Thursday Already?

Somehow this week went by in a flash and I am feeling bad that I haven't been able to accomplish a few things that I had hoped to have done.

I did clue four of the Thimblecreek Mystery right away--20 snowballs.

These came in the mail yesterday which reminded me that I haven't shared how lucky I've been recently!
I won this bundle of stencils on Lori's blog Humble Quilts.
They are courtesy of The Stencil Company--I can't wait to use the fan stencil!

You know I love Marcus Aged Muslin and Aged Canvas!
Now the muslin comes in colors and they are beautiful.
I won a sample book from the Marcus blog, Marcus Mentions--it's huge!

The fabric samples are double folded (9.5"x 14"), so they are very usable for piecing.
 For now I will leave them in the book until I decide what colors I am going to have to own. Of course, I want some of all of the colors, but those greens in particular are calling my name! 

I won this adorable little package from Anne of Bunny Hill Designs.
It wasn't a drawing--she just randomly chose names from blog comments one day as a surprise and I was one of the lucky ones!

The little box includes some spools of Aurifil, a mini charm of Anne's newest Christmas line of fabrics; Mistletoe Lane, and a pattern--sweet! 

One of the Aurifil threads included is a 12 weight cotton-it comes on a red spool. You can see how it compares to my 50 weight Aurifil above--much heavier. I've been using it to embroider on some of my wool pieces and love it! It's very nice to use--so soft and no threads to separate!

Hopefully, today I will stop procrastinating and get my Austen Family Album loaded onto the quilting machine.
 But it is going to be awfully nice outside......we'll see....

Stitching Society Update

I haven't neglected my wool hexagons!

I had taken photos on a pretty gloomy day last week and they were awful. 

Today, I think there is almost too much sun, but here goes:

I finished the last of the veggies:
The Artichoke

Now I am into the quilt block grouping:
Cactus Basket 

Shoo Fly

Six Pointed Star

Pride of the Prairie

Variable Star

I jumped ahead to the last group of patterns--the patriotic designs.

Five Pointed Star

If you are interested, you can find information about the Stitching Society Hexagons HERE

I don't have too many more to go!

I have so many people tell me they would like to try wool applique, but don't want to invest in expensive wool. My advice is to buy scrap bags!
There are lots of places on line that sell their scraps--just Google wool scrap bags.
These are a few that I found this morning:
In the Patch Designs

Etsy Shops (be sure you are finding 100% wool--wool felt is nice (and more affordable), but I tend to stick with wool.

Erica's
Also, another good source is a vendor at a quilt show. I found some awesome scrap bag bargains from One Wing Wool at a show last year. Even the tiniest scraps of wool are useful since you don't need a seam allowance to turn under!
Linking with Scraptastic Tuesday
and Sew Cute Tuesday

Sophie's Garden is growing!

My Sophie's Garden stitching is coming along pretty quickly--mainly because I can't leave it alone! 

The first block is finished.

This block stitched up quickly.

I changed the arrangement of this block just a little.

Of course, the blocks with birds are going to be my favorites!

No Downton Abbey to keep me company tonight while I stitch :-(

I guess it's going to be a Walking Dead night! 

Check out all the Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

Work in Progress....

I have a little progress to report on my Austen Family Album quilt:

Putting the blocks together with the sashing and setting triangles thankfully went smoothly.
I always cut the setting and corner triangles larger than needed and somehow they end up the right size--what's up with that?

I decided to use my darkest blue for a narrow inner border.
Some of the blocks have this blue in them, so I felt I needed to have it in the inner border (and possibly the binding) to draw the eye away from those few spots in the blocks. They seem to be a little distracting in person--not so bad in the photos.

I have my border pieces all laid out.
I needed to have a 6" border so I can use the last 4 blocks as cornerstones.

The best part of the piano key border is that it used up almost every bit of the fabric in the bin--yay!
Another tub bites the dust!
Linking up with WIP's Be Gone HERE

Goals!

I have a few things that I want to finish up this month.

This is number one!
Since the Austen Family Album blocks are already on the design wall, I may as well get them sewn together instead of putting them back into their bin.

My original thought was to set them with the darkest blue that I had been using in the blocks, but they looked so happy and summery on the white design wall, I decided to do a lighter fabric. 

I found this piece of very old scroll print in my stash:
Barely There by Darlene Zimmerman for Chanteclair

It was so nice to cut my fabric on a semi--cleared surface.
I still have a way to go to clean up my table, but it's a lot better than the last time I showed it to you!

This is another goal for March--I would love to get my Words to Live By quilted and bound!

Linking up with WIP's on Wednesday HERE

and 

A Lovely Year of Finishes HERE

Done!

You may remember Helen's blocks I showed you from the Lemoyne Star class that I taught on Thursday.

This is what she is made with them--pretty darn cute, right?
Check out that beautiful quilting!
Helen sells her wonderful work in her Etsy shop: Pine Tree Lodge--
Go visit her HERE

This weekend, I forced myself to get the last of my swap four patches finished.
I'm feeling very distracted by other things, so it wasn't easy!

This morning I got them all pinned together in sets and ready to mail.

I ended up with this box of extras--a lot more than I expected!
I see a scrappy 4 patch quilt in my future...

linking up at Sew Cute Tuesday HERE

Design Wall Sunday

I feel pretty good going into March. I finished all of my Austen Family Album blocks and now just have to decide on a setting and put them together. 

There are 36 of these to play with--sure brightened up my sewing room today!

I'm not going to admit these are for a Sew Along--I'm calling it encouragement!
I joined a Facebook group making the blocks for the 1718 Coverlet. Since I bought the book when it came out last fall, it was a no brain-er way to use some of  my Cherrywood stash.
I only have a few Malka Dubrawsky  prints, but love the way they look with the Cherrywood.

I've been doing some hand stitching on the Sophie's Garden blocks.
I'm really enjoying these--almost finished with the first one!
Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching HERE