Chain of Faith Update

I didn't get to sew as much or as long as I would have liked today but I did make a little progress on my Chain of Faith quilt. It's an 84 x 84 quilt and this is 2 units connected with a sashing and cornerstone strip. You can't really see my red cornerstone "X" but I like how the quilt looks and the fabric is awesome so it's not a big deal.

It's back to work in the morning even though I'd rather be home sleeping in and sewing :)

Happy week everyone!

Peggy

Awesome

Isn't this an awesome picture? I snagged it from the Monument site on facebook.

Lady Liberty is officially 125 years old this week and is undergoing major inside renovations so there have been a lot of pictures of her lately on their site. This picture was taken last night and I think it's supposed to be showing the swirling snow but it's kind of hard to see....

I don't know about you, but I'd LOVE to get a glimpse of her from this angle!

Peggy/Southern NJ

Chain of Faith

You probably don't remember me mentioning this project way back in April or May but I had kitted it up with the free pattern from the Moda Bake Shop site.

I took it to Indiana where I worked on it at retreat and actually got quite a bit of the block assembly done while I was there but then I remember setting it aside to work on something else and then never got back to it.

I used "BLISS" which is by Bonnie and Camille. It's nice and bright and would make a nice girly girl quilt!

Did anyone out there make this quilt? I'd love to see it assembled in another colorway!!!

Here are the first two blocks I have assembled totally. They are 18 inchers so I think the rest will go together pretty quickly.

Lil Twisters

Have you seen these templates? I've seen a lot of girls making tabletoppers and quilts from these templates so I thought I'd order myself a set. Well, I thought I was ordering a book and a set of templates but instead I ordered 2 sets of templates.

My stupidity could work to your advantage. I'd be willing to pay postage if you'd like to buy these from me....

Email me privately and we can talk $$$

paront1222@comcast.net

Peggy

Hunky Dory Pinwheels Finished!

Remember this picture? Well, I finally finished my version of the "Scrap Basket Bounty". I liked the designer's version but I had a ton, and I mean a ton of "Hunky Dory" fabric that I needed to use up so my version is from the Hunky Dory and I added a top row of the piano key border where the designer did not. To me it just didn't look finished.

It looks great in the picture but it's even nicer in person.....Now to get a backing fabric.................

Is this for real?

Is this for Real? If it is, it's unbelievable !!
My daughter LOVES Pinterest and is always finding interesting things so the other night when she called for me to come check it out, I thought I'd find sparkly shoes, a new cake/cookie recipe or even a picture of a vampire...but no, this is what she showed me.

I think if I was playing against this person I'd have a little self esteem issue about now LOL

Do you play Words with Friends? What was your highest one time score? I haven't played that long so I don't have anything up in the high double digits...maybe 50-56? I'm aiming high though :)

Hunky Dory Pinwheels

Back in the January/February 2011 Mc Calls Quilting Magazine I came across this page of pinwheels and 9 patches and fell in love! So I kept it open on the side of my machine for inspiration. Each pinwheel point in the picture is a different fabric which is looks fabulous but I thought I'd do mine with each pinwheel from the same fabric.

I made a quilt for a girl in work from Hunky Dory fabric and had so much left over that I started making pinwheels using the Triangulations papers. I took all the cut up triangulations in the car with me as I was traveling to Indiana last May and trimmed them off and pressed them open at retreat. I didn't touch the ziploc bag again for weeks/months. Finally I gt all 80 pinwheels made and then had the task of amking all the 3 x 3 9 patch units. Got them done too in record time...then closed up the ziploc bag and moved onto holiday projects.

Well, the other day I decided to look at it all and started to assemble one row just to see how I liked it.

Here's what I have so far! It's much prettier in person, and very pastelly (sp), more so than what I'm used to working on. I have 6 more rows of pinwheels to assemble and then start more assembly. Then figure out a nice skinny border and then make the piano key border for the 3 sides. (yes, 3 sides. this pattern calls for only 3 sides) .

