An amazing find

My husband recently returned from a trip to Dubai in the UAE.

Much to my delight he was able to make a quick visit to a nearby IKEA there and pick up some Britten Nummer fabric for me!

I've had my eye on this fabric for awhile, as I've heard it makes wonderful backing and it looks great too.

It is wide!

Wider than I was expecting it to be! 

The nearest IKEA to my house is three hours away, and I always thought I'd make a trip there someday when we were passing by and get some Britten Nummer fabric to try out.

Little did I know that IKEA would stop selling it in the US.  Oh no!  What to do?

I did a little research and discovered that it was still available in other parts of the world, so my sweet husband got some for me when he had the chance.

He was certainly nice to carry a suitcase full of fabric around for me!

He loves his quilter!

On the 'never having been to an IKEA' subject, we plan to remedy that when we go on vacation this summer.

How can we have never tried their Swedish Meatballs?

Well we have tried to make them ourselves, with lots of success I might add!

My family loves this Almost Famous Swedish Meatball Recipe from Food Network Kitchens.  Lingonberry Jam and all! 

In fact, that's what my husband asked for for Father's Day!  Nothing else! Just the Swedish Meatball dish.

That's why there is a trip to IKEA in our future.

Now the question is, how many of those aqua craft carts do you think he'll let me fit in the car while we drive around to different places while on vacation?

Minis and More starts today!

Happy Monday!  Welcome to Minis and More!   

Let's get started by announcing the pattern for the July Parade.

It will be Summer Star Mini created by my co-host Sherri from A Quilting Life.

We thought this pattern would be perfect for the July Parade.

The most obvious reason being that it's named Summer Star Mini and I know we're all excited about the start of summer.

Only three more half days of school left here and I'm really ready for summer vacation to begin!

Since many of you will be taking a vacation this month, or maybe you are just putting your feet up and relaxing at home like me, we thought this pattern would be quick and easy, leaving you plenty of time to enjoy summer activities.

I made my Summer Star Mini with Feed Company fabric in two evenings with no problem at all.  I cut, did some sewing, and decided on fabric placement one evening, and then I did the rest of the sewing the next evening.

It was a fun mini to make and I'm really happy with it!

I'm hoping to have it quilted and bound this week, so I can have it out and enjoy it, but please don't hold me to that. There's lots going on here because of the end of the school year.

If you're interested in joining us, the pattern is available HERE.

Be sure to use the code SummerStar1 through Friday to get $3 off the pattern.

Then simply make your quilt top, or even show it to us quilted if you have time.

Send a picture and a link to where it's posted in your blog if you have one to-

Sherri if your first name starts with the letters A-L

or to me if your first name starts with the letters M-Z

On the first of the month, or the first Monday if it falls on the weekend, you can see the quilts in the Parade on Sherri's blog and here on my blog too.

It's so interesting to see what everyone does with the pattern!

We are also announcing the pattern for the Parade at the beginning of August too!

So you can get started on it, or if you are like me you can ponder your fabric selection for even longer!

The pattern for the August Parade is by Corey Yoder from Little Miss Shabby.

It's called Sweetness (a trio of mini quilts)  and you can find it HERE.

There are actually three mini quilts in this pattern.  Choose the one you want to make for August!

All three are beautiful!  I don't know which to choose!

I'm so glad you stopped by for Minis and More.

Be sure to read my last post announcing Minis and More if you'd like.

See you at the July Parade!

AYOS fans get ready! Minis and More starts on Monday!

Hey! I'm stopping by this weekend to give you a quick update.

It's great news!

The group formerly known as 'Another Year Of Schnibbles' is back, with a few fun changes, starting on Monday!

Sherri of A Quilting Life and I will be co-hosting 'Minis and More'.

We'll be doing all kinds of mini-quilts, including Schnibbles patterns, possibly larger quilts too, and we'll be adding in some other fun projects in along the way.


This is a picture of a past favorite of mine.








Here's how it works.

We'll let you know about the project we'll be doing on at the beginning of the month, then when you're finished, you send one of us a picture of your project and a link to where it was posted in your blog.

No blog? No problem!  Just send in the picture.

