Swooned

One of the courses I have taken on Craftsy is Camille Roskelley's first one on using pre-cuts, and during it she shows how to make her Swoon block. I finally got around to making one and now I'm hooked.  The block measures a hefty 24" square, so I think it's the biggest single block I've ever handled.  I ended up using the Sunnyside fat quarters for this project.  Not sure why it's called that since there are lots of clouds and raindrops, but I do like it.

I'm enjoying playing with the color values.  

Spoiler Alert:  If you are totally sick of snow and wintry weather, stop here.

We were not supposed to get a blizzard last night.  The Cape and Islands were getting the blizzard.  We had a heavy snow warning only.  Lucky us.

Out my back stairs.

God bless the gentleman who used his snow blower to clear the stuff the city snow plow dumps in my driveway.  I did the rest and am now resting wondering if I should start another Swoon.  I also need some cookies, so I might do that instead.

God Bless Us Everyone!

Snow Days = Sew Days

This is the Cookie Jar Block for the February Sew Kitschy BOM. 

The word "Cookies" will be added.  I have some letter stamps that I might try out.

The February block of the Quilt Doodle Doodles' 2014 BOM.

It needs a doorknob and maybe some smoke from the chimney.

The Hour Glass blocks, which are the 19th block design for the

 Ben Franklin Mystery QAL from Erik Homemade Coffee Break ezine.

I want to join the Let's Book It group that Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts began in January.  The Christian Cross Quilt from Eleanor Burns' book Egg Money Quilts has been on my list of quilts I love for a while so that's going to be my project.  No rush on this one.  

I have a fat quarter bundle of Sunnyside with some Kona cream solids for this one.  

The problem with snow days is they are also shovel days, at least for me.  Yesterday's storm was wet and heavy snow.  I'm surprised I did anything else after clearing the snow, but I baked cookies and sewed my blocks.  Call me Wonder Woman:)

God Bless You.

My Row of Snowmen

I'm joining Quilt Doodle Doodles' 2014 BOM.  You probably have seen similar rows of snowmen on other blogs because they are so cute they are irresistible. 

They make me think of a row of clocks with their noses giving different hours.  

God Bless.

Grow Your Blog

Welcome to my blog.  My name is Joanna, I live in the Northeast of the United States and my blogging is usually about the things I make.  I have been sewing for about 52 years - YIKES!  Was I born with a needle and thread, scissors and pincushion?  Maybe.  Actually, my mother and her sisters were all sewers, as well as their mother, so the influence was there.  My sister, mother and I used to spend hours roaming about fabric stores and mill outlets, just looking and touching the fabrics.  When we learned of a new place that sold fabric, we were right on it.  At one time in my life, in my twenties, I made almost all of my clothes.  I loved it.

Now, mostly I make quilts.  It is very different from garment construction, and I know I have a lot to learn about the craft, which may be why I enjoy it so much.  Plus, I get to look at and touch fabric all over again.

The rewards of sewing are many, and sometimes unexpected.  For instance, this past Christmas I made a crayon roll for my sister's youngest granddaughter.

It was a big hit with the baby and her mother, and her oldest sister asked me to make one for her to hold her pens.  It's a simple project that made an impact.  That's why I love to sew.

I also crochet and knit, but not as often as I once did.  And, I like cross stitch.  Embroidering well is on my wish list.

A big Thank You to Vicki of 2 Bags Full for putting together this Grow Your Blog event.
I look forward to visiting many blogs in the next few days that I may never have heard of if not for this event.  So, Vicki, hugs.

Have fun visiting.

God Bless You.

Stash Buster Quilt Top and Hexagon Runner

This is the Stash Buster quilt top.  Some of the blocks look so different to me when set in the quilt, such as the second from the right on the top row.  The quilt is attractive and the qal got me to use  rulers that I owned but never used so that was a good exercise.  Thank you to Linda of Quiltmania for this qal.  It was fun.  I have the backing half put together.  I'm trying to use fabric from my stash but I may have to go shopping for some that will blend in with what I have.  Isn't that a shame:)

Back in August I posted about the new Sizzix dies I purchased, and one of them was the hexagon.  

