Mini Shine

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great holiday season!

My Mini Shine, the Another Year Of Schnibbles quilt for the month, is finished.

The fabrics are Nine Dots, designed by Carrie Nelson, and the background I used was from the Confetti Basics line by RJR.

I really loved how they went together.

Awhile back, I mentioned my interest in using backgrounds other than white, just to shake it up a bit, and I think this Confetti Basics fabric does just that.

This Mini Shine pattern, designed by Sherri McConnell, was a perfect one to do in the month of December.  

It was quick, fun, and addictive!  Very easy to fit in between holiday wrapping, decorating, and baking.

I'm looking forward to the next month of AYOS.  Be sure to visit Sherri and Sinta to see the AYOS Parade in the next few days.

Have a Happy New Year!!

Dimestore Schnibble quilted

What a month!

It's a busy time of year for everyone, and we are no certainly no exception!

My days have been full of Thanksgiving, and now Christmas preparations.

Turkey cooking, tree trimming, wreath hanging, college student visiting, you know, the whole works!

I did manage to squeeze in some quilting time and I'm here to give you a peek at what I've been doing.

This is the quilting on my Dimestore Schnibble designed by Carrie Nelson.  I pieced it with the AYOS quilt group last year.

The fabric is Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater. 

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the feathers I did along the border!

That's a surprise to me because I generally don't love my quilting as soon as it's done. 

I guess it takes me a bit to get used to the difference between what the quilting idea looked like in my head, and what the quilting looks like that actually made its way on to my quilt.

Does that happen to anyone else??  Or is it just me??

When I finish up the binding I'll be back with more to tell!

Happy weekend!

Sweetwater basket

On Halloween eve I finished up this cute little Sweetwater Halloween basket that I made mostly with Boo Crew fabric.

I know Halloween was a few days ago, but I figured it wasn't too late to share it with you. 

I'm thinking that I'll make some more of these for other occasions.

The pattern was easy to follow and quicker than I expected it to be.  I hadn't made a basket before, but it really wasn't much different than making a bag, and there were no zippers involved!

By Annie's Soft and Stable is what the pattern called for and I really think it made the basket have just the right stiffness with some softness too.  I've use it in bags in the past and I have to say it worked well here.

I wrote a post about Soft and Stable last year if you're interested in reading more about it.

These candy corn buttons are a find from last year and I just love how they look on this bag!

I need to find some more uses for them.

They're so cute!

The lining and binding for this basket were not Boo Crew fabric.

Unfortunately, the selvage edge of these fabrics were not long enough to have the name of the fabrics on them.  I really love the one with the crescent moons.

Speaking of crescent moons, did you see the lunar eclipse a few weeks ago?  It was pretty cool.  We were up and outside at that time waiting for the school bus to arrive, so the timing was perfect for us to get a great look at it. 

Here's a picture of the basket without the tag.  I like that the pattern has the tag tying on so you can remove it if you want to.

And for anyone who is as interested in carving pumpkins as we are, here is a before and after of our Jack o'lantern.

Before nightfall...............

And now when it really dark............

It was nice to have Halloween on a Friday, wasn't it?

We did call it a night pretty early anyway.  My son was at school at 4:45 AM, yes you read that correctly AM, Friday morning to go to the district cross country meet that was a little over an hour away.

We were not far behind, even though we didn't leave quite that early to go to the meet.  Trust me, it was still really early.

Well, I hope you had a safe and fun Halloween and a nice weekend too.  Enjoy the week!

Halloween Clover Schnibble

Because Halloween is tomorrow, I thought it was about time to show you this Clover Schnibble that I finished quilting last month.

I'm working on a really cute Halloween basket right now that I'm hoping to finish up today and blog about real soon. No time like the last minute, right?

Did you see the Halloween mug rug in my post yesterday?

I'm getting these Halloween projects done!

Anyway back to Clover, I used Boo Crew fabric from Sweetwater and I did some spiderweb quilting in the blocks.

Not the easiest thing to do, I'll say.  It was worth it though.

I used a ruler and that disappearing purple marker to draw the lines for the right angles in the webs down and across the quilt first.  Then, I free handed the curvy parts of the web, one block at a time.

When I was finished quilting the webs on each block, there were odd, not exactly even, roundish unquilted spaces where the corners of the webs met.  I hadn't seen that coming.

My DH suggested quilting Jack-O-lantern faces in each of these empty spaces, facing different directions so that there wasn't a "top edge" of the quilt.

I wasn't so sure about this, actually I wasn't even so sure about any of the quilting on this quilt, but I decided to give it a go since it was a Halloween quilt and I didn't know what else to do with these empty spaces.

