern.

This was quick and easy to put together.  I had fun with the quilting and added a spider on for an extra spooky effect.  (more on that tomorrow) 

Found a nice basket at Target to display some small pumpkins and gourds.  Trick or treat!

Happy Stitching!

Pumpkins and Geese

Celebrating my one year blog-aversary this week with a few more photos I made of mini quilts last fall when only my mom was reading my blog.  (Hi, mom!)   To enter my giveaway, please comment on this post.

This flying geese quilt was made of scraps from a miniquilt I had gifted.   My son was part of an exchange program in high school and the quilt (which sadly I never took a photograph of) went to the family in Austria where he spent three weeks in September 2010.  (Their son lived with us for 3 weeks in fall 2009.)

I made a couple of these mini pumpkin quilts and sent them off as gifts to my sisters and mom.

To celebrate my real birthday last month, my daughter decorated my cake to look like a quilt.  Isn't it fun?

Happy Stitching!

Happy Blog Anniversary to Me and a Giveaway for you!

Being a quilting blogger has been fantastic!!

I love using my blog as a way to record my quilting journey.

I love all the new blog friends I have met.

I look forward every day to reading the many quilting blogs I follow.

When I first started by blog, I called it NC Weekend Quilter because that is basically when I found the time to quilt.  But then I decided to find time during the week whenever I could for a few minutes of quilting.  Sometimes all I do is press some blocks or straighten my sewing space.  But making the time to be around fabric and the creative process makes me happy.  So I renamed my blog A Stitch in Time to better reflect the goal of making time often.


This was the photo I shared on my very first post that no one but my mom saw!!

To celebrate, I've decided to have a small giveaway of a charm pack of Rose Parade by Moda.

I'd like to celebrate my followers so this is a follower only giveaway.  One entry per person - just leave a comment and tell me you are a follower.   New followers are welcome!


Contest closes at 7am est Oct 31 when random number generator will do its thing.  Entries from no reply bloggers will not be eligible for the drawing.


Happy Stitching!

Saving Sunday

Went to visit my oldest at his college this weekend - parent's weekend.  We had a wonderful breakfast at a place called the Black Walnut.  

I enjoyed my french bread made with Texas toast and really enjoyed visiting my son.


My FNSI results are at this post.   Come back tomorrow - I've a giveaway planned!


Happy Stitching!

FNSI results - It's beginning to look like Christmas

We are away this weekend so I took my FNSI on the road.  I finished almost two of my little blocks - very fun.

I still have the boots to do for Santa and ivy for the stocking.  I am thinking about doing them in black and green respectively to make each block primarily red with just a splash of another color.


These block are from a Sew A Long from Sew Happy Me.


Hope you enjoyed your FNSI.


Happy Stitching!

FNSI today!

FNSI!!  Since I won't have access to my sewing machine tonight but got to keep those hands busy, I thought I would get started with the sew along from Sew Happy Me.  

I've printed off the first 4 blocks and now it is time to get started!

I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch 25 years ago and always enjoyed it.  Let's see how this goes with my 'old eyes'.  I need to make sure I have really, really good light!  I am using the Presencia thread Madame Samm always raves about in the color Cranberry.  Yum.

Happy Stitching!

Raiding my stash

This past weekend, I finished cutting the remaining two blocks (and made one of those) from my 12 Days of Christmas BOM.  Additionally, I cut the pieces from the finishing kit including lattice strips and parts for wonky stars.


The kits from Fat Quarter Shop are very generous so I actually have quite a bit of leftover fabric pieces.  I had also purchased a layer cake of the fabric so have some number of squares that I've not used.  I was contemplating using this fabric scraps for the Jacob's Ladder quilt-along sponsored by my blog friend the Empress of the Universe.  However, as much as I love the fabric, I decided to package it up nicely and store it away perhaps until next year.  Almost too much of a good thing at this point.

Instead, I found this fabric in my stash!

I purchased these when my local quilt store went out of business and got the fabric at 50% off.

• The tan is  Luna Notte by 3 sisters for Moda.- 1 yard.
• The red is Rouenneries by French General for Moda - 2 yards
• The green is Rue Saint Germain by Robyn Pandolph for RJR - 2 yards.

I will make this as a 2 color quilt with the red and tan.  (I found another yard of the tan online).  (I didn't actually start cutting the fabric - just enjoyed looking at it.)

(Boy, do I miss my local store.  The woman that ran it had wonderful taste.  Three different lines and these fabrics will look beautiful together. When I buy on-line - which is what I do now - I tend to keep a project within a particular line or designer because I can not really match colors on line.)


Happy Stitching!

