Fussy Cut Stars!

Temecula Quilt Co is having a sew-a-long.  You have to make one 2" six point star per week.  At the end of the year you will put them together into a quilt.  I was so not going to do this because I am already doing:  Soupçon Sew-a-long with Karen at Faeries and Fibres,
                         Hexie blog's BOM
                         Benjamin Biggs applique Quilt BOM
Luanne, over at Loose Threads was showing her beautiful stars and well, that just tipped me off the fence on that one.  So here I am playing catch up.  Friday is week five for the Diamond Stars.

So much of the fun with these stars is selecting your fabric.  Directional prints and stripes work very well indeed.  The same print can yield a few variations.

 Cutting from across the stripes yields concentric patterns.

 Choosing an element makes for a well balanced, interesting star.

I have been part of the Grow Your Blog event!  It has been so much fun.  I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who stopped by to visit.  A BIG thank you to my new followers. I am so excited to have met so many new friends who enjoy similar hobbies.  Thank you ladies! It is not too late to enter the competition for a chance to win a prize.  I might have to add a second prize.  Just comment on the blog post below.  You don't have to be a follower for a chance to win.  Anybody is welcome.
I'm off to stitch Star Number 5 and ahead of the game for a few days!!!  Imagine that!!! Have a great day!  See you soon.

Grow Your Blog Day!

Hi!  My name is Chantal and I would like to welcome you to my blog.  I am so excited by the opportunity to make new friends.

I started blogging about three years ago.  I had two reasons for this:
1. To have a diary of things I make
2.  To see all the wonderful projects people are working on.

I am a quilter - I started quilting 14 years ago when we moved to Dallas from South Africa.  When I thought about the USA in terms of handwork, quilting was the first thing that came to mind and I am so glad I decided to try it.  Fabric has become my obsession with yarn running a close second.

I have  knitted and crocheted for most of my life.  I had two wonderful grandma's who taught me how to crochet when I was five years old.  My Mom taught me how to knit.

I love to English Paper Piece too and host a Club at my Local Quilt Store for English Paper Piecers!
So when you visit my blog, you will see a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Always made with much love and enthusiasm.  Handmade, truly snaps my socks.

Here is some Christmas Quilting.  I do my own machine quilting too.  I mastered this art to not have to pay a quilter.  I would so much rather buy fabric!

 Here is some progress on a Yarn Eater afghan!  I love this stitch.  In the picture below is an example of some English Paper Piecing.
I have a present to give away to one lucky reader.  Now in my mind a gift is a surprise, so no picture!  I will announce the winner on the 15th of February chosen from a comment to this blog post.  I will ship to anywhere in the world, so go ahead and leave me a comment.  Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Your support means to world to me.  A BIG thank you to 2 Bags Full, for organizing this event.

My Soupçon Progress!

Karen from faeriesandfibres.blogspot.com has the most wonderful sew-a-long.  She posts clues every two weeks for a medallion style wall hanging.  She offers so much support though.  Examples of others work, tutorials and explains things so well.
I had a hiccup when I started though.  I did not do the hexie download properly and my hexes turned out to be too small.  I had already cut and basted the pieces.  Oh well, it is fixed now and I have everything correct and as it should be.

 Here are the correct size pieces which I needed!

 All basted with no tails sticking out at the top!

 I'm happy with the effect the fabric gives the rosette!

 I spent a fair amount of time auditioning background fabrics.  I like this one!

 One of the corners has its embroidery done.  I used three different strands of color and combined them to make the flower.  I like how it turned out.  I am also using a variegated floss for the leaves.  I have really enjoyed this project so far.  Give it a try!  Thanks for stopping by.

The Yarn Eater

I was browsing through some new blogs and came across Sarah London's blog.  She is a yarn person.  Well you know I love yarn as much as I love fabric.  She had a crochet-a-long for a Yarn Eater afghan. I have seen this pattern before but have not tried it.  Guess what?  She has a stellar tutorial on her blog which I had to try out.

