In that Box I sent Home

were

 a background, text fabric and some patriotic fabric,

 six new batiks,

 a new bag pattern

 a bag kit and a pillowcase kit,

a lovely peacock panel and some fabric for sashing it.
It filled up the entire square, medium Priority Mailing box. Sigh... stash busting not, but since some will be given away and I know what the fabric in kits are going to be, didn't do too much damage.

What I did in Vancouver

besides having a great time visiting:

My DIL just happened to have a sewing machine - an old Kenmore that is a wonderful machine.  Even did the quilting with it.  Had to cut panel, batting and backing with scissors as we could not find her rotary cutting mat.

Having fun

in Vancouver.  What a beautiful place the Northwest is!  So green!  We went to the Clark County Fair and of course there were quilts.

One of many lovely quilts at this exhibit.  My camera stopped working after this one. Ugh.  Went to a Craft Warehouse.  Their flat folds at half the cost elsewhere are from Wilmington, Timeless Treasures, Robert Kaufman, Maywood Studios!!  I went a bit crazy (may have to send a package home - no room in my suitcase) and bought a bit.  Too bad these stores are only in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.  Off to see if they sell online.  PS:  They are even doing Row by Row.

Blessings!

A This and That Post

First de-stashing report:  Used 1.5 yds for the commission quilt. Also 1/8th yd for a baby quilt block - it's a big 15" block. Then there was the .10 for the hexie star, and an 1/4th yard for the binding of the little wall hanging and the backing. Lastly, 2 yards for an envelope quilt were donated to St. Anne's and 1/10th yd for the two star blocks for the QOV medallion.  That gives me a grand total of 4.02 yds for this week and a YTD total of 41.08  yards used.  Here's that wall hanging that I bound and finished: 

It even has a hanging sleeve. I'll hang it in my sewing room when I come back from my travels.  I did hand stitch a couple of more motifs on my ancient WIP - that's as far as I got on progress this week.

Not sure if I'll be able to post, but with two computer savy sons maybe I will.  Otherwise this is Angie saying, "see you after August 24th."

WIPs Be Gone

Well not this week as I started on a commissioned quilt and a possible star for my Gwennie medallion. Have you ever tried to make a wonkie hexagon star using EPP (English paper piecing)?
Now I have and it's taken me a day and a half to get this far:

 I used only a straight line and a pencil to mark the rays. This was very hard for me.  My OCD wanted them to be all the same.  Then I remembered another quilter's summary of Gwen's work: "But she’s always has a very free style.  If points don’t match?  So What? Quilting should make you happy."  Thing is not sure I was happy while I finished this.

I also made a sample block for the next St. Anne's top.  I've simplified a rolling nine-patch block. I'll post the pattern under the free patterns tab after I get back from my two week trip.

And before I go here are the winners from the last two linky parties of WIPs Be Gone.  This week's winner is Donna - go see her lovely work here  And the winner two week ago (mea culpa, mea culpa) is Mel (She blogs here).  I've sent them emails.

Since I will be gone starting next Wednesday, I'm not posting a linky party this week.  But would love to hear from you on what you've made progress on. You can comment below. Remember, it doesn't have to be a finish. Blessings.

It's Gwennie Inspired Time!

The third round of the Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL was log cabins.

I chose to make the medallion be the center of a log cabin. It looks mild compared to the colorful others, but that's what came to me when I went to do this.  You can see the colorful and creative others here.  Next round is stars!

Design Wall Monday & BOMs Away

I got those final two star and stripes blocks done and came up with this medallion.  Here it is on my design wall:

The QOV ladies asked for 10" or 12" blocks.  This is 20" square, so will do for 4 blocks.  Hope they can use it.  I can see it in the middle of a 60" square QOV quilt with various RWB blocks around it. Next time I go to a guild meeting I"ll give it to the coordinator.

I'm linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday and Lyn's BOMs Away.  Linky for hexagons still open.
Are you able to work in this heat?

Slow Sunday Stitching and This and That

Going to hand quilt another motif on my ancient WIP.  And coming off my DW is another baby top.

The children's art work is the last set of four from our 2015 festival booth.  This top will now go to another St. Anne's member to sandwich and tie.

