Hearts of Hope

Bonnie Hunter's Sew-Along is continuing with part #3 being posted tomorrow. I have really enjoyed making my blocks and experimenting with different methods.

For the 1st step I pieced blue strings onto phone book pages and although the outcome was great, I didn't like the ink transfer that the phone book pages left on my hands and machine. 

So for the 2nd step with yellows, I tried sewing pre-cut pieces together without any stabilizing base. I used the Essential Triangle Tool No Waste Method to sew the flying geese blocks by sewing pieces together, trimming the strip set to the correct width, and cutting the flying geese triangle from that strip.

When I couldn't get another triangle from the strip, I joined it to another strip and kept  cutting. It worked out beautifully! And this same ruler was then used to cut the corner triangles.

Here are my 12 blocks on the design wall. I'm hoping some friends will make a few blocks and we can put together a donation quilt.

Part #3 will be posted tomorrow!

Happy Little Things Sneak Preview

A new Jacquelynne Steeves sew along is starting soon and I'm delighted to be a featured blogger! 
This is a free block of the month, and the patterns will be emailed right to your inbox once you sign up. There will be fabulous giveaways every month, with a grand prize in January. 
The first post will come in August, but you can sign up right away so you don't miss anything! Click here to sign up.
Do you remember Jacquelynne's last free BOM called "Save the Bees"? You can see my version here which I finished in the dead of winter earlier this year. It was one of my all time favourite quilts, and I'm sure this one will be one too!
Isn't this a great title for a quilt - "Happy Little Things"?!?
For this project, you can choose your favourite construction methods and do whatever makes you happy, including appliqué, embroidery or piecing only. There are kits available to make this project if you don't enjoy the fabric selection part of making a quilt. It's all designed to make you happy!

You can probably guess that I'll be making a scrappy version featuring some embroidered and pieced blocks. I'm starting out with this Moda "Strawberry Jam" layer cake as my focus and plan to use the pretty floral on the left called "Garden Delights" for a border or two.


Today there is a "Blogger Spotlight" post to celebrate the Happy little Things BOM so hop over there and enter to win the draw for lots of quilty prizes including fabric and thread!

Hope you can join in on the  fun with us!

Startitis Flareup!

I have been feeling quite under the weather the past week and I'm blaming my poor health for a flare up of another chronic condition ... the dreaded "startitis"! 
This is a chronic, progressive illness which attacks creative people and causes them to randomly start too many new projects. It's just like a terrible addiction and the sufferer has no control over their starting behaviour.
I think I am starting 4 new quilts! 

1) Kevin is hosting a scrappy summer mystery using up stash. So of course I have to start that one! I'm using up old batik stash, plus a couple of new fabrics added in for some sparkle.
One of the great things about this quilt is that you can use any size of square you want. I am using a 2" square.

2) Cheryl is sharing her Mosaic Mystery running from July to April next year. I'm thinking of a pink/teal/brown combination. 

3) Bonnie Hunter announced the new Leader/Ender Challenge and the 4" block size is perfect for sewing up small scraps. So I HAD to start that one.

4) And the Fat Quarter Shop is posting a Christmas in July mystery table topper quilt called Merry Mini Quilt. The first block pattern called Pointsettia is here.


Maybe I need some kind of immunization, or intervention or something else, like say...
a 15 quilt store July Shop Hop to get this Startitis out of my system?!? *wink*
Anyone else noticing recent symptoms of Startitis?!?

Hand Pieced Quilt Top

Did you join in on the hand piecing quilt along hosted by Kristin and Patty? 
It was a refreshing project to work on a little at a time. I fell a bit behind when the blocks were being posted weekly, but managed to catch up eventually.
This is how the quilt top looked with all the blocks stitched together. It's a bit of a mishmash without sashing, but I didn't have anything that worked in the stash, so it is what it is!

I had a relaxing time over the Easter weekend stitching the borders on. And to maintain my energy level I did eat a few chocolate eggs left behind by the Easter bunny! Here is the finished quilt top with the lime green borders attached. I like it much better with the border on and have enough of that green fabric left for the binding.

I look forward to hand quilting this lovely sampler over the summer months. It is the perfect size for a portable quilting project.
Hop over to the Finale Party where you can see amazing finished quilts and so many lovely layouts of these blocks.