 Isn't it an interesting afghan?  You can carry on with the rounds and make a big afghan in one piece.  Or you can make blocks and then join them up as you go along.  I like having a few portable projects which don't pin you to the couch and this is one of them.  I like the blocks.

 Each color round is made up of two rows.

 I have a couple more blocks waiting to be joined to these three!  I have fixed my boo boo and will appliqué my Soupçon block (from faeriesandfibres.blogspot.com) today and post about it tomorrow.  I am very excited about this quilt-a-long.  Have a great day and thank you for stopping by.

Live Simply

I signed up for a BOM in October last year.  Well, you all know how busy the end of the year tends to be.  I decided now was a good time to start on the BOM.  It is called Live Simply by Buttermilk Basin. Here is January's block.

 Last night I hosted the English Paper Piecing club at out local quilt store.  I baked some cupcakes for everybody.  It is so easy to make these butterflies.  You cut the top off the cupcake with a bread knife.  Cut the circle in half.  Ice the cupcake and stick the two halves of the circle into the icing to resemble wings.

 My talk last night at EPP was about all the delightful Sew-a-Longs on several blogs.  You see so many fabulous ones at this time of the year.  I have decided to partake in two of them.  The snowflake is part of a BOM from thehexieblog.blogspot.com
Isn't it beautiful.  My snowflake is done and now I need to appliqué it to the background fabric.  I am also playing along with Karen at faeriesandfibres.blogspot.com
What a beautiful blog she has and so many fantastic tutorials.  Her soupçon bi-monthly clues are just fabulous.  I will show mine next time I blog.  I hope you are having a fabulous day.  After all it is the weekend!!!

A Christmas Afghan Finish!

My talented son carved a crochet hook for me out of bone for Christmas.  I decided to use it for a Christmas afghan I wanted to make.  I had purchased the yarn already and was good to go.  This is the most awesome hook ever!  Smooth as silk and FAST!

I love granny squares!  Chevrons are so IN at the moment too.  So I decided to incorporate both elements into this afghan.  It is really bright and Christmassy.  I love the row of granny squares - that is ones starting point in the afghan.

 You make the squares first and then attach them on point with the white yarn.  Then you will crochet from both ends.  I did not want to leave wavy edges so I filled in the white areas on the ends of the afghan keeping to the pattern.

 Here is the crochet hook that my son made.  I really enjoy using it and it is now my favorite hook!
Of course I have a bunch of small yarn scraps so I have started this scrappy afghan with the common turquoise joining row!  Having fun with this little block.  A very portable project too.

First Finishes of 2014

Well January is off to a fine start with a few finishes under the belt.  I had started a table runner in December for Christmas but I never got it finished.  Yesterday was a miserable day - rainy and cold - so I decided to get out the table runner and finish it.  It only had to be quilted.  I have also done some knitting.  I finished some dish cloths.  I love making them because they are so quick and easy as well as useful.

My son graduates from college this year.  In anticipation of a potential moving out of the home, I bought him a crock pot in a sale at a local store.  I had a few crock pot recipe books and I thought a couple of kitchen rags would be a good thing to add to the pile.  

Here is my completed table runner.  I am happy with the way it turned out.  

This kitchen cloth is for a swap at my local quilt store on Saturday.  We are making valentine themed zipper pouches and I made this cloth to go inside the pouch with some yummy candy.

What Does a Quilter get for Christmas?

Answer:  Fabric of course!!!  I received a beautiful kit called Diamonds in the Sky by Free Spirit Fabrics.  It is so very pretty.  It is English Paper Piecing and the fabric is by Tula Pink.  I am so excited to be working on this quilt.  I have started some of the tumbling block pieces already.  I am glue basting for some added speed (using Sewline Glue sticks).

My Beautiful Kit

Isn't it pretty!

A couple of tumbling blocks done.

Backing and Binding Fabric.