A Christmas Carol

I found this blog a few years ago and have been dying to make some of these ornaments.  I showed them to two of my daughters and they loved them too!  My daughters love The Christmas Carol so that is the series we are making, The Ebenezer series.  Below is Mr. Marley, he is only about 4" tall. I really love the embroidery and beadwork, it's very relaxing to just sit and do some handwork.

 

After I complete this series which consists of Scrooge, and the ghost of Christmas past, present and future, I would like to do the series Twas the Night.  It includes Mr. and Mrs. Claus and some elves.  I think that Larissa is still adding to her series of ornaments.  What first caught my eye, was The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Here is the link to her blog.

On her blog is a link to her Etsy shop where you can buy the patterns and where you can get the wool felt and other supplies.

These would make such great gifts too!  One ornament a year, lol! Larissa is also on Instagram.

Have a great week!

Temperature quilt

 I think this photo is so adorable!

My 3 little grand daughters only live a couple of blocks away, spent the night at our house last weekend.  So fun!

I have my temperature quilt that I made using triangles on a roll, on the footstool/hassock.  All the papers had to be torn off the fabric.  Neo, Kylie and Izzy loved helping do that and with their help, it was  so much faster.  We talked as we worked too.  They each have a project they want to do.  Neo wants to paper piece the "Book Nerd" quilt, Kylie wants to make a half square triangle quilt  and Izzy wants to learn how to hand embroider.  They are pretty busy girls, hopefully we will have time to get started on their projects during Spring Break.  

I'm working on quite a few quilts right now.

• Silent Night by the Pattern Basket
• Riley Blake Design block challenge
• Heartfelt QAL by Fat Quarter Shop
• Red Sampler by Lori Holt
• Tell Me a Story Swap by Amy Friend
• Temperature quilt by ME
• Twig and Berries by Stitching Tree (free when you sign up for emails from Hummingbird Lane quilts)

I think that's it, LOL!

Have a wonderful week ❤️

Quiltcon 2022

I've always wanted to go to an international quilt show, and my dreams were realized this past weekend.  Quiltcon is a quilt show where people come from all over the world to attend, see their quilts displayed, and teach classes. 

I live 30 minutes south of Phoenix, so to get to the Phoenix Convention Center, it was a 45 minute drive.  I signed up for one class, "Photographing your quilt from every angle" by Kitty Wilkin.  It was a 3 hour class and I learned a lot about quilt photography.  

I also signed up to volunteer, which I did for about 6 hours.  My first shift was  "white glove", if someone wanted to look at the back of a quilt, I could hold it with my white gloves on and show them.  A couple of ladies wanted to see how the binding was done, others wanted to see the quilting, and others wanted to know what kind of fabric was used. I kept taking off my gloves to take some photos.  There were so many beautiful quilts, I just took a few photos because it was annoying taking my gloves off and put them on again, each time, lol!  I would suggest going to Instagram and looking up #quiltcon2022

I thought this alphabet quilt was incredible!

This one really touched my heart.  It was honoring all the Indigenous children who were taken from their families to live in residential schools.  They suffered terrible abuse and even death. It happened between the 1830's and the 1990's.  Unbearably sad....

I also walked around, enjoying the vendors booths.  I bought some cute little Japanese prints.  I wanted to buy so much more but resisted the temptation!

I learned that you should go to these shows with a friend, it would be so much more fun!  I also learned not to volunteer for so many hours, they seemed to have plenty of people :). It was a lot of time driving time since I was stuck in traffic twice and $15 to park each day was a lot since I was just volunteering.

Next year Quiltcon will be in Atlanta and in 2024, it will be in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I would take more classes the next time too.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my little experience at Quiltcon.

Happy Valentine's Day ❤️

 That's a lot of bags!  14 to be exact...15 grandchildren but one is a baby so I didn't have to make her one because she wouldn't know the difference 😂

Here's the tutorial for this darling little bag.

