Applique Tuesday

This will be short. Laser eye surgery tomorrow.  Here's my Splendid Sampler block #36.  I paper pieced it with invisible thread, and machine appliqued with invisible thread.
Giveaway still on - see the 6/25 post for a chance for hexagon papers.

WIPs Be Gone, A Winner and Another Giveaway

Remember these:
They are now finished tops. Yeah!  Measure 36" and 37"square respectively, and are ready for the ladies of St. Anne's to do their magic.  Remember I'm just the top maker. Love that part best!
Here's the first one:
It just needed one more border to be the right size. 
To this one I added three borders.  Both were made with the center square made using the Exploding block as seen on Jenny Doan's tutorial.

The winner of last week's book is Nancy from Joy for Grace. Congrats, Nancy! I'll send it along as soon as I have your snail mail address, please.  Thanks to all who participated.  I'm giving away 100 1" hexagon papers for this week. Same guidelines apply:   Leave me a comment for one chance.  Link your eye candy for another. Follow me and let me know for a third. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photostream.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you. Ends next Thursday, midnight. I'll be linking to several parties. Tab above. Blessings!


Destashing, Slow stitching, Some This, Some That and Design Wall

It's been a while since I reported my destashing efforts.  Thought I'd start with that this Sunday. What with four baby quilt tops, one completed baby quilt,  6 Splendid Sampler blocks, a QAL block, various mug rugs, and a yard donated.  I'm up to YTD 26.21 yards.

My slow stitching for today is hexagons.  These are 3/8"to a side.  I am now sewing them into a circle.

Since I've been doing so much paper piecing for the Splendid Sampler blocks, I decided to see if I could paper piece a hexagon.  After much effort and lots of seam ripping, I was able to make one.

  The back and the front.  Don't tell me - I now know it would have been easier to have appliqued a hexagon - LOL.

On my design wall are WIPs I will be working on slowly but surely - my set of hexagons (made with 1" hexies) and my left over stars.

Speaking of hexies, my WIPs Be Gone hexagon giveaway is still on. Ends Thursday, midnight. Go back to my 6/25 post to learn more. You could win enough papers to make 15 hexie flowers.

It's a new week!  Praise God.

Applique Tuesday

Here's Splendid Sampler block #27  all prepped and ready for some slow stitching some evening or Sunday.  
I've embroidered the needle but I'm not happy with it.  Think I'll look around for some metallic grey thread and see if it stands out more.  What do you think?  Am I obsessing?

Also, the WIPs Be Gone linky and giveaway is still open.  This is the book you can win:

Go here to read all about it and comment/link your eye candy.


What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see your eye candy.

Stay cool - it was 117 degrees here today on our patio!  Yesterday it was 115 and tomorrow they say will be slightly cooler - hah. We'll see.  There are two fires west of us and they're sending smoke north of us.  No danger to us, but may have to get a nose mask if the wind changes and sends it our way.  Right now all it is doing is coloring the sky on one side.
Take care.

Splendid Sampler Slow Sunday Stitching


I'm doing the Splendid Sampler and one of the latest blocks has hexagons.  Perfect for Slow Sunday Stitching which I'm linking up to today. You'll find the link button in tab above.

My first one:

It's sitting on a two inch square of background.  Yes, they're small. The sides of these hexies are 3/8" wide. Previously, the smallest I had made had 1/2" sides.  I have to make six for block 36.

I've made #2 and prepped #3.

Also, the WIPs Be Gone linky and giveaway is still on.  This is the book you can win:

Go here to read all about it and comment/link your eye candy.

By the way:  It was 90 degrees at 9 AM - we're expecting 106+.  Fortunately, it is dry heat - but still HOT.  Stay cool, drink water, quilters.

Blessings.

Sort of WIPs Be Gone & Giveaway

Why do I say "Sort of"?  Well, I have to make some baby quilt tops, so these are really works in progress, not my usual pick a UFO from long ago and make it into a WIP.
Here's three I am working on. I'm using some block techniques new to me. I've gotten the first blocks of each of them finished after my two weeks of hosting.


This block called the Web Block is from Laurie Bevan's book, Lickety Split Quilts for Little Ones.
It measures 15" square so I'll need 3 more plus a 3" border to make this St Anne quilt.

This busy block as well as the one on the bottom were made using the Exploding Block tutorial by Jenny Doan.  The large 25" block you see on the bottom of the first photo was made using her method.  I just added two extra turns and borders.  It need one more border.  When I made that last one, I didn't want any bigger triangles than I already had, so in the second one, I used a pink square bordered with blue to give me a different look for the first step.  

