Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you find time for family and for stitching!

Happy Stitching!

Jewelry

Every year for Christmas, I make a special gift for my sisters and my mom. 

This year I made a jewelry travel bag.  It was so much fun to design and assemble.  

The vinyl came from Joann's and the fabric is from Moda Tapestry line.  It can either fold in half or you can roll it up and secure with a ribbon.

I gave my sisters permission to open the gift now or wait until Christmas.  Several of them couldn't wait and were quite excited by their gift.  

This was one of my todo's in Leanne from she can quilt Finish A Long all year.

Any interest in a tutorial?

Happy Stitching!

Dresden gone wild

Visiting with family this evening and I've wrapped up some goodies.   Used fabric scraps as the tie and I like the way this simple package looks.

I attempted to make a dresden table topper to bring along as a gift but I'm not really liking the way this turned out.

It was a quick assemble and I did some straight line quilting on the red dresdens to keep it simple. Sometimes things improve with quilting but so far it isn't helping!

What do you think?

Happy Stitching!

Snowflake

This month's challenge in Another Lovely Year of Schnibbles is a pattern called Morning Joe.  It is a beautiful quilt but it finishes at a size larger than I wanted to tackle in this busy month.  So I decided to just make a portion of of the quilt and using my mini charm pack of In From the Cold.

Parade time at Sinta's and Sherri's blog is a week away.  Looking forward to seeing what others have done with their fabric choices.

Countdown to my 500th post giveaway  - this is post 495!  

Happy Stitching!

Peppermint Candy

'Tis the season.

Mug rugs!

Quick assembly on these beauties - I cut the background 3/4 of an inch larger so it was a simple fold over to create the binding.

These were fast to assemble because after I made this quilt two years ago using Sweetwater Countdown to Christmas, I had a bunch of extra triangles.  Just dug them out of my scrap bag and was able to quickly assemble.



This quilt is called Jingle.  I love getting it out each December.  One of my favorite parts is the border.

I just realized that I am fast approaching my 500th post - this is post 494!  I've been blogging for three years and love it.  I appreciate my blogging friends and the chance to record my journey.  Look out for a 500th post giveaway!

Happy Stitching!

Ready for the mystery!

Bonnie Hunter's mystery - Celtic Soltice - starts on 11/29.  You need 4 colors, each of which contrast with each other.  She suggested a blue, yellow, green and rust/orange.  I looked through my stash and didn't find anything I wanted to play with.

So.....  I got me a stack of Scrumptious!

I've got orange, green, red and a blue/aqua.  I've one print of each color plus a solid of that color and a nice pretty cream solid.  

I can't do super scrappy quilts.  But I can do bright colors.  Can't wait to get started!

I found these fabrics at a really great price at Stitches & Giggles and funded part of the purchase with a  $15 gift certificate I won from  Another Lovely Year of Finishes.

Thanks! 

Happy Stitching!

This month's Schnibble

This month's Schnibble from ALYOS (hosted at Sinta's and Sherri's blog ) is called Morning Joe. 

I am quite interested in making mini-quilts right now.  This particular Schnibble pattern finishes at 53x53 which is bigger than I want.  So I decided to make a couple of smaller blocks using a mini charm pack. Carrie's instructions are fun - I especially like when she includes instructions which go something like 'trim your blocks and then eat a piece of chocolate'.

What fun they were to assemble!   The blocks finish at 6 1/2 inches.  Here is what I have leftover -  a couple of charms I didn't use and enough HST to make one more block.  The only problem is I can't get the green and red aligned the way I did in the first 4.

Happy Stitching!

Ohio Star blocks

I've completed 30 Ohio Star blocks.  I started with squares cut at 4 3/4 to make the hour glass blocks and used 4 inch squares as the corner and center blocks.  Each hourglass block is 11.5 inches unfinished.  

The fabric is Moda Flats and I am enjoying the simplicity of the fabric.  Reds, greens, grays, light blues and orange.  I have put the blocks aside while I try to decide layout.

Should I lay them out in a simple grid?  

Perhaps with sashing and with cornerstones?


The other thought is to snowball the corners like I did in this quilt.





What do you think?  

I've already decided on borders - inner border of white, middle border which will be a thin strip made from piecing the scraps and an outer border of white.

Happy Stitching!

Hello Moon

September and October blocks from April Mae Design's Hello Moon quilt along. 

Here are all ten blocks so far.

Probably the cutest quilt I'll ever make.   Come join the fun!

Happy Stitching!

New Jersey all quilted!

My Votes for Women  block of the week quilt returned from the spa and looks fantastic!  I choose a modern baptist fan pattern which compliments the mix of the traditional quilt block patterns and the modern fabric and colors.

The quilt along was called Grandmother's choice so I am making this quilt in honor of both of my grandma's - Mum and Nana.  Nana was born in 1899 and Mum in 1915.  As adults, they lived a few blocks from each other in New Jersey.  As a result, I am calling my quilt New Jersey.

I decided to go 'borderless' and the finish size is roughly 85 inches square.  I had a heck of a time piecing this backing but no one needs to know that but me.

Cathy Kirk did the FMQing and I always have her square the quilt and serge the edges.  It makes appying the binding so much easier to do.  I will likely use the same gray as the backing fabric although I am really liking the way it looks right now with the white edge.

This could be one of my all time favorite quilts.

Thank you Barbara Brackman for the block of the week and all the history on the fight for the right to vote.

Happy Stitching!

My November Goal

My goal for November challenge in Another Lovely Year of Finishes is to assemble my Ohio Stair blocks and then assemble the quilt flimsy.

All of my hour glass blocks are assembled and trimmed so I just need to put the pedal to the metal!

Happy Stitching!

Staying in the safe zone

I've got a few weeks to pull fabric for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt for 2013 called Celtic Solstice.

Everyone knows Bonnie is a fabulous resource for all of us quilters.  I love joining into quilt cam and had lots of fun last year making a smaller version of Easy Street.   I kept it safe last year and made the background a solid white and used fabric from one designer (Kate Spain) in the quilt.  I was thrilled with the results and had so much fun in the process.

Bonnie very much encourages you to dive into your scrap bin and make the quilt as scrappy as possible.  This year's colors are blue, orange (rust), yellow and green plus a background color.  You can go with any other color combination as long as there is contrast.

I don't have an overflowing scrap bin of small pieces.  A lot of my quilts are made from layer cakes with some yardage.  But I do tend to collect and hoard fabric from some favorite designers so I found some adequate amounts of blues and greens from my Sweetwater collection.

I am also thinking of doing this quilt in all solids.  I can always use more solids in my stash so if I had to purchase, that would be ok.

My fabric choices have changed considerably since my early days of quilting.  Ten years ago, I tended to buy everything from a particular LQS - which has since gone out of business - so I tended towards the darker (more traditional?) fabric like that from Thimbleberries.    While I still enjoy the quilts I have in these fabrics, there isn't enough here to satisfy the requirements and I don't really buy more.  I am considering however to start using up these scraps in a leader / end 9 patch with the thought of making Bonnie's Dancing Nine Patch quilt.  If I never finish it, it will be a lot more useful to have a pile of 9 patches that a couple of baskets of odd scraps.

Whatever I decide, I do know that I will play it safe and likely stick to one designer. Purchasing more Sweetwater fabric to round out what I have seems like a fine idea.  

I'm also quite tempted with the new line Scrumptious - and there are colors in the line that meet the requirements.

Decisions, decisions!

Are you joining in?

Happy Stitching!