Spooky Season Sampler

I joined the Spooky Season Sampler on Instagram.  All you have to do is sign up and you get a free Halloween block in your email, every day for 9 days.  The tenth day is the finishing instructions.

This is the third year that I've participated and I thoroughly love it! This Lil' Grim Reaper was the first block, I think he's really cute.  

The second block was "Sweets" and it was a little challenging. There were a lot of pieces.  It's also a little bit more difficult when your pattern is in black and white. 😱

The quilt along began on October 1, so I'm a little behind. We have had friends staying with us and I haven't been able to sew. The third block was "poisoned apple" and the fourth was "Hocus Pocus", all paper pieced. It looks really time consuming!

I love waking up in the morning and checking my email for  the free block. 

Thanks for following along!

I hope to catch up really soon!

What's on my Design Wall?

I'm making great progress on my vintage ornaments!  They are bigger in person. I just love the red bows  on some of the ornaments.  I'm not quite halfway done yet.  

This is what the quilt looks like and it only comes in a boxed kit.

I was at a quilt retreat and someone saw that it was 40% off at 

Quilt in a Day. Every single one of us bought one. I think that two of the ladies finished theirs a long time ago. 

Quilt in a Day is a great online shop. I subscribed to their emails and every morning when I wake up, I read their email.  They always have three big things on sale and with free shipping sometimes.

Thanks for following me and reading my blog :)

Stellar Stars quilt

 I entered this quilt in a local quilt show and want to talk about the pattern.  It's Stellar Stars by Cristy Finch for Purple Daisies.

This quilt was very difficult to make! Each of the large 12 blocks had twelve pages of instructions.  I made it with my friend Nedra, it was a block of the month for the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild.

It definitely tested my skill levels.  I can't even remember all the techniques I learned, as it was approximately 5 years ago that I made it. Nedra and I would get together every month and work on one or more of the blocks.  There were templates, appliqué and foundation paper piecing.  Nedra would read all the instructions (I should have also) and would explain the process to me.  I felt like I was floundering with almost every block.  There were lots of points that didn't match and disasters like that.  The flying geese were really fun to make with triangles on a roll.  I really felt like this quilt was a train wreck!!!

Last year, I was caught up on getting my quilt tops machine quilted.  It was time to get Stellar Stars out of the closet and to my friend Marti at Lynny Lou Crafts in Gilbert, Arizona. She worked her magic on my quilt and wonder of wonders, I fell in love with my quilt!!!

Now I absolutely love it and don't see any of the unmatched points. 

I guess the moral of this story is, don't give up on your quilt. It can get a new life when it's machine quilted

Also, all the fabric was from my stash, even the grays for the flying geese. I did buy some Kona snow for the background though.  These days, I even have extra fabric for backgrounds in my stash.

Thank you for following, I hope you enjoyed my story and that maybe it helped you in your quilt journey :)

A Quilt Giveaway

I had a quilt giveaway a couple of weeks ago! I had about 15 quilts to show, and the winners were selected.

Reagan is the oldest and she chose the Checkerboard quilt, the pattern is in Lori Holt's Scrappiness is Happiness book. A lot of my squares are fussy cut and have little peek a boo pictures in them. Made of 

2 1/2" and 1 1/2" scraps.  It could be a leaders and enders quilt. I'm really happy that Reagan likes it, it was one of my favorites!

 Paisley surprised me and she chose the Christmas Jolly Bar 4 sampler quilt. I made it as a sew a long for Fat Quarter Shop. I think it's really pretty, it has little candy canes and Santa faces in the print, along with poinsettias and holly berries. It was the only Christmas quilt that was in the pile.

Even before I started making this quilt, I knew that Taylor would love it!  I thought of her the whole time I made it.  When it was displayed, she gasped 😂 Bonus, it has soft, pink minky on the back!

The quilt pattern is called Top Knot and is designed by Lindsey of Pen and Paper Designs.

I bought this kit from Little House Cottons. Normally I don't buy kits because I  have enough fabric in my stash to choose from, but I am in love with Kristen's fabric! I know that Riley loves anything with chickens and she grabbed it when she saw it :) Also, it's backed with a luxurious gold minty.

The pattern is by Cluck Cluck Sew.

