Begin again, or is it Same Old, Same Old?

 I took a bit of a blogging break and have missed my blogging friends.  I hope everyone is well. I'm feeling my age but who isn't?   I'm going to try to post at least once each week.  My goal is to get some of my many UFO's moved to the finished stack.  I began with this one, one of my favorites.

I began this project in January, 2012, made 12 blocks and then it became an UFO.  I never forgot it, but just didn't have an interest in putting the blocks together.  A few weeks ago I pulled it out and have made four more blocks.  This is the Radiant Star block designed by Eleanor Burns for the 2011 Winter issue of 100 Blocks by Quiltmaker.  I love this block.  I'm going to play with sashing ideas, and will definitely do borders.  

I joined Pat Sloan's Solstice QAL.  It's a block a week until June.  

Hopefully, this will not go to the UFO stack:)

You can't see the colors very well, but the common colors they all share are black and white. I may have chosen a few too many fabrics for this one, but there are at least 15 more blocks, so I'm hoping they all pull together in the final product.

Take care and God Bless Everyone!

A Few Thank You's

I want to show off some of the pretty things I've won lately.

 

Most recently I was a double winner on Jacquelynne Steves' Holiday Hullabaloo Blog Hop.  Teresa of A Quilt and A Prayer and Jacque of Lilypad Quilting both picked my name; Thank you, Ladies. 

Pretty nice, huh?

The notecards are beautiful, as well as the fabric and patterns.

During the Blogathon Canada I won a group of batiks on Krista Quilts' blog.  Sew-Sisters Quilt Shop sponsored the blogathon and sent me this lovely batch of fat quarters and one yard as well.  That was a fun blog hop and a nice introduction to new blogs.  Thanks to Sew-Sisters and Krista.

I also won the 8th issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks and a fat quarter bundle of Sunny Side by Kate Spain for Moda fabric. I love the raindrop print; it's so cute and different from polka dots.

I've made many of the blocks that have appeared in this resource and no doubt will continue to do so.  Thank you Quiltmaker.

 

No need for Santa Claus here.  I have some new things to play with when things quiet down.

 

God Bless You.

Quilting KP's Quilt and Other Stuff

I began quilting KP's quilt.  I'm hoping to make the curves within the squares design that has the cathedral windows look.  Of course, my curves curve all over the place but that's what makes it my quilting.

 

The only batting I had at home the day I made the sandwich was the extra loft type.  I hesitated using it but now I really like the results.  So, it would be nice if I can get this done by early July, but whenever I make a plan something happens so no plan, just doing.

 

I won this great book from Quiltmaker. 

It's Farm Fresh Quilts by Kim Gaddy. 

 

I love, love the designs in this book.  You may see a bee skep or chicken runner soon.

 

And because I appreciate her approach to quilting, I ordered Mary Ellen Hopkins' book, The It's Okay To Sit On My Quilt Book.

It's out of print, so I ordered a used book through Amazon.  My book is like new.  Love it.

 

I like my Sizzix die cutter very much, and get emails from them when they have sales and such.  I was able to buy all of these dies for under $40.00, including shipping, which I think is pretty good shopping.

 

If you like die cutters, visit SewCalGal  http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/ .  There is an eBosser blog hop going on with how-to's and giveaways.  Apparently, the eBosser is compatible with dies from multiple manufacturers.  Sounds nice.

 

The sun is out and so are the lawn mowers. 

Not mine:-)

God Bless You.

 

 



Pumpkin Patch and Treasure Chest Quilt Top

This block is named Pumpkin Patch.  It was designed by Debbie Field of Granola Girl Designs and was published in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol.3.  I've loved this block since I saw it and finally got around to putting it together.

The Tresure Chest quilt top is done.  Maybe I'm unusual, but yesterday it took me over 8 hours to make the flying geese borders, and most of that time was spent squaring up.  Very tedious and because I was running out of fabric I altered the sashing from 4.5 " to 3" so instead of 4 groups of 8 geese I have 4 groups of 7 geese on the long sides.

We are expecting an unwelcome visitor tomorrow in Hurricane Sandy.  Hopefully the dire scenarios won't occur and we'll all just get a little wet and windblown. 

God Bless You.



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.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

My Annalees make me smile, so I'm sharing them with my readers.  Hope they make you smile, too. 

Today I thought I would show off some the items I've won that I haven't mentioned before.  During the Fall into Fall blog hop I won this basket full of scrapbook supplies from Blissful Baby (http://www.blissfulbaby.etsy.com/.)  My sister's the scrapbooker, so I'm giving her most of the stuff, but I think I'm keeping the basket for my cross stitch projects.  It's a beautiful basket of goodies.  Thank you Blissful Baby.

Back in August during the first month of the Christmas qal, I won this from Sue (http://www.quilttimes.blogspot.com/.)  She asked that I not post about it until the qal was over, so it's safe to show now.  What's funny is that  for the past few days I've been searching for  coasters, forgetting I had these to use.  Not only pretty, but useful.  And the little button box will come in handy, too. Thank you, Sue.

I liked both pictures so I'm using them both.

I won this collection of thread from Connecting Threads (http://www.connectingthreads.com/.)  I love it.  It's a great gift because I've read good things about this brand, it's very generous, and the colors are lovely.  The bad thing is I deleted the email telling me I won, so I can't remember what the reason was, but thank you, Connecting Threads.  They have a neat sales site, too.

And during the 100 Blocks designer tour held by Quiltmaker magazine, (their blog is http://www.quiltypleasures.com/ ) I won a copy of the magazine.  This is the second edition, and it's great. 

I won a book as part of the giveaways from SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show (http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/), and I'll show it to you when I get it. 

Hope everyone is well.  God Bless you.