THE BIG EASY

A couple of weeks ago, Pinterest sent me an e-mail of pins they thought I might like. Turns out, Pinterest was right

I was so taken by a black/grey and turquoise quilt, that I immediately went digging through my stash for fabrics to make one similar.

I've had a hankering to do some easy piecing-just sewing squares together and this certainly satisfied that urge.  Besides that, all these fabrics except one were in my stash.  Who knew?

 For the quilting I did triple lines in large zig zag style.

 I purchased the back which is a brushed cotton. Soooo soft.  The same fabric is on the top in a cotton. The binding is a black and white dot that I've had forEVER.

At this point I have no idea what I am going to do with this quilt. For now, I think it will live on my chair which is over 100 years old.  The modern and the very old seem to work quite nicely together

quilt stats:
block size 8"
40 x 56
inspiration-Pinterest
machine pieced and quilted by me

Come by again in the next couple of days for a great GIVE-AWAY  : )

linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts
needle and thread Thursday

OCTOBER BLOCKS

Just in the nick of time, I got my Bee blocks done for this month.  They were easy ones. Perhaps that's why I procrastinated.........


For the Joy group of do.good stitches I made these blocks, which will be cut diagonally and re-assembled for a boys quilt.

Nicke asked for simple scrappy 9-patch blocks for the Heal group of do.good stitches

and for the Humility group of do.good stitches, these flying geese blocks done any which way we like.   I think I may need to make a quilt using these blocks.  (I think I say that every month....)
I love them!

Part of the fun of belonging to all these groups is the swaps that take place, especially as we get close to Christmas. This block is the start of a little swap I signed up for

Is it too cold for ice cream?? I'll post more details about this block when I get my quilt finished  : )

linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday

BLOGGERS QUILT FESTIVAL FALL 2014

It's time once again for the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. I missed linking up for the last one, but this time I have a finish to share.

One day back in the spring I tried my hand at sewing some arrows. I was happy with how they turned out, so I wrote up a tutorial.  When it was my turn to receive blocks from an on-line group I'm in, I asked them to make me either an arrow block or a feather block. After getting all my blocks, I arranged them on my design wall. I filled in the spaces between the blocks with low volume prints and made a couple of random blocks to complete the top.

thank you Becca for allowing me to come into your beautiful barn to take pictures

I really like how the blocks pop against the background

For the quilting, I gave it to the very talented Linda. She did some free motion swirls and gave it lots of texture.  I love what she did!

For the backing I chose a print from the Cotton and Steel line. It had the right 'look'. The binding is a chicken wire print from my stash : )

Thanks so much to all my Mid Century Modern girls for sending me my blocks. I really love my quilt.

Because I made this up as I went along, I am entering it in the 'original design' category of the festival.

**This quilt is a finish for the fourth quarter of the finish along too**

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy all the other quilts in the link ups. Starting Now, you can nominate quilts for viewers choice and then vote for your favourite starting Nov. 1      : )

quilt stats:
original design
pieced by me and my bee mates
quilted by Linda King
48 x 61

linking to finish it up friday

PROGRESSING ALONG

Now that I am purposing to link up on Mondays to the 'Choose Your Own Block Along', they sure roll around fast.

This week I actually dug out my old Farmers Wife blocks and made two. You see, I have a reason.....
My son met a girl. Not just any girl, a FARM girl.  I know!
It makes working on these rather exciting  : )

Here they are added to where I left off about a year ago

and then a few City Sampler blocks

This Friday the Bloggers Quilt Festival starts.  There will be so many quilts and lots of inspiration so watch out for that  : )

linking up with Live A Colorful Life

Colour me Orange!

This month we had a challenge at our Modern group. It was Orange Fizz. As soon as it was announced, I knew that I wanted to make this little nail polish quilt.

 These Cotton and Steel fabrics were perfect for this

Here I am showing my little quilt. Not sure if you can see, but my fingernails match  : )

I love me some bright polish!

