Friday Finish!

It sure doesn't take long to finish a quilt top when half the blocks are already pieced.  Although I enjoyed making the Lollies blocks so much I was sort of sad when I made the last one.  This is a pattern I would enjoy making again, and maybe not in holiday themed fabric, although I think this pattern is very well suited for Christmas fabric.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 168 - Christmas Lollies

The pattern is Lollies by Camille Roskelley for thimble blossoms

The fabric is an assortment of Kate Spain for Moda Christmas fabric

It finished at 64" x 74"

It has approximately 698 pieces.

The Lollies pattern is available here.

Have you been drooling over all social media pictures of fall market?  Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey, Spooky Delight by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs,  and Carkai by Carolyn Friedlander  are lines of fabric that are on the top of my wish list.   Now we just have to wait for it to show up in stores, which seems to take forever.  For the first time I was able to watch some great Market broadcasts on Periscope.  Did you give that a try?  It was almost like being there, except I couldn't buy anything at that Sample Spree!

And I can't let the day go by without saying happy birthday to someone who spends almost as much time in my sewing room as I do.

Happy 7th Birthday Cooper!

This is Cooper when we brought him home.

This is Cooper now,

I should maybe get him a bigger bed for his birthday.

Are you sewing this weekend? I'm hoping I am!!

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No More Lollie-gagging

Over Memorial Day weekend a friend and I had a Lollies weekend sew-along.  I stopped working on Short Line and pieced 15 blocks.  Then the weekend was over and I packed up my Lollies and went back to Short Line, and forgot about Lollies.

I've decided I better finish this quilt quickly if I want to be using it for this Christmas.  I'm using Kate Spain Christmas fabric for my Lollies.  The pattern is by Camille Roskelley for Thimbleblossoms.

I don't stop projects before I finish them very often, but it sure is nice restarting this project with half the blocks pieced!

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Rise and Shine-ish is a Finish

So once I got all the blocks on my design wall, and created the perfect layout, I thought maybe those corners would look better with some triangles.

So I added them!

This is Rise and Shine-ish

It is Lifetime Quilt Number 167

It finished at 64" x 64"

It has approximately 1,004 pieces.

The inspiration for this quilt was the pattern Rise and Shine by Camille Roskelley for Thimble Blossoms.

I'm very happy with how this project turned out.  I have a nice stack of scraps leftover and plan to add to the stack over the next year so I can make another Halloween quilt next year.  

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Rise and Shine - ish

When I first started piecing my Rise and Shine blocks, I just threw them up on my design wall.  Once I got half the blocks pieced I decided I better start positioning them like the pattern, to help me with my future fabric choices.  (you know, because of my no like fabrics touching rule)

And a funny thing happened, I decided I liked my blocks better this way.

So now instead of working on Rise and Shine, I'm working on Rise and Shine-ish!!

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Hook is home

Do you remember when I made Hook?  It was way back in the spring, of 2014!!

The pattern was a Schnible that finished at 35" x 40".  I made my stars bigger for a quilt that finished at 66" x 70".  The fabric is Little Black Dress 2 by BasicGrey for Moda.

Well it's home from the quilter.

I wanted a simple custom job, my main objection to an all over design is that I didn't want those stars to be flattened out and lost in a design and the background.  So Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts did a nice simple swirl pattern around the stars and a little pattern in each star for some definition.  I could not be more pleased.

I was so happy with it I took it out of the box and folded it over a red chair, I think it looks right at home in my living room.

If you liked Little Black Dress and Little Black Dress 2, good news, BasicGrey is introducing Black Tie Affair at market, and it should be in stores the first of 2016.  It has the same dressy feel as Little Black Dress, it's on my wish list.

I've got a stack of quilt tops that I  need to get out to quilters, making the tops is fun, but having finished quilts to enjoy and give away to friends is even better.  Getting Hook reminded me of that.

Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment letting me know what you've been up to!  I was green with envy over some of the amazing trips you took, and realized that a year of home improvement projects is nothing compared to dealing with the stress and heartbreak of family illnesses and deaths.  The biggest theme was finishing UFO's, pat yourself on the back for whittling down those projects.  

The winner of the Jeni Baker HST book and AQS Calendar is

Lea Anne from  Podunk Pretties  who said, 

"Oh I love your quilt, and I'm so happy for you that it made the cover of the calendar. Gorgeous! Wish I could say I've done some amazing things this summer but I haven't. Lots of gardening and canning in between taking care of mom and dad. One had open heart surgery and the other is still in the process of chemo. Not a fun summer but believe it or not I do believe it could have been worse. Thanks for the chance to win some great prizes."

Enjoy your weekend, I'm hoping to make a few more Rise and Shine blocks and a football blossom, more on that on Monday!

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Are you Going Surfing', I am!

Are you ready for a new Snapshots block?  It's that time again!!  

This month's block is Going Surfin', my latest favorite.

This block is very easy and goes together quickly.  I made my block exactly like the pattern except for the surfboard fabric.

Oh, and some fish managed to find their way into my car.  I don't have much in the way of novelty fabric, and I wanted someone in the car, dogs being my first choice, but given my limited stash I could choose fish, elephants or sheep.  Fish won.

Every month a few quilters get very clever with their fabric choices, this block has several opportunities for originality.  Although if I could choose any fabric I wanted for the car, I would have chosen the red polkadot. 

I am thrilled that the FQS has already surpassed it's initial goal of raising $10,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and its new goal of $20,000. The last time I checked the amount raised was over $33,000, how great is that!  As a reminder, the monthly patterns are a free download, a donation is up to you, the suggested donation is $5.  Here is a link to the pattern, instructional video, donation page, and everything else you need to know.  (click here)  The backing and finishing directions are also now available.

