No Applique This Tuesday

Lily is here and we've been having fun, hanging out, doing things together and playing board games.  It's been too hot to go out for long. For example, it was 101 degrees at 12:30 today, and that wasn't the high.

We're doing a little sewing.  First she practiced doing some lace cards to get the idea the thread goes up and down and pretending the end of the shoelace is the needle.  She caught on fast so we moved onto this:

And she's only five years, 2 months old!  Another sewist in the family.  Now Deanna, if you read this, don't let on.  She want's it to be a surprise.

She's so happy doing it!  Xs are next. And while she stitches I'm managing a few minutes of quilting:
Life is good - hot, but good.  Off to swim lessons.

What are are you stitching or quilting?  Let me know and I'll come by and visit.  Might not be able to comment, but would love to see your eye candy.

Blessings and send any excess rain our way, please!

WIPs Be Gone Week 26

I've been spontaneously constructing again.  My DGS's preschool teacher is going on maternity leave tomorrow - a whole month sooner than I thought.  So Tuesday the SC started.  I'm not surprised - from the way she's carrying this baby, I thought she'd have it 6/15!  The quilt is done.  I just have to make a card and buy a baby bag and take it tomorrow to her.
Yes, the beige  really stands out( I would have preferred a very light pink), but just couldn't go to the store and I needed to start.  I used the cute owls on the back, too. It measures 32" square.
It's one of those forgiving prints that covers all quilting errors.  I love those owls. Here's another view for the quilting:
I free-motioned a large meander on the beige and the owls, then used the walking foot to outline the rose L-shapes. I then free-motioned the triangles in the border. That went better than I thought.  Hope Baby Camille and her Mom like it.

I did work on a WIP, but have no photo - maybe later in the week.  How are you doing on yours? Link up and let us see - doesn't have to be a WIP - finishes are fun to view, too. And it doesn't have to be a new post - an old one will do - it's all new to me!  Blue button below - ends Monday, midnight.


I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop? and Lizzie's Free Motion Mavericks.

And the Winner is:


After tallying all the entries from the Linky Party and the other ways to win and ordering them by time of entry there were 53 possibilities.
I went to Random.org and it picked:
True Random Number Generator     18Powered by RANDOM.ORG
which is Judith!

Congratulations, Judith.  I'll send an email so I can get the book to you.

Thanks to all for entering and sharing your comments and eye candy.  I had a ball going to all of them.  

Blessings,

Applique Tuesday Week 26!

Oh my - half of 2015 is nearly gone! Where does the time go?

I took my hexie flower I made with my cousins and turned it into a mug rug:
I machine appliqued it to a round of front, batting and back.  If I can find the thread, I'll quilt around the inner hexagon and up the side seams to make it more flower petal like.

Did you do any applique or work on some eye candy.  Let me know and I'll come by and take a gander and leave a comment.  Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking to Connie's Linky Tuesday Party - see you there.

Slow Sunday Stitching & Giveaway

Spent the day, Saturday, with my cousins.  Since the wineries were super full for Father's Day weekend (we tried two and they were way over capacity), we stayed at Moms and did a mini Hexagon project by hand.
They were naturals at making hexies.  I like them all.  We're going to make mug rugs out of them. It was fun introducing them to hexagons. They fly out today for Houson.  I'm sure going to miss them!

Now as for the giveaway -
To thank you for all the eye candy you've been posting this year, I have a book giveaway.  
I was looking for a quilt book on my shelves and found I have two copies of this.  I haven't gotten to it, but I want to make a quilt out of it.  Don't let the blocks on the cover intimidate you - mostly fussy cutting really and very easy.  They have great paper templates inside.  

To win this copy, all you need to do is link a post with some eye candy to have a chance for it to be yours.  It doesn't have to be a WIP - all sorts of eye candy is eligible and very welcome - even projects you finished a while ago, haven't started, or are even dreaming about - it'll all be new to me. You can (1) link a blog post (an old one will do) or a photostream address. Or you can go to Michele's blog, and (2)leave a comment on what you think of her Visual OverloadThen (3) let me know.  New to her blog? Become a follower of hers and (4)let me know and you'll have four chances.   You'll find the linky party at my previous post - the one before this one. So just scroll down and you'll see it.  I'll pick a winner Tuesday morning after the linky party closes today, the 22nd, midnight.  Open to all.

WIPs Be Gone & Giveaway

Week 25!  Back from San Francisco. Had a great time - more on that later. Came back late Wednesday, so didn't get much WIP progress as I felt so tired today.  Here's the bit I did get done
on a flower for WIP #3.  Almost ready to do some slow stitching on Sunday.

To thank you for all the eye candy you've been posting this year, I have a book giveaway.  
I was looking for a quilt book on my shelves and found I have two copies of this.  I haven't gotten to it, but I want to make a quilt out of it.  Don't let the blocks on the cover intimidate you - mostly fussy cutting really and very easy.  They have great paper templates inside.  

