Following Along

Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy

is writing this series of blog tips and tricks.

I am following along.

I love learning new things and hope to be have time to apply a few of these ideas to my blog soon.

Thanks, Erin!

I am working behind the scenes here on a surprise quilty project.

... just keep sewing ...

:)

QOV on the way Home

This Quilt of Valor is quilted on on the way home.

The pattern is Moda Bake Shop's Charming Stars.

The layout of this quilt included twenty of the 14" unfinished blocks.

With the sashing and borders the quilt finished at 78 by 92 inches.

It was one of the larger quilts I have done on my home machine.

I used a dark blue varigated King Tut  quilting thread that disappeared into the backing fabric.

To keep the clean crisp look of the white stars and sashing I did straight line quilting, 

SITD and Echo quilting.

I used no pins or basting spray.
I used Warm & Natural batting and smoothed and squared the quilt sandwich well.
I did not get one wrinkle or pucker in this quilting, front or back.

Katniss helped.

For the outer border I did straight lines an inch apart.

Butterfly helped by making me take frequent rests to keep my back happy.

Butterfly thinks every quilt should be for her.

Not this time, Butterfly.

May Seaman Andrew enjoy his quilt!

<3

Back to Blogging

I have been quilting.

This is a group QOV for a young man in the navy.

My computer has been down.

I am back ... I hope.

Katniss has been helping me change bobbins.

It has taken a lot of bobbins for this 93" by 78" quilt,

which is one of the larger quilts I have done on my home machine.

Here is a block detail. 

I am doing straight line SITD and echo quilting.

This quilt has been a bit of a bear wrestle but it is a labor of love. 

My family got together here for Easter.

Here are the baby parents-in-waiting.

My grandbaby Sprout is snugly tucked and gestating under that old quilt. 

No baby news yet!

... just keep sewing ...

<3 

More Stitchin' Sisters RR Fun

For the 2nd Border on Tricia's Round Robin, Annette set it on point 

creating this big beautiful "Geese in the Air" formation.

The yellow fabric in the triangles is a gorgeous tonal that glows.

I know because this arrived here yesterday for my to add the 3rd border.

I love fall colors and birds so this one will be fun to work on.

I have it pinned up in my sewing area to study it awhile.

I do have a few ideas and consulted with my Stitchin' Sisters.

What would you add for a border?

Any suggestions?

And here is Tricia's border on Cherie's applique basket medallion.

After the eye popping chain and star border that preceded it she wanted to add a simpler border frame.

Here is a closeup of the fabrics and blocks.

This one has two more stops before I will receive it to add the last border.

More Stitchin' Sister Round Robin updates coming soon!

:)

Time to Get Ready to Picnic!

It is time to get ready to Picnic Party @ Sew We Quilt
 We have wonderful sponsors for this hop! Riley Blake Designs I love, love, love Riley Blake fabrics!

  Remember this Riley Blake Flutter Fabric Love ?   These would make nice picnic fabrics, don't you think?  

  Or maybe these yummy looking Riley Blake Chevrons?  Mmmmmmmm!   Have you seen these lovely Riley Blake Laminates?
  They are so soft to the touch and perfect for a picnic quilt backing, and lunch totes, lawn cushions  and for all your outdoor fabric needs. <3 Our other sponsor is 

Peterboro Baskets   These beautiful baskets are very well known here in New England. The craftsmanship is so wonderful!  <3 Our wonderful picnic cheerleader is  Mary @ I Piece 2-Mary   Thanks to all who are sponsoring and organizing this fun blog hop. Hope to see you joining in the fun!     Linking up with    

 

<3  <3  <3

Stitchin' Sisters RR Update ~ My Border of Gina's Medallion

I have this border done and ready to mail!

Gina entrusted us with the beautiful hand embroidered center block

Annette added this striking border first

I started with these pieces to the puzzle

I cut some dresden fan blades with my Easy Dresden Ruler

These fans are all pieced.

I drew and cut the inner and outer setting templates by hand.

The Stitchin' Sister who added the previous border enclosed some extra fabric from her border and I used this dark blue batik to transition for her border to mine.
The outer turquoise strip is also from fabrics she enclosed.
I will be sending along the scraps from my batik fat quarters for others to use if they would like.

For the corners, I auditioned several ideas and finally dug this one out of a box.

These templates are Winner's Bouquet by Atkinson Design 

A large quilt in this block has been on my Quilty-To-Do List for a long time.

It makes an 8.5 inch block and is easy curved piecing.

Here are some close-ups of my border:

I was thinking sea glass.

Beach umbrellas.

A soft swish of the sea.

Toes wading in the foam.

I finished this border last night at 1:26AM

Gina, may you enjoy, my friend!

Today will be an easy quilty day.

Linking up today with

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

and with this new linky party:

Weekend Link Party @ Patchouli Moon Studio

May you have a happy day!

:) 

All Rights Reserved  Life in the Scrapatch

http://scrapatches.blogspot.com/2014/04/stitchin-sisters-rr-update-my-border-of.html

Wordless Wednesday WIP

All Rights Reserved  Life in the Scrapatch

http://scrapatches.blogspot.com/2014/04/wordless-wednesday-wip.html

This Is My Blog

This is my blog.

Life in the Scrapatch

http://scrapatches.blogspot.com/

It has been brought to my attention by a blogging friend that

another site,

with whom I am not affiliated,

has been reposting my posts ...

word for word.

