Stitchin' Sisters Round Robin Update

My border on Annette's Medallion is done!

I am really happy with how this looks and hope Annette will be, too.

In the end it came together easily.

This was not my original border idea.

At one point I had two sides on and then I removed them and only kept the corners.

The nine patch corners were made with fabric that Annette included with her medallion and I knew right away when I saw this block that I wanted to extend them outward.

I had tried to add fabrics from my stash but they were not a good addition so I went fabric shopping and bought three half yards, the lighter red, the purple herringbone and the red and purple print.  Much better!

Here are the fabrics that I added

Here is a closeup of how these fabrics work with the original fabrics that Annette chose.

Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out just what the medallion wants, 

but when I do it all falls together. 

I really enjoy the challenges that these pretty medallions bring.

I shall enjoy this one brightening my wall for the day.

Time to mail tomorrow!

Looking forward to working on Gina's RR next month!

Our Round Robin 2014 Album may be found Here

Have a happy quilty weekend!

:) 

Stitchin' Sisters Round Robin Update

Here is the beautiful border that Annette added as the first round

 on Gina's lovely embroidered medallion.

I love the gorgeous batiks.

I will be adding the next border to this lovely.

For all the round robins in progress click on our album click HERE.

I am putting the finishing touches on my border for Annette's medallion today

 and hope to have a photo for you tomorrow.

... just keep sewing ...

<3

Ruffling Along

Katniss and I are ruffling!

Yes ...  that is
 Botanique from Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit Fabrics

Think Ruffles!

Full Schedule Here!

I am sew looking forward to all the pretty ruffles!

:-)

Sunlight and Shadow in the Scrapatch

A new day

My oldest followers may remember photos

 when my sewing machine was tucked 

into this sunny window corner in my dining room. 

Lady Janome is getting settled in here again for a time.

I moved back to my dining room space on Sunday evening.

Ms Katniss, who does not remember these days, says, 

"Do I have to pack my toy box? What is happening in my sewing room?"

No worries, Ms Katniss, your toy box can stay.

You can still have your warm shelf over the radiator, too.

One of your boys is moving back home for a short while.

Just another loving hand to pet you.

I tucked your favorite basket in a nice spot in our new sewing area for you.

I am blessed to have The Boy home for awhile.

On Saturday, the baby shower for My Girl and Grandbaby-to-Be 

happened here with great fun and success. 

Lots of lovely gifts, including a quilt made and mailed by Sprout's Great Aunt JoAnne.

Cute little monkey booties from Great Aunt Lynn.

My daughter loved the soft minkee backed hooded bath wrap which I tucked into a blue whale baby bath with a rubber ducky and lots of bath goodies.

My Girl and Grandbaby were blessed with many beautiful gifts.

A fun day was had by all.

Then ...

On Sunday morning, my hubby went to the hospital for chest pains.

Monday was spent by my hubby's side at the hospital.

The full round of cardio tests are being run.

Several years ago he suffered a heart attack and had surgery, angioplasty and a stent implants, and was in the hospital over a month and recovered well 

but has been seeing a cardiac doctor regularly since then.

My hubby is doing okay.

I have Faith.

My Hubby and all my Family and my Home are in God's Hands

I am Blessed. 

Today my sewing machine is ready and waiting for me in my new/old space.

Update:  My hubby is now home.

 

After more testing, since they said the first results were not conclusive, they are saying it was not a heart attack. I am glad he had this checked out, though, as he still has the pain ... front and back right over his heart.  Must be only muscular. He has follow-ups with both his heart and his regular doctor.

 

I even got a little sewing time tonight ... it is a good  night.

 

Sweet quilty dreams

 

~ <3 ~

Fabric Box Giveaway Winner

Time to pick a winner for my 

She Who Sews Blog Hop Post Giveaway


Mr Random says ...


True Random Number GeneratorMin: 1Max: 95

Result:

6

Here is Lucky Comment # 6:

Carla!

"Wow, you have been a busy gal. I do love your table cover with the pockets. So much organization and your sewing machine cover is very pretty with ruffles. I love your handle idea with the selvage. Thanks for hopping and working so hard to inspire us."

Congratulations, Carla!

Email coming your way to get your address to send you your new fabric box.

Thanks to all who visited my scrapatch and left so many kind comments.

Happy Blog Hopping!

:) 

Girl + XO Quilt ~ Ruffled & Finished!

My Girl + XO Quilt is all ruffled and finished!

I took it outside in the waning sunlight for a photo shoot.

 I was actually frosty and windy and patches of sun were hard to find ...

but the colors are so vibrant against the snow.

sunlight and shadow.

Here it is inside on my design wall.

Girl + XO Quilt

and Ruffled !

This is my first ruffled binding ever.

I quilted the heart around the XO.

Then I pinned the backing out of the way.

Then I ran a line of quilting on the front 1 inch from the outer edge of the quilt.

Then I finished with straight line quilting within these lines.

This left the edge of the quilt open to make the ruffle.

 Ruffles take a lot of strips!

I cut 3" strips and folded and pressed the in half. 

My quilt would have needed 6 regular binding strips 

and I used 15 strips for the ruffle.

I folded the ruffle as I sewed the binding to the right side of the quilt.

The backing is still pinned out of the way at this point.

Then I trimmed the batting to 1/2 inch beyond the edge of the front.

Then I unpinned the backing.

... I very carefully folded the ruffle out of the way so I would not cut it ...

and I trimmed the backing to 1" beyond the edge of the front.

Sorry, I forgot to take some pictures of this process.