I'd like to finish the top assembly this week or by next weekend for sure.

I will most likely have a lot of Hunky Dory left over and although it's a nice fabric, I don't want to see it again for a good long time, so keep tuned in....I may have a scrap bag give away!

Hope everyone is having a nice sunny Sunday.

Peggy

This has been a banner week

Yes, this has been a banner week for binding. Never, ever, never, have I started and finished binding 2 quilts in one week. Anyone that knows me knows that the binding is my least favorite part of the quilting process, but once in a blue moon I get on a roll and just "git er done".

First off, this black and white Yellow Brick Road quilt was assembled back in April or May and then just sat. The baby (Rylin) that it was made for was born the first week in August and still it sat. I sent it to Michelle for quilting and it came back finished and sat too. Finally I was embarrased at seeing Rylin and her mom in school one day last week and decided that enough was enough. I started it Sunday and finished it Tuesday. Got it washed and dried and took a picture today since the sun was back out.....



This next quilt....OMG, I assembled at retreat in May of 2010. It's all stash flannels!!! I had it quilted almost immediately upon coming home from Indiana...and then it SAT! We had a few chilly nights last week so I KNEW I had to get it bound and washed so we could snuggle up with it. That got done and it too got washed on Tuesday night.

I actually took it for a test drive on the couch this afternoon when the temps dropped and it did the trick! Put me right into la la land :)



I'm happy to say these 2 are done, 3 more to get binding tacked down, and 2 more quilts off to the quilter....I best get my butt moving!!!




Below is a fat quarter bundle of "Nine Dots" by Henry Glass.

Nice yellows, pinks and a spot of grey. I need to figure out a nice pattern to showcase the gorgeous fabrics......I'll keep you posted on the progress :)

November Mini

I got the buttonhole stitching done on this mini this afternoon.

I've done 11 month's now for my Mom in Florida....one more to go and I've kept up all year :)

I will close up the bottom and put the hanging sleeve on during "Dancing" tonight, then it's ready to go in the mail.

Next year I'll have to make myself a set.

Columbus Day-Weekend Update

GORGEOUS Columbus Day out there isn't it? Not only is it 79 here in NJ, it's a day off from school....double nice!

How can you tell you've been doing some catch up sewing?

Lots of empty bobbins! Spent some time this morning refilling them with my usuals...grey, cream and white.

Then onto photographing a charity top I made for retreat in November. This pattern is called "Glorious Geese". The cutting took about an hour if that, then the assembly maybe 2-3 hours.....It finished up to be 60 x 72 which will be perfect for a little boy. The black and white print is a town with multi colored cars, trucks, busses etc. all driving around. I picked a red, yellow and blue print to accent it. I think you can click on it to see better... I'm going to ship this one off to be quilted once I find a back for it.

Then I decided this week I needed to get some binding on some quilts. I can't just sit in front of the TV at night so when I'm not in the embroidery mood I do binding.... Here's the 3 that are in line now.....The flannel on the bottom may win out as the first one to get done since "someone" in my house has been fondling it and saying how much she likes "flannel". We won't name names though :)

I have some machine buttonholing to do on the November mini for my mom..... I'll report back on that once I finish.

Hope you're all having a nice holiday.

Punkin House

I got the binding and hanging sleeve sewn onto this wallhanging Thursday night so since I had made the executive decision that I would NOT go to bed till it was finished, I pressed it and took down the other wall quilt and hung this one. I love how the kitchen wall looks with it there.

In case anyone was wondering, it's a Thimbleberries pattern that I got as a kit AGES ago. I can't even remember when. I have a mini kit of the same thing......that is sitting in a bin UNDONE!

Now, I need to get myself a winter kit to hang.......

This is a long weekend for me. School was closed yesterday for professional day for staff...I had a vacation day and went shopping with my girls :)

Monday we're off for Columbus Day. I'm planning on doing a little housework and changing out the clothes closet and putting up fall curtains and comforter in the bedroom but the rest of the time I'll be sewing. How about you girls?