Here are a few more folks participating in the sew along, be sure to check out their love cars.

Pat Sloan of The Voice of Quilting

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet

Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life

Pam Viera-McGinnis of Pam Kitty Morning

Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs
Stephanie Kendron of The Modern Sewciety

Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
Greg Jones of Grey Dogwood Studios
Jessie Fincham of Messy Jesse

And finally, check out instagram, #fqssnapshots for some great blocks and inspiration.

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Because it's Wednesday

Have you checked out this book, The Half-Square Triangle by Jeni Baker?

I love making half-square triangles so I was eager to get this book.   And even though I've made several half-square triangle blocks and quilts, this book has several patterns, blocks and techniques that make it a worthwhile addition to my library.

There are twelve different large quilt patterns, and when I say different patterns,  I mean different from each other, different from the norm, with different options.

This pattern is called Triplicate, it's one of my favorites.  I think it would also look great with a scrappy background or  maybe a linen!

The book also provides 60 different 16 HST block patterns (4 hsts x 4 hsts) so you can create your own sampler quilt.

My favorite feature of the book is the colorless templates provided for each pattern.

I plan to get out my colored pens and create my own design using these templates as a starting point.  I sometimes draw patterns on graph paper with a pencil, I can skip that step and use these templates instead.

I wasn't asked to review this book, I bought it, I like it, and I thought I would pass the information along to you.   It's probably available at your local quilt shop, if you're like me, and don't have a local quilt shop, it's available from Amazon, here.

Something else available from Amazon is the 2016 AQS Wall Calendar.  Does that cover quilt look familiar to you?

It's my Coastal Lily top quilted by Judi Madsen.  I'm very honored the quilt is featured on the cover of the calendar.  Each month features a different winning quilt from the 2015 AQS Paducah Quilt show. The photography and colors are amazing, as are each quilt.  If you would like to order this calendar check it out here.

Because it's Wednesday, and because I'm so happy my remodeling days are a thing of the past, and because it's been ages since I've had a giveaway, I'm giving away the Jeni Baker book and the AQS Calendar.  If Amazon will deliver to your address you're eligible to enter, just leave a comment telling me what you've been up to this year, at home, in your sewing room, or travel, whatever suits you, it seems like ages since we've chatted!!

Giveaway now closed, thanks for stopping by!

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Fresh Start, or another start

Hello, thanks for stopping by, yes I'm blogging today!!  Whoop Whoop !!!

First, thanks to all who listened to my radio interview with Pat Sloan either live or the podcast.  Pat had given me a list of around 12 topics that we would try to cover during our chat. I was so nervous that we would get through all the topics and still have 10 minutes worth of time to fill, well I guess I was in a chatty mood because we maybe covered 3 of the topics. One topic that I had given some thought and prepared for was accurate piecing.  I plan to cover my thoughts on that topic in an upcoming blog post.

Speaking of blogging, my blogging has been hit or miss all year long, but that's about to change.  The main reason I didn't blog last week was because new carpet was installed in my house.  The last step of a year long remodel job.  My house has been in some sort of chaos for 12 months, but now it's all done.  Or as done as any home and maintenance ever gets. It's sort of like laundry, you're never done, unless you're running around your house naked.

We bought this house 11 years ago thinking we would live here maybe 3 years then move, that had been our pattern for our entire married life.  But a funny thing happened, 3 years passed, then 6, then the next thing we knew, we'd been here 10 years and hadn't made a single change to a house that was 5 years old when we bought it.  So since it seems like we're going to be staying here a few more years we decided to make some changes to suit our needs and give the place a facelift.

Here's a list of what we did, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something:
replaced all the sliders and french doors
took down all the wallpaper
painted every wall, ceiling, and closet and all the woodwork
updated all the floors with new hardwood or carpet
all new kitchen appliances
added tiled kitchen backsplash
replaced all the light fixtures
swapped out the ugly shiny brass fixtures with oil rubbed bronze fixtures
took all the bathrooms down to the studs and started over, replacing everything
sealed and painted front sidewalk and porch
created an office for my husband
moved my sewing room to a new room
customized all the closets (California Closets, I love you)
replaced half the furniture
added new blinds

I've not had pictures on the walls for over a year, and have been shuffling boxes of who knows what that was packed last year from the garage, to the basement, then back to the garage and dusting and dusting and dusting.   When our closets were being updated, our clothes hung on racks in the garage.  So now it's time to finally settle in, unpack all the boxes and enjoy our space.  We've had bedroom stuff in the office and office stuff in my sewing room, any room with extra space has served multiple purposes.

While all this was going on I would start a project in my sewing room, have to stop, then when I started back up start something else.  So I definitely have some catching up to do in that area.

But that didn't stop me from starting something new this month.  Since my favorite daughter thought Lucy would look great in her apartment I sent it her way. Using Lucy scraps and adding some new prints but in the same colors I've started a new Halloween quilt with the same feel, just a little different look.

The pattern is Rise and Shine by Camille Roskelley for thimble blossoms.

And finally, I'm not sure I've ever formally mentioned that I use Instagram, almost daily, look for ThelmaCupcake if you're an instagram user.

So this week I'll need to piece my Snapshots block, it's the car with the surfboard, and I can hardly wait, do a little organizing and settling in, get out a few Halloween decorations, and blog!

Talk to you soon!

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Podcast Available

Good News!  If you missed my conversation with Pat Sloan on Monday, there's now a podcast available that you can listen to instead.  And the news gets even better, Becky Goldsmith and Elea Lutz were also part of Monday's show so you'll get to listen to them also.

Click to listen

here or here

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