Spreading the Quilty Love

Would you be willing to help a fellow quilter out?  Silly question I know,of course you would.  How do I know that?  Simply because quilters are generally more that happy to help spread the love!

Kevin who blogs over at, Kevin the Quilter needs a little help.  With this...

Photo borrowed from Kevin's blog

QOV(Quilts Of Valor) project he is working on.  So,would you,could you,make a few blocks to help Kevin meet his goal of three quilts?  The blocks are quick and easy(12.5" square)  Go check out Kevin's Post for all the details,including a tutorial on how to make the blocks,and QOV colors.

Thank You in advance for helping with such a great cause.
PS.  If you need an incentive,there will be a opportunity to win a prize!

Sewing like mad

This past week has been crazy busy in the sewing room for me.  As usual my list of goals is,pretty much Way over what can be accomplished in my limited sewing time...

But first,something that should have been on my list,oops,forgot to add my blocks for Stash Bee .  Two of these will be heading out next week,the other two were my practice blocks.  I have plans for them...

The majority of the week was spent working on these babies for my nice's bridesmaids.  I also made up one for her,would not think of leaving out the most important lady of the day!  The print she picked for the outside of the clutches is,an Essex Linen blend La Femme floral nouveau in ivory,by Robert Kaufman.

For the insides she picked three different prints from Amy Butler's Alchemy line,in a Linen Rayon blend.  My first thought was that these prints should really be on the outside of the clutch,and it sure would have been easier to sew them that way.  However,they are not for me.  After finishing them and taking the photos,I decided it was a nice surprise to open up the clutch and find such a pretty lining fabric inside.

This last one,which I actually made first,is for my nephew's wife.  She has been helping my nice with all the planning and such that goes hand in hand with a wedding.  This one was one of the 6 that were requested.  It has the floral nouveau print inside,and the sparkly green outside is,a Michael Miller print.  Something Frost? (sorry brain fail)   This is my favorite of the 7 ;)

Since there were still two of the original 8 in. frames left from before the decision to go with 6 in. frames,I decided to just make up this one...

and also this one,to sell.  Even though sunflowers far my favorite,I like the orange daisy print one better!  The inside of it is lined with a matching DS print.  The lining of the sunflower clutch is a purple that goes with the purple on the outside.

Remember my stray quilt blocks... two of them were owl blocks (I think from 2011,sew bee blissful Bee)  These were my practice blocks,all of the other blocks were donated to the Waldo Canyon Fire quilt relief effort.  The handles are leftover 3 inch squares sewn together,and turned right side out,the lining of this one is just a scrap of plain muslin.

This second one is about 6 inches taller and a little larger around too.  The handles for this one are made from a striped brushed cotton,while the lining is an allover green print.  It also sports a small inside pocket,made with a orange scrap of butterfly fabric.

 I also made my "bar" soap,but forgot to take a photo of it (next post). Whew!  So still to be completed from my goals list are...  the triple zip pouch,and two Christmas projects need to at least be started.  I think I can,I think I can...

Bom blocks

Well here it is Wednesday (actually almost Thursday)already!  Another week half over and what do I have to show for it?  Not much...

In my defense what I have accomplished has been pretty time consuming.  This first Pile O Fabric BOM is one of last months.  The block is called Switz and is a paper pieced block,which is slow going for me,as this is only the second time at paper piecing.

This is the pattern/foundation for the second block for may,which by the way took me an evening,and half of another this week.

This is what it looks like when all finished,the name  of this block is Geo Swirl.  It felt like I was never going to finish this one up while working on it.  All the time spent was well worth it,not only because of the learning experience,but also because I Love it!

There are still 4 blocks to go before I am caught up,and they are all going to take about the same if not more time...so they will not be finished by the end of the month like I had hoped.  That just means that I can add them to my July list.

Stash Box Winner...

And the lucky Quilter is...

Karen OMay 17, 2013 at 11:34 PM

This is the best looking box I have seen for a while! I would love to win this one and do some trading.

Congrats To you Karen :)  Thanks to all who left a comment,head over to Karen's blog soon to see what she adds,and for another chance to win!  While you are there,be sure to have a look around her Sweet blog :)

The blocks below are the ones I deleted the other day.

Some sewing,some playing it forward...

First up the sewing...

Row # 12 ~ sewing baskets ~  Although with this being Easter month,I am calling mine Easter Baskets!

All twelve rows,this is going to be such a sweet quilt!

I should have titled this post Lori Made me Do it!  I subscribe to her blog,and so get her posts directly in my email box.  When this post showed up I was hooked,and after printing out the tutorial,ran (really) to my sewing room to make my first barn attend my first ever barn raising ;0)  Want to make some of your very own?  It is only one barn every other week,very doable right?  Right!

No more waiting for the perfect project for my sew mama sew charm pack!  Since the quilts on the sides of the barns are 6.5 inch squares  this will work great!

My bee blocks for this month are churn dash,which surprisingly enough,were a first time to make for me!

Although Green is my favorite color,the first block is my absolute favorite of the two,now if I just knew what the paisley print was... would love more of it.

Lastly,but certainly not least,my second pin cushion for my swap partner,Shanna !  This is one of my pins that I can mark off as made :0)  Even though it looks pretty complicated,it really wasn't.  The hard part for me was finding the candle stick!

