Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy from Amy's Creative Side has done it again :-) She is hosting another virtual Quilt Festival. Have you been to her Quilt Festival's before? Have you participated?? There are so many beautiful quilts on display, and you can view them right from your easy chair. If you are visiting my blog for the first time - Welcome! I hope you will come back again :-)

This is my fourth time participating in the Quilt Festival, and I am excited to share with you one of my Schnibbles quilts.

Last year I joined a year of Schnibbles. What is a Schnibble you ask? Well Schnibbles are little quilts designed by Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilts. I like making little quilts. They come together fast and are kind of instant gratification. For me they are better then having a tub full of ufo's needing to be quilted. But I digress.......

I loved the patterns and made about six Schnibbles when life became hectic with a move. So as I was thinking about which quilt to share, this one came to mind.

I found this cheddar fabric on a visit to the Olde Green Cupboard in Jacksonville.

The mixture of colors made for a delicious combination.

What I particularly loved about making this quilt was being introduced to a machine quilting method using my walking foot. I followed Mary Mashuta's technique from her book "Foolproof Machine Quilting."

All in all, I was very pleased with the end result.

So may I introduce to you - Cindy Lou Who

Thanks so much for stopping by. I would love it if you would leave a comment. It's sort of like my guest book. And please stop by again. Soon :-)

Happy Quilting and enjoy the Quilt Festival! Thanks Amy!

Broken Arrows

For the last couple of days, I have been working on the Arrowhead blocks. I've been trying out something a little different in the lay out.

With two baby quilts in the works, I wondered how these blocks might look with sashing. So last night I set up six of the blocks and added some white sashing.

I really like the way the white breaks up the overall color in the blocks. I also think this might work beautifully to make a table runner using three blocks with a coordinating fabric for sashing.

One other little bit of information when you get ahold of the Quiltmaker magazine. They are having a Treasure Hunt. You can do it online, but if you have a copy of the November/December magazine, you hunt for this symbol ....
....find it on the website, and register for some really great prizes. One of which is a sewing machine!

Okay on to more blocks :-)

Happy Quilting!

Run, do not walk..........

.....and buy a copy of this issue of Quiltmaker magazine!

Let me tell you why. As most of my readers know, I have been down after having a fall and back injury. So getting back to sewing has been a very slow, though much desired, activity.

I have been a subscriber to the Quiltmaker "Quilty Pleasures" blog for quite a while, as they always have interesting posts, not always related to the current magazine. For the last month or so, the editors have been talking about the Revolutionary Block by Anita Grossman Solomon. After seeing it written up THREE times, I thought to myself, "hum, I have that magazine! Let me see what is so special about that block."

It was not a disappointment. Looking at the completed block, I thought it looked complex. But after reading the directions, I thought this would be such a very cool quilt.

I laid two pieces of fabric, right sides together.

Following Anita's directions, I placed a sticky note in the top corner. Sewing down and pivoting . Do the same thing at the other corner.

Cut diagonally.
Stack triangles, aligning the edges.

This is where the magic happens.

Measure from the top and cut through all the layers.

Another cut from the bottom.

Press all seams open -

arrange units -
sew together and trim!

I'm telling you peeps, this was so much fun and NOT labor intensive. As a matter of fact, it was so much fun, I made another block.

My Bernina was singing. Once I cut all the pieces out, I was able to assembly line sew until I put the last two pieces together. I would have made more, but I need to find my squaring up ruler first. Even without the right ruler, the block worked beautifully.

There were so many lovely combinations featured in the magazine, but the skys the limit.

You can use scraps, or a fat quarter bundle, batiks, baby fabrics. But I think this would look fabulous with Civil War fabrics.

So PLEASE go and buy the magazine, gather a bundle of fabrics, and have fun! You will not regret it.

Happy Quilting :-)

Do you remember.........

when you bought a dryer, the salespeople always tell you how important it is to clean the filter so your dryer would work more efficiently?

Well as a young wife, I never thought too much about the filter. Then one day my dryer did not seem to be drying very well. It would run and run and the clothes would still be a little damp by the end of the cycle. My brother in law was over one day, and I mentioned it to him. He went directly to the filter, and of course it was clogged full of lint! Gulp!!!!

Since I had my fall, my family has been doing such a great job of helping with the laundry. And since we moved into this new house, the previous owners left their HE washer and dryer, which has made laundry so much more exciting, that is if laundry can be exciting.

Now you know what kind of things can end up in the wash. We have always had a rule in our house. If I find money in the laundry, it goes into a pot by the washer, and all the loose change is used for fun things. So imagine my surprise recently when I went to move some of my hubbys clothes from the washer to the dryer and I see this -

Bills!!! Lots of them!!!!! Apparently my sweet hubby had put his clothes in the wash and left these in his pockets. Woo-hoo......