It's Day 3 of the Be a Diamond blog hop. Here's where to hop:

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Creative Blonde 

Selina Quilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

Two Maker Chicks

Quilts By Joanne

Secret Santa

I have been "working" hard to catch up to the Secret Santa sewalong from Temecula Quilts. 
The project started with fabric requirements posted on October 12th. There are weekly instructions posted on fridays, and the layout reveal will be on Black Friday. 

Step #1 was quick and easy, but October was so busy for me that I missed step #2. When step #3 was posted last week, I decided to sew that one first and put the pedal to the medal to finish before the next clue would be posted. I finally got these 48 little units finished and here is a photo taken late at night. 
Now I'll go back to finishing the 68 nine patch blocks for step #2. But first... I will hop over to Temecula Quilts to see what step #4 is! 
Are you making this fun mystery quilt?!?

Christmas Design Wall

On the design wall today are the blocks for my "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt. This is a sew along project from Sew Fresh Quilts. 
I just finished the Christmas Wreath pattern that was posted in June. It was just like constructing a jigsaw puzzle using pieces of fabric!

I've fallen quite a bit behind on this project. There have been 13 block patterns posted and I've just now finished sewing my 4th block. 

That's okay... there are still 5 months until Christmas!

Up next is the reindeer block... I'm thinking I'll make mine a Rudolph!

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Small Quilts.

Temecula Sew Along

Temecula Quilts is hosting a "Marvelous Mini Monday" sew along for the summer, making a block or two or three every week. Here is my collection as of this week. These blocks use up the tiniest scraps that "normal" quilters throw in the garbage, so I feel like this is a free quilt!

Temecula Sew Along

Here are the first 4 blocks for the Marvelous Mini Monday 12 week sew along over at Temecula. 

The top ones are "Jacob's Ladder" blocks. It's ordinarily an easy block to make in regular size, but these ones took an embarrassingly long time to make. I described them to my friend Diane as "sweet", and after making her blocks, she described them as "stressful". Yes, both adjectives are accurate! This is precision sewing at it's finest with the completed blocks measuring 4".
This week's block is a framed pinwheel... I'm off to the sewing room!

New Temecula Mini Sew Along

Did you see that Temecula Quilts has started a new 12 week sew along called Marvelous Mini Monday? What better way to start the week?!?
These blocks are an adorable 4". 
Aren't they sweet? I'm making 2 each week since I have so many small scraps to use up. It's the perfect scrap user project, so YOU should probably join in too!
Who's with me?!?

PS Did you see Temecula's "Baked to Perfection" anniversary cake quilt? What a great quilt! I baked them a red reproduction cake, which is in the second row, third from the right in the finished quilt. It was my small way of saying thank you for all the ways in which they have freely given to the quilting community. Temecula received cake blocks from almost every US state, as well as from Netherlands, Canada, Australia, South Africa, France, England, Ireland, and Germany. It was fun to be a tiny part of this amazing international quilt. 

The Bear is Back!

And here he is on the design wall in all his glory!
This is from Lorna's MOD Bear quiltalong.

I think my fabric choices were all a bit too similar in value and kind of mush together. However it might be perfect for a camouflage effect, and so I'm going to say I did that on purpose. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

As I was sewing the bear I got an idea for some improve pieced blocks which might be fun as part of the bottom border. I'm going to work with my idea this week and see if it works out. I think this is the finished size of the inside of my bear quilt, plus there are a few more borders to add including a paw block border. 

I'm linking up today to Let's Be Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts. I hope there will be other bears prowling around over there!

It's a bear!

Are you making a bear quilt with Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts?
I am sewing a small version of the quilt... maybe a wallhanging or a table runner kind of thing. Just look at all these pieces! It is a lot of work, and I must say that Lorna is an amazing "one-of-a-kind pattern designer". I consider myself to be an experienced quilter, but this is one challenging pattern I must say! 

This is a bear somewhere here!
The pattern is written so clearly that I just follow one step at a time and somehow magically these blocks just come together. 
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

On the design wall today is my version of Pam Buda's Pocket Patchwork called Tucker. Most of the fabrics in this little quilt are scraps from a block sampler quilt that I finished at the beginning of the year.

