Seeing Red!

We were requested to bring red quilts to our guild meeting last night. 

And, surprise! I remembered to bring my camera. 

Unfortunately, I would get so engrossed in admiring the quilt being shown, I'd forget to snap a picture. So...not so many to share, but they are all good ones!  

Ed brought one of his wife's quilts--Woven Hearts--very pretty!

Cindy and her mom showed this beautiful Carpenter's Wheel quilt. 
I think Eileen pieced it and Cindy did the quilting. 
It hangs at Cindy's studio in downtown Brainerd.

This is the back of the Carpenter's Wheel.
Cindy does amazing computerized quilting--gorgeous!!

What do you get when you shrink the Carpenter's Wheel and then make a bunch of them??
Buggy Wheels!! This is Sandi's wonderful scrappy quilt.

I love Dawn's French General Schoolhouses.
She said she got the kit at the Detroit Lakes quilt shop--I see a road trip in my future!!

Judy shared her adorable embroidered snowmen.
She also brought a box of vintage valentines that had belonged to her parents.
They were so comical and charming--a fun show and tell, for sure!

Some of the regular show and tell was this fun zigzag baby quilt Arlene made as a gift. 

Karla showed some of the projects for the new Cherrywood Club starting in March at Colorz for Quilts.
The pillow in back is Texture Magic inserted into open zippers--clever!!

Another club project coming soon!

Last week's Quilty Fun Sew Along block--
I'm thinking it will be a long time before we see the real thing popping up in the garden!

A Year of Red and White

Since Valentine's Day is coming up and our thoughts turn to packing away our "snowy" decorations, it's only natural to bring out the red and white (and maybe pink) quilts. SewCalGal is having a red and white celebration that will continue through the year--read about it HERE.

Starting today, there are links to red and white quilts that have been made before 2014--have fun checking them out HERE.

I have several red and cream or red and tan quilts, but only one red and white quilt. I have plans for another red and white quilt (I have a luscious Cherrywood red waiting in the wings), but it will be a while before I get going on it. 

This is Honey Bunny's Garden by Crabapple Hill Studios.
(Guess what?? Crabapple Hill is having a sale on ALL their patterns through February 14th!! Quick like a bunny hop over there to save 25%--don't forget to come back here and check out the red and white show, though!!)
My label on the back says it was finished in 2007.
It was the project for one of  the first Stitch Therapy groups that I taught at Colorz for Quilts.
Actually, this is the second version of this pattern that I made.
If I ever get the first one quilted, I'll be sure to share it!

This is my favorite block--I love Honey Bunny's chair!

My original quilt used multi-color threads, but for the class I decided to make a red work quilt.

I did echo quilting in the blocks around the embroidery.
 It's always so hard to decide how to quilt embroidered blocks--whether to quilt through them or around them....
This time I went around!

I opted not to do the French knots in the tails for this one.
The tails are supposed to be filled in with dozens of knots to create a "fluffy" tail. 

This is the fun back--more red work!!
I bought this fabric thinking I would stitch over the designs,
but later came to my senses and used it as a backing.

In keeping with the red theme today:
I just dropped off these blocks at Colorz for Quilts. I managed to eke out 10 of them Sunday afternoon.
Colorz is collecting 6" friendship stars in red and cream during February.
The blocks will be put together into a quilt to be donated to Habitat for Humanity
Cherrywood is donating sashing fabric to complete the quilt.
You can pick up a pattern at the shop.

By the way, Colorz is hosting a sew-in March 14 and 15th to celebrate Worldwide Quilting Day.
That's when the blocks will be sewn together--mark your calendars! 

 Don't forget to stop by the Phase One Red and White Challenge and do a little blog hopping!!

Celtic Solstice--not so much!!

Today is not only Super Bowl Sunday or Groundhog's Day, it's also the link-up finale  for Celtic Solstice!

 My version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt is named Christmas Solstice since it was my attempt to use up my basket of holiday fabrics. I did make a pretty good dent in my Christmas stash, but sadly, there is still a lot to work with in there.

Here is my slow progress on Christmas Solstice:

Step One: 244 Peaky and Spike blocks complete!

Step Two: 244 Chevron blocks complete!

Step Three: 8 half square triangles of 488...

Step Four: 104 four patches of 300...

Step Five: two split triangle units of 244...

My mock-up of block A 

My partial mock-up of block B !

This time around, I am very happy with my color substitutions. I ended up with good contrast and I like the red stars and what I am calling my green wreathes!