This pattern is available at  'It's sew Emma'

For the back, I used a piece of fabric naming the months because I think every month should be a different colour nail polish

I'm not sure yet, but I may give this to the young girl that does my nails sometimes. Perhaps for Christmas .......

linking up to Needle and Thread thursday
crazy mom

MAKING A LIST..........

..........and checking it twice.  I finished two things off my list for the third quarter of the finish along. I hope to do better this time around and finish the year strong!  Perhaps once the snow flies I will spend more time sewing.

Here is my Quarter 4 list for the Finish Along hosted by Katy of The Littlest Thistle

this needs to be trimmed and bound

I need to make sock #2

this might be ambitious, but I'd like to make one more pair of socks for Christmas

second saturday sampler needs quilting

these again...... my bee blocks from July. I need to make more and get this done!

and these!  My long lost Farmer's Wife blocks. Thanks Emily for the kick in the pants  : )

and my blocks for the City Sampler.  Must keep going........

All these projects produce scraps so I'd like these,

and these, to both be quilts soon.

That's plenty I think    : )

linking up with The Littlest Thistle for the 2014 finish along quarter 4

ITTY BITTY KNITTY - FINISH

Every baby needs a hat.  At least I think so anyway. Winters are cold here in Kamloops so I like to make sure when I gift a little quilt, there is a hat to match.  Baby will be styling while out for her walk : )

I made this quilt out of these Kaffe Fassett fabrics and then went in search of some delicious yarns to match

these were perfect

pattern is by Viridian Hue

and the best buttons ever by two good claymates that I got here

SO cute!

I'm so glad hockey season is back because that's when I do most of my knitting.  I hope there's a game tonight because I am itching to cast on something!!!

linking up with Finish it up Friday
wool on Sundays

CHOOSE YOUR OWN BLOCK - ALONG

This week I am linking up with Cindy for the Choose your own block--along. I decided at the start  that my blocks for this quilt along will be the Tula Pink's City Sampler because I really want this quilt

Here are this week's blocks

also, I want to be working on these scrappy blocks regularly. Two more were made

for a total of six.

I'm not sure how big I will go with this, but there are already 294 squares used from my scrap bins. Yay! I'm happy that my scrap bins are actually a bit neater after going through them. I have a long way to go yet though  : )

linking up with Live a Colorful Life

SCRAPPY DO

I'm not sure about anyone else, but my DNA is made up of 98% guilt.  I feel guilty throwing away even the smallest scrap so now my scrap baskets are out of control!  I have been feeling overwhelmed by them all, so I've decided it's time to bust some scraps.

The Scrappy Trip quilt was a good one, but it actually created scraps too, so now I am working with the real odd shaped pieces.

 Unlike the Scrappy Trip that was strip pieced, I am cutting this mess into 2 1/2" squares and sewing them together one. at. a. time.

I have long admired the 'Scrap Vomit' quilt that Katy made, but wondered if I had the patience to make one.  I can't just toss these, so I decided to get started and get rid of that guilty feeling

Here is the start of mine

the time consuming part is spritzing and pressing the scrap to be able to cut it into squares. When I got as many      2 1/2" squares as I could out of the piece, I cut the leftover bit into a 2" x 1 1/2" piece and started this. I am pairing them with a low volume charm pack that I had

before long I had a few blocks and I am liking it so far

There. That feels better already.  The guilty police won't be keeping ME up any more.
Here's to a good nights sleep          : )

WIP WEDNESDAY

September was gorgeous!  We've had beautiful weather all month so I found myself out and about more. I hunkered down the other day and got my bee blocks done for September. Phew!

These stash builders I've been getting sure come in handy. This month we got four fat quarters from the line 'Rush Hour' by Studioe Fabrics. I cut into the small text for one of my blocks

meet Jack.

Union Jack.  Him and I spent a lot of time together the other day....  This block is for Mary

This is a pixelated block that will become part of a picture quilt.

and for the Heal group of do.good stitches,  a pair or 'winged square' blocks.

It's going to be hard mailing off these two.  I think I may have to make a whole quilt of these !

linking up with WIP  wednesday
Fresh Sewing day