Spooky Season Sampler

This is a great sew along and it's free!!! Search cottonandjoy on Instagram and click on her profile.  Click on the link and then click join the Spooky Season Sampler.  It runs from October 1-10.  You will receive the FREE patterns in your email.

This first block is called the Skull Quilt.  I had so much fun choosing the fabric, one of my favorite parts!

Another thing I really love about this quilt along is that each block uses a different method.  They aren't necessarily difficult, but you have to read carefully.  I'm going to say it's not for beginners. I've used my seam ripper quite a bit.  Something that's really hard for me is that I don't have a color printer and the patterns are more difficult to figure out in black and white.  Just saying....

Block 2 is the Hallowpop block.  What a cute name!  I changed mine from four colors to two.  I really love pink and strawberry flavors. This was created with foundation paper piecing.

Block 3 is Spooky Dracula.  Again, so much fun to choose the fabric.

Block 4 is Candy Corn which I love.  This block used a couple of templates which are included in the pattern.

Block 5 is The Haunted Window.  This block was super fun to make, there were so many possibilities for the fabric choices.  My ghost is covered in spiders which makes me a little itchy!  This block had some curved piecing and then some templates.

I assume there will be 9 blocks and the 10th day will be the finishing instructions. Follow me on Instagram for current postings.  Thanks so much for following me ❤️

Gifts

My oldest grandchild has been called to serve a two year mission in Sapporo Japan.  He is going to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, love the people and the culture and do as much service as he can.  I made him some gifts that I thought would be helpful. 

This is a Crosley pouch by Centerstreet quilts.  I chose this pattern because it is flat.  I handwrite almost 363 uplifting quotes, thoughts and scriptures and cut them into strips.  I slipped them into the pouch. The idea is that he can read one every two days and it will inspire him. He can share it with his companion, share it with his district or zone, decorate his wall with them, give it to someone or just throw them away. 

 

I also made him a sewing kit. I've made them for missionaries before, you can see them here, here, here and here. My son Sean said that the most important items to include in the sewing kit were extra white buttons for shirts and dark buttons for pants, thread and needle and safety pins.  I also included some iron on patches and of course scissors.

I also made Bridger (Elder Nielson) a monogram pencil pouch and some scripture covers made out of Japanese fabric.

I wanted to help Bridger and hope that he doesn't forget me after two years!  I know he won't, but you know what I mean ❤️

Thanks for following me, see you next week :)

Little Red Riding Hood

I love these little panels that Stacy Iest Hsu designs! I have made so many of them for my grand daughters and they're always a big hit!

This is Little Red Riding Hood, one of my favorite fairy tales :)

You stitch the doll, she has a skirt with a belt, a cape, a pillow and a quilt.  Let's not forget Mr. Big, otherwise known as the big bad wolf!

I make a Lined Drawstring Bag by Jeni Baker, the artist size. I absolutely love this bag, I've made so many of them :)

I also buy a Little Red Riding Hood book by James Marshall.  I love his sense of humor and illustrations.  The wolf is a little scary in the drawings, but not too scary!

I think "Red" is adorable with her rosy cheeks and bright red cape.  Anyone who wears red shoes is a kindred spirit to me ;)

I made the doll for my grand daughter Sabrina who just turned 2 years old.  Little children are so much fun!!!

Here's another post about a Red Riding doll I made.

And another :)

Have a great week and thanks for following along :)

Another Quilt Retreat!

I went to another quilt retreat, only 3 days after my last one! Lesson learned, I need at least a week between the two to recuperate!  I would never deny a retreat though :)  Meredith ( back row, middle) organized this retreat, it was at the Quilter's Nest in Payson, Arizona. She designed these cute "Farm Girls" pumpkin tee shirts to go with our fall theme.

Meredith gave us all a little kit to make this cute pumpkin pillow.
 

We thought it would be easier if we went to restaurants for dinner. This is our second night at a really good Mexican restaurant.  We all wore our matching tee shirts and some men thought we were part of a biker gang! 😂 Really??? One of the men took this photo.

Here's another photo of our quilting "gang"!

Nedra finished her cute Halloween bat quilt with the bright pink background.  I'm obsessed with it!!!  Notice the orange bats in two of the corners?  So cute!

Meredith finished her Farm Girl Vintage 2 quilt top.  She's had the beautiful blocks sewn since before Covid.  She pieced them all together, but forgot to embroider some of the blocks before she assembled the top.

Nedra sat right in front of me, so we could talk a lot.

This is my quilt, it's called Sonnet by a Crafty Fox.  I don't have the scrappy low volume sashing or the scrappy borders done.  That will be for another day because I have lots of gifts to make before I can finish this.

A good time was had by all!  Oh, the stories we could tell :)

What happens at the Quilter's Nest stays at the Quilter's Nest!

Quilt Retreat

 I went to a quilt retreat last week with some of my favorite people 💗

We bought the pink shirts for another retreat but decided to wear them to this one too!  One friend is a rebel and had to get blue, lol! The retreat was only around an hour from our houses and was in a nice hotel for an excellent price! There were 41 of us sewing in one of the conference rooms at the hotel.  We each had an eight foot table, so much space!  It was so much fun choosing a restaurant for our late lunch/early dinner each day.

Here we are at our sewing tables, my friend in the blue shirt left a day early, before we took these photos.

This is my second year going to this particular retreat called Peace by Peace quilters.  Everyone was so nice and friendly and it was great seeing them again after a whole year!

