WIPs Be Gone again

What a difference a little sashing makes.  This is WIP # 5.  I'm on vacation so this post will be short and won't have a linky party, but would love to hear from you and hear about your WIP progress or anything else.
Blessings!

Time to vote

Amy's done it again - providing us with a wonderful Blogger's Quilt Festival with hundreds of quilts being shared by You.  And now it's time to vote. Good luck to all!  Here's mine in the small quilt category. Click on the link above to vote for your favorites.

Time for Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Amy's doing it again - providing us with a wonderful online QUILT FESTIVAL with hundreds of quilts being shared by You.  I so look forward to seeing your entries.  Here's mine in the small quilt category:
When I saw Lorna's Elephant Parade's first block, I knew I had to make a baby quilt using it since my God Daughter in Law[who was expecting a baby] is from Thailand, and the elephant is the symbol of the nation.  I got busy finding the right fabrics from my stash. Then I had to wait til I knew if it was going to be a girl or boy before I picked something for the little elephant.  Then I realized that the block made an African elephant

and the Thai elephant is an Asian elephant. Off to do research - the Asian elephant has smaller ears and the female doesn't have tusks.  So I redid the mother elephant block and waited some more. It wasn't til the end of March that we learned there was a good chance it would be a girl. So I remade the baby elephant block.  I put the basic top together.  Now how was I going to incorporate more about Thailand in this quilt?  Here's what I did:

1. There is a lot of vegetation and jungle in Thailand, so I took the 1/2 yard of fabric left from the border, lined the back with fusible interfacing and cut out leaves to extend the motifs into the quilt.

They were ironed on and machine appliqued using invisible thread, a 60/8 needle and Bottom Line thread in the bottom. This took a while.  And Baby Saige arrived while I was doing that step.  Then I decided to quilt a temple into the sky left of the elephant -there are lots of temples in Thailand.  So going back on the NET, found some ruins, made a copy, hung it on a window and traced it onto that golden paper for quilters. 
 I then pinned it in place on the quilt and started outlining it. 
Then I decided to do some letter work and found "welcome" in Thai and did a bit of stencil thread work to write that on the quilt.
I wanted to place the baby's name also, but there just wasn't room. Above is just part of it.  It didn't show up very well, but Waen spotted it right away.  With all the rain Thailand gets in a year, straight lines in the borders seemed just right. More quilting - quilted the mother elephant and surrounding sky using FMQ and a bit of ruler work on her ear.


I was happy with my adapted version of Lorna's elephant quilt. It measured 37" square. And I was only three months late getting it to baby Saige. In case you want to vote for it in the Viewer's Choice competition, you can find it here for nominating now or voting next week.

Have you entered a quilt?  I hope so - off to see your creation there.  Thanks again, Amy, for bringing the show to us!

WIPs Be Gone Week 43 and a Winner

Our winner of last week's giveaway is Quiltsmiles who lives in NY.  Congrats.  I'll send you your papers as soon as I hear from you.

The Duarte family is now the Portland, OR family - they got there yesterday early afternoon after a two and a half day journey north.  Here they are the night before they headed out - the four right of center (ps - Lily is standing on a block so she wouldn't look so small):

I miss them already! It will be  a long while before I get use to this.  Now I have two adult children far away.

After roaming the house feeling lost for two days, today I finally got my quilting urge back and began working on a WIP.  WIP #5 to be exact.

I can see right away I'm going to have to get myself a bigger design wall - here is just some parts of the center and it's already bigger than my puny DW.  I started this WIP in 2011. The pattern is from Fons and Porter published in 2003.  It has 12 blocks - mine has only 4 as I have no place for such a large quilt. Those blocks are 14" finished.  My plan was to try different applique methods with each block and see how I liked them.  I can tell you that I like needle turn applique best, but I'm too slow at it. My next favorite method is Esther Aliu's one.  She has a great tutorial on her blog.  Give it a look see.

Okay, what are you up to?  Whatever it is I'd love to see it.  Linky below and it ends next Wednesday, midnight.  I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar and also Amanda's as I did finish machine appliqueing the fourth Jubilee block yesterday.


Some of This, Some of That Week 43

Coming off the wall - again I just assembled the blocks.
 This VA lap quilt has gone to another guild member to be quilted.  And back on my design wall:
made a few more brown/pink chunkies and added a center. Now to come up with an outer border.

Linking to parties on sidebar.  Visit them for inspiration.  Oh,  and I've used another 1/2 yd so my new YTD total is 90.70 yards  de-stashed.  Bye for now - have to go catch up on all that was on hold while I saw off my son and family to Oregon.  They should be in Portland today - end of travels for now. Yeah.

