Finishing blues and starting pink!

I was able to organize a few more blues and cut them into usable strips before I called it done enough and put the rest back into the bin for the next time a  blue shade comes up. Here are all the RSC Sampler blocks from the month of January.

My churn dashes and my hexie flowers in blue.

I just started pulling the pink yesterday and have prepped five hexie flowers for some hand work this weekend. I started the first one in the pick up line today.

They are saying the temps should be in the 80's Saturday and Sunday. I don't believe them - today was to hit 72 and it is damp and in the 50's. Tomorrow I get to work and do my month end paperwork while Daddy is on kid duty for the day and bringing one kid to a birthday party in the afternoon. If it is warm Sunday - we may try to take the kayak's out after dropping the kids to Grandma's for the day. If not.... I want to pin and quilt my blue and cream log cabin quilt. The best scenario - I would get to do both!

Head on over to Soscrappy on Saturday for the RSC link up and Kathy's Quilts on Sunday for Slow stitching Sunday. Both are wonderful blogs with some great inspiration linking up to them.

A squishy in the mail!

I finally went to the mailbox yesterday and was so tickled when I had a squishy from Canada in there. Kathy at Kathy's Quilts had a give away that I won a little bit ago. I was so excited..... I LOVE snowmen. I have a snowman quilt that Emily is currently snuggled up in (40 degrees outside here at noon and only 70 in the house - ok, I know but the house is 78 when it is warm out and 73 when it is cold). I have a bunch of snowmen ornaments on my tree and currently have my snowmen ceramic figures out on display for the month. I can't wait to dig in and try one or two of these patterns. She also included some fabrics for me to play with. Quilters are just the greatest and a big thank you to Kathy.

That box in the background contains my hugs and kisses blocks which I have been busy framing. I cut all the frames out for the rest of them this morning and just need some sewing time to get them done. I can't wait to put that one together.

Tiny Tuesday

Today I picked what I was thinking would be a quick one. Well, we won't discuss how many maroon and cream parts I made. This one is called 'tents of the enemy'. Excuse the one different cream print, I had an oops on the cutting and was not about to make another one!

Slow stitching Sunday.....

Today will be sent prepping some more hexie shapes in blue for more hand pieced flowers. I tried English paper piecing for my first flower but found that just standard hand piecing was more fun for me. I have a plastic hexie with 1 inch finished sizes and then drew 1/4 inch all around it on some paper. I really need to do that onto a template plastic so it will last longer. I use that to trace around the wrong side of the fabric and then cut it out. Then trace around the hexie in the inside.
After work last night I did these six flowers to join the others I had made this month. I think I want at least another two flowers for a total of 10 blues for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

One boy will be returned from Grandma's soon so he can visit with Grandpa A when he comes over around 11. Then it is a birthday party later this afternoon for both kids to attend and run around and get some energy out. I see some slow stitching later this evening to relax before another busy week starts.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other slow stitching projects are being worked on today.

RSC in blue....

I think I am finally all caught up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler blocks.... until she posts the next one! I had issues with that tic-tac -toe one and just added the light all the way around to make it the correct size. I guess mine will be truly unique!

I seem to not have very much variety in my blue scraps this year - I think I must have really cleared them out last year making my double bed size wonky log cabin. Hmmmm... maybe I can work on getting that one prepped for quilting next week. It would be great to get that one finished so I can put it on my bed. All the fabrics for this were from my stash and most of the block construction was from the scrap bin. I did purchase a 104 inch backing for this - much easier than piecing one this size.

I decided to make some churn dash blocks this year and while attempting to tame my scraps and cut them into some usable sizes I am making sure to do some 2.5 and 1.5 inch strips to make these little blocks. Lots of taming to go and one more week to get it done. These will be all colors through the year.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday morning and see what other projects are being made with some blue scraps. There were over 50 links last week and I admit - I am still working my way through them! Lots of temptation with so many neat projects.

Quilters Scrapbook is finished.......!

TaDa!

I think it came out great. I guess the fence out back needs to be bigger. How about this way.

I completed the top for this yesterday morning. The pattern for this is awesome and those sashing and borders are super easy to make with her paper pieced parts and instructions. The good news, the pattern is now available for sale at Canuck Quilters Craftsy site here. This is such a versatile pattern - you could just do 10.5 inch solid blocks instead of the 100 square blocks and do some awesome hand stitching in there, swap another block as one of the testers did here, or make your own block. I might just have to make another and clear out a bunch of green scraps this time! A big Thank you to Joann for letting me play with her pattern to test it.

