Monday

Good morning friends!  How are things on your side of the internet?   Things are perking along over on my side.  Last week Bret had the week off, so we had some fun heading up to Twain Harte one day, and then visiting Frankie another day.   Of course Thanksgiving was thrown in there and we kept it seriously low key this year.  And now we're back to things as usual.    Today I'm off to Alex's to help out with a project she's got going and that will be a fun way to shake up my schedule.

 

But before I drink all the coffee and head out, I wanted to share my Splendid Sampler block Minnesota Maze!   This block is designed by my pal Roseann and it was very fun to make. 

 

 

 

Head over to Roseann's blog to read all about her inspiration for the block.  Roseann has had a very busy year this year and you can find out about it there. 

 

I guess I better get ready to go.  Hope you guys have a good week. Did you head out and join the crowds for Black Friday or did you stay home?   I admire all those brave souls out there braving the crowds!  Hibernation time for me. 

 

 

Monday

Hi there!  Hope you had a great weekend!  I always think of this coming week as the start of the holiday season, don't you? A lot of you have your Christmas trees up already...  some years it's hard to resist the siren call of the decorations I know. We just came off birthday celebrations for both Bret and Frankie so the timing is perfect. This year, Bret has the whole week off, and after a week long business trip it's a welcome chance to relax and unwind. 

While he was gone, I had a chance to try some new things.  The Fat Quarter Shop sent me one of their new 30° Starburst Ruler to try, so I pulled out my First Blush Block of the Month book and got busy.  I had some of Shari's pretty Wistful Winds floral in red and I paired it with some of Riley Blake's new Confetti Cottons in Peacock and used The Riley Blake Swiss Dots I had on hand in Aqua.

 

Using the ruler and book in tandem is a snap.  There are so many great blocks included in the block of the month program.  This is a fairly simple block.  I love how cute the book is with Elea's adorable illustrations as companions to the great diagrams and instructional material. 

 

The block went fast, and I feel like I had successful results.  They have tips for piecing and trimming so you get a nice  meeting of the points in the center.  I don't have the large square to trim it up yet, but I can easily make myself a template with ... you guessed it, template plastic.  I think if you were going to make the quilt the 12 1/2 inch ruler would be a great investment in convenience. 

 

My center isn't quite perfect, but perfect enough for me.   I'm using these blocks as an opportunity to try something new and to work on my basic skills like accurate cutting and piecing.  I tend to get lazy and then throw caution to the wind.  Time to focus think about it.  Plus I finally found a replacement bulb for my task lighting.  Wow.  SO MUCH BETTER.

 

Ok, hope you have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving super friends!! I am so thankful for your friendship these past TEN YEARS!!!!  xoxo

Pat's Mega Fun Book Tour

Good morning and happy Friday!  Welcome to PAT'S MEGA FUN BOOK TOUR!  I'm here today to tell you about Pat's new book Pat Sloan's Teach Me to Machine Quilt. 

 

First of all the photos today are courtesy of Martingale and they're fantastic.  That's something I like about Martingale books, lovely staged pictures as well as a great flat shot.  I may be old fashioned but I like seeing a photo of the whole quilt. 

While this is a technique book, which covers topics like  threads and tension, walking foot and free motion quilting, and of course my beloved spray basting shown here, there are also lots of great projects to utilize your skills. 

One bonus with  this book   are the  online instructional videos that add onto the information found in the book.  I love the additional content. 

 

As far as the projects go there are both  applique and pieced projects, and projects for every level. 

 

 

 

Now Visit Pat's Giveaway Page to enter to win one of the 5 copies of her 'Pat Sloan's Teach Me to Machine Quilt Book'!   

blog.patsloan.com/pats-mega-fun-book-tour/ 

Physical Copies for US residents, digital copies for all other winners. Be sure to enter by Midnight Dec 1 and then visit the others on her Mega Fun Tour to learn more about Pat's book, some have interviewed Pat, a few might have a giveaway, or have made a project... it's all listed on Pat's page!

Today's stops on the Mega Fun Book Tour are:

• Bonnie Hunter in Wallburg, North Carolina a suburb of Winston-Salem quiltville.blogspot.com/
• Alyce Blyth in Melbourne, Australia  www.blossomheartquilts.com/
• Kimberly Einmo in South of Washington DC in Virginia (my neighbor!) www.kimberlyeinmo.com/blog

Have fun following along, there are a lot of great people on the tour.  Thanks to Pat for inviting me and to Martingale for the digital copy of the book! HAPPY WEEKEND!

Quiltmaker Issue 14

Hi there friends! The latest Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine is out again!  This is Vol. 14, can you believe it?  As usual the magazine is chock full of great blocks  by a lot of your favorite designers, including me!  This is my 14th block for the magazine I'm excited to say. 

 

Here's my block, Summer Impatiens.  It's a combo of fusible applique and basic piecing.  Like a lot of the blocks I've done for Quiltmaker, it's floral inspired.

 

I appreciate a chance to participate in the publication!  It's a fun way to share my love of quilting.  You can read about other blocks and designers over on the Quilty Pleasures blog.  The blog hop is going strong, and there's magazines to be won!  Skedaddle on over check it out!

 

Thanks friends!

Friday

To say that's its been quite a week is undoubtedly an understatement at this point.   I'm glad we have our shared interest in sewing and quilting here as common ground. 

 

Iron update... STILL LOVE IT.

