Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Something new!

With the help of my brother-in-law, I now have my very own button that you can put on your blog page. I have had the picture since I started my blog but now it is a button! See it there on the left?
Go ahead and grab the code! 

Last Friday I started working on a new project but didn't get very far. 
Remember these tiny HST? 
Several people ask what I would be making using them.


I worked on a bunch more 1" HST and several 2" HST and made them into these.


Christmas coasters using the tutorial from here:

Instead of using 4 of the little 2" stars in one coaster, I used each one separately with a border. The stars are made with Fairy Frost by Kaufman and the border, backing, and binding fabric is from my stash. I mix matched the sets making great handmade Christmas gifts. It sure feels good to get some gifts off the list. 
Update: The final count of shoe boxes we collected and packed for Operation Christmas Child was 2616! What a great ministry!
I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

FNSI Results!

Sew I didn't get very much done for the Sew In! It has been an incredibly busy week for me. It is collection week at my church for this...


and I am proudly on the committee. So far we have collected and packed into shipper boxes over 1200 shoe boxes. The energy is great and the enthusiasm is catching. Operation Christmas Child is such a great project for everyone...young to old, teens, families, friends, etc and it reaches needy children all over the world with the love of Jesus. We have 2 more days of collection and the boxes will be shipped to headquarters and sorted for the country they will be going to. If you haven't heard of this project, find the Operation Christmas Child collection site near you or go online to pack a box!

Sew back to FNSI...I managed to finish up my November Birdie BOM. 


and I sewed these little HST. 


As you can see they are pretty small...1"
...I did cut out a bunch more but don't have a picture of them. 

This weekend will be very busy but I'm thankful that school is closed for Thanksgiving Break and I will have all week to relax and catch up (even with the holiday.)
Hope you all had fun on FNSI! Check out what everyone was doing here.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

I just couldn't wait...

I am so excited to show you my newest finish! I designed this quilt myself and I am thrilled with the way it turned out! It is so fresh and modern.  Sew without further ado, introducing... Asymmetric Argyle.


It is pieced using Kona Snow for the background and a solid gray, yellow and black for the argyle pattern. 
The yellow and black are Kona but not sure of the gray.
The machine quilting was done following the lines of the argyle. I love how the pattern turned out on the big open space.


The back is pieced using Ironwork in Granite by Joel Dewberry.



I'm very proud of this piece! The design was mulling around in my head for a while and is now a reality. I am smitten.
I also promised in my last post to share the knitted throw that I finished. A new technique for me...knitting a round throw.



This little throw will be heading to my DD2 and DSIL soon.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

A reveal, some finishes, and the winners!

I have a bit to share today as it has been busy around here. 
First up is my reveal. I joined my first Flickr swap for a Little Quilt 
about 2 months ago. I found this great quote on Pinterest 
that I wanted to design my quilt around. 
I can now reveal my quilt since my swap partner has received it! 
It went all the way to Sweden!




And this is the cute Little Twister Quilt I received from Karen (also know as sewgentle.)


I don't have a twister ruler but I may just need to get one. Love the tessellation!

Next is a wedding gift quilt that has been WIP for quite a while. My nephew and wife got married in Sweden just 3 weeks after our daughter's wedding.  Since many family and friends (including us) couldn't go to Sweden, they were going to plan a reception/party here at a later date. Although the top and backs were pieced, without a date, it was easy for me to make this quilt a MUF. 



Two weeks ago we got the invite for the wedding party. Yikes! only 3 weeks to finish, all while the Wantobe Campaign was finishing up, the Ghastlie Blog Hop was just starting and I was participating in the Little Quilt Swap! 

This quilt is rather large and to sandwich it required some furniture removal from my living room. Thanks to my DH for doing the rearranging, I was able to sandwich the quilt and pin baste it in an evening. I decided to FMQ ribbon circles around the rings and then choose a design to go in the white middle. I also FMQ a ribbon along the border.



Now it is ready to go to the newlyweds. 

I also have been doing some knitting and finished a little throw but since this post is getting quite lengthy and you are probably wanting to know who won my giveaway, I'll leave that finish for another post. 

So without further delay the winner of the pincushion is:
Linda from Buzzing and Bumbling...

And the little zippered bag goes to:
Nancy from Coeur d'Alene! 

Congratulations Sistahs! I will be emailing you shortly.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

It's my turn...Day 8 of the Ghastlie Blog Hop!



