Geese and Houses

When I was making the Swoon blocks following Camille Roskelley's instructions during her Craftsy class, Pre-Cut Piecing, I ended up with a pile of matched triangles.  I put them aside with the intention of using them for something.  It's been very relaxing to sew these HST's together and then to match them up to make flying geese.  I'm up to 50 geese. 

 True confessions; I love flying geese quilts.  I love traditional quilts and love this block.  But I have never made a flying geese quilt, and that's understandable since I'm relatively new to quilting.  I have made quilts that used FG's.  What am I going to do with these FG's ?  Don't know.

However, I have a thought about using them to make a runner.  Whatever I make, I love my geese and am being very careful about their points.  

The other project I'm working on are these sweet houses.

A blogging friend, Lesley of  The Cuddle Quilter, passed on this pattern to me, called A Cottage Year,  and I am trying my best to do justice to this beautiful design.

I have two houses stitched, the July and August houses.  My running stitch is not the best but it does get better as I go along.  

That's it.  Hope you are enjoying your crafting time.

God Bless You

Classical, Oldies, Jazz, Folk or Quiet?

 The radio is the July block for the Sew Kitschy quilt from Quiet Play.  The older I get the more I like the quiet but I confess to playing it at high volume in my younger days.  

The Autograph Star block is the 23rd block in the Ben Franklin QAL at Eric Homemade ezine.  This Darlene Zimmerman fabric looks perfect for this time of year; very picnic-like.

  That puts me up to date for my qal's so far, but the Knitter's Gifts block should be coming out this weekend.


Edit:  Go here for a sweet free pattern from Jacquelynne  Steves.

Have a great day.

God Bless.

What's in the Mug?

The steam coming from the mugs in the Quilt Doodle Doodle July BOM 2014 looks like a question mark, doesn't it? That's because mine are backwards ha ha ha.  The harder I try the worser I get.

So, what's in your mug?  I would like hot spiced cider or hot chocolate or cocoa for a treat.  The fabric has candy canes which I thought could be appropriate for a hot wintry beverage.

Just three more blocks for this project.  I love the way it's coming together.  

FYI:  If you are looking for a Christmas quilt project, you might look into the Quilter's Newsletter First Snow quilt.  It is paper piecing and is one of those projects where the blocks are available for only one week, but right now the first three PDF's can be downloaded.  I'm going to make it because it is very sweet and will be fun to put together.  Join in, why don't you?  

Enjoy your week.

God Bless.  

Have Tea With Me?

 I completed one of my projects, prompted in part by Craftsy's blog post yesterday citing World UFO  Day and how it could apply to quilters.  If you're a quilter, you know why.  If you're not a quilter, it's because UFO for us is an unfinished object.    

I am a tea lover, but most often make it per mug in the microwave.  However, I sometimes enjoy the graciousness of a semi-formal tea setting, i.e. I use a teapot and cups and saucers.  Now I have a sweet tea cozy and coasters to match.

One of Mom's buttons to dress it up a bit.

This design is from the July/August McCall's Quilting by Sandra Hatch.

I wanted to have flowers in a vase in my shot but Hurricane Arthur is pouring away outside so no flowers today.  

Happy July 4th.

Let Freedom Ring

and 

God Bless America.

Scrap-Happy

I wanted to take part in the Let's Book It! at Vroomans Quilts this month because I have two projects that I just found in new magazines and thought I could make either one very quickly.  See below to see why that didn't happen.  I love this

from here

and this 

from here

and I will begin one of them soon.  I'm thinking of making the teapot image into placemats.

So what's my excuse for not getting anything done?   A combination of working more hours and being felled by a bad allergy head cold has kept me away from my sewing machine.  Plus, the project I've been working on is not something you would find very interesting.  I've been organizing my scraps by cutting them up and putting them into groups.  When I began I thought  it would take only a day or two, maybe a few days, to get this accomplished.  Forget it.  It's been a few weeks and I'm still at it.  Granted, between being sick or working has interfered, but still!  Yes, you might say, just throw them out.  Ha ha, that's funny.

2"

3"

1"

4" and 5"

Waiting to be ironed

I still have more to sort.  I have a log cabin quilt I want to make so this will be helpful, or I may just make some string blocks when I want to do some mindless sewing.

No more time to chat.  I have a pile of scraps to sort.

God Bless You.

Flag Quilt ala Eleanor Burns

Yesterday I mentioned I wanted to make the Flag Quilt made by Eleanor Burns in her video, here.  The link brings you to youtube.  Well, I began my version yesterday afternoon and by last night I had the flimsy finished.  Today I completed the quilt.  I definitely want to make the smaller version.  If you watch the video with the intention of making the quilt have a pencil and paper handy because Eleanor gives measurements throughout the video.

My version is dedicated to my Dad, a WWII pacific war veteran and after that  a member of the National Guard.  

Happy Father's Day.

God Bless You.

My Pillow, Skates and Ben Block

I can say I'm up to date on the qal's I joined, and that means I will move on to other things.  First though is the pillow I crocheted.

The back is colorful and I used some vintage buttons from my mom's stash.  Remember, I come from a family that never throws away anything, so if buttons and zippers were money I'd be rich.  Here is the pattern I followed for the flowers.

This row of hockey skates is the June block from Quilt Doodle Doodle's qal.

My pictures do not show well the fabric I used for the blades and clips but it has a silver glitter and swirls so it works well for those parts.

This is the 22 block in the Ben Franklin QAL over at Erik Homemade ezine is Sally's Favorite.

This may or may not be the last block.  It's going to be a big quilt I think and will probably take me forever to quilt it.  If you're looking for a nice patchwork sampler project I can recommend this one.  

I watched an Eleanor Burns you tube yesterday where she made a flag quilt.  I think I'm going to put one together in the smaller size.  

Enjoy your weekend.

God Bless You.

Sew Kitschy June Block

Jug and Cups

The blocks are getting a bit more challenging with smaller pieces.  

I've Been to a Quilt Show

Today I attended my second quilt show.   A guild put it on at a nearby university.  Part of the show were quilts from the 2013 Hoffman Challenge.  I found those very interesting.  

Although I took pictures of the names of the quilters, I am not posting them.  I'm not sure if I should or not, but for now I  won't.

I loved this quilt because I love the umbrella image. It's based on an Edyta Starr of Laundry Basket design.  The quilter noted that Edyta is her favorite designer. 

This quilt was eye catching because the quilter embellished each elephant differently.

Don't you love those tails:)

Double wedding ring variation.

This design is popular right now, and it looks super made up.

A Baltimore Album quilt.  The quilter took a course with Elly Sienkiewicz, then it took several years to finish.

Really cute.

Yes, I am a lover of animal images.  But I also love little kids, flowers and trees and other beautiful stuff.
 I love this cat quilt.

The 2013 Hoffman Challenge quilts.  They are making the rounds to various quilt shows.

This quilt had perfectly beautiful hand quilting.

I bought a grab bag of cotton fabric for $3 of mostly blues. And I purchased a pattern by a designer from the cape area.  I love the pattern but don't think she should charge more than even Eleanor Burns' does for her patterns.  Oh well.

Have I been quilting?  No.  I've been crocheting.

 I made a little pillow cover.  

Enjoy your weekend.

God Bless You.