I found these bills, and of course, nice person that I am, I folded them up and put them on his dresser.

And after the clothes were dried, and as I was taking them out of the dryer, I looked into the dryer to see..........

sigh.......... more for the picking :-)

Just thought I would share a little smile with you today.

Happy Quilting!

In Friendship!

Did you know that quilters are special?? Why of course you did! After all most of you are quilters or lovers of quilts.

But there are some quilters that are extra special! They have a way of encouraging and lifting you up when you are down (or on a detour).

So when I received a little package in the mail, and I looked at the return address, I knew it was from a very special lady.

I received this beautiful scissor fob from Darlene of Quilting Daze. She's been a special blogging friend for a long time, and I've enjoyed seeing all of her beautiful quilts on her blog. She's been sending some quilting love around blog land, and I was so excited to be one of her recipients.

Thank you Darlene!

Now just in case you did not notice, Blogger has been posting a notice that Image uploads will be disabled for two hours at 5:00 PM TODAY!!! So get those posts in before they turn it off. Hopefully everything will be resolved for those who were having trouble posting pictures.

And Happy Quilting :-)

Half way = almost done

As I have been going through boxes that were moved from our old home, I am finding little treasures along the way :-)

Finding a quilt that is half finished is almost like savoring the project all over again. You know how it is. You see a pattern you like, find some fabric, and you go for it.

Yesterday I found these pieces from a long forgotten project.

It was a pattern from a magazine that I started several years ago, only to be laid aside and forgotten.

But the really cool thing is -

It's almost done!!!

AND there is enough fabric for borders, and backing too!

So in the next couple of days, I am going to try to sit at my sewing machine and see if I can pull this little quilt together.

So what are you working on today??

Happy Quilting!

Picking it up again

Lots of things were put on "hold" when I had my fall two months ago. Our family was in the process of moving to a new(er) house. So in a kind of time warp, everything stopped. Packing, moving, sewing.......... SEWING!!! Ekk! Yes even the projects I had planned to set up in my new sewing area were buried in boxes. My very sweet daughter has helped to go through so many bags and boxes, organized projects into very large zippy bags, and stored them in a safe place.

Yesterday I was challenged by my BFF to try to work on something I had already cut out. Okay I thought, let's see what was in the making. I was able to put my hands on a quilt that was already cut out. And I had even started sewing it together when we were thrown into the flurry of packing and moving.

But the only problem is............. I can't put my hands on the pattern! It will show up, but it kind of took the wind out of my sails.

Because my BFF lives 1,000 miles away, I had been posting pictures of our new home with the updates and changes we are making. So if you will allow me, I would like to share what has been done (mostly by my sweet daughter) in the last few weeks.

This is our eat in kitchen area.

Don't you love how my daughter decorated the top of the hutch? A Rooster, a basket and a very old sewing machine ;-D

Above the kitchen cabinets is hosting some of my thrifting finds!

The family room area is all decorated for fall :-)

Just a little peek at what's been going on.

Wishing you a wonderful quilting weekend!!

Thanks to the Queen

A lot of things have changed in 27 years. Especially in the quilting world. I recently found the folder from my very first quilting class.

Looks pretty vintage and worn.

And amazingly I had dated the page from the first class. July 6, 1983! Wow, look at my list of what was needed for the class.

Between needles
Thimble
Pins - T pins
Quilting thread
Batting
Cloth
Quilting frame
Transfer paper
Plastic for templates
TWO pair of scissors - cloth and paper.......

Okay you get the picture.

It was a fun and interesting, and at times intensive, class. We were to work on blocks for a sampler quilt. The teacher was patient and very knowledgeable. On the day we were learning about creating and cutting out templates, she brought out a package and showed us a tool that would make cutting much more accurate and easier then using scissors. Yeah, right, we all said. Well of course that tool was the rotary cutter, and the rest is history.

I never did finish my 15 1/2" blocks. As a matter of fack I do not even know whatever happened to those blocks. But a wonderful thing did happen. My sister in love went to a different quilt class in a new quilt shop that had recently opened. She not only learned HOW to use this amazing new tool, she was introduced to the queen of stripping, Eleanor Burns and her Quilt in a Day method. She of course shared the information with me, and helping me pick out fabric, we both made a Log Cabin quilt.

This is the one that I made.

Yes that was my first quilt. And I've been hooked on Quilt in a Day ever since.

Over the years I've made many different quilts, and they mostly stem from the method I learned from Eleanor Burns. The quilt I submitted for the Quilting Gallery Fall contest was one that I made after I watched a QIAD PBS program. At the time Eleanor Burns was showing a 10 year old how to make this fun strippy quilt. I loved her process and enjoyed making. not only the fall quilt, but this Christmas one too.

