Day 4 - of the 4th of July Blog Tour . . . .

First up, I think I've found my pattern for my bundle of Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater for Moda!

Ginger left a comment telling me about his quilt,

Starry eyed by Angela from Fussy Cut!!

Better yet, it's a free pattern from the Moda Bake Shop!

There are several things I like about this pattern, the wonky floating stars that keep you from losing points, the block sizes that showcase the cute print in the fabric, and just the overall fresh feel to it. The blocks are huge to me, 16 inches, normally I don't like anything larger than 9, but I like these blocks.

Additionally I normally don't make quilts using the same fabric as the pattern, I don't like having the same quilt as tons of other quilters, but I can't think of anyway to improve on this pattern, I think this may be a perfect fit of fabric and pattern, who am I to try to improve on perfection.

Two weeks ago I had never heard of Angela at Fussy Cut, she's one of the gals doing the Farmer's Wife sew along that I blogged about last week, and now I'm in love with her pattern! Isn't life funny sometimes. (By the way, that Farmer's Wife Sew Along is up to around 600 participants now!!)

Ginger, thanks so much for the suggestion and link to this pattern, I really need to check out that Moda Bake Shop on a regular basis. For now this is my pattern, stay tuned to see if another catches my eye between now and December.

Now, on to some more starry business . . .

so this is my inspiration quilt,

and here's what I've made. The star blocks are 3 inches finished. There are so many show quilts I want to work into my tribute quilt that I've realized I need to make smaller and partial versions of most of them.

I left some leeway around my outer edge to trim this quilt down to whatever size works when I'm ready to put all the little quilts together.

This little piece of the puzzle finished at around 20" x 24" and has 326 pieces.

So here's where I am right now, plenty of work to go.

Between these three projects I'm now up to 1,189 pieces.

Each little quilt feels like it's own project so I'm enjoying each leg of this journey. And it doesn't look anything like what I have in my mind's eye, but I'm not worried about it. . . . yet!

Today is Day 4 of the 4th of July Blog Tour and you have two new blogs to visit,

Denise at The Corner Stitch a blog for the quilt shop The Quilter's Window, and

Sherri at A Quilting Life.

Tomorrow is my blog tour day, be sure to stop back by!!

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Day 3 - 4th of July Blog Tour . . . .

Hello,

the 4th of July Blog Tour continues even though the 4th has passed.

I leave my 4th of July quilts and decorations up at least a week past the 4th.

Except for this quilt.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 42, Victory Garden, a Jo Morton pattern made with mostly Jo Morton fabric.

This quilt is always out, hanging on a quilt rack in this room, but for the entire month of July it moves from the quilt rack to the back of my red couch.

This quilt is one of my all time favorites, even though I didn't "Thelma-ize" it all!! It is exactly like the pattern, can you believe it!

For today's blog tour event pop over to Lisa's blog (yes, Lisa of the Sweetwater team), Make Life Sweet.

I'm sure she'll have something amazing to share.

I just got my Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater for Moda fat quarter bundle in the mail, I love it, and am already blocking out the month of December to work on a project using this fabric. The prints and colors are wonderful, all my favorites, red, dots and stripes!! I also like the size of the designs on the fabric, on the small side, which I think will work great with a lot of patterns. What pattern I don't know, but I have 5 months to figure it out. (I am open to suggestions!)

There are some fabulous recipes, creative projects, and amazing giveaways going on for days one and two of the blog tour, don't miss out, you still have time.

Monique - Open Gate Quilts

Lisa - Stashmaster

Sherri - This & That

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4th of July Blog Tour - Day Two ! !

I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July or July the 4th wherever you live.

Our weekend was relaxing and fun.

It's right about now that the fruit in our area starts to actually taste like fruit. ( What is it with the strawberries and melons available in the winter, they look like strawberries and melons but they taste like nothing!!)

I made what I thought would be a little fruit salad for two, but by the time I added the watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, oranges, nectarines, peaches, grapes, and pineapple, the bowl was full, full enough for a family of 16!

Guess I'll share it with my neighbors!

