Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solsitce #3

Well I didn't quite get part 2 done last week.  I have about 30 blocks left.  I am almost done part 3.  I have about 125 triangles done.  I didn't make any into pinwheels yet because I want to have a little more variety. 

I did these triangles using TA-DA triangles.  I like it but it is a leave in interfacing so we will see what its like as I progress further into this quilt.  It only took a me a couple hours to do these squares.  I didn't have enough for all 200. 

This is my best guess so far.  I think the chevrons are going to be a border and the inner blocks will be a star.  I am not quite sure though because I think there are too many extra neutral star parts for this to be true. 

This week I am linking up to Quiltville.  

Week # 2 Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Mystery

I had hoped to get more progress done this weekend on part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's quilt but life got in the way a bit. We spent Sunday having a Thanksgiving re-do and it went super.  We went over to a family member's dinner for actual Thanksgiving so we missed out on all the fun leftovers so we thought, why not have our own!

 

I did manage to get all my pieces cut and all my diagonal  lines drawn in between baking and cleaning.

  

And a couple test squares are done. I stalled here today for a few hours.  I was doubting my color choices.  When I was originally picking my colors I almost picked gold tones instead of the pink.  I settled on pink because I wanted to use all my favorite colors.   I posted today on the Facebook group for this quilt asking for advice.  Almost everyone said they would go with the pink.  So finally this evening I decided to stay with pink.  I am still a bit nervous but I have never seen a bonnie quilt in color combinations I didn't like.  So now I am crossing my fingers!!!

I also posted on Bonnie's blog last week asking for advice about watching her live stream on my Kindle Fire HD.  I was able to find a solution that evening.  Yay!  I thought I would share how I did it.  I had to install a different internet browser and it worked fine.  This is the link I used for directions: How to install Chrome on a Kindle Fire HD.  After I followed these steps I opened Chrome, went to her blog and the clicked on the video to open it in youtube and it loaded fine with no errors.  If your are not great with technology you might need someone to help but I followed the directions on the link and it took only about 10 minutes to get me up and running. 

This week I am linking up to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville, I can't wait to see what everyone else has done so far!

Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt 2013 - Celtic Solstice

I am just about done part one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt.  I have changed my colors up a bit from hers.  I am not a fan of what she choose so I didn't have much on hand.  Besides I had a great stash of black and whites saved up that I had been collecting and dying to use!

I am using black and whites where she used her blue.  I am using Teal/Aquas where she used her orange.

I am using white and blacks as my neutrals.

I have all the teal blocks done and I am almost done the neutrals.  I have one side put on the rest of the blocks you don't see here.  There are about 50 left.   I should be able to finish those up tonight. 

I have never used the Tri-Rec rulers and have discovered I absolutely love them.  Every one of my blocks came out exactly right.  I am glad I watched Bonnie's videos because I might have missed cutting out the notch on the end.   

Today I am linking up to Bonnie's blog, Quiltville, and I can't wait to see what everyone else has done. 

WIP Wednesday 11/20

Week #1

Has anyone seen the quilt along going on right now using the Quilty Fun book by Lori Holt.  I discovered Lori last year during the middle of her row along.  I had some many things going on so as much as I wanted to I couldn't join in.  I was thrilled when I found out she had a book coming out with the same blocks.

Week #2

I pre-ordered it from Fat Quarter Shop.  I couldn't love the book anymore than I do.  The instructions are clear and thorough. The book is spiral bound which makes it so easy to use at my sewing table.

I was originally going to do the row quilt like she did but when she announced this quilt along I couldn't help but join in.  Every Monday a new section is released.  Week three was released Monday.  It was a really quick section so that was done that evening.  And I am not going to lie.  I already started the baskets for next week.  I just can't help it!  The blocks are so cute and so fun to put together.

Week #3

I am using a few different fabric lines as well as a few scraps.  I had some bundles on my shelf that I never knew what to do with.  There is some Noteworthy By Moda, some Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille, some Tula Pink, and some Magic Garden (I think) that I bought off Craftsy awhile back. As well as a few fat quarters from Connecting Threads.  I think they all look good together.