Now all that to say, the other night I was wondering if I could view the same program with the little 10 year old girl. I went online and tried to find it, but to no avail. However, I did find a link at QIAD community for some past programs. Boy was that fun. I enjoyed seeing lots of quilts that Eleanor has made through the years. Some of which I have the books, but never made the pattern. This was a great incentive. Here is the link if you'd like to take a look. Even though it says error, type in Quilt in a Day in the search box, and the videos will pop up.

I am not a fancy quilter. I love to make geometric designs and highlight beautiful fabrics. It's been fun to use Eleanor's techniques to make quilts look harder then they really are. Yep, we've come a long way baby.

Have a great quilting day!

Monday, Monday

Where does the week fly to. It is already a new Monday, and the month will soon be half gone.

THANK YOU!

First off, I want to thank each of you who voted for my "Fall is in the Air" quilt at the Quilting Gallery Blog. It looks like mine came in second, which is an amazing result! Thank you for your vote of support and encouragement.


And on the giveaway front, there are several going on today. Stop by and sign up.

Stray Stitches is celebrating 200 followers.

From the blue chair is giving away personalized Business Cards with your blog information :-)

Mom Loves2 Quilt is giving away a delicious jelly roll. If you stay tuned to her blog she is purging and sharing with more giveaways!

GO! dies at Ginnys Quilts

Also be sure to check out these lovely blogs who are hosting giveaways. There is still time -

Fall into Fall


And for the gals who asked about my strips, I have enough to make four packages instead of one huge one. I will put everyone's name in a bowl and pick out four. Thanks for using up my strips. I hope they will help with your projects!

Have a happy quilting day!

Ready, set..........

Vote!

Please hop over to the Quilting Gallery and vote for the Fall Splendor quilts. Mine is titled "Fall is in the Air". There are some very lovely quilts, and although I would love for you to vote for mine, in all fairness, vote for the one that is your favorite :-)


And for the gals who contacted me about the strings, please hang in there. I am looking through my scraps and trying to see if I can make up two packages. Thanks!

Have a happy quilting day!

Well I did it!

I love reading the Quilting Gallery. They always have such interesting posts and fun contests. Every week they sponsor a new contest. This week the theme is Fall Splendor.

So I jumped in and submitted a quilt.

This quilt.

This is the first time I've ever submitted one.

I love this quilt. It's one I made for my BFF. It's a simple pattern, a variation from an Eleanor Burns pattern. But the colors just seemed to flow when I started putting it together.

So tomorrow, if you go to the Quilting Gallery, you will have an opportunity to vote for your favorite Fall quilt. I'd love for you to vote for mine (Fall is in the Air), BUT if you see another that you like better, I would want you to vote for YOUR favorite.

Have a wonderful quilting day!

Strings, strings, strings.........

Strings............

all kinds of strings.............

oops........... fabric strings??



When we started packing up to move to our new house, I had a plan to try and sort some of my fabric scraps by color. You know about scraps right?? On Bonnie Hunter's website she states -
"I 'm sure we've all heard "Oh, it's just scraps." Have you ever stopped to realize that your scraps cost you just as much per yard as the original fabric purchased that they came from? Your scraps could be worth $9.00 or more a yard. Makes you think twice about tossing them out, doesn't it? Or relegating them to the lowly position of "just a scrap"?"

I tried making a string quilt, and this was the product of my effort.

I finished it on the day we signed to buy our new house.

And although I enjoyed making this little string quilt, I am thinking that I am not really going to make another one when I have other projects that are calling me.

So can I give them to you?? Would you like to have some of my scraps and strings?? I don't know what will count as a string, but I would be happy to send a flat rate envelope with the strings that I had accumulated.

Let me know. I'm happy to share.

And let's have some happy quilting!

My Day Journal

For today ~ October 4, 2010

Outside my window. . . it's a beautiful cool day

I am thinking. . . that I am anxious to be back on my feet, driving and sewing

From the kitchen. . . pumpkin pie cake ~ yum

I am wearing. . . still in my jammies ~ I'm starting a little slow today

I am creating. . . lots of projects in my mind ;-)

I am remembering. . . how beautiful this time of year is

I am reading. . . 'Emma' by Jane Austen

I am hoping . . . to get my sewing closet organized

I am hearing. . . it is quiet this morning

Around the house. . . preparations for some guests this evening

I am going. . . to pray for my family and for you!

One of my favorite things. . . enjoying time with my sweet family

From my picture journal . . .

From my trip last fall to Ohio

Wherever you are, I am wishing you a wonderful day!

Happy Quilting :-)

A happy little Fall quilt

A pretty little wall hanging one of my quilting buddies made.

Just thought it would make you smile :-)

Have a happy quilting weekend!