New Year, New Projects, New Fabric!

I'm looking forward to starting some fun, fresh new projects in January! Trying some more modern fabrics is my quilting resolution for the New Year. Here's a look at some that I've collected so far. I can't wait to get started!

New Year......New Fabrics!

December LePetite Project

The LePetite Project for December was Prairie Point Christmas by Cara Wilson.  I finished this Christmas project in the "Nick" of time!  Get my Christmas pun?  Pretty bad, huh? Sorry, I couldn't resist!  Anyway, this was a fun project with lots and lots of prairie points! I've only made prairie points once before, on a Valentine's quilt that I'll be sure to show you in February, so I was looking forward to working on them again.  The ladies at my LQS dinner loved the project too!  You can find the pattern at Moda Bake Shop.  Most of my fabrics are from the Remembrance Line by Brannock and Patek for Moda. Be sure to check out the whole LePetite parade on A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion at the beginning of January.  I'm looking forward to it! Also, thanks to my DH for taking the wonderful picture!    

Prairie Point Christmas 

  

A Last Minute Gift Idea

Holiday Cookies in a Jar

We have been making these sand-art-like gifts for friends, family, and teachers for years. It's a great last minute gift idea too.  Even if you don't need a gift at this point, the cookies are so tasty you may want to make them anyway.  The only catch is that you may have to brave the grocery store close to Christmas, but better that than the mall! Remember the grocery store scene in the movie Christmas With The Kranks?  That was me this morning.....it really wasn't that bad, although they were out of the brand of ham I wanted.   Find the recipe for this tasty homemade gift idea at Family Fun Magazine and enjoy!

A little messy!

A Few More Christmas Quilts

Christmas snuck up on me!  I wanted to get these pictures posted earlier, but suddenly Christmas is less than a week away!  If I waited much longer to get these posted, everyone is going to be way more interested in taking the decorations down than looking at Christmas quilts.  Some years, when Christmas is over I can't get the decorations down fast enough to start fresh in the new year.  I'm excited to get the decorations up and I'm excited about taking them down.  Funny how that works, isn't it?  This year it seems like the season has gone by quickly, but we do have about a week left, so I'm getting way ahead of myself!  I still have gifts to wrap, okay and a few to buy....Yikes!..... and cookies to bake!

I love this quilt!  It is one of my favorites. It came from a Fons and Porter magazine years ago.  Lots of points, but so worth it!  It was on my list of projects to start on for a long time until I felt like I need to take on a bigger project. This quilt was just what I was looking for.   

This closeup kind of shows the quilting.  The lighting in the house isn't the best, but it was just too big to take outside on a cold, windy day.  I just meandered, but it is a huge quilt! I squeezed it through my Bernina 440. Now that I have an 820 I don't know how I ever fit big quilts through a smaller machine!

Red Sky at Night is another Fons and Porter Magazine pattern.  More triangles and points!  Its not really Christmas, but I usually get it out now  because I love to add more reds to my house during the holidays, then keep them up through Valentines Day.

 
The kids are out of school now after a busy last week.  Sports banquets, teacher luncheons, class breakfasts, class parties....now I need a vacation!  More time to quilt!

Baking Cookies

My sewing machine is so lonely.  I've been busy getting ready for the holidays. So much to do!  I'll have time to quilt again soon, but my family likes their cookies!

These cookies are amazing!  Potato chips and cookies at the same time...does it get any better than that?  Warning-this recipe calls for a large small amount of butter and the cookies are addictive, as well as lots of fun!  Let me know if you give them a try.  I loved Carrie's post on Christmas Cookie Rules.  You may want to read them!

Potato Chip Crunchies Recipe


Ingredients


   2 cups butter, softened
   1-1/2 cups sugar
   1 egg
   1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   4 cups all-purpose flour
   1 cup crushed potato chips
   1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  
• Beat in egg and vanilla.  Gradually add flour and mix well.  
• Fold in the potato chips and pecans.  
• Drop by tablespoonfuls 1-1/2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. 
• Flatten with a fork.  Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Remove to wire racks to cool.

This recipe by Dorothy Buiter came from Taste Of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars 2009    

The Christmas Quilts Are Out!