Thank you all for visiting my blog during Madame Samm’s Ghastlie blog hop. I hope that you all have visited and enjoyed my sistah’s from last week and found some Ghastlie inspiration. I know I did!
I don’t know about you, but I tried to resist the Ghastlie’s sew many times. I had a couple of encounters with the family before succumbing down with the FLU. There is something disturbingly enticing about this family. When Madame Samm announced the Blog Hop I knew that I had been bitten. 

So without further delay....my first projects relate to the ghastlie chore of laundry! That never ending chore. As soon as it is done, it starts appearing again.  I  like to hang my laundry outside in the fresh breezes of summer, so I made a clothespin bag.  I had an old bag from my grandma that needed to be replaced and the Ghastlies were the perfect fabric. I just reused the frame. It just makes me smile!


I also found this cute clothespin apron pattern. The front features the Ghastlie family as they dine. 
The pocket is deep to hold many clothespins...or maybe some treats for the trick or treaters! 
Yep, that’s what it was used for this Halloween!  

Edit: I had many request for the apron pattern. I followed the tutorial here with a few adjustments to the pattern.



Next, I made this clever cover for a bucket. 
It has plenty of room inside to tote your projects around.  It is big enough for more than one project! The pockets around the outside of the bucket keep all your supplies close at hand.
It is cleverly made to slip right over a standard bucket (I purchased at Lowes).  This bucket has already been on several outings!





Miss Helga Broomswell is watching over my projects.

Hmmm...what’s next? 
Before I really began quilting, I made garden banners for the many seasons/holidays. 
I thought the I would welcome the trick or treaters this Halloween 
with a new Ghastlie welcoming banner. 
I wonder what brew those witches are cooking up!



Some of my smaller Ghastlie projects include these pin cushions...one starring dear Prudence and the other features the knitters...and a small zippered bag.


Gotta love Prudence and the knitting sistahs!



This pattern was adapted from the Sweet Zip pattern by Terrie Atkinson. I made it bigger to accommodate the Ghastlie characters and added the handle.


I hope you enjoyed my Ghastlie projects.  Now be sure to comment on this blog post as I will be randomly selecting one name from them to forward to Madame Samm for today’s grand prize drawing. That name will be drawn tonight and the winner will be announced tomorrow over at Madame Samm’s blog, Sew I Quilt. The winner will need to pay postage. 
I will also be having 2 giveaways right here. 
The first giveaway is the pin cushion starring dear Prudence. The second giveaway is 
the small zippered bag. If you would like a chance to win one of these Ghastlie creations, 
tell me so in your comment. Although you do not have to be a follower of my blog to win, 
I surely would love you to become one. 
Please make sure that I have a way to get in touch with you (or I will need to select a new winner). 
I will draw the winners (for my giveaway) at 10 pm Nov. 4th (CST). 


The first random number will  get the pin cushion and the second number generated will get the zippered bag. Good luck to all!

Be sure to visit the rest of my Ghastlie sistah’s blogs posting their Ghastlie creations and leave comments to win prizes. Here is today’s links.

Mrs. Jane Ghastlie
Mrs. Laura Ghastlie  ( sadly she will not be available)
Edit: The grand prize winner for Day 8 is Duff from Mrs. Jane Ghastlie's blog. Congratulations!


Thank you for all the wonderful comments...still coming in :D I probably won't be able to get back to each of you individually but I read them all and really appreciate all the love.  Stay tuned for my drawing  this Friday. 
Special praises to Madame Samm for all her effort in putting 
together another FUN blog activity! 
She is kind!
She is smart! 
She is important!




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Welcome to all that have come to visit my blog from Amy's Quilt Festival.  I love visitors so I hope you will stay awhile and take a look around. I just recently featured this quilt I finished so if you have seen this before I apologize.  This quilt is the second in a personal challenge I have to make a quilt out of my 'less preferred' fabric in my stash. Since I am pretty much running out of room for my newer, much preferred stash, I challenged myself to use my 'less preferred' stash in every other quilt. 


The bright cheater crazy quilt fabric was my challenge.


I actually really love the way this quilt turned out! It is so nice to be surprised to love a quilt I wasn't expecting to love. This pattern used a Stack and Whack technique that Allison at Cluck, Cluck, Sew shared when she was a guest speaker at Sew We Quilt. It was quick and easy and used up all of the 'less preferred' featured fabric from my stash.



I was also able to use up another piece from my stash for the backing. WOOHOO! Two pieces gone from my less preferred stash.





Hope you enjoyed it! Now make sure you visit other blogs at the fest