Bits of Goings On

A little look at what I've been doing. First up is some fmqing on my newest pattern, to be released in April.

some simple curves and bubbles

Next up is my string project for the 'All about Strings Blog Hop' I'm participating in. My day is Wednesday.

can't show too much, but a few string blocks were a good start to my project come back Wednesday to see what I made

Next up is Sandra of mmmquilts 30 Quilt Design Challenge. Nothing to show for this one yet, I have played in EQ8 so things are percolating just a little slowly. 

hop over to Sandra's blog for more info 

Once I finish up the new pattern and string project then it's on to the next items. My guilds quilt show is in June, I need to work on my challenge project. Write up the info for my quilts that I'm putting in the show, make a few items for the vendor table. 

That should keep me busy for a little bit. 

Giveaway Winners from the Text-it Blog Hop

The day for all things green, my favourite colour, St Patrick's Day! Green , green and more green one can never have too much green in one's life. 

If it's all green it's all good! Happy St Patrick's Day.

I used random.org to draw the winners for the Text-It Blog Hop. Emails have been sent.

the winner of the book

I will be mailing out a copy of the book to you.

the winner of Aurifil thread

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Text It! Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Text It! blog hop, sharing the gorgeous and fun projects from Sherri Noel's (Rebecca Mae Designs) new book, Text It!
Sherri's book has 10 Quilt and Pillow patterns as well as 7 full sized alphabets so you can personalize any project or make something of your own inspired by the book.

I was looking for a quick project as I have a lot going on, as I browsed through her book I found the perfect project. It goes well with my project from 'Dusting off a Quilt Book' .

I used some of the same scraps as my dusted off pillow.

 The pillow top came together quickly. I prefer not to have the thread steal the show when appliqueing so I machine appliqued the letters using Superior's Monopoly and Bottom Line thread. All in all I am very happy with how my pillow turned out. I found the instructions easy to follow and Sherri offers some great tips in the book.

I quilted some simple swirls and echoed around the lettering.

I have a giveaway you can enter, with two prizes. One is a copy of Text It!, which is only available to a winner who lives in Canada. I will be sending it out to the winner. The other prize, 2 large spools of Aurifil thread, will be shipped anywhere in the world. To enter, leave me a comment telling me do you bind your pillows? Also please include whether you are Canadian. I will draw the winner on March 16th.

If you would like a copy signed by Sherri she has some listed in her shop HERE.

Here is the lineup for the hop.

MONDAY MARCH 4 – BEE HAPPY

PAMELA JANE MORGAN – MYSWEETLITTLESTITCHES.COM                            

SHARON LILABELLE LANE – LILABELLELANECREATIONS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 5 – INFINITY Quilt

LAURA PILAND – SLICEOFPIQUILTS.COM

LEANNE PARSONS – DEVOTEDQUILTER.COM

KATIE MUTER STARCHER – KATIEMAEQUILTS.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 6 – PILLOW TALK

KATE COLLERAN – SEAMSLIKEADREAM.COM

CHERYL DAINES BROWN – QUILTERCHIC.COM

DORIE HRUSKA – FOREVER-QUILTING.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 7 – FREEDOM Quilt

JEN SHAFFER – PATTERNSBYJEN.BLOGSPOT.COM

TARA MILLER – QUILTDISTRICT.COM

FRIDAY MARCH 8 – LOVING YOU Wall Hanging

ELLEN AULT – .HANDMADE3D.ME

SHERRI NOEL – REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM

MONDAY MARCH 11 – COUNTING SHEEP Baby Quilt

DEANNE EISENMAN – SNUGGLESQUILTS.COM

RAEWYN BARGE – STITCHINGFARMGIRL.BLOGSPOT.COM

SUSAN PELLAND – SUEPELLANDDESIGNS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 12 – HOME PILLOW

JOANNE HARRIS – QUILTSBYJOANNE.BLOGSPOT.CA

PATTY DUDEK – ELMSTREETQUILTS.COM

ANDY KNOWLTON – ABRIGHTCORNER.COM

SANDRA STARLEY – UTAHQUILTAPPRAISER.BLOGSPOT.COM

CINDY PIETERS – STITCHINATHOME.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 13 – LIFE IS SHORT Wall hanging

BECCA FENSTERMAKER – PRETTYPINEY.COM

KATIE BOCK – SEWINGWITHKATIE.BLOGSPOT.COM

ALLA BLANCA – RAINBOWSBUNNIESCUPCAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 14 – HUSTLE PILLOW

TERRI BANDEN BOSCH –MEANDERINGSALONGLIZARDCREEK.BLOGSPOT.COM

WILLOW OLSON – BEARPAWDESIGNBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

ERIN SAMPSON – auribuzz.wordpress.com/

FRIDAY MARCH 15 – SEWING MACHINE MAT

LAUREN WRIGHT – MOLLYANDMAMA.COM.AU

SANDRA HEALY – SANDRAHEALYDESIGNS.COM

CHERYL KRISEL LYNCH – cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/

SATURDAY MARCH 16 – WRAP UP

SHERRI NOEL – REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM

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A Little Bit of Applique

A few teaser photos of what I'm working on. I can if real life doesn't get in the way show you at least a finished top by weeks end.

