Modern Instabee - October

It's my month in our Modern Instabee quilting bee!

I chose the Stacked Windmill block.

I wanted the center block to be pink, the others to be yellow and gray and I wanted the background to be in a black and white text print.

I didn't want to be too specific, because I wanted to enjoy each member's freedom of creativity.

Two women have dropped out of the bee, so I made 2 blocks myself.

I received Kate's block (Nashville, Tennessee) and am so excited!

Isn't it pretty?

She also made me a signature block to sew onto the back of the quilt along with the others.

This is Jansen's block (Fairfax, Virginia), I love the cute little bumblebee in the center, which made me realize that I posted this photo upside down, oops!

I can see the word "Sew" in the text print :)

Ellen (Tampa, Florida) sent me this cute block :)

One of my daughters just moved to Tampa!

Don't they look great together?
Mine are the top 2, and the bottom 3 are from my "hive" friends :)

I'll show you the rest of the blocks as I receive them :)

Pabvlova, an Australian dessert

I love meringue cookies, and this dessert is so much better!

You beat 3 egg whites in the electric mixer until they form stiff peaks.

Then you gradually add a cup of sugar with a tablespoon of cornstarch.

On a parchment paper lined pan, I spread a circle of meringue and then piped the rest of the meringue to form a bowl shape.

You bake it at 300 degrees F for one hour, turn off the heat and leave it in the oven for another 30 minutes.

I added homemade whipped cream in the center and added strawberries.

You could add whatever type of berry you like :)

The Pavlova makes a great presentation for invited friends or family, and it isn't difficult at all.

You don't even have to pipe a bowl, just make a cake shape and decorate the top with berries and whipped cream.

I love Pinterest and have pinned so many recipes.

I decided to create a board called "Tried it, loved it!".

You can find this recipe on my Pinterest board here.

Around the world blog hop

I was asked to be part of the "around the world blog hop" by Greg Jones of grey dogwood studio. Greg and I have similar tastes in quilting and have become online friends. I am a great admirer of his creativity and originality. He is definitely one who thinks outside the box!

I am going to share my creative process with you and reveal some of my thought processes.

1. What am I currently working on?

For the year 2015, I am going to create a list of quilts I have wanted to make, but have put on the back burner.

Right now, I have many projects I'm working on.

Appleicious is a cute apple quilt from Lori Holt's book, Quilty Fun. I have the apples and leaves cut out, but that's all I've completed so far....here is a photo of the fabrics I'm using.

"Spell it with Moda", an alphabet quilt, which was a free pattern. I pinned all the letters to a board on Pinterest. I've made the first six letters.

I'll be starting this cute pattern by Heather Bailey, a Christmas gift for one of my grandaughters.

In January, I joined the "Handmade birthday club".

Every month, as long as someone in the group has a birthday, group members will make and send a small to medium handmade item to the birhtday girl. In total, you will be gifting 11 handmade items and during your birthday month, you will be receiving 11 handmade items! How FUN! If you're interested, it's hosted by susannahkate.com
I also joined the "Modern Instabee" virtual quilting bee, which I found out about on Instagram. Each group consists of 12 members, who all choose a month. We pick our bee blocks out of the book "Modern Bee" by Lindsay Conner. My month is October and I requested the Stacked Windmill block. I told the group what colors I want and I'm receiving really pretty blocks in the mail :)
A couple of months ago, I was invited to join the Bees Knees Quilting Bee. The bee has their own blog where we post the blocks we've made.
Besides all the projects I've listed, I have some table runners that need to be quilted.

2. How does my work differ from others?

I am skilled in many different techniques. I enjoy hand embroidery, needle turn applique, paper piecing, hand quilting, machine quilting, heirloom sewing, and garment sewing.
I sew dolls, stuffed animals, Princess dresses, bags and smocked dressed for my grandchildren.
I have a goal to design quilt patterns, which I'll begin doing in January. I want to sew quilts and/or table toppers in every possible color scheme and style. I especially love bright, happy colors and children themed fabric such as Sarah Jane, Aneela Hooey, Tasha Noel and Heather Ross. I am also an Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Pam Kitty and Lori Holt fabric hoarder.

