March NewFO Challenge

Another month gone by yet it is still winter here.  But maybe for a long month, the cold and snow it made for good creativity time indoors.

My selected NewFO for the month was my project for the Monthly Doll Swap Group.  The theme was 'Keen on Green' - and of course the little doll that I send with each quilt.

But being a long miserable month - I finished all my monthly goals plus more.

The mini for Simple Projects and used for my month Christmas project, too - mini swap bird house - relaxing round robin - rainbow challenge blocks

Pinwheels finished for the 'patches' quilt in progress - QOV blocks made and mailed for Kevin (see side button) - snap bags with quilt guild challenge - framed x-stitch (goal was one but got three done)

Fleece Snugglies for my grandsons (which they are thrilled with) and two flimsies ready to quilt for Hands2Help

And there were some secret projects that hopefully can be shared soon. Somehow a couple more leader/ender projects stacked up by my machine.  I will add my Something Old/Something New projects on tomorrows post.

I do sleep, really.  I use to be a horrible insomniac, but since rehabbing from the broken hip - I nap at least once a day (sometimes 2) and I sleep solid at night.

** linking up with Barbara's NewFO Challenge **

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Slow Stitching Sunday

It is a cold, rainy, sleet, snow mix day.  Perfect for a sit and stitch day with Kathy's Quilts.  I am washing backing fabrics so I can do some sandwich basting, too.

I plan on working on this new cross stitch piece.   Someone gave me a couple of these store front patterns torn from 'The Cross Stitcher - 1994'.

I haven't framed the large 'Apples for Sale' piece yet, but I did get my three small ones done.

So pull up a chair and slow down,

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Let's Book It - March Link Up

I know there are a few more days left in the month, but there are so many link ups at the end of the month, I decided to put this up a little early.  I hope you found time to dust off one of those books or patterns or magazines and get inspired.

This was my book for inspiration.  There are so many nice pieces in this that I would love to do - will be revisiting this one for sure.

This was the piece that I chose.  Small which I love to work with, plus I wanted to challenge myself with those hexies.

And this is the finished doll quilt- (14.5" x 17.5").  It is hard to see, but I hand quilted an echo stitch in black thread around each flower and around the center.  And I added a hanging sleeve so it can be used as a mini wallhanging.  I did change the pattern ever so slightly as my hexies were a tad smaller than the original, and used a whole cloth center rather that putting those tiny flowers on a square and then sewing the squares together.  Since these were smaller, I used a smaller border than the original - to balance it better.  AND best of all - the entire piece right to binding and batt and backing - all scraps!!

This month's barn pin charm is the 'Wedding Ring"

Now it is time to link up your project:

Borders

RE: Free Dictionary Definitions:
bor·der  (bôr′dər)

n.

1. A part that forms the outer edge of something.

2. A decorative strip around the edge of something, such as fabric.

3. A strip of ground, as at the edge of a garden or walk, in which ornamental plants or shrubs are planted.

4. The line or frontier area separating political divisions or geographic regions; a boundary.

v. bor·dered, bor·der·ing, bor·ders

v.tr.

1. To put a border on.

2. To lie along or adjacent to the border of

v.intr.

1. To lie adjacent to another

2. To be almost like another in character

Borders are the hardest part of quilting for me.  I much prefer to not do a border or to do a thin border to match the sashing.  The 'paper doll' quilt just needed a thin border.  Now I could do another border around this, but I like this size for kids.  Backing pieced, binding made, and batt (order came in) is ready - this is one of my Hands2Help quilts.

Or a border that seperates, but also blends with the center is needed.  When I do a super scrappy quilt, I like to use a scrappy border.  This is my 'Goodnight Irene' - again backing, binding, and batt is paired up with it.  This is another Hands2Help charity quilt.

I don't like to do wide borders, but sometimes that is what is needed to contain, accent, and finish off.  It does all lay flat and squared - I just don't bend over this hip well enough yet.  This is my 'Count Down to Christmas' .  The flow of the layout is a little lost with the bundle I had contained a lot of tans.  Again the backing is prepped, binding and batt ready.  This one will be heading off to a long armer in a couple of weeks.

