Hometown USA

I've gotten a few requests for  information regarding the raffle for my Hometown USA quilt.  Well the raffle has officially started.  The quilt is currently on display at the Mt. Carmel Illinois Public Library.

Here I am with the quilt and the library foundation board president, Donnie Price, also know as Thelma's brother.  Not really, that's the family joke, when I come to town I'm known as Don Price's sister, but that's OK, I couldn't ask for a better baby brother.  Plus he's lived in my hometown almost all his life, I left 40 years ago.

Just in case you've forgotten, this is Lifetime Quilt Number 185

I've named this quilt Hometown, USA

I combined the patterns Summerville and Stars and Stripes by Camille Roskelley for Thimble Blossoms.  

The fabric is Vintage Picnic by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

It finished at 98" x 98"

It has approximately 1,912 pieces.

Connie Lancaster at Quilts Plus in Indianapolis, IN did the custom quilting.  

Tickets are on sale at the library, by library and foundation board members, and me.  The tickets are $5 per ticket or 5 for $20.  The drawing will be held on June 10, 2017.

If you're interested in purchasing a ticket drop me an email and I'll get with you on further details.

When not working on Due South I've been thinking about my other Year of Thelma 2017 Quilting Goals.  Piecing a red and white quilt is on that list.  I've been spending my evenings admiring all the quilts in this book.

My new problem is trying to narrow down my favorite to just one pattern.   I may have to start piecing a red a white quilt every year for the next 10 years.

The thing about a red and white quilt, they never go out of style.

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Christmas in July

I've got my first finish for my Christmas in July sewing marathon.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 182

The pattern is Round and Round by Camille Roskelley for thimble blossoms 

The fabric is Mostly Manor by Victoria Findlay Wolfe for Marcus Brothers Fabrics

It finished at 72" x 72" (my favorite size)

It has approximately 634 pieces.

This is my second Round and Round finish, I made this quilt in December 2013,  using Kate Spain Christmas fabric.

I really enjoyed all the white space after my last project.  Now on to the next, I'm hoping to get at least one more Christmas quilt done, two more would be better, I'm just not sure how long I'll be able to stand working with Christmas fabric this time of year.

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Summerville

I was asked to make a shop sample of Camille's pattern Summerville using Bonnie and Camille's latest line Vintage Picnic.  

It gave me a week of happy sewing in my sewing room.

I started with the stars,

then I made the houses,

added these 9 patches,

the house border, 

and the final border.  And just like that I was done.  The pattern cover says this is a "Sweet & Simple" pattern, I could not agree more.  Plus it was fun, and made me happy the whole time I worked on it.  I think it was a combination of the wonderful fabric and easy piecing.  The bird fabric was my favorite.    I wasn't sure Bonnie and Camille could design a family of fabric I liked better than Happy Go Lucky, but they did.

I think this pattern would also look great if you used holiday themed fabric, like Halloween or Christmas, or even went totally scrappy.   Which is a good thing, Vintage Picnic won't be hitting stores until February, 2016.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 162

The pattern is Summerville by Camille Roskelley for thimble blossoms, (available here)

The fabric is Vintage Picnic by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

It finished at 70" x 70" ( my favorite size and shape)

And has approximately 876 pieces.

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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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