3. Why do I create?

Creating gives me an immense feeling of contentment and satisfaction and joy. When I see someone snuggling a quilt I've given them, or a grandchild wearing something I've made for them, I feel happy. When one of my grandaughters was visiting us recently, she put her baby doll to sleep beside her in bed. I noticed that she covered her doll up with a mini quilt that I had sewn for her. I was delighted that she was using the gift that I had made for her with love.

4. How do I work?

I have a beautiful sewing room that my husband designed for me last Christmas, along with an incredible Bernina 750 QE. There are two links on the right side of my blog where you can view photo if you're interested. The room's all setup, I can work for an hour, a day or into the evening. I don't have any Quilty friends to sew with and I don't belong to a quilt guild. Most of my sewing is done solo while watching Netflix or listening to music or talks. I plan on joining a quilt guild in January.

Now I want to introduce the next two bloggers on the Around the World blog tour!
These two talented quilters will be sharing their stories with you next Monday, November 10.  Be sure and visit them, their blogs and their stories are fabulous :)

Renee at Sewn with Grace has a common love with me for all of Lori Holt's "Quilty Fun" creations.  Renee quilts and knits and every week she has a Sunday Scripture post which I really love :)  Renee's work is beautiful with a true vintage feel, hop over to her blog and see for yourself.

Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts finished the "Spell it with Fabric" quilt, it's absolutely gorgeous!!!  She began the Texas Quilt Along which has a huge following and was a big hit!  Cristina not only has a love for quilting, but also for cooking, baking, reading and crochet.  Look at her blog and see all of her awesome creations. 

Thanks for visiting me on the "Around the World" blog hop :)

Happy Hallowe'en!!!

Have you ever visited Em's Scrapbag blog?

It's full of fun and quilty things!

Emily has a weekly post on Wednesday, called "what a great idea" (wagi) and she featured my "minky photo book tutorial" this week.  

You can see it here.

Have a "vintage" Hallowe'en!

AYOS and a little bit more - October

This is the Schnibbles pattern that was chosen for October in the group "Another year of Snibbles and a little bit more".

I'm really enjoying the group, but I was a little hesitant about making this quilt.

I didn't think it looked very nice.

I could not figure out what color to use for the background.

I was looking around my sewing room and my eyes landed on this bolt of green fabric that my daughter and I found at a garage sale.

It still had the cellophane on it, so we bought it and split it in half.

I think this fabric is perfect for the background because it's bright and happy and textured, and goes well with pink :)

I went through my stash of charm packs and 5" squares and found low volume colors.

It took a lot of time to cut the fabric, sew all the half square triangles and then crop them all.

I stayed up until 1:00 a.m., three nights in a row.

I'm so pleased with the colors!

I took the quilt outside this morning and took some photos.

I live in northern California, so the weather is in the mid 70's and most of the leaves are still on the trees.

You can see some red and yellow ones on the ground :)

I'm really thrilled with this quilt, it measures 72" square.

Often I make a quilt, unsure of what I'm going to do with it.

When my son moves out at Christmas, I'll put this quilt on his full size bed.

Thanks for sharing my quilt journey with me :)

Mini Medallion - October

This is the 5th month for the Mini Medallion Series designed by Chrissy Lux.

You can get this month's free pattern at Clover and Violet.

I sewed the grey border around the orange snowballs.

I can hardly wait for next month's final border, then I can quilt this mini.

This is a close up of the fabrics I've used.

I love playing with text prints, I think they add a lot of interest.

If you want to get the other free patterns to make this mini medallion yourself, you can go to the search box to the right of my blog and type in "mini medallion".

Quilty Fun Birthday!

I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate mouse frosting and put it on a Polish Pottery pedestal with a pretty red bow.

You can find the free pattern on Lori's blog.

Be careful, they're very addicting!