Low Volume Garden

Where has January gone???  For a long month it sure disappeared quickly.  I accomplished much and wasn't sure the following would be one of them but I finally got around to putting them together.  It is part of the Garden Quilt BOM from Quilt Art Design.  Janeen has put together what looks to be a great pattern for us to make each month.  Little did I know it was to be two blocks each month and therefore a little more work to squeeze in. 

I have decided to let loose and play with some low volume fabrics in this one.  I am hoping the design will pop out each month even though so much is going on in the background.  It is definitely new territory for me but I have decided it is both a great stash buster and each block is so fun to watch come to life and that is one of the things that already drives me to love paper piecing!!!

What I learned in block two is these patterns are not mirror imaged as is standard in paper piecing so the picture Janeen has with the pattern is not the same as what you get when making them.  While in block one the six trees went together smoothly...block two challenged me.  Ideally I would have caught on sooner and put the trees together in the reverse order from the way they are now.  I think the tall tree should have been to the right of the red tree and so on down the line.   I had to make the tall golden tree over and mirrored it but the littlest tree has a flat side were it should have been reversed and then the flat side would have butted up against the golden tree.  I know it is hard to follow my logic especially when I did mirror the golden tree.  I will stop know before I lead you to drinking...Not a big one on redo-ing blocks I will live with it.  Did anyone else making this block have this problem ???

In the future I may need to analyze her patterns more closely before jumping in.  I am thrilled with the background though and look forward to seeing what February brings.

Keep Stitchin'

January Bertie mini

 I joined A BOM  from Fat Quarter Shop that is called Bertie's Year by Bonnie Sullivan.  Each month you put together a mini quilt 13  x 17 inches featuring  a bird named Bertie that is featured on a block that is centered around what Bertie is doing each  month.  It is a mixture of a pieced block, applique, and embroidery stitches.  I really was most attracted to the colors they put this one together with and each month they ship you a  complete kit with all the fabrics.  I really enjoyed putting it together this month as it was a project I could sit in front of the TV and  spend a little time with the hubby in the evenings.   A few of the hand stitches were new to me but with a little practice I figured the fly stitch out (the white circling the center)  and had fun learning some new skills.

This post has been brought to you from my new smartphone. I finally gave in and decided to upgrade this year. While I Love checking my email and following my favorite blogs conveniently from anywhere, I would have to say creating this post via my Samsung Galaxy 4 has not been the easiest thing to do. I thought it would be so easy to post a picture directly from my phone but instead I have spent over an hour trying to figure out how to do it. Even though the photo was clearly on the phone it was not available in the drop down choices on the list. I could save the photo to Flickr but still no way to get at it from there to here. I finally had luck getting it uploaded to Picasa and could then get it onto the blog.  I have a lot of learning ahead of me.

January AYOLF Done

   I'm excited to report I met my goal for the month and got my Quilt Doodle Doodle 2013 quilt top quilted and bound.  It has been a long weekend working steady on it but it feels fantastic to have it finished!  As I have been working hard to finish it on time I have been considering who would be the lucky recipient of it and I really had no clue...My DH last night had a brilliant idea.  Give it to my brother and his fiance.  They just happened to be taking us out to Olive Garden for dinner last night and it was a very special treat that was enjoyed by all.  We had such a great visit with them and well the dinner was fantastic!  My brother struggled with drug addition for many years and we had little contact during those years.   Today, I can say I am very, very proud of my brother.  He has been clean of all drugs for 5 years, as of last month, and it is a pleasure to help him celebrate this milestone and see him continue down a great path each day.  He has totally turned his life around,  he has been baptized and gave his heart to the Lord,  bought a new home this last year,  has a great job and a wonderful family.  It has been an incredible turn around in his life and he has been blessed with a wonderful lady in his life who I will be proud to have as a Sister-in-law someday.  I know they will treasure this quilt and enjoy it.

Janene, my future SIL, is wanting to start sewing and quilting herself so my husband thought the spools definitely were calling out to live at their home.  The quilt finished at 54 1/2 " x 71" Perfect for snuggling on the couch with or throwing on the floor and letting their grand children crawl on.

 I like all the quilting on the back.  I just threw on the walking foot and followed the patterns on the front of the quilt for the most part.  Always fun to see those show up on the back.  I was brave and used teal thread on the quilt instead of red.  Speaking of thread...guess what...I won 12 large spools of thread from QDD for this quilt top finish that I linked up to her blog hop.  I am beyond thrilled!!!  I have been wanting to win some for so long.  It was a total shock...never expected a win this time.  What fun.  I have only used Aurifil thread once but thoroughly enjoyed it.  I won the following 12 pack of Eat You Fruit n' Veggies by Pat Sloan.

