ALYOF January 2014 Finished

These two wool felt blocks were what I challenged myself to get done in January.

These friendship star blocks were part of what was in Quiltmaker's January/ February 2014 issue for their Love Blooms Here Quilt I am making this year.

I am glad I have kept up and I can't wait for the next issue and instructions to arrive!

Charity Sewing & Winner

Hard to believe the weekend is over! I don't feel like I accomplished that much. I did enjoy lots of new visitors from the Grow Your Blog event and I found some new blogs to keep track of, but I did not get as much sewing in as I hoped. I did finish an incredible book, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and cried my eyes out.

 

During the Christmas season, someone's blog (I apologize, I don't remember who) shared a couple of adorable lunch boxes she made for coworkers. I made note of it because I am always looking for new bags to create. One of the charter schools in my town has an annual bag silent auction and I usually donate a bag. The bag designer, Ayumi, has a great tutorial, you can find here: http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2010/08/tutorial-lunch-bag.html

I picked up outdoor fabric at Joann's because I thought it would be sturdy and not need interfacing. I bought a 1/2 yard of the purple fabric and a 1/2 yard of the lime green chevron fabric. I had the black dot in my stash and I did buy the cording (I am going to change it for a more delicate kind). I spent $8 and can make another bag with what I have left. I might pick up a bento box and water bottle to put in it. I think I might make another couple of these bags with vinyl fabric for the lining, so they will be easier to wipe out. I am really pleased with the result and the fact that it went together quickly. I will definitely make at least two to donate and one for me!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!! Look what I won from mybrownbagstudio.com and Green Fairy Quilts. This Sewing Box jelly roll is precious. It is bright and happy...Now, I need the perfect project!

I also worked on a sewing machine cover/mat for my Singer Featherweight. I am using Lori Holt's pattern from Quilty Fun and I got all the triangle/hourglass blocks done. I still need to work on the spools and get a gray fabric. My embroidered pink elephants are also waiting for me to put them into a baby quilt, I need to go to the store and buy some pink and gray yardage, but going to the quilt shop is dangerous for my budget!!! I do need to get going on my elephant baby quilt if I am going to hand quilt it. I have too many projects going and need to finish some more up this week. My job really interferes with my quilting... What are you up to?

Grow Your Blog & Giveaway

Greetings! My name is Tanya and I have been quilting for nearly 20 years. My blog is dedicated to quilting. I only started blogging last June and have really become inspired by other quilting blogs. Since I have quilted for so long, I have tried lots of different techniques and my tastes have certainly evolved.

I confess that I have not finished my first quilt. It is a UFO (gasp, a quilter with a UFO, shocking!) and can be found in a tub in my garage. Every time I look at it, I am horrified by my terrible piecing skills, the atrocious colors, and my ridiculous attempt at beginning to hand quilt it...I fear it is destined to always be a UFO!

I like country and primitive quilts. The big, chunky stitches of quilting and embroidering with perle cotton and delicious wool felt are my favorite things to do as far as handwork. Handwork is definitely my therapy! This is a primitive flower quilt. I used wool felt and appliqued it onto flannel using perle cotton.

Lately, I have become restless with country and primitive quilts which was kind of what drove me to the quilting blog world. I found Lori Holt's blog beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com in June and immediately started her row along project. I made this in a couple of weeks, but have yet to finish it because I can't make a decision about the borders. Do these kinds of dilemmas stump anyone else besides me? And then these same uncertainties prevent you from finishing a project....

I find myself drawn to more modern quilts and fabrics. I like the bright colors and how the gorgeous fabric is the predominate feature in the quilt.

To celebrate this Grow Your blog event, I am offering this kit that has been in my stash for too many years to count. I have enough Christmas quilts for my home and classroom, I want to pass it on to someone who will make it! It is 22"x 22" and includes the fabrics, batting, buttons, and embroidery floss. You do not need to follow my blog to enter (I am not even sure how to arrange all the followers stuff), if you could just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite type of quilting is. I will draw for a winner on February 15th and will figure out how to ship it anywhere...Good luck and I can't wait to meet some new, talented bloggers!

Perpetual Calendar - Slow Stitching

Has anyone else out there in blog land seen the free perpetual calendar pattern from Crabapple Hill Studios? They posted the final directions and this is going to be my next Slow Stitching embroidery project! I should finish up my last elephant tonight and get the calendar embroideries traced tomorrow night. Here is a link to directions for the calendar http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/other-stuff/downloadables/how-time-flies-bom.html

I will be posting tomorrow night as part of the Grow Your Blog party/link up and I am going to host my first giveaway, so check back to see what I am sending out to a lucky quilter!

Owl Baby Quilt Finish

So I made one of these quilts a couple of years ago, right after I had gotten my new sewing machine that has a cute buttonhole stitch for appliqueing. My friend loves owls and had a mural of a giant tree with owls in it painted in the nursery, so I thought the design was perfect.

One of my friend's relatives saw the quilt at her baby shower and contacted me begging for me to make her one. Now that my machine appliqueing skills are better and since I forgot to take pictures of the original, I agreed to make one for a pretty decent sum! Plus, I could justify buying some bright fat quarters to make it. I quilted it on the LAM and it was good practice. Aren't those owls adorable?

I plan on making the most of my day off work today!

Scrap Sewing & Slow Stitching

These are my last two January/February BOM blocks for the Love Blooms Here Quilt. I can't wait for the next issue of Quiltmaker to make some more wool felt blocks! I love creating a whole quilt from my stash of scraps.

This is Block 1 for this year's joinedatthehip sampler quilt. I am making mine with modern fabrics (chocolate, aqua, lime green, tomato red, and yellow) and plan on setting it vertically, so it will fit better in my sewing room.

And block 2...It is so much more pleasant making scrap quilts now that I have my scraps organized by color in bins under my cutting table!

Block 3 and the quilt they will be part of is below. The 6 inch blocks are a little more difficult that 12 inch ones!  I really plan on challenging myself and only using fabrics I already have.

For my slow stitching during today's championship games, I will be embroidering adorable pink elephants with perle cotton. I need 12 for a baby quilt I am making. I have 5 done. They will finish 6 inches and be set between gray and pink nine patches. Hopefully, I can piece that next weekend!

I have tomorrow off from work, so I hope to make the most of my time in my sewing room!

Ice Cream Cone Quilt Finish

This is my UFO project for Country Threads monthly drawing. This was number 10 for January. It is a Buggy Barn design that was modified to be smaller. I started it in the summer of 2012 when I took a Buggy Barn class.

I had planned on practicing with the long arm and quilting it this past summer, but that never happened.

I tried to quilt swirls in the ice cream scoops themselves. The rest of the quilt is in loops. I barely had enough of the multicolor stripe for the binding.

The raspberry back was one of my last purchases from one of my favorite quilt shops before it closed, but I love how it pulls the whole thing together.

Of course my swirls were the best on the last two blocks! I am never going to get better on the long arm unless I practice, even though it scares me silly. I make my students persevere, so I better too! I hope to get some more projects done on the long arm soon...