Playing it forward ~ My Way ~

No rules,No hoops,just a handmade goodie from me to you!  The one and only catch/rule is that you have to send me your snail mail info when I email you the request for it ;0)  Oh,also please leave me your email addy,if you are a No Reply blogger... Or I will not be able to contact you :(

First 5 commenters will receive something small or big from me sometime in the next year!

Sew,sew,sew,

Hey all,did you miss me in blog land?  I sure missed reading my favorite blogs,and am hoping to get caught up soon!  The first week of vacation was a lot of driving,and visiting family.  The visiting part was great,the driving part not so much...

This week I have been trying to stay off here and get some of my sewing goals completed.  Which is going pretty good :0)

Before I show my progress so far though...  One Happy Mom and her quilt!!  The lighting where we stayed was not very good,but good enough for a couple of photos for my album :0)

Magnum Block for the skill builder QAL I joined,both this one and the Sound Wave block still need to be quilted,but at least they are pieced!

My February Bee block,Pippi Longstalking!  Even though I chopped off her feet (oops) this one is still super cute :0)  I plan on making more Pippi blocks in the future.

Row 10 in my row along,little Houses.  Although the blocks themselves are about 6.5x8.5 there are 20 little pieces that make up each block.

Welcome to my "Quilters Neighborhood"!  Only five houses on this street,mine is the one at the right end.

Surprised that my house is not in  the green prints?  Me too,but as you can see there are still plenty of green prints on some of the other houses.

Row 11,something that all us quilters use by the Spool!  Yes,Spools of Thread.

I decided to make my thread spools look like antique wooden spools,they turned out rather nicely.

Last night Jolene,helped my with some things on my computer,so this morning while typing up this post I decided to play around a bit with the photos.

Lastly,a tease photo for my swap person on FB!  Hope everyone is having a super week with at least a little sewing thrown in :0)

Sound Wave block & other stuff

Happy Friday eve ;0)  Hope everyone has been having a sewing kind of week!

After finishing up mom's quilt the other day I sat down and tackled my first Skill Builder BOM Sound Wave...

I just had to make it using the Kona Ash :)  I still might make one with a black background,I know it would really make the batik's stand out,but the Kona Ash just calls out to me.  See that bit of yellow sticking out at the edges of the block?  It is a new tool toy,one of three that was purchased the last trip to Joann's.

This is what it looks like,without a quilt block on it.  This sweet toy is a Rotating Rotary cutting mat.

This is what it looks like when you rotate it slightly,and it rotates so easily too.  Where has this little gem been hiding?  Or what rock have I been under?  This is one of the "optional"tools listed for the BOM over at Pile O' Fabric

Another tool listed was a 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inch square ruler.  Let me just say,I can not count the times this would have come in so handy,and I will be using it a Lot from now on.

With this ruler and the rotating cutting mat,squaring up my block was a piece of cake!

Usually I am not going to the city on weekends when there is an awesome sale going on at Joann's,but this time was the exception.  The sweetest part,all the Fiskars cutting tools/mats were on sale for 50% off :0)  So I still got to use my coupon for something else,gotta love it when that happens!  Since the mats were on sale I was also able to purchase the 6 1/2 inch size too!  Of course these three items totally blew my fabric allowance for the month,even on sale,but then $25 doesn't go that far.  Good thing I still had a little $ left from Christmas to use on the batting for mom's quilt,or I would have went over the amount I have allotted myself for fabric/sewing purchases per month this year!

I have decided that this year I will make more sewing tool purchases than fabric purchases.  One month in,so far so good :0)

The last couple evenings have been spent working on this Gift/Tote bag,because every quilt needs a bag just as sweet where it can patiently wait for the next time it is taken out and used :0)

It was finished up just in time for a couple quick photos before the sun went behind the mountains this evening!  I can hardly wait to give this to mom,I am so excited about it!  Good thing I can spill the beans about it here ;0)

Mid ~ month check in (a tad late) for A Lovely Year of Finishes

Well here it is Sunday night again,I am thinking 3 day weekends would work much better for me.  How about you?  Yes it is a bit past the middle of the month,but since the Linky party at Melissa's is open until tomorrow evening (Monday)  not too late!

If you remember I am making a quilt for my mom this month,due to be finished by January 31st.  The original plan was for the blocks to be Granny Squares,then I thought,it would be nice to have more than one block used in the quilt.  So the top block on the stack in the above photo is the second block I chose to use.  At the moment the name eludes me,but it is something like Patchwork Star.  It is one of the blocks pinned on one of my pinterest boards.

The Granny Squares blocks work up pretty quickly,especially since the squares are 3 inches,the extra little border is to make the block the same size as the Patchwork Star block,which on the other hand is taking quite a bit more time to make.  However,the end result is very worth it!

A closer look at the yellow Patchy Star block.  It kind of strikes me that although yellow is not normally one of my colors of choice,this and the granny square in yellow are two of my favorite blocks so far :0)

The twelve blocks that are finished!  This is turning out a lot better than what my mind had pictured,which is way cool!  The plan was to have 16 blocks done by the end of the weekend,however due to some sewing issues (that will be another post this week) that didn't happen.  Guess 12 is good enough for now,since there is still a couple weeks to go.

Enjoy your week!