This past week I used 1/2 yard from my stash to use on the above quilt.  I made another SS block so there's 0.03 of a yard plus the 1/4 yard for the wall hanging.  Also found another yard to donate. New YTD total for de-stashing: 38.84  yards.  A little closer to 50 yds - my half way point.  At least I'm not buying.

Win some hexagon papers. Linky still open. See sidebar.  I'm linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  See the tab for linky parties above.

Blessings - hope you can stay cool this week as they say the entire contiguous US will be hot. Sigh.

WIPs Be Gone

I started this wall hanging at the last retreat.  I'm at the quilting and binding stage. I was going to outline the letters, but didn't like the look so stitched along the red edge and going to make a curlique pattern in the border and call it done for the quilting part.  I'm thinking of repeating the red for the binding. Will measure 13" square.

What are you up to?  Have you made some progress on anything (actually haven't we all made progress in life as we are a week older)?  Link up and show me.  Someone will win some 3/4" hexagons - enough to make 15 flowers  or whatever you want. Linky below - open 'til Thursday, midnight. I'm linking to several parties.  You can see them in the linky tab in the header.  Blessings. Stay cool this weekend.  Looks like the whole country will be hot.

Design Wall Monday and lots of this, that

First, the linky party is open till next Thursday. See previous post. I may award a book or hexies - forgot to mention that.  And as to last week's giveaway, the winner is Sandy Panagos who very quickly contacted me. Her book, In a Twinkle, is on her way to her already.

Stash report:  Donated another two yards - largish scraps this time.  Used another 1/2 yard for the second bag, and a 1/2 yard finishing the baby quilt.  Woohoo, my new YTD total for stash busting rose to  37.06  yards.

And for that finished baby top:

I found the cutest flannel for the back of it.  More owls!

I hope you are enjoying your day.  Yesterday, it was only 103. But after two days before that of 113 degree days, it seemed cool to me.  Everything is relative.  Today they're predicting 101 which we may get as we actually had a few high clouds in the sky this morning. Blessings and a cool time sewing.

WIPs Be Gone

Almost finished with that baby quilt - bottom border to go.

And one more motif on one of the short borders of my 29 year old WIP and I'll be half done with the last border.

Otherwise too hot to do much.  Temp peaked at 110 yesterday.  Suppose to be hotter today.

Linky below.  Show me what you're up to -quilty or otherwise.

Now There are Two plus DW

Now there are two:

I turned them in at last night's guild meeting.  And these three are for a

baby quilt for St. Anne's.  They're on my design wall. One more to go. 

I'm giving away a quilt book - ends tomorrow, the 21st, midnight.  You can see the details on my July 16 post.

Slow Sunday Stitching and more

First off, I'm giving away a quilt book - ends Thursday, the 21st, midnight.  You can see the details on my July 16 post.

For my Sunday stitching, I'm slowly hand appliqueing my Dresden plate right now. Circle is done. Now working on blades.

Notice the repurposed fruit container - now my traveling sewing case - lol.  Visit Kathy's to see what others are stitching today. Button under Linky party tab above.

I did use some fabric this past week: a 1/4 yard for my medallion QAL; 7 yards donated to a local church (not St. Anne's we make baby quilts - they make quilts for Africa); and a 1/2 yard for this Happy Bag.  Our guild makes 400-600 bags to fill with goodies for the Loma Linda University Children's Hospital. patients. We distribute them at Christmas to their pediatric patients.  My YTD total for stash busting jumped to  34.06  yards.

Thought this might work for a 8-12 year old.  It's a very easy pattern.  You can find it here .

What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll try to come by.
Blessings

WIPs Be Gone

 A couple of SS blocks done that I've shown you, and not much else. But I did work on my 29 year old project slightly.  Have finished one side and almost another - just two motifs to go, so I trimmed the excess batting and backing off that done side.

It feels a lot lighter now that I've off that extra 6 inches of batting and backing  (probably just psychologically).

I also got a couple more hexie flowers machine appliqued to their backgrounds:

Four more rows to go -and those stars and strips are for another project.

What are you working on?  I'd love to see. There's a mystery quilt book for someone. 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 or photo service.  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!