Peggy

Best Woolie Friends

Girls that I go to retreat with LOVE working with wool so we've been doing a wool round robin. The first one we swapped out at retreat in Indiana back in May. We started a new one I think in June or July and this gnome was my inspiration for mine..

Here is my finished woolie..........complete with a tree, a bird's nest, flowers, a butterfly, a snail and mushrooms. I didn't really give the girls anything to work with except the gnome so I am absolutely thrilled with what they came up with.

Binding, Binding, Binding-Part 2

So, not only did I get the Melly and the Berry Pickin back from the quilters this week, i also got the Thimbleberries Punkin House back.



I had Sandi quilt it in an allover meander and I even got it trimmed down.



I NEED to get the binding on so I can hang it THIS Halloween in my kitchen! It's been sewn and done for 2 years now, I don't need it sitting around for a 3rd year undone!




I also got this Liberty Ridge Top back from Michelle yesterday! Michelle did loops and stars on it and it looks great!



I guess you can figure out that for a good long time, at night, in front of the TV, I will have projects to keep me busy!


Michelle has some nice pictures on her blog of my 2 quilts.....if you're interested in popping over!

Binding, Binding, Binding

Here to the left is a quilt called "MELLY". It is a Rachel Griffith Design and the fabrics used are "Buttercup" by Fig Tree as well as some Moda Solids. GORGEOUS fabrics to work with and the result, especially with Michelle's quilting is WONDERFUL. It's a 65 x 65 square top that will be nice for a little girls' room.
You can click on the pictures to see a close up of the quilting Michelle did too!
Now to get the binding made and on the quilt!

This quilt is a "Crabapple Hill" embroidery BOM that I did 2 summers ago.

It's been finished and sitting around for a bit but I decided that too needed to be finished so this went out about 3 weeks or so ago to another friend Sandi and she quilted this one. The closeup is of the embroidery block with the quilting overtop of it.... Another great job AND another top that needs binding.

Shoppin with the girlies

Yesterday was a long time coming but it came and I got some shopping, chatting and eating time with Michelle and Robin....YAY!
Robin and I have always lived on the east coast but only see one another once a year when we go to retreat since she lives 3 hours away but since Michelle has moved closer we're trying to get together at least 3-4 times a year...and yesterday was one of those days.

Poor Robin was up at 4 or 5 am and at my house by 8:30. We went for breakfast at a local bagel shop and then we got on the road to Olde City Quilts in Burlington NJ, where Michelle met us. We shopped for over 2 hours! But I have to admit, some of that time was spent talking to the owner about his long arm business. Michelle recently became the proud owner of a Gammill machine and is taking a class at Olde City on Friday so there was a lot of questions/answers/showing of the machines in their big classroom.
I did a little shopping....got 3 kits and 2 fat quarters and then by this point in time we were hungry so we went a few doors down and had a nice lunch together.
Then we had 2 options. Village Quilt Shop or J&O Fabrics. We drove to J&O and I found a few


fabrics. I will have to schedule another trip to Village because by the time we drove down to J&O and browsed, it was time to start back to my house so Robin could take her drive back to NY and still get back at a decent time.
No pictures in or around the shop and we totally didn't remember to ask anyone to get a shot of the 3 of us but we are getting together again on November 5th for a craft show down in Delaware so maybe we will get pictures then.

Service and Remembrance

Not only on this date will I remember what happened on 9-11 but I tend to think about it most days. This morning while leaving my house to run errands I was reminded of how close I live to Ground Zero. There were NY/NJ Border helicopters flying so close over my house that I could read the words on the side!

I live less than a mile from the nuclear plant and about an half hour from Mc Guire AFB and less than an hour from Newark Airport....all places that required surveillance I guess today.

I did not have anyone close to my life perish that day but my husband lost a high school friend and the wife of a co-worker who was almost 9 months pregnant.

We will pray and think about EVERYONE today, tomorrow and forever.

