February UFO---done!

My February UFO finished--yay!
Susie's World
pattern by Bonnie Sullivan for Simply Vintage magazine

I was lucky to find this old Thimbleberries fabric in my stash--perfect backing!

Awful photo, but you perhaps can make out the echo quilting I did around the wool applique?

Yesterday afternoon I taught a class using the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star ruler.

We had lots of fun and everyone left with at least one star made.

This one is Deb's before trimming--love the Edyta Sitar fabrics!

This one is Sherie's--she made a 12" block--she is trying to use up fabrics from her stash.

The top block is Kathe's and the bottom one belongs to Bunny.
They both used fabrics from their stashes--good to use up some stash to make a test block!

These are Helen's--so bright and happy--I think there is probably a finished quilt done by today!

All of the stars were so different and equally beautiful. 

I'm hoping to teach the class again in March--I think everyone was surprised at how easy these blocks came together.

Linking up with A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIP's Be Gone Friday

and 

QuiltShopGal for #CreativeGoodness

Scrappy Update

I have been up to my ears in scrappiness. 

Yesterday I worked on my four patches for the exchange I'm participating in--

I have 15 sets of 15 matching four patches--half way to the finish line. 

Today Joe Wood sent the third clue to the Thimble Creek Mystery:
16 nine patches.
I used the leftovers from clue one, so some of my blocks are very scrappy!
(You must subscribe to the ThimbleCreek Gazette to get the clues--sign up on their sidebar)

And Barbara Brackman just designed a label for the Austen Family Album quilt HERE, which reminded me that I had several more blocks to finish. I think some of my fabric choices are getting limited--my scraps are all getting pretty small. Hopefully I will be able to squeeze out all of the blocks!!!

Linking up to A Quilting Life HERE for more scrappy fun! 

Hand Stitching Heaven

It looks like I have no end to my supply of hand stitching projects. 

Along with my final group of wool hexagons, I managed to set up all of the blocks for Sophie's Garden. 

I finally remembered to stop in at Colorz to pick up the wools ordered from Primitive Gatherings.
I'm really pleased at how these blocks are looking and can't wait to start stitching them. 

The yellow flowers here are actually a peachy coral. 

But before I dig in on Sophie's Garden, I need to finish up the binding on my February UFO.
Yes--almost finished with six days to go!!!!

Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

Eat Your Veggies!

What do you do when you wake up to -29 degrees and your water pipes are frozen??? 

You do some sewing, silly!!!

Well, after you spend a couple hours online---haha.....

The Eggplant

The Carrots

The Peas

The Radish
(Oops--This was actually supposed to be a BEET, but I had cut out my wool before I read the title on the design page--my bad!)

My first Gem. Yes--I confess. I'm weak.
I got sucked into the Temecula Little Gems sew along.
This is sewn from a packet of fabrics they sent with the papers and templates.

And what do you do when you don't have the mirrors to preview your fussy cuts?
Use a couple of old Clinique eye shadow cases, naturally!

I place the paper where I think I want it, set the eye shadow cases to either side of the point and slip the paper away to see my preview--works great!

Okay, now I really am going to go sew!

Stitching Society Overload!

I realized yesterday that I had no wool hexagons prepared to work on, so the little bit of cleaning and clearing that I had done was all for naught!

I have all the parts and pieces cut out for the Final Thirty Stitching Society hexagons--yay!
(I put papers from an old notepad between the hexagons as I set them up so the pieces don't stick to the back of the one on top. I've accidentally fused a few pieces to my ironing surface before I started using the papers!)

The Robin
(These aren't the best photos--too dark in the sewing room and too cold to be outside!)

Forget Me Knots

Thistle

Shamrocks

Saltbox House

Fleur de Lis

Folk Art Flower

Folk Art Tulip

Dots and Daisy

Heart with Flower

Flower Medallion

 The plan today is to get the Final Thirty fused and ready to stitch! 

Fail!

No, my cleaning adventure is not finished. 

In fact, as what usually happens, it has snowballed into a total room blitz.

Since these were in the way, and I was afraid of losing them, I finished sewing up the remaining blocks for my Hunter's Star quilt. A few of the white pieces were missing, necessitating sorting my white on white fabrics. I had to substitute a close match, which is okay since the blues are all scrappy. 

I'm sure now that these have all been sewn, that the missing pieces will turn up--isn't that always the way it goes?

I've joined a four patch swap inspired by the APQ quilt-along.
I need to make 450 units, so hopefully I did the math correctly and cut 60 light strips and 60 dark strips. 

I've sorted them into sets of 2 lights and 2 darks--now whenever I have a few minutes I can sew a few together. I need sets of 15 matching, which I should easily get from my WOF strips. I'll set aside my extras for another project. 

I guess that's enough procrastinating--back to cleaning!!

Necessary Evils

It's been a problem for a few days, but I just couldn't ignore it any longer.

Yes, time to clean up the cutting table!
(((embarrassing!!!)))

 I'm pretty proud of myself for not succumbing to every sew along and mystery that has crossed my path, but there are 2 (well, maybe 3) that I had to join:

I finally decided on a background for Block 1 of the Buttermilk Basin mystery .
I think this Sandy Gervais print from her Gobble Gobble line looks like punched tin--I don't have a lot of it, so I have to be very careful with my cutting.
 Since I'm not sure if this will trimmed later, to prevent raveling, I "Fray Checked"the background edges--a Lisa Bongean tip.
All the wool pieces are from my stash of wool scraps.

This is part two of the Thimblecreek mystery.
I am using some of my patriotic scraps for this one.
The only way to get the instructions for this one is to subscribe to Joe's Gazette HERE--it comes in your email every Tuesday.

This is part two along with the nine patches from part one.
I have no clue where this is going, but I'm going to trust Joe that it will be awesome!

Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday HERE

Plugging Away!

Thursday was the last meeting of Stitch Society (part 1) at Gruber's. I'm not quite caught up with last month's designs, but I feel pretty good about how many I managed to finish this month. 

Snowflake 2

Snowflake 3

Snow Flurries

Thimbles

Spools

Sewing Machine

Strawberries

Apple

Tulips

Painted Daisy

I have several more finished, but this has probably been "wool hexie overload"so I will save them for later.

Sue brought these vintage hand pieced Dresden plates to the meeting. She had been cleaning out her sewing room and wondered if someone would take them off her hands. I was thrilled to be able to help her out! The plates have a few issues (they don't lie flat), but it will be fun to come up with a way to use them.
Thanks again Sue!
I still have a stack of my wool hexagons ready to stitch, so I will be working on them during Downton Abbey!
Linking up with Kathy HERE for some Slow Sunday Stitching.