Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Reminders!

Just a couple of reminders...

Don't forget that the Quilters Blog Festival is starting on Friday! It is over at Amy's Creative Side.
 Start your engines....lots of browsing coming up there !!

Amy's Creative Side

And if that is not enough....don't forget that Monday May 21 is GIVEAWAY DAY!!  It is at Sew Mama Sew....and lasts all week! How exciting is that?   And I have whipped a special little bag as my giveaway prize....check back on Monday for details and all the other great blogs involved!


Also I hope you are still remembering to vote for my friend Annette, from In Stitches and Seams, for her entry into the McCalls Challenge....go there now and click on the vote button. You can vote every day!


And have a great day!


Monday, May 14, 2012

A skill builder for me!



A good blogging friend, Sharon from Vroomans Quilts, sent me this little pattern that she was finished with.. ( and such a cute Butterfly card too!!)

It is a Schnibbles pattern, and all Flying Geese!  Yikes!
I just tried pinwheels a few weeks ago, to send some blocks to another blogging friend. They were actually OK, so I thought I would give this a try!
I made some out of scraps first, just to try them out....

The pattern had pretty good instructions. The only problem I have is that the measurements get as exact as 7/8"....I am pretty good with 1/4", but when it comes down to 1/8" exactness, I think I will be a little bit challenged.

But, I think this might work after all, I will keep working on these!!  This is going to be a long term project I think!

That is my 15 minutes of play for today so I am going to link up to Marcia'a Minutes for Me Party!



May for Me Posts are shared here - Link up and share - Click and view the posts about May for Me!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day!

Mothers Day Gift.
May your day be filled with love, laughter, lots of hugs, and for some of us fond memories!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

California finish

With new thread in hand...although different new thread...because the store was sold out of the kind that I started with !!! Of course!!

Anyway..it is finished..

The FMQ went smoothly..(apart from running out of thread!!)

In the borders I continued the flowers but added a loop between each one to spread them out a bit. It seems to take me at least 2 sides of the quilt to finally get the spacing right !! I tried drawing them on first, but I have trouble staying with the lines!

The back is such a fun print...found on the 1/2 price wall at my local quilt shop..Periwinkle Quilting.
It is called Arianna by Jennifer Young.


And also got this great binding there...

I love it! It is such a great colour and really finishes off this fun quilt perfectly.

Of course ..I added a label...I had these printed at Spoonflower, and I just add the name of the quilt and the date..

So I get to link up again to TGIFF!! Go check out all the great finishes over there!





Wednesday, May 9, 2012

California Sun

I am working on the FMQ for the "California Sun" quilt..

I wanted something light and airy, so decided to go back to a flowery pattern, except make it bigger and more open. I have realized that I don't need to quilt everything so densely, and the more open quilting gives the quilt a softer more drapey feel.

So I sketched out my design first. I find this really helps to not only give me practice, but also a reference that I keep beside the machine the check back to as I go.

And then off I go....

Of course, as usual...I ran out of thread before I finished ...darn!! Interestingly, I had 2 large spools of both the top thread and the bobbin thread, and I ran out of top thread, but still have quite a lot of bobbin thread left! Does that mean that my tension is off, and it is pulling the thread through to the underside more??

When I look at the back, I don't see much difference though. Maybe I should try adjusting the top tension a bit higher and see.

I guess it is a quilting mystery. So off I go to buy more thread!

And to check in with the Needle and Thread Network...

And Lee's Work in Progress over at Freshly Pieced...

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Something exciting!!

There is something very exciting coming up !!



It is GIVEAWAY DAY on May 21!!  You can check out the details over at Sew, Mama, Sew!

This promises to be a really fun event! LOTS of giveaways...all in one place!! There will be great things to win, and lots of new blogs to check out too! Always a good time.

So set aside a few hours ...or a whole day LOL...to explore and see what there is to offer.
And check back to see what I come up with to giveaway too!! 

Saturday, May 5, 2012

play time

I have been playing with my "purple patch" blocks....
this is totally random...

And this is trying some kind of order to the random...

Not sure yet, I am sure most people think they look the same !! I will have to play a bit more.

I also laid out the "Cabbages and Roses" blocks.  There will be more blocks...a 9-patch made out of the leftover jelly roll strip, that will alternate between the Squares block. I just need to decide if I like the darker colours...the red and dark blue in the mix before I make up the 9-patch blocks. So this is the combination of the  blocks so far...

I think I could live with the red, but the dark blue one doesn't fit.
The pattern used Strawberry Fields in the picture, and I loved the soft colours, and the mix of pink and teal. But I have used up all my Strawberry Fields fabric, so thought that Cabbages and Roses would be close. I must admit I am not loving this. It seems very pastelly, small flowery prints, and the blue is too "baby blue" ! I know, picky, picky! But you know when you have a picture in your head.....

This quilt may get set aside for awhile till I get over pouting about it! LOL

p.s.  I am still working on the tutorial for the Tote Bag...it is harder than I thought trying to explain what I am doing in a way that makes sense!!