applique table topper and red & white challenge

Amanda Murphy applique design. 

I think I'll add this to quilted mandalas

to make a table topper. 

This year Cocheco Quilters Guild is celebrating

40 years. I designed this panel for the Red and White Challenge.

Ready for quilting.

A Dog's Life Quilt by Lynette Anderson with a switch

This wonderful dog quilt by Lynette Anderson, A Dog's Life, 
has been on my bucket list for about five years. 
I finally purchased the pattern at VQF last summer and started my scrappy version
on it in the fall at LLQG retreat. 

I finished my version in June.
The bottom block is the block I modified to include our rescue dog Kylie, then Piper our grandpuppy and Beau, Kylie's BFF.
So this quilt is in honor of our dear friend Tim who passed away on Mother's Day
as I was working on the binding.

New placemats for spring.

Fig Tree mini quilt in my favorite colors. Finished December 2014.

Here's a mini wall hanging (about 6X10") with a beach bicycle I made for Amanda for her 29th birthday. It matches her new bicycle she'll be using in San Diego. I did surface embroidery, used my Derwent watercolor pencils set with textile medium and FMQ ruler cross-hatching.

Sewing Room Wall Hanging

A fun quilt for me with machine applique, hand embroidery
and FMQ on my Janome Horizon.
Thanks to Lori Kennedy at the Inbox Jaunt for the spool quilting motif.
The scissors were from my doodling and her encouragement to try new ideas.
The sewing charms are from Bohemian Findings @ Etsy.

Here are the FMQ spools and floral motifs.

I tried some FMQ words around the thimble.

I like my FMQ scissors around the applique scissor block.

 

Free Motion Quilting the sampler quilt

Gracie posing pretty with the quilted and assembled top.

Gracie's inspecting her new quilt. 

A close-up of some of the FMQ. Lots of fun quilting these blocks.

Le Jardin Embroidered Wall Quilt with custom FMQ and feathers

Le Jardin by Red Brolly wall quilt

Center Medallion for Sampler Block quilt

center medallion ties it all together

Sampler quilt

Upper left hand quadrant

King Size Sampler Quilt

Here are the middle blocks for each quadrant.
The appliques are oriented so each appliqued block
will be upright when the top is assembled.
The blocks on the left are Lynette Anderson
and the blocks on the right are from Anne Sutton's "Henrietta Whiskers"

Wake Me Up to Kona Bloghop

Hurray, it's my turn for the Wake Me Up to Kona Bloghop.
I have had sew much fun making these projects.
Participating in this Kona bloghop was the perfect opportunity to
 practice my free motion quilting, make some practical useful items
and try my hand at some new techniques.

As always, a big shout out of thanks to our marvelous cheerleaders,
Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt and Carol at Just Let Me Quilt.
Amanda Murphy and her beautiful book Color Essentials, 
Sunrise and Sunset bundles from Robert Kaufman and
lovely threads from Aurifil are our wonderful sponsors.
Here are the other bloggers on my day. I can't wait to see what everyone creates with these wonderful fabrics.

January 20

More Stars in Comanche

Buzzing and Bumbling

Quilting Quietly

Grammie Q’s

The Quilted Cat

The Quilting Queen Online

Lauraluvsloons

This pillow sure brightens up my living room couch on a wintry January day!
Machine appliqued figure skate (my favorite Winter Olympic sport) from a Fig Trees Pattern. 
Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt inspired small snowflakes and
I FMQed the larger snowflakes after practicing her pine boughs.  

For my Christmas table I made these placemats.
I loved using Kona white for my Gail Pan embroidery pattern and the red to practice my FMQ.
Inspiration for the quilted Christmas feathers came from Amy at 
Amys Freemotion Quilting. The word quilting from Leslie at MarveLes Art Studio.

I thought that the Kona could be more than just a palette for my FMQ practice.
I made a nice collage of vintage seahorse prints from the internet and a turtle print we had.
Then I ironed an 8x11 sheet of interfacing to the Kona and ran it through my printer, transferring
the collage onto the KONA light blue. I made my own fabric!
I added the turtle applique, some Kona sashing and some FMQ.

Here's the collage in the tote I made.

For the back of the tote I tried out my new Derwent watercolor pencils.
First I applied the Kona seahorse applique. Next I embroidered the seahorse on the left.
Next I quilted the water bubbles, kelp and threadwork on the applique.
Lastly I added the color with dry pencils and applied a thin coat of Folkart textile medium to set the colors.

I tried my hand at a practice whole cloth and added color to my FMQ.
The KONA white definitely makes a wonderful canvas for quilting and painting.
Inspiration for this technique is from a Deborah Louie whole cloth quilt.

I hope you enjoyed my adventures using KONA solids.
I have loved seeing all the wonderful projects made by sew many talented quilters.

Happy beautiful winter morning from our lake in NH!

This is a shout out to Madame Samm for her wonderful button pin tutorial.

Here's the pillow top I'm making for our friends, Tim and Charlie.
Jilly and Beau are our dog Kylie's BFF's.

Here's a close-up of my feathers.
After lots of doodling practice, I finally got brave and tried
them on a real project!


This is the inspiration block from Lynette Anderson.
It will be one of eight applique blocks on our king - size quilt I'm making.

Embroidered Wall Hanging for my sewing/sun room

I love this stitchery by Bare Roots. It will go perfectly on the wall where I sew.
I didn't machine quilt this one because I embroidered with the batting already in place.
I did a running stitch with Finca #12 floss around the sections
to attach the backing to the front.
This will be in the Cocheco Quilt Guild show in October.

