scrap winnings plus...

 Way back during the early days of this year Selina from Selina Quilts was giving away some fabric scraps.  Those who waved their hand got sent a box of scrappy goodness!  I was one of those people.  Since we were gone at the time I had her send it to my daughters and I picked it up when we got back home.  Just look at all that red and blue, I see patriotic in a bit of it don't you?  There was even a little stack of 4 inch squares already cut, that might just be a hint;)  There was even a patriotic fabric that is big enough for the back of one of my runners, which you might get to see later this week if I get it quilted.

And as if that wasn't enough, a few months later Selina participated in the Kitchen Stitchin blog hop. She was showing her dish mat and towels that she made.  If we left a comment we were entered into her giveaway. Well guess what!!!  I won!!  She asked me what color I would like, I said I would use these in my fifth wheel and I decorate in teals with a dash of brown.  OMG you guys these are just perfect for it!  Can't wait to use them.  Thank you so much Selina, you are very generous!

Wishing all Mothers everywhere a Happy Mother's Day!!

Linking with Oh Scrap!

A gift for Mom-Accuquilt tutorial

 As a Go! Getter for Accuquilt I recently had the opportunity to create a tutorial for the Accuquilt blog.  They have a new die for a tea/coffee cup, which they provided for me.  The tutorial is for a mug rug, a gift for mom.  It was so fun to whip up something so small and quick.  You can check out the tutorial HERE.  It requires just a few scraps. 

There is a little pocket to hold a tea bag or two.  Put it in a matching cup and you have a quick gift.  If you leave off the words you have a fun gift for a teacher or friend.

Linking up at Put Your Foot Down, Finished Or Not Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, Off The Wall Friday, and Peacock Party

Strawberry fields and panel challenge

 I don't know about all of you, but I am dreaming of summer sunshine🌞 and strawberries🍓!  I bet all of you are too.  Can you just taste the yummy sweetness?  

On Saturdays, when it fits in my schedule, I join the Inquiring Quilter Facebook group for Saturday Sew In. This past Saturday was going to be 80 degrees here, perfect day for being outside. The hubby and I went for a nice bike ride in the morning and then I set to work clearing out a flowerbed in preparation for planting some posies I bought on Friday.  Later in the afternoon I started sewing this strawberry table runner.  The quilting and binding was done on Monday.  

But before I could ever start it I spent at least half of an hour searching for the zip lock baggy with leftover red squares.  Now I used to keep it right on my counter top, but back in December I got the bright idea to move things around😏.  I thought I might have put it in the closet with a bunch of other WIPS/UFO's.  I looked and looked and came up with nothing. Looked elsewhere, nothing. So I went back to the closet and started to pull out all of two shelves determined that I had put it in there. I emptied the first shelf with no luck, started on the second and bam, there it was!  The ironic part is I was only inches from it the first time😛.  I am just sure none of you have ever experienced that!

Now it's back to more red white and blue, pretty much more of ones I have already done.

Don't forget the voting polls are now open for all the panel challenge entries at Prairie Moon Quilts.  I might have entered two.  One of them is Harvest Puzzle that I blogged about HERE.  The other is this patriotic wall hanging.

The center with the flag and fireworks is the panel and I added red borders, friendship stars and outer borders of coordinating patriotic prints. Simple additions to a panel make it shine a bit. 

There are 40+ entries in the challenge, it's so fun to see what everyone came up with to make their panel unique. 

Linking up with friends at Wednesday Wait Loss,  Midweek Makers,  NTT, 

Harvest Puzzle

 Why do I call it Harvest Puzzle?  Well it got it's name because I put it together like a puzzle.  It all started with two panels actually.  The 'harvest' was a part of one panel and the 4 other prints were from a different panel.  After determining a size and trimming down the blocks I gather several different prints I might want to use, looking for colors that match or coordinate.   

                                            

After framing the two center blocks with black fabric, I decided they needed a black and cream checkerboard around them.  Okay now I am off to a good start. 