Scrappy project planner... still love it.  I dove in to the tulips this week.  For me sewing is the perfect way to gain  control of my brain's over activity.. focus in on the task at hand.  Sometimes housework does that, but lets face it, sewing is a lot more fun!

 

What do you use for task lighting in your sewing room?  I have an Ott desk lamp with a long arm, but now the bulb needs changing and I'm curious what other people use. My black desk lamp is not attractive but it sure does the job.  Why can't form and function meet more often. I want to have all the cute things. But also to see them.

 

These tulips are so cute.  I love their chunkiness.  I'm making them for the fun of it, with no plan or schedule.  I'm in love with chunky zinnia's in Lori's IG post here, and think it would be fun to have a garden of chunky flowers.  Next up maybe red. I'm going thru my admittedly disorganized baskets for the fabrics, so maybe red is up next, maybe aqua. Not sure.

 

Hope you have a great weekend!  xop

 

Hey P. S. Did you see they've announced the cover of the Splendid Sampler Book?  Check it out here on Facebook!  So excited to see it and be a part of this project!

 

 

 

 

Monday

Good morning!  I don't suppose you're quite acclimated to the time change, I'm not.  Sunday seemed like the day that lasted forever, although I don't really know why. It's just an hour, but it's like the hour that never ends!  I didn't notice the darkness so much Sunday, but today when it gets dark early the time will stretch on into eternity while I wait for Bret to get home for dinner. But luckily by the end of the week it will seem like the usual thing. 

 

Anyway, nice weekend.  It was Bret's birthday Saturday and Frankie came home to celebrate.  Always fun to spend time with her.  I didn't sew at all, but I did manage to get this Splendid Sampler block done Friday.  This block is by Jennifer Albaugh from Quiltique.

 

Super cute, and super easy which was what made it a no brainer choice for me. Early on I decided that I wanted to do 16 blocks out of the hundred. Then I upped the game to 25.  I've had 24 blocks done forever.  I chose mostly the easy ones and I'm cool with it.  I realize I have my limitations and I really wanted to finish this.  I truly believe that it's a great opportunity to try new things, like paper piecing or applique or embroidery. I'm JUST TOO LAZY TO DO IT. 

 

So that's done.  This week I've crossed off pick last Splendid Sampler block and make it from the list and added pick sashing and finish quilt.  Maybe I should have broken that into several steps so that I'd have the joy of crossing something off more often.  We'll see.. the list is in pencil and I have a nice eraser.   Hope you guys have a great week. 

 

 

Dear Deer

Happy Friday friends!  Did you have a good week?   We started out here with some rain and we're ending with a nice few sunny warm fall days.  Typical California. 

 

I had the pleasure of pattern testing for my IG friend Mariana. (@sewmariana)  I've been following her sewing adventures for quite a while,  if you're on IG take a look at her feed, lots of lovely projects. 

 

Anyway... her pattern is Dear Dear, and it's going to be available today. I'll have a link for you as soon as she puts it up.  The pattern is in full color and it's well done and easy to follow.  HERE'S THE LINK TO THE PATTERN!

For those of you curious, I LOVE MY IRON SO MUCH.  Never have my blocks been so nice and flat.  Honestly, best money spent.  Of course I know, I know... it could turn on me like all the others but I have a good feeling about this one!

 

That nose was just happenstance.. I didn't even realize it till someone pointed it out.  Serendipity.

 

What a fun pattern. Thanks for asking me to test out your pattern Mariana.  I really enjoyed it. It's adorable for sure.  Be sure and check out the #deardearquilt hastag to see more deer!

 

Happy weekend friends!!!

Quilts for Scrap Lovers Blog Hop

This morning is my day on the Quilts for Scrap Lovers Blog hop.  When Judy asked me to participate in her blog hop for her new book, I asked her to tell me a bit about it.  When she began to talk about her frustrations with leftovers pieces of fabric from  garments that were odd shaped, I thought of my own box full of pieces from clothes I had made for myself and for Frankie.  Odd ball armhole scraps was my first thought!

 

Reading Judy's introduction, I see that she's had a similar background growing up with parents raised in the depression, where saving something for later was pretty much an art form.  We never threw away old patterns or chunks of fabric, you might need a repair to your garment, collars from one pattern might look good combined with another.  And if you toss something, surely you'll need it later. 

Judy developed a system using templates to cut and save fabric.  She also shows you how to use your existing rulers to cut with her method.  And of course she has 16 projects in her book using her method.  She's showing you projects not made from precuts, but honest-to-goodness leftover scraps. Revolutionary!

 

There are several projects that caught my eye , including Snap Cracker Pop.  I whipped out a block using Judy's methods in a matter of a few minutes.  Here's my block using some Pam Kitty with the cute apples from Elea's Apple Farm fabric.

 

You can see more here at the C&T website.  It was fun to look at all the quilts and find bits and pieces of a sewing life well lived.  The more I go through my sewing stuff the more happy memories I see lurking among all the saved pieces.  Wouldn't it be fun to cut them up and actually use them?   Reading Judy's book will help you do that!

To follow along on the hop be sure to visit these friends and read what they have to say about Judy's book this week.  Thanks to Judy and C&T for my copy of the book to read and review!

*** Edited to add:  Leave a comment, C&T publishing is giving away a free e-book to one of my readers!  Let me know what you think about scrap quilting!

Nov 1 Christa Watson

Nov 2 PamKittyMorning

Nov 3 Mary Abreu

Nov 4 Diane Knott

Nov 5 Kim Lapacek