Monday, March 31, 2014

Embracing my inner "NewFo"

2014 NewFO Challenge


 I have been seeing this linky party from

Barbara @ Cat Patches

all year and have been resisting.

I am supposed to be working on completing my UFOs this year, right?

Well, I have looked back at my track record so far this year and if I do the math,
I know it is going to add up to more NewFO's than anything else.

So I am embracing my true inner quilty muse here and getting in the spirit of this FUN challenge

Here are  my NewFO's for the month of March ...


My Quilty Kitties and I started sewing this project on the first day of March


We finished this one in time for the blog hop!




We got this one done, too.

Looks like I need a blog hop deadline looming over me to "get 'er done."

We are also started playing with these lovely new fabrics ...



March Spring Frolic Mystery Quilt WIP

... and dug through our stash to start this fun one ...



"I Spy a Triangle" Quilt WIP

'cause a quilty gal has to just has to have a little new in her life.

It is spring!

Happy Newfo Beginnings!

Hope to have these two in the "got 'em done" pile soon

... just keep sewing ...

:)



Sunday, March 30, 2014

Celebrate Life


 will fly again

This makes my heart sing.

For me,

The Boston Marathon

has always been a celebration of life and
the invincible human spirit.



My banner hangs outside my door.

May you celebrate life and love wherever you are this spring!

~ <3 ~

Friday, March 28, 2014

"I Spy A Triangle" Quilt


"I Spy A Triangle"

This is what I am calling this new quilt.

I am joining in this quilty fun ...


The Sassy Quilter



Here is the stack of fabrics I pulled for this quilt.
The stripe on the bottom is my tentative plan for binding fabric.

This quilty fun is being hosted by Paula @ The Sassy Quilter
and she has lots of tips and tricks.


One of them is to use lots of Best Press to help control the stretch of the bias cuts.

So I sprayed and pressed, 


Here are my stacks of triangles.

One of them was an impulse addition while I was cutting 
and I do not think it will make it into this quilt.

Can you tell which one? 

Hint:  It is not in the stack above.

It looks out of place with the other fabrics in this photo, 
but it actually does not look so out of place on my table.
Hmmmm. 
Sometimes I like to study the photos as it gives me a chance to step back 
and give me a new perspective.

I am linking up today with all the pretty quilts in progress in


Thanks, Paula!

Update with a sunny morning photo of my fabrics 
... with the odd fabric out ... 


I am enjoying seeing all the pictures of the quilts in progress in the 


Lots of pretty eye candy!

Have a happy quilty weekend!

:)

Thursday, March 27, 2014

My Spring Frolic

 
 

 


 
 
 
during the
 
 
 
If you are still sewing this as a Mystery Quilt ...
 
Stop!
 
Warning: Spoiler pictures below!

 
I have the center of my top together!
 

 
Here is a close up ...
 
 
... and another close-up


 
... and a step back ...
 
 
Ready????
 
 
 
.
 
 
.
 
.
 

 
 

Isn't my quilt looking gorgeous????
 
<3 <3 <3
 

This is the center of my soon to be queen size bed quilt.
 
The actual sewing of this top is really very easy.
 
The layout is a bit tricky, but the pattern lays it all out is an easy to follow format.
 
Time to add the borders!


 

Since this will become a big beautiful new bed quilt for me
I have been very good about only sewing it for 30 minutes a day ...

... well maybe a few days I ran over my 30 minutes just a little ...

... so I can keep up with other quilty goals.

Linking up with the

Berry Barn Designs


30/30 Sewing Challenge Week 4

... just keep sewing ...
 
:-)

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Waving My Flag!


"Life is a Song ... Love is the Music"

This is my flag.

A bluebird for happiness.


 A song in my heart.
This little glass bluebird is one my mother gave to each of my children when they were young,

 
For this photo this little glass bird is sitting in the snow in front of my forsythia bush.
This is a silk garland added for color as there are no blossoms here anywhere, yet,
not even crocus or hardy pansies.  It is still too cold.
I took these photos standing in an icy mud puddle when the sun was shining a few days ago.
Today we are getting more snow ... oh, no!
 
 
No bluebirds in my bush, either, but I do have plenty of sparrows in my bush.


This is my message.


These are my fabrics.

The two large music prints are from
"All That Jazz" by Sheri Small for Windham Fabrics

Actually these are my daughter's fabrics as she purchased then a few years ago
when we were on a quilty adventure together.
My beautiful daughter is my inspiration for this project.

This will be a Mother's Day Gift for my Mommy-To-Be daughter,
whose due date is Mother's Day.
My daughter plans to be a stay-at-home-mom for her Sprout.
 This as a gift to her to take with her to plant in her garden
to remind her of her gift.
My daughter is a gifted musician and teacher and conductor.
My wish is that she may continue to share her gift with others always.

As my longtime followers know, last August
 I blogged about may daughter's wedding at 


The Cathedral of the Pines,
Rindge, NH


On my Daughter's Wedding Day,


 ... music played ...
(These lovely ladies are two of her very best flutist friends.)


... as she glided down the long  aisle from the top of the hill ...


... she would have passed this stone bench nestled in the gardens ...


So I programed my Janome ...


... and let her stitch!
I stitched these in a variegated rainbow thread
and also a shaded dark turquoise blue thread.

 
I have decided that the darker thread reads and photographs easier.
This is King Tut "De Nile" by Superior Thread.


 The blue thread is the same colors as the three blue Kona Solids 
that I used making this paper pieced
 "Blue Bird of Happiness."


The paper pieced pattern I used may be found in this book,
"For the Birds" by Jaynette Huff.

I also made three paper pieced music notes.
Here is the green one in progress.
This music note is from Right Patterns
and my be purchased Here
  
Here is the rough layout of my Flag-In-Progress.
I decided to add a pretty cream background fat quarter I had in my stash of
 "Sweet Serenade" by Basic Grey
to lighten the background of my flag.


I did some improv piecing again for this project using some of the scraps and pieces.


Katniss helped.


I fussy cut the fat quarter and the large print music fabric to include certain parts of the design.


 Butterfly helped.


"Birdievision" outside my sewing room window has been 
keeping my quilty kitties very busy in the daytime.


So Butterfly was very sleepy when she stayed up late a few nights while I worked on the layout,
 patiently waiting for me to all it a quilty night.


My flag on a stick measures 13" by 19" including the top hanging sleeve.

I enjoyed making this flag and am looking forward to giving to my daughter
for her first Mother's Day.

Please visit all my friends who are waving their flags today ...

March 26th


Thank You, 


and 

for this wonderful blog hop!


Giveaway Time!

To say thanks for reading and following I am giving away ~~~>

 
These two Fat Quarters of
Sweet Serenade by Basic Grey
and one of my the embroidered strips
I made and did not use in my flag

To be eligible to win his giveaway:
please leave one lovely comment!
 
I will mail anywhere in the world.
You do not need to be a follower to win.
You do need to leave an email address where I can contact you to let you know if you are the lucky winner and to get your mailing address.
 
My blog does not allow anonymous comments to keep away the robots.
If you do not have an ID to leave a comment, you may email me
at the address under "Contact Me" at the top of my blog 
and I will enter your comment for you.
 
As a extra thank you to my followers, you may leave a second comment 
telling me how you follow my quilty adventures.
 
This giveaway closes on April 3rd at Midnight DST
 
I will use a random number generator to choose the winning comment.

I will announce a winner on April 4th.


Thank you for visiting!

My quilty kitties and I hope you will visit our quilty corner again soon!

:)