My Christmas Advent Calendar

I finished quilting my Christmas Advent Calendar at the end of September, just in time to turn it in for display at the South Carolina State Fair.  I picked it back up this week along with a blue ribbon to go with it.  :)

 I am glad to have it back home because I didn't get a chance to get a photo of it before I sent it in.
So as soon as I got it back I took it to the park for a photo shoot.

It was a little over cast outside, but still good enough weather to take some good photos.




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Another Finish for the Q4 FAL

I completed another one of the projects on my Q4 FAL list. It was my second oldest UFO. It was started in 2006 and put aside for various reasons throughout the years.   It was even put on my New Year's resolution list in 2009, but that obviously didn't go over too well. I did get the top finished that year though so that was progress right?

 It has been basted since February 2012, but again I got side tracked with other projects that took precedence.  This quilt has always been for me though, so that is probably why it kept getting moved to the bottom of the "To Do" list.

For the quilting I did some simple meandering on the pinwheel blocks, and then did a little more fancier quilting in the yellow inner border.


It is nice to finally have this one finished.  I plan to use it as my winter quilt in the family room.
Once all the Christmas decorations are put up, it will be nice to have these colors to brighten up the rest of the winter season.

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Wicked Blog Hop Starts Today!

Today is the first day of the 2013 Wicked Blog Hop and I am excited that I get to help kick it off.
For this hop all I could think about was witches and their hats.
  So I designed a wall hanging filled with six different witch hats.

The hat on the top left is one of my favorites.  I made it a little more rugged than the others.
My next favorite is the one on the right.  I love the curly tip.

I hope you like my little creation,
Now I am off to hopping, I am excited to see what everyone else has whipped up.

Make sure you check out the rest of Hoppers today!

Tuesday, October 22^nd

Grammie Q's

Stitchin By The Lake

Quilted Delights

Buzzing and Bumbling

Vroomans Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

The Quilted Cat

Meadowbrook

Patchouli Moon Studio

The Nosy Pepper

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Click on the image to see the whole schedule.

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Bev's Burgundy Qult

I finished quilting Bev's quilt the other day and dropped it off yesterday.
For the quilting, she asked me to use an all over design with burgundy thread.
It turned out great!

I love how the burgundy thread pops out nicely on the white sashing.
Beverly said this quilt is for her.  I am glad of that, I know the feeling of giving away a lot of quilts and keeping very few for myself, so it is nice to create one to keep around once in a while.

I just happened to finished one for myself to keep last night.  It is the second finish from the list I made for the fourth quarter of the Finish Along for 2013.  Later on this afternoon I will try to wrangle up some quilt holders to go to the park and get some photos.  I think the park will be my new place to take quilt pictures.  I love having the water in the background with the quilts.

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I.S.T.H Finished - First for the Q4 FAL

This is my first finish for the fourth quarter of the Finish-A-Long.  You can see my finish list here. I decided to start with a project that was mostly finished to give me a kick start to the quarter.

For this one all I had left was to finish the quilting in the purple border and the yellow in the stars. I decided to leave the curves in the light purple fabric as they were.  The original hold up for this project was trying to decide if I wanted to add feathers to those curves.  I decided to keep the quilt soft and not put in the feathers. Once the rest of the quilting was done, binding it was quick.

While I was taking photos, some of the ducks at the park kept getting closer.
They seemed really interested in what we were doing.  

 

Or perhaps they thought we had food.

I sure love my quilt holders. This holder is my youngest son.
He is the perfect height to hold this one up. 

One finish complete, that leaves 11 more for the quarter.
I'm fired up to get these finishes knocked out, some have been waiting a long time.
Lets hope that fire doesn't die out after the first month.

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Orca Bay Quilt Complete

The Opportunity Quilt for my guild is now complete.  I finished the binding on the Ocra Bay quilt the other day, but was waiting for some good weather to take photos.  That day was today.  The day started out cloudy, but by the afternoon the skies were blue.



I took my boys to the park with me and had them help me hold it up.

For the back I used the wide backing fabric from Connecting Threads.
It sure was nice not having to piece the backing.

Since the quilt is so busy, I decided to quilt it with an all over design.

 I'll turn the quilt over at the November meeting and we will start selling tickets for the drawing in March.  We'll pull a winner at the end of the Civil War Re-enactment which is usually held the first weekend in March.

I really love this quilt. So much so that I may have to make one for myself. 

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Finish Along 2013 Fourth Quarter

I am a little late to the party, but better late than never right?  I have decided to join the last quarter of the Finish Along for 2013.  I will finally have some more quilting time for myself this fall since I am only enrolled in one college class.  Next spring I take three more classes and then I will have my bachelor's degree. YAY!!