Merry, Merry Snowman ready for the quilt shows

My day at "'It's for the Birds" Blog Hop



Hurray, it's my day for the "it's for the Birds" blog hop.
From my blog name you can tell I love loons but I love bird watching all birds here at our lake in NH. We even have eagles to watch.    
It was fun and easy to choose my projects with sew many fabrics and patterns with birds singing and winging. I loved making these practical items I can use every day.
 

What to do with laminated cotton? Make a project bag.

I use it to hold my interfacing. 

                       How to take all your embroidery "stuff" on the road?      

This is an embroidery bag from This n That. I love to see the owls peeking through my embroidery floss and tools.



This is the outside of the embroidery bag. I used some vintage fabric from Amy Barickman for the outside and the button fabric on the inside pocket.

                                              What about hand's free fabric shopping?



I've had this fabric, Nature's Walk for Clothworks, for two years now, waiting to make a backpack. The pattern is ByAnnie's "I've got your back". This is the front featuring a pocket with credit card slots inside. Pockets on the sides, zipper with two zipper pulls.




Here's the back of the backpack showing the straps and zippered pocket. Inside there's another big zippered pocket and two pocket slots. Great pattern to use. 

                          What to do when you luckily win a give away?


I won the giveaway from Brenda at Ladybug Dreams during the Stich it Up blog hop. She sent this pattern from This n That and I had to make this pillow for this blog hop. I used charm squares from two French General charm packs. Goes perfectly with my blue couch.

          Lastly, here are three blocks from Lynette Anderson book
                           It's Quilting Cats and Dogs.   

These blocks will be added to a fun mix of pieced and appliqued/embroidered blocks to make a scrappy king size quilt for our bedroom.



On the road again.




Best friends. I'll add buttons after I quilt.

 



Let's go camping. Ironically we are picking up our RV from winter storage today!

        I hope you enjoyed seeing my projects. I apologize for the number
             of projects, but I can get sew much done now that I'm retired.  
              Many thanks to our cheerleader Mary http://ipiece2-mary.blogspot.ca/ 
              and Madame Samm http://www.sewwequilt.com for this fun blog hop.                   Make sure you check out the rest of today's bloggers.
                          I can't wait to see every one's great ideas.

http://englating.se/wp

http://lauraluvsloons.blogspot.com

http://marjoriesbusycorner.blogspot.ca

http://ruffhaven.blogspot.com

www.pigtalesandquilts.com

http://debbykratovilquilts.blogspot.com

http://why-knot-kwilt.blogspot.com

http://beaquilter.com

http://gwenbru.blogspot.com

http://pccrafty.blogspot.com

http://pumpkinpatchquilter.blogspot.com

http://sherry-blessingsfromournest.blogspot.com

http://zellerwear.blogspot.com

http://crafting365days.blogspot.com.au

http://charlottescreationsanew.blogspot.com

http://Janesquilting.blogspot.com

http://Ipiece2-Mary.blogspot.com   Robin Sheaffer

 

 

 









Springtime in NH

This project bag holds my embroidery floss box and tools next to my easy chair. The embroidery was inspired by a design in Lynette Anderson's book It's Quilting Cats and Dogs.

Nothing like a snow storm in NH the first week in April!

My day at the Stitch Me Up Bloghop

Today is my day to share my projects on the Stitch Me Up bloghop.

A big thanks to Madame Samm at www.sewwequilt.com and her great bloghop themes.
Thanks to Debbie from Busy as can Be , Cyndi from Stitch Stitch Stitch and Madame Samm herself for the fun embroidery patterns from which to select.

And a special thanks to our cheerleader, Jane at Janes Quilts and Fabrics.
 It's so fun to see all the different projects being made from these embroidery patterns.

When I received my embroidery patterns, I chose to start with the sweet floral design to make a mugrug, a purselet and a quilter's project tote. I finished with a mini wall quilt using the chair design.

This little mugrug is the perfect place to show off my creamer and sugar bowl.

 

 

This little purselet is perfect to use with my new quilt project tote.
Thanks to Jennie of Clove & Violet for this goodie Pouch, a Moda Bake Shop project.



My quilt tote is perfect for hauling several projects to sew days with my BFF's. My new container of Precensia embroidery threads fits perfectly in the quilted front pocket.
Thanks to Edyta Sitar for this pattern in the Feb,2010 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

I enjoy blue work and this little chair reminds me of the chair where I do my embroidery at night while watching NCIS and the RedSox.

Thanks for visiting my quilt journal/AKA my blog. I enjoyed making these items for my home and quilting. It's always so fun to add a touch of embroidery to a useful item. Scroll down to see my inspiration quilts for this bloghop and a finished quilt top Merry,Merry Snowmen from Bunny Hill.

Don't forget to visit all of today's bloggers.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 27TH

Judy @That Other Blog

lauraluvsloons and Quilting too

Sew Sharyn

Sewingly Along

Anita's quilts en handwerken

Quilt Doodle Doodles

Val's Simple Passions

Luv2Sew

Busy As Can Be

Paws for Stitching

Quilting & Other Craft Therapy

pieceful life

Live Love Labs

Felt pa Asly

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

 

Quilter's Tote Bag, view overlooking the lake in NH on a spring day!



Here's the inspiration easy chair.