To Do Tuesday # 3

My To-Do list for January 13th through January 20th was...

1. Work on more Valentine runners-Done
2. Sewing wedges together that I cut the previous week-Done

One more Valentine runner done for a total of four pieced so far this year.

Wedges for five sunflower table runners sewn into 15 flowers. My quilty friends that is 225 wedges!! There are still more cut and ready when I need them. It always feels good to have a start on a runner or two or three so I can make them up faster.

                                                  From wedges to blades to flowers.

So what is on my list for this week January 21st through January 27th.

1. Work on some red and gray string blocks.

2. Work on a tutorial for Accuquilt.
3. Cutting scraps into 2.5" blocks.

Hop over to HomeSewnByUs blog to see what others are working on this week.

UFO turns into Lion King snuggly

One of my goals this year is to make more donation quilts.  I thought it would be great to make at least 1 per month.  In the past I have been able to do more than that.  One year alone it was 30 quilts I made and donated.  There were all different sizes, it is just so satisfying to make and give. So the goal is 12 for the year and if I surpass that I'll be doing a happy dance.

So with that in mind here is the first flimsy all pieced.  Several years ago a friend gave me a stack of Lion King blocks.  There were only two different blocks and it had me puzzled as to a layout for them.  This year would be the start of using these and I came up with this setting.  As I often do I went to my stash to see what colors I could pull out to work with.  There is green, yellow and blue.  I thought there was enough blue in the blocks themselves, so I chose the yellow and the green for the main contrasting sashing.  The green made this turn out better than I thought!  It looks striped without any work:)  But the sashings would be pretty plain so I added the blue squares to break it up.

It is about 40" square and will make some baby a snuggly quilt. I don't have a definite plan for where I will donate it at this time.  The quilting will be done after I get several more made and quilt up a storm all at once;)

Do you enjoy making donation quilts?  I sure do!  Would you like to join me in making one per month this year?

Joining Tish for UFO Busting

To-Do Tuesday #2

It's To-Do Tuesday again over at Home sewn by us, how can the week possibly have gone by already!!  I stayed plenty busy, but also managed to work on this weeks goal.

Here is what I listed I wanted to do:
1. Work on Valentine table runners-done

2. Cut out wedges for turkey, sunflower and poinsettia table runners-done

And here is what I have done.

1. Overall I am pleased to have finished piecing three of the seven Valentine table runners.

2. The cutting for the wedges was so fast and easy. The end of November I was contacted by LoveCrafts to see if I would like to receive some goodies in exchange for a review for them.  Certainly I would love to do that was my reply.  They sent me some beautiful aqua fat quarters from Windham and an Olfa Endurance 45mm blade to review.  They were quick to send out the products and I am loving the Endurance blade.  It cut through these wedges so quickly using 6 layers of batiks for the turkey table runners.

And then I tried 8 layers of these batiks for the sunflower table runners, easy peasy!

But I was curious and had time to cut more so I layered up 10 with no problem. This blade is so sharp. For accuracy sake I wouldn't recommend doing 10 layers all the time.  But I wanted to experiment and these wedges are a bit forgiving if they are not spot on, but I feel like they are!

I'll keep you posted on it's performance as time goes on.  I will also be reviewing the aqua fat quarters in the future too.  At that time I will give you more info on LoveCrafts. But in the meantime you can check out all the products they have available. They have knitting, sewing and now quilting items. They also have a January sale going on, there might even be a window popping up to offer you 15% off your first order.

To-Do for the week of Jan. 13th through Jan. 20th.

1. Work on more Valentine runners
2. Start sewing those wedges together that I cut this past week.

I hope you'll join us at Roseanne's and post your goals for this week.

To-Do Tuesday

I have never been one to make a real list of things I need or want to do.  Yes sure I have a mental list, but I don't take time to write it down.  Fellow blogger friend Roseanne is hosting so I thought I would try to join in, at least now and then;)

1. This week I would love to get started on making more Valentine table runners.  I have kitted up several identical ones.  It just is so much faster to cut and sew in stages like an assembly line. 

2. The second thing I would like to work on is cutting out wedges for my sunflower table runners, turkey table runners and poinsettia ones.  Yes I know Thanksgiving and Christmas is done but I am always trying to work ahead for the crafting season.  