 Leanne, the host this year, said go large so that is what I plan to do!  I am going to aim for four finishes per month. That's doable right?? So without further delay I will list the finishes that I want to get done this quarter.

1. Quilt and bind my HST Christmas Quilt

2. Quilt and bind my Starry Night Christmas Quilt

3. Quilt and bind my Pinwheel Christmas Quilt

4. Sew together a fourth Christmas quilt from these strips I cut out last year.
I am going to add an off white fabric and make a strip tube Christmas Quilt.

Can you tell I want to be ready for Christmas this year??

5.  Finish quilting my i.s.t.h. quilt.  I am almost done with the quilting.  The hold up on this on has been me trying to decide if I wanted to add more feathers to a curved lined I quilted in the large triangle sections.  

6.  Finish the top for my twisting maple leaf quilt.

7.  Quilt and bind my Slide Show Quilt

8. Finish my Dresden quilt.  I am so close to having this one be a complete top.

9. Make that last Mondo bag which I bought the interfacing for.

10.  Quilt my Leap Year Schnibbles quilt

11. Quilt my Jacks Schnibbles Quilt

12.  Finally finish the quilting on this Pinwheel quilt.
Out of all the projects on the list, this one has been waiting the longest.

Phew, that is a lot of quilting.  Let's see if I can get them all done. There is no penalty for not finishing everything on the list, so it is good to make a long list.  It also helps put things in a time line for me.  If I have 12 things that I know I want to finish these next three months, I won't waste time trying to figure out which ones should get done first.  I love this list! I wish I would have jumped into this Finish Along sooner.

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Getting Wicked

My project for the Wicked Blog hop is under way.  It is an original design and I am excited about it!

Can't wait to show it off on October 22! 

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Orca Bay ~ Top Done

The Ocra Bay top is finished.  Now it is on to the quilting.

I am really in love with this quilt.   It will be the opportunity quilt for my quilt guild. Unfortunately based on my previous luck at having my name drawn, I feel my odds at winning this back are very slim.  So much so that I see myself cutting more red, white, blue, and black fabric in my near future.  

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Twist to the 60's with Batiks - Blog Hop

Flower Power!!  That is what comes to mind when I think of the 60's.

I wasn't around in the 60's so I don't have any memories of the era, but I can definitely appreciate the music, movies, and art from that time.  The 60's were full of color which makes batik fabrics perfect for this hop.

I stitched together lots of flowers from some of my brightest batik fabrics
and to go along with the flowers I made a few pouches.

The first pouch was made using a technique similar to the cathedral window technique.

You can find the process tutorial at Patchwork Notes and can use any pouch pattern you like.

I found the perfect spinning flower charm at Hobby Lobby and

my daughter lovingly attached it to the zipper with an extra long chain.

I hand sewed my zipper/lining to the front section because I was sure I couldn't line up the stitches on the front without having it look like a disaster.

It took me a little longer, but you can't see the stitches on the front of the pouch and I am digging the small blue hand stitching in the inside.

I used the Clover Kanzashi Flower makers to make all my flowers.

I used two different styles: the small Daisy Petal and the Large Orchid Petal

These tools from Clover are awesome!  I have made these flowers by hand before and now that I have the plastic tools by Clover I will never go back. They make it so much easier and the petals come out perfect every time.  I bought my flower makers at JoAnns when they had them half off.  I will definitely be going back for the other styles!

This next pouch is called Suzy's Sack, the pattern is by This and That and I bought it from Connecting Threads. It only cost $4.50 so it was easy to add to my cart when I ordered some fabric and thread.

The pattern called for 1/2 inch d-rings and a claw clip for the handle, but I couldn't find either of those at Joanns or Hobby Lobby. I will have to look online to find them.  

 The bag is a small and is meant to hang off or inside a larger one, so the clip would be nice.  The pattern also gives instructions if you don't want to use the clips, which is what I did, but it looks like I can alter it easily when I get the clip and D-ring.

Last I made an Ear Bud Pouch from Erin Erickson's tutorial, but this time I used her Heart Shaped Tutorial.

These are for ear buds, but you can put anything small in them.  My daughter uses hers as a coin purse.

I had a great time sewing up all my creations, the flowers in particular. I sewed them up while watching Dr. Who on Hulu, which coincidentally originally aired in the 60's.  

Make sure you check out the other 60's Batik hoppers today.
Click on the links below to see all the goodies for today.

September 30

Seams To Be Sew
Words & Stitches
Banks of Frog Creek
Quilted Delights  - ME  :)

For a full list of the blog hoppers Visit:

Twist to the 60's with Batiks Schedule

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Time to Sew Rows - Orca Bay

I placed all the sections on the design board to make sure nothing of the same butted up next to each other.  It was fairly easy since there are so many different fabrics.
All I have left to do now is sew the rows together.


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