My New Gadget

I hope the people at AccuQuilt don't mind my calling their GO! machine a "gadget", but mine has arrived and is now a part of my sewing repertoire.  This quilt is the pattern that comes with the Value Die which comes with the GO!  At this point I'm not ready to rate or give testimony, but I will say that from now on I do not want to make half-square triangles without cutting them out first with the GO! gadget.  It makes hst's a million times easier.  I do have a problem in that I purchase fabric by the yard because it's the most economical way, but that means it needs to be cut or torn into strips to fit over the part of the die I was using.  I guess that's what everyone else does, but I wonder if there's an easier way to go about it. 

I do like the quilt top, and I spent most of my time sewing it and not cutting it, which was nice.  And funny thing, between the time I ordered the GO! and it's arrival I slashed my thumb with the rotary cutter.  OY!  I never developed safe practises when using the rotary cutter, but I am very careful now. 

I received the cutest Easter card in the world from my sister's granddaughter.

Notice his cotton tail!

Awww!

This is how I knew it was time to take a break today.

 If you take a close look you will see the pieces of the quilt I was sewing underneath my little beast.  Okay, I'll stop:)

God Bless You.

 

Crazy Scrappy Blocks

I'm doing something different for me.  I visited the blog of the designer of the Sherbet Pips fabric line  for Moda http://www.comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/.    because I loved the images in the fabric, as so many others did.  The designer, Aneela Hoey, began a casual qal of crazy blocks using scraps.  I joined in because oy, do I have scraps.  But also because it was a different kind of block, not anything I have done before.   Now, these blocks look very different and it took me a few to appreciate their cuteness.  The idea is to have a center image and sew scraps around it until the block measures 11 inches.  Here are some of mine:

I was at a loss at what to use for the center image and then in my scraps I found my cupcake fabric.  Aneela suggested we sort our scraps into colors and each block is made with one color.  It works great, and my scraps are getting used up so nicely.  I've made 12 blocks, and need to make 20 or 30. 

It really works to horde fabric.   You never know when the perfect quilt block will come your way:)

God Bless You.

Regency Quilt Completed

It seems as if many of the crafters whose blogs I read are completing projects.  I'm not sure what spurs others on.  I think I'm partly motivated by having a sense of committment to whatever made me begin the project in the first place.  Also, I feel a responsibility to follow through, being genetically frugal.  I bought the fabric so I need to do something with it.  Plus, I just get tired of seeing the damn thing hanging around.  It needs to be finished to be used so I finish it. 

 Thus, the Regency quilt was completed.

I can't tell you much unstitching I did when quilting the border.  I just couldn't get it right. 

It's far from perfect, but I'm fine with it. 

As I was working on it I thought that instead of hearts I could have appliqued flowers instead.  That would be pretty.

I recently had a couple of nice wins.  One was the Quilt Album software which I won during the SewCalGal Golden Quilter Award event.  I really look forward to getting the software and making a record of not only my quilts but crochet, sewing and cross stitch projects. 

I also won a $25.00 gift cerfiticate to AccuQuilt which I won during SewCalGal's AccuQuilt Blog Hop.

Oh, and I splurged on an AccuQuilt GO! 

Amazon has them at a very deep discount right now and I bought one.

Having the Sizzix showed me how nice it is to have a cutter for smaller things, and I loved what I saw during the blog hop.

I hope it proves to be everything the company says of it.

Hope you are getting things finished, too.

God Bless You.

 

Easter SAL Completed

Not much to say about this except that I love it, I'm happy I stumbled upon Carole's sal at http://www.novalee02.over-blog.com/ , and that it and my Annalee's will make a very pretty tableau.

The Regency quilt is almost done, except I haven't quilted the outside border.  But I foresee another finish in my future very soon.

God Bless You.

Some Progress

This lapquilt will be going to the hospital tomorrow, and I am submitting the picture to Martingale as part of  their Share the Warmth celebration for their 35th Anniversary.

I'm using the label I had made up by Namemaker.  I'm bad about labeling my quilts, but at least this shares a sentiment I like.