I'll try to check in next week and let you all know if I accomplished this weeks projects on my To-Do list. 

Linking with To-Do Tuesday

Charm squares

In the spirit of using some stash and doing good at the same time I whipped up this donation quilt. Originally I saw it on Cynthia's blog. She led me to the pattern from Cheryl for Moda.  So they were both my inspiration for this quilt.  The charm pack was one of 4 identical ones I won from our local guild quilt show a few years ago!  At the moment I can't remember whose charm pack it is.  I paired it up with some solid light pink and white.

It was a fun little flimsy quilt to whip up. One could use stash and cut 5" squares to make it with your scraps. I am guessing that will happen at my house in the future.  I hope to use my Accuquilt to cut charms out of my scraps this winter. Thanks Cynthia and Cheryl for the inspiration! 

Linking with Oh Scrap

Snowman collector

These hand embroidered blocks were started a long time ago.  They were not documented so I really don't remember, but I'd guess three years ago.  Hand embroidery is something I really love, but it needs to be a simple stitch nothing fancy.  These were in a 2009 Quiltmaker magazine but not started right away.  My local quilting friend made hers more like the pattern which had several different colors of thread used, along with many colors of fabric.  I wanted mine to be all red thread and have a redwork look.

So in the fashion of trying to clear out more UFO's I pulled this one off the self thinking I needed to embroider the last block.  But to my surprise they were all stitched!  This made me so happy that I quickly trimmed the embroidered blocks to size and put them up on the design wall.

Since I wanted more of a redwork look I had been stumbling with picking fabrics.  I just couldn't quite visualize what I wanted.  And then it hit me yesterday that I needed to make it look more like my snowman table runners, using the red and gray fabrics.   It was the light bulb moment!  I have quite a bit of gray strings and pieces in a bag, all leftovers from the runners.  So out they came and the auditioning began. 

Something else I changed was not following the instructions exactly for the size of sashings throughout the wall hanging.  It was such a fun afternoon of designing this wall hanging.  And I absolutely love the results.  This one is for me:)  Not sure how I want to quilt it so it will be a while before tackling that.  What a great way to end the year, with my snowman collector UFO.  It was so appropriate to work on this one yesterday while watching the snow fall outside.  

Now I am itching to stitch again!  But that might be a while yet as I am still knitting on my sock every once in a while. Won't you join Julie at The Crafty Quilter for her December UFO & WIP linkup.  She hosts one every month. 

Wishing you all a happy New Year!  I am looking forward to seeing what the new year brings in quilting blogland!!

Linking with Midweek Makers, December UFO & WIP

UFO Fireburst becomes a flimsy

You might not need an explantion of this quilt as you might recognize the pattern.  I am just a bit slow/behind on Tish's QAL for her Fireburst Mystery which began in May of 2018.  But I am happy it is now in a flimsy form instead of in pieces in baggies!

I have no excuse other than I always think I can get more done than I actually can.  This is the baby size.  Tish did a great job designing and implementing the QAL.  Thanks Tish! 

Wouldn't some rainbow sherbet be appropriate to eat while viewing this, I'll wait if you want to go get some:) The colors just remind me of it.  So glad to have another project off the counter and it'll be ready to quilt when I get in the mood to do it.  I'll use it as a donation quilt in 2020. 

Linking with Tish for UFO Busting

Happy Holidays!!

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!  And thank you for all the visits and comments you have left not only this past year but for all the years I have been blogging. 

Here is one last holiday project I squeezed in yesterday.  Ever since I did this tutorial on the Accuquilt blog I have wanted to turn the design into a table runner. 

I began with ironing fusible web onto the back of brown fabric for the gingerbread man(accuquilt die 55682). Layering four pieces over the die I ran it through my GO!Me.  And instantly you have 4 sweet gingerbread men. 

Next up is making the rick rack using Accuquilt die rick rack 55056.  I wanted a long strip to go the length of my table runner. So I cut red striped fabric the width of fabric and wide enough for the die and applied fusible web to the fabric.  In the photo below(sorry for the blurry) you can see I folded the fabric in order to get the long piece of rick rack.  I love that the die doesn't cut across the ends of the rick rack so you can do this. 