Counting Down some more

I don't yet have a name for my triangle quilt using Countdown to Christmas fabric.  I made some great progress this weekend seeing my hexagon blocks into rows and then sewing rows together in pairs.

(I share my sewing space with my daughter's American Girl doll school - see that tiny chair in the background?)


Keeping my head from exploding is a goal when assembling a quilt like this.  It will have 14 rows of single triangles.  Once I assemble a row together, I want to remember whether it is the first row or the 8th row.  Instead of pinning a row marker of some sort, I use fabric sewn into the row during the assembly process as a 'leader'.  Just use a scrap piece of fabric with a number marked with Sharpie.   

I've assembled 4 of the 7 two row pairs as well as the very top and bottom row.  Loving it!!

Once I get all 7 row pairs together, I will arrange for final placement.


The ends of the rows can get a bit confusing.  My best friend was my seam ripper to help with multiple oopps moments - in this case red and white need to reverse.  (Blogger's decision to rotate this particular photo and none of the others boggles my mind.  I took them all holding the camera the same way and did not crop any of them.)

Happy Stitching!

Celebrating Sunday

Picnic and walk in the park with my daughter.

I saw an idea here on preserving a bit of your Sunday in photos.  I decided to give it a try.

Happy Stitching.

Countdown layout

There is a lot of red in this quilt!

I've not yet pieced the leading triangles of white and then there is considerable white in the border.  But, too much red?


Happy Stitching!

Christmas Countdown quilt progresses

Got all the triangles cut for the quilt I am making from the Quiltmakes book (pattern by Joanna Figueroa).


Clearly two of the three sides of the triangles are cut on the bias so you need to be careful which side you place where.  

Had a blast chain sewing them together and assembling 'blocks' of 4 triangles which when pieced in rows correctly will form the pattern.

Hope your week is going well.


Happy Stitching!

Danger Will Robinson!

A brand new Target opened near my house.  For kicks, I timed how long it takes driveway to parking lot.

Must resist.  

Resistance is futile.

(Hopefully not too dorky for a quilting blog - I am a Star Trek fan and grew up watching Lost in Space.)


My wallet will likely suffer considerable damage!


Beautiful weekend in NC - 2 days of lovely fall weather.


Finished another block in my 12 Days of Christmas BOM.

Made two little bags with $ tucked off inside and sent them off to a niece and nephew for their birthdays.  (Not the best photo...)

Happy Stitching!

New Toys

I am very excited about my new project - this quilt called Twinkling Stars designed by Joanna Figueroa.  

Two new rulers are making cutting 432 triangles actually FUN!


The first one is useful for cutting the 4 1/2 inch strips.

This one cuts 60 degree triangle.  It is a nice non-slip ruler.

And here is the trial hexagon assembly I did to help me figure out how the heck I was going to chain piece this without driving myself crazy.  (Clearly, not all of this is actually sewn together in this photo.)

Happy Stitching!

New quilting supply store - my library?

Although I've made only a few quilts from an actual pattern in a quilt book, I love buying these books and find them good sources of inspiration. When checking on my library's reservation system for a new bestseller I wanted to read, I took a look through the list of quilting books.


Look what I found!!!

I really liked three of these books and would consider purchasing them to add to my library.  They are all quite different.


Dare to be Square Quilting by Boo Davis is a wonderful book.  The quilts are different and fun!  There are owls and skeletons and very fun quilts.

Farm Girl Quilts by Tammy Johnson and Avis Shirer is a beautiful book.  I'd love to make the quilt on the cover.  It is a combination of piecing and applique.  There are two other quilt in the book - Mrs Nolan's Chicken Farm and Snow on Furrowed Ground that are beautiful two color quilts I would love to make.

This next book is call The Quiltmakers and is a collection of quilts from 8 quilt designers - Lynette Jensen, Petra Prins, Carolyn Forster, Lynette Anderson-O'Rourke, Lynne Edwards, Joanna Figueroa, Janet Bolton and Marsha McCloskey.

One of my favorites was this Feathered Star patchwork by Marsha McCloskey.

In this last one, I found the quilt project I can adapt for my Countdown to Christmas layer cake.  I just love it.  It will show the fun prints off well and seems like quite a lot of fun to assemble.


The quilt is called Fresh Vintage and is by Joanna Figueroa.

The pattern calls for yardage but I am confident I can adapt to a layer cake.  Each layer cake will yield 6 of those triangles if I cut very carefully.  I am going to use the solid red as the dominant color.  The Countdown to Christmas has some black prints.  I intend to use some of these in the quilt but this pattern will not require me not to use all of them.  

Time to sharpen the rotary cutter!

Happy Stitching!