An InLinkz Link-up

Applique Tuesday

Another one for the "to be appliqued" pile.  This one by machine:

Looks Chritmasy (sp?) doesn't it?

Slow Sunday Stitching & Stash Report

What with my sewing funk, only used 0.10 yds of fabric to make two 6.5" SS blocks this week. Here's the latest one:

So I have this one, the dresden plate, or my 29 year old hand quilting project to work on for this Slow Sunday Stitching day.

What are you up to?

PS: my YTD total for stash busting is now  a puny 26.31 yards.

And the Winner is:

Monica!  She's gotten back to me stating she loves paper piecing, but wants to work on her FMQ and applique.  I'm not ready to rid myself of any of my FMQ quilting books, but I did have to offer something for the other two areas of our hobby:

AnglePlay Blocks by Margaret J. Miller

Fresh Cut Flowers by Liz Schwartz & Stephen Seifert

Pick-A-Pattern Applique and Variations by Joan Waldman

Are you familiar with these?  If not you can go to Amazon and check them out.

Here's a photo of Fresh Cut Flowers - my favorite, however I know I'll never get to it as it's almost all paper piecing.

Which would you pick?

WIPs Be Gone

I seem to have dropped into a quilting doldrums - not much done in the last two days. Maybe it's the higher humidity we've had - who knows? These things just happens.  On the last bit of grey on my Juki block and started this SS block. Ready to place in my to-be hand appliqued folder.

It's a bit brighter than it looks - the camera must feel like I do.  I'll announce the winner of last week's book tomorrow.  The linky party is taking a break.

Applique Tuesday & Etc

First off, I'm giving away a quilt book - ends Thursday, the 7th, midnight.  You can see the details at my July 1 post.

On my design wall, I've added a few bits - some more machine appliqued hexie blocks, another sorta/kinda flag block.

 Today I was working on a SS block that needs some hand applique.  Had 2 1/2 hours at the doc's (DH's appt) to work on it. Got the machine and heart done.  Now just the grey bits to do.  I did read half of a book, ate lunch, and talked to others waiting, or would have gotten more done.

Slow and Machine Stitching

First off, I'm giving away a quilt book - ends Thursday, the 7th, midnight.  You can see the details at my July 1 post.

Today I'm slow stitching my ancient WIP (started in 1988). I figure if I do a motif per day, I should actually get to the binding in another month and a half -lol.

 Here's what the current border looks like from the back - can see my big stitch quilting better from this side. I didn't know about this technique until about 5 years ago - much easier for me.

Newbie that I was, I didn't know one was suppose to mark the quilt before sandwiching.  Good thing I didn't because after 29 years it probably wouldn't still be there.  I use freezer paper and a water soluble pencil by Clover to mark the motifs now.

As for machine stitching - I whipped up this SS block - easy peasy.

So appropriate for the Fourth of July.  Have a good one - and safe, too.

"Gwennie Inspired" 2 and WIPs Be Gone

Cynthia at Wabi-Sabi Quilts hosted the first border link-up for the Gwennie Inspired Medallion Group.  The theme was childhood.  I chose to use my memories of summer days when we lived in South Houston, TX.

I remember those beautiful soft white clouds in the sky and the open fields across the street from our house.  My cousins and I would spend the daylight hours running around in them, playing pioneers finding our way through green bushes and berry brambles.  We competed with lots of bugs for the juicy fruit hanging on the vines and fly kites up toward the clouds. And in keeping with Gwen's liberated idea, I didn't mark the diagonals in the square in the square - just winged it.  Do visit Cynthia's for other Gwennie inspired links.

What are you working on?  I'd love to see. And there's a mystery quilt book for someone. 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!

An InLinkz Link-up

Another Winner/Update

The winner of last week's hexagon paper pieces giveaway was Chantel of At the Corner of Scraps and Quilts.  I've sent her a message.

An update:  I want to thank everyone so much for their kind wishes and prayers for my eye surgery.  It went great!  I know have 20/15 vision again. No more closing my right eye to sew at the machine - lol.

Here's what I'm working on now - Sunday's SS block:

Off to see what the block is for today.

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!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.