I made the two stars for the Scatty Stars Quilt.  This quilt will be a demonstration on how just changing the color values can make one design look different.  Sue and Cathi did a nice job in that.

My celestial bunch so far.

I did get my red thread so that's what I'm going to work on, as well as my bunnies and carrots for the Easter sal.

I opened an email with Gmail and have had nothing but problems since I got invovled with Google's email, so if you have that saved someplace to contact me, please don't use it.  I'm sticking with Verizon and Yahoo.  I think Blogger is part of Google, but I haven't had blog problems - yet.

God Bless You.

Down, Brownies, Down!

I'm posting because every time I open my blog I see the picture of the brownies I made on Saturday, and for my own good I need to move that picture further down the page.  I have done some sewing by quilting the striped quilt, but I don't have pictures yet.  Tomorrow I go out to buy thread so I can hopefully finish the Regency quilt.

I have been playing with my new dies, just cutting randomly with scraps.

I was thinking of using the angels to enhance the wreath quilt I am still working on via Erik Homemade Ezine.  We'll see.

God Bless.

April Christmas QAL Post 3 - Progress

When I visited Hazel's blog, she had made some star cookies.  That led me into my kitchen where I made brownies.

This was Hazel's fault.

Am I easily led or what!

I made the brownies, did some laundry, went to Mass, had supper, and have been quilting the Regency quilt since.  It's almost done, but I just ran out of thread, so it will remain undone for now. 

I sandwiched my striped quilt so it's ready for quilting, but I'm not.

I'm done for now.  It's been fun.  And even though I didn't have a finish, I did make progress and have fun.

God Bless You.



April Christmas QAL 2nd Post - Distraction, Inc.

Things keep happening here to distract me from my plans.  I transferred the embroidery design for one of the quilt blocks and began to sew it.  I don't like my stitches so this block will be for me.  This quilt is a gift so I want the stitching to be better.  I only got so far:

when a package was delivered.  I had ordered five dies from the Sizzix Outlet, and I couldn't resist trying one.

I know that apples aren't necessarily difficult to applique, but it only took a few minutes to put this one together.  I'll stitch it later and thnk about making a runner or cover with a few apple blocks.

As if that weren't enough, I received the latest issue of Quiltmaker, and I'm eager to read it.

Plus, I was outside with Mox for awhile.  Pity the poor bugs:)

The day isn't over.  And every little bit of sewing is progress.  Back later.

God Bless.

April Christmas Quilt Along

10:09 a.m.  I'm still in my pj's and drinking my first cup of coffee, but I have made a few things happen.  Today I will work on this pattern that I won recently.  It's by Sherri K. Falls of This & That Patterns. http://www.thisandthatpatterns.com/   Sherri's instructions state to back the background fabric on which the embroidery is done with light fusible web before transferring the design.  Did I do that?  Noooooo. So my fabric is moving and stretching as I draw. I'm using my new light box for the first time and it's so much better than the "sun through the window" method.. 

So I will fix that before anything else gets done.

I also plan to do some more quilting on the Regency quilt that I began last month so that it can get finished soon. 

Last night I found a video made by  Nancy Zeiman of Sewing With Nancy.  I like her show very much and was surprized to find her video, but I watched it twice and then made myself a checkbook cover using my new serger. 

This went incredibly fast.  As usual, choosing fabric and cutting it took the longest. 

Moxie is doing her in one minute and out the next routine.  She wants to be in two places at once.

OK.  I'm stalling, so I am off to do some sewing.

God Bless.



Keeping Quiet

I'm keeping up with the Easter sal, and this is the latest step.  The next design has bunnies, carrots and bees and is delightful.  After that we do some scrolls and that's the end. 

I did so much sewing for two weeks that I lost interest in it and have stayed relatively quiet this week.  I have done some quilting on the big quilt  I have and keep making progress on it, and I have done a little  quilting on this Regency quilt so I don't have another UFO hanging around, but mostly this week has been sewing-free. 