I want to thank all the military people out there that serve and protect us each and every day, especially our friend Michelle's husband Travis. All our police and firefighters will be in our thoughts as well.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Free Pattern

I know a lot of quilt bloggers out there like wool also so when I received the link from one of my friend's, Laura, I knew I had to send you the link to the blog....

Free Stitchin' Patterns

freestitchingpatterns.blogspot.com

Peggy

Downy Charity Quilt

Last post I did was the kit Downy sent me to assemble this quilt. I finally just sat down and did it so now off to Michaels for some batting.
I have a lot of pieces of batting but I want to do this in 1 piece.
I'm hoping to get it in the mail and back to Downy by the 15th. All I need is to stay on track and just get it quilted....think I can manage to do that?

Hope everyone is having a nice restful Labor Day weekend.

Quilts for Kids

I remember last summer EVERYONE was doing these "Quilts for Kids" quilts thru Downy. I had been looking at old pictures of projects from last summer and came across the two I did and I'd wondered if Downy was still looking for quilts so I went to their site and yes....they still are, so I ordered a kit. Now, anyone who doesn't know this, the kit is free ! Yes, I said free..............It comes with a pattern, all the necessary fabric and a label for when you finish. All you have to do is pay the postage to send the quilt back to them. Easy peasy right?

Here is the kit I received from them on Friday. The fabric is so stinkin cute too!!!

If anyone is interested in helping all you need to do is go here

Downy.com/HelpingKids.com

There are nice stories about where your quilts go..

Irene and fabric

Irene has passed by NJ and leaving some without power but for us here we have fared quite well. Thank you Irene for not damaging anything at Casa Aront.

On another note, on Friday I got this piece of fabric......

See where I have the sticky note with the arrow? Well, that's the town I live in....pretty cool huh?

Along with this fabric I got this red dot fabric which go with the small house pincushion pattern I already have....

The fabric is "Hometown" by Sweetwater for Moda. If you follow "makelifesweet" blog and wrote in and told them your town early this year (I think it was this year) then you too might be on this fabric.....

And as I've said before...who doesn't like some red and white polka?

Peggy

Evacuate

Evacuate??? No siree Bob....I'm staying put! Unfortunately, Michelle does have to evacuate Dover, Delaware so she's heading out tomorrow morning to Harrisburg, PA.
It's scary all this hurricane talk but I guess it serves a purpose in getting people out and in a safer place while their area gets wracked with the storm. We shall see sometime Saturday what they say about the Jersey Shore....if need be we'll head to Harrisburg too.....cause ya know, Michelle will have a sewing machine and some projects with her :)

So, I guess in closing I can say this was a banner weather week. An earthquake on Tuesday and a hurricane named Irene on Sat/Sun.......

Stay safe folks.....

Peggy

Road Trip

Yes, today I went on a road trip.....

Until I bought a GPS I would not go anywhere alone so this was a monumental day in more ways than one.

I started out meeting one of my BFF's Michelle at Needles and Pins Quilt and Fabric Shop in Swedesboro NJ. I bought that cute flower like pile of bright fabrics, the star hanger and the orange fabrics. Then off we went to Mullica Hill Quilt Shop. I bought the red, purple and black fabric there with the book and another pattern that I forgot to take a picture of.

While there Michelle asked the owner for a lunch suggestion so she sent us to a place called "Blueplate". The sandwiches were good and their homemade chips were DELISH!!!!!

Next we were off to THE LITTLE SHOP in Haddonfield NJ. I got some neutral fat quarters, some polka dot backing fabric and that purple polka dot, AND the shock of my life!!!

We were standing in the Little Shop when the earthquake hit! I'd never been in an earthquake but we were very lucky there was no damage!!!!

All in all a wonderful day with Michelle.....only thing missiing..................................................> Robin!

Michelle did have her cardboard cutout of Robin with her though :)

We missed ya girlie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liberty Ridge

FINALLY......I only started this project like 3 months ago.
It's called "Liberty Ridge" and it was designed by Little Quilts. It finished up to be 48 x 62 which will make a nice replacement wall hanging for the one I have in my kitchen throughout the year.