I will proudly be linking this up to A Lovely Year of Finishes over a Fiber of All Sorts

Now I have to start thinking of what my February goal should be...think.think.think until then...

Keep Stitchin'

Quilt Doodle Doodle Blog Hop Day 3

2013 was a great year of growth for me thanks to some wonderful BOM programs I participated in.  While I have been quilting for many years, I get stuck in a rut and like to stick to my preferred method of paper piecing.  Do you ever get stuck in a rut?  Find yourself doing the same thing because it's comfortable???  Traditional quilting is wonderful but can kind of drive me crazy with it's requirement for exact 1/4 inch seams...without which it is almost impossible to get the correct finished size blocks to piece the quilt together as the plan goes.  Cindy from Quilt Doodle Doodles hosted one of my favorites projects from last year.  Each month she posted a free pattern that centered around a very classic 12 1/2 inch unfinished block.  I loved it because unlike some of the other programs I participated in each month the pattern consisted of 2 pages of wonderful and concise instructions.  The blocks were clearly designed and fun to chose colors for.  She has a Flickr account and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing each month and checking in on what other group members had produced and watching their progress, too.

I was sincerely hoping and still do hope to get this top finished this month to get the year off to a great start.  Preferably I would have liked to have it done by now but the year started out with throwing me on the couch sick last weekend and slowly recovering this week.  But I will prevail...I have the top assembled and love how this is coming together so far....

I know I'm a trend follower but love the aqua and red combo and decided to use it as the color scheme for this one and am thrilled with how it all looks together.  My husband thought it looked ideal for Christmas but know it will be enjoyed year round.  Today I was able to get the top pin basted which is half the work of FMQ  so it should be a snap to complete in January for the 2014 Lovely Year of Finishes I have linked it up to as my January goal.

 and here is what the back looks like today

 I must say thanks to Cindy for organizing this BOM last year.  I appreciate all her work involved in getting sponsors and keeping us all on task and encouraging us!  I must also say I loved how she was always so prompt on posting the next month's pattern and that is part of the reason it was such an easy choice to want to participate again this year in her new BOM.  Plus have you seen it!!!  If not you must hurry on over to her blog and think about joining in the 2014 BOM she has in store for us this year.  It is a bit of a mystery...not my favorite part as I love to plan my colors ahead but she has clearly shown us her choices and I'm sure you will agree from the first month's row of blocks that this one will be a winner, winner for all who join in.

What a fun row of happy snowmen!!!  Can't wait to see what February brings and that is what is so much fun about participating in these BOM programs,  plus the chance at some great monthly prizes and who can deny the big win at the end of the year when you have created a project along with a group of great people and made some friends along the way.  Win, win all the way around for me!  Thanks so much for the great project last year Cindy and the opportunity to participate in this year's Mystery BOM :)

Be sure to check out all the other Participants who are linking up on this blog hop:

                                                                        January 18th

Rosa ~ Rosa Patch, The Love of Sewing

Ann~ Hosted by Quilt Doodles

Martina~Stufen zum Gericht
Kathy ~ Hosted by Quilt Doodles

January 19th

Dee~ Hosted by Quilt Doodles
Michelle "shellquilts" ~ Hosted by Quilt Doodles

Sharon~Vroomans Quilts
Laura ~ The Fuzzy Hat Quilter

January 20th

Cindy~Quilt Doodle Designs

Kathy~Kathy's Quilting Blog

Nectarine~Reines des reinettes

Kathy~Qreative Quilt

Maureen~Quilt Doodle Designs

Keep Stitchin'

Winner, Winner!!! Plus...

Time to announce the winner of my 3rd Blogiversary Giveaway.

Mr Random has chosen:

Congratulations to Rina from Crickets Corner

Rina said:

Congratulations on the blogiversary and more importantly your 27th Anniversary. As for the giveaway I'm good with 21/2" squares, 41/2" squares. 5" squares or 2 3/4"x 5" rectangles, whatever you feel like cutting. I like just about every color but would love some that remind you of spring or summer.It's always so much fun to get fabrics that someone else picks out so I leave that up to you.

Lots of choices for me...but it will be a lot of fun to put something extra special together for Rina and I will love focusing my color selections on Spring and Summer...as I am tired of Winter!!! I want to let everyone know I loved all your comments and choices...I wish I could send you all something...if only mailing didn't cost so much:(  Rina I will be emailing you shortly to find out where to send your goodies:)

I did get started on my January 2104 BOMs this weekend.  First up was my Sew Kitchsy block from the Quiet Play website.  Kristy has her examples so cutely done in red and aqua but after just completing a top in those colors I needed to change it up a bit this year.  My Kitchen just happens to be brown and green and the colors remind me of the retro look so I chose a bunch of fat quarters that I think will look great for this top and keep that retro touch intact in that color scheme.