I pressed the ruffle outward, folding the 1/2" of batting backward.

Then I folded the white backing fabric under and hand sewed it to back of the ruffle.

My quilt is ready for gifting!

Quilty Kitty Approved!

I made this quilt for the



Hugs & Kisses XO Blog Hop



For my blog hop post and pattern details click here!

There will be more lovely XO projects up at midnight tonight EST.

Full Schedule Here

Looking forward to visiting all the beautiful hearts!

I am linking up today with




Link A Finish Friday

and



Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?


~ <3 ~

Time To Pick My Grow Your Blog Hop Winner

Today is the day to announce  the winner of my

Grow Your Blog Hop Mug Rug

Mr Random says:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: 1Max: 75

Result:

62

Here is the lucky comment # 62:

ElleeJanuary 31, 2014 at 3:37 AM

1. "I follow by email. --"

Ellee is a no reply blogger but she left an email address in her comment,
which I am not publishing here, so I sent an email and have received a reply from her
with her address.

Enjoy your new mug rug, Ellee!



Thanks to all who visited my blog for this fun GYB hop!

:-)

Hugs and Kisses XO ~ Pieces of My Heart

Hugs and Kisses XO to You!

When Madame Samm announced

this years' Hugs and Kisses theme 

and I saw the pretty paper pieced patterns that she and Soma from

 Whims and Fancies

had created for us

the image of ...

... an old fashioned fancy heart box 

popped into my head.

I knew that I had to make one of these!

So I gathered materials.

The heart box is actually a tin given to me by one year by one of my sons
as a Valentine Day gift that I have been saving to use again.

Lady Katniss was very interested in this project.

Very, very interested!

Teeny tiny pieces!
I down sized the pattern by 50% to fit the top of the heart tin.

Here are my arrow pieces before I cut the paper apart and sewed them together.
I used the traditional method of paper piecing that I was taught, sewing
through the paper pattern and removing the paper afterward.

I am really happy with how my heart came out.
My tin is only 9 inches across so I had to resize the pattern I chose for the top.

My finished heart is only 5 inches across!

I cut it to size for the top of the tin box and cut some batting to pad the top.

Then I looked for some bits and pieces to embellish the top.
These are all little buttons and things I won in giveaways that have been tucked away in my sewing room waiting for the right project.

I  cut a heart shaped piece of batting to pad the back of the top
and I echoed stitched around the heart with perle cotton.
I stored the thread and buttons in the tin while I sewed.
Of course, Lady Katniss helped.

 I found some pretty fabrics from my stash ...

... and used a sew and flip method to frame the heart.

Some of them I pieced before I sewed them to the heart.

Here is my top before embellishing.

Here is the padded back.
There are three layers of batting at this point ...

 ... and I added one more when I added the ruffle.

There had to be a ruffle!
This pink gingham fabric is very old thin fabric that was left from a project that I made for My Girl when she was a baby.

I sewed on some lace and ribbon trim that I also found from a long ago and forgotten time and I added the buttons.

I hand sewed pink fabric to cover the back of the heart
before I fixed it to the tin box top.

When I attached the heart to the box, I decided that I wanted it to be removeable
so I used a velcro strip that I had in my stash of supplies.
I glued the scratchy part to the tin with heavy duty double sided sticky tape.
The sticky tape is from a roll that was given to me by the local manufacturer when I was a cub scout leader over twenty years ago and I was looking for donations of supplies. They gave me a big boxful.  I am down to the last roll.
Then I hand sewed the soft part to the back of the heart.

Lady Butterfly helped.

This project has been quilty kitty approved.

Pieces of my Heart

Now my tin is filled with treasured pieces of my past
including these small photos of my children when they were young.
My sons are nine and seven years old and my daughter is five in these photos.

Of course, there were two more patterns to make ...

... sew I sewed!

These are the 10.5" of the original patterns.

What to make with these?

Sometimes simplicity is best.

So I framed these blocks with the white swiss dot 

that I used as the background fabric for the blocks.

Plans are to use the varigated pink fabric in the "O" Block

 that has shades from dark to medium pink for the binding.

What to make for the other side of the quilt?

Girl + Quilt!

Click here to read my post about the pattern details.

The pink and yellow floral fabric in the center plus is my favorite fabric in this quilt.
It reminds me of the roses in the curtains that my mother placed in my room
when I was a little girl.

I am quilting ... quilting ... quilting ...

I quilted organic free style hearts around the XO.
Now I am adding a fill design inside the heart 
and I have other quilting plans for the space outside.

I have come down with a sore throat and a winter cold and I am achy and moving slow 
so I will not have the quilting done and the binding on for a day or two.

I did enjoy venturing out in the sun and snow to breath the clean frosty air 
while taking these photos for you.

Finished Quilt Here!

{{{{{{{hugs}}}}} and XOXOXO

be sure to visit all the Ladies of the Day!

Feb 12th

Lady Carol

http://justletmequilt.com

Lady Sandy

Upstairshobbyroom.blogspot.ca

Lady Cynthia

Http://dreamquiltcreate.blogspot.com

Lady Pat

http://scrapatches.blogspot.com/

Lady Jolie

www.joliemaxtin.com

Lady Susan

desertskyquilts

Thank you, Madame Samm and Soma!



... for these these pretty paper piecing patterns ...

  Here at Etsy!

 Here at Craftsy!

... and for donating the proceeds to charity <3

... just keep quilting ...

Thanks for visiting my scrapatch!
Have a Happy Heart Day!
XOXOXO from me to you! 
<3