I was using scraps to make something, just playing.

This week I decided to make a runner and this is what I came up with.

I have plans of doing a crocheted edging, if I can manage it.  

We had our second blizzard this month Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.  The snow accumulation wasn't as bad for my area as the first one, but it was dangerous driving and severely cold.  Last night I took a short walk and enjoyed the crunchy snow.  Yep, I'm a hard-core New Englander.  And I get my exercise shoveling snow in winter and cutting grass in summer.  Lucky me.

I hope you stop by on Saturday when the Grow Your Blog hop takes place.


The blogs will be of all interests, not necessarily quilting/sewing so that will be fun.

God Bless You.

January Sew Kitschy block

The January block in the Sew Kitschy qal.

I'm linking to Quiet Play.

I hope you can tell they are potholder and mitt:)

New Year, New Blocks

Happy New Year to everyone.  Hope we all know joy, good health and many good things in 2014. 

 This is block 19 in the Stash Buster QAL that is hosted by Linda's Quiltmania  http://lindasquiltmania.blogspot.com/  One more block and we put them all together.  I'm curious to see the setting for this quilt because I don't know what sashing I will use, if there is one.   

This is block 18 of the Ben Franklin Mystery Quilt.  http://erikhomemade.typepad.com/

It's called Independence Square.  It's one of my favorites so far. 

I like this crocheted pillow from Red Heart's web site and since I'm in the mood to crochet something I may take on this project. 

  I'm waiting for a local hospital to let me know if they need any lapghans.  One of my goals for 2014 is to make more things to donate.  I love to quilt, crochet and knit, but how many quilts do I need? 

Another goal this year is to use my fabric stash.  I have some beautiful fabric waiting for my attention and I want to use it.  I know that this will be the hard one to keep, but I'll try.

I'm going to join in the Sew Kitschy BOM which is a paper piecing project and looks very cute. 

I learned of it from Sunshine in the Attic's post so thank you.

I'm definitely going to make a patchwork scottie, too, from Quilting-On-The-Go.  Too cute.

I think I'll go and cut some fabric and start on one of these projects.  

God Bless You!

Moxie's snow print.  We had a blizzard a week ago, but the snow is all gone.

Caught Up, For Now

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas Day and continue to enjoy the Christmas season.  I was at my sister's lovely home and enjoyed my Polish heritage by eating pierogi which my brother made, golabki which my sister made, kielbasa, Polish ham,  babka, rye bread, horseradish and sharing of the oplatki before hand.  It was all delicious, and her granddaughters are so much fun.  Thanks, Ging.

Growing up we had the Polish Vigilia at my mother's mother's home (my Polish grandmother) and on Christmas Day went to my father's mother's home (my French Canadian grandmother).  Gorton (not the fish brand, but a pork pate) is still one of my favorite foods, although it's difficult to find now.  I'm a vegetarian the rest of the year but not at Christmas.  Shame on me.

Since then I have spent lots of time sewing to catch up on the Stash Busters QAL and the Ben Franklin QAL.  I was  seven blocks behind on the first and only one block behind on the second. 

And the Ben Franklin block called Strength in Union.

'

Lots of unstitching on the Stash Busters, which I think are out to bust me.  

Tomorrow Linda will give us another Stash Buster block and I hope to get it done.  

Enjoy you weekend.

God Bless You.

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.

December QAL - Post 2

Compliments to all of the quilters who have linked up at Sue's blog.  I love every project I've seen, and the variety is wonderful.  Seeing all of our Christmas work in December is putting me in a nice holiday mood.

 

Those are the backs of my polar bear quilts and the long side measures 15.5 or close to it.  No red or green.

I just came in from pushing around the slush that is the result of the snow storm from yesterday.  Hope everyone else is okay.  We are having a very unusual year weather wise in that the temps just keep fluctuating markedly over a few days.  It was bitter cold yesterday and today it is warm enough for rain. 

