Around the World Blog Hop....

Kathy over at Empty Nest but Full Heart nominated me this time to do the Around the World Blog Hop. I have been asked a few times over the last month or so to do this but life was a little busy. It has calmed down to my 'normal' busy so I figured I'd give it a go this week.

What am I working on? 
I like to have various projects in process so I can work on whichever one I am in the mood for! I always have to have some sort of hand work ready to go since I have five days of waiting in the car line at school for about 20+ minutes. It is amazing what you can get done in 10-20 minutes here and there during the day if you are prepared. There is always some yarn in my busy bag with my trusty #8 bamboo knitting needles for dish cloths.

I do a Tiny Tuesday which originated with Midget blocks of 4.5 inches but this year I am doing a 6 inch block in red/maroon, white/cream and blue from The Civil War Diary book.

I join in with Angela over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturdays where she selects one color a month for us to play with our scraps and create whatever we like. This year I am making churn dashes, a 16 patch block  - which I seem to be missing dark blue and purples! and hand piecing hexagon flowers in each color selected. I am also sewing along with her to create a Rainbow Scrap Sampler where she will pick a block and post the instructions for us to follow along with.

12 churn dashes a month in the color selected.

16 patch block made with 2.5 inch squares.

Hexagon flowers hand pieced (not EPP) 13 or so flowers a month with yellow centers.

On Sunday I join in with Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts and do some slow stitching - either hand stitching my hexagon flowers, appliqué on the Century Quilt blocks or hand quilting. I finished this hand appliqué block last Friday - time to put those 12 blocks together. There will be a dejavu of this one on my blog as I picked up two of this block from the Joann's BOM back in 2000. The extra block will become a pillow to go with the quilt.

Last week I was testing a pattern called Starlight Wishes by Joanne at Canuckquilter. It came out beautifully and I just got it pin basted today so I can machine quilt it the next time I have a block of kid free time - looks like Wednesday morning while they are in school. She will have this on sale later this month through her website.

My leader and ender project is doing one of the steps for Bonnie Hunters Celtic Solstice Mystery from last year. I am doing her color way of green, orange, blue, yellow and creams. I can't wait to start putting my blocks together but I have two more steps to go first. My goal is to have this quilt completed before the next mystery starts the day after Thanksgiving.



How does my work differ from others in its genre? 
Difficult question. I have been quilting since I got out of college back in 1992 and my style has evolved over the years. I have more fun playing with scraps to make my quilts rather than using just a couple of fabrics in a quilt like I did when I first started quilting. I tend to prefer the traditional patterns and fabrics rather than the new modern fabrics and patterns. I am trying out new techniques and ideas every month to try and grow as a quilter. I have gone from simple machine piecing and tying my quilts to machine and hand piecing as well as machine and hand quilting. I've taken the plunge and tried my hand at appliqué over the last few years and once the prep work is done it is very relaxing to run that needle through some fabrics.


Why do I write/create what I do?
I sew to relax and keep me sane! Well, as sane as I can get =). I have been told to 'go sew something in your sewing room' so even my loving family knows that Mommy is much happier after she has had a few minutes to play with some fabric in her sewing room.

How does my creating process work?
 I am just starting to be brave enough to try my hand at 'designing' or getting ideas from my head into a fabric form to make a quilt. I did this last year with my little apple quilt - which reminds me of home in Vermont (I relocated to Florida in the fall of 2011) and is hanging in my dining room. I was coloring with my kids and decided the apple would make a great little appliqué block. The color of the RSC Challenge that month was red so it fit perfectly. I hand appliquéd those onto fabric while waiting in the car line to pick up the kids from school. I love the nine patch so used that as my alternate block. Then I decided to hand quilt it... another fairly new skill. After much encouragement from my blogging friends over at Slow Stitching Sunday I had a completed wall hanging I am very proud of.



Like most others I also troll the web and get way too many ideas from other quilters and magazines. As you can tell from my long list of UFO's on the sidebar I have a lot of projects waiting for a finish (and sadly that is only some of them sitting out there patiently waiting to see the light of day again to get worked on to a finish!). To help me stay focused I have started joining Kathi over at DesignOriginals by KC at the end of the month for her list goals - link blog - party time. You make a list of things you would like to accomplish in the coming month and review how you did for the current month. It is a fun way to keep you on track and don't worry... there is no pressure if you just HAVE to start that new project that we seem to find every month!

Thanks so much to Kathy  for nominating me to do this. I did not tag anyone as most of you have already participated in the hop. If you would like to join in the fun, just leave me a comment and I'll point people towards your post next Monday.