Women of the Bible

     Stitchin Tree Quilts in Marietta, Georgia has a free program called "Women of the Bible".  Every other week they post 2 blocks in their newsletter.  I was keeping up at the beginning but got a little bit behind....like 8 blocks behind.  I decided yesterday that I'd get to them by dinner time tonight....and I did.

The blocks each have a name relating to a particular woman in the bible....and very few I remember from my Catholic school days.  

Top Left is Jephtah's Daughter  Top Right is Asenath

Bottom Left is Miriam    Bottom Right is Deborah

Top Left is  Jael     Top Right is Tamar

Bottom Left is Rahab  and Bottom Right is Potipher's Wife

Each pattern comes with a story about each woman so I'm sewing and learning at the same time.

And can I just say, this girl turned 3 months old over the weekend....

How cute is she?????????

And our Luna is getting tired of the snow....there's so much snow that when she goes out for a walk, she can't sniff every bush, tree, piece of grass etc  in sight...  She's said she's seen enough!!

Tuesday Catch Up

   I promised myself last night that I was going to attempt to catch up with a few sew alongs today and I think I did a good job keeping that promise.

    Before I start I just wanted to show some pictures from Sunday.  I bought my husband tickets to see "Rain"- A Beatles Tribute show for his birthday back in January.  We'd seen the show before in New York City and if I could have gone back the next day I would have...it was that good.  When he saw that the show was going to be here in New Jersey,  he told me that he thought it would be a great birthday gift.   We only live about 45 minutes from the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank so the drive up was easy....the only drawback to going to this theatre is parking.  There is never enough and let me tell you, after the snow started to melt, it was MESSY!   BUT, the show was wonderful!!!

   We were treated to songs and video from the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show and then while we were watching film clips, the singers changed into various costumes leading right up to their last album.  What was interesting to me is there were people there under 21 and people in their 70's and all were singing, clapping, dancing and all were equally enjoying the show.  If you ever have the chance to see this show, you should!

    Now, onto my "catch up" sewing today.

   I'm doing a "Red Sky At Night" quilt along which is 1 block a week so I did this week's block which looks hard but let me tell you, it was just HST's, 2-1/2 inch squares and some rectangles.
This is only week 5, and we're going until November so I'm going to have an AWESOME quilt when it's done!
    Then I did my churn dash block for week 8 in the 52 Week Churn Dash Challenge on Instagram.
I made an extra block "just in case" I get tied up for some reason over the next few weeks/months with kitchen remodel, wedding, vacation etc....
     Lastly, I'm in a Birthday Club with some really nice girls on Instagram.  The birthday girl filled out a questionnaire with her likes/dislikes and we send a little package to her for her birthday month.
Our March girl loves mini quilts, table toppers and is a Lori Holt fan, so this morning I whipped up a Great Granny Square block from Lori's book and even used up some squares from her line of fabric.
I'm not done with it yet....trying to decide if I want to put a border on or just quilt it as is....
I've set it aside for now to try and decide.
      Time to get out my Fig Tree fabrics and catch up with my Women of the Bible blocks.  Sadly, I think I may be about 6 behind but since hubby is out of town for the night I might just stay up and sew and get them done.  If so, I'll be back tomorrow with that update!

                                              Peggy

American Patchwork & Quilting Quilt Along

In between other projects, I've been working on making 2-1/2 inch 4 patch units for my American Patchwork and Quilting Quilt Along project called "Go Four It".

I made a lot of progress last week sewing up all the strips needed for the 4 patch units since we've had non stop snow and cold now for almost 2 weeks (with more expected today).

I decided on Wednesday this week that I was going to get to the counting and sorting part to figure out what I needed to start assembling this project.  

I counted 4 patch units..........528 of the 1,000 needed!  Not bad at all.  1,089 2-1/2 inch squares.  750 cut!  Very good!  Then I had a thought....I'd started the 2014 APQuilt Along last year using yellows, oranges, greens and blues also but switched directions after making 1 or 2 blocks....so I found the plastic bin that was holding those 4 patch units and added them to my bin....I'm up to 759 4 patch 

units!!!!

Here's the pile of 4 patches waiting to be pressed

On the left is the 4 patches and the little bin on the right has the 2-1/2 inch squares

YES....I always have to make 1 block just to see how it looks......and I am thinking I LOVE it so, onward with making more

And here's a picture of my block on top of the APQ magazine with my "choice" of quilts.....

I think it's time to get to assembling some more blocks.  I need 80 more of these units.....  Off to the sewing machine for me

And if you didn't see enough cuteness with that block....

Olivia....the ultimate in cuteness!!!

Peggy in balmy 21 degree New Jersey

Just a Quickie

     Just a quickie for this Valentine's Saturday.  Do you make a big deal about this holiday?  We tend to go low key on it.  We tend to exchange cards and a little box of candy.  After celebrating our wedding anniversary in mid October then Christmas and both of our birthdays, we just keep things simple.  This year I made chocolate cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting with coconut sprinkled on top and gave hubby his favorite peanut M&M's....well, I got a cute card, a box of Hershey's chocolates and a Volkswagon Lego kit....What a great surprise!

     Last night we had a nice dinner out at a local italian place because we knew today every place would be crazy. After a relaxing day home today we decided to take a drive to Five Guys and had awesome burgers and fries.  

        Today I caught up with my Moda Building Blocks Quilt Along blocks.
February was an easy one, 6  6-1/2 inch blocks.  I'm connecting all the blocks each month so at the end and with only 2 months left to go, I'll be done and ready for quilting.

I don't have a favorite but I am partial to the Sawtooth Star and the Friendship Star takes a close second.  

There is 1 36 inch block left with a bunch of 6-1/2 inchers.....