The decorating is finished and I have to show you some of my Christmas quilts!  It was a cold windy day, so my pictures may not be the best.  I need to find a better place inside to take my pictures.  It's just not real convenient to drag everything outside!  I made extra sure to bring in the dining room chair I was using to hang the quilts. I'd hate to leave the chair in the driveway and later back over it with my car!  That would be difficult to explain!

Jelly Donuts by House of Quilts
Made with a Jelly Roll

Close up of the quilting

It's A Wrap! by pieces from my heart
Don't you love the bias binding?

 I didn't buy enough fabric for the backing to make it go the direction I wanted. To make up for the difference, I added some extra blocks to the back to make it work! It took some extra time, but I think it was worth it!

Also, last Friday I spent lots of time at my LQS sewing and eating dinner with friends.  I worked on the next Le Petite Project.  More pictures coming soon!

Butterchurn Project for Le Petite

For my first Le Petite parade, I just completed Butterchurn by Sherri K. Falls.  I used a Portugal and a Prayer Flag charm pack, both by April Cornell for Moda.  Portugal is a charm pack I've had for a long time.  I don't know why I only bought one! What can you do with one charm pack?  I didn't have any ideas, until I saw a Prayer Flag charm pack and realized they would look great together!  When I got home from my LQS with Prayer Flag,  I saw that April Cornell had designed both fabric lines!  I think they go wonderfully together!

Butterchurn for Le Petite Designed By Sherri K. Falls

Be sure to visit A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion tomorrow to see the Le Petite Parade and find out which project is next!  I'm excited to be in my first parade!  Stop by and join the fun!  Also, let me know if you have any project ideas for single charm packs.  I'd love to hear from you!

Wrapping Up A Busy Week!

The fall decorations are put away, the turkey is gone, most of the Christmas decorations are up and I finished my next Layer Cake Quilt Along block. Wow! It has been busy at my house!  But why aren't the lights on the top third of my tree working?  I'm still not sure.  We also took a wonderful trip to Universal Studios in Orlando last week.  How could I leave that out?

Layer Cake Quilt Along Block Designed By Vickie Eapen 

Tomorrow it is back to the school routine again.  But not for long!  Only three weeks until the next holiday break, but between exams, holiday activities, a few more golf and soccer tournaments (didn't I say we were done with that for a while?) it will be busy!  I'll have to sneak some quilting in somewhere!  How are you finding time to get projects finished during the busy holiday season? Let me know.  I'd love to hear how you do it!      

A Time To Be Thankful

The Last Days For Fall Quilts

Before I pack up my fall quilts and put them away until next year, I wanted to share some of them with you.  I love seasonal quilts, especially fall, and these are a few of my favorites!  

We've already put some lights on the house and gotten the Christmas boxes down from the attic to get a head start on decorating. Our Christmas season keeps getting busier! My DH and I are the "luminary chairs" of our neighborhood this year, so we are responsible for getting 3,200 luminaries sorted and distributed!  I want to have the house decorated before the other volunteers come over to help.  

Special thanks to my helper who took time out of building a roller coaster with K'nex to hold up the last quilt!  He's wonderful!

Enjoy the holiday week with family and friends!

Where Are Your Fabric Scraps?

What do you do with all of your scraps?  Linda from Lavender Ridge did a fun post about scraps and scrap quilts yesterday.  I was thinking I had not made a quilt that was mostly scraps, then I remembered this one.  It's made from bright fabrics that I accumulated over the years from making baby quilts and bright children's quilts. It started out as a placemat, but I was having so much fun making it that I couldn't stop!

Let's Start With Leftovers
Notice the small helper hands and legs!

It was the first quilt that I entered in a quilt show and I was shocked and proud when it received an honorable mention.  I didn't even see the ribbon at first, one of my boys had to point it out to me at the show!

Flowering Vine Quilting

Sunburst Quilting

The bright colors may make it less traditional than other scrap quilts, but a scrap is a scrap!  What do you do with your scraps?  I'd love to hear your comments! I need to make more quilts with mine, the scraps are piling up!