I have been chasing a squirrel this past week or so. I have been intrigued by New York Beauties and some day I may make a traditional one, but not now. I've taken the idea on a bit of a ride. I had no clue where I was headed when I started.

there's something wrong in this photo

My seam ripper got to come out and play, not that I really wanted it to. And of course we never notice these little flub ups until the piece is all stitched..grrrr...

applique tools

This project requires a small amount of applique. My threads of choice are both by Superior Threads. Monopoly and Bottom Line pair so well together, especially when I don't want the stitching to steal the show. As you can hopefully see in the above photo invisible stitching. Perfect!

cutting away the back reveals a lightweight sew in interfacing

As these are larger appliques I choose to cut away the fabric behind them. My tool of choice is my duckbill scissors no danger of cutting into the applique with these.

That's all folks for today, you''ll need to come back later to see more. Speaking of later, come back on March 12th for the 'Text-it' Blog Hop. There will be giveaways.

Here is the list of stops for the hop.

MONDAY MARCH 4 - BEE HAPPY

PAMELA JANE MORGAN - WWW.MYSWEETLITTLESTITCHES.COM                             

SHARON LILABELLE LANE - WWW.LILABELLELANECREATIONS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 5 – INFINITY

LAURA PILAND - WWW.SLICEOFPIQUILTS.COM

LEANNE PARSONS - WWW.DEVOTEDQUILTER.BLOGSPOT.COM

KATIE MUTER STARCHER - WWW.KATIEMAEQUILTS.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 6 - PILLOW TALK

KATE COLLERAN - WWW.SEAMSLIKEADREAM.COM

CHERYL DAINES BROWN - WWW.QUILTERCHIC.COM

DORIE HRUSKA - WWW.FOREVER-QUILTING.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 7 – FREEDOM

JEN SHAFFER - WWW.PATTERNSBYJEN.BLOGSPOT.COM

LYNN KANE - WWW.PUPPYGIRLDESIGNS.COM

TARA MILLER - WWW.QUILTDISTRICT.COM

FRIDAY MARCH 8 - LOVING YOU

ELLEN AULT - WWW.HANDMADE3D.ME/MAINBLOG/

SHERRI NOEL - WWW.REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM              

MONDAY MARCH 11 - COUNTING SHEEP

DEANNE EISENMAN - WWW.SNUGGLESQUILTS.COM

RAEWYN BARGE - WWW.STITCHINGFARMGIRL.BLOGSPOT.COM

SUSAN PELLAND - WWW.SUEPELLANDDESIGNS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 12 - HOME PILLOW

JOANNE HARRIS - WWW.QUILTSBYJOANNE.BLOGSPOT.CA

PATTY DUDEK - WWW.ELMSTREETQUILTS.COM

ANDY KNOWLTON - WWW.ABRIGHTCORNER.COM

SANDRA STARLEY - WWW.UTAHQUILTAPPRAISER.BLOGSPOT.COM

CINDY PIETERS - WWW.STITCHINATHOME.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 13 - LIFE IS SHORT

BECCA FENSTERMAKER - WWW.PRETTYPINEY.COM

KATIE BOCK - WWW.SEWINGWITHKATIE.BLOGSPOT.COM

ALLA BLANCA - WWW.RAINBOWSBUNNIESCUPCAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 14 - HUSTLE PILLOW

TERRI BANDEN BOSCH - WWW.MEANDERINGSALONGLIZARDCREEK.BLOGSPOT.COM

WILLOW OLSON - WWW.BEARPAWDESIGNBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

ERIN SAMPSON - http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/

FRIDAY MARCH 15 - SEWING MAT

LAUREN WRIGHT - WWW.MOLLYANDMAMA.COM.AU

SANDRA HEALY     - WWW.SANDRAHEALYDESIGNS.COM

CHERYL KRISEL LYNCH - http://www.cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/

SATURDAY MARCH 16 – WRAP UP

SHERRI NOEL - WWW.REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM

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My Day of Dusting off a Quilt Book

It's my day too show an old a forgotten quilt book. This blog hop is being hosted by Beaquilter. The idea was to dust off, excuse me while I find the duster it's around here some place. Ahh dust bunnies be gone. Anyway the idea was to make a project from it.

After doing a big clean a few years ago, I thought I had given away my older quilt books. Imagine my surprise at finding a book from 1994. I think I kept it as I liked a couple of the projects in it.