This week I am linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced!  

Finish it up Friday!! 11/15/2013

I finally have a finish to talk about.  I haven’t blogged in such a long time.  I am sorry for that.  I have been hard at work in my new sewing room though. 

This wall hanging is Snow Happens.  The pattern is by Bird Brain Designs.  I have a bit of a thing for snowmen.  The embroidery is all done by hand and everything else was done by machine.  I actually finished this piece last year but I just got around to quilting it this week so I could have it to decorate the new house for Christmas.  It’s definitely not perfect but its only my second hand embroidery piece so I am pretty happy with the outcome.  This was also my first time machine quilting with Aurifil and I must say it was amazing to work with.   

 

Pardon the pins in that last picture.  I have a hanging sleeve on the back I haven't sewn down yet.  

I also have my Jamestown Landing quilt, pattern by Bonnie Hunter, almost done.  I have the top done and the borders ready to go on.  However, my large iron decided to die a couple days ago so I need to go iron shopping this weekend so I can get that top done.  I was hoping to baste it sometime this weekend.  I want to get it quilted before her newest mystery starts.  Only a couple more weeks away!

This week I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

Finish it up Friday!

This quilt is a year in the making.  I started this quilt a year ago after my husband saw the quilt kit being advertised in a booth at the Maine Quilt Show.  The pattern is Sew Spooky.    By the time Halloween rolled around I had only just finished the top.  So I put the top away and just decided to quilt it sometime before this Halloween. 

The kit came with just the fabric for the top.  He picked out the binding, back and the thread colors.  His favorite holiday is Halloween so this quilt was mostly for him.  

I used Isacord thread for all the machine quilting.  I gave him options for the quilting designs and he picked those too.  I think he has pretty good taste, don't you?

The pumpkin block is my favorite. 

Don't you just love the binding he picked?   

Here are some more close ups of the blocks. 

Yes my barn quilt is on sideways.  :-(. I didn't notice til I had the quilt almost done.  I might fix it but I think it adds to the silliness of the quilt.  

I love this quilt.  It's so soft and cuddly.  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting.  

Today I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts!   

WIP Wednesday!

I have been spending some time working on some WIP's from the past few months as well as another new project!  I had a finish in the last week and I will blog about that on Friday.

The biggest thing I have been working on is my Jamestown Landing quilt I started in May.  All I have left to do before assembling it is the string blocks.  I have the rest done.  Well, except the border blocks.  I have about 50 string blocks left to do.  I have gotten a bit more brave with my neutrals.  Bonnie considers anything that has a light background a neutral.  At first I was using just fabrics that read as beige, tan, white, etc.  I needed more strings so I went through my scraps and had to stretch a little. This is one of the blocks I ended up with.

My husband hates it but I love it.  I know it isn't as adventurous as Bonnie would be but for me the x-mas fabric and the music fabric was quite a stretch for me. 

The second project I have been working on is one that I am super excited about! Its Postcard Cuties for Winter by Bunny Hill.  I preordered the kit back in the spring and I got it towards the end of August.  I started it that very day.  I have quite a bit done on it for having not blogged about it yet but we are still catching up from moving and the kids starting new schools.

I have all the background blocks done and I am slowly working on the hand work.  It has wool snowmen that I am blanket stitching on and then some embroidery.

This block is just missing a few embroidery details.  Like a face!  :)  I love everything about this quilt and its pattern.  The fabric line, Snowman Gatherings by Primitive Designs is amazing.  The kit I got from Bunny Hill was amazing.  It came with some yardage, a jelly roll, and a charm pack.  I have about half the jelly roll left after using it for the blocks.  And a bunch of the charm squares.  If you noticed I have used some of the strips in my Jamestown Landing quilt!  They match my colors for that quilt exactly!  Plus I have a bit of a snowman obsession so it wouldn't be right for me to do a scrap quilt without at least one snowman in it.  My goal is to get this done by Christmas.  It will be my tv watching project. 

This week I am linking up to Freshly Pieced. 

Finish it up Friday!

