Design Wall Monday

A finished quilt top is on my design wall today! 

This is the project called "Scary Faces" that was in the Spooky Box from the Fat Quarter Shop. The quilt top includes 8 spider web blocks, 4 pumpkins, and 4 ghosts. 

So fun! I have some ideas for how to quilt this project and I'm hoping to have it pin basted and ready to quilt next weekend. And then I'll be done with Halloween and be able to jump right into Christmas projects... yippee! 

I'm so excited about this because this was my November OMG - I'm dancing over to add my blog post to the OMG link up and Design Wall Monday at Judy's!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Thanks for dropping by the weekly hand stitching party where we're all about needles, threads, fabric, inspiration and self care! There is no advertising here, no Black Friday sales, no machines to give us grief, and no stress whatsoever! It's just pure relaxation, taking deep breaths, and taking one slow stitch at a time. 

And because we are all about the S.L.O.W. part, it's not very often that we can announce a finish... but today I have a finish to share! This is my Bee Happy embroidery from the October online class with Julie of Clever Poppy.  First I did some hand quilting along the stems and around the jar to stabilize the 3 layers.

I hand quilted 1/4" away from the edge of the added border on both sides. Once I got to this stage I was really excited to finish this miniature quilt, and I was quilting it late at night.

Then I got a great (late night) idea to appliqué triangles on the inside of the border. This was challenging because the pieces were so small, and I'm not very experienced with appliqué. And when I woke up in the morning, I didn't like it!  

At all!

So I removed those triangles.

And in their place, I hand quilted a triangle. Thankfully I liked the way this looked much better. I didn't detract from the embroidery as much and it just felt lighter, but filled the empty spaces in the corners.

I'm so glad I had enough of this pretty paisley fabric for the border, backing and binding.
Time to get the label on, add the corner triangles (to put the dowel into for hanging) and attach the binding.

And ta da... here it is! I love it so much!

The name of this miniature quilt is "Bee Happy" and it does indeed make me happy to see it displayed on my wall!

Finished size: 6.75" x 7.5"

Linking up to November's Favorite Finish

What are you hand stitching today? We love to see your progress, so link up your photo, instagram or blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters are finishing up their scrappy projects from this year. But not me! I do finish quilts occasionally, but I much prefer to start them! LOL

Today I'm digging into the strip bin to make blocks for the new Quiltville mystery. These might work. There seem to be a lot of lights and darks but not as many mediums values.

Here are some of my scrappy 4 patch blocks for part #1 of the Quiltville mystery.  

It's so fun to sort according to value only. 

For example, should this green scrap be a medium?

Or should it be in with the lights??

It's both! It's value depends on which fabrics are beside it. So there is no wrong answer - it's all fun brain snacks for me!

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Oh Scrap!

A New Quiltville Mystery

The fabric requirements for this year's Quiltville mystery have been posted here and tomorrow the first sewing step will be posted. It's official name is "Chilhowie" which I have already shortened to "Chill". And my version of chill will be an extreme scrap version according to value only. I haven't yet made a mystery quilt according to value only, so the challenge really interests me.

I’ll be pulling fabrics from my scrap backet and using up whatever is in there according to 4 categories:

Light (for white/neutral)

Medium light (for aqua)

Medium dark (for orange)

Dark (for purple)

What kind of quilt do you think this could become?!? 

I have no idea if this will work, or become a hot mess express (which might be the real name of my quilt!), but I’m excited to try out this idea. It will take me longer in terms of cutting for each step (vs. using fat quarters or yardage) but it will make me happy to turn my wealth of scrappy treasures into a quilt!

One more sleep till we roll!

Who's in!?!?

Design Wall Tuesday

For some unknown reason this blog post did not appear yesterday,  so I'll try again today. Progress has been made on the Scary Faces Halloween quilt from the Spooky Box. I found a similar fabric to finish the background on the pumpkins. Can you see how it's a bit lighter? I'm hoping that it's barely noticeable.

Here are the 4 pumpkins together on the design wall. I decided it was "good enough". I love how the pumpkin on the bottom left is a hot mess! That was a mistake creative design opportunity!

Here are all the blocks on the design wall late at night. It's not a good photo, but you get the idea of how the 3 different blocks will look together.

This week's goal is to get this to turn into a quilt top... hocus pocus!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

A hearty welcome to all you stitchers! Thanks for dropping by to see what the Slow Sunday Stitching crew is creating this week.

As you know I have been feeling under the weather, and thought it might be interesting for you to see the medicines I have been taking for cough and congestion. Vicks is such an ancient remedy and who even knows if it helps at all, but I grew up with it, so I still use it.  Am I missing out on a good remedy? Let me know!

It seemed like the perfect time to snuggle up under my oldest UFO and do some hand quilting as energy permitted. I am quilting the edge blocks and the outside border. It's boring to look at but I am very happy with the slow progress I am making. 

The photo shows the 4 types of marking tools I use - a hera marker (1st choice), pencil (last choice), white Bohin chalk marker (2nd choice) and Frixion pen (3rd choice). In making the choice of markers, it really depends on the lighting, and the colour of fabric I am quilting. I use whatever I can see the best, and yet not leave a permanent mark.

I'll be relaxing and hand quilting today and hope you will give yourself some time to rest with your needles and thread too. We sure do enjoy seeing what you are hand stitching and cheering you on, so if you want to post your project the link is below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

In spite of feeling under the weather this week, I did enjoy digging around in some scrap bags and catching up with the Sewcialites blocks. In this quilt along there are 3 size options and I am sewing the 6" size.

My plan is to follow the colours of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but this month we are using brown scraps and I just couldn't force myself to do it! So I veered slightly from that, using teals instead because that's the scrap bag that attracted my interest. 

