Supernova & More

 My week of sewing has continued. This beauty is Supernova! I need a baby quilt for a coworker and her colors are gray and mint green--she does not know if it is a boy or girl. I had the gray in my stash-it is beautifully mottled with small sparkly dots--very celestial looking. I picked up a few quarter yards of mints/aquas and shopped in my stash for 10 different greens. I have added a four inch border since this picture was taken and I quilted it yesterday. Unfortunately, the quilt shop was closed all weekend, so I could not pick up some more of the darker green that is the off-center focus which I want to use for binding. I will get some on Tuesday after work. The Supernova pattern is a freebie you can find here:

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2017/02/stunning-stars-4-supernova.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+ConfessionsOfAFabricAddict+(Confessions+of+a+Fabric+Addict)

Please note, I made my half-square triangles smaller to finish at four inches.

This has definitely been my Drop Everything and Make project this month! Check out everyone else's here: http://www.mmmquilts.com/2017/11/dreami-linky-10.html

For Spelling Bee Saturday, we did not go on to the letter G, but went back and made some picture blocks the bird and the butterfly.

I also made my Bella block. I need to embroider the details on all of these picture blocks.

I also finished a new Christmas pillow for my house. The red VW Beetle is special for me because my first car was a 1970 one. The pillow is 18 inches square.

The only place I ventured out to on Black Friday was Joann's. I wanted to pick up my minky backings for the Supernova Quilt and my Patchwork Swoon and use my 25% off their sale price. I also checked out the Christmas fabrics at 70% off and found this buffalo check for $1.79 per yard. Yes, I will take all six yards please! 

I made three of this style Christmas pillows this week. I am planning on gifting them for some of my work friends. Here is the link the the free tutorial:

http://nanacompany.typepad.com/nanacompany/2015/11/merry-and-bright-cushion-cover-free-pdf-pattern-.html

I have one more to embroider this evening for Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/11/slow-sunday-stitching_26.html

I am back to work tomorrow, but I hope to get Supernova finished up this week. Stay tuned for pictures...

Untraditional Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving Week! I have the whole week off and it started on Friday afternoon with a stop by the fabric store to find a border for my Bee Happy Quilt. I auditioned a couple of dozen possibilities and settled on a green very similar to the one Lori Holt used in hers. I have a teal backing from my stash and they will definitely work together. This is so big--my thoughts of hand quilting have disappeared. I would really like to have this one quilted with a honeycomb design, so I think I will send it to https://quiltingbydavid.com He has posted a few pictures on Instagram of some quilts done that way. It will probably have to wait until February with my budget tapped out for Christmas.

I also grabbed the red border for my Patchwork Swoon Quilt. I made this quilt with a combination of Kate Spain's North Woods fabrics and some Bonnie & Camille scraps. This one is about 70 inches square. I am going to hit the Joann's sale and buy a minky backing and I made an appointment with my local quilter for a snowflake design all over this one. I want this one done in time for our Christmas break on December 21st! I also need to get the football quilt done in time for the playoffs even though the Broncos will not be in them this year!

I am keeping up with the Spelling Bee Sew Along. E was the letter last week

and F is the letter this week. I splurged on the letter board from Joann's with a 60% off coupon--it was going to be on my Christmas wish list, but for $8 I could not resist! 

My Christmas Gift Making groove is already on! I made four gifts for my sister's family a week and a half ago--in time to journey with my parents to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving and save me on the shipping costs. I used a Cozy Christmas charm pack to make four Christmas pillow tops. One is done and the other three are awaiting the embroidery. I think they will be sweet gifts for some work friends. Here is the link to that free and easy pattern:

http://nanacompany.typepad.com/nanacompany/2015/11/merry-and-bright-cushion-cover-free-pdf-pattern-.html

As I titled this post, "Untraditional Thanksgiving" let me explain. My parents left for Las Vegas to see my sister's family on Sunday and our daughter went to Scotland for the week--it was more than $500 cheaper for her to fly to Scotland instead of coming home. With everyone gone, that leaves my hubby and me alone! I offered to make a small scale Thanksgiving dinner with a turkey breast and the trimmings, but he requested chicken wontons. Excellent choice--much less labor and delicious! I probably will make a decadent dessert, but that means the whole day for football, quilting, and the National Dog Show. It sounds like a dream--low key and some of my favorite things...I doubt I will get out of my pajamas! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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FQS Mini Charm Chocolates Quilt

 Welcome! It is the big reveal--my first project I made for the Fat Quarter Shop--the Mini Charm Chocolates Quilt! This is a free pattern offered in three quilt sizes and a table runner. You can find the  pattern here:

https://static.fatquartershop.com/media/wysiwyg/pdf/MCchocolates-CompletePattern.pdf

I made the 30 1/2" x 38 1/2", but then I added an extra border to make it a bigger baby quilt. I cut my floral borders 6 1/2", so my finished size is 42 1/2" x 50 1/2".

I quilted it every 2 inches both vertically and horizontally with the built in wavy stitch on my Pfaff. This is the perfect quick baby quilt with the help of the three mini charm packs and wide borders, there is very minimal cutting and it sews together quickly!

Since I used the floral fabric as an extra border instead of my backing, I opted for a bright red minky for the backing. I used minky for the first time about a year ago--it is challenging because of the stretching, but it is so soft it is worth it. The key is pinning every 1 to 2 inches, quilting gloves, and a walking foot.

Thank you Fat Quarter Shop for allowing me to play with these beautiful fabrics and fun pattern!

Spelling Bee D Week

Welcome to D Week! I made my sweet little red D blocks and I think I need to make the dog block next.

Bella is my dog inspiration! Her coloring is so unique, so I need to do some stash digging. The vet referred to her as a merle with chocolate, we just say she looks like desert camo.

 I also made the last two blocks for the Bee Happy Sew Along--this is my orange flowers block

 and my watering can black. My machine really disliked my dark gray thread--so the stitching had lots of skips and was kind of messy, but it is on there and not going anywhere!

 Here are all of my rows together! I have already been enjoying the morning and our extra hour with some slow stitching and adding embroidery details to it. 

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/11/slow-sunday-stitching.html

This week we are scheduled to be adding borders to this--the borders are also appliquéd with honeycombs, so I have already been cutting those out since there are 68 of them! Of course, I want mine extra scrappy. I think I will be hand quilting this with perle cotton all winter...

I also finished my other side of my Welcome sign--Go Away as my hubby requested! 

I need to do some Xmas sewing this week, but I won't be able to share it! I also have a spy trying to find out what colors or theme is going to be used for one of my colleague's baby nursery. It is a good thing I have the whole week of Thanksgiving off in a couple of weeks!

Reveal Postponed

I received an email on Tuesday from the Fat Quarter Shop that they were postponing the reveal of our secret project to Friday, 11/10. Mine is complete and I am anxious to share, but we have to wait. Here is a picture of the back--

Stay tuned!