A New Summer Quilt!

I can remember a time I use to make a quilt every month...

...now here I'm posting one I made last summer that I finally got quilted and 

the binding sewn just in time to enjoy it for the summer!!

The pattern is called: Friendship Scrap Block from www.quilterscache.com.

The very best part...it was made from left over fabric from this Lori Holt Kit: 

(Which by the way, makes me smile everyday as it brightens my little laundry room.)

What else makes me smile is the fact that I loved this fabric so much, I now have an oversized 

lap quilt to enjoy and ALL my extra fabric was used!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!

I hoping more sewing is in my future, as I find myself at another cross road. Yep! Last week I hung up my school lanyard and recess whistle after 33 years of teaching.

But! I'm NOT retired! 

I have actually been transitioning into a new District job as our very first Talented and Gifted Coordinator. This has proven to be the most empowering transition I have made personally in quite a long time and one that is worthy of one of my "Life and Learning" post. Hopefully some words of wisdom and inspiration will come to me, but for now, I'm simply relishing the process of change and personal growth I'm experiencing. 

I just turned 57 and got to happily celebrate with these two:

I feel blessed in so many ways and am looking forward to having one more chapter in my career.

I hope this post finds you, my old blogging friends, doing well.

With Smiles, Val:)

Pandemic Power Sewing...

This afternoon I dumped a basketful of 2 1/2" strips I've had for way too long and started some...

...power chain piecing.

I'm sewing three strips together, then cutting them into 5 1/4" squares.


There's really no rhyme or reason behind what I'm doing except that I plan on sewing them
into a scrappy Crazy Rails quilt pattern. I don't even know what size this quilt will make. LOL!
But I love my scrappy Thirties Repro fabrics...so know I'll love the quilt as well.
And....having an emptied basket of scraps makes this a win win project don't ya think.

 Honestly, it is just the perfect pandemic/summer sewing for me right now. I find myself feeling blah with little motivation to work on anything that requires much concentration. The afternoons are starting to get hot as our temperatures outside are beginning to near 100 degrees.
(Note: I am NOT a summer/heat person!!!)


So, contently I'll continue my power sewing as I watch old 80's movies and maybe a little toooo much Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles on the cable channels. LOL!
How about you??? Do you find yourself sometimes battling the pandemic/summer blahs?
If so,  please comment and share your "go-to" boredom buster??
With SMILES. Val

Strip Quilt Secrets Blog Hop & Give-Away!

Diane who blogs at Butterfly Threads Quilting makes the most wonderful scrappy quilts! I'm always inspired by her combination of bright colors and fabric patterns to design such a variety of patterns. When she published her first book: Scrap Book Secrets, I devoured it, reading it cover to cover and taking note, especially as I read her chapter of Quilt Making Basics. And now she's done it again!!

BOOK TWO!

 

I quickly volunteered to be part of her book release blog hop as I've had this tote of 30's repro fabric strips that I had cut into two inch strips about five years ago to to stitch English Paper Pieced Hexagons. When my book arrived, I literally dumped the whole tote out, mixed up the large variety of colors and patterns....

...and started just grabbing and sewing the strips together.

After a few email exchanges with Diane and then referring to the index of the quilts by strip size ranging from 1 1/2"-3 1/2" found at the back of her book, I decided to make her Vortex pattern as most of my strips were already two inches wide...exactly what the Vortex pattern called for.

So I got busy sewing strips...which as you can imagine provided some easy chain piecing.

I chose black as my block centers and cornerstones. I found the block assembly quick with Diana's easy to follow, step by step directions and am learning to perfect my partial seam. BTW, Diane also offers four alternative quilt sizes (crib, twin full/queen and king) and a coloring sheet for each of the fifteen patterns included in the book.  I love that! So much bang for your buck!

So even though I still have a bunch of strips to sew together:

Here's a peek at what they are looking like as they come together as a finished 9 1/2" block:

A GIVE-AWAY!

This give-away is closed. The winner was announced here.