And you know what?  I love how it turned out!  The unevenness of the outside corners of the webs, really accentuated the natural pumpkin look.

That jack o'lantern quilting is probably my favorite part of this quilt!

Now, I'm off to try to finish up that Halloween basket, before Halloween. I'm almost done!

Halloween mug rug

This Halloween mug mat has been on my list to make for quite some time.

Both the pattern and the Boo Crew fabric are from Sweetwater.

As you can see, I've been keeping candy in it and I can't quite bring myself to put a mug on it, because I like it that much.

Maybe I could put a glass of water on it, just maybe.

But definitely not a coffee cup.

By doing some fussy cutting with a piece of hocus pocus fabric from Alexander Henry that I've been saving, I was able to make it reversible.

I wasn't so sure how well I had centered it, but considering the small size of the piece of fabric that I had to work with it, I think it went pretty well!

I put the mug mat with candy in it on the kitchen counter last week and all of that candy has "disappeared".  Kind of spooky!  

How much Halloween candy has "disappeared" from your house even though we have a few more days before the trick-or-treaters arrive?   

Library book block

My local library will be celebrating it's tenth anniversary this spring!

They'll be commemorating the occasion by hanging a new quilt in the entryway.

When they asked for quilters to contribute book blocks for the quilt, I was quick to sign up. 

Thanks to the wonderful Mini-Bookshelf Quilt Tutorial I found on Elizabeth Dackson's blog Don't Call Me Betsy, it was easy!

Except picking out the fabrics of course, but I won't go there.

Instead of making mine a mini-quilt, I just changed the measurements and made it block sized.  It is a great tutorial that I highly recommend.

I'm definitely going to make one of these mini quilts to keep here at home.

It was kind of addicting!

I added these selvages as book titles. 

There is even one that says, "Wordplay by Michele". 

Spelled the same as my name too!  One L!

It doesn't work out any better than that!

My son suggested that I use the Timeless Treasures selvage too, since some books are timeless treasures.

This spring, when the quilt is complete I'll be sure to take a picture for you!

Around the World Blog Hop

I was kindly invited to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop by both Mary on Lake Pulaski and Brittany from Pickles Quilting. 

I always love the fabric that Mary is using! Beautiful! She makes lovely, fresh quilts and the most adorable children's clothes.

Brittany is making some cool ABC blocks that will make an fun quilt when she's done. I'm happy that they asked me to join in and today is my day on the tour!

Why do I create?  Because it's fun!

I've always considered myself a creative person and quilting is a great fit for me.

As a stay at home mom with two active teenage boys and one crazy dog, quilting gives me that quiet, super peaceful...or you could say pieceful..... time with bright fun colors even including pink and purple on occasion!

I also like quilting because it stays done!

Unlike many of the other things I do throughout the day, such as wash muddy laundry from a really wet, muddy cross country practice.

We seriously had to spray him off with the garden hose after practice early last week before he came inside the house!  And Saturday's meet was just as muddy!

Also, I enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from being able to say, "Wow, I made that!"

My great-grandmother was a quilter, all hand quilting and piecing back then, but quilting wasn't something I ever thought I'd be interested in as a teen, so I didn't take the opportunity to learn from her. 

My friend Kim was the one who suggested that I could make a quilt, even though I'd never touched a sewing machine before.

I thought she was crazy to think that I could learn to quilt.  As you can see she was right and I was way wrong.  I haven't stopped quilting since.  Seriously, I haven't stopped!  

What am I working on now?  Right now, I'm working on getting some things quilted.  I've got lots of quilt tops laying around here that I need and want to get quilted so they can be used.

I enjoy doing my own quilting and that's my sewing priority this fall.  Unless I get distracted of course......Oh, I'm also making some ABC blocks and I might throw in a few Schnibbles patterns too......

My quilt tastes are all over the place!  I love modern quilts, traditional quilts and a mix of the two! I never met a quilt that I didn't like.

You'll find me working with more modern, bright fabrics and darker repro prints too.

 One reason that I started my blog was to learn more about modern quilts and fabrics, because at the time there wasn't too much of that in my area, but I've learned so much more than I ever expected through blogging. 

To continue the blog tour, on Monday, October 13th my friend Cheryl from So Many Quilts, So Little Time will be participating.  I think the name of her blog is so true! Cheryl is wonderful at small scale piecing and she enjoys using reproduction fabrics.  I consider Cheryl to be a great blog and quilting friend.  She and I have been reading each others blogs for years.  In fact I think her's was one of the first blogs I ever read! Recently her Autumn Pinwheels quilt caught my eye and I can't get enough of her photographs of nature!