Tiny Tuesday - Back Home

Did you think I forgot? I just flipped through the book to find another easy one as I only had about 25 minutes before I had to pick up a kid from school this morning. I decided to make the block labeled Back Home. It was very easy with HST's of 2.5 inches to make my 6.5 inch block this week.
Here are my two so far from The Civil War Love Letter book.

Slow stitching Sunday

Today when I am not at work or at my machine I will be working away on my orange peels for the border of my hugs and kisses quilt. I am adding a frame to the blocks as I sew other projects and eventually this one will become a quilt top. Until then, I am enjoying every slow stitch in those little stolen moments of time during the day. It is so hard to believe that all these little peels were stitched in the car while waiting for kids, at doctor's office waiting rooms or in the evenings watching tv. I love that I can show something got done during that time and I get a beautiful quilt out of the deal. Such a bonus.

Greg is dropping the kids to Grandma today and I have about 30 minutes before I need to head into work. I think I'll go work on borders for my Quilters Scrapbook. Tonight I get a date night with the hubby and then we'll gather the kids from Grandma. No school tomorrow so we don't need them settled and in bed by a certain time. Tomorrow - a play date at the park in the morning.

To see other slow stitching projects, head on over to Kathy's Quilts and enjoy the show.

Saturday in blue....

It is blue over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month. I have not had too much time to dig into my bins to find blue but I have been playing along with the sew along and have six blocks completed. You can find information on this here.

I'm also showing some progress on my quilters scrapbook - I got the sashing rows attached despite the 'help' from the cats. I hope to get some good sewing time in later this evening and tomorrow to get all my outer rows made and attached. I do love working with blue and that dark blue has such a nice feel. I got it from Connecting threads - antique cream and indigo blue. The light was from the stash. All those little squares were from my scrap bins. A true scrap quilt. Joanne has wonderful instructions and the patter should be on sale very soon. I've provided a link to her website above to check out her's. Poke around there as she has some beautiful quilts to show.

First thing this morning the kids wanted to make their 'calming jars' that I had shown them on facebook a few days ago. Not sure how 'calming' they will be but it sure did entertain me yesterday at work! I made the purple one there and kept going out to the floor of the store to shake it and watch the glitter move. Lessons learned - use warm water so the glitter glue will work into the water better. Don't add too many drops of food coloring (5 red and 5 blue is way too much for purple - lots of dilution went on!) I used two drops for the kids and it was much better. Em had red and Aidan green. It looks better when the glitter is a different color from the dye. The instructions can be found here.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other wonderful scrap projects are being worked on this week. I'll warn you - you are going to want to make a bunch of them =). As for us - we are headed to a 1st birthday party at the park. It is a chilly 50 degrees - I think some hot cocoa when we get home will be the perfect thing.

A quick quilt......

It seems Miss Emily told her teacher we were making a quilt for her daughters first birthday party on Saturday. She informed me of this after school on Monday. Well, I had picked up some cream fabric with lots of colored dots on it a while ago from my LQS (local quilt shop - for Mom). I pulled a yard of two different pinks and let her select one. She wanted Jordan to have a quilt like her white and purple one... only a little bit bigger. This purple quilt was a gift from her grandfather's neighbor when she was born. Thank goodness it was an easy pattern. I just cut some strips at 4.5 inches. Sewed them together and sub cut. Sewed the four patches together and then made my rows. Added a border Thursday, found the backing in the stash (purple was requested by Miss Em) and did some stitching with the walking foot. A quick binding made and machine stitched to the front..... just some hand stitching to the back to go.

It has been another busy couple of days. I had promised we could go to the trail head (forest of trails for walking, biking and horse trails) for a walk on Wednesday and we did. They have been working on it over the last few months and there were big mountains of dirt on the sides of the horse trails. The kids loved walking on them.

Yesterday I had promised them bowling - so once they had lanes and all other things were done we headed out late afternoon. The kids each bowled a game and I need to go get their feet measured and new shoes. Yikes - they are growing. Aidan beat Emily by a pin - 82 to 81 with bumpers up but no ramp. They did pretty good.

I would show a picture of my Quilters Scrapbook but someone (a black and white four leg creature who will remain nameless) had been in there and it looks similar to this. All the sashing rows are attached to each row.... and then I ran out of bobbin. Hopefully I can get that all attached later tonight and make some progress tomorrow morning. For today.... hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.

Progress....