I just have a quick little finish for you this week.   I spent the last week machine quilting a quilt for my husband.   It's almost finished but I have to finish hand stitching two sides of the binding down and take some good pictures.  Here is a little teaser.

Sometimes my hands get sore when I do a lot of hand stitching so I took a few breaks to get this wallet done.

 I picked this pattern up a few weeks ago when we took a road trip to the beach.  There is a quilt shop I like to stop at about 20 mins from where we go.   It's called Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop and its in Freeport Maine.  It is a cute little shop with so many samples of all their patterns.  

The pattern is called Whimsy Wallet and it's by This and That.  I love how it came out.  There are a few things I could have done a little better.  I used medium weight interfacing instead of the heavy it called for.  I just couldn't find it locally or maybe it was there and I just didnt' know it.  Pellon interfacings can be a little confusing sometimes.  So needless to say the wallet could stand to be a little more stiff.  For the outer fabric on the wallet I used a fabric from the line, Cuzco by Kate Spain.  I am not sure what line the inner fabric is.  It was pulled from my stash and it didn't have it on the selvage.  I am pretty sure I picked it up at Marden's on sale.  Marden's is a salvage store in my town that has the most amazing fabric department.  They have top of the line fabrics from past seasons or shops that have closed out for only 2.99-4.99 a yard.  If you are ever in Maine you should check them out.  There are about 7-8 Marden's stores spread out over the state.

In this picture you can see that the card pockets are a little tight.  When I top stitched around the wallet my machine didn't like being so close to the edge.  There are a lot of layers right there.  So it made the pockets a little smaller.  My cards fit but its close.  Maybe they will loosen up a bit.

I love how the zipper pocket came out as well.  I surprised myself there.

A few notes about the pattern.  I don't think its for beginners.  It was sometimes hard to follow.  I can imagine it being difficult for someone who has never made a bag or pouch.  At times I questioned the pattern a lot.  I just had to tell myself repeatedly to just do what it says.   I am not crazy about the handle on it.  Next time I make one I might leave that off.  But overall I love it.  I even discovered this morning I can put my iPhone in there too.  There are big pockets behind the card pockets and behind the zipper pouch.  Its going to be great for quick trips when I don't want to carry my purse.

Today I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

P.S.  Craftsy is having huge sale on their classes.  The last day is tomorrow.  Don't forget to check it out!

Craftsy Sale: Up to 75% Off All Courses, Fabric and Yarn!

Friday Finish!

It's been awhile since I have been able to post a Friday Finish.  I actually finished this about a week and a half ago but I didn't get a chance to write a post last week.  My kids started school this week so we had one last really fun weekend to end the summer.  This wall hanging is done with a pattern by Cynthia England.  It was 18" x 18".  If you have never done one of her patterns you should give it a try.  Initially, it looked super hard and overwhelming but she breaks her patterns down into small sections that aren't so bad when you only worry about them one at a time.  This pattern is probably not for someone new to paper piecing though.  Some of the pieces were really small and it really mattered where you placed directional fabric.  I love paper piecing and I still needed to take breaks from it after every few sections.  There were more than a few times where I said I wouldn't make another piece that was so intricate.  But after seeing it done and being so happy that it came out so well makes me rethink that.  This one was a gift and I hated giving it away.  It looked so good on my wall.

Here are some close ups.  See his cute little feet? I I didn't do very much quilting on this.  I just quilted around the squirrel and the leaves with Mono Poly Superior Thread Clear.  I loved this thread.  I have had problems with invisible thread before but I didn't have any with this one.  

The detail work was done with hand embroidery.  I used 2 strands of black DMC thread.  I love the little acorn in his paws.  

I am linking up to Finished it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I can't wait to see what everyone else is up to.  Its been awhile since I have been able to keep up on my blog reading!

A return to WIP Wednesdays!

Wow, the past few weeks have been crazy!  If you follow my blog you know that I just recently moved.  We are still getting settled in and there are still random boxes around.  I have my own sewing room now which is amazing!  I have it semi set up.  I need to get some storage units though.  Until now I always kept everything in totes and I want some shelves to display all my fabric.  This way I might actually know what I have and don't have.  Life will be so much easier. 