Or so I thought I was and then I got stumped and walked away for a few hours and then came back and decided it needed some orange that reads solid. I used a mottled orange to frame the checkerboard blocks.  And from there I decided I didn't like any of the previously chosen fabrics, they were just too busy. So I used a cream with tan polka dots to add a calming effect for the pinwheel and flying geese blocks that I pieced next.  See I told you this was a puzzle!!!  Want to see how it ends up?  Just scroll down. 

Ta da!!!  All done.  Notice the 'harvest' received matching checkerboards added.

Want to see some close ups of the quilting?  I know you do, LOL

I had tons of fun quilting this on my Nolting FunQuilter, nothing too complicated.

I am entering this into the Panel Challenge hosted by Prairie Moon Quilts.  I am so glad I was able to use up another panel!  I love working with them to make them unique. 

Also linking up with:

Finished(or not)Friday

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop

TGIFF

Off The Wall Friday

Peacock Party

Friendship Stars

While I am on a roll with patriotic table runners I will just keep on rolling with it;)  While playing in EQ8 one day a couple months ago I came up with this runner.  Well it was a different version and I made a little mistake while piecing this one.  

Someday I will make the original one I designed. It was supposed to have two red stripes that were smaller than what I cut these at.  But I still like this one a lot too. 

A little fun with quilting ribbon candy in the red stripes.  And CC (continuous curve) in the friendship stars. 

This week I need to get pictures taken of my panel challenge wall hanging.  Guess what...it's patriotic too!!  

Linking with Midweek Makers, Put Your Foot Down, Wednesday Wait Loss

Red, White and Blue goodness

There is just something so satisfying to play in my patriotic bin of fabrics.  And then when a friend gives you several coordinating fabrics in half yard increments, so sweet.  She is a quilter herself but she prefers to come to my house and buy several table runners.  And then last year she asks if I would like some patriotic fabrics that she no longer wants, well yes indeed I said! 

While scouring the internet on Friday I found this tutorial by Missouri Star I knew I could whip one up fast.  I changed things up a bit by using striped fabric instead of making striped fabric for the center.  The stars were changed out so I could use my Accuquilt 8" cube to make the star points flying geese style.  All that made for a very quick runner to finish up.  All the fabric was from my friends bundle except the beige behind the stars and the skinny blue border.  Thank you Kathy!!  

Some quilting photos... At first I did a faux SID with beige between the stripes thinking that was all that was needed in that striped section.  Wrong, it didn't look finished so I went back and did the squiggles freehand, much better!

The same thing happened in the star blocks.  I thought just the stitching in the stars would be enough, nope didn't look finished again, so I did a quick stipple in the beige background.  Now I was happy with it and I whipped it off the long arm and bound it quickly by machine.  I love using Glide thread on top and Superior SoFine in the bobbin.  Along with Hobbs 80/20 for batting. 

I will link this up to The Joyful Quilters Table Scraps April Challenge. Also Design Wall Monday, and Monday Making. 

Scrappy bits

Thursday I declared a play day in the sewing room, I could choose to do anything I wanted.  Most days I am sewing/quilting something to put in my Etsy shop.  So Wednesday night I looked and looked through my pins on Pinterest and in my quilt downloaded patterns etc. Just waiting for something to jump out at me that begged to be made. By the time I went to bed I still hadn't figured out what that would be.  I wanted it figured out so I could just jump in and do it in the morning.  Thursday came around and while having coffee and browsing the internet again it hit me...I have been wanting to start one of Cynthia's Two Bits quilts scrappy style.  

Here is my design wall as of Thursday night. Eight scrappy gorgeous blocks done!  I love them!  There will be more joining them, sometime. No hurry to finish it so I'll take my time and when I need a break from the every day sewing I will make a few more.  But gosh it was so fun!!  Now I just need to find my bright orange and yellow bags of scraps:0

Linking up with: Oh Scrap

Kitchen Stitchin' blog hop-curves ahead!

 Count me in is what I thought when Carla from Creatin' in the Sticks posted that she was hosting a Kitchen stitchin' blog hop. She always has such fun hops and so much inspiration from all the participants. 

I have been wanting to try improv curves, my buddy Wendy from Pieceful Thoughts has been on a kick of them lately. She inspired me to give it a try. So glad I did.  Small scale is how I decided to try my hand at it.  

Just four little blocks to make a cute table runner for this shelf that sits in my entry way next to the kitchen.