Another blogger on the Around theWorld Blog Hop is my friend Jamie.  You might know her from her blog busy bee quilts.  I love her modern fabrics  and her fun quilts.  She recently made an adorable stuffed owl and she also shared a tutorial for making a burlap wreath.  Her willingness to give new quilting techniques a try is amazing.  She did a Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge quilt that I just love!  

If you'd like to be a stop on the tour just leave a comment and tell us who you are and feel free to join in!  We'd love to hear from you and learn all about why you create!

Give me an F!

I'm sewing along with Temecula Quilt Company while they make a cute little letter quilt.

Tomorrow you can find the letter F on their blog.

Are you making them too? 

My letters are made of a collection of coordinating scraps from different quilts I've been saving for just the right project.

They're a little more traditional than I've been sewing with lately, but I like all kinds of fabric, and these traditional scraps worked great here.

The background fabric, showing states and cities, is also from my stash.  Just pretend it was ironed for the photo.

I was saving it in case a school project came up, but with the boys in high school and college, I figured if that hadn't happened by now it just wasn't going to, so I'm using it for my Little Letters Quilt!

It's going to be fun to make a few letters a week and end up with a cute quilt!

Pulling strings

I've been trying to focus on getting some quilting done.

I thought I'd start with the next quilt I thought I'd use, and now I'm happy to say that my Halloween Clover quilt has been quilted!

Woo Hoo!

I'm in the process of pulling the threads through and when I'm finished with that, then I'll show you the whole thing.

There are lots and lots of threads that need to be taken care of on this one, but I'm already about halfway done.

One more good TV evening and I'll be finished! 

Meet my new neighbor!

This guy showed up in our backyard yesterday and we had a good time watching him walk around beside the fence line.

 As you can see, when we found him he was standing on the garden hose.

 My nature loving neighbor had told us that a gopher tortoise had made it's home beside her house and we figured this was who she was talking about. 

After he had throughly scared Copper, who had no idea what this was, and it seemed that the tortoise couldn't figure out how to get out of our fence and go back home, we brought him back to his hole with my neighbor's help.

I wonder if he'll be back again today.

  

Spell It With Fabric quilted edition

I'm back with the pictures of my Alphabet Quilt all quilted, bound and finished!

If you remember from this post, it was a baby gift for two high school English teachers.

It was a difficult one to give away, and I just might have to make another!

I quilted it using the wavy stitch on my Bernina 440.  It's stitch number 4 with a length of 2.5 and a width of 4.9.

It added a nice finishing touch to this sweet baby quilt!

I'm loving the yellow hexagon Riley Blake fabric for the binding and backing.

 I don't get to use yellow very often! 

The pattern is from the Moda Spell It With Fabric Quilt Along, but I halved the size of my blocks.

If you try this, I think you will need to actually halve the sizes in the cutting directions, THEN maybe add a quarter of an inch to that, or else you'll end up with eighth of an inch seam allowances like I did.

Having eighth of an inch seam allowances wasn't really a pretty situation, but I sewed mine a bit bigger and I managed to make it work. 

It was washed and dried without a problem.

I noticed that Temecula Quilt Co. is having a Little Letter Quilt Along that started today, if you're interested.

The finished block size in their quilt is four inches square.

I'm thinking about digging out my scraps and maybe sewing along with them to make myself a little letter quilt to keep!

Not that I'm in need of another project to start!

Right now, I'm working on planning the quilting for a Halloween quilt top that I finished last year. 

 My Bernina 820 that I was planning on using for the quilting is under the weather, and it will probably make a trip to the shop this week.

It's possible that some kind of sensor is broken. 

The bobbin door popped open totally on it's own, while I was away from the machine for a few minutes, and now it refuses to admit that it's been closed.

Ugh!  I'm hoping that it's a quick fix.

In the meantime, I'll be doing the quilting on my smaller machine in an effort to get some things finished. 

Fall certainly seems far away from us here in Florida at this point, but I'm hoping it'll be here soon!

Maybe working on my Halloween quilt will help me feel like fall is on the way.

Tonight, we'll be grilling burgers outside topped with curly fries and melted cheese with a wedge salad to celebrate the weekend before we start another busy school week.

Stacks of stars

Hello!  It's WIP Wednesday once again!!  Wow, how the summer has flown by!

This week finds me moving college boy into his dorm, helping helping high school boy adjust to his first full week as a freshman in high school, and I'm also working on turning these stacks of stars into a quilt top!

Wish me luck!

These are for my Summer Sparkle Quilt designed by Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts.

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced on this WIP Wednesday!

What are you up to this week?