My daughter in law Kim, chose my Blooming Bunches that I made at my Farm Girl quilt group.  We had a guideline of which blocks to use, and we chose some extra blocks to add to the quilt.  We put the blocks together following one of Lori Holt's patterns. I used Ruby Star Society fabrics only in my quilt and the colors are very vivid.  My background fabric had a silver print of flowers on it.

We all lounged around after the quilt giveaway. There wasn't a masculine quilt for my son to choose, but he is always warm to hot anyway.  One of these days I'll make a quilt just for him.

I forgot about labeling my quilts.  I guess I was just lazy.  Only Taylor's Top Knot quilt had a label. I think it's really cute too!  My next task is to make a label for everyone else's quilt and hand sew them on.

Thanks for following, see you soon ❤️

Pineberry quilt, continued

 My grand daughter Lucy is doing such a great job at making her Pineberry blocks! She doesn't even look at the pattern anymore, she just puts all the pieces together.  

Block number 5 made, many more to go! 

I pick up Lucy after middle school, once or twice a week.  She gets to choose some treats and a drink out of the mini fridge downstairs. She makes sure to keep the food and drink away from her sewing station because I told her of some of my misfortunes, lol!

Lucy said that these strawberries look like candy!  Last night, her parents were over and Lucy was showing them her wineberries on the design wall and which ones were her favorites.  She then showed them the sewing pouch I made for her and all the sewing goodies inside.  I'll have to show you that on my next post :)

I work on my own sewing projects while Lucy sews, it's great to have her company!  My husband and I drove Lucy home on the golf cart, I let Lucy sit in the front.  We found an empty parking lot and let Lucy drive to her hearts content, about 20 minutes.  She practiced parking between the white lines and used the camera and mirrors to back up. She drove around and around the parking lot and then we had to take her home.  

Thank you for following along, I will see you next week!

Halloween Doll Panels, continued

It's my grand daughter Lucy's birthday tomorrow and I made her these three dolls! 

I posted about these dolls a couple of weeks ago, you can see more details here.

I thought the dolls would like a Halloween bag to live in.

I'm so happy that I bought this pattern by Jeni Baker years ago, I have made over 200 of them over the years, in different sizes.

Lucy's sister Kennedy left for college a week ago.  I made her bags in various sizes with treats in them, which she loved!

Choosing the fabric is always the best part for me :)

Pineberry quilt

My grand daughter Lucy asked me to teach her how to make a quilt. I showed her a bunch of patterns and she chose Pineberry, a cute quilt designed by Lindsey of Pen and Paper Designs. I love this quilt so I thought it was a good choice. Then I started thinking about it....this quilt is going to take a year to complete!  Also, it's for advanced beginner!!!  Lucy will be 12 years old in a week and her fingers are very liable, she's able to do very fine little things.  She also has the mind of an engineer, so putting all those pieces together is an enjoyable challenge for her.

Lucy finished her first block! the colors aren't that true on the computer but you get the idea.  She chose all the fabrics herself.

I've got a pretty good selection of fabric for her to choose from! 😂

Lucy also cut all the pineberry pieces out herself, with a rotary cutter! 😳 She did very well and was very safety conscious.  

Now Lucy has finished two blocks!  We found out that it takes a little over an hour to make one block. This past week, we listened to Benson Boone sing while we sewed. Mystical, Magical!

School is starting up this week, and it's Mountain Biking season.  Lucy will be going to middle school this year, she is in 7th grade. It will be challenging finding time to sew but I'm sure that we can make it work. I'll keep you updated on Lucy's progress.  I'm considering sewing some of the flowers and leaves to help her out.

 

Halloween Doll panels

 Stacy Itse Hui has designed some Halloween dolls, the line is called "Home Sweet Haunt" by Moda fabrics.  I have sewn every single one of her panels for my grand daughters, some of them multiple times. They are fun and easy to sew and give a lot of pleasure to little girls and some not so little anymore!

I finished the ghost girl and the witch and just need to finish the ghost boy. 

Look at all the detail in her outfit and the sweet face!

The ghost girl has some spiders in her hair!

I'll have the little boy ghost finished by next week and I'll show him to you. I think they're so cute!!!