However, that all changes tomorrow because it is the Christmas QAL Saturday. 

I need to figure out what I'll be working on.

God Bless You.

New Pillows Cases

I did make pillow cases with the Sizzix die flower blocks.  I'm happy with them, but their newness makes everything else look worn.  Time for spring cleaning.

I quickly put together a quilt top from the strips of an inexpensive roll.  I'm making it for the Share the Warmth event that Martingale Publishing is hosting to celebrate their anniversary.  My goal is to finish it this week, but I'm done sewing for now; need a break.

 Happy Sunday.

God Bless You.

More Playing With Dies

This is what I  made with the other flower die I have for my new Sizzix.  I plan to put french knots in the centers.  Then I'm not sure what I'll do with the block; maybe a pillow.  

I neglected to provide a link to Colleen's blog, Lucky Duck Dreams, yesterday and want to correct that.  http://www.cyarnell.blogspot.com/ Visit her blog to see what she has made with her Sizzix.

The votes have been counted and SewCalGal has announced the winners of The Golden Quilter Awards.  The nominees and the votes are submitted by quilters internationally, and SewCalGal hosts this annual event. 

I'm happy for all of the nominees and the winners.  I've only been quilting and blogging for a little over a year, but there are a couple of names listed of quilters who I learned about and who influenced me in the progress I've made with this craft.  That's wonderful.   Here is the list of those receiving awards.

Best Designer    Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs

Best Teacher/Instructor     Bonnie Hunter, Quiltville

Best Author    Eleanor Burns, of Quilt In A Day

Best Quilt Store (Physical)     Mary Jo's in Gastonia NC

Best Quilt Store (online)    Fat Quarter Shop

Best Long Arm Quilter    Judi Madsen - Green Fairy Quilts

Most Innovative product (physical item)    AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter

Most Innovated product (software item)    EQ7, by The Electric Quilt Company

Most influential person in the world of quilting to-date, aka "Lifetime Achievement"    Eleanor Burns, Quilt in a Day

Best Quilt Retreat    Two Wacky Woman (Southern California)

Many sponsors have contributed items for a giveaway.  The giveaway is open to everyone who nominated, voted and helped with PR (like this post) for the event.   Visit http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/ to learn more about the awards and the giveaway.

God Bless You. 

It's Been a Pretty Nice Day

I haven't won the lottery or anything else for that matter.  And it has been raining most of today.  But I read something inspirational this morning that just made my day.  I ended up going to Stations of the Cross and then Mass, which was a funeral for a 24 year old father of two. I didn't know him but the funeral preempted the regular Mass, so those of us who did the Stations went to the funeral mass.  It's sad to die that young, but faith tells us there is more. All in all, it was a very positive morning.

Then the sewing took over.   I admit that I have coveted and hoped to win an AccuQuilt GO! since it came out a year ago.  I've entered too many contests and never won.   I don't win even the weekly contest when there are only 100 or so entrants.   So, I bought a Sizzix Big Shot because the price was right.  I have read Lucky Duck's posts on the uses she has found for her Sizzix and was impressed.  I had also been doing quilte a bit of researching on the Sizzix.   Although I hope to get the  Westminster dies for quilting in the near future,  the dies I bought with my cutter were two flower dies and a fan.  This is my first project with one of the flower dies.   

Patsy Thompson has a video on how she uses her Sizzix to add enhancements to projects.  She backs her fabric with fusible facing before cutting which makes the narrow strips more stable.  I was too enthusiastic and eager to do that, but I will next time.  I zigzagged the edges of the flowers. 

Granted, these are not the quilting dies, rather dies for scrapbooking, but they work on fabric. 

I made one more mug rug.  Umbrellas can look very cute in crafts, and I loved this design when I saw it.  This is really my take, not what the designer called for.

This Madness is over.  Most of the designers were young bloggers who seem to be fearless when it comes to quilting.  They come up with an idea and make it happen.  I think I was like that at one time;-)

God Bless You.  Hope your day is pretty nice, too.