Blog tour and a giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day!



card from Barbara Crews at About.com

I want to share something special with you today.

I am so excited to have been asked to participate in the book blog tour for Cheryl Lynch's new book Quilt Fiesta. 

The tour starts on February 22 and will go until March 3.  I will host it on February 27.  Every blog you visit will be hosting a giveaway for an autographed copy of the book!  And I have been reading it!  It is so...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  See the blog tour schedule below.

2/22/11  http://pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com/

2/23/11  http://www.quiltsoupblog.com/

2/24/11  http://grandmacocosdesigns.blogspot.com/

2/25/11  http://quiltville.blogspot.com

2/26/11  http://fingerlakesart.blogspot.com

2/27/11  http://cyarnell.blogspot.com

2/28/11  http://amyscreativeside.com/

3/1/11    http://therootconnection.blogspot.com

3/2/11    http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com

3/3/11    http://CherylLynchQuilts.blogspot.com

Come out and join the fun!  Spread the word!

Keep dreaming...Colleen



A little Lucky Duck love on the island of Frauenchiemsee
 in Bavaria, Germany July 11, 2009.





Happy Birthday Mom!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Today my mother turned 29, again.  Really.  She has an apron and everything to prove it.  I t says-"29 and Holding".

So in addition to the yoga mat bag I posted about yesterday I gave her a few other things to go in it.

Two towels and a matching bag to put her yoga strap and other odds and ends in the bag.

I also added one of the two needle cases I made from the Be Mine Blog tour.

I made two because of printer issues I had to hand draw my patterns which ended up smaller then the original. 

I loved the large red buttons I found in my button stash.  Most are form my grandma's house.  Mom thinks they may have been on a little red coat.

I used a little chick retro print and added some cute heart pins.  My new little Gingher embroidery scissors fit perfectly.  I gave mom a pair for Christmas. 

I still have some Gingher embroidery scissors in 4 different styles in my Etsy store if any one is interested.  Use the coupon codes BMBT2010 for a 20% discount.

I also finished the pillow from the blog tour.

When I posted my pics in the Be Mine Blog flickr group I saw Kim's Big Quilting Adventure had posted a pic of an awesome Valentine tree skirt.  You can find pics and instructions for making it here.  One more thing for my list to make.

Tomorrow hopefully we may take a day trip and antique along the way and may be a quilt store too!

Keep dreaming…Colleen

My patio in the Christmas snow.



 

DQS10!! & odds and ends

 I'm so excited to be chosen to do the Doll Quilt Swap 10 (DQS10)!  The quilts people made for the last swap were some of the first I was fascinated by this summer when I started blogging.  I can't wait to get my partner and start planning my quilts.  I will blog about the process.

Now on to the birthday gift I made my mom.  Mom wanted a yoga mat for Christmas.  She zumbas, quilts, and does yoga at the Y each week.  Well I already had made/bought too much for Christmas so the plan was her birthday just a few weeks later.  When we went to IKEA and I was looking at the home decor fabrics she picked this

So I knew that was what I would use for her bag.

I found a coordinating quilting weight print for the lining and used this great yoga bag tutorial. 

As you can tell from the picture below she loved it! 

Inside I filled it with a yoga mat, two yoga blocks, a yoga strap, and that cute coordinating water bottle holder I made with this tutorial from Pink Chalk Studio.  She is holding it in her hand.  It actually has a small reusable water bottle in it that matches the color of the bag.  It also has insulated batting to keep the water cold.

I was very proud of my self and really like this bag.  I may have to find some home dec fabric and make one for myself.  Mmmm...maybe a trip to IKEA?

Check out how beautiful this quilt looks on my sister's bed.  This was one of two quilts I made for her this Christmas.  I hadI mean how was she this good?

Last but not least are the pictures of my finished Valentine's tree.

This shows the long pearl necklace that belonged to my grandmother.  I rediscovered it in a drawer and realized it would make a perfect garland for the tree.

I wrapped this white eyelet lace edging around the bottom of the tree.

So here it is all finished.  If you haven't been to any of the blogs on the  Be Mine Valentine blog tour, check it out the projects are all awesome!  I'm still working on the pillow and the other runner and the needle case and the garland and maybe the place mat.

Keep dreaming…Colleen



The birds had to clear off the snow before they could eat.



Quilting back in time

I was excited today to discover the weekly history blog Civil War Quilts written by Barabara Brackman.  Every week she gives the pattern for a Civil War era block and a story from that era.  She is a designer for Moda who designs Civil War reproduction fabrics. It is only the second week so only two blocks have been posted.   I realized when I sorted my stash that some of the 90's fabric is repro from around that era-I think they were Smithsonian collection?  This could be another way to bust my 90's stash.

I also found a stash of HST already sewn into squares with white on white prints that have the same old feeling.  I decided not to worry about size and went ahead and quickly sewed together the two blocks.

This first block is called 'Catch Me If You Can' in honor of the Underground railroad.  Notice how authentic I am using slightly different prints when I ran out.

The second block is my favorite star block with many names but on the blog is called 'North Star'.  You have to go read about the 1856 baby quilt in this pattern made for an abolitionist fair.  I put a little twist on it by not using a solid center.  I used the hst I already had cut.

I have been working on other projects.  Including finishing my Valentine tree and other projects from the Be Mine blog tour.  I also found this fabric in my stash hiding with the fat quarters to use with the charm squares in the other projects.  However they were put on hold as I was finally able to work on Mom's birthday gift for Sunday.  Sadly there are no more Sew Days this week as we are back to school tomorrow.  Of course we do have a vacation day Monday, so THREE DAY WEEKEND!

More pics to follow.

Keep dreaming…Colleen

Christmas snow and geese on the lake at Mom and Dad's.

Love is in the air?

No man , I wish. However I do LOVE my first swap block form Lana in Texas!

I love the green, polka dots, and the fussy cut fabric from Wendy Slotboom's frolic line!  Thansk Lana it is awesome and so me!

Im also in love with the Be Mine Blog tour (see button to the right) this week. 
They have had some great patterns and have motivated me to create some Valentine's Day decorations!

I have this tree in my kitchen-here it is all decorated for  Christmas.

But I wanted to leave it up all winter.  However the decorations were too Christmasy. 

I have a lot of Valentine and romantic red charm squares in my stash.

So first I made a modern valentine table runner. 

I even had a great white on white print of hearts already cut into strips.

I also had about 4 yards of this red with tiny white hearts I used for the backing with a wrap around binding.

This goes on the top of my server(antique sewing machine).  Didn't it turn out great!

Then I made these cute stuffed read hearts. 

I was inspired by valentine heart ornaments.  Again with charm squares I already had and a heart pattern I've had for probably twenty years ago.  The ribbon actually came from the wrappings of Bed Bath and Beyond products.  Reuse!

I found a porcelain heart box my dad gave me years ago and here is my Valentine's Day kitchen decorations.  I already had a white wooden button garland on the tree.  I'm thinking about adding a pom pom garland too. 

At the top I added heart-in-hand cookie cutter set I found with a house-and-heart set for about $1 at a yard sale.

What do you think?  Oh and for around the bottom of the tree, what about some white eyelet material wrapped around the bottom?

This is what you do when you have FOUR snow days in a row-that includes another tomorrow!

There is another great pattern for a heart pillow I think I will make tomorrow and another great table runner.  So check out the Be Mine Blog tour on Spun Sugar Quilts there are three more to go!

Keep dreaming…Colleen



The Christmas Day snow covered the snowflake lights on Dad's roof-too cool! 
BTW he is that house in the nieghborhood when it comes to lights.