I received photos for the above grandchildren :)

Jacob is 5

Ben is 9

Maisie is 11

I received a wonderful video from the grandchildren above as they opened the box and each saw their bags.  Bridger on the left is 16 and it's always so difficult to think what I'm going to get him.  I thought he would love the Dwight fabric from "The Office" as he dressed up as Dwight one year for Halloween.

These girls live a couple of short blocks away from me, so it was easy to get their photos!

Neo (11) Izzy (6) and Kylie (9)

Each bag holds a small heart box of chocolates, a heart bracelet and a squishy ❤️💕

You can bet that this little cutie will get my holiday gifts when she is old enough to know.  

Happy Quilting ❤️

Riley Blake Design Block Challenge

 I just can't refuse a "sew along"!  Lori Holt designed the first block called Daisy Chain and that just melted my heart ❤️ 

I'm tempted to make a whole quilt out of this block, it's 10" square.

I changed my color scheme.  I'm still going to use Tasha Noel fabric but it won't be as scrappy.  With my previous blocks, I just chose the Tasha Noel prints and colors that I thought would look good in the block.  Now, I chose 5 colors, 2 prints of each.  

(The polka dot isn't Tasha Noel, don't know if I'll use it yet)

I think it will have a much more uniform look.  

This is my previous Sweetheart block, when I just chose cute colors :)

This is my current block with the new color scheme, 

a selection of five colors.

This is the leaf block which I totally love and may still use...

This is my new leaf block which I love also!

Block #4 is the tulip block.

Here are all four of my blocks with the new color scheme, just 5 colors.  I love Tasha Noel fabric and I know this quilt will be so pretty when it's finished.  The background I'm using is called pink posy by Lori Holt.

Happy Quilting everyone ❤️❤️❤️

Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge

 I wasn't going to join the Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge, but when I saw this beautiful block that Lori Holt designed, I couldn't resist!  It's called the Daisy Chain block. I went to my stash and thought it would be fun to use some of my Tasha Noel fabric.  Little flowers, toadstools and geese, just love all of it!

I made a mistake, but it was easy to correct :). Instead of just choosing colors and prints that I love for each block, I should have chosen the fabric for all of my blocks first.  I love these colors together in this Sweetheart block designed by Beverly McCullough.  

Lastly, is the maple leaf block designed by Kristy Lea.  I just had to make it in red, because in Canada, all of the maple trees turn a brilliant red in the fall.  I saw some scrappy leaves on Instagram that people created and really liked them too. Maybe I'll try a scrappy leaf and see how it plays in the quilt when it's finished.  I could use one of them on the back.

After I made the first three blocks, I decided to pull the fabrics I'm using in the quilt.  The blush pinks are a little off from the rest of the color tones but I think they'll still look really good in the quilt.  Everything can't be matchy matchy, or it won't be interesting.

Oh, and the background fabric is by Lori Holt, I think it's called posy.

The RBD Block Challenge is every Tuesday except for the last Tuesday of each month.  There will be 16 - 10" finished blocks. 

Block #16 will be posted on May 17.  Each block is designed by an amazing Riley Blake designer.  Even though I'm trying some new things this year, I can't stop quilting.  The possibilities are endless and so is my fabric!

Thanks for following along ;)

A Quilting Life, block of the month 2021

 My first finish of 2022!  

Since I had my quilt giveaway with my grandchildren and children,  I haven't been sewing as much.  I'm spending time on other things.  I still love to sew, but not as much :). 

 I made the sashing just like Lori Holt's quilt in her Spelling Bee book, as in this photo.

Here's my quilt!  My goal was to use pastel colors, for a more soft look.  Of course it will look better when I machine quilt it.  I used scraps for the blocks and luckily I had some pretty pink for the borders in my stash.  

Do you follow "all people quilt"?  Every year in January, they post a UFO Challenge.  It's a printout from 1-12.  Beside each number, you put the name of a quilt or a project that you want to complete.  The first day of every month, All People Quilt will post the number that they have randomly chosen.  You are then challenged to finish the project beside that number.  It's really fun, challenging and helps you finish projects.  Here is a link to the download, so you can print your UFO 2022 sheet.  They've already chosen the number for this month. 

Have a great week and I'll check back with you :)