Fall Stitchery and then some

I made this lovely pin cushion this week using the pattern designed by Kaaren Johnston of http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/2012/09/first-friday-freebie-31-with-tutorial.html

 

 

Her stitcherie patterns are wonderful and she shares many of them freely.  This pattern came with a super simple tutorial.  I really think I made a great copy of her work with the exception of the pins.  She had wonderful artsy pins and I have basic yellow heads.

 

The pattern fully surrounds the piece.  I really enjoyed making this piece.

                                    

Now this lovely package represents my win from Jane of   janesquilting.blogspot.com .  It was her giveaway during the Dots on Dots Blog Hop.  The package contains 2 half yard cuts of my choice from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Speaking of Blog Hops, tomorrow starts the Leafs Me Happy Hop.   I hop this Wednesday and my giveaway will be the Pin Cushion pictured above.  For more information you can click on the button on the left.  Here is the official list.  So stop in and help celebrate fall with all of these terrific quilters.

Monday 1	Fuzzy Hat Quiter
	The Cuddle Quilter
	Quilts My Way
	Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts
	Dream quilt create
	Why-Knot-Kwilt
	Needled Mom
	On the Go Quilting
	Sunshine Girl
	Pam Pereira – on That Other Blog
	Meadowbrook

Tuesday 2	Mrs.Pickles Garden
	Gingersnaps Quilts
	Petit Design Co
	Jessisca – on That Other Blog
	made by a brunnette
	A Passion For Applique
	Annie Oak Designs
	Michelle's Romantic Tangle
	CherrysPrairiePrimitives
	Krislovesfabric
	Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Wednesday 3	Plum and June
	Briarside Lane
	The Recipe Bunny
	VroomansQuilts
	It's Sew Kiki
	PigTales and Quilts
	Quilting fiesta
	GrammieQ's
	Nancy Seitz – on That Other Blog
	Just Let Me Quilt
	Selina Quilts

Thursday 4	Debby Kratovil Quilts
	Patchouli Moon Studio
	Freemotion by the River
	Quilt Doodle Designs
	Apple Avenue Quilts
	Jane’s Quilting
	Spoilt Dog Quilts
	Ramblings of a Quilter
	Deborah Brightwell – on That Other Blog
	A Passion For Appliqué
	Gracie Oliver Arts

Friday 5	Insanity Defense
	Michelle May and the Bunnies
	Sparrow In Flight
	Quilted Delights
	Quilting With a Marmalade Cat
	Traveling Quilter
	A Stitch in Time
	Cherry Blossoms
	Frances Campbell – on That Other Blog
	Moose Stash Quilting
	Stitchin By The Lake

Monday 8	Feathered Nest Studio
	Grandmama's Stories
	From This to That
	Little Mama Hen
	Quilt Monster in my Closet
	Kathy Gentry – on That Other Blog
	in stitches & seams
	Pieceful Life
	Buzzing and Bumbling
	Nunu's Quilt World
	Quilts And Dogs

Tuesday 9	Till We Quilt Again
	Sheilas quilt world
	ferristhoughts
	Home Designs by Amanda
	Quilt n Queen
	Polka dot classic
	Moonbeams in a Jar
	Stitch, stitch, stitch
	Sew Me Something Good
	quiltingbydawn
	My collection of Things

Wednesday 10	Quilter in the Closet
	SewMuch2Luv
	Peanut's Patchwork
	Quilting Lines
	Mochawildchild
	Ariane Quilts
	Lily Patch Quilts
	Cindy's Crafty Creations
	Hill Valley Quilter
	Count it *all* JOY!!!
	Sew We Quilt

See you back here on Wednesday.

trying something new

This is where it began.  This is my current key ring.  If you don't recognize it, it is a puppy collar.  I've been using it for years. Way before the new wrist key holders became the in thing.

 

 

Today is my friend J (in Fl.) birthday. I need to specify because I also have a friend J in NJ and they both follow my blog and they both would think this was about them and one would be let down.  I make both of these friends their birthday gifts most years.  Generally they get the Guinea Pig version of what I make.

 

 

I googled wrist key holders and got quite the selection of places to go and versions to try. Really could have skipped that part.  It is after all just a loop holding the hardware.  I did pick up the hardware at JoAnnes with a coupon. If you followed the Dots on Dots blog hop you would see that I still had some Dottie fabric laying about that needed a new home.

 

 

Well the key holder looked a little lame as a gift so I decided to try my hand at a purse, mainly because I signed up for the UR priceless blog hop, see the top button on the right, and I've been wanting to try one more and more each day.  I googled this too.  Many many to choose from and combine.  This is a combine version.  It is sewn together not glued. I got this hardware at JoAnnes too.  I did the sewn on version mainly because I didn't have glue.  Nice to have had the option with the particular frame I purchased. Apparently not all frames come with the holes.

Here is a picture of the inside.  Next time I will need to rethink the color of the peral cotton I use.  Didn't thing the stitches would show or I would have used red.  Oh look more dots.

These were quite easy to do.  I was surprised actually at how easy the purse was to make. A little more time consuming than a zipper purse but not as difficult.  Maybe less time consuming if you use the glue method.  Will need to try that next ( see that J in NJ) just need to pick up another frame.