The 'Relaxing Round Robin' has been a border thought process for me, too.  Maybe that is why I have struggled with each round past the center.  I went with three different ideas and then stayed with the ever faithful geese.

Do you struggle with borders?  Are you borderless?  Do you like skinny or wide, single, or multiple borders?

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Slow Stitching Sunday - 3/23/2014

I need a day to slow down, so I will be joining Kathy's Quilts with some 'down time' in that chair.

This is my 'Let's Book It' project.  All those tiny flowers are done and now need to be hand stitched to the background.  The pattern had you stitch each flower to a 4" square and then sew all those together to make your center.  I thought it would be easier to use one whole background piece.

Now to pull up that chair  and slow down,

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon 

New QAL

Since the only real QAL I have been participating in is the Goodnight Irene (and that is ready for quilting), I saw this over at Val's Quilting Studio.  I've been thinking of a triangle quilt and this works out perfect.  The button is on the side bar if you are interested.  There is the first link up of fabrics and sign up in the comments found HERE.

I won this FQ bundle a long time ago and should make a fun quilt.  This is 'London' @ Free Spirit fabrics.  It will certainly help beat out the cold, snow, and cabin fever.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Swaps & Secrets

This was the Monthly Doll Swap Group quilt that I received from Roberta.  What was so cool is that she had grown up in my area.  I just love all the green goodness mixed with many of Mother Natures sweetness.  This is just stunning and lots of work into this little piece.

And I am an advocate of labeling - look!!  She machine embroidered her label right on the backing fabric.

I received this lovely from my 'Sewing With Friends' partner - how cool is this!!  Just adore everything about it - and the scissors, just too funny as I had been looking at these to buy for myself - now I have them.

  
And with all that was on my list for the month, I took on testing a pattern.  NO this is the back of the quilt - you will have to wait until I get word that I can flip this over.  Let's just say, this is an afternoon project that you will just enjoy.

I was re-organizing and preparing some boxes to mail out some items.  I put the tape away and YUP - Moe in the Box!  I only just noticed he has his tongue out - stinker.

I think he tried out every box, but he liked this one best and no coaxing would get him out.  So I had to let him nap for a bit - once he got hungry, I finally got all my boxes packed. 

** linking up with Feline Friday **


CLOSING THOUGHT

The idea of calm exists in a sitting cat. -- Jules Renard 

Hope you have a calm weekend.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Rescue Me

Wouldn't you like to win this?  A jelly roll of 'Ducks in a Row' by American Jane for Moda- sponsored by Green Fairy Quilts.  WHERE - well, Snoodles, Padsworth, and Dragon Drop of Lily Pad Quilting are hosting a link up of your rescue pet.  So write up a blog post, share some photos and tells us about your rescued loved one.  Even if you don't have a rescue pet to share, there are other options to enter for this jelly roll.

This is my dear, sweet Bella - full name Isabella - the Queen of the house.  She and her twin sister came to me as a resue.  Oh, poor things were so dirty, flea ridden, anemic, infected eyes and poor Bella had the worst infestation of ear mites we weren't sure whether her hearing would be affected.  Unfortunatedly, we lost poor Snippet and Bella went into a bit of depression and lost most of her fur from anxiety - she still sheds mounds when she gets scared.

Then when we had our severe flooding from Irene, we had to leave my sweet furry friend behind when we evacuated (no pets were allowed in any people havens) .  We found her wedged between the kitchen cabinet tops and ceiling.  It took days to get her at least onto the top of the fridge.  A dear, sweet blogging friend made and sent Bella a comfort quilt - how she needed that.  

Then we threw some more trauma at her - yup, Moe in the Box came to live with us because he was a bad boy at his former home.  I don't know if I trained him or Bella, but he is the most pur-fect gentleman here.

 

And even if she would certainly deny it - I know Bella loves Moe and worries

when she can't find him.  My rescue pet, my queen, my snuggle fur baby - so happy you came into my life.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Tuesday Archives

This Week's Tuesday Arhives with Val's Quilting Studio is either Animals or Award Winners.  I haven't anything that was any kind of huge award winner, but I immediately thought of a quilt done just last year.