So what are you up to?  I'll be doing some quilting as all my guests are gone for now and no more scheduled for this summer. To celebrate that summer is finally here (they predict 110 for Monday), I'm giving away another book. 
Here's the book.  It has a lot of great summer quilts (14 in all)  and one wonderful "Ships Ahoy".

Leave me a comment for one chance.  Link your eye candy for another. Follow me and let me know for a third. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photostream.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you. Ends next Thursday, midnight. I'll be linking to several parties. Tab above. Blessings!


More Guests

Sadly, but after a very nice visit, my DS#2 and DGS#3 are gone.  They were here for 5 days from CO, and are now on their way North to see more friends and family. It was wonderful having them here.
Clockwise here's DGS#3 (standing) DGS#4, and DGS#1 posing at Lego Land.  All three love Legos, but don't most kids like them these days?  Tomorrow, my sister-in-law and her friend arrive for a visit. They've been on a Road Scholar trip to Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon.

Not a stitch done!

WIPs Be Gone Progress

This is late as my company came early. I'm happy to report I got some things done though. Yeah!
The Hugs baby quilt got quilted bound and delivered.

Carolina Christmas became a top.  I may or may not add a border.  What do you think?
Made a quick envelope style isolette cover for our local NICU.  This measures 36 x 46".
Here is the back. Since the purpose of the cover is to darken the area around the preemie - I used a darker fabric. Pieces that I pieced together to make whole again - LOL.  Wasn't quite wide enough.

That's it for now. I'll probably get little sewing done for the time being.  It's so good to see out of state family.  Blessings!

Medallion QAL

Here's my center for the Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL started by Lori of Humble Quilts.  You can read about it here .

The theme for the first month was baskets.  I've been super busy with company, family and special events. Throw in a few bout of sickness and my sewing time has been very limited, but I so want to do this QAL.  Soo... for this month I very loosely interpreted Gwen's liberating quilting and chose to do broderie perse  for my basket.  It just doesn't have a handle.  I hope Gwen would approve that I used what I had (an old tablecloth) and a pair of scissors, some steam-a-seam, and a 12 1/2" square to make my center. Do go over to Lori's to see all the centers that have been revealed today. Next month's theme is childhood.  I already have an idea - hope I can execute it more "Marston" this time. 

Design Wall Monday

New on my design wall is the 2009 mystery, Carolina Christmas, by Bonnie Hunter. It's now featured in her Scraps & Shirttails II book.  Here are two of the blocks from that quilt. 


Bonnie's beautiful quilts are way too big for me.  I make a fourth of them.  I made nine blocks. They're each 16" square.  What has kept me from putting them together was the odd block I created - the one with the gold squares. You're seeing the corrected block, but I sewed the light squares and the red rectangles wrong on the bottom right section and made the star-like reds reversed.  Yesterday, with no red fabric left, I had to resort to using the wrong side of those rectangles to get the pattern right. It meant taking the whole block apart (except for the two square patches) -ugh.  I had also sewn the bottom left most two square patch wrong.  But now it's all fixed. If you click on the photo, you can see the somewhat dull side of that fixed unit.  

Maybe I can finally get the top done for the next WIPs Be Gone.  Psst - last week's still open to link your eye candy.

And I have a question for you: Which Bonnie Hunter pattern/s have you made?

WIPs Be Gone

I have four finishes - well sort of, and two are in the ready to quilt phase. And my two design walls are empty!  I'll have to do something about that.
First off a design  wall - after such a long time:
I may do a facing on this instead of a bind - but first sandwich and quilt.
Next, the Hugs quilt top is done and I've already started quilting it.  It needs to be done by Sat, evening. Nothing like pressure - LOL.
Lastly, got those two hearts done. One, I made into a mug rug, and the other was sent to a friend.
Darn, I didn't take a photo. They looked just like my splendid sampler block above. One was pink - the other in reds.  It was the pink one that got made into a mug rug.

And this isn't a finish - just wanted to show you what I see out of my kitchen window at this time - it's on my neighbor's front steps - and yes I did walk over and zoom in so you could see it better. Cacti have such beautiful flowers. This photo was taken near noon and that why the centers are a bit blurry.  We had some too, but I missed the peak time to take a pic.
 So what have you been up to?   Link below to share what you're doing .   Remember, if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photostream or instagram.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you.  I can't reply if you're no-reply.  I'll be linking to several parties - Tab above.  Blessings to you all.

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...