Ma petite Madeline

I love Moda! Moda gives me a ticket that no other fabric company offers. A few years ago while working on a Christmas quilt, I discovered that I did not have enough green to complete my project. I started hunting for a substitute, and soon discovered that many of the Moda lines complement each other. The shades are very similar, so adding a fabric from another Moda line will usually blend well enough to finish whatever project you are working on.

When I first saw the Schnibbles Madeline, I was taken with the red and taupe combination. But I did not have any French General fabric. After mulling over what to do, I decided that I would try to work this quilt in a red and beige combination. At Christmas time I was blessed by Kelly from Cotton Charm Quilts with a fat quarter bundle of Blessing fabric. Working with a Charm Pack that I had and the fabric Kelly sent to me, I also included bits of Wuthering Heights by Three Sisters, and a fabric I have had for years called Victoria Hills.

And so may I present to you "ma petite Madeline" -


Très bon!

I am joining amylouwho in Friday's Sew and Tell.

Heureux de trouver!

Horray! Ce week-end je suis allé à mon LQS et devinez ce que j'ai trouvé! Oui Français général! J'étais si heureux de trouver ce beau tissu local. Et quelle surprise, comme nos magasins n'ont pas effectué l'une des lignes que j'ai aimé. Je suis donc profiter d'un peu d'une composition pour mon Schnibbles Madeline :-) Je me suis tellement pris que j'ai pensé qu'il serait approprié d'écrire ce post en français! Bon pour ma cachette!


translation -
(Horray! This weekend I went to my LQS and guess what I found! YES French General! I was so delighted to find this beautiful fabric locally. And what a surprise, as our shops have not carried any of the lines that I have loved. So I am enjoying a little bit of a mix for my Madeline Schnibbles :-) I got so carried away that I thought it would be appropriate to write this post in French! Good for my stash!

I have still been feeling sluggish and slow with this new medication. Not much pep or enthusiasm lately. I sure hope it will pass. Thanks for all of your kind words.

Plugging away

It's been slow going with Madeline. Adjusting to some new medicines has left me a less then enthused. Plus a little bit of dizzy does not make for safe rotary cutting.

Keep a watch out

Can you believe it! Can you believe that someone would steal a quilt? And do it right in front of a whole crowd of people, and slither away into the night?

Please go over to Quilting with Kimberly's blog and read about the stolen quilt. Maybe if we pass the word around enough, it will be recovered. She has a picture of the quilt on her blog that was published in her book. So go, and take a look. And then keep an eye out on ebay, etsy, quilt shows, anywhere that someone might try to sell this quilt.

***** If you would like to see other lost or stolen quilts, go to this website lostquilt.com Maybe with all of us looking, we may be able to help recover a quilt that's been missing. *****

Happy Birthday to you!

Guess who's birthday it is today?

Valerie over at Life's Little Garden! Hop on over and wish Valerie a very happy day!

Valerie has taken such good care of her sweet Granny. She's shared so much with us about Granny's quilting and even helped her celebrate her birthday a couple of months ago.

Happy Birthday Valerie!

Sweet little doll

Okay, you want to see something ca-ute!


Now isn't that a face that only a mother could love :-) Cath over at Cathron Country Designs is have a 200th post giveaway. And I think her little dolls are darling. You can see more of them on her blog. Go ahead, take a look. I'll wait...........

tap, tap, tap...............

tap, tap, tap...........................

tap, tap, tap.....................................

Aren't they just the cutest little dollies?? LOVE those little faces.

Just had to give Cath a shout out. Check out her free dolly design on her Country Designs site.

And while I was doing some blog hopping I came upon one that was very interesting. Hooked on Houses did a post on the Beach House from the movie "Nights in Rodanthe". I've not seen this movie, but I've heard a lot about it. If you go to the webcam, you can see them moving this house (it's dark now, so maybe tomorrow).

I hope you have a great quilty weekend!

Friday Sew-In

I can hear all those machines humming away tonight. As I fired up my sewing machine I visualized hundreds of quilters working on their Friday Night Sew-In projects.

When I was able to settle in, I still was not sure what to tackle. I finally decided that I'd like to use up some of the left over fabric from the quilt I made for my daughter's birthday. I had plenty left but needed a plan......

So I just started sewing four patches and kept going. I'm not sure what the final result will be with this yet, but it is a start.

And tomorrow is another day ;-)

Quilting notes

There were several comments on my last post about the charm pack yardage, so I thought I would go one more step and add the yardage guide for strips. I always find this information helpful when trying to decide how much fabric to purchase.

Width = Strips Per Yard -

1.5" = 23 strips
2" = 17 strips
2.5" = 13 strips
3" = 11 strips
3.5" = 10 strips
4" = 8 strips
4.5" = 7 strips
5" = 7 strips
5.5" = 6 strips
6" = 5 strips


Happy quilting :-)

Decisions, Decisions

Madeline, Madeline..........

I am starting to wish that I had ordered the French General fabric. This is such a pretty pattern. So I have been trying to decide how to make this pattern. One little hint about using yardage for a charm pack pattern -

1/4 yard = 8 squares
1 fat quarter = 12 squares
1/2 yard = 24 squares
3/4 yard = 40 squares
1 yard = 56 squares

To be continued...................

Good day to stay inside

Well the weatherman is predicting 28 degree weather here in the Sunshine State! I can hardly believe it. With a week of cold weather already and this morning freezing rain, it is the best of days to stay inside.