Next I applied the fusible web to the letters(alphabet 2 inch die), be sure to cut them with the fabric up, not the fusible web so you get them facing correctly!  At this point I fused the rick rack onto my runner background, light cream fabric cut 16" x width of fabric.  Using a zigzag stitch I appliqued the rick rack on. 

That is when I chose to quilt it before adding any more of the appliques.   After binding it, I machine appliqued the letters and gingerbread men on.  Notice I snuck in a little piece of purchased rick rack while appliqueing the gingerbread men to decorate them a bit. 

It sure dresses up my coffee table.  Yes you don't have to use a table runner on just your dining room table! 

Does this remind you of the story... Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I am the gingerbread man!

Linking with: Mid week Makers and December UFO & WIP

Merry Christmas!

From UFO to Flimsy

This Polka Dot squirrel was started last March. You can read about it's beginnings HERE.  It ended with it's interior section all pieced and that's when it became a UFO.  The time had come to work on other things and so it was put into the closet looking like this. 









Fast forward to earlier this week.  While digging looking in the closet for a different UFO, I came across this little squirrel screaming get me out of here!   I happened to have time so why not unfold it and check it out.  At the time I put it away I knew I wanted to make it larger.  So either more blocks or borders needed to happen.   Borders are the answer.  I love it when I have fabric in the stash that works with a project.  That means I can dig right into the work instead of running to the store.

All I needed to do was cut five 3" squares of each fabric.  Would you believe I still had all the fat quarters layered together, all I needed was to lay them out and cut!  I made fast work of putting together the borders and I had a flimsy finish.   I am happy with how this is turning out.


The tutorial for this block can be found HERE.

The small blue border is the one I had in my stash.

All of the fabrics have polka dots, and you know how much I love polka dots!  The good news is that I have enough fabric to make something else some day;)

I am in a piecing mood, so I'll put this one in the 'to be quilted' pile for later.  So happy to be moving a UFO forward.  I didn't take time to count how many UFOs, WIPs, and PIBs I found in that closet, but let's just say a LOT!  I might be able to squeeze in moving a couple more into flimsy stage before the end of 2019.

Part of my process of moving them to flimsy stage is cleaning off my sewing counters as there are a few there along with some fabrics that just didn't get put away after I was done with them. 


Won't you join me in linking with:
TGIFF which is hosted by my friends Roseanne and Sue
UFO Busting with my friend Tish

2020 planning

Quilting Jet Girl is having a planning party and I will jump in.  She has fabulous giveaways for joining in and linking up.

                                                    

1. Scraps - As I think about what I missed in 2019 it was that I didn't get a lot of sewing time for my scraps.  So playing more with them is a must.

2. Donation quilts-  I have always loved sewing donation quilts(perhaps with said scraps).

3. Accuquilt- As I continue to be a GO! Getter for Accuquilt, there will be more tutorials.

4. Craft shows- I only did two of the four local craft shows this past year.  That worked out good and hope to be able to do that again this year.

5. Etsy-I hope to have another good year with selling in my shop for 2020.  It's been so fun and    uplifting to have complete strangers buy without seeing my items in person. Putting their trust in my quality is so gratifying.  And then when they come back for more, love my customers!! I am putting my shop on vacation until April 1st.  I hope to be even more prepared with a nice supply when I reopen.

6. Finish up a few UFO's.  I won't put out a number because I won't take time to round them up and count.  I could have a quilt done before I did that!   

7. Try to post more on Instagram.

Okay enough goals!  Off to link up with Yvonne.

Island Batik Challenge- 3D

As soon as we knew that December would be a 3D challenge for us Island Batik Ambassadors I knew it had to be a bag of some sort.  There were several to choose from and I thought I was going to use my own design for it.  However when I saw these cute Diamond pouches at Moments by Liz I wanted to try it out right away.

I chose four different Island Batiks to use in my pouch.  These are from the Petting Zoo line. So cute aren't they.  I am a giraffe lover so it was meant for me! 

                            

A little side view.  I love how cute this is, it will hold my makeup perfectly. 