To win this copy, all you need to do is link a post with some eye candy to have a chance for it to be yours.  It doesn't have to be a WIP - all sorts of eye candy is eligible and very welcome - even projects you finished a while ago, haven't started, or are even dreaming about - it'll all be new to me. You can (1) link a blog post (an old one will do) or a photostream address. Or you can go to Michele's blog, and (2)leave a comment on what you think of her Visual Overload. Then (3) let me know.  New to her blog? Become a follower of hers and (4)let me know and you'll have four chances.  I'll pick a winner Tuesday morning after the linky party closes Monday, midnight.  Link button below.


I'm linking to Sarah's HeLP for Hexie-aholics and Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?. Lots of eye candy there.

WIPs Be Gone Week 24

I'm working on 6 1/2" blocks for two sides of the VA quilt:

And here's that baby quilt all finished:


And that's about it for this week as I've been getting ready for my TX cousins' visit. They arrive tomorrow AM.  Then we head for San Francisco on Monday. We'll fly back later in the week and they leave the 21st.  So I'll probably be incommunicado for much of that time.  But do leave a link or comment or both of your progress. I may just connect with the blog at some place up there and would love to see what you're up to.  Linky below:


I'm linking to Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?, Richards Link a Finish, and  Lizzie's Free Motion Mavericks. What beautiful quilts will they be showing us?

Applique Tuesday Week 24

or The Madness of Deconstruction - that's what today was. I was working on a VA quilt. I'd made this block. It was easy, came out great. Started on the second one. What a mess cutting one piece wrong can make.
As you can see the corner square was 1/2" too small. It should have been 6 1/2" square. It was 6 by 6 1/2.  So I added fabric to the short side and resewed the corners. Sewd the two squares together and realized that in making the units with the wrong squares I misaligned the points - hence the big space between the star points. Ugh! 
So I took off each unit and was going to fix the points,  but I only had enough to fix the one side of two - no more of that fabric available.  Did that and then realized it didn't help on one side because the points didn't come close to alignment. They were off by 3/4" horizontally!  It looked like I just starting piecing. Turned out the setting triangle was too big. So ripped out that unit again. Took apart the seams around one side of the large triangle. I then basted it with the unit by setting the seam allowance of the star unit 1/4"lower to the edge of the triangle. When I checked,  that seemed to work. So took out the basting, cut off 1/4" from the one side of the triangle and resewed the seam.
Looks much better although the colors are wrong in this photo.  The top colors are correct in the middle photo.  Those two unfixed bottom corners won't be so bad as they don't get connected to another block - they'll just look a little wonky. What a way to spend the day!

In the middle of this chaos, I dropped everything and sat down and did a little hand stitching to save my sanity. My elephants now have eyes - my applique for this day.
What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see your goodness - quilty or not.
Blessings

WIPs Be Gone Week 23

Made a flower for WIP # 3 and that's about the only work I've been able to do on my works in progress.  I spent a lot of time on the raffle quilt, the B3 quilt for guild and the baby quilt I"m machine appliqueing.  Hope to do better this coming week, but then it will be my busiest week of the month, geesh!

I'm quilting that B3 quilt for the guild:
I'm showing the back as the quilting shows up more there.  The very center was me and my walking foot and no marking except for center tiny block.  The rest will be marked lines.

And I made two quilt tops with some of those blocks the kids colored for our baby quilts.  


These are 36" square and will be tied.  
 How about your WIPs?  How are you doing on those? Hope better than I am.  Would love to see your progress - doesn't have to be a finish, but we'll admire those, too.  Linky below - remember it doesn't even have to be a new post. Ends Monday, midnight.    Have a great weekend! I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Up Friday, Sarah's Can I have a Whoop, Whoop? , Lizzy's Free Motion Mavericks, Pink Doxies Pet Project Show, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitiching, and Judy's Design Wall Monday. Check them out.

Applique Tuesday -

The paver is finished.  I now wish I'd found a light orange or gold hexie for the center. I don't like how the green obscures one of the points, but that's a print for you.  That's my problem with scrappy blocks - I start to obssess of what goes with what and it can take hours to make progress.  This is going to my design wall.

We had our church festival and had a good time. While we didn't make a lot of money as some other booths, we did get nearly 100 blocks made by the children to be put in baby quilts later in the year.

Here are a few of the cute blocks they made for us.  Some were original designs and the others were designs we provided. Aren't they cute?

Here's our booth at the start of the day.

A Granddaughter of one of our members made the just right sign.

Here's the raffle quilt on display in the booth.
And a bonus for us - a longarm quilter came by and asked us if we could use her batting scraps in the baby quilts.  Turns out she has a pile of squares 40" square that would be perfect for our quilts.  And we were just about to run out!  God is good!!

On the machine applique front  - I pressed all the interfacing to the back of the top I"m working on.

I discovered that if I placed the top, wrong side up, on my light box, I could easily see where I needed the stabilizer, the shape it has to be, and where I could cut out centers.  They are all now fused. I need to keep doing an applique section daily.

What are you working on? Would love to see. Leave a comment and I'll come by and check out your eye candy.



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...