Summer Vacation!

Hey fellow blogging friends...there's a quiet week coming up here at Val's Studio, as we are headed to the mountains for a family vacation. I'm officially unplugging as our internet and phone connections will be very limited.   Tuesday Archives will resume August 5th with Exhibits being our theme. And what better timing with all the County Fairs going on! (I actually just entered my Classroom Animal Quilt in our local county fair.) So be sure to snap pictures and/or dig through your archives for old quilt shows attended. I'm packing and almost ready to go. I have quilts that need binding sewn down, some wool stitching waiting to be be played with and I'm sure there's a hexi or two thrown in. 

(You didn't think I'd take off  without some sewing in hand did you! LOL!)

Wishing everyone a great week!

With smiles,

Val:)

July Happy Mail

Tickled "pink" with my July Fat Quarter delivery:

I especially love the scallop, number and leaf prints!!
If you are curious about the details of any of the prints, just click: here.
No Friday finish for me, but that's okay...simply enjoying the lazy days of summer!
 Hope you are having a great Friday.
With smiles,
Val:)

Scrappy Note Cards

I felt like a kid myself this morning, as I found myself playing with scraps, a glue gun and
some buttons to create these:

One of the things on my summer "To Do" list was to create some cute note cards for my school desk. These will be nice to have on hand for that perfect pick-me-up and/or thank you! Now I'm off to spend the afternoon sewing my Chevron rows together in hopes to have another Friday Finish.

With Smiles!
Val:)

Tuesday Archives #21: EQ Designs & Equilateral Triangles

Welcome to the linky party that let's you rejuvenate your old quilting/sewing posts! 

(Check over in my right margin for the list of July themes)

This week is all about your old EQ (Electric Quilt) Designs and Equilateral Triangle posts.  

EQ (Electric Quilt) DESIGNS:

As I explore all your blogs, I notice many of you make your own patterns. I find myself wondering: "Is this how they do it??" Today's linky is all about sharing your quilting design posts. Have fun and I'm looking forward to learning a lot from you this week, as this is a quilting area I have not yet explored.

EQUILATERAL TRIANGLES:

I know many us were part of  an Equilateral Traingle Quilt-a-long  just a few months back and some of you may even have some older posts that need to be rejuvenated. Today's linky is our chance to reshare your quilts that have any triangle goodness in them.
. 

Design Wall Monday: My WIP

So over the weekend, I got these:

...turned into this...with the one mistake that the above cream was "suppose" to be where,  for some reason unknown to me, I put a pink, as pointed out below??? 

Seriously, have you ever done that!?

I texted the above picture back and forth to my mom, as this quilt is for her and we had put the row of fabrics together as shown here. Problem with a Chevron pattern I've learned, is once you get to this stage, it's pretty much impossible to "move rows around." But now that it's morning and I have a large cup of coffee at hand, I think it's going to be "okay" without that additional cream.  I mean, as my daughter said:

 "Mom, she's not hanging it on a wall. It's going to be used like mine":

Good Point!

Linking up with everyone else at Judy's Design Wall Monday.

With smiles!

Val:)

Another Hexi Flower

Keeping myself busy this summer sewing hexagon flowers as I keep our daughter company during her physical therapy appointments. (She's recovering from a broken foot.) Here's this week's flower:

My Tammy Bag is perfect for carrying my hexagons with me. My scissors, paper templates, and fabric pieces all have their very own pocket and I can easily throw my phone and keys inside. I just grab and go.

Do you have a "travel" project you can just grab and go? Yah know that one hand project that keeps ya busy while you wait, watch and/or travel. If you're anything like me and it's just too hard to sit and wait, I'm curious what your "grab and go"  hand project might be. Is it knitting? embroidery? stitching?...please feel welcome to comment and share.

With Smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF July Beach Houses Quilt Finish

Nothing says summer better than Beach Houses:

Quilted with flip flops and seashells:

I was really pleased with how well my rows of quilting lined up:

The quilting looks cute on the back too:

Since I enjoy sewing my binding by hand, I'll spend the evenings during the next week sewing it down. But I sure do love how this green polka-dot binding perfectly matches the green polka-dot shorts in the backing (as seen easily in the print above.)

My DH gave me the sweetest compliment this morning when he said:
"I think this one is my favorite so far."

I have to agree. If my daughter's were young this would go right on one of their beds. 

But for now it will be used for summer picnics and fun. 

A few Quilt Stats:

 Fabric: Lucy Crab Shack Layer Cake/Backing

Pattern: Suburbs from Cluck Cluck Sew

Size: Throw: 63"x73"
As I said here, for my July ALYofF I wanted to created something using my Lucy's Crab Shack layer cake. I had fun making this one and love how it came out! I'm off to link up and even more fun, see what everyone else has created this month at:

Thanks for stopping by.
With Smiles!

Val:)

Life's a Bowl Full of Cherries...

This is a quilt top made by the ladies in our local Project Linus Chapter. With my summer break in full swing, I'm getting in some volunteer time. I couldn't resist quilting it with this cherry pantograph. So stinking cute don't ya think!

                                                                       With smiles,

                                                                     Val:)

Chain Piecing...

...my way to a Friday Finish!

 This has been my WIP this week and it's always kinda fun to watch  these...

...gradually begin to turn into...

 ...these:

Stop by Friday to see my Beach Houses Quilt done & ready for our upcoming vacation!

(Made from a Lucy's Crab Shack layer cake)

With Smiles,

Val:)

Tuesday Archives #20: Elephants & Embroidery

Welcome to the linky party that let's you rejuvenate your old quilting/sewing posts! 

(Check over in my right margin for the list of July themes)

This week is all about your old Elephants and Embroidery posts! 

I dug up two archived posts from two of my favorite Kathy's.
I hope you'll each  grab a highlighted button and everyone will take a moment to revisit your adorable posts below:

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ELEPHANTS:

Kathy who blogs at Kayak Quilting made this adorable dancing elephant baby quilt back in February. You can check out her finish right here. (Wait till you see the adorable organic cotton backing she used for this finish!)  

EMBROIDERY: 

My second highlight this week is also from Kathy. But, this is our Slow Sunday Stitiching linky Kathy who blogs at Kathy's Quilts. This is one my favorite embroidery pieces she has done. You can read her post right here. (I love her WInnie the Pooh saying in this post)

Around the World Blog Hop/Part 1

Welcome! I'm Val!

I’m very excited today to be taking part in an Around the World Blog Hop, having been invited to do so last week by Vicki from Quilters Mission, you can read her blog hop post right HERE.  The goal of this hop is to answer a question or two about your creative process and work and to invite others to join in the fun. I love gaining this insight into others creative minds. (And at the end of my post you can see who I’ve invited to join in.)

So what am I working on at the moment?

 Well, visiting my blog, you'll notice I'm a pretty eclectic sewer who dabbles in applique, English Paper Piecing, (love my hexagons) traditional and out-of-the box piecing, long-arm quilting, quilt/sewing area organizing (See my Sunday Organizing Series). And, as if that's not enough, 2014 finds me exploring wool by participating in Sue Spargo's BOM. I  have many W.I.P. but let's not talk about those! (wink! wink!) I'd like to personally invite your to stop by on Tuesdays to rejuvenate your OLD posts here at my: Tuesday Archives Linky. Read all about this linky party right  here. And feel welcome to check out last week's linky party right here. Take a look around and hopefully you'll be inspired by what you see and become a "follower" and I can visit your blog as well.

How is my work differ from others? What makes my work unique?

I received the nicest compliment from a fellow blogger last week so I'm going to use her description to answer this question: " Val is a quilter and she makes imaginative, happy quilts and she is lightning quick! Val's dog Jackson is a supermodel who somehow makes his way into most quilt pictures! " See....I told you it was nice! LOL! I use patterns sometimes, but mostly enjoy creating my quilts from my imagination and twisting ideas I see from other quilters, like the one in my selfie picture above and this one:

How does my creative process work?

I like to think of my quilt world as my way to:

Not a day goes by that I'm not stitching, sewing or quilting...even if it's just while watching TV at the end of the day. I'm a list maker. So each week starts with a list of blogging and quilting goals. I've always been crafty and realize it's just a part of who I am.  I've so enjoyed being part of this blog hop and want to thank you for stopping by!

Be sure to visit Vicki's and July 21st you can looking forward to meeting:

Marianne: She blogs at The Adventurous Quilter. She's a Aussie starting life in Colorado. She's a thrifty gal and mad about Pyrex. And adventurous she is as she and her husband where off on a road trip and actually stopped to meet as they drove through Oregon! Her accent is a hoot! This is us in my studio:

Faith: She blogs at Will It Never End. We have become wonderful "email" buddies through blogging and quilting and she is just the nicest person! She claims to be a slow blogger and let me tell ya, the wait is always worth it as her quilts are wonderful!

With Smiles,

Val:)

2nd Annual Piggy Bank Challenge Participants!

Hey guys! Thanks for joining my coin challenge! 

I've extended the linky closing date to July 20th. 

So there is still time to link up and join the challenge!

Seriously...look at all our very cool "piggy banks" so far! Heck two of you actually have piggies with tiaras! Love that! Of all the linky parties...I have to admit, this one has been so fun! Because of all of you, I've actually found myself being more intentional about my coin savings...even getting ready to have a garage sale just to boost my savings...and of course, cleanse the ol' household of "stuff". 

Looking forward to how much we all save, then purchase this time next summer! Btw, anyone notice I haven't set a "purchase" goal...hmmm...still thinking! This year I'm using my piggy bank savings to purchase thread and accessories for my long-arm. Anyhoo, I just wanted to say THANKS for joining in! I've really enjoyed reading all your posts. 

With smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF June Dog Themed Quilt is Finished!

 Better late than never I say! I proclaimed in this post  last month to turn this pile of dog themed fabric into a quilt for Jackson. (I know who makes their dog a quilt!) BUT! I have a goal to rid my house of all the old fleece tie blankets laying around and I've been collecting these fat quarters for a few years...so I thought, what the heck!

And you know what! It was fun to just play as I made these wonky, polka dotted stars into this fun sized  38"x58" quilt. It will make the perfect TV room quilt for my little buddy...plus it's big enough to use as a lap quilt so he can snuggle under it with me!

I quilted it using the same dog pantograph I used here. Kinda wierd is the feeling that I almost love the back more than the front! You ever feel that way? I'm certain it's because of that adorable dog print fabric I didn't have the heart to cut up:

And well, I'm sure it's to no one's surprise: Jackson loves it too!

Check out my linky party page above to see where I link up and share each week.
Now onto getting busy meeting my July ALYofF goal. Thanks for stopping by!

With smiles,
Val and Jackson