There is even a zippered pocket inside.  The only challenging part for me was the outside zipper. Totally my fault as the instructions are well written with great photos. I didn't have the zipper foot/needle position set on my machine correctly!!  In my defense I don't do a lot of zippers, but, I still should have known!  I didn't have the foam so I used Hobbs batting instead.  Someday I will make another and purchase some foam. 

One last photo to go with my one last post as an Island Batik Ambassador.  It's been a great four years. I was hoping to continue on but it wasn't meant to be.  I still have a little stash of IB fabrics that you will continue to see in future projects.  

Thanks to Island Batik for providing fabrics, Hobbs for supplying the batting for this project.  And to Liz for allowing me to review her cute Diamond Pouch. You can also find her on Facebook.

Linking to: Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Look what I made.

Scrappy squares

The craft season is almost done, it's been fun but I am so ready for a nice winter break!  Time to work on using up some of my mounds of scraps.  A few weeks ago the grandsons, age 6 and 8, were here for the day.  I had them help cut a few 2.5" squares with my Accuquilt.  Then they were anxious to sew but we didn't have enough time. 

They were supposed to sleep over tonight, but the oldest one wasn't feeling too well.  The younger one still wanted to.  So it was playing legos a lot of the time. However he remembered we needed to sew those squares!  Into the sewing room we went.  We decided on 5 blocks of blue first, he picked and arranged the squares while I sewed them.  I only gave him one rule, don't use the same fabric twice in one block.  He did very well.  Next we moved onto 5 green blocks. 

I know it didn't use much scraps, but it sure felt really good to be playing with the scraps again.  I am not sure that I have taken time all year to play with them.  If you ask what I'll be making, all I can say is a quilt of course.  No idea what the layout will be yet or how many blocks I'll need.  

I hope you'll check back Monday for my Island Batik 3D challenge project.

Linking with Oh Scrap!

Welcoming pineapple

If you follow me on IG you might have seen me post this photo of a pineapple table runner while I was doing the longarm quilting.  I love doing freehand quilting that has sharp edges like the pokies on real pineapples in the center of the runner.  The yellow border treatment is what I call pineapple leaves, so much fun and pretty quick to do. 

 The inspiration for the runner was from all the pineapple blocks on Pinterest.

I used my Accuquilt HST finished 2" die and the finished 2" square die to quickly cut the pineapple blocks from scraps of yellow/gold and green. 

A close up of how I quilted the pineapple and leaves. 

My customer was thrilled when I sent her a photo of the finished runner on Friday. Her hubby said to thank me for making his shopping easy this year!  

Last weekend the grandsons came over to help decorate our tree.  There isn't much to it as it is a pre-lit one, but they had fun deciding which ornaments go where.  You can see they thought several needed to go on the very bottom, haha. I am just glad it is up.  

And this weekend I got in the mood to make our Christmas cards, I have a good start.  I have made our cards for many years.  It is such fun and a relaxing thing for me to do.  However, I used to make many different designs each year.  This year they are going to be all one design.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to make the stockings. A punch to make the green loopy garland. The cuddlebug did the embossing on the white paper.  Just like in my quilting, there is assembly line making happening:)   Things go so much faster that way instead of one card at a time. 

Thanks for taking a peek at my projects.  I hope that you will follow along on IG to see what else I might be making;)

Linking with Oh Scrap!

From one season to another

The three Valentine runners are done, and all spoken for.  I had made an extra for Etsy and it left the shop in a day!  Maybe I'll make more and maybe I won't we'll see.  It was kinda fun to dig out the reds and pinks after so many items made in fall colors and greys for the snowmen;)  If you want to make your own heart project you can find the tutorial for the block at The Crafty Quilter blog. 

One like this.

And two of the darker ones like this.  How about that, I jumped back to Christmas and finished up another candle table runner for a customer. 

Keeping this post short and simple, I'll have more snowman runners finished up soon.  November has been a busy quilting month but so much of the same over and over that I just don't take the time to post it all.  But for those of you that still stop by to read my blog, even if I don't have a new item to show you, I want to let you know how much I appreciate your visit and comments! 

Linking with Midweek Makers, NTT, Put Your Foot Down