RSC Challenge - Brown Update

First, the giveaway for 100 hexagon papers (3/4") is still on.  Just go to my 10/15 post.

Second, I use about 1/4 yard for my three chunky churndash blocks I made and the four I cut.

Here's what they look like - at least the ones I've sewn:
They're not quite as dark as they appear.  I needed more light when I took this photo.  Also that's not how they will be laid.  They are 6 1/2" square.

Third, I used 1 3/4 yard to make a baby quilt.  Another B3 quilt for a preemie. So my new YTD total is 90.20 yards  de-stashed.  In this one I used the Milky Way block.
See how wrinkled it looks.  It isn't pleatted or anything.  After much experimentation I think it was I used two different threads and the machine didn't like it. I did lighten the pressure foot tension, but it didn't seem to make a bit of difference.  If you have any ideas to share about this problem, please let me know.

I sewed little bears in the full blocks as the background fabric was bears.

Bye for now - have a housefull of family to interact with.

WIPs Be Gone Week 42

I'm machine quilting the last block for my Jubilee Wall Hanging (WIP #5).

I've left it on the machine so whenever I have a minute or two, I sit right down and do a bit more.

Also completed hand stitching the leaves to my flowers in my Hexie Garden (WIP#3)

Now with those done, I can move on to machine appliqueing them to their backgrounds - all 36 of them. Again this was a project I left on the dining table to attack whenever I had a few minutes.  It will be a busy weekend, so I don't know how much else I'll get done.

 I've picked a winner and Random.org says it is:  Cloud 9
     "Nice job on your block, love the colors. Would love to win a Piece O'Cake Designs book as I've been wanting to do one of their projects. "

  Thank you so much to those who participated and left comments.  I wish I had time to respond to all of you but alas life is too hectic right now.  I so enjoyed all the eye candy.  You all have such fabulous projects.

Were you able to spend some time doing a bit of quilty this past week?  Would love to see it or anything else that is keeping you busy.  Linky below.  This week I'll giveaway one hundred 3/4" hexagon papers for any of you who would like to try this soothing hand sewing or add to a project you are working on.  Some have asked that the deadline be extended.  So as of now - they'll end on Wednesday, midnight.  Good luck!



I'm linking to the various parties on my sidebar. Do check them out.

WIPs Be Gone #5 in Week 41 Plus Giveaway

I finished machine appliqueing another block of my Fons & Porter Jubilee Quilt.  This is my Lady Vase with Attitude. It is WIP #5.  One more block to do, and I can start assembling.  I used invisible thread to machine sew it.  I'm making a smaller version - a wall hanging - than the original. Don't know when I'll get to the next block as I have four such busy days coming up.

And because of all this busyness - here's a giveaway for you.  There are two ways to win.  One is to link up with the linky party for this week.  Show me your wip progress or anything you'd like to share, new or old.  I'll be checking once in a while to enjoy your link ups. That will probably be all I'll have time to do.  Linky ends Thursday, midnight.  You can link up three times and they'll all count.  Or you can leave a comment for one entry.  I'll draw a winner to announce at the next WIPs Be Gone post. Here's the book I'm giving away:
Brand new -it's a duplicate I found in a box.  I guess I really like it as I bought it twice. It has some really wonderful quilts in it. Good luck!



I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it up Friday and Sarah's Can I get a whoop whoop? More eye candy there.

Some of This, Some of That Week 41

No slow stitching this week - way too busy.  Did use 1/2 yard of brown and pink scraps for the RSC 2015 challenge. My new YTD total is 88.20 yards  de-stashed.

Coming off my design wall is a top I put together.  I didn't make the blocks. I just assembled the top.  
I couldn't believe how many times I had to take the rows apart.  I put three flags upside down, so off those rows came. Then that put too much white near the eagle and I had to take two more row apart to move a couple of blocks.  But now it is finished.  It will go to another guild member to quilt it and then back to me for binding.  This is a VA lap quilt that we give to the local Vet hospital. They must measure between 36x45 and 36 and 48".  These are 12" blocks.  The Friendship Quilters put the blocks together.  Didn't they do a great job?

That's it for me.  Too much life stuff for much else quilty.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have a bit more to post.  I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away as this block assembly is now done.

RSC 2015 Challenge Brown

Just playing with my scraps - don't know where this is going, but I'm using the brown in my scrap pile and decided on pink to go with it as shown on Angela's photo.  I'm linking to SoScrappy RSC 2015 challenge. Are you playing with brown?

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...