This And That!

I finished a project that I started in the summer.   This delightful pattern is one of the 5 Fat Quarter patterns published by Jedicraftgirl and Gigisthimble this year.  I loved the patriotic pineapples and simply had to make one.  I made a table runner using the same pattern.  

I finish a top, make the binding and get the backing sorted out and then I hang it on a hanger in the "to be quilted" pile.  Sometimes this leads to quilt tops not being quilted for ages.  I really wanted to get this one quilted as I had the perfect place to hang it.  So, it jumped ahead in the queue!  

My dear friend Joy and I attended Stitchfest Tx this July.  We give each other a gift every day of the retreat.  This sweet kit is one of my lovely gifts and I felt like a quick project one afternoon and decided this would be perfect.  Isn't it sweet?

Sarah over at Sarah Did It! is hosting a temperature afghan sew along.  I am still playing catch up because I was late to the party, but here is my end of August block.

I write the date and the average temperature for the week on the stem.  

Meanwhile, fall is sort of happening outside.  These Maples border our property and are dressed in their fall finest.  So pretty.

I have a lily which seems to be a bit confused about the seasons.  I'll take it though as there are not too many flowers around at the moment.  

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and getting some sewing done.  

Love

Chantal

Hexie Temperature Quilt!

Sarah at http://sarahdidit.blogspot.com/2017/10/wednesday-weather-report-22-101817.html

started a hexagon temperature quilt in the summer of this year.  I wanted to join in the fun but have so many UFO'S that I did not start at the same time as everyone else.  I did write down the temperatures......just in case, and am I glad I did.  I have recently finished the top of a plain hexie rosette quilt so I knew I wanted to do something different with my rosettes.  I decided on on point flowers.  

I am using grey neutral fabrics for the background blocks which I randomly decided would be cut at 8.5".

I am also writing the date of the flower on the stem along with the average temperature for the week in parenthesis.  

Of course I am playing catch-up on this project, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process of making cute flowers.  

Thank you for visiting.

Love

Chantal

A Queen Size Finish!

My son moved to an apartment to start his working career down in Charleston.  Furniture was procured and a queen size bed arrived.  Of course Momma was comissioned to make a quilt for said bed!

The boy loves anything patriotic so I made a flag quilt with pinwheels as setting squares.

Of course it got quilted within an inch of it's life.  I free motion quilted it on my domestic sewing machine.  

I had so much fun coming up with designs for the red stripes in the flags.  All the white stripes got the same figure eight treatment.  Loopy meander in the sashing.

I hope you can see some of the quilting in the red stripes.

I made two matching pillowcases for the bed.  Cuff = border fabric, accent fabric = binding and the main body of the pillowcase is the same as the sashing strips.

I had so much fun doing this quilt.  It arrives at my sons place on Saturday and I can't wait to see how it looks on his bed.  

Thank you for stopping by to visit.  

Love

Chantal

Little Baskets!

I started a basket project many years ago.  I think it was my first applique project.  Of course it ended up in the UFO pile.  Well, I am happy to announce it came out to play and has had a major growth spurt. 

After making many baskets, I thought I would lay them out to see how big it was getting.  Hmmm, halfway done.  Still loving the appliquéing of these baskets I carried on churning them out.

Yup, still growing.  I think I have around 20 baskets left to make.  Totally doable.  I am thinking of putting a border down two sides for some vine and flower appliqué.  Still to be determined though.  I am so happy that this project has come out of hiding.  I am enjoying it like a new project.  

I had to get a picture of this little guy.  He is as big as my thumb nail and very camera shy!  Lol.  So cute though.

Have a happy week and thank you for stopping by to visit.  

Love

Chantal

More leftover half square triangles!

I had a baggie of trimmed snowballed corners which I had stitched together.  In an endeavor to clear off my sewing table a bit, I decided to piece them into a tablerunner.   I am so glad I did.  I now have another patriotic decoration!!!

I was getting behind on my mini dresden BOM too.  So I stitched up July and love how bright and sweet it is.

My son moved out in May as he graduated college and found an awesome job in Charleston.  I have slowly been changing his room into a guest room.  I have a patriotic/ beach theme going on in there.  Prompted by the blue color on the walls.  I have been eyeing out this whale shelf for months at Hobby Lobby.  I found it in the clearance section for $11 a few weeks ago.  I could not pass it up.  I just need to put some goodies in it.  Love, love, love my whale.

My washer broke two weeks ago - in the middle of a load of bedding!  I had to carry the bedding upstairs to rinse out in the bath and drag it downstairs again to go and hang outside to dry.  What a mission.  But it was all worth it as I now own this set of beauties.  I love a front loader and they work so wonderfully well.

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time, happy stitching.

Love

Chantal

A Completed Table Runner!

I started this table runner in June.  It is a free pattern posted by Jedicraftgirl and Gigisthimble.  They do a 5 Fat Quarter free quilt pattern at the beginning of every month.  

I love these patriotic pineapples and pinwheels.  The quilt is in a 3 x 3 configuration.  I made some extra blocks for the runner.

Of course I still have to quilt the 3 x 3 configuration quilt.  I love how this runner turned out.  It is long and has presence on my dining room table.

I cross-hatched the pineapples and did an all over meander with stars in the background fabric.