For the chance to win a copy of Strip Quilt Secrets by Diane D. Knot, comment on this blog sharing with us your favorite "sewing" time entertainment. For example, I often find myself just enjoying the quiet, but will every now and then find a good NCIS marathon or something on Netflix. (Anything that does not require a lot of my attention.) I will draw a winner on Friday, January 11, 2019 and announce the winner here on the blog as I also share my progress being made. NOTE: If you are a no-reply (Right now I have had 26 no-reply comments) so please leave your email so I can contact your for your mailing address. Due to shipping costs, this give-away if only available to US residents. Good luck! 

Also if you missed Diane's blog series highlighting the five main strip techniques highlighted in her book, click HERE to get a closer look at those and learn how much her book has to offer.

BLOG HOP!

I hope you have fun visiting everyone else on the hop and you'll also increase your chance of winning your own copy of Strip Quilt Secrets! Our blog hop runs all week. 

Here are links to all the quilters who are participating: 

Friday January 4 - C&T 

Saturday January 5 - Tanya

Sunday January 6 - Val (You are here!)

Monday January 7 - Lori

Tuesday January 8 - Heather

Wednesday January 9 - Audrey

Thursday January 10 - Susan

On the frame this weekend...

This is a fun, scrappy customer quilt that I'll be working on today. She chose a fun Dragonfly Fantasy pantograph that I think will look fun among these wonky log cabins.

I'm also inspired by her use of decorative stitches she included in each block:

Note to self: I totally want to do this!

 How about you? What creative ways have your used your machine's decorative stitches?
My curious mind is wondering.

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

New Rainbow Girl Center

I can't believe I've been working on this quilt on and off for three years.

It's just one of those "creative projects" that evolves as I make it up...

or in this case, remake it as I go. 

The center went from this:

To this:

I sewed the new center right over the old one and once finished, 

just cut the old one away on the back side:

 Now my creative mind is looking at finishing it with a black flower printed border.  A purple prairie point border  between it and the quilt, finishing it with a lime green binding. What do ya think?

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

Moving it Forward....

The scrappy flowers that I started last month took a turn for the brighter side...

...and will provide some fun stitching this week. I seriously can't wait to show you how I'm going to use them to change the center on my Rainbow Girl quilt later this week.

Until then, I hope your week is off to a great start!!

PS: Like my "new" blog header! ARG! No more free PicMonkey. Need to figure out "now what".

WI specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

Tuesday Archives #182: Made Fabric

Hello! Hello! and Happy Tuesday Archives! 

The linky party that let's you rejuvinate OLD blogging posts.

If you are new to our linky, click over the here to read the details about this fun, weekly linky party. (You can also check out all our past Tuesday Archives themes by clicking right here.)

This week's theme is: "Made" Fabric

I had fun as I found myself looking back through my own archives to prep for this week's linky.

 So weird to think it's already been three years since I found myself recovering from gall-bladder surgery and passing the time playing with scraps...

 

....to create a rainbow of fat quarters of my own:

Which I turned into this pinwheel of quilty fun:

Okay, this all makes me want to do another scrappy quilt like this...maybe in squares?

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

Scrap Play!

I've continued to enjoy Kate's 15 Minute to Sew Challenge and even finished my Jan. OMG Snowman Jelly Roll into a flimsy. Here's just a peek as I'm hoping to get my long-arm back from some well needed maintenance and actually have it finished by month's end.

I also started a CREATIVE project that I've had in the back of my head:

I've never done strip piecing.

I've been wanting to use text prints against bold, print  for e v e r.

With that said, this makes for the perfect 15 minutes of sewing after a long day at work.

It's going to be fun to watch this project evolve, as right now I have no plan accept to continue having fun creating these scrappy flowers that seem to be quickly blooming from my scrap basket.

 My report this week:

Days with sewing this week:  5 out of 7

Days with sewing this month:  10 out of 14

Days with sewing this year:  10 out of 14

Success rate:  71%

Stay tuned!

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.