Another Busy Week

Between the Simple Whatnot's meeting at Colorz and Stitching Society at Gruber's, I've managed to accomplish a few things in the sewing room. 

I started putting together Words to Live By. The half square triangles have been finished for over a month and I figured it was about time to start sewing them together. 

I'm really loving how the triangles look around the center block--I'm excited now to get this project finished.

I also made a few place-mats for Meal on Wheels. 

Our guild makes them every year and they are given out with a Christmas meal. I raided my Orphan Block bag and added fabrics from my stash to make them place-mat size--good to get some of those blocks and some older fabrics from the stash used up! 

This one was made with reject blocks from my Around the Block quilt and the Temecula 12 Days of Christmas quilt.

This was a test block for a model at Colorz for Quilts.
(Diamond Diva by Anka's Treasures)

This one was a class sample for the Sew Simple Pineapple by Karin Hellaby

Leftover blocks from Trick or Treat quilt.
There are still more blocks in the Orphan Block bag, but they will have to wait a while to come out to play. 

The Owl
Of course, I am still stitching on my wool hexagons!
I have stacks of them ready to stitch as time allows, so they will make a good Sunday pick-up project.

Linking up the Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Just A Little Reminder and a few more Halloween Hexies!

Voting has opened for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. 

You can vote for 3 different quilts by clicking on the little heart in the upper right corner of the thumbnail photos at the bottom of the post HERE. That link goes to the scrappy category where my Paper Dolls quilt is entered.
 There are many more categories that you can find HERE--lots of fun browsing!

Finally, the last of the Halloween Hexies!
The Spider

The pattern packet says this is a Zombie, but it looks like a Mummy  to me?!?

The Haunted House--what's behind those glowing red eyes.....!

I spent the weekend setting up my next group of hexies. I usually do 15 at a time since that's how many designs come in each month's packet, but since I am so far behind, I am choosing fabrics for 45--yikes!
My wool scraps are sorted by color in plastic bags. I save even the tiniest scrap since they are usable in the hexagons.
You can see I have a horrendous mess on my hands! 

And on the floor too...
Once I get the fusible pattern on the wool, I rough cut the pattern design pieces, put them with a background hexagon, and stack them.
Then I can put all those bags away and get on with the next step in my process:

 When I have some time to sit, I can trim the pattern pieces and start placing them onto the backgrounds.
Then they will be fused down and ready for stitching--the perfect little take along project.
There maybe a better way to do this, but it's seems pretty efficient to me.
I plan to do some cleaning today--kind of obvious, I guess!

October Finishes

I'm so happy to have had time to get a QOV quilted this week--it's been on my shelf for a couple month's and I was feeling bad about not getting it finished. 

It went pretty quickly after I practiced the quilting design on my white board a few times. 

The design is called Loopy Clams.
I found the design on YouTube, demonstrated by Lyn Durbin at the above link.
It was a lot of fun and went pretty quickly.
I used Signature 40 wt. thread in the Mother Goose color. 

The Quilt of Valor top was pieced by the Brainerd MN QOV group.
They put the tops together in kits with the batting, back, binding and a matching pillowcase. The kits can be picked up at Country Fabrics, quilted, and returned to be bound.
It's a good way to get some quilting practice and help QOV at the same time.

I love the texture of Loopy Clams--I will be using this design again!

I didn't get all of my Halloween hexies stitched by the 31st, but here are a few newly finished.
This is Jack--
not sure why the purple stripes on his hat are so washed out in the photo.

Toad
I used black iridescence sequins for the bubbling brew in the cauldron.

Witch
I couched green chenille yarn for the hair.

And Frank!
Happy Halloween!!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival--Scrappy!

I thought it would be fun to add my Paper Doll quilt to the Blogger's Quilt Festival in the Scrappy category HERE

It was so much fun choosing the outfits for each "doll"
The pattern is from Cozy Quarters
I did my own quilting---just a simple meander in the background and scallops in the skirts to resemble aprons. I repeated the scallops in the border. 

There were several hat options included in the pattern such as the scarf that is sewn in while piecing.

Some of the hat patterns I made up so there would be a little more variety.

Of course, the hats needed to be emblellished!

I think my favorite embellishments are the little flower clusters.

Some flowers are just small circles with tiny wedges cut out.

I tried not to use any of the fabrics more than once for the dresses, but many of the backgrounds are repeated.

The label on the back

You can read more about this quilt HERE and HERE

Be sure to visit the Festival HERE for lots of fun links to scrappy quilts. 

Voting for your favorite begins November 1st!

October UFO complete!

I'm feeling pretty good after being able to get my October UFO competed with time to spare! 

I always tell myself that I will get my monthly UFO finished early in the month and be done with it, but somehow that almost never happens. November and December are going to be tough ones!

This is Quiet Time by Miss Rosie.
Quilted with an edge to edge design using Aurifil 50 wt. # 2310

The binding was all from my box of leftover binding pieces.
 I figured this would be a good project for scrappy binding since the blocks are scrappy.
You can read more about Quiet Time HERE

I also had a little time to get a couple Christmas stockings sewn up. Our quilt guild fills and donates these for kids to various places such as the women's shelter. One of our members, Diane, puts together pre-cut kits and instructions so it's very easy to get these done--she is awesome!

And since my Austen Family Album bin was still sitting out, I put together the this week's block:
Block 30: Caroline's Choice

Slowly Catching Up!

I'm way behind on my individual woolie hexagons for Stitching Society, but I am hoping to have my October project completed before the November meeting. 

I didn't find the perfect branch to hang my completed September project,
 the  Autumn Banner, but it does the job.

This is the first of seven motifs needed for the October project.
The Bell

Twig Wreath

Holly Sprig

Poinsettia

Mistletoe

Pine Bough

Christmas Tree
I tried to incorporate beads on each elongated hexagon just for fun.

Today I will try to complete the applique of the jagged bottom of the project--a mantle cloth.

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday

Crazy Week!

We have had so much going on here on Moose Bay, so I am amazed at how much I managed to get accomplished in the sewing room this week. We had windows replaced and a new dishwasher installed, sold an old boat on Craig's list, and I even did some cleaning--ha-ha! 

Caught up on the latest Temecula Little Letters blocks

Caught up on the Austen Family Album blocks
This on is block 27 Kings Crown

Block 28 Crossroads

Block 29 Lend and Borrow

And I remade a new block 24 in the correct size this time: Wheel of Change

Finished stitching the sixth block for Susie's World.

And sewed up the pieced fillers to connect the blocks.
 I can't wait for the next issue of Simply Vintage to see what will go in the empty area!

And, if you can believe it, I quilted and bound my October UFO! It looks like a beautiful day for some outdoor photos, so I will post photos of my completed UFO soon!