It is Wednesday. Oops... I missed a Tiny Tuesday post. I've been concentrating on the Quilters Scrapbook quilt so will catch up next week when it is done!
Monday I finished the last two blocks and cut out the frames for them. Tuesday I decided light blue as my accent color and cut and sewed up the paper pieced parts.
Wednesday - I sewed the sashing together and put the paper pieced parts together. Now I can see where this quilt is going. This is how it will look........  the light blue is a little washed out in the photo but looks better in person.

now to finish off the sashing and sew this part together. The outside border with dark blue and cream is really going to set this quilt off.

Somehow Monday Miss Emily informed me that she told her teacher we were making a quilt for Jordan for her first birthday party on Saturday. Ummmm. We are? We decided on a quick pattern - 4.5 inch blocks in two colors. She picked the pink to go with a nice cream with dots. Just need to quickly sew some rows together and pop the border on. This will just be a quick quilt through the squares and then pop the binding on. Hopefully I can get it done by the party on Saturday afternoon. I plan to hand sew that binding down at work on Friday.... shhh, don't tell the boss. Oh right, I am the boss =) The advantage of owning your own business! I am swapping work days with hubby so I can take the kids to the birthday party on Saturday and he can have kid time on Friday.

 Back to the sewing room for me. Let's see what I can get done in an hour before I have to pick up a kiddo from school. Then lunch and lots of HIPPY lessons before picking up second kiddo from school. Emmy and I will pull the papers off while waiting in the car line. No speech today since her teacher has a doctor appointment. I believe I promised we could go to the trailhead for a nature walk this afternoon, which will tie in nice with one of the HIPPY lessons. Then we'll have to use up some apples so an apple crisp will get made this afternoon as well. Yesterday the kids helped to make meatballs to go with our spaghetti sauce. Everyone had seconds so I guess it was a hit. Then it will be two days off school for the boy while his sister has classes in the morning. Think I can talk him into helping me sew tomorrow morning? Hmmmmm. Off to sew.

Monday, Monday....

I've been busy trying to get my green, blue and brown little squares all sewn into their 100 patch units. I need twelve of them...  yes, that means I did cut out 1200 squares to make these blocks.  The good news...... all the fabrics came out of my fabric scrap bins with a few parts pulled from the closet of fabrics. At this point I have 10 of them done... which I think is enough to figure out which two colors I will use for my borders. I am pulling a cream and an indigo blue from another project..... but the decision needs to be made for my other color. Do I use light blue, green, or brown....... decisions, decisions. I have all my paper piece parts cut out and marked... I just need to make the final decision and start cutting so I can get this together. Lets see how much I can get done in my free 2.5 hours of kid free time over the next few days......
So far the instructions are very clear and well written. Fingers crossed that it sews up nice and easy. This is the original pattern and quilt over at Canuck Quilter. A beautiful quilt... I can't wait to see mine finished! She will have the pattern for sale very soon...... this truly is a great scrappy quilt.

Weekend wrap up...

It is the second Saturday in blue for the rainbow scrap challenge and I have not done very much sewing. Oh well, there is still time in the month to get the blue scraps used up a bit more. I am just trying to get back into a school routine and it has been a little strange this week. Greg was home with me until Thursday when he went back to work. It is not normal to have him home for getting the kids ready for school and doing the drop off and pick ups. I had doctor appointments Monday and Tuesday he got to drive me to and then we headed to a conference in Orlando for Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday was my day to finally get back to my normal kid routine and errand running.  I got my month end finished this week for work and dropped it to the accountant Friday and had a nice chat with her. Saturday was Greg's Birthday and Sunday was our family cake and ice cream gathering. Too busy to sew =(.

I did manage to make a sampler block or two Angela posted this week. They used up some blue scraps in the bin. I also made a couple more hexie flowers which I hand pieced. I think I like hand piecing them better than doing the English paper piecing method. I need to pull some more blues and prep a few more - these are taking me about 30 minutes to put one flower together. I know this because I did one Monday waiting for 30 minutes at the doctors and the second on Tuesday waiting for the doctor. =).

My ongoing hand applique project is these little orange peels. I've decided to frame the X blocks with color and the O blocks with creams. I am working on the peels that will go around the border for this quilt. I love how it is coming out and my little baggie of peels lives in my purse so I have them wherever I go.

I'm hooking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. Go check them out and see what great projects are being worked on out in blog land.

Tiny Tuesday for 2014

It is a new year and after having a couple of months off from the midget blocks, I really miss having a regular 'Tuesday' post. I've been looking through my quilting library and decided to work through the Civil War Love Letters book by Rosemary Young.

This contains letters from soldiers with blocks that seem to fit the letter. Each block in the book will finish at 6 inches. There are no patterns in this book - just a picture of the finished block. I figure it is time for me to start working on drafting things in preparation for a Dear Jane sometime in the far off future. Some blocks I will piece by machine and some by hand. The goal is to work on one or two a week all year and see if I can get all 121 blocks done by December 31, 2014. Anyone want to join me?