I am continuing to work on my Nativity panel project that I began in June or July.  I was using metallic thread for the quilting and had absolutely no problems with the red color, but when I switched to green, the thread kept breaking.  I used every needle size there is and played with the tension to no avail.  Then I visited Joann's to get plain old thread to finish this project and found that the Coats and Clark was half price so I bought a variety, including their metallic thread which is made differently.  Their metallic is twisted around a core of thread, whereas the other metallic I was using was a polyester strip type.  I've been using the Coats metallic and haven't had a problem with it, so I'm going to finish this quilt with the gold metallic only.  I'd love to have this project hanging for Christmas week. 

This is the finished Modern Christmas Tree Quilt hanging in the living room. 

 

God Bless You.

December Christmas QAL - Post 1 or Got Cookies? Times 2

In the Christmas QAL world, today's the day we show our stuff.  If you are late to the party, we were given a challenge by Sue of Quilt Times to create a Christmas quilting project that did not use any red or green and did not measure more than 96 inches total circumference.  In order to be part of Sue's drawing for a prize you also needed to participate in our once a month qal's at least 3 times.  There were a loyal group of quilters this year and I made new online friends and discovered new blogs I enjoy reading.  So for me, because the journey is the whole point, I feel very satisfied.

My project is from Quiltmaker magazine's Nov/Dec 2012 issue and is designed by Sonja Callaghan, who named it You Got Cookies?  (FYI to our Canadian friends, Sonja designs out of Vancouver.)

I made two of these guys because I love them.

I will post of picture of the measurements of one of the panels in another post because I forgot to do that, but one is only 12.5" by 15.5".  I'll also show a picture of the backs.

I used yarn from my stash for the pompoms, buttons from my late mother's old stash and felt for the hat brims and noses.  

Back in June or July when I began the first bear, I had never tried paper piecing.  This was an easy project to begin that method and although I did have some tense moments (spell that GRRRRR) I made the second bear and another small project, and I love paper piecing.  

I'll show some other stuff later, but now I want to visit the other quilters and see their projects.

Postcard from Australia

Isn't this one super postcard?  Fiona sent it to me from Australia as part of the postcard exchange that Sheila organized.  She made it special for me by embroidering my initial.  It is so sweet and cheerful.  Thank you so much, Fiona.  If you go here http://www.bubzrugz.blogspot.com/2013/11/lovely-surprises.html you will see the card I sent to Fiona.  She makes lovely things so look through her posts and enjoy the sights.

When I was making my Autumn Leaves wall hanging http://www.needlethreadhappiness.blogspot.com/2013/10/autumn-leaves-wall-hanging.html  I mentioned the Northcott Fabric Circle http://www.northcottfabriccircle.com and the contest they run.  Well, Autumn Leaves won the  for October.  It was a random number drawing so it was luck not talent, but I was happy to win.   I want to acknowledge Jennifer of Northcott for her superb customer service.  Northcott is a Canadian based company.  They make the Stonehenge batiks, which I used for my project and which were a dream to sew with.  Lovely fabric.  

This is what Jennifer sent me, some Stonehenge and some Artisian Spirit Shimmer.  

I don't have anything that I have made to share with you yet.  I finished the Modern Christmas Tree Quilt with a red binding, but I'm waiting for Christa to finish her qal before I show it.  I'll hang it up the day after Thanksgiving, which is tomorrow and is the official beginning of the Holiday season.  

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  

God Bless You.

Heat rises and so does Moxie:)

The Quilting is Done

Christa Quilts' Modern Christmas Tree Quilt

 What is on the back?  More tree's, of course.

 

 And a sweet cat looking for company.

I'm having a problem choosing binding fabric because the front trees are scrappy with lots of aqua blue and magenta, but the backing is green, white and red.  Maybe red would be the best choice.  

FYI:  Fabrics Galore is closing and is having a big sale.  You might be able to snag a bargain or two, if interested.

God Bless.

 

November Christmas QAL - Post 3

I love the way this looks, but have to say that it took a bit of time.  Hopefully the next tree will go faster. 

 

That's it for me today as far as quilting goes.  Unless I get a surge of energy.  Right now it's feet up, tea at my side and a book.

 

Have a wonderful week.

 

Don't forget to thank a Veteran.

 

God Bless You.