This is what I completed at the retreat.  Regent Street Union Jack quilt by Amy Smart.  I used my Ruby Star Society fat quarter bundle of Strawberry Friends, plus some extra fat quarters of trim fabrics.  I love the bright, happy colors!  I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to sew the sashing and the borders, I was hoping to complete the quilt top at the retreat.  I made a mistake in the final block and thought I had more fabric at home.  I didn't and had to piece meal the fabric together.

Guess what?  I'm going to another retreat this week, and am working on a different quilt top that I have all cut out.  I sure hope I finish it, that is always a great accomplishment.  It's for my husband for Christmas :)

Lined Drawstring Bag

 

I'm going on a quilt retreat this week for a few days. It's not very far, only an hour's drive. We will be sewing, talking, laughing, sewing and eating and repeating until we drop!!!

I decided to make some of my friends a little goody bag.

Jeni Baker's Lined Drawstring Bag pattern is the best! I've blogged about it many times. I made the third largest size, the artist bag, so that it would fit a notebook. I made one for myself too :)

I raided my vintage Lori Holt stash but had to make a trip to JoAnn's Fabric store for more grosgrain ribbon.  It takes way too long to make the fabric drawstrings, just saying...

The fabric options are endless but funny thing...my stash doesn't seem to be diminishing in size! LOL!

What will I be making at my retreat you ask? Amy Smart's Union Jack flag pattern in Ruby Society "Strawberry and Friends" collection.

I'm sure excited about it!  See you next week :)

Barbie Girl Dream House Pack and Play

I had some Barbie dolls when I was a little girl, and my mother even made me some outfits for them.  I still have those Barbie dolls too!

I saw this Barbie panel from Riley Blake and bought two of them to make for two of my grand daughters. 

It's so easy to put together, in fact there's a Youtube tutorial on the Riley Blake channel.  Here is the link.  You do need to purchase two different types of pellon, Cindy will tell you in the tutorial.

https://youtu.be/6JGAbUJEyzE

This is the front of the Barbie bag.

It comes with 3 Barbies and Barbie's white furry cat.  

On one side are the Barbies, and the other side holds their flannel clothing.

The back of Barbie's bag has a picture of her Dream House.

I'm gifting this to one of my grand daughters who will be turning 10 years old this weekend, her first double digits! The Barbie play pack with Barbie PJ's and some Barbie sunglasses.

I hope I might have inspired you to make a set for one of your daughters or grand daughters.

Poppie Cotton block of the month

 Have you seen Poppie Cotton fabric before?  It's a little bit farm girl, al little bit vintage and very happy colors!

I made this quilt, it's going to be a block of the month, with 12 blocks.

The sashing and the corner blocks were pretty time consuming but very rewarding! I can't take credit for the binding, but isn't it cute? Black and white check, Poppie Cotton's signature fabric.  It comes in many colors.

I found this photo online. The same fabric, but different machine quilting.

I'll see you next week!

Dinosaurs quilt

 I worked every spare moment and many, many hours and I finally finished this Dinosaurs quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. 

Have any of you every made one of Elizabeth's patterns?

You don't buy a pattern, you buy a book!!! Her directions are so easy to understand although each dinosaur has so many pieces! Like 50 pieces sometimes! You have to really pay attention and practice a lot of patience.

The pattern book has the twin size quilt on the cover. It's so pretty with all the beautiful, bright colors.  I wanted to make a baby quilt, so I decided to just use blues.  Half of the dinosaurs were a darker blue and the other half were a lighter blue.  Elizabeth made it very easy for color placement.  She tells you where to put the dark colors and where to put the light colors. 

I just love this little quilt!

I found the perfect backing fabric for this baby quilt, little skeleton dinosaurs.  So perfect!!!

I was able to machine quilt the Diosaurs with a wavy stitch on my machine.  I had a difficult time choosing the background.  I thought it was ugly by itself, but worked so well with little dinosaurs.

Thanks for following along!

Hello Spring quilt

I posted this photo on Instagram, it wasn't machine quilted yet.

 My son met me at the park at sunset, and took this photo with my little grand daughter Sabrina, and my quilt.  The reason the photo has a gold tone, is because it was reflecting the golden sunset.  We have spectacular sunsets in Arizona, every single evening.

I took these closeups of the beautiful machine quilting.  It looks like custom quilting, but it's an allover design called zen flowers.

I shared my finished quilt with my Farm Girl Chicks quilt group last week.  I'm holding it upside down!!! 😩

Pretty funny, but two other ladies shared the same quilt that they made too!  The pattern is called Hello Spring by Pen and Paper Designs.

I love sewing all of her patterns, the directions are perfect!

Thanks for following along, I'll see you next week :)

Red, Whire and Blue quilt

 Hi Everyone!

I finished my red, white and blue quilt using criss cross star blocks from Lori Holt's Scrappiness is Happiness book.  It was a fun block, because your star points float on the background and they don't have to be "perfect". I used the picnic setting which can be found in Lori's Farm Girl Vintage book. 

Here is our Farm Girl quilt group, we had a criss cross block exchange. Shirley (holding her quilt)  won first place, we all had a chance to vote.

I was really surprised to come in second!

I only used my scraps for this quilt.

On the back, I used some extra stars that didn't fit on the quilt.

I always try and add a label.  This label is from a subscription I had to Sweetwater, they printed my name on them.

Thanks for following along, I have a really pretty quilt to show you next week :)