It's been a while since I have taken time to do any custom quilting.  So I thought this was a good time to get back at it.  

Making improv curves wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Some browsing on the internet lead me to several tutorials on it. So if you are interested I would suggest doing that and picking one that works for you.  I cut my original squares at 9 1/2" because that is one of my square rulers.  Using the stack and whack method to cut them worked for me. 

So go ahead and try some improv curves, it's fun!!  I am thinking some placemats would look great made like this. 

Please check out fellow participants for more inspiration.

Monday, April 19th

Just Let Me Quilt

Kathleen McMusing

selina quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Den syende himmel

SameliasMum

VroomansQuilts

QuiltFabrication

Quiltscapes

Tuesday, April 20th

Life in the Scrapatch

Websterquilt

Ms P Designs USA

Stitch and Quilt

The Joyful Quilter

Inflorescence

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

My Bumbleberry Life

Wednesday, April 21st

MooseStashQuilting

DayBrook Designs 

Beaquilter

Patchwork Breeze

Kathy Kwilts and More

Stitchin At Home

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Thursday, April 22nd

Creatin' in the Sticks

Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Quilting Gail

Sew Many Yarns

thatfabricfeeling

Annie's musings

Quilt Schmilt

Becky’s adventures in quilting and travel 

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Food For Thought

If you receive notice of new posts from me through email, please consider signing up with bloglovin to follow me. In July feedburner is dropping the emails.  It's always something isn't it!  You can find my Bloglovin sign up in my left side bar. 

Linking with:

NTT

Put Your Foot Down

Patriotic progress

 Ahh it feels so good to have a few patriotic table runners done this past week. First up is a fun delectable mountains 48" long runner using only two fabrics. I used the tutorial from Bonnie Hunter for her Scrappy Mountain Majesty.

These two are ones I designed last year so I whipped up two new ones for the shop.

In the last post several of you seem to enjoy my photo from my Arizona trip.  So here are a few more.

Oh the things you see in the middle of the desert!!  It must have been an Halloween decoration, it was huge!

These two photos were taken in the Sedona area. The most beautiful red rock formations, one could look at them all day.

What a contrast in color from red rock to brown/gray tone with trees and snow on the mountains. See that twisty winding road?  We drove that in our truck(without the camper). We went up a lot in elevation, what a view!!

Don't forget the Kitchen Stitchin' blog hop started today, my day is Friday. I hope you will come back to see what I whipped up;)

Linking with Design Wall Monday, Monday Making

Butterflys a fluttering and Ladybugs a crawling

 Oh my but it feels great to be back at my longarm again.  First up I pieced, quilted, appliqued and bound this fun butterfly table runner. It's from my newest pattern called All A Flutter, you can find the pattern HERE.  It is so easy and quick to whip up.  The border fabric I had in my stash, purchased a while back specifically to make this runner. A quick trip to the store yielded the other fabrics to coordinate. I love the bit of stripe that I found for the binding.

I pieced the lady bug runner a couple weeks back while I was in Arizona. It was the first piece I put on my longarm upon returning. The pattern for this is by Suzanne's Art House. 

Yes I went to Arizona again to visit family, what a great time we had.  Here is one of the things we did while there. Such beautiful country down there and one can really get around and see things in an ATV.

I really enjoyed the break but it's time to buckle down and get back to work.  Both my Etsy shops are open and quilting ensues!  My plan today is to work on a panel for the panel challenge over at Prairie Moon. Tomorrow I will be working on a tutorial for Accuquilt. It's been a whole year since I wrote one so it will be a challenge to relearn how to do that!  Then there are a couple of blog hops I signed up for. You can see those at the top of my right sidebar. The sewing machine will be humming, oh and I need to take one of them in for a cleaning today. 

Linking with:

Midweek Makers

Wednesday Wait Loss

Put Your Foot Down

Donation quilts for Hands2Help

 I needed to dig out the quilts that I have made to be used for the Hands2Help charity drive this year.  Often during the year, when I have time, I piece the tops and quilt them later.  So it is time to start getting backings together so they get in line for the quilting machine.

Here are a few I have pieced so far. 