I didnt by the backing to match but I did get a good deal on this "Bar Harbor" fabric which goes nicely......
Now to get it quilted.....

OK, this is the last project that I pulled out of the UFO bin.

And don't go thinking this is the last one LOL There are quite a few more....but this one I pulled out because Robin, Michelle and I were all looking at a "Summer Day Sampler" by The Rabbit Factory and I told them that I KNEW I had a row by row quilt SOMEWHERE that just needed the rows sewn together and a border put on it and it's ready to go.....

Maybe this is why I pulled that bin out......hmmmmm

My start row is the 5th from the top. The rabbit, flowers and carrots. This was a row by row exchange with some girls on the Pat Sloan site.

I would be curious to know if any of them did their rows?

I'm not sure this is the way I will lay them out in the end, but the bottom row is super cute...there are little ants crawling around on the watermelon slices and the green grass...... Anyone out there remember being a part of this row by row?

Peggy

Punkin House

Here's another project that I found in the pile of UFO's. I really love this one and want to see it hanging on my quilt rack in the kitch THIS fall. YES...2011, not 2012 or whenever, OCTOBER 2011!!!!! I seriously think it's been completed now for at least 2 if not 3 years!
I was challenged by another girl in NJ to do it with her and see who got done first. I can't actually remember who won the challenge but in my book, if I finished then I won!
I can't find the backing fabric that came with the kit so I'm using something else and I'm telling you right here, right now, it's gonna be hanging this year!

UFO's.

I don't know why I do this to myself but I do.................
I go in search of one item and come away with about 10 :)
I can't even remember now what I was looking for but I found these two runners. I really loved this summery looking one back when I assembled it about 4 years ago and the more I look at it today, the more it's growing on me again so I'm going to press it and get the backing ready for it. This blue star runner is another Thimbleberries that I did back at least a year if not longer ago and if you look close enough you can see it's even sandwiched......well, upon careful examination, I found WHY I stopped. It got bunched in one section and needed unsewing. SO...I took it all out the other night and am going to make a visit to a friend's house soon and she's going to let me put it on her long arm and quilt it :)

Another one bites the dust.....

This was a quick one.....

Eyes and fangs will be sewn on when they arrive. Since I worked on all these projects from my stash I forget that some have buttons and such so when I was looking in the book at this one the light went on and I realized I never got the eyes and fangs so I had to place a quickie order with Ericas and true to form, she shipped the day I ordered....
they should be here tomorrow, Monday at the latest.

Now, to make some hanging sleeves.

Art to Heart Mini

I can't believe it's that time again to do my Art to Heart mini for my mom.....I feel like I just did the July and August and here it is time to get the September and October ones made up.

I did the cutting and fusing yesterday and even got the majority of the machine buttonholing done last night but then there was the draw of the tv (Big Brother) and some embroidery, so here I am today finishing it up.

All I have to do is add a hanging sleeve and pop it in the mail. I will however, finish the October one too so I can save some postage....that's all fused and about 1/3 done with the buttonholing.

I have really enjoyed making these minis this year for my mother....and I know she's enjoying having them around her house.

Peggy

Snow Days Update

Here's an update to today's earlier post......

I got May, June and July's blocks all made and attached and all the carry over embroidery traced onto the pieced blocks and the blocks above and below.

I still have about 4 or 5 pieced blocks to make that will make up the center of the quilt but the more time consuming part is done.

Snow Days

Yes, I'm still plugging away on the Crabapple Hill "Snow Days" project.

I do have all 12 months worth of embroidery blocks completed but as we've said from the beginning of this project, this is the project that keeps on giving......

For example.......You would think that this is done....NO!
I have to take this block, attach May's block to the bottom of it and then I have to continue the embroidery from May's block into the June block....THEN when that's done and I attach these to the left side of the center section there is more embroidery to do..... It's a one year project that will probably take 15 months to do.
I do love it though so I'm ok with all the extra work that goes into this project.