Playroom for my Grand daughter

In our new house, there's a little storage area in the basement, under the stairs. I put some vinyls on the wall of Winnie the Pooh characters, which happen to be Sabrina's favorite right now. 

Sabrina and her family are visiting right now.  She loved the playroom! I put fairy lights on the ceiling too, and bought her a Winnie the Pooh coloring block and bought crayon twistables to put in the little pencil pouch that I made for her, which I also posted about last week. Sabrina will be 4 years old in another month! She sure is a special little girl ❤️ 

Grandchildren Gifts

 We have finished our move to another state! It wasn't really planned, but happened within a month. Buying and selling our house! I finally got my sewing room unpacked and organized. My first day of sewing was today. My son and daughter in law and their two children are coming to visit next week, so I decided to sew some gifts for them.

Sarina is 3 1/2 years old and loves Winnie the Pooh, so I made her a pillowcase for a 12 x 16 pillow. I need to go back to Pine Needles quilt shop and buy some more fabric to finish it.  

I made Sabrina a pencil case with leftover Winnie the Pooh fabric. It's very simple to make, here is the tutorial. I've made quite a few of them.

I made Lucas a pillowcase also.  He's so adorable and is 10 months old, such a cute age!!!

I have lots more to show you in the coming weeks, so stay tuned :)

Scrappy Americana Flag Sew Along, June

I am loving this Scrappy Americana Flag sew along!  It's so easy to keep up because you only have to do so many blocks every month. The pattern even shows you which fabrics to use and where.

The pattern shows you how to make the quilt using foundation paper piecing, or just piecing the blocks. I had some of the foundation papers in the right size so decided to use it! It's very satisfying, tearing the papers from the fabric, and much more accurate.

It's an assembly line of half square triangles, they go together really well. I've been spray starching my blocks with Mary Ellen's Best Press.

Ta da, my blocks are finished! I can hardly wait to start sewing the red and white stripes together. This quilt is going to be gorgeous and really big! This month's blocks are called the Pinwheel Stripe blocks.

Thanks for following along, see you soon!

Village Quilt Pattern

Have you seen the Village quilt pattern by Miss Rosie & Co?

It's really cute!  I think it has 132 houses in the village!  I posted a link above, it is now a free pattern to download at Fat Quarter Shop. This quilt has been on my wish list for a long time. My friend alerted me that the Rusted Silo Studio on Instagram was having a block swap. The exciting part was that you could only use Heather Ross fabric. What???? I adore Heather Ross fabric and have a small collection that I've been hoarding, saving! I made 10 blocks of 10 houses for the swap which were 100 houses. I got my houses back and immediately put them on my design wall. They are all so cuuuuuute!!!!!!

I'm going to sew these little houses together and create a village.  Each door has a fussy cut which I love! I didn't take any close ups of my houses, but these are my friend's blocks. Aren't they the cutest?

Here's a link to a former post about the Village Quilt pattern, and my blocks.

Soon I'll be able to show you the finished quilt ❤️

Thanks for following my quilt journey ❤️

Calli & co Block of the month

 I joined the Callie and Co mystery block of the month in March. I cut all the fabric and caught up on my January, February and March blocks. I was on schedule for April and May. 

I used a fat eighth bundle that I've had since 2010!!!  It is called Miss Kate and was designed by Bonnie and Camille. I was really excited to have a purpose for this bundle!

Here is May's block which was just released on Saturday. 

Corey Yoder is the designer of this mystery quilt along. She is having us use up all the half square triangle scraps to use in some later blocks so that we don't have as much sewing and won't get burned out towards the end. I love watching Corey's you tube channel, Coriander quilts.  She has a soothing voice and is very creative!

I've got a few sew alongs in the works right now.  I'm making the Scrappy Americana Flag quilt and the Phoenix Modern quilt guild's block of the month. I also have a couple of quilts cut out that have been started. 

Thanks for following along :)

Scrappy Americana Flag Sew Along, Month 1

 The first month and it's the Four Patch Stripe blocks, super easy.

This fabric is so beautiful!

I'm going to love every minute of this sew along. Making the blocks just once a month is very relaxing. No weekly scrambling to get them done. 

Here are my blocks, 6 red four patch blocks and 6 low volume blocks.

I'll see you next week, and thanks for checking out my blog ❤️