A New Day Dawns in the Forest

In March, I was lucky enough to stumble onto the Forest quilt along of Joanna (Shape Moth) and Julianna (Sewing Under Rainbow).  Each week these wonderful ladies took turns along with a few friends Amy, Caroline, Teri and Amy to post a free paper piece pattern for twelve weeks.  I so enjoyed not only seeing my blocks come together each week but also the hundreds of blocks that were made from around the globe.   So I must first say a HUGE thanks to each of these ladies dedication and creative talents being shared so freely with all of us.  I am so grateful to what each of you inspired me to create each week.

I decided my forest friends that I created needed to live permanently in a forest so I set to work to design such a place for all my blocks.  While putting it together I was running out of fabric for the sky so I added a sunrise to the design.
 

Thus I have decided to call my quilt 'A New Day Dawns in the Forest'

This quilt has the honored distinction of being the largest quilt I have ever finished.  It is a whopping 86 x 98 inches and looks amazing on my queen size bed!  It is also the first quilt that I have ever taken in to be long armed by someone and I am so grateful to Cheran from Fiddlesticks Quilt shop for all the help she offered me picking out just the right pantograph for it.  Retro Leaves suits it very well.  I couldn't be more thrilled with how it all came together.  I am sure I will be using Cheran's services again as she has a delightful store and I adore her ability to make me feel comfortable when stepping out in new directions.

 The little bunny, I simply adore.  He was a free pattern that Ruthie Quilts offered for the Spring Fling.  I love him peeking out from his location on the forest floor.  I was afraid he may not be seen on my bed but he peeks out cute from there, too.  Shy little bunny but I can still see him peeking out from his safety zone.

...that's a wrap on my Forest QAL project.  I am linking up to the Forest QAL Linky party over at Shape Moth.  Thanks again to everyone who inspired me to create and FINISH such a lovely quilt for my bedroom! xxoo

Keep Stitchin'

Progress Update

I have fallen into arrears with my BOM schedule and am trying to quickly do some catch up as time allows.  Family commitments still kept me busy this weekend but I have made some progress over the last week.

The Quilt Doodle Doodle BOMs are usually quite fast to put together so I decided to start there.     However , the July block was a little more challenging than usual but the results made me very happy, despite the extra time involved in reaching that goal.  The August block was a simple log cabin so I whipped them both out over a couple days this last week.

July's Jumping Jack Blossom

August's Log Cabin

This weekend I found time for the And Sew On BOM August block that  Kristy over at Quiet Play has posted for free each month on her site and you can buy her past patterns for a small fee on Craftsy.  I decided to start with the August block so I can link it up for this month's linky party but hope to get the July block done soon, too.  I have to admit to being totally charmed by the beauty of this block and was itching to see it come to life.  I am very happy with the resulting block.  Thank you so much Kristy for the beautiful block...be sure to jump over there and get the pattern for free this month and be sure to check out all her many new patterns. She has been very busy creating something for everyone's taste and I will be needing to buy some of them as soon as I have the time to move on to new projects.  I am currently eying her strawberry pattern and also the upcoming fairy tale line she is working on.  So here is my completed Stash Cupboard block.

August's Stash Cupboard

And lastly I completed the Craftsy August 2013 block.  It is one that Laura is having us do in two parts and I am thankful for that because it meant all I needed to do was make the basket this month and next month we will learn to hand applique the flowers into the basket.  She is allowing us to opt to machine applique if that is what we choose to do.  I am trying to do each of these BOMs as a learning curve assignment so I would love to give her lesson and any method she suggests a good try but I would definitely need to catch up on my other BOMs to do that.  Yes, my handle is a little wonky on the right but I am sure my September flowers will cover it up :)

August Craftsy Basket Block

Here is what I still need to do to reach my August goals

1. Pile O Fabric Skillbuilder blocks

• Phoenix
• Pixelate
• Saturn
• Candyland
• Broken Arrow

    2.  July Castle Blocks

• Gnome Castle
• Surprise Castle

    3.   August Castle Blocks

• Gnome Castle
• Surprise Castle
• Fairy Castle

That would get me caught up with my BOMs and I have 13 days left in the month to achieve it.  However, I do have some other goals as well. 

     4.   I need to finish my Forest QAL quilt binding and post it here prior
           to August 31st. 

     5.   Finish my Deer baby quilt by Sept 5th  baby due Sept 7th...cutting
           it close I know

     6.   Finish Brayden's name quilt that I started way before he had a name
           and have yet to complete.  I would like to have it done by Sept 5th also.
           Wow did they add more hours to a day so I can get this all done or
           should I eat my Wheaties everyday??? 

I feel like Dory in Finding Nemo would probably be saying to me ' Just Keep Stitchin' so that is what I will do!

Whirlwinds and change

  
 A lot of my time lately has been spent getting my daughter ready for dorm life.  Shopping and more shopping have been taking more and more of my time and money this past month getting her ready to transition into her last year of college and her first year of living on campus.  This last weekend we moved her into her new digs and before we could even get half way home she text us she was homesick.  My it has been hard on us, too.  Change is never easy.  The last week was a whirlwind of hemming all her new pants including her new pj pants and adding the following touches to her towels. This week has been a whirlwind of dealing with my parents declining health and still adjusting to Ashley's absence at home.  I have so many July and August BOMs to catch up on, my dad's impending move and health issues, a grandchild quickly approaching and it just seems like life will continue to be a blur of whirlwinds for the rest of summer. At this pace, I will welcome the change to Fall and Winter if it brings with it tranquility.  In the meantime.....

I am sure I will be busy creating Ashley little projects to send off to her and try to bring a smile to her day to lift her spirits the best I can from such a distance.  Hopefully these towels I embellished will be a reminder of how much her mom loves her and of course a dose of Cougar Pride. 

While on campus, we spent some time trying to help her put her space together and she enjoyed making us some coffee in her new coffee pot.  I am sure by the time we see her next it will be much improved as that first try was way too weak, but I enjoyed every drop since she made it with love.

Speaking of whirlwinds, I was able to get my Forest QAL quilt top off to the long arm last week and look forward to being able to pick it up next week and quickly binding it so I can Link it to the QAL finishes.  Here is what the queen size top looked like before I sent it off to Cheran at Fiddlesticks Quilt Shop.  Cheran spent some time with me picking out the quilt pattern for it and I finally settled on retro leaves and can't wait to see the finished result.

I just lumped all of the Forest QAL blocks into the center and decided to build a forest around them.  To do this I drew a rough draft of what I wanted onto paper.

Since each block in the QAL was a 12 inch finished block I wanted to make it easy on myself and make each of the surrounding blocks to be of the same dimensions.  I bought a large sketch pad of  18x24 inches and cut them down to 12x24 inches and just laid them out all side by side and drew this pattern onto them and then paper pieced my fabric onto the large blocks to create my forest.  I started to run out of fabric for the sky so I last minute improvised and decided to throw in a sunset.  For some reason I have since decided it is a sunrise. The little bunny is a pattern from Ruthie Quilts from the Spring Fling and I just had to work it in and love the fabric I made him from.  I love Ruth's pattern for him, he is just the cutest bunny.  He was a very important detail in my happiness with the top but he may actually be hardly visible when the quilt is tucked into my bed.  Nevertheless I will always know of the little bunny hiding at the edge of my forest a safe distance away from the whirlwind.