2nd quarter goals

Check out my UFO list on the left side. 

 I finished the two quilts started last August in January and February!  

1. Red & white quilt challenge

14. Habitat quilt

My 2nd quarter goals will be to focus on :

2. Finish Dad's Star Trek quilt

5. Finish Relay for Life Cancer Stars quilt

7. The 2nd Quilt Elongated star baby quilt for other cousins baby.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Mug rug I made for a Triangle MQG swap-was inspired by the IKEA mug.

Two Finishes!!!

I went over to Mom and Dad's house to take the pictures.

I finished TWO quilt over the weekend.  These two have been a long time in finishing.  I started it last summer when the challenge was anounced by collecting red and white fabrics . 

  

 The first was "All I want is red, wah,wah,wah" my red and white quilt for the Forsyth Piecers and Quilters guild challenge.   

I love how you can see the individual quilting I did on the blocks from the back.  This quilt has its own web page where you can find out more about its construction.

The next quilt was started backin the summer.  I call it "123 Squared" as I cut strips of 1", 2", and 3" from 8 fat eighths of Jay McCarroll's Habitat fabric and Westminster's Dogwood gray.  

That's my cute Daddy holding the quilts for me. 

 I love how the sun shows the straight line quilting.

  A challenge to Modern Quilt Guilds from The Modern Quilt Guild and Free Spirit fabrics.  I blogged about it here.  You can see quilts created in the challenge here.

Im so proud of my self that I finished TWO quilts in one month!

Come out and see these quilts and more (over 120!) at the Forsyth Piecers & Quilters quilt show this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Jazzy-girl was being a camera hog.  She was rolling in the dirt on her back all cute and fuzzy.  I told her she was in the shade so she got up, walked a foot away into the sun and proceeded to pose again.

What I've Been Sewing

First I wanted to let you know one of the reasons why I have not been posting as much.  I've started a new excerise training program at our local Fleet Feet store called No Boundaries.  Between dealing with my type II diabetes and the effects the medicines I take for it, I have lost the will to move.  I have always been such an outdoor person that I decided I needed to do something.  Through better regulated eating I have been slowly losing weight, though still have about 50 pounds to go.  Now I have a plan to get me to the activity level I need to do every day.  Plus there is daily guidance.  Mondays and Thursdays we meet at 6pm, all 150 of us, and run (though I walk) the prescribed distance and then we stretch together.  Im loving it!  I have always loved to walk but now have constant encouragement-there are 20 plus coaches/mentors.  My goal is to get in shape and continue to lose weight so I no longer need the medicine that has given me such bad side effects for the last couple of years.

*****

So back to sewing.  Tuesday is Triad Modern Quilt Guild and as swap Mama I am hosting a Travel Pillow swap.  Here is the pillow I created for my secret partner.  

I used my EZ Dresden ruler and pulled out 20 + scraps from my special scrap bin, so each blade is different.  

I offset them on a Kona Ash background. 

 I freehand quilted in 5 different pearl cottons.  I did not plan out the design but just let the color and the space dictate the design.  I put in my first hidden zipper on the side and it was simple!  I can't find the link I used, but Design Sponge has a good tutorial doing it the same way.  

So here again is the finished pillow!  I love how it turned out!  It look nice on my studio chair.  I may have to make one for myself!

*******

I'm also making a pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap.  Here are some of the fabrics.

I love using instagram on my iphone for quick pictures.

And have started to play with the design.

Can you tell that they will be Polaroid pictures?  I still have fabrics to play with.  I plan to piece the whole top and then use my embroidery machine to add captions to the photos.

*****

I forgot to blog about Superbowl Sunday.  Not so much about the game as I am not that into sports.  But I usually hang with mom and dad and make some good finger foods.  Mom supplied veggies & dip and chips & salsa as well as shrimp.  Dad vetoed the usual favorite of pigs in blankets.  So I decided to make Pioneer Woman's Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders. 

They were easy to make!  I halved the recipe and made 6 sliders.  

 Don't look too hard at my messy presentation.

They were very good!  Everyone loved them including me!

 I also whipped up a batch of PW Strawberry oatmeal bars for dessert.  Yummy!  

And Dad agreed!

******

Today I'm working on basting two tops.  First my red and white challenge quilt.  I kind of got sidetracked on this but need to step it up. I will use more of the Bliss red and white for the binding.  I'm entering this in the quilt show and only have a month to quilt it.

backing

Second I finished up this quilt top.  I'm also entering this in the general quilt show.  I will straight line machine quilt this.  I have to get one small piece of fabric because I ran out of  the Jay McCarroll and used up the Freespirit Dogwood Gray for the backing.  I will put a scrappy binding on this.  

This was a project from the Modern Quilt Guild challenge.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

I received this in the mail.  My prize from #talknt twitter chat party.
Moda was the sponsor and I received a bag full of mini charm packs and a United Notions pouch!

Habitat layout, maybe

Spent the day at the Dixie Classic Fair.  Got there when it opened at 9am and didnt leave until 3pm!  I will blog about what I ate and show pictures later. 

So Ive been sitting with my sore feet up and playing around in Publisher with a layout for my habitat challenge quilt.  I think I have found what I like.  It really is me! 

 Can you get a little bit of an Amish feeling with the layout?  Im thinking no border with using whatever scraps I have for the binding.  The back may be whatever I have left of the habitat and the gray which is one of the new Free Spirit solids called Dogwood.  I really like Dogwood because the gray has hints of brown.  Let me know what you think.  I will probably try to sew it tomorrow so I can plan the quilting.  Any ideas?  I kind of thinking a square spiral for the center. Triangular spirals in the corners of the gray.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Dont forget my giveaway for this FQ bundle.  Go here to enter!

Inspiration strikes finally!

My design wall looks a little different tonight! Yeah!

(the Navy goat is for Dustin bc he asked)



Ok so tonight I posted to my blog and was trying to clear the backlog of blogs I needed to read before I went to bed.  And there it was...my inspiration ... on Mommy's Nap Time!

So I'm talking about what the next step was with my Habitat challenge

I have had this mess on the wall stuck with what to do.  So I sewed sets of two segments together. Then I got out the 12.5 inch square and cut each out four squares and was left with these

I love it!  It was exactly what I was trying to achieve.  After cutting the squares I was left with a pile of misshapen triangles.  So I got out my smaller 8.5 inch square and cut them into 1/2 square triangles and ended up with these

I will probably play a little with the combinations of triangles.  I think I may float the large and one small on the front in the dogwood gray and no border probably a scrappy binding.  And put the other small on the back with a medium blue from my stash.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Ive been reorganizing my stash..it still is not neat enough!

What's on my design wall tonight

This is what's on my design wall tonight.

I made my first star block for the  FQ Stars Quilt A long

I used these fabrics from 16 fat quarters I blogged about Monday. 

 I also have a giveaway you can enter for a twin set of the fat quarters.

* * * * * * * * * *

This is the center for my DSquilts mini quilt along.

Im not sure what I will do next for borders.  Or I may put it on the back as I am feeling a little uninspired by it.

* * * * * * * * * *

This hot mess is going to be my Jay McCaroll Habitat fabric challenge quilt.  I need to get at least the top down before the next guild meeting.  Ive been a little blocked as what I thought I want doesnt look like it will work. 

Time for bed.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



I mounted 8x10 pics last night on foam board.
 I took them to the Dixie Classic fairgrounds today to enter them in the fair's amateur photo contest.
 I also took 1 small quilt and three wall hangings.



A mystery and a winner!

Good news! As I closed out the giveaway I saw we had 110 comments!  That means I have put together extra bundles of 90's fabrics!

So first I want to tell you about my treasure hunting.  I blogged here about my trip to Hillsville, VA flea market and the treasures I found.  Especially this quilt.

I took most of the ties out to remove the top. 

I exposed how part of the back is dyed feed sack, with the writing turned to the inside.  I found a cool article on the founding of Royster which had its roots in Tarboro, NC.   It was fascinating how many different weights and weaves the fabrics were in this quilt.

You can see the blocks exposed of the inner quilt.  This is a very old quilt!

It is also very deteriorated.  But look string blocks!  I dont know if the old quilt was so deteriorated when it was sandwiched or if washing effected it.

As you can tell in this pic there was a lot of lint in the folds of the binding.  I think this quilt was washed a lot.

The surprising things were all of the 'other' things I found sandwiched inside.   Let me tell you and show you some of them and then think about why.  BTW I think the older quilt is probably from 1860's.  I went by looking at the woven fabrics on the back that are fairly strong and the mostly disintegrated piecing on the front.

The outer quilt is probably 30's or 40's.  But what in the world is inside?  Can anyone tell from this?  What is it?

Yes it is someones undergarment.  Around the edge of the quilt these were folded to fill in the shortage of length I guess of the older quilt.  

Here is the slip. What do you think 30's 40's?  I think it is like a kind of organza?  It is handmade with lace straps and edging.  Im not good with non cotton fabrics. There were other pices of what seemed to be cut up womens bloomers? and mens cotton what??  do you call old fashioned mens underclothes.  There were also random pieces of various fabrics from thick wollens to cotton to a dotted swiss printed voile.  When I finish taking it apart I will photo all pieces of the quilt better.

* * * * * * *

So now for the winners! I created a virtual 10 sided die with the digits 0-9 and rolled it three times.  First I got a 0 then a 6 then 8 so 68!

Congrats to Mimi who wins the first bundle left over form my two stretched stars quilt!

Mimi said...
I am a new follower and look forward to your future blog posts!! Thanks for this sweet giveaway! I'd love to make a stretched star quilt!

Now for the bonus bundles!

And the winners are with six more rolls of the virtual dice!

#20 Natasha and #15 Irina!

Congrats to all winners!  Please send me your snail mails and I will send out you bundles asap so you can get started on your scrap quilts!

keep dreaming...Colleen



I have cut my Jay Carrol Habitat challenge fabric and the solid gray
 into1", 2", 3" strips.  More to come...