My mailman brought me some quilty goodness too :-)

Shelly over at Prairie Moon Quilts had 12 Days of Christmas. She drew my name for one of her prizes. Look at this very cute and sweet Purse Pocket.

I love reading Shelly's blog. She lives on a ranch and shares about quilting and her Cowboy. She has also started a Quilt along that takes you back through her Grandmothers diary. Check out The Life of Hazel Ilene, and even if you don't do the quilt along, it is fun to read about life during the 50's.

AND a while back Ryan (I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts) found these beautiful Barn Quilts Calendars on a trip. He bought some and offered them on a giveaway.


Yea! I was one he picked, so I can enjoy this lovely calendar all year long. I have mentioned on this blog before that I love to look at quilts. Do ya think that is why I surf the quilting blogs? Ryan not only sent the calendar, he was so generous and sent these along too -

And -

Are these not just the most adorable blue and green fabrics you have seen?

And they have butterflys!!!! I love butterflys.

So all in all, I guess it was a good day to stay in, and try to keep warm on a not so warm day.

It's a good weekend to quilt. Enjoy!

Baby it's cold outside

(picture provided by Associated Press)

Things are a little chilly in Florida. We've had freezing weather for a week, with no relief in sight until later next week. And this does affect our crops.

"The problem is that farmers need to protect berries and plants from overnight frost and do that by turning on sprinklers during the night to coat the plants with groundwater or ice to shield them." tbo.com

If you would like to see a really good picture of the crops being sprayed, stop over and visit my friend Shari at My Cottage of Bliss. Shari's hubby took these pictures of the strawberry fields and orange groves.

So as you see even if we don't get any snow in our area, there is still plenty of ice to go around!

Stay warm :-)

Keeping your Sewing Machine clean

Today on Diane Gaudynski's blog, she posted some information about keeping your sewing machine clean. I know I have been really lax in that area, so I thought I would post some sites where you can find information about keeping your machine clean. I would think that each brand of sewing machines would have a resource for you to find how to clean your brand of machine. But here is what I found for today.

Diane Gaudyniski's blog -
http://dianegaudynski.blogspot.com/2010/01/lean-mean-clean-machine.html

Blueberry Buckle Quilt Studio -
http://blueberrybuckle.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/tuesday-tutorial-clean-your-machine.html

Bernina blog site -
http://www.berninausablog.com/read/keep-a-clean-machine

Janome Forum -
http://janome.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=19&threadid=480

Sewing machine care -
http://www.essortment.com/all/sewingmachinec_rfhp.htm

Keep those machines running clean :-)

Friday Night Sew-In

Just signed up for the Friday Night Sew-In scheduled for January 15th. I will be sitting at my sewing machine working on some project. Hummmm, what will it be?? Schnibbles, quilt for youngest ds, a work in progress?? How about you??

Stop by Heidi's blog and check it out :-) Hope to see you there!

The start of a New Year

My New Year has been off to a stumbly start. Going for a regular Doctor check up sent me into a little tailspin.

But on a brighter note, a late Christmas gift was found. I was very delighted to open this Block & Pattern a Day Calendar.

Has anyone used this before? It was fun to open up to today's date.

And what a sweet surprise from Jo over in the UK.


The first person she drew for the SMS giveaway never responded, so she picked my name and sent me her prize -

A charm pack of Arcadia by Moda, a yummy cake bar and a postal card. I actually came across a cute pattern that will work great with this charm pack over at Tea Rose Home. My family has collected post cards from all over the country, and now the world, so this postal card was a wonderful addition to our growing collection. Her little package certainly brightened my day.

I hope that everyone is staying warm. We've had very cold weather here in the south, with no let up in sight. Burrrrr.......... enjoy your quilting days :-)

New Year, New Giveaways

As the New Year rang in, so did some wonderful crafters with new giveaways. Please take a look -

My very sweet friend Darlene at Quilting Daze is sharing a book, and throwing in a Sweet Heart charm pack. All you have to do is share with her about your blogging experience :-)

Another sweet friend Natima from Not Just Nat is hosting her One Year blogiversary giveaway. Lovely embroidery projects and some very cool scissors.

Colleen's Quilting Blog is also having a very sweet giveaway so you need to hop over and take a look. A great book-Quilt Like a Pro by Kate Wood. 2 lengths of batik, 1 yard each, a 60 degree diamond shape rotary cutting template and 1 package of Thangles which finish to a 4 inch size Half Square Triangle. Now isn't that a great giveaway?

Calico Prairie is having a Winter Giveaway. Some very lovely cross stitch patterns and other great prizes. I've just gotten back into some cross stitch, and these all look really fun.

And if you hurry you can still catch A Legacy of Stitches End of the Day giveaway. Sandi is giving away 5 very cool patterns.

So for those of you who are snowbound, have some fun visiting these blogs and sign up for the some sweet prizes :-)

Hope your New Year is off to a great start.

Happy New Year

Is it me, or is it hard to believe that a decade ago we were all in a huff about turning over to a new century? Y2K was the term to recon with as we left the 1900's behind and plunged forward toward 2000. So many things have happened in this last decade, some for good and some were not so good. Our world has changed. But people still go forward.

As today ushers in the start of a new decade, I wanted to share a little encouragment -

Security for To-day. "For ye shall not go out with haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that God will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.

Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step out into the irresistible future with Him.

Wishing you a wonderful day and a Happy and blessed New Year!