All my pictures,

my kitties,

my personal stories

on their site,

without linking directly to my blog,

without asking me for permission.

This is not nice.

Their page has ads,

from which I assume they are getting revenue.

Mine does not.

I am not going to post the name of their site on my blog.

If you want more info ...

they may be pirating your content, too ...

please email and I will give you the site url.


All my future posts will have a notice and a link directly my site.

The url for this post should appear in your browser as

http://scrapatches.blogspot.com/2014/04/this-is-my-blog.html

or

http://scrapatches.blogspot.com/

 
If you have a different url appearing with their site name in front

of mine, you are on their site, not mine.

Thanks to all who read my blog.

Update:

It appears that enough DMCA complaints 
against this site may have been lodged today 
with the host server and 
it looks like it has been taken down.
Or the blog pirates saw the patchwork sails gathering their forces together on the horizon 
and have packed up and moved on.

I am going to 

just keep sewing ... and blogging ...

:)

30/30 Sewing Challenge

For the month of March, I participated in this fun challenge hosted by 

Sarah @ Berry Barn Designs

The idea was to spend 30 minutes each day for the month of March

 sewing something that I have been wanting to sew "just for me"

 but have been putting aside for other quilting goals
and to make things for others.

I took this as a time to reflect on the fact that sewing is my "happy place" and 

every time I sew I should be "sewing for fun" 

and not feeling stressed to meet a certain goal or commitment 

or level of success that I have set for myself.

In short, I wanted to put the fun back in sewing
and the happy back in my happy place.

I started here 

and tossed out a few rules and decided to try sewing

with no set list of things I wanted to "accomplish ..."

Then I picked up some fabric for a blog hop project for which I was feeling

 a form of quilter's block.  It was not so much that I had no ideas. It was more that I had too many ideas and could not settle on one. None of my ideas felt good enough.

So I started cutting and sewing with a vague image of where I was going and just enjoyed experimenting with the pretty fabric.

I did some more "just playing with the fabric" sewing Here

I was using precuts, a charm pack and a jelly roll, something I do not use a lot. I have a preference for nice big pieces of yardage that I can cut and know there is more if I need it.  This past year has necessitated a smaller fabric budget and sewing from my stash so the option for nice big cuts of fabric are more limited.

This is what my finished Ruffle Blog Hop project looked like.

This may be my favorite finish of the year!

It makes me happy every time I see it.

Then I sewed some fun scrappy blocks that I am swapping with my quilty bestie,
 Dorian @ Ridge Top Quilts
just for fun.

These  x & + Blocks are fun and easy to make and I enjoy sewing and swapping and Dorian and I have a very relaxed attitude about getting these done and in the mail,

but I was way behind.  I never sent my February blocks and time was running out on my March blocks. Once I started sewing, I just kept going and made April's blocks, too.

So I am actually ahead on this one!  Yay, me!

For fun, I joined in the March Mystery Weekend @ The Quilt & Needle
 that I usually sew every year but was going to skip this year because I  was "too busy."
I love these fabrics and this pattern and I am sew happy I joined in.
I actually had to stop myself at "about" 30 minutes a day on this one or I would not have gotten some other sewing commitments done at all last month.

Pictures of this finished top coming soon!

Then to add to the sewing fun, I decided to join in the
Triangle Quilt Along @ The Sassy Quilter
I started with these fabrics.
This week we are sewing the triangles into rows.
I am picking up a lot of tips about sewing with triangles.

Today I am linking up with the finish party at

30/30 Finish Party @ Berry Barn Designs

There are some pretty fun projects in the links!

Even though this challenge is over I am going to continue my habit of sewing a few minutes each day on just a fun project that I want to do as I also sew the ones I need to do.

Thanks, Sarah, for helping to put the fun back in
"sewing for fun".

:) just keep sewing :)

:-)

Giveaway Winner!

The winner for my giveaway for my

Flags on a Stick Blog Hop Post

is ... 

True Random Number GeneratorMin: 1Max: 107Result:21

# 21

Heidi [Banks of Frog Creek]

said

"I follow via Bloglovin :)"

Thanks, Heidi!

I will be sending you an email for your address.

I truly appreciate every kind comment and every supportive follower.

Thanks to all who stopped by my blog and left a kind word on my flag.

Looking forward to the next fun blog hop!

:)

A Lovely Year Finishes April Goal

I hope to finish this top for my April Goal!

Linking up with the April Goal Setting Party @ Fiber of All Sorts

This quilt  was ... 

Started Here

This was originally begun as a mystery quilt.

Progress Here

There are large setting corners to be added to these corners 

as this will be a queen size quilt.

The orange circles in this photo are not part of the design.

They are post-it notes I stuck to some of the patches to make sure they went into the right places,

The design is a "twist" on a garden maze quilt pattern.

Looking forward to getting this one done as it will be a new summer bed quilt for me!

:) 

Round Robin Border in Progress

This is the beautiful round robin and fabrics that I am working on today.

For those of you who are interested,

 click here for pattern info 

of the medallion stitchery by Sandi Bard

I found this beautiful batik fat quarter stack, Sea & Sky by Benartex,

to add to the fabrics I found in my stash for this border.

I love these colors!

I can almost feel the waves between my toes when I touch these fabrics.

The Atlantic here is too cold right now for my toes 

so I shall have to just dream of summer while I enjoy the fabrics.

Have a happy quilty day!