My "Playground" Activity

I may never win the lottery but I am very happy when I have a win in blogland.  Recently my joy was to win Kay MacKenzie's new book, Scrap-Applique Playground.  It's a neat book with fun designs.

  Thank you to Kay http://www.allaboutapplique.net/ and to Susan Brubaker Knapp http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/ on whose blog I was chosen the winner. 

With my penchant for jumping into projects feet first without fearing how deep the water is, I began making the cover quilt, "Lollipop Grove".  It's my first landscape quilt and is going pretty well.  Kay's designs in this book use patchwork/crazy patches for the appliques.  It's very relaxing, and I love to see my little scraps getting used up.  The lollipop treetops are fun to make.  This is what I've done so far.

I've just placed my patches on the background to see how I'm doing, so this is not the final layout.  Lots more trimming and shaping to come, as well as the sun, birds, and small "gumball flowers" to make.  This is Kay's quilt:

Designers do have the best scraps, don't they:) 

 I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday.

God Bless.





Wonderful Progress Until My BooBoo

I have been sewing the cornerstone strips and the blocks together on my QOV project and had to stop before finishing for a few reasons.  First, that center star needs to be embroidered with some personal information of the giftee. So that middle row is not sewn to the other rows and the star is unsewn to the adjacent blocks.  But I think it looks pretty nice.



Second, this cornerstone has been unsewn and resewn twice and needs to be done again.  Can't do it today because of a little accident.

This is my finger that was cut on a broken mug.  If it doesn't stop bleeding soon I'm off to the ER.

But I'm still a happy person because this quilt top is almost finished.  Believe me, with this top the rest will seem easy. 

God Bless you (and my finger:)



This Little Bird Was Calling To Me

I felt as if I have been working on the same projects for a long time and needed a switch so today I made a mini quilt to hang on my new table stand.  This block is called How Tweet It Is and is designed by Lynette Anderson for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 3.  I began working on it around 10:00 AM and finished about 3:30 PM.  That's not bad considering there is quite a bit of handsewing.  There are little yoyo's and some embroidery.  I used Lynette's templates for the bird and mound, but fortunately I have the flower die for my Sizzix and so they were very easy to cut.  I used Steam a Seam 2 to attached the applique but I also machine stitched around it.

I enjoyed my break.  I'll have to get back to my big projects now.

God Bless You.

June Christmas QAL 2

I've been working on the blocks for a few hours but only have ten made.  And I'm strip sewing as much as I can.  So it's time for a cup of tea and some visiting.

Sue mentioned something about guessing the layout of the quilt once the blocks are made.  You can't be a passive blogger on Sue's watch:)  She's going to keep you busy.   What do you think of this?

or how about this one:

And then there's my favorite:

Be sure to visit Paulette's blog  http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/ .  She has shared a recipe for Nanaimo Bars (no baking) and a how-to for Christmas napkins.  Both are on my to-do list.

God Bless. 

June Christmas QAL 1; Pretty Far

Paulette of Sweet P Quilting and Creations http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com  is hosting this month so please visit her blog to join in on the fun.

The mystery of the Festive Mystery has been solved, but not by the investigators.  None of us who played along came up with the right block layout, so Sue http://quilttimes.blogspot.com/ had all of us stumped.  But it was fun playing along.  Congratulations to Donna http://sosewcrafty.blogspot.com/ who won the drawing. 

I wrote in my last post that today I would see "how far off I am" in my guess.  As you can see, I was way off.

Sue's block is on the left, my guess is on the right.

I have Sue's block turned the wrong way but you get the idea.  So I'm off to make 22 more blocks while listening to an audio book and doing a load of laundry.    Hopefully, I'll get outside and cut the grass before it becomes a wildlife kingdom out back. 

See you later.

The Mystery of Festive Mystery

Sue of Quilt Times http://quilttimes.blogspot.com  gave the Christmas QAL participants a challenge:  try and figure out the design of the blocks/quilt.  We have some clues: 
     We know the quilt is 42 X 60 and that the blocks are 9".
     This made me think there are 4 blocks across and 6 blocks down with a 3" border.
     We have our ABCDs.
     We know  it's festive.
    
Since we have 20 C's I thought they would be used between the blocks as a kind of sashing but only across, not down.

That left the As, Bs, and Ds for the blocks and border.

I had to abandon my idea that we were making  pinwheels because I couldn't come up with a 9" block that was pleasing.  Finally I came up with a version of the Friendship Star at I think looks pretty nice.

      This block will leave plenty of patches for a pieced border that I think will look good. 

So that's my guess.  Saturday at Sweet P's http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.co.uk  I'll find out how far off I am:)  Paulette of Sweet P Quilting and Creations will host the Christmas Quilt Along this month, so join us there.  It's always fun.

The ninth block of the Treasure Chest Quilt is Prickly Pear  http://www.facebook.com/#!/quiltinaday and mine is finished.

This block is really easy to put together and has a great finish. 

Only 3 more blocks and we're done. 

I'm going to be looking for a new qal to join. 

Or else I can finish all of my WIPs that are piled up in my sewing room.

God Bless.

Something Good

In May and June of 2011 I worked on blocks to donate to the Quilt of Valor block challenge hosted by SewCalGal.  I sent in 15 blocks and didn't think I would hear about those blocks again.  But in fact I have heard about some of the blocks that I made and am so happy to be able to share the nice thing that's happened.

Some of my blocks along with blocks made by a quilter in Virginia and a quilter in Florida were made into a Quilt of Valor by a quilter in Wisconsin and presented to a veteran in a ceremony in Chicago honoring veterans of the 442nd RCT.  I received a thank you note from him with a caricature of him holding the quilt.

How nice is this!

The veteran, George Okamoto, also received the Congressional Gold Medal and was written up in his hometown newspaper in Indiana. 

George, thank you for your service to our country and your contribution to my freedom which I enjoy every day. 

Now just between you and me I admit that I am thrilled that some blocks I made have honored a deserving vet.  It's really a nice feeling and I feel very happy about this.  It's terrific to hear back about something I did.

I spent all of yesterday working on the QOV I'm making for my brother and I think I can see a light at the end of this tunnel. 

I tried sewing together 4 of the 6 inch blocks to make a 12 inch block and I like the results. 

I'm going to mix them with the other 12" blocks I have and hopefully it will all go together easily and look good.