And, a post of mine these days wouldn't be complete without an Olivia picture

She just gets cuter and cuter.......but I might be biased :)

A Little Sew Along Fun

I think it's always been clear to anyone that knows me that I have a hard time resisting a Sew Along so when I saw on the Moda website that they were once again participating in the American Patchwork & Quilting Quilt Along I knew I'd be doing it. I did this last year and made a lot of my blocks but sadly I've never finished.... Maybe this year.

 If you've missed getting your copy of the magazine, you still have time.  It's still available at a lot of grocery stores and also at Barnes & Noble.

I actually have 2 copies of the magazine because I couldn't wait for mine to come in the mail so while I was out one afternoon I picked a copy up at B&N :)   

It's no surprise that out of the 3 sample quilts that I picked " Rainbow Rows"  that Moda Lissa created.  I love working with pinks, purples, greens, yellows etc. and no lie....I have hundreds of low volume/neutral fabrics that are perfect for this project.

The above picture is from the night I bought the magazine.  I used a charm pack that was already out on the cutting table and made up 23 in a few short minutes....easy peasy!

I'm doing the 4 patches as a leader/ender project so on Monday night while I had Bonnie Hunter's Quilt Cam on, I sewed up about 30-40.  Bonnie by the way is one of the participating designers along with a long list of others.  You can check out the Moda site and there is also a list in the magazine.

Here's my box full of 2-1/2 inch 4 patch blocks....a far cry from the first day :0  I now have

303 4 patches!

Another Sew Along i'm doing is the Red Sky At Night QAL.
Jodi at http://www.talesofcloth.com is putting out one12.5 inch block a week on her blog and on Instagram and has quite a few girls sewing along with her.  The majority of us are using red but since it's really an individual choice, there are a few girls that are just using whatever they have in their stash...and each and every block is awesome.           

My absolute favorite color fabric to sew with is red and combined with my favorite Kona Snow, then it's a Win Win for me.  I'm using red on reds from the "Redwork Renaissance by Chloe's Closet" for moda fabrics.  I have 12 different prints from the line so I'll keep to the red with white but after I have all 12 done I might make another dozen or so using the other Red on White prints from the same fabric line to make the quilt a little larger.

Now....just when you thought it was safe to move on, there's one more Sew Along I'm doing with some girls on Instagram.  

It's a 52 Week Churn Dash Challenge.  Next to the Ohio Star block, the Churn Dash is my 2nd favorite block.  This challenge is 6-1/2 inch blocks.  A lot of girls are using Civil War fabrics but due to my lack of them in my stash, I'm using my scrap bin with Kona White.  I have a few ideas on how I'll set them in the end but I'm reserving that decision till the end.

I'm doing double duty with the cutting, I cut what I need for these blocks and then cut the leftover prints into 1-1/2 inch strips for the APQAL.  

I'm doing another QAL but I'll have to post about that next time.  It's the Women of the Bible blocks with Little Quilts in Marietta, Georgia.  They post 2 patterns every other week in their newsletter with a nice writeup about the woman of the bible they named the block for.  I'm using all my Fig Tree fabrics in this one but I'm behind about 4 blocks so when I catch up, I'll post again.

Good thing I'm retired huh???

"Designer Mystery BOM"

     So, here is block #8 of the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM.
I love that this star block looks like it has set in points but in reality, Kate Spain has designed "Joyful Julie" to only look that way.  In reality it's all half square triangles and 2-1/2 inch squares sewn and trimmed to look that way.  It was a breeze to make and with the fabric from Edyta Sitar, it was a joy!

Block #8 as mentioned is called "Joyful Julie" and Kate says "My aunt Julie keeps smiling no matter what".  

Above are pictures of #8, all 8 blocks so far, the picture of the pattern and the last picture is the finishing kit and on the right is the pile of the left over fabric....enough to make a small quilt I think!

I'll be back during the week with other updates.

Peggy

Swaps

     Back in the day I did a lot of quilt block swaps, round robins and fabric swaps....and I mean a LOT!   I stopped doing them when a lot of the blocks came home and were either too small, they were wonky or the fabric was just not what was advised for the swap.

     Recently on Instagram I saw there were a lot of mini swaps and even a birthday of the month group and since I knew a lot of girls either running these swaps or participating, I joined 2.
Here's the results of them......

     The first one was the Mini Swap.  We were supposed to keep the mini to about 18-24 inches and as the guidelines were written, help the maker out by making some IG posts with things you liked.
My girl was very vague and all over the place with her likes and never made a design board so I went out on a limb and picked something I thought she'd like....

I'd had this geese pattern for a while and was dying to use it so I picked brighter colors with a black screen like print with a very light grey for the background of the geese.  It was well received and many compliments on it...so all was good!

I received my mini last Friday and I too was pleasantly surprised and very happy with mine.

I love the Bonnie and Camille fabrics that were used and even more surprising was all the other gifts that came with the package.  A charm pack, pins, scissors, a ruler, a pattern and a notebook!!

WOW!!!!!!  Was I spoiled.  When and If I do another swap I will have to add some "extras".

The next swap I'm doing is an ongoing monthly birthday swap.  We filled out questionnaires with our likes and dislikes and from there we make a small item whether it be quilty, knitted, crocheted.....

January's girl was looking for some pouches and since I was excited to use my new boxy pouch pattern, I made her one in orange, a color she requested and then I filled the pouch with fabric, thread, a pin, etc......  

Today I worked on the February girl's project.  She's into sewing and very much into cooking and baking so I made her a mixer that's about 15 x 15 and I'm hoping that with a few other goodies will be a nice birthday gift.

My birthday isn't until December so I have some waiting to do but in the meantime I'll be busy with gifting to other girls.

Onto other sewing..........