The pictures and the links will be posted in the monthly 'Minis and More' parade at A Quilting Life and here at Island Life Quilts for everyone to enjoy and we'll tell you about the pattern for the next month.

Check back on June 1st to find out what pattern we'll be starting with.

As always, everyone is welcome to participate.

See you on Monday!

Spring 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time for the Spring 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side!

My entry is Mini Shine.

 It's a wonderful star pattern created by Sherri McConnell from the blog A Quilting Life.

This pattern is fast, fun, and addictive!

I'm planning on making the full size version someday.

Of course this one is an entry in the Mini Quilt Category.

I made it with the Another Year of Schnibbles group in December and I quilted it and put the binding on in time to enter it in the festival.

You can read more about it in one of my previous posts.

The fabric is Nine Dots by Carrie Nelson and the background is called Confetti Dots by RJR fabric.

I love how the pieces of confetti on the background fabric jazz it up a bit!

Perfect for a quilt entered in a festival.

I am a fan of white backgrounds, but using other colors or something a little different for the background fabric is something I try to do to add some variety to my quilts.

Mini Shine is quilted using a scallop stitch on my Bernina.

The scallops are staggered and the spaces between the rows are varied for a different look.

The Recipes For Success backing fabric and my absolute favorite kind of binding fabric, complete this cute little quilt.

It's difficult for me to bind a quilt without using stripes!

Enjoy the Blogger's Quilt Festival until May 29!


There will be so many wonderful quilts to admire in lots of different categories.

Thanks to Amy for organizing another amazing festival!

Farm Girl

It's time for my Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along update this week.

Here's the Autumn Star block that I finished yesterday.

I love the citron and pink triangles in this one.

Since I'm making the 6 inch size block, some of the pieces are pretty small!

Now, the Baby Chick block.  It's so cute!

Yes, I know he has no legs.  I do need to work on that.

Hand embroidery or machine? I'm not sure what I want to do here.

I've got my fabrics picked out for tomorrow, Farm Girl Friday!

Short and sweet

My Apron Strings block is finished for the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along.

I'm ready to start the next two blocks tomorrow.  Hope to see you there!

A Beeutiful week of quilting ahead

It's going to be a fun week!

It's the beginning of the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along.

I've never participated in one of Lori Holt's famous sew alongs on her blog A Bee In My Bonnet and I'm excited to be starting my first.

The month of April was spent debating which fabrics to use and pondering different background choices.

Pre-made bundles or totally scrappy?  That cool, new Gardenvale line? Low volume backgrounds or solids? The choices were endless.  

So endless that I almost gave up!

You see, my experience with sew alongs hasn't been the best in the past.

Once a long, long, long time ago I was stuck close to the end of a sew along, a few blocks away from the finish with only fabrics left that I didn't like.  

All the blocks I had made were from a line that wasn't available anymore, so I was at my wits end. What to do?? 

I never did finish that one. Those blocks and that extra fabric went into a box never to be seen again.  

Well I take that back, I have seen them again, only out of the corner of my eye.

I just glance in the other direction and quickly close that box.  I'm determined not to let it happen again.  Thus, the stressing about picking out the fabrics for this whole thing.  

Last week finally I thought, "Good grief, get it together! If everyone else can do this, you can too!"

Part of my trouble was that my time spent cutting up so many charm squares, you know I love them, has left me with very few scraps appropriate for this sort of thing. 

You don't get too many scraps leftover after using charm packs, so some fabric purchasing was in order and I had to get the book too.  Can't complain about that!

    

In the end I went with a bunch of brighter scrappy bundles, some from single lines, and some that are a mix that I plan to going to combine, so I don't back myself up into a corner at the end.  

I figure this will allow me to easily add new fabrics to the mix if I need to, instead of being locked into one fabric line, that may or may not be readily available by the time I finish.

Now I'm excited about it!

I wasn't planning on dragging you through my whole thought process on this.

It was just going to be a cute little, "I hope you are doing this sew along too" post, but that's not how it turned out.

Sometimes I put more thought into picking out the fabrics for a quilt than maybe I need to. That's just how I do it!

See you at the sew along on Farm Girl Friday!