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.

Vote! and a few finishes...

I am alive and well...to quote a few bloggers who have been AWOL for more than a week.  I have just been busy.  Sewing for swaps, training for the 5K, and trying to deal with my diabetes through eating and medicine management.  I have still been taking pictures and infact have about 7 pages in flickr I havent shared.  Instagram is addictive and I tend to fb, tweet, and flickr pics.  Don't worry I will spread the photos out over the week.  Which by the way is my spring break!  Yeah!  A sewcation!

First up the Dress your roll competition has ended and the voting has begun!  Please go to see Quilt Jane and vote for me LuckyDuckDreams-Dresden chic!  

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Now a finish.  I participated in the Pillow Talk Swap on flickr.  My partner was none other then QuiltDad !  That kind of had me nervous, but I put that aside and let the stalking begin.  That is one of my favorite parts of swaps!  Not because I'm crazy, but because I never know what will inspire my design.  In swaps I think you should have something that fits your partner, but also something that reflects you.  I already followed Quilt Dad in the blogs and had met him at Triangle Modern Quilt Guild where he is the swap swami.  I use him as a guide when I plan swaps for the Triad Modern Quilt Guild.  On his inspiration mosaic was a photo of a block made up of 9 Polaroid style quilt blocks.  I had been wanting to try that idea and so this pillow was born.

I chose fabric very specifically and even wrote a little story to go along with the pictures.    I didn't like the idea of just the pictures so thought I would make more of a quilty scrapbooking style.

So I made some hexies with the fabric scraps.

And a little partial dresden,

I also used the hexie paper to quilt with coordinating purple and orange pearl cottons. 

I even put in a hidden zipper which was super easy following this tutorial.   I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Even the back is too cool!  I was going to use the typewriter as one of the Polaroids but didn't realize that they were 6" wide!

I also took the scraps of Lizzy House and whipped up a little box bag, pin cushion, and notepad cover.  Then I want through my notions stash and filled it with great stuff.

Here is the incredible awesome perfect-for-me pillow I received from Mo Bedell.

I just love it!

Keep dreaming...Colleen

My red and white quilt won honorable mention in the challenge quilt category.

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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

Red and White Challenge Quilt

title: All I want is red, wah, wah, wah...

creator:  Colleen Charlotte Yarnell

location:  Lewisville, NC

Date:  January 2012

Challenge:  Create a 36"-48" red and white quilt for the Forsyth Piecers and Quilters March16-18 2012 Quilt Show Challenge

Inspiration:  I love the swoon-along happening online in blog land.  It inspired me to create a 24" red and white swoon block.  Then using 3" blocks as the basis for the rest of the quilt created my favorite star blocks.  A 12" wonky star, a 9" Friendship star, a 6" Free hand star, a 3" whirly-gig star, and a 1" pin wheel.  The title comes from the song I would sing in my head as I searched for red and white fabrics in quilt stores.  It was hard to findfabrics with JUST red and white and not a touch of block or yellow.  And there are so many different shades of reds!

Here are some photos documenting the construction and quilting.

Piecing the Swoon block.  I use my Marti Mitchell templates.

Friendship star

Wonky star

Freehand star

Pinwheel and Whirly-gig Star

Laying out blocks to figure out placement.

Piecing the back with leftover fabric.

I machine quilted each of the blocks differently.  I used a pebble quilting for the wonky star points.  

And here are some close ups of the quilting.
I
I used just a little bit of the variegated thread with the tiniest block.  It makes it look as if it is blowing in the wind.  I like how it gives the whole quilt the look as if the blocks are being tossed in air.

The rest of the red background I free motioned quilted with my Sofia last Sunday in a tiny loop.


At the bottom of the quilt I put a piece of Kumari Garden. 

 I love this large scale read and white print.  I decided to do some hand quilting here. 

 I wrote 'read and white red and white' in chalk and then signed Colleen Y.  

I quilted over it using red pearl cotton. 

My only problem was the chalk was not easy to remove.


I hadnt stitched the binding down.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Pillow made for mom's birthday with red and white scraps from this quilt.  The pattern is a 12" Swoon by Camille Roskelly.