This should be a nice use of 2.5 inch strips.... of which I have a nice Jelly Roll to use. I purchased this and a 10 inch stack from Connecting Threads sometime in the last year or two of the line called American Celebration. I hope I have enough to work through these 121 blocks but if not I'm sure I can find something in the stash that will work as a fill in. I noticed there are a few of the mottled solids and star collection prints in there so I can always fill in with those. I'm planning this as a red,cream and blue quilt that when finished will probably be donated to QOV. So nice to have a plan ahead of time for a quilt - although life does tend to throw some curve balls in and things sometimes change.

My first block is called Enthusiasm. I found it so helpful to use my flying geese ruler to cut my HST units to make my 2.5 inch HST units in this block. Add five 2.5 inch squares and block one is completed.

Slow Stitch Sunday 2014

Today I've picked up an oldie but a goodie. The fireworks quilt has come out to play again and this year he will get finished. There, I've said it. I had it out the other day and while I was looking at this block and trying to figure out what other quilting to put in there (while Miss Emily was trying to get under it since it is 'comfy' - a 40x40 quilt in a hoop, mind you!) I saw my tervis water glass. Yes, inspiration does strike in the most strange ways. Those white blocks will be hand quilted circles in there. I just drew around it with a pencil and hopefully it will erase or wash out ok. I'll be smart and use the quilt marking pencils for the next one. That should help me get through the five blocks like this. Then it will be back to square one for the other four - but I think I have some notes written down somewhere on ideas for those blocks. Multiple color thread and fireworks seem to ring a bell.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other lovely projects are being worked on. I do have to thank her - since she was my inspiration to try hand quilting and hand work and I have been so lucky to love it. It is so nice to use that 'wasted' time and create some beautiful things.

RSC 2014 - The first Saturday of the year!

I have to say, I am so happy to be in a new month and a new year. December 2013 was a rough one for me medically and I am so happy to turn the calendar to a new month and year!
I checked back and in January 2011 I was hooking up with SoScrappy for a blue scrappy month! How is it that after 3 full years I seem to have MORE scraps than I did back then? I think the fabric has parties at night and multiplies.... It couldn't possibly be from me adding to the stash =).

This year I am going to finish off some orange peels which will become the nice scrappy border for my Hugs and Kisses Quilt I started last year in the challenge. These are great for doctor office visits and waiting for the kids. Sorry - I was too lazy to lay them out again but that last X has been made.

I am also joining the hexie craze (I do have willpower - I held off for 2 years!) and I think I will make a nice garden of flowers all with a pretty yellow center of some sort. That will be the constant as I think yellow goes will all the colors in the rainbow and tends to be the center color for most flowers. I made one here using the  english paper piecing method. I have not decided if I will applique them down onto a background or create paths to go around them. Plenty of time to figure that out.

I have two more cut out and traced to be hand pieced. I'll do some each way and see which one works better for me.

This year Angela is hosting a 6 inch sampler block quilt along with the RSC challenge. I dug into the bins and created these two blocks with some scraps. I think they are cute! I could really see a whole quilt of colorful hst's in that first block.

I also finally got into the sewing room today and started on a quilt I am testing the pattern on. Nothing like waiting for the last minute- those darn medical issues! Here are my first two blocks.

I have the rest of the blocks cut out.... but may switch to the paper pieced borders since this part went smooth. My hope is to get some sewing time in tomorrow while everyone is home. As for tonight - we have been invited to Grandma's for dinner. I believe she said the kids made Chicken.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other projects are being started or continued this year.

2014 - Hexie time

This is the year of hexie's for me. I found this website a long time ago where I can print out hexie papers at 1 inch per side. I saved off the PDF onto my computer so I will always have it. Now to cut them out and prep some fabrics. I cut a few out last night and think I need to make them a bit bigger. Any tips for me?

I am not sure exactly what they will turn into but with a bunch of doctor appointments already scheduled for this month I am sure to have plenty of wait time for these and finishing up some orange peels for the border on one of last years RSC quilts.

A new year......

Time to show an old project that I made a couple of months ago and still have yet to mail out to a few people. Sometimes life just gets in the way. When I got the 'Remembering Adelia' book last Christmas I flipped though it and knew I was going to play with Orange Peels but I was also intrigued with a little needle case. I finally made a few of them up back in October or November. I have been using mine and it sure does come in handy. Sometime in the next month or two a couple of them should find their way to the post office and be shipped off to their new homes.