Sew day and a giveaway

If you are looking for my giveaway go here.

I have spent early Saturday morning sewing up some goodness with a finish and a beginning.  So let me ask you have you ever had an idea grab you?  Something you have never done and never really thought you could do?  Machine quilting has been that idea for me in many ways.  Especially the dense patterns such as I see Leah Day do on her blog.  So how did I get brave enough to do this?

I tried to think of all the ways I could quilt these little houses on my mini quilt swap piece and the stone like pattern just insisted I try it. 

 Boy was it tiring.  Even on such a small quilt.  And I had to dig out my elegant gardening gloves that look like evening gloves but have gripper stuff on them.  I also went through 2+ bobbins because it is such a dense pattern. 

I straight line quilted the borders which seem to set off the center nicely!  And then added a happy dot border.

BTW here is the pattern I drew up on the computer to paper piece the little houses.  I also free pieced a couple.

I used this wonderful busy Kafe Fassett for the back which went well with the the other fabrics and hid the quilting.

I think it turned out great and cant wait to give it to my secret partner at the TMQG next Sunday!

Keep dreaming...Colleen



I am up to 5 blocks!  Veggie Hunter blogged about hers! I cant wait to see the other 5!



Swaps and a giveaway

Check out my last post on the elongated star scrap quilt and a giveaway.

And now to show you some swaps I have been working on.  First is a mini quilt I have been working on for the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild.  We have a secret partner who we stalk and then create a small doll size quilt for.

My partner had no real preferences.  Just bright colors.  The backing is a bright, colorful, and light Kafe Fasset print. The little houses were inspired by kaitcetera little houses quilt.  I am trying to decide whether to machine quilt or to hand quilt with pearl cottons.  What do you think? 

I received this wonderful mug rug in the Scrappy Mug Rug haiku swap on flickr from snailexpress.  We had to make a mug rug and write a haiku.  I love she used my favorite Tula Pink fabrics.  My Pringce Chaming is hanging in my studio.  She also made a cute little coin purse.  Awesome!

Here are three of the blocks I have received from my month August for Bee Together.  I cut up my DS Quilts Fairground and Picnic(US prints).

I asked everyone to make a wonky star.  I included three large squares of the DS Quilts and of some Kona Snow.  I told them to use some of all of the fabrics but the white did not have to be the background.  I also included a mosaic of some wonky stars. 

I cant wait to receive the rest!

keep dreaming...Colleen



Have you seen this goodness?  Sugar creek. 

DS Quilts second collection for Joanns. 

So far only 12 prints have shown up.



Current projects and a GIveaway!

I thought I would show you the progress I am making on my two elongated star baby quilts.

Here is the first quilt finished.  I blogged about it here.  This was a great project for using up some 90's stash with a few modern prints thrown in.

I made a label on my BL Sofia.  I love my new machine!!!

For the next quilt let me show you how I made it.

  I layered about twenty different prints in a rainbow of colors.  I tried to stick to prints that 'read' as a solid color. I whacked them into 3" squares. 

 The I grabbed every off white print on print muslin I had and whacked them all into 6.5 inch squares. 

Then you sew a small square onto opposite corners of a muslin square. 

You trim off the corners and then press them into this.

Whats great is if you feed those corners immediately into your sewing machine you end up with a basket full of half square triangle squares.  (is that right?) My future doll quilt maybe?

I trimmed up the second cat block and then all of the blocks. 

I must have been off on my seams, I think its that new foot because I had to trim them to 6.25".  Oh well it all comes out in the end.

Here are all the trimmings for the scrap bag.  Don't worry I'm one of those who never wastes ANYTHING.  So when the bag (an old laundry bag from my grandma's made of old feed sacks) gets full I pass the scraps, all cut up to a friend who makes dog beds for dogs trained by prisoners.  Whew!  That was a mouthful! 

I love this IKEA fabric I picked out last Dec.  There was enough on the mini bolt to back  both quilts and turn it to the front to make the binding.  I wish I had more of this fabric as it would look great on back of my future, as yet to be decided what, Bliss quilt.

 Now I just have to piece the second one that is currently on my design wall and then quilt it.  BTW I machine quilted on my Sofia for the first time.  After trial and error with thread and some ripping I finally got it figured out.  Luckily the quilting foot from my Kenmore fit so I didn't need to buy a new one.

*******************

So would you like to make your own elongated star quilt?  You could put your own block in the middle or none at all.  To help you start I am giving away this stack of 20 prints left over from both quilts. 

There is anywhere from about an 1/8 of a yard to almost a fat quarter or more of each.  To win leave one comment for each of the following.  Every comment gives you an extra chance.  If I get more than 100 comments on this post I will add another giveaway or two of my 90's fabric.

1.  Leave a comment telling me your favorite scrap quilt to make.

2.  Be a follower and let me know you are.

3.   Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment telling me you did.

The giveaway will be open  until 5pm on Wednesday, September 7. 

 I will pick a winner or winners then.

That's it!  Good luck!

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Yeah!  My Scrappy Mug Rug Haiku from Snailexpress on flickr. 
My prince has come! And look at the cute purse!



Foto finish-favorite places

Gull Lake, Ontario Canada.  My favorite place on earth.  This is the morning we left after spending our vacation there just two weeks ago.  It is my place of fun, my place of renewal, my place of wildness, my place of memories, my place of peace. And yes this is where when I die I want my ashes spread. 

 Check out the other foto finishes this week and add your own!

 Keep dreaming...Colleen

My favorite activity on Gull Lake is kayaking the back creeks and bays.

new modern meets old traditional

I showed a blurry photo of this baby quilt as it was coming together in an earlier post.

  I thought as neither cousin who is having the babies (I am making two quilts!) knows what they are having I would make it scrappy.  I love this modern pattern.  It is quick and easy. 

This fabric is what I am thinking of using for the backing.  It is a great fabric I picked up cheap at IKEA.

The center block is a hand appliqued cat, embroidered around the edge and for the face by my Grandma.  She also use to make dog blocks.  These were used in quilts for the second generation of grandchildren.  My generation received charm square quilts.  Here is the first one she gave me when I was about 3 or 4.

I still love to sleep under it.  It is very heavy.

Here is the second one she gave me when I was around 12 or 13. 

I love to put this on my bed in the summer.  I love the shirting fabrics she used from fabric sample cards. 

I love them both.  I need to get a photo of my sisters cat quilt.  It had about 12 blocks in it.

Keep dreaming...Colleen





The first real quilt I made was for my grandmother and here I am giving it to her for her birthday.  It lived with her for ten years in the nursing home where she suffered from Alzheimer's.  I have it back and after 10 years of bleach through the wash it does not quite look like this anymore.  The yo yos made hyacinths I always loved to smell in her garden.  The red fabric for the ribbon came from her house when we cleaned it out to sell.  It is totally faded and washed out.  Except for the black sharpie ink where they wrote her name on the back.