I did get time to get in a little sewing.  I have been working on the above pieced for a few months now.  A lot longer than I should have been.  I needed to keep taking breaks from it.  It is a commission piece for a friend.  Thankfully a very patient friend.  However my absolute deadline is in a week from now so in between unpacking I have been finishing this guy up.  He is going to be a gift for a birthday.  I only have one small section to do for the lower right hand corner and I am done the top.  Then I need to embroider some detail to his face and hands.  All I have planned for quilting is some stitch in the ditch around him and the leaves.  There are so many seams in this that I couldn't imagine doing any free motion.  There are a few random pieces of paper I need to pick out of a few of the seams.  Hopefully I can find my tweezers soon.  But I think I am well on my way to finishing him in time.

This week I am linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced for the first time in quite a few weeks!  

A quick hello!

I haven't posted in almost three weeks!  Wow.  Sorry about that.  We are in the process of moving and as you can imagine it is a lot of work.  Moving day is August 10th.  I have squeezed in a little sewing time but I didn't have any time left over for blogging.  A girl needs a break every once in awhile doesn't she?  And a little quilting time is the perfect way to relax.  

As for the move, we couldn't be more excited.  Its a much bigger place and closer in town.  Right now our morning commute to work is about 30 mins.  The move cuts it down to 5 minutes!  My work is a mile and a half away!  I can even go home for lunch!  Both of the kids schools are within walking distance.  My daughter's school is five driveways down the road.  And here is the part I am most excited about.  Our new place is an older New England style home and has two living rooms.  We are not a formal type of family so we don't need two.  So guess what that means!  One of them is going to be mine for sewing!  Ok.  Not the whole thing but most of it.  Its also going to be where we put the family computer and office area but its a huge improvement over what I have now.  

Anyway,  on to some sewing items!  The main thing I have been working on is the quilt along at the Quilting Gallery.  A block is released every Thursday and I have been trying to stay caught up on it.  This quilt is promised to my son for his new bedroom when it is done.

Week 3 block

Week four block

This is a mock up of what I have together so far.  One of the girls I am doing the quilt along with figured out how to do layouts like this with an app from Apple.  It is named Juxtaposer.  It is an amazing app.  I am going to use it for most of my quilt layouts from now on.  It is super simple to use.  All you do is load a base image and then load other images on top of it.  You use your fingers to resize and place the image where you want it to go.  All you need to do is make sure that you try to take the pictures straight on so you can get the best result.  I obviously didn't do that with one of my blocks.  I just haven't had time to go back and fix it.  Because I was able to see my quilt in progress like this I am debating on redoing the block on the left.  The colors are more muted in that block than the others and it just doesn't go.

This week I am linking up to Freshly Pieced. 

WIP Wednesday 7/10/13

I wasn't going to write a WIP post this week so pardon the horrible photos.  I spent this past week working on a Cynthia England piece and since it is still in pieces with freezer paper all over it, I didn't think it would make for good pictures for a blog post.  However, last night my husband and I decided to have a TV night so I sat and prepped an applique block while we were catching up on some shows.  We finally watched the season five finale of Sons of Anarchy last night.  I can not wait until the next season starts.  We really love that show.

This is the last applique block from the quilt a long over at One Piece at a Time.  She is releasing a new block any day and I wanted to get this done before I fell behind too far.  I still have to add a few pieces to it and then stitch it down.  There are little tiny leaves on those circles and a circle to go in the middle.  I think I have mentioned before in my blog that I do turned-edge applique with a foundation.  This block only took a couple hours to prep.  I should have ironed it again before the picture.  I am pretty sure my kitty took a nap on it last night.  

And here is a cute picture of my kitty, Frodo, trying to help me.  For some reason, the only time he wants attention is when I am hard at work.  

Don't forget to click the link below to check out the awesome Christmas in July sale at Fabric.com.  I am having a hard time restraining myself.  I have a slight obsession with anything snowman.  Have you started working on your Christmas gifts yet?

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This week I am linking up to Freshly Pieced!