A Quilty Finish!

I made this quilt earlier on in the year and I turned it in to my longarm quilter.  I got it back on Friday and put the binding on.

I am so in love with the colors.

 It is bright and vibrant.  I love the  "Seahorses" too.  The pattern is from "Quilty" Magazine.

 I bound it in a black and white polka dot and love how it turned out.

 Tick, another one off the list of UFO's.

 My Christmas Cactus is doing it's thing and blooming at the moment.  Such pretty blooms.

 It is just covered in buds and blooms.  Amazing how they know the time of year!

A Needlepunch Christmas Wall Hanging!

I have been decorating for Christmas!  My favorite season by far!  I love the soft glow of a Christmas tree at night.  I usually have a few trees up.  This year I have three (so far - who knows what might happen in the next few days).  This one is in our family room.

 This is a little table vignette!  I love those reindeer candle holders.

 This little scene is at the mail center in the kitchen.  My son painted the tree.  He did such a good job.

 This quilt is hanging on the kitchen wall.  I love the little red birds on a wire!

 I started this needle punch a few years ago.  It has been on my UFO list for W A Y too long.  Well I finished the needle punch and there it sat again waiting to be quilted.  I was not not going to finish this in time for Christmas.  It was an evenings work to get it done.

Isn't he a grand fellow?  He now hangs on the family room wall.  I hope you are all having fun this season with your decorating.  I know I am.  Thank you for stopping by.

A Christmas Cushion!

I should not be starting anything new - but I did and I finished it too.  I wanted to make a Christmas Cushion!  I love Deer so much.  They are such elegant animals.  I thought two on a cushion would look good.

 I used Heat n Bond underneath the deer and machine blanket stitched them down to the background fabric.  I then made my quilt sandwich and shadow quilted around the deer.  My pillow form is 20".  I cut the background fabric to 19 inches when quilted.  Once I bind around the edges the measurement is 18 inches finished.  I love a plump well stuffed pillow.  This works really well.

 We had a really spectacular sunset on Saturday night.  I could not resist snapping a few pictures.

 It was so beautiful.

A Stitcher's Dream Bag!

I pattern tested a new bag designed by my sweet friend Natalie Rawlinson.  She is just such a good pattern writer.  Her directions are so clear and concise!  She has lots of pictures too which are such a help.

 This bag is awesome.  So many lovely pockets inside to put your favorite notions into.

 Lots of space for a decent amount of handwork.  Can you just imagine all the hexies you could fit in here.  Natalie will be selling her pattern on Craftsy probably by the end of the week.  It is called "Stitcher's Dream Bag".  If you want to make a bag that works up like a dream, run, don't walk to Craftsy and get your pattern!

Value Proposition Sew-a-long!!!

Well I have been missing from Blogland for quiet some time!  I have been stitching though!  I promise!!!  I have been playing "catch-up" on my Value Proposition quilt.  Karen at Faeries and Fibres has a gorgeous sew-a-long using 1" hexagons.  This quilt is a lesson in value and it has proved to be a very good exercise for me.  I have loved making the blocks.  I have 11 completed blocks and 1 partial blocks done out of 16 blocks and 2 partials published.  So not too much further to go to be up to date.

The blocks will be surrounded by a triple path and I have got the first round attached to seven of the blocks.

 The inner path will be a darker charcoal color.  Green is one of my favorite colors and I don't have a green quilt so wanted to make this one green.

I am so happy with the progress so far.  Karen does many English Paper Piecing Projects and today she is publishing a stunning pattern of her own design called "81 The Giant Monstrosity".  It is a beautiful pattern and is FREE.  Run, don't walk on over to Karen's blog and have a look.  You will be so glad you did.

A Quilty Finish!

Around the end of last year I found Christmas Spools Pattern on Moda Bake Shop and really liked the design.  I made up the quilt top really quickly and then it just sat there waiting to be quilted.  I pin basted the quilt and started in on the quilting.  I was trying to take a short-cut of course!

Pin basting has never worked for me and I got a dreaded pucker on the back!

 So there it sat for a couple more weeks.  I finally took the quilt and thread basted it during Nascar on Sunday!

 Then I got down to some serious quilting!

 Done!  The binding was done by attaching it to the front and stitching it down by hand on the back of the quilt.  It needed to be exactly at 1/4" on the front because there is no border on the quilt.  Which meant my quick machine binding method was not going to work on this quilt.

 I did some fun FMQ and had a blast quilting this quilt!

More of the quilting!

Some lovely Moda Solid  fabric on the back and a striped binding!

Finished Fall Tablerunner!

I posted this top a few weeks back.  Well I finally got down to quilting it yesterday.  I was waiting for it to tell me how it wanted to get quilted and it took it's sweet time.

It finally told me it wanted leaves, and pebbles...

 and acorns...

 I really like the colors - The fabric is called Autumn Woods!

Help For Hexaholics!!!

Today I am linking up with Sarah who hosts Help for Hexaholics once a month.   This is my work box with a hexi project in it.  I am making grandmothers flowers which will be appliquéd to a background square.

 The fabric is called "Wishes"!

The background fabric is not showing up too well in the picture.  It is more green in real life.

 Blocks waiting to be appliquéd.  I am using 1" hexies and the background block is being cut at 7.5".

Here is my box of completed blocks.  There is a good little stack!  I am enjoying this project and it might be one that I actually finish relatively quickly.   Thank you for stopping by!

Quiltmania Quilt Progress!

I have been sewing like a crazy woman!  My previous post showed the quilt I wanted to make from the latest Quiltmania Magazine (103).  I used my STASH for the entire quilt.  I have not bought a single piece of fabric for this quilt!  I have been stitching squares for a week!  One hundred squares per block and thirty blocks in all.

 It is as lovely as I hoped it would be.

I am in the process of putting on the borders.  I am finished with the pieced border and just have the outer border to attach and then the top is finished.  I had so much fun making the top.  I LOVE small pieces of fabric.  

I have another Quiltmania quilt on the go from several years back.  I am using some of the leftover fabric to cut more 1/2" hexagons for this project.  I will post my finished top tomorrow!  Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely day!

A Quiltmania Quilt!

On Monday this week, I went to the LQS to pick up my latest edition of Quiltmania Magazine (103). Now it is very rare for me to not find at least one quilt that I want to make from the magazine.  There are two in this issue that have spoken to me.

 One is this postage stamp quilt.

I have wanted to make one for a long while now and I actually have a scrappy one as a Leader Ender project.  These blocks are 10 by 10 one inch squares.  A hundred per block and thirty blocks in the quilt.  Oh I could not wait and went to pick fabric out of my stash.  I have 13 blocks done - 1300 little squares put together and I am loving the process.  Oh please don't let my enthusiasm evaporate before I get a finish.  It is going to be gorgeous.

Last  but not least, Karen  sent me this gorgeous scissor fob, handmade and appliquéd by herself for me just because I admired them so much.  No, I did nothing to deserve this gift.  It was just kindness on her part that thoroughly made my day.  Thank you Karen!  I don't know what my sweet scissors ever did without this darling fob!