This one used lots of scraps. Not the prettiest quilt but it will keep someone warm.

This one used 5 fat quarters plus the sashing and background. 

I loved using the Creative Grids Half Rectangle ruler to make this fun, colorful quilt for a child. 

I loved the process so much I made another using different fabrics.

 This is made using the same ruler but a different layout. Lots of possibilities.

There might be a few more pieced still in the closet, but these were easily accessed!  If I get these quilted up in the next month I will see about the others. 

It is check in week for the Hands2Help project so I am linking up at Sarah's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Sarah has hosted this fun event for several years.  Are you participating this year?

Also linking up at Oh Scrap because that first quilt is definitely scraps!

Cute Lady Bugs

I couldn't resist making this lady bug runner again.  It's not that I like the real lady bugs but these are just darling and fun aren't they?

The pattern is by Suzanne's Art House.  You can see HERE where I made an almost identical one to this.  I will get to the quilting of this one pretty soon I think as it is a nice one for summer. 

Outstanding Blogger Award

I was reading my usual blogs I follow Monday morning and discovered that Diann from Little Penquin Quilts blog had nominated me for the Outstanding Blogger Award!  I was beyond thrilled to bits!! I have followed Diann for a long time, as quilters we inspire each other. Thanks Diann!

The Outstanding Blogger Award is given one blogger to another. It’s a way of supporting and acknowledging one another. As an award recipient, I get to answer some questions which Diann asked. And then I get to nominate some blogs I enjoy.

• What got you started on your blogging journey?  I read other quilt blogs for a couple years before I jumped in.  It's a way to document what I have made.  Unknown to me that I would have followers and I would meet other quilters in the process.  Sometimes I have met them in person after chatting through our blogs for some time. I started blogging Dec. 25th of 2009.

• What's your proudest accomplishment as a quilter?  There are two answers for this.  One being that I am so proud that I have learned how to longarm quilt (16 years now).  The second that I have two successful Etsy shops(links on my right side bar). It's such a thrill that total strangers that have never seen nor felt my quilting in person buys it from my online shop. 
  
  
  

• What makes you laugh the most?  My husband, every day I think he feels it is his duty to make me chuckle about something silly. 
• What's the best quilty gift you were ever given?  Tons of fabric.  Several people, over the years, have given me fabric to be used for donation quilts.  I appreciate that so much, it keeps me being able to give comfort to others.
• What's on your quilty bucket list?  Going to the big quilt shows. Two years ago I went to Road To California.  I have been to Paducah Kentucky for Quilt Week in the spring. I would love to go to Houston's Quilt Festival in the fall some year. 

I would like to Nominate: 

Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing

Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter

Emily at The Darling Dogwood

Connie at Free Motion By The river

Cheree at The Morning Latte

If you don't want to participate that's okay, just know that I love reading your blog!  If you want to participate please consider answering these questions so we get to know you a bit better. And then choose who you would like to nominate.

• Do you like having a deadline or do you work better when you are not underpressure?
• Are you one who likes taking classes or do you enjoy figuring out how to do it on your own?
• What is your favorite snack?
• What is your first memory of learning how to sew?
• Have you ever taught someone how to quilt?
• What was your least favorite quilt you ever made?

Iris Quilt

You have been getting teased a little with glimpses of this project here and there as I have worked on it off and on for the past couple months.  But here is the completed top of this lap quilt.  The pattern is The Iris Quilt by Kitchen Table Quilting.  Please excuse my poor photo. I had this all folded up, thought I had taken photos and then when I started to write this post I found I had not taken them.  I don't have access to my big ironing board right now or I would have repressed it.

This is an easy strip pieced quilt, pieced on the diagonal, using a jelly roll. But I really think it could be fun in all scraps too!  I still need to trim the edges so it will be a 59" x 69" rectangle, but that will wait until I have access to my kitchen island and my big cutting mat. No hurry to get this finished up, so it will just rest on a shelf until it is next in line to get done.  I have enjoyed my journey in getting this jelly roll used up:) well, there are a few scraps to add to the scrap bin.

A couple of future goals for me are to think up projects for two fun blog hops I am joining in.  Plus I might work on a panel for the panel challenge!  It's gonna be a busy April I think.