Be sure to visit Quiltville to see everyone's progress. The instructions for Celtic Solstice will be coming down on June 1st, so if you are at all interested, print them out now!

A UFO Finish for 2014!

Since I've been kind of dragging this week, I don't have a lot to show for my efforts. 

I had Ring of Stars on the HQ16 for over a month. The plan was to have it finished by the end of December, but instead, it is a big finish for the end of January!

You may remember me showing this back in October before quilting.
 I worked on it at retreat and finished up when I got home. 

Here it is now, all quilted, bound and labeled--yay!
Ring of Stars from the J/F 2011 issue of McCall's Quilting.
measures 70" x 94"

I did a lot of ruler work on it and a bit of free motion inside the stars.
My machine really likes Glide thread and it looks so pretty with a bit of shine. 

This week's Quilty Fun block--honey combs AKA snowballs.

What's on Your Bed??

Jo at Jo's Country Junction is celebrating the cold winter air by inviting us to show the quilt we have on our bed. 

I finished this quilt in 2010.
It was on the cover of American Patchwork and Quilts and was designed by Tara Lynn Darr.
The pattern for Blue Moon of Kentucky can be purchased from Tara HERE.
I added a lot of blocks and changed the border to make it a king size quilt.

Those are one inch finished squares.
There are lots of squares in this quilt and it weighs a ton!
Mr. Moosebay says it's like a dentist's lead blanket used during X-rays...
No Restless Leg Syndrome sleeping under this one!

I only did a bit of light quilting on it with circles to keep it "drape-y".

Stay warm everybody....unless you are a friend from Australia...to you I say stay cool!!

Don't forget to enter my give away HERE!

Grow Your Blog Give-Away!!

Go HERE to check out hundreds of blogs--many with give-away's too!

I completely blanked that I had signed up to participate in the Grow Your Blog Hop. My only excuse is that I was coming down with some sort of crud and my pounding headache kept me from thinking clearly!

If you are a regular reader of Moosebay  Muses, you know that I have been so lucky to have won numerous give-away's. So it's about time to share the wealth, don't you think??

I recently won a massive amount of Moda fabric from Deb Strain. I have a few ideas percolating on how I am going to use the fabric, but there is no way I can use it all up in the foreseeable future, so I put together this adorable bundle.  

There are some panel pieces and the strips measure from 1.5" up to 5"---there is almost 3 yards of adorable Moda fabric from Deb's line Surrounded By Love! 

According to the rules of the hop, the drawing must stay open until February 15th, so you won't be able to make something for this coming Valentines Day, but you will be waaay ahead of the game for 2015!

The drawing is now closed--thanks for stopping by!
If you are interested in winning the Surrounded By Love bundle, leave a comment on this post!
For a second entry, become a follower and let me know in a second comment.
If you are already a follower, let me know in a second comment.
Be sure to visit the other blogs participating HERE and have fun!!

Like Sands Through the Hourglass.....

This week just disappeared on me--just too many things going on and too little time! Monday was our first Stitch Therapy meeting of 2014. I made up a schedule so hopefully (IF we stay on schedule) our quilt tops will be finished in September--maybe before!

Block one of Simply Red.
We are going to do 2 blocks a month. In February,
we will begin working on some of the piecing as well.

Block 2 of Simply Red
The designs aren't symmetrical--more whimsical and fun!
It's going to be great seeing everyone's blocks each month because we are going to have a lot of variety--red, blue, black, gold, and even a multi-color Simply Red!
I completely blanked on taking photos in class--hopefully I will remember next month, because I expect a lot of eye candy!! 

The trees for Quilty Fun Sew Along.

It's been a while since I showed my progress on the Quilty Fun Sew Along--
these are the Chubby Chevrons!

The quarter square triangles are put together to make hourglass units. 

Lori has a really unusual method of making 4 patches--kind of wacky, but it works!!

These are all the components so far--Monday is week Eleven: Honeycombs.

Last Tuesday was the Breezy Point sew-in day. I managed to get my first 2 Simply Red blocks finished. Whew!
 Also, today was our first long arm quilting meeting of 2014. Denise showed us how to do "3's and E's"--looks like a lot of fun and I can't wait to try it out, but I will need to do a lot of practice on the white board first.

Next week, I'm hoping to finish up a quilt that's been on the HQ16 for about 6 weeks--not much left to do, but it kind of got set aside when the Celtic Solstice mystery started.
Have a wonderful weekend!