Retro Flowers QAL

                        This pic and pattern is from Christina The Sometimes Crafter



Ok I am in! I love this pattern and this sounds like a whole lot of fun!
And a pattern with Curves! Yikes, ok be gentle.....


I have not participated in a QAL yet, so this will be a first. As will working with Flickr! (I love to cruise all the photos -- so inspiring!) 

City Stitches and Sweet Diesel Design are hosting and you can link up to see what it's all about!

I just ordered some Pat Bravo Modernology to use -- I know, I know I am supposed to be busting my stash but I love this fabric and got it on sale from Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks along with a fat quarter bundle from a great shop called SisterandQuilters on Etsy.

Yummy!

Ok, pattern - Ck

templates - Ck

fabulous fabric - Ck

butterflies in my stomach - Ck!

Now all I have to do is wait for the mailman to come!  I love getting packages! ;)

Jelly roll in Central Park

Strip quilt

I have had this Kate Spain Central Park fabric and have always wanted to use it in a strip quilt because of the wonderful, vibrant colors. So I got busy last night and did the jelly roll strip quilt.

1600 inches of strips!

a river of fabric!

And finally a finished quilt top! I love the colors and it is an easy project but I must admit I was bored sewing long continuous strips. And then there is keeping the puddle of fabric in line to sew those long strips! I did however set my machine on it's fastest speed (which I rarely use) and was very happy at it's performance. It was a nice change to piecing and it is a great beginner quilt or fast project for anyone needing a quick gift but not as fun as I thought it would be.

Have a great Wednesday!

P.S. I am linking up to W.I.P Wednesday with Freshly Pieced! I am new to linking up but so fun!

AWOQ

AWOQ--away without quilting. Wow, it seems like March has flown by and very little sewing has been done.  But Spring has sprung and we have had 10 days of record breaking weather! Gorgeous- it was 87 on Thursday, unheard of for northern Indiana in March!

What I have done is attend the "Gathering of Quilters" that occurred in Auburn Indiana on March 17th. It is a quilt show with guest speaker that is sponsored by a local quilt guild in the tristate area (Indiana/Michigan and Ohio). The sponsoring guild was Noble Nimble Thimbles and they did a wonderful job of putting on this event. There were many guilds represented and over 800 quilters from the area attended.

Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts was the guest speaker and she brought over 50 of her beautiful quilts to go with her presentation of "Why We Quilt."  A wonderful, history of the many reasons quilts have been made through the years.

Her quilts are beautiful - They are scrappy, traditional with a bit of a twist. Please check out her blog at the link above and she has an internet store also. I am not posting the pics as I am worried it would be a copyright infringement. Here is a pic of a couple of her books that show many of the quilts and patterns.

Hopefully I will have more pics of current projects later this week!  Happy Sunday!

String Blocks

The patterns for the Craftsy BOM's for March focused on string blocks. Now I had always admired these but thought they looked way complicated! And then there is the issue of how do you make sure you are going to like how they turn out if you go scrappy.....and if you don't, well then you have to sit and sort and well just seems kind of time consuming....so I never tried them.
I am sooo glad I finally did! I love them! So FUN!
These were made with strings from the group of fabrics I am using from stash for this project.

First was the String Block

I did this one in the warm colors of pinks, brown, yellow, lavender and fuschia. The white strip is actually the background material. I really like how it turned out. So easy!

Next was the Broken Spider Web block

For this one I chose the cool colors. Lots of blues, greens, turquoise, lavender, with just a bit of pink and fuschia to pull it all together with other blocks in the quilt. I love the look of this block!

A word of caution when working on this block; the background fabric - the white - begins as triangles. So when you are sewing on your strings you are sewing with bias edges. Be careful, when working on the bias edge it does not take much to stretch the fabric. Then you end up with a block that is all whopperjawed! (love that technical term)  I did use spray starch when pressing these before sewing together. I think it really helps prevent stretching and distortion. I do use steam to press (not iron). I consider pressing more of setting the iron down on the area to press and then picking it right back up---No pushing back and forth like you do when trying to get wrinkles out -- that I call ironing and it will stretch fabric. Trust me, I have done it.  I know this debate on dry press vs. steam press continues on in the quilting community...... I think it is one's own preference and you can have a beautiful project either way! 

A big THANK YOU and WELCOME to my new followers! It is always nice to know that someone is reading and enjoys what you do.    Happy Monday!

Buttons, Blogs, and Stash

I have learned how to add buttons to the blog! Thank you to Karen at Sew Many Ways, not only does she make such cute and awesome items, she has a great tutorial section on her blog that helps all us newbie bloggers figure out what we are or are not doing!

I have added the Craftsy BOM button and today I found Slash the Stash fromthebluechair! Thank you, love it!  I have added the Slash the Stash button since my Craftsy BOM's are all out of stash -you can scroll down to a couple posts back to take a peek at them if you would like. I am getting ready to work on the March blocks tonight. I have bought stash this year with projects in mind---does that count?  I mean is it really stash if you already have a project in mind for it when your buy it? Even if you might not get to that project right away....or does it turn into stash if you never get to the project.....and then maybe use it in another?  Any way you slice it, I have enough fabric....not going cold turkey as I am sure there will be something really great that I really, really "need" :) but I am going to try to use what I have this year. More sewing, less buying---I am donating those dollars to my car's gas tank I believe.

Stash....here is a pic of a couple of precuts I have recently bought. I have not worked with precuts much so I am excited to try them out along with my new hexie and tumbler templates! 

Have a great Friday evening-- I hope to be sewing since it is cold and rainy here today.

Here they are!

Here they are! They are soooo cute!! What do you think?

Lion

Elephant

Zebra

Giraffe

I still have 4 little monkeys to do for the corner blocks, but I am confident I can get those done. It really was not hard once I remembered to trace the template and iron onto the fabric BEFORE I cut the piece out!!  I still have to do the blanket stitching around each animal and then do some hand embroidery for the eyes and mouths. Then it will be onto the backing and quilting!

Have a great Thursday!