{ It Wouldn't Be Spring Without Some Weeds}

I've been waiting for the perfect project to use my fat quarter bundle of  Weeds, by Me & My Sister Designs. It's been staring at me for months.

 

I bounced between a Swoon quilt for the guest bedroom and Red Letter Day, also by Thimble Blossoms.

 

Red Letter Day won. I paired off 16 fat quarter last weekend and started cutting. The directions are easy to follow and the blocks come together quickly.  They finish around 23 inches.

I'm ready to start sewing the third block. Yay!

 

She'll be a gift for someone special so I'm not going to post any photos of the blocks,

 just in case she happens along this silly blog. I am really happy with the look so far.

 

This fabric line is so much fun to work with. I even have plenty of fat quarters left to make a Red Letter Day for myself. Wait, does anyone actually make a quilt for themselves? Every time I plan one, another quilt to be gifted jumps ahead.

 

Happy sewing!

 

 

 

 

 

{ A little slicing and a little sewing }

Last night I finally got around to cutting up the charms for the  patchwork pillow made from Whitewashed Cottage.

 

I even sewed three of the rows together. {of course, after taking a ridiculous amount of time laying out the 2 1/2" squares into a pleasing design.}

 

 

It took me two rows to figure out a foolproof way to be sure the chain-pieced pairs were put together in the right order. Sometimes I struggle with the obvious, like closing a box top with the alternating up-down on the flaps. It usually takes three tries before I get it right. Makes me laugh every time.

 



{ A New, Easy Project ? }

Yesterday I was looking at our guest bedroom, which is serving as our bedroom currently, and planning the rest of the decor. The walls are painted Gentle Rain {gray}and the carpet is also gray. The trim is white, the curtains are pale gray sheers and the furniture is white. I'm going for a cottage-y look for the spring and summer. I plan on making a traditional churn dash quilt for the bed using Whitewashed Cottage by Me & My Sisters for Moda. I already grabbed five charm packs when Stash Addict Quilts had them on their daily special.
 { Exactly when I'll get to this is unknown }

 

While I wait, I thought I'd like to try making a pillow. I found a great tutorial for making an envelope backed  pillow covering at Crazy Mom Quilts.  It doesn't look too hard.

I grabbed one of the charm packs and will start picking out charms for a simple patchwork pillow. I'm planning on a 9x9 grid of 2 1/2" squares for a finished pillow size of 18". I'm looking forward to trying something I haven't done before. Wish me luck.

 

{ Some Things Take Forever. }

Like my Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Block of the Month...................for 2012!!!  Geez, I just finished the last 12 inch block last week. This wasn't the only quilty project I was sewing , it just kept getting pushed aside while I worked on other things.

 

 

 

This is the first BOM that I signed up for and I made a really poor showing. I had all good intentions to make each block as it arrived but stuff happened.

 

Anyway, I purchased the finishing kit and the backing so now I have to get moving and finish this baby up. For those that don't know, the fabric is Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille. I love their fabrics.

 

I'm hoping it won't be too long before I show the finished quilt top. Is 2016 too far away?

{ The Great Blizzard of 2015 }

 

Holy crap, we got a lot of snow in Southold! In fact, the entire North Fork of Long Island got a lot of snow.

 

 

 

You really can't tell how much from this Waterlogue watercolor conversion. Here's a couple from the clean up yesterday.

 

 

 

The foot prints ( actually, entire lower leg prints) on the right are mine. I had to wade through the snow to get to the house and the snow shovel. Before the snowblower could be started up we had an hour of digging a path from the street to the garage.

 

After we finished shoveling, blowing and digging out, we pulled out two folding chairs and sat in the sun with a cup of coffee and tea.  It was 19 degrees but felt like 70 in the sun. Perfect.



{ A New Tropical Home }

The Sister's Choice Christmas quilt made it to sunny Florida on Friday. I got a call from my sister that night saying how much she loves her quilt. I asked for a photo of it when she had the chance. This is what she sent me on Saturday.

 

 

I guess it really doesn't matter that this quilt went to live in Florida. The temperature challenged can still appreciate a handmade quilt. Especially when it's made with love.

{ Sister's Choice for My Sister }

Well, she's washed, dried and folded. All ready to be boxed and shipped to her new home in Florida.

 

I'm so happy with the finished quilt. I enjoyed working with the pattern, Sister's Choice, which I though was an appropriate Christmas quilt design. With the stars and all. And the name,too.

 

It was a very user friendly pattern and it was free, which makes it even better. I used Moda Bella solids in Christmas Green, Burgundy and Snow. The backing, I can't remember the details. It does blend nicely with Snow and it has pretty Christmassy gold in the print. The quilting was done with a gold thread {love, love, love} in a swirly, ornament pattern. It finished at 54x66.

 

Photo overload to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little note about quilt labels. . . . . when I started quilting and I was looking for information on the internet nearly all resources mentioned being sure to label all quilts so that years down the road, maybe even generations later, there would be a history of who made the quilt, when, for whom and for what occasion Up until I made my niece's {Come Sail Away} quilt I had handwritten my labels and attached them using various styles and methods.

This is my second embroidered label and I love throwing in something extra special at the end of the project.

It's not perfect, but it's wrought by my hand.