I thank you for visiting.

Have a lovely day.

Love

Chantal

The New Hexagon Quilt.

I started this quilt about 3 years ago.  I taught it at my LQS!  Then we moved and the project ground to a halt.  My friend Ellyn from Ellyn's Place took over teaching in my stead.  Somehow we both stalled on this project.  That is, until this year.  We vowed to get it done and motivate each other in the process.  We agreed to make a block every two weeks. 

I was further behind on the project than Ellyn, so I threw in an extra block every now and then.

I have been traveling too so I had to play catch-up!

I have started sewing my rows together.  This is row one and two which are joined.  I am so thrilled at how easily these rows come together and how easy it is to join the rows.  I place them and then use a binding clip at the intersection of the two blocks to hold everything in place while I whip stitch.

I have to give Ellyn a shout-out for being such a wonderful motivator.  Her top is put together and she is at the border stage.  I would never have made it this far without being accountable to her.  

I am loving this project with all it's fussy cut loveliness.  

Thank you for visiting.

Love

Chantal

A Patriotic Mini!

I have been home for a week from my second set of travels for this year.  First week was a sewing retreat with my bestie and the second week was hanging out with family for my first grandsons baptism. 

While on retreat I was standing in line to pay at a quilt store and saw the cutest Mini Quilt.  I decided to start it at retreat.

I used fusible web and hand blanket stitched around the stars.

I stitched in the ditch in the center of the quilt and did a meander in the border.  Lovely navy binding. I decided to do a big stitch by hand around the perimeter of the center.  I think it looks grand.  I am thrilled to have this mini finished and not in the UFO pile.  I like the idea of embroidery more than I actually like doing it.  Mainly because it is slow.  So glad I plowed through for the finish.

Thank you so much for visiting.  Hopefully I will have a few months at home now.  I need to quilt some large quilt tops.  

Until next time

Chantal

Placemats for my Boy!

My twins graduated from college in May.  My son got a good Engineering job in Charleston so my daughter and I went to help him move into his first apartment.  We drove from NH to SC - some 1000+ miles.  I do love a road trip.  We worked hard but also got an opportunity to do some touristy things.  I came home with an order for a set of placemats.  I love it when the kids place an order for something quilty from me.  Here we are standing outside his front door.

I chose a fabric called neighborhood because I had it on hand, it has his favorite colors in it and somehow it reminds me of Charleston!

See the cluster of row houses in the second stripe from the top?  Reminds me of Rainbow Row.

One of our touristy things was to go to Pounce Cat Cafe and Wine Bar.  Hence the row of cat fabric.  Fantastic place.  You have to book.  When you arrive you get a drink and then go through to the cat lounge.  You can play with the kitties and interact with them.  They are all up for adoption.  I think they have found homes for over 200 cats since opening in December 2016.

I had fun making these four placemats.

I made four coasters to match.  The box went in the mail yesterday.  I sure hope the boy likes them.

Thanks for visiting.

Love

Chantal

This and That!

I managed to complete another modern Patchwork of the crosses.  I really enjoy making these blocks.  The prep time when you do fussy cutting is fairly long.  Picking and choosing and then making sure you can get enough blocks from the pattern repeats you have available.  Fun stuff indeed.  

Yesterday was a beautiful day in New Hampshire and we decided to take a drive along the coast and stop at various points to soak up the beauty of the sea on a sunny day.  We did stop on the way home for coffee and cake!  

Now that summer seems to be here I love to make frozen grapes for a snack.  Sprinkle them lightly with jello powder, place into snack bags and put them in the freezer.  You have a wonderfully refreshing treat ready to go.

We were sitting outside last evening and the clouds were just beautiful at sunset.  A storm was coming in and there were so many colors in the cloud formations.  Photo's never do sunsets justice.  

I hope you have a good day and thank you for stopping by for a visit.

Love

Chantal

Flag Day and a Patriotic Finish!

I planned to blog today after a long absence.  I spent most of May away from home.  I thought it was totally wonderful that today is Flag Day too.  I finished this quilt within hours of my trip so I had no time to show it off. 

I made this quilt using a Missouri Star Quilt Company Pattern and some patriotic fabric.  The negative space is big and gave me the chance to do some fancy custom quilting.  (I have not yet removed the blue marking pen marks, so if you see them, they will be coming out)

I am so happy with how the quilt turned out.  I thought I would catch the fag waving in this photo to commemorate flag day.  

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. 

Love

Chantal

POTC Blocks and a Custom Quilting Job!

I have been having so much fun with the POTC blocks again.  I guess if a project languishes in a box for long enough, it becomes new again when revisited.

I did start making a second POTC project using more modern fabrics.  

This has to be one of my favorites.  Careful fussy cutting takes almost as long to do as stitching the block together.  The colors in this one just pop.

Reproduction fabrics for this one.

I have finally basted a top together with its backing and batting and have started quilting it.  This project will take a few weeks as I am custom quilting the large negative spaces.  I also have to mark the block with a ruler to get the spacings right for the different "rows" of quilting.  I am really enjoying this project.  I get about three blocks done per day.  It is a good project for listening to Audiobooks.

TGIF!  I wish you a wonderful weekend and thank you for visiting my blog.

Love

Chantal