Love how the first block turned out:

then I got started on the Quilt Doodle 2014 BOM.  Cindy has put together a fun mystery top for us this year featuring 2 1/2 inch blocks and strips and this months row has 7 cutie patootie snowman.  I have the first one done and the rest of his friends are in pieces.  He doesn't have his nose yet but I love how this is going to look.  I love how Cindy has them looking all around each in a different direction.  I am already wondering what else they see on the quilt top...Don't you wish you knew... I do!

Keep Stitchin'

Giveaway!!!

Little did I know but New Year's Eve was my Third Blogiversary---how could I forget that???  Plus today is my 27th Anniversary with the most wonderful man who I still am very much in love with so that too is a fantastic thing to celebrate!!!  To celebrate my milestones I wanted to host a giveaway but wasn't sure what to giveaway...I gave it some thought and I have been adding to my stash pretty heavily this year but I hate to part with it.  You know what I mean right???  But buying something to give away made me just want to buy more for me too.  What to do??? 

For Christmas my DH  bought me the Accuquilt GO.  So I have decided that the lucky winner will receive some pre-cut charms from me.  The following unfinished sizes are available to choose from:


3 inch Hexagons---each side is 1 1/2inches...these make good 1 inch finished side hexagons for EPP
5 inch Hexagons
3 1/2 inch squares
2 inch squares
2 3/4 inch parallelogram
5 inch square
4 7/8 triangle
2 3/4x5 inch rectangles
2 1/2 inch square
4 1/2 inch square

 I will choose a random winner on Monday, December 6th.  To enter the giveaway just leave a comment on this post letting me know which size charms you would be most interested in if you won and what colors you prefer (although final choices are my discretion---I will try my best to fulfill your color preferences. You may want to give me three or four color preferences to work with.)  I am not sure how much I will be sending your way it kind of depends on the size of charm chosen---but trust me you will be happy with what I send!!!   Since this is a giveaway in honor of my blogiversary you will get a second chance if you leave a comment that you follow me ( old and new followers...You are the best ---but I will be checking--- so let me know how you follow in your second comment.  I will contact the winner by email after the giveaway closes, so make sure I can contact you or I will have to choose another winner :(    I will cut and ship these with a couple of weeks time...the Accuquilt Go is amazing ...me---not so much---I may be over extended on my commitments right now.  I promise to do my best though :) and quickly get these on their way to the lucky winner!!!

Thanks for making these last three years sew much fun for me!!!

Keep Stitchin'

Welcome 2014

Welcome 2014

I always look forward to all the New Year has in store.  I've been so busy lately I really haven't had time to make plans for the year ahead.  Yep I like to make plans and dare I say resolutions.  I may not keep all of them or hit the mark often enough but where would I be if I never gave it a shot.  So far I have a short list of to do's


As I get a more concrete plan in place I will be sharing my dream list for 2014.  For now I know I want to take part in these events:

1.  Sew Kitschy BOM by Quiet Play

2.  Quilt Doodle Doodle Mystery BOM



3. In The Garden BOM by Quilt Art Design
 This one may be hard to keep up with all my other to-do's but I think it will be worth the headaches












4. Swoon Quilt







I won these fat quarters a couple of years ago from Julie at the Intrepid Thread.  I have always known I
wanted to use them in a swoon quilt but wasn't sure what color to use for the background.  Today I bought enough Moda Chocolate brown to put it all together.  I adore these prints.  They are from the Art Gallery line called Rhapsodia and I have enjoyed taking them out and petting them for too long---but you wouldn't blame be if your felt how soft and lovely they are.

5. Kate Spain Charm quilt

I think I might just sash these with some white for a crisp fresh beauty.  These are from the Kate Spain Charm swap that Michele from Quilts From My Crayon Box hosted a couple months ago.

6.  Watercolor Quilt
I've been wanting to make one of these for a while and never am sure quite what pattern to use.  Well, I think I know exactly what I want to make this year out of my watercolor blocks but for now...it will remain a secret...

7.  Rebecca's Quilt!!!  This one should be at the top of the list.  I've been talking about it for a over a year now.  I have collected so many fantastic fabrics for it and then changed my mind on the color scheme only to collect a ton more fabrics for it that I need to put this one to rest before it bankrupts me...Just kidding but it has got to get done....

8.  Which leads me to thinking I need to join the 2014 Lovely Year of Finishes.
I would like to have the 2013 Quilt Doodle Doodle Quilt top be my January Finish.  Right now it looks like this:

I need to make the backing and baste and quilt and bind it this month to complete it.  I have a ton of UFO's laying around and really hope linking up to The Lovely Year of Finishes 2014 gives me the motivation I can't seem to muster on my own.

Keep Stitchin'