This was the Forest QAL with Shape Moth and you can read the original post HEREl  

** linking up with Val's Quilting Studio **

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

8 Bobbin Weekend

I hope you all had at least 15 minutes of stitching time for National Quilting Day - maybe you got lucky and had the whole weekend like I did.  First was getting 180 (pinned in groups of 20) lozenge blocks done.  There is still a long way to go with these, but I have a basket of pieces set up for leader/enders for now.  Maybe there will be another marathon stitching weekend.

All the pinwheel blocks got finished for the 'patches and pinwheel' quilt. Now all the blocks are done, this will go on next month's goal list for putting together.  That's not an 'oops' - half of the pinwheels go one way and the other half need to go the other way for the layout.

And I really felt guilty that my Celtic Solstic is still sitting.  The 'Fight or Flight' blocks were done, but those sad pinwheels - no.  So all those pinwheel blocks are now finished and I actually put these into rows, but I didn't have a large enough area to photo them.  This went back on the shelf possibly for next month.

I ordered this fabric shortly after coming home from the hospital.  My daughter saw it in one of my fabric catalogs on the table when she and the boys came for a visit - of course I went to the inter-net and searched for the best price.  Perfect timing as I found all of the 'requests' on sale (last day) at the time.  The littlest guy is just so in love with Thomas, so I got yardage for the top and some plushy for the back - he loves this shade of blue too.  No batt needed and a simple pillowcase technique of piecing.  Just used my walking foot (I pin plushy like crazy to hold it in place) to quilt it with a serpentine.

The older one is very into The Angry Birds.  This is the first time I have used a plushy on the front and back - think I used every pin in my box!  Again, just the pillowcase method to join front and back (no batt)  and the same serpentine with the walking foot. Just took my time (I know - me sowing slowly) and had no problem with slippage or puckers.  This guy loves the color red, so glad I was able to get the last of the red print.  What a snuggly quilt this is.

Both drag-along, snuggle quilts are washed, dried, and boxed up to be mailed out.  I hope she takes photos of their faces when they open this box.

** linking up with Design Wall Monday with Judy at Patchwork Times **

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Hands2Help

Remember it is time to sign up (March 16-22) with Hands2Help over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  This year there are three groups for you to chose who you would like to donate to - but you are not limited to one, you can give to each if you like.

Quilts of Compassion

Hurrican Sandy Survivors

Happy Chemo

And Sarah also has info for those out-of-states quilters who would like to participate.

There will be link ups and follow ups to keep us all on track - gentle reminders.  And Sarah will send you a pdf file with all this info once you sign up so you have that information at your finger tips.

Of course, there are prizes along the way, too.  But that's not why we do it.  Quilters are special people, because they always gift from the heart.

So start from scratch, or dig out those orphan blocks, or maybe there is a flimsy on the shelf.  If you are not sure what to do, there will be a linky party on March 30 for posting up favorite charity quilt patterns - great resource.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Make it a Handmade Christmas Challenge - March

 

 

Hard to believe that we are half way thru the month of March and it really has roared in like a lion and rather happy to stay that way.  I am happy to have another gift to add to the box.

 

 

This was a pattern offered by Sheri at A Quilting Life  for the little project for the month and I thought it would make a great Christmas gift.  I did change her little white flip corners in the center of each flower so I could use some pretty white pearlized buttons I had.  I used Moda 'Audra's Iris Garden' candy charm pack for the flowers and corner stones and some scrap Kona Sand for the background/sashing.  The outer border and binding were from my scrap basket.  Also, the batt and backing were 'cut-offs' from a larger quilt.

 

I will be linking up with SewCalGal

 

 

 

 



 

I haven't had an 8-10 bobbin sewing weekend and this is the perfect time for that.  I have a few blocks done for Bonny Hunter's leader/ender challenge - LOZENGES.   I think I will be dumping barrels and bins, sorting, cutting, and stitching away in celebration of National Quilting Day. Hope you get some sewing time in.

 

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon