A Little Blue from staying Home?

Today I invite you to explore the newest offerings, patterns and notions from my fellow designers. You’ll meet new pattern designers, explore new quilting websites, and perhaps make a purchase or two along the way. You never know you may just find a new favourite designer.

Read to the bottom for the list of designers in day #1 of the round robin.

But first a little of what I've been doing in my sewing room. I have a new pattern in the works, I'm out of my comfort zone using blues.

not much yet but it will be when it grows up.

 What I really need to be working on is the final Project Quilting project.

it requires a little more work before tomorrow

At the rate I've been working on it I have to wonder if I'll have a finish by noon Sunday. Wish me luck.

As part of the Stay At Home and Hop With Us blog hop I am offering a %20 discount on patterns in my Etsy store during the round robin. Use coupon code DESIGNERHOP20.

Here is the list of today's shop to take a look at and see what they have to offer, you may be pleasantly surprised. You may wonder why you've never heard of some of them before this. So sit back and enjoy visiting.

Lone Star Pattern Works

https://www.lonestarpatternworks.com

Powered by Quilting

https://www.poweredbyquilting.com

Cottage Rose Quilt Patterns

https://www.cottagerosequiltshop.com

The Cloth Parcel

https://www.theclothparcel.com

Faith and Fabric

https://www.faithandfabricdesign.com

Linen Closet Designs

http://www.linenclosetdesigns.com

Designs by Sarah J

https://www.designsbysarahj.com

Rona the Ribbiter Quilts

https://www.ronatheribbiter.com

Quilt Fox Designs

https://www.quiltfox-design.com

Seam to Be Sew

https://www.seamstobesew.com

Stay at Home and Hop with us!

Linda of Colorworx came up with an idea for pattern designers, and shops to have a round-robin hop. We start on Saturday, March 21st. The main idea is to introduce you to them and them to you. You'll meet new pattern designers, find new websites. So sit back relax and enjoy visiting. There may be discounts, just saying.

This event starts Saturday, March 21 and runs through Tuesday, March 31.
Come join the fun and virtually hop on over to some of my favorite friends in the quilting industry!!

Give it Away Challenge

Time for number 5 of  Project Quilting hosted by Kim of Persimon Dreams.
Kim thinks that 'quilters are a generous lot' and that we give from the heart without thinking of financial reward when we give.
The purpose for this challenge is simple 'Give it Away'. Whether to another person an organization or charity. I knew instantly who was going to be the recipent of my project.

If you read my post from Put a Heart on it  you know I had a friend who was in hospice. She has since passed away I am also friends with her older sister, we are both quilters and have a love of flowers. An idea for what what I was going to make blossomed.

printed on EQ printables

I played around in my graphics program with the fonts to get an arrangement of lettering I liked. Each line is a different font. I printed it using EQ printable fabric, I have used it in the past with good results. I stitched a cotton print to make it large enough to add the flowers, as the EQ fabric is stiffer until washed. Plus I wasn't sure how fusing the flowers to it would work.

For the flowers I used Steam-A-Seam 2 lite and cut out a variety of floral fabrics to get a pleasing arrangement. I love my Karen Kay Buckley scissors when doing fine detail cutting. 

I tried tea dying the EQ printable side but it didn't work the way I wanted.

I then used Superior's Mono-Poly invisible thread and the buttonhole stitch to stitch the flowers on after fusing them. My friends favourite colour is blue. I did a little bit of thread sketching on the flowers.

a selection of threads I used for thread sketching and fmqing

I free motion quilted the floral side with bubbles and swirls. I echoed around the wording. 

I do like art quilting and enjoyed making this one. I hope my friend likes it to. 

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Inventory Quilt Project

Have you heard of the Inventory Quilt Project being hosted by Just Wanna Quilt? The idea is to use one piece of each fabric in your stash to make a quilt to show your stash all in one quilt. You can use fabrics in one colour, for example or maybe the more the merrier version. I'm the more the merrier kind a gal with my project.

 I am one of the featured designers and my turn to showcase my project and pattern is today March 4th.

The pattern I'm using is called 'Flipping Out'. I know strange name right. Here's how it came about I was in a stare down competition with my bonus HSTs and wondering what in the world was I going to do with all of them. Well I can tell you I didn't win the stare down as they seemed to multiply right before my very eyes. I was ready to flip out. Enough already I needed to deal with them and NOW. And that is how a new pattern began.

I have a substantial amount of green and also pink. 5 granddaughters account for all the pink.

If you want to use Flipping Out for your inventory quilt, pick up the PDF pattern in my Etsy store. It is on the introductory sale price of $8 CDN. Pick it up today and join me as I continue to work on mine.
Thank you to Robin Sue for testing this pattern and the editing.

Flipping out uses FQ's or scraps or yardage

If you want to take part in the Inventory Quilt project sew along, there's a Facebook group you can join and you can also use the hashtag #inventoryquilt on Instgram.

Will you be sewing along? If so, will you use every single fabric in your stash, or every fabric in a single colour, or some other variation?

And just for fun let's have a giveaway of one of my patterns for all those who participate using 'Flipping Out'.

Now to get back to playing with my stash let the fun begin!

Birds in the Air x 4

Project Quilting 11.4 challenge is to use the 'Birds in the Air' block.  It’s two sizes of triangles, combined for a square block you must either use or reinterpret this traditional block. I did indeed reinterpret the block and it meets the requirements of two sizes of triangles. I used four blocks in my table topper.

I was short on time and only started making the topper yesterday at 9:30 AM. I just finished binding it this morning. I don't think I have ever made anything this fast before. Not bad considering I wasn't sure what to make.

An inkling of an idea started when I took a look through my collection of HSTs they do come in handy, and this was one of those times.

An Hst with side triangles, love those batiks

I started with a 3 1/2'' HST added triangles from a 3 7/8'' cut in half diagonally on each side.

all lined up to cut off those dog ears

I do like to trim off the dog ears and just line up the 45 degree line along the seam line and trim those dog ears off. This works for any size hst and triangle, at the moment I'm at a loss as to what you call this piece. Any suggestions?

Add a triangle a 6 7/8'' square cut in half diagonally to above unit. I went a step further to add interest I added a square to the bottom of the larger triangle sewing diagonally across the square. Trim and press.

I used my creative license to adapt the Birds in the Air block

A couple layouts with and without my adaption.

option #1. Not feeling it. This was before I added the bottom triangle

option #2 has promise but still not quite there yet

auditioning thread on option #3

Now this was more to my liking. 

table topper finished size 19'' square

For the quilting I needed something fast and easy. I quilted feathers in the batik coral pieces and some curves in the print batik triangles. In the sashing and borders some vines with leaves and swirls.

a closeup of the quilting

I'm ready for spring with a new springy table topper. It was a quick project but I enjoyed it once I figured out what I was going to make.

Colour it Red My Day

The rules for the theme for this months "Color It Red" blog hop, hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt were simple it had to have red in it somewhere.

 

 Mine does but, life happens and I didn't get my project finished. Not all is lost as I do have some photos. 

under the ruler toe foot

It's about time I use up some of my stash. I am working on a new pattern and using some pieces from my stash to make it. 

The red print was from Kona Bay fabrics which I purchased a yard of in Dec of 2018, Kona Bay Fabrics went out of business in 2017. Moda Basic Grey I purchased 2 yards of in 2017, time both of these were used in a project. For the background I am using Moda Grunge.

straight lines and curves

So far I have been using my ruler toe foot and rulers to do the free motion quilting. I know I will be quilting feathers in the borders when I get to them.

lots of quilting to do yet

Stayed tuned for a finish and pattern release in the next couple weeks.

Sit back enjoy a cuppa tea or if you prefer coffee and see what my other blog hoppers have been making with the colour red.

February 17^th

Creatin' in the Sticks

Websterquilt

Vroomans Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Selina Quilts

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Samelia's Mum

February 18^th

Ms P Designs USA

Podunk Pretties

DayBrook Designs

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Karen's Korner

Stitchin At Home

February 19^th

MooseStash Quilting

Quilted Delights

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Storied Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Kathy’s Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

February 20^th

Life in the Scrapatch

Songbird Designs

High Road Quilter

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Patchwork Breeze

Lynn's Blog

DesertSky Quilting

Seams To Be Sew

February 21^st

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Fabrication

Beaquilter

All Thingz Sewn

Karrin’s Crazy World

Den syende himmel

Daughters of Dorinda

Quilt to the Edge

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Put a Heart on it Project Quilting 11.3

Put a heart on it, challenge three. I can't believe how fast this one came together. I started at 9:30 AM and by noon I had a finished project. I do have to confess that some of the hearts were already cut out, they were left overs from when I made 'Pinky' for my granddaughter. One of the applique methods in my tool box is Crafted Applique'. I keep extra pieces between sheets of wax paper and just pull them out when I need them.

extra pieces of treated fabric using the Crafted Applique method are stored between sheets of wax paper

The inspiration for this piece hit me after visiting a friend who is in hospice. The smaller hearts that float around the centre heart represent those that have passed through my life, with the centre heart representing me. Parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. I tried to think of pleasant times and not just the sad.
Working on this had me thinking of my paternal grandmother who I was close with and enjoyed spending time with. She was from Finland and I miss her accent, she did speak excellent English but some words just had her special way of saying them. She also made the best cinnamon buns which I continue to make her recipe to this day as does my daughter.

auditioning threads, I simply stitched around the inside of each heart shape using straight free motion stitching

I am sorry for the lack of photos but I was so into the project a camera never crossed my mind.

one of my favourite scissors to use when cutting applique are Karen Kay Buckley's

I wasn't sure at first how I was going to quilt this except for the feathers on the bottom of the heart. I wanted the feathers to show and decided a stipple would help them pop a little bit.

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Linking up to Favourite Finish (February 2020) with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs.