Sew the Library (twofer)

Have you heard,or are you participating in Sew the Library?  It is a monthly link up hosted by Fabric Mutt and I think a few other bloggers will be hosting throughout the year too.  This is not one of my usual link up party's,but this is a New year and time for New things...

So I am participating.  For this month (the first link up)  my project is a quilt,from the book Fabulously Fast Quilts.  This book was a Christmas gift from a very special friend.  Jamie and I decided to have our own little sew along this month.  The pattern we chose this month is butterfly effect.

The prints in the quilt came from a Color Me Happy jelly roll,the solid is Kona Nightfall,which is actually a darker blue.  The binding strips are two grey prints from the jelly roll mixed with a green with white polka dot Dear Stella print.  The name of the book holds true,as this was pretty fast to sew up,and turned out fabulously!

You are probably thinking this is a crazy back side for a quilt called butterfly effect right?  well,having my own "style"is one of the things that makes my quilts unique,and this one is no exception.  As you know I love things that are reversible…

Finish #5 for January!
Sew Worth It

Productive Focus

Do you choose a word(s) at the beginning of each new year?  Some bloggers/quilters do some do not.  Until this year I was one of the do nots.  For some reason it just felt right,although I did not link up anywhere or anything like that.

It is just a personal thing having to do with my quilting/bag making goals for the year.  Speaking of that here is Fall Frolic all finished!

inside and closer up.

Again,inside since the sun was dipping by the time I finished!  This one was actually finished last weekend. Quilt finish #4 for January!

This past week has been a busy one,with two new quilt projects in the works.  Butterfly effect from a "Color Me Happy"jelly roll,and Kona Nightfall blue yardage.

and the second Stick Shift quilt,using "Mellow Yellow",a FQ bundle and strips from a "Silent Film" roll up/jelly roll.  Both tops are finished at this point,photos will come as soon as I can find daylight hours…

My words for this year…Productive Focus

Sew Worth It

my Tammy 4 all seasons

When I saw the post for the Tammy 4 all seasons post over at Sew We Quilt back in November I just Had to jump in…even though I had never so much as sewn one x stitch!

Before we get to my bag many thanks are in order though: Firstly Thank you to Mdm Samm for this wonderful hop,and for my new found skill (albeit the skill part is still questionable) the wonderful magnets,and my Tammy bag kit!
Thanks also to Mary for so graciously moving me to a later day in the hop,so I would have time to finish my cross stitch,and for being our head cheerleader!

Many thanks to All the wonderful sponsors including:
Brooke of Brooke's Books For all the Awesome cross stitch patterns
Cori of Chitter Chatter Designs For all the Sweet Pinny patterns
Apple Heart  Mdm Samm's shop for the Tammy Bag pattern
Beam N Read (LED light)
DMC (floss and Aida cloth)
H. A. KIDD (monaco fabric/cloth)
Readers  (reading glasses)
Snap Source (snaps and a gadget for attaching them)
Yarn Tree (Q snaps)
           
                     Thank You,Thank You,Thank You!

Since I was more than a bit nervous  about starting with the cross stitch,the Pinny came first.

 The box pleats (the first time for making these) gave me a few fits,but nothing major.

When Mdm Samm said that it took her two weeks to finish her cross stitch/tammy bag I figured it would take me at least twice that amount of time.  Wrong!  It took me F O R ever.  Okay it only took me around six weeks…  Apparently I can not count,or count correctly anyway!  The ending result…

well just don't look too closely or you will see stitches where they should not be,no stitches where they should be...

Finally the day the hop started I finished my cross stitch!  Let me just say I was (and still am) Ecstatic!

On to the rest of the Tammy bag.  The handle was my only problem child,even though I measured and marked the center…you guessed it,I sewed it on crooked.  Sigh,ahh the challenges of sewing new to me patterns!

Since my DD and her hubby installed software upgrades and more memory to my computer for Christmas,I have not yet re-learned how to edit my photos.  So you can not read the label I added to the back of the bag. The label says "This Took FOREVER"   That being said,I am sooo in Love with my newest Bag finish and,yes,I will be doing more cross stitch in the future!  However,the next one(s) will not be on a schedule but rather when the mood strikes!

Okay I have gone on long enough about my Sweet new Tammy,Off you go to check out all the Wonderful Stitchers I have the pleasure of Sharing the day with!


                                                                     January 19, 2015

KrisLovesFabric

Ga's House

Secretly Stitching

Creatin' in the Sticks

Grandmama's Stories

WHY-KNOT-KWILT
CeLynn's Sunflower Patch (you are here :)

Kick Starting 2015...

Well after a longer than planed absence from blogging,I am finally back.  During my hiatias I was busy,busy,busy!

The Fantasy Row baby quilt for Gil's friends baby was finished in time to link up for the last ALYOF of last year,but since I didn't have my computer…

that didn't happen.  I recently received a message from the recipients,both mama and baby love it!

The start of my first quilt for this year!  Jamie and I decided in December to have a sew along from the book she sent me for Christmas.  The book,Fabulously Fast Quilts by Amy Smart can be found in her shop.  Before we sewed a quilt from the book though,we decided to sew her Stick Shift quilt from the tutorial on her blog.  Here are my sticks all chain pieced.

The sun had already dipped behind the mountains by the time I went to take photos late this afternoon.  So they are all a little dark,and I was not able to lighten them up by editing them without really changing the colors.  In the quilt tutorial,the solid is all one color,but you know me…I had to change it up a bit and added in a few Kona Glacier strips in each row interspersed with the grey.

The larger piece is an Kona Iron Grey,the smaller one is Kona Glacier.  The print fabric used for this quilt was a fat eighth from Joann's,purchased this past summer.  Which by the way was the perfect size for a 45 x 48" baby quilt.  After using some of the scraps in the backing there are only a handful of really small pieces left.  So almost no waste,which is pretty sweet!

Half Vintage Modern one of the tops I finished back in September…now the quilt is also finished!  The second finish for this year!

The colors show up much better in this cell phone shot during quilting.

The backside is mostly the print under the safety pin in the center of the photo above.  The stripe is a Comma print with pale orange.  This one is going to my great niece Sorenna,since the little squares with the girls came from my mom's stash,and were originally intended for one of her grand/great grand babies.

Finish #3 of this year,the second top from September last year, little Red in the Woods quilt.  I didn't crop out my quilt holders hands,because it would have also cut off the top of the quilt.

Straight line quilting on this one to accent all the strips.

A couple larger scraps of Kona solids and a clearance print from Joann's a few years ago.(I think)

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year,I sure did!  All three quilt finishes this month were courtsey of a Much needed four day weekend over NewYears!  Kick Starting 2015...