My small little town has a wonderful Red, White and Blue Festival to celebrate the 4th of July, bingo and concerts in the park, a chalk art contest and a pretty respectable parade.

There's also a fund raiser for Habitat for Humanity, a 4 mile run around town. I usually run out in the country, with the deer and the opossums, it was nice to have some two legged company on my little run. I even finished first in the "Old Lady" category and was given this plaque, how nice was that!

We also have fireworks out at the "airport", and I just love fireworks, but don't love humidity, mosquitos, screaming tired hot kids and hundreds of lawn chairs squeezed into a small space. Luckily for me there are wonderful fireworks on TV, thank you NBC and Macy's and great job city of New York. I maybe would put up with humidity, mosquitos, screaming tired hot kids and thousands of lawn chairs to see those fireworks in person, but they were pretty darn impressive and festive from my cool, quiet comfy couch.

I even squeezed in a little time on my Evening Bloom applique project this weekend and started working on my next "quilt" for my Red and White Tribute quilt.

This is my inspiration.

This is quilt number 1133 and was displayed in the Exterior Top of Pavilion 1. I'm thinking I just need a portion of this quilt and am working on making twelve 3 inch stars, what a perfect weekend for star work.

Lisa - Stashmaster and Sherri - This & That are blogging today for the blog hop, be sure to stop by. If you missed Monique's post yesterday, it's not too late to enter her giveaway, you have until Thursday.

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It's July 4th ! ! !

Or the 4th of July to a few folks here in the US!

I finally got around to making a holiday table topper. I really hadn't given much thought to table toppers until I started reading blogs, and as each holiday passed, and I would see cute little quilts on folks tables or islands, I always said the same thing in my head, "I've got to make me one of those holiday table toppers".

And I finally did!

(more to come about the table topper on my blog tour day, Friday!)

Here's Cooper, giving us his best Yankee Doodle Dandy impersonation. I make him wear this tie maybe two days a year, he looks real happy about it, doesn't he!

Today is the first day of the Fabulous Firecracker Five Day Fourth of July Over the Top Blog Tour Extravaganza and Monique at Open Gates Quilts is up first, I hope you have time to stop by, I'm sure there will be an interesting project and maybe even a freebie of some sort!!

To those celebrating, have a safe and wonderful 4th of July, for those of you not, eat some ice cream anyway, it's summer and it's good for you, really!!

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It's July ! ! !

Time to break out my red, white and blue quilts and decorations.

I made this quilt back in October of 2009 as part of the Year of Schnibbles sew along hosted by Sinta at Pink Pincushion and Sherri at A Quilting Life. As a matter of fact, Sherri and Sinta are having a Le Petite parade today, stop over, you won't want to miss all the great Ric Racs and Recesses that will be on display. Every month I say I'm going to join in, but this year I've just been watching the parade, not participating in the parade, but it's one of my favorite blogging events.

Anyway, I made this quilt in 2009 and "Thelmasized" it. I made the blocks bigger and added more of them. When I finished my quilt my goal was to get it quilted, buy a red comforter, and have that quilt set right in the middle of my bed for the whole month of July. Well last July my quilt was ready but I hadn't gotten around to the buying the red comforter, so this quilt was on the back of the red couch. Well I finally got that red comforter and am so happy to have this quilt right where I pictured it when I was piecing it.

The pattern was Cindy Lou Who by Carrie Nelson for Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.

I named mine One Star Two Star, Red Star Blue Star. It's Lifetime Quilt Number 52. That's been one of the surprises I've found with sew alongs, I make a project that really isn't on my radar, but end up just loving it and glad to have made it.

Next week I'm going to participate in a 4th of July Firework Blog Hop. Just me and a few other bloggers doing a little something with a 4th of July theme. It should be fun, I'm looking forward to what everyone else is doing and am sure I'll come up with something by the time my turn rolls around.

Here's the schedule:

Monday - July 4th - Monique - Open Gate

Tuesday - July 5th - Lisa - Stashmaster and Sherri - This & That

Wednesday - July 6th - Lisa - Sweetwater

Thursday - July 7th - Denise - Quilters Window & Sherri - A Quilting Life

Friday - July 8th - Me, Right Here!

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