1994 I think I may be dating myself, a hardcover book at that.

A couple new pillows for my living room where on my to do list. What better time to start than now. 

this is the project I decided on

I pulled some scraps and got to it. The house is appliqued and for that I used my favourite method, Crafted Applique by Lara Buccella. I used Superior MonoPoly thread and the buttonhole stitch to stitch down the applique. In no time at all I had the pillow top done.

please excuse the dull colours due to lack of sunshine

I quilted it simply with some big loops in the background and swirls in the borders to keep it soft. I used my favourite batting Hobb's Premium 80/20. 

ahh finally some sun to brighten things up

For the pillow back I used Winter Elegance from in The Beginning Fabrics that I picked up from Stitch-It Central. I like zipped backs for my pillows. I am not going to do a tutorial as there are a lot of good ones on the internet. You can find a tutorial here.

zippered back

For the binding I used the backing fabric cut at 2'' instead of my usual 2 1/4''. 

An older book can have patterns that are still relevant today made with more up to date fabrics and even methods. I think my pillow adds a little charm to the place.

Take a look through your own collection. You never know what might inspire you. 

To see pillow number 2 come back on March 12th for the 'Text-it' Blog Hop.

To see what others have found in their collections visit  the following blogs. 

Monday Feb 18^th

Turid at densyendehimmel

Pamela at Pamelaquilts

Joan at Moosestashquilting

Anne at seems like a plan

Susan at Desertsky Quilting

Selina at Selinaquilts

Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

Tuesday Feb 19^th

Cindy Stitchin at home

Jennifer at curlicuecreations

Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns

Kathy at Kathysquilts

Shasta at high road quilter
Theresa at bumbleberrystitches

Wednesday Feb 20^th

Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts

Suzy at Websterquilt

Nancy at patchworkbreeze

Karrin at karrinscrazyworld

Denise at craftraditions

Thursday Feb 21^st

Anita at Domestic Felicity

Leanne at Devoted Quilter

Jennifer at Dizzyquilter

Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks

Lee Anne at Podunk Pretties

Andree at quiltinglearningcombo

Lyndsey at Sew Many Yarns

Friday Feb 22^nd

Bea at Beaquilter

Barbara at Bejweledquilts

Laura at slice of pi quilts

Sherry Powered By Quilting

Pat at Life in the Scrapatch

Carol at Just let me quilt

Kathy at Kathy's Kwilts and More

Marian at seams to be sew
Brenda at songbirddesigns

A Couple Guild Projects

For my guilds comfort quilt program we have been making monthly block challenges. The members seem to enjoy this. All the blocks we make are 10''. 

I am the keeper of the challenge blocks. They are kept in 'official' block storage containers.

started with one 'official' container and had to up it to two

I'm sure you can tell by the above picture how the blocks are stored. If not look below.

yup that's a pizza box they make ideal block storage containers

Sometimes keeping the lids closed is a bit of a problem. But transporting them to meetings is easy. My guild meets in the morning. After the meeting some of the members stay and sew. We have put together quite a few tops from the various challenge blocks. Some members will take a top home if it isn't finished during sew time and finish them up.

I pulled the black and white blocks that were made in the fall. I found a nice black print with red flowers to use for sashing and borders, the corner stones are black.

a 4 x 5 setting of 10 inch blocks ready for one of our longarmers

The second quilt I worked on was a panel. I added a couple borders. This one I quilted and bound. A few pictures follow. It was a pretty panel.

panels are fun to quilt

A closeup of one of the flowers.

I outlined the flowers and stitched some lines in to separate the petals 

A picture of the back.

all those beautiful flowers look as good from the back

How Many are too Many?

While doing some straightening up, I realized I have a few rotary cutters. Okay maybe more than a few if I'm being honest.

my collection of rotary cutters

The cutter on the left is a Fiskars I don't really like it, I have a wave blade in it. I think it may have been one of the first ones I bought, years ago when I was first starting to quilt. 

Fiskars and the wavy blade

Next up are the two rotary cutters I use the most. They are both Olfa my favourite brand.

a 60mm Deluxe and a 45mm Splash

The 45mm is my most used cutter. A few months ago I purchased the endurance blades and I must say I'm liking it.

I have an used dull  blade in this one that I keep just for cutting paper when paper piecing

I keep an old blade in this 45mm for trimming papers when doing paper piecing, I use freezer paper most of the time.  But I like to trim the papers up to size before using them, so this cutter comes in quite handy and is used a fair amount in my quilt making as I tend to like paper pieced patterns.

What collection would be complete without a couple specialty rotary cutters in it?

A 28mm and a circle rotary cutter and oh yes it has been out of the package and used. 

 I like the small 28mm for cutting around templates. The small size goes around the templates easier than the 45mm.

I just remembered I also have a 45mm Deluxe rotary cutter. Yup I do have a thing for rotary cutters.

I'm participating in “Dust off a Quilt Book” Blog hop this month. Look for my post on February 19th.

To see the list of those participating go to Beaquilter blog. 

So I ask you do you have a collection of rotary cutters or am alone in the rotary cutter collection world?