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Friday, I spent some time at my LQS having dinner and working on projects with friends. Thanksgiving was the theme of course, with wonderful dishes and great fun.  I finished my first Layer Cake quilt along block while I was there, just in time to get the next set of directions on Tuesday!  This week I plan to get it finished sooner. The Prayer Flag fabric gave the block a lot of contrast. I left the circle out of the middle because I prefer patchwork to applique, but I'll see how the rest of the quilt goes.  Mary from Quilt Hollow commented on my last post that she liked the accent fabric with the green print better than the cream, and I have to agree. I'm looking forward to seeing what Tuesday's pattern will bring!

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Soccer and golf season are mostly over for us, so instead of driving boys back and forth to practice and games, maybe I will have more time to get blocks done. I love them playing sports, but I have to say I do look forward the break from practices and games during the holidays!

Fabric Shopping!

This week I found some great fabrics to go with my Prayer Flag Layer Cake for the Layer Cake quilt along. I'm not sure which light I want to use for the accent fabric.  Any ideas?  I'd appreciate your comments.  One has a small light green print in it and the other is a cream fabric.  I love them both.  Help!  Sometimes I have a hard time deciding on a fabric.  Other times it jumps right out at me.

Prayer Flag fabrics
Which light accent fabric should I choose?


Look at that wild fabric!  That is the one that jumped out at me!

This fabric just had to go on the back of my State Fair Schnibbles!  When I saw it I knew it had to go home with me.  I didn't have the blocks or measurements with me at the time, so it was a little risky.  I am really picky about what fabric I choose for the backing.  I like it to relate to the quilt somehow.  The more the backing goes with the top in some way the better, but I like to mix fabric lines when I can and come up with a different look. This fabric just had so many of the colors from the top and I like that it is a little crazy paired with a more traditional blocks in the top.  What do you like to put on the back of your quilts?  Does it need to relate to the quilt or do you just use what you may have that fits?  Leave me a comment and let me know!  Why is the font changing size on me?  I haven't a clue!

Accuquilt Go! Giveaway!

Linda at Lavender Ridge is giving away a GO! Fabric Cutter!  How exciting! This could lead to a lot of beautiful new quilts.  I'm going to go over and enter before the time runs out. You should too!

Addicted to Schnibbles

Here is what I'm working on right now, the State Fair Schnibbles. These blocks are not sewn together.  It was one of my favorites during the Year of Schnibbles projects and I finally found the combination of Charm Packs that I love for it. I am combining Moda's Chutes & Ladders from my stash and the newer Wee Woodland also from Moda. The browns in both lines make them work wonderfully together!

I have always wondered who needed a rotating rotary mat. The answer is Me!  I am using one for this project and it is amazing!! No more turning the block when squaring it up or trying to twist my arm around to cut (I know you're not supposed to do that).  It is so easy to use!  I am surprised that it rotates as smoothly as it does. A friend at my LQS recommended it.  Why didn't I get one earlier? Thanks Judy!

Happy Halloween!

No one at my house is trick-or-treating this year!  My youngest wants to stay at home and give out the candy.  I really didn't see that coming!   He is still dressing up as a ghost pirate. We did a little more decorating in the yard this year with the addition of a fog machine and scary music, well maybe music.  My DH is working on setting that up right now.

While my family gets ready for the trick-or-treaters tonight, I just wanted to share one of my favorite seasonal quilts with you.  I will be sad when I have to put it away this week. Although I made it years ago from a Fons and Porter magazine pattern, it is still one of my favorite fun quilts!

Quillow

My son and I just finished our first quillow!  I found some great truck fabric at my LQS and made some fun pillowcases for him.  Because it was directional, I ended up with lots of leftover fabric.  I decided a strip quilt was the best way to use it up and some red Minkee fabric from my stash for backing made the quillow so soft.

Beginning

I'm Michele and this is my first post!  I've been following some great quilting blogs for awhile and I've decided to start my own.  Please bear with me as I get started!

I'll get started with a picture of one of my recent quilts.  It is a variation of a Schnibbles pattern that I entered in the recent Schnibbles Times Two Contest.  I combined a few different Charm Packs and I loved the result.

I love doing my own quilting.  Here I added candy canes and hot chocolate to the quilt for that added Christmas spirit!