This is block #4 called Flirty by Chelsi Stratton. It was an easy sew - just 3 squares and 6 HSTs using scraps that my friend Jackie gave me.

Here is block #5 called Empower by Carrie Nelson. Now this is something I could dig my quilting teeth into! There are 48 pieces in this 6" block!

I really want to challenge myself to make it in the 3" size - just for fun! Maybe that desire will pass if I distract myself with other projects?!?

Here are my first 5 Sewcialites 2 blocks on the design wall. It's a very odd collection of colours, but wait until we get back into the full colour rotation at RSC and it will all come together!

Linking up to the weekly RSC party at Angela's

The next Spooky Blocks

I am making progress on my November Spooky Box challenge for the OMG. The pumpkins are made, the spiderwebs are spun, and this week I took a stab at making ghosts. Here are all the pieces cut and ready to sew 4 ghosts.

Here are the pieces laid out for ghost #1. I love the orange bats on black background fabric and was happy I had enough to make the eyes and nose (or is it a mouth?) for this ghost.

Fun sewing!!

Here are the little ghosties on the design wall. I was disappointed with the level of contrast with my grey background as the ghosts didn't show up well. But I went ahead and sewed on the border strips.

I think they look a little better, but while I was cutting the strips I realized that I had committed a quilt making sin. 

Guess which one?

If you guessed using a fabric that you weren't sure you had enough of, you are right!

Oh well, I am ready to make a plan B!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where you can visit with members of the Slow Sunday Stitching crew around the world, right from the comfort of your own home! 

Tis the season for colds and nasty viruses, and our hospitals are overflowing with really sick folks this year. I have spent the entire week in bed fighting a nasty influenza virus and trying not to go crazy/crazier. You know it's bad when I don't have the energy to do any stitching!

But before I got sick, I got out my oldest UFO and put in a few more quilting stitches. I was able to use this wonderful needle minder that Gail (who blogs at the Cozy Quilter) sent to me. 

"Slow Down. Get Cozy. Get Crafty."

I love it!

It has a really strong magnet which you need for a thick quilt like this one. I like to thread a few needles and put them on the needle minder and quilt away - no need to stop to rethread!

I also removed 4 bars of quilting where I had accidentally used the wrong thread colour back in June. I had put the quilt away for the summer and when I brought it out again this fall I realized I still couldn't live with those 4 beige lines - now they have been replaced with maroon thread. Much better.

I hope to be stitching along with you today, if only for a short period of time. Link up your photo, instagram or blog post below and share the project you are putting stitches into today.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday

The Spooky box project is my November OMG project so it will be on the design wall every Monday this month. I have finished the pumpkins, and I'm sewing the spiderweb blocks now. 

As soon as I am close to finishing sewing one block I lay out another one so there are always seams to feed through leader/ender style.

These were fun blocks to make. It was a little challenging cutting the pieces from the 10" squares in the kit but only 2 fabrics were directional and needed special concentration. 

And on the right of the design wall you can see I have pinned the sashings that are ready for the "Oh Say Can You Sew" mystery. I have a pile of the blocks beside my machine to sew on the corner triangles as another leader/ender. The pile of finished ones is growing slowly. 

The next step this week is sewing ghosts, which will hopefully magically appear on next Monday's design wall blog post!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We invite you to settle in for some relaxation, visit our inspiring stitchers at the links below, and take some time to put a few stitches in one of your favourite projects.

I have been working through the decisions on how to finish my Bee Happy embroidery from the October online class with Julie of Clever Poppy.  Should it be mounted in a round wooden frame like Julie taught in the class? It just wasn't "me". 

I wanted it to become a little quilted treasure, but couldn't find the right border fabric.  Finally it appeared in my stash and I knew it was "the one"! I attached a narrow border, picked out some threads and started quilting. 

I want to give it just a little bit of quilting to hold the design in place and add a bit of texture. I don't want something like the heavy quilting crosshatch design that I did on my word meditation embroidery. So I started by quilting along some of the stems and around the jar.

And then I felt like quilting 1/4" inside the border. I marked the line with a hera marker and I'll see if I like how it looks or not. If not, I'll just snip it out and try something else.

This is what I'll be stitching today.

What project will you be working on? We love to encourage you on your slow progress and hope you will link up your photo, instagram or blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday Sewcialites 2

My Sewcialites 2 blocks will be sewn according to the colours of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month's colour is brown/black/darks so I dug into the brown scrap bin and used up several small pieces in this block. And then I promptly sewed the block incorrectly. 

Ugh... seam ripper time.

This is block #3 called Patchy Days by Jackie MacDonald sewn correctly! I changed up the value placement to emphasize the arrows. Pop over to Corey Yoder's blog and see her pretty 3"  block which is quite different from mine.

Here are the first 3 Sewcialites blocks on the design wall - 2 green from October, and 1 brown from November.  I'm sewing the blocks in the 6" size, but directions are given for 3", 6" and 9".  There will be 24 blocks posted weekly. If you like using up scraps and making fun blocks, join in the fun - click here for more info.

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Spooky Progress

While the costumed children came trick or treating on Monday night I cut three more pumpkin blocks for my Halloween project. This Riley Blake "Bad to the Bone" fabric pretends to be spooky but is just totally fun!

Here are the four pumpkin blocks on the design wall. They look so cute with one of my classic Halloween decorations!

Can you spot the renegade jack-o-lantern block? There's one in every crowd!

When I was taking photos of the blocks, somehow I got this spooky looking shot with a green filter.  Weird!

Maybe this project is haunted?!?

Haunted or not, my goal for November is to get the remaining blocks made (8 spiderwebs and 4 ghosts) and get the blocks sewn together into a quilt top.

Linking up to One Monthly Goal