Overall I am pleased with the experiment and I'm sure J will also be pleased especially if I ever get it in the mail.

This effort makes waiting for the Hop purse instructions a bit easier.  I understand there are a couple of spots still open if you are interested in joining the UR Priceless Hop. Enjoy the week.

Dots on Dots - My Turn

First the Thank You's.  Thanks you so much to Corrie at Quilt Taffy for hosting the latest SewWeQuilt Blog Hop! And thanks to Madame Samm for being Madame Samm and coming up with yet another wonderful way to make us "Dottie"

 

I thought I took a picture of my beginnings of this adventure.  I had pulled ALL of my Dottie fabrics and loaded them on the ironing board but  for the picture buy now I can't locate it. 

 

So on to my first blocks.  I actually made 4 of these 10 1/2 inch 9 patch blocks but found them lacking.

 

 

 

I then went on to 12 1/2 inch blocks starting with hearts.  I made 3 of the large version and was bored with them so I swithched out to the 4,   6 inch blocks that went together to the correct size. Really liked that effect.  Please note that even my background fabrics are Dottie. I apparently like Dots way more than I knew.

 

 

 

Then came the Stars, because what would one of my projects be if it didn't contain this star either in the project itself or made from the left overs.  I had this fabric for years and had no idea what to do with it. I made 4 stars in total.  Love how they turned out.

 

 

Next up I made trees. Love them too.  All 4 of them.

 

 

By know I had a plan. I decided I needed a queen size quilt and what better way to get it made in a reasonable amount of time than rolling it into this hop. I had never made a ROW type quilt before but now I had 3 rows of 4, 12 inch blocks already done.

 

So  I needed at least one more row.  I always loved 3 D bow ties.  They are so much easier to make in jumbo 12 1/2 inch size.

 

 

 

So to make this quilt queen sized I just added really wide sashing and even wider Borders.  The quilt is just going to be a fun quilt for my spare bed.

 

Tried to get a picture outside with MJ holding it but even his 6'3 couldn't manage it for a clear picture.

 

The sashing is peach with tiney white polka dots.  The Border is green with red polka dots. Not one fabric used without dots.

 

 

This is it spread out on my King size bed. I'm really happy with how it turned out.  With the exception of the border all of the dots came from my stash.  I did get the border and backing at 50% off, which is as close as one can get to using their stash.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

The backing is also dottie.  When I get it all done I'll post it.

 

So that's it for this gal for this HOP.  I had a great time and I hope you enjoyed your stop here.  Please hop on over to the visit the rest of todays talented participants listed below

September 12th

It's Sew Kiki

VroomansQuilts

Kathy's Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs

A Quilting Sheep

selinaquilts  (me)

Jane's Quilting

Dream Quilt Create

The Peach Patch

Dump Quilt

This is how it began.  A bag full of the left overs from my 4 most recent quilts.

 

 

This was a great adventure started by Beth at http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/.  She threw out that she would have a Link in for a Dump and Sew.   I had never looked at my scraps from this perspective before.  Just dump out a bag of scraps and start sewing.  No rhyme, no reason and no unnecessary cutting.

 

 

 

 OK that was a stressful way to begin. But I got over it.

 

This is what I came up with.  It is currently measuring up to about 40 by 50.  Here it is spread out on my king size bed.

 

The rain stopped and I was able to get a much more clear picture of my masterpiece. 

 

I worked this up over about a week of free moments.  No thinking really speeds up the process.  I didn't give color any attention at all.  My cutting was limited to squaring up.  Looking at this picture I can see where some of my shapes were a bit lopsided  which is why I needed to square up finished sections. 

 

The right edge that is blowing in the wind was one piece left over from the back of my stars quilt. I didn't need to sew it together  just added it on.  There is a chunk in the middle that came from the pieced back of my black and white 1600 quilt.

 

All in all I would recommend this process as a fun use of sewing time.  I still have some scraps left from this dump so I will be working on piecing some sort of back to match this top.   Will post about that adventure another day.

 

Thanks Beth I had fun.

Quilts 1 & 2 back from the quilter

Quilt 3 was done last week because I did my own quilting.  I only do long straight lines.  Quilts 1 & 2 needed a different type of quilting.

 

I sent them out to Sarah Russett of Sweet Potata Quilts.  She turned them around in a week for me.

 

I'm trying for a close up of the beautiful quilting, front and back.

 

 

 

The star quilt has beautiful FMQ stars scattered about.  Very cool look.

 

The lighting could have been  better but it is very cloudy here today so I was forced to take pictures in the hall.  These will be delivered tomorrow to their new family.

I'm now off to work on my dump quilt for Beth's Linky party next week.
http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/2012/08/dump-and-sew.html
I had lots of scraps in a new bag which I just collected over the last 4 weeks.  

I made the 3 quilts for MJ's co workers kids and a quilt for the Dots on Dots Blog Hop at
http://www.sewwequilt.com//   which is also next week.  My day is September 12.  I made quite a lot of scraps doing these projects.  I am very excited to see what I can whip together using them.