Challenges!

Since I was finally able to install my Electric Quilt 7 program on my new laptop (learning Windows 8 has been a huge challenge!), it seemed like it would be fun to design something for the Red and White Quilt Challenge  hosted by SewCalGal.

Read about and see other quilt designs HERE

I wanted to design something that would use my newest Accuquilt die, the Drunkard's Path (I was forced compelled to add it to my cart so I would qualify for free shipping).

 This is what I came up with:

I call it Moon Phase! 

The finished size will be 58" x 65" (16 by 18 3.5" blocks for a total of 288). It looks like I will need 3 5/8 yards of white fabric and 1 7/8 yards of red. That will be perfect since I have a yummy 2 yard pack of Cherrywood Scarlet that I have been saving for a red and white quilt! I'm going to have to measure up some of my white pieces--hopefully I can work from my stash!

Visit Insights from SewCalGal to keep up with the Red and White happenings!

Simply Red March Recap

Spring 2014: Day 2
This was the view from my sewing room this morning.

And this is a shot of my lilacs as I was leaving home this morning--
I'm pretty sure there are lots of broken branches under all that snow. 

We had a wide variety of Simply Red blocks on Monday. 

It's fun to see so many interpretations of the same pattern. The group was a little larger this month due to better road conditions--by next month we should have a full house! 

fused with straight stitched edges

fused Minick and Simpson wool

more fused blocks

and another house block....

bright orange with gray

If you are following the Stitch Therapy schedule, continue working on piecing the half square triangles and do the stitching on the pages 6 and 7 blocks:

Spring!

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring...not that it looks like it will actually be happening here any time soon. My lilacs are still under at least 3 feet of snow and there are a few flakes floating around in the air today. Yeesh...

So even though we are still wearing these..
(Quilty Fun Mitten block)

I'd rather see these popping up in my gardens!
(Quilty Fun Flower block)

And it seems I will never get to wear these!!
(my new Bokos in fun SPRING colors)

Stitch Society

The first Stitch Society meeting last week was a lot of fun! 

Theresa is our leader and she gave us a lot of tips on needles and doing wool applique.

Over the next year, we will get patterns for 180 appliques that fit on a hexagon shape.  

We also get a project pattern each month.Our first project was a notebook cover to keep all our fun stuff safe.
This is the version that Theresa made-so cute! She recommended we use the paisley motif as it's seasonally neutral--great idea! There were a few kits available, but I opted to use my own fabrics.

This is my notebook cover.
I used fabrics that I had purchased a couple years ago in a remnants bag from a local quilt shop.
The Plexiglas templates are what we will be using to cut our hexagons for various projects. 

I had the wool pieces in my "woolly" stash and was finally able to use a pretty variegated Cosmo thread that I have had for ages.
Theresa also recommended we not surround the hexagon with beads as shown in the project pattern because of the wear and tear our notebook will get over the year. I think that was a good call too. 

I added pockets to my cover--not sure why that wasn't in the pattern--gotta have pockets!!

We also get these stitch instructions every month. These will be cut out using our large template and put into a book.
There's also a monthly recipe!
 Theresa's sister, who runs Gruber's Cafe will be making them up each month for us to taste test. The pumpkin bread was awesome!

This is our project for next month in process--the book for our stitch instructions.
Theresa is attaching beads all the way around.
I think it's going to be a fun year!

Incoming!

Mr. Mail Carrier has been very busy this past week!

I was one of the very lucky winners during the Moda Spell it with Fabric blog hop. I won a fat quarter bundle of Kathy Schmitz's latest line of fabrics, Piecemaker's.

Love, love, love the blues and browns!
Kathy included a sweet card and bookmark too.
The bundle also included a half yard of the large motif panel--so beautiful!

I have to confess that I really love this line of fabric--so much so,  that I had already purchased a baby bundle (eighths) of it--now I will have even more fun!! 

Take a look at this awesome package that came from Miss Rosie!
My name was randomly chosen from the Another Year of Schnibbles parade at The Quilting Life--how lucky was that??? There are so many cool stripes, checks and dots in these layer cakes--they will make some fun summer quilts. Carrie also included a couple Candy Bar packs and a little tin of piecing pins--so sweet! 

Before I knew I had WON a bunch of fabric, I had been doing some browsing shopping.
Oops...You know I can't resist a bargain!!
I had been telling myself I didn't need the latest from Minick and Simpson (Grant Park), but when you find a bundle of fat quarters for $70 off, how can you not press that tempting Purchase Now button?!?
Somehow the Jo Morton fat quarters and French General mini-charms ended up in the cart too.
I really like the Jan Patek Front Porch dessert roll--very pretty fabrics!

At least I have these blocks going OUT.
I was able to use up a few yards of fabric for these QOV blocks that will be mailed to Kevin the Quilter later today. I didn't have a lot of the appropriate fabrics, but managed to come up with 15 of the 12" blocks. You can see that they are super easy and fast--very fun to make! 

Happenings!

I'm pretty excited this week! 

Way back in 2013 (okay, it was December, so not that long ago actually) I signed up for the Stitching Society group at Gruber's Quilt Shop.

Wool hexagons embroidered with adorable designs!

This Thursday is the first meeting and it will continue into 2015. I'm praying for good driving weather since it's a 90 minute drive for me. 

To see a little more of what it's about, click HERE. I happen to know that it's not too late to join in the fun, so give Grubers a call! 

 I think I'm behind on posting my Quilty Fun blocks:

Not sure if I showed the houses yet--if so, here they are again!

The left side is sewn!

The butterflies.

This weeks block: the spools.

I've been working diligently getting all those half square triangle filler blocks made and finally  have my Country Threads 2013 BOM top together. I moved a couple things around, but not too much. I love how scrappy it is, but that big hole in the center (huge churn dash block) is begging for a little doctoring. I have a couple ideas for a cure--still mulling it over though--any thoughts? 

This and That

Last week I got this lovely needle book in the mail from Canada--a beautiful periwinkle blue embellished leaf on my favorite shade of green! I won this during the Grow Your Blog hop when Karen H. from Faeries and Fibres chose my name. If you aren't familiar with her site, be sure to visit! She has a wonderful free sew-along going on right now--Soupcon Quilt Along. It's not too late to join in the fun. If you love English Paper Piecing, embroidery, embellishments and hexagons, you need to check it out!

During the blog hop, I also won the first lesson for Karen Walker's Crafsy class of The Farmer's Wife Quilt Revival. It's a 12 month program using modern techniques to make the blocks. I've had the book for quite a while, and it's a lot of fun to read. Hopefully this class will jump start me into sewing up some of the blocks! She also has a great blog: laugh yourself into Stitches*. You will find lots of awesome tutorials including my favorite: the magic 8 half square triangle method.

Karen from Log Cabin Quilter sent me this photo of her first two Simply Red blocks. She is using the fusible method from the book and my favorite color: blue! I really enjoy her blog--she does a lot of fun, whimsical applique project that I love!

All of Karen's blocks are fused and ready to stitch. I'm so happy she decided to join in!!

 Have you noticed a trend going on? Yes! We are all KAREN's!!! How weird is that?   

If you got hooked on the Olympics, you couldn't have missed these awesome banners. 

Aren't they wonderful? Have you been itching to make one of your own? I don't usually use this colorful of a palette for my quilts, but I do really love these! Linda Ambrosini has designed a free pattern inspired by the banners for Hoffman California. You can download it HERE. 

Have fun!!

When Bali Met Sochi