As you can see, I made a few little alterations to the original design. First, I removed the "too bright" blue square that was on the right of the star in my version of step #2. I just couldn't stop seeing that square in the overall layout, so it had to go!


Then I put the 'scrap love' fusible applique section at the top. The idea just came to my mind when I saw the final layout. When I quilt this little wallhanging, I will stitch around the edges of the shapes to fasten them more securely.

I used up leftover HST's to make most of the flying geese blocks. And I added an extra border of little squares all the way around the whole thing because I had so many bits leftover.
I will try to finish this in time for the quilt parade on Dec. 15th.
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

More machine quilting... and a new sew along starting!

Did you see that Pam Buda is starting a new Pocket Patchwork Sew Along called Tucker - fabric requirements are here.  I made the last pocket patchwork project called Nabby's Dowry, and it's one of my favourite quilts. So you just know I'm eager to start this next one. And it's all small scrappy pieces, so that's even better!

But first.... I have to finish my last sew along project. I do have some bits of self control, on some days! It's pin basted and half quilted. It's a great little project to work on when I am tired of pushing and pulling my large UFO through the machine. I am marking the quilting lines as I go along using my hera marker. It's my favourite tool for marking stitching lines. Now I am highly motivated to finish it up since a new project is on the horizon!

Design Wall Monday

On the design wall/cutting board today is a new project for Valentine's day. This is the Temecula Quilts sew along called Hugs and Kisses. 
I haven't yet finished the Valentine's quilt they posted last year (click here to see it) and here I am starting another one *sigh* 
But it's just a small quilt, so it doesn't really "count" as a new quilting project. It counts as using up scraps. How's that for rationalization?!
So far we have made 6 kisses (9 patch) blocks and 6 hug blocks. The cutting took way longer than the sewing. 



The next step will be posted today, so I am hopping over now to see what to sew next!

To see more design wall postings, visit Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

On my design wall today is the Temecula Letter Sew Along.

All the sashing is sewn together and that took me quite a while to complete.
The quilt is smaller than I thought it would be, so I am thinking of adding a larger border to make it a bigger baby quilt. 






All of these coloured fabrics are hand dyed by Vicki Welsh and they have been so lovely to work with. I won them by participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - how lucky am I?!?!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Cascadia Finale

Another mystery sew along has come to an end. Lori at Humble Quilts has posted the reveal of her mystery sew along, as well as the inspiration quilt - click here to see it.

This quilt used up a lot of scraps - 260 scrappy 1.5" squares to be exact!
I realized that my seminole rows were exactly 1 square shorter than the others, so I removed one square from the straight rows (instead of adding fabric to the end of the seminole rows) for a perfect fit. The finished size of the quilt is 17" x 17".

I had such fun with the machine quilting, stitching a wavy line through the diagonal rows, and diagonal lines through the straight rows. 

Can you see the quilting design in this photo?
A big thank you to Lori for another wonderful little quilty adventure! I can't wait to see what you will come up with next!

And now I am hopping over to Quiltville for the reveal of step #2 of the ongoing Grand Illusion mystery.

Temecula Letter Sew-Along

These are my little Temecula letter blocks that have been posted weekly since September. It has been a very comfortably paced sew-along to keep up with, and the last letters were posted yesterday.

I had a wee bit of difficulty with some of the letters. What do you think this letter is?!?
Next I will be cutting sashing strips and cornerstones, and there are still some filler blocks to sew.

Design Wall Monday Letters

The Temecula letter sew along is continuing and I was able to get caught up on the blocks posted so far. We have finished 20 letters and have 6 more to go, plus the 4 filler pieced blocks.
I am loving these hand dyed fabrics made by Vicki Welsh!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.



Now don't forget about the two blog hops starting today:
1) Quiltmaker's 100 blocks volume #10 and
2) Sew Sisters Canadian quilt blog hop  
Have fun in blogland!

Design Wall Monday

On my design wall today is the Marcus Sew Along quilt top. I was pleased with how well the rows went together. I used a black print with directional hearts for the setting triangles and now I am auditioning fabrics for another border or two.

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Sew Along Update

The Temecula sew along is rolling right along. They have posted 15 letter patterns and I have been able to keep up so far. Here are my rainbow letters.

Won't these blocks make a great baby quilt?
All the block patterns are posted on their blog, so you can join in and make your own quilt at any time.