And the Oscar for Most Fun Design Wall goes to....

Well, we'll need to go over to Patchwork Times to find that out won't we?  But I thought you might like to see some of the fun projects on my design wall now that Easy Street and the Rainbow Pineapples have finally abdicated their place on the wall.

Since I'm linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches for her 2013 NewFO Challenge this year, that means 12 new projects started this year - yikes!!!  I have no illusions that all 12 will get finished either LOL!!!  So, I thought it might be a smart idea to make some effort to finish up a few UFO's - right?  I learned from last year that it's just not possible for me to complete one UFO a month, especially since most of them are less than halfway done - some barely started.  I decided to set a more reasonable goal of finishing up no less than 6 UFO's this year.  Of course, my happy Rainbow Pineapples will count as the first completion.



For my next UFO, I decided to pick something that would serve as a great sit-n-sew project.  For me, a sit-n-sew project needs to be portable - not too many different fabrics, complicated techniques, or exotic tools! - and it needs to be machine pieced.  I chose Starry Night, a quilt I began as a BOM from a LQS back in 2007.  This is what the quilt should look like when I complete it.....

Photo from Starr Design Fabrics, Inc

This wonderful quilt by Starr Designs is made with all hand-dyed fabrics - luscious, deep, rich colorful fabrics!!!  The large paper-pieced star blocks are set in a floating background filled with tiny friendship stars.....

This is my Block #1 completed

I have six blocks completed - here are few more of them, just for eye candy :*)

I'll keep this box ready to grab whenever I go to a sit-n-sew or retreat and work on it until it is completely assembled.  I managed to get half of another block done at our Guild Sit-n-Sew last Thursday!



I'm also working on the Curve it Up QAL with Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful and her sister, Helen from HGMR Deco Quilting blog.  One of my Get It Done objectives was to catch up on these QAL blocks.  Here are the two most current completed blocks, #5 & #6....

The Curved 9-Patch

Curvy Geese

They've released 3 more new blocks in the QAL since then - Yikes!!!  And Jenny's had a baby too - which really makes me a slacker LOL!!!  But I was so far behind on these when I set that goal last month - 4 blocks behind.  Since I've done those 4 blocks this month, I'm going to count that goal as DONE!!!  Then I'll put getting the next 3 done on my March Get It Done list.

These blocks are a lot of fun to make.  They challenge me to pay attention and to think differently about how I piece.  They are so original!  I never feel as if I'm making a block I've ever made before, and I really like that.  I'm just hoping my fabrics will end up playing well together and making a beautiful quilt overall.  I'm going to have concerns about that until they are all together I'm afraid.

Of course, these projects join my newest NewFO, Cool Cats, and my current applique project, The Blue Collection, as well as a couple of embroidery projects for times when hand stitching is the perfect activity!  You can click on their names to see what they are all about if you like :*D

So what's cooking on your Design Wall?

Is it Ocsar worthy LOL???  

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with.....

Sunday Goolash

When we were small, there was a three-year period of time when my mom was divorced and raising us kids on little income and no child support.  Meals were creative, to say the least!  Sometimes on Sundays, she would dump all the leftovers in the refrigerator into a big pot, add some other stuff (God alone knows what!), and let it simmer on the stove for a while.  She called it Goolash.  I really can't remember what it tasted like, but it must have been pretty good because we ate it up :*)  I know a lot of your moms did the same thing, right?

So what made me think of Mom's Goolash?  Because today I'm dumping lots of leftover stuff from this week into one post and calling it Goolash!  I hope you find it as tasty as we did our Mom's Goolash :*D

And since it's Sunday, let me share a Sunday miracle with you all....

This morning I got up to find our table where the laptop usually sits cleared off and the laptop sitting upside down in a spot of sunshine on the floor!  What in the world?!?  My husband had been surfing the Internet earlier and had dumped an entire cup of coffee into the keyboard!!!  Yep - the whole cup!  With cream no less!

But now a few hours and lots of hair-dryer action later, I'm typing up this blog post on that same laptop!  Now is THAT a miracle or what???  I'm really thankful too, because I have a lot of pictures and downloaded patterns on this laptop that had not yet been backed up, not to mention a lot of work done on a Guild project that is due soon!  Oh yes, my friends, God is Good!!!!

So, now, back to the oh-so-tasty Goolash ..... =^..^=

First, I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for some Slow Sunday Stitching!  I finished my second block in the Winter Wonderland series... I just love this sweet little snowchild making snow angels :*D  I'll trace off the next block later today.

Then I got a little bit more appliqued down on my latest Blue Collection vase.  The top part is not completely stitched down yet because I still need to add a few pieces under it.

From this next picture, you can see what I have left to add - a few more sections to the vase and the handles.

I'm really getting excited about getting this close to having these blocks finished!!!

On the Needles, I have almost finished my Shore Thing scarf.

All that is left to do is the ruffled trim at the bottom of one end.  Isn't that a pretty ruffle?  It was really, really simple to do too :*)

The pattern says it takes 2 balls of thread, but this is all I had left after the first ruffle.

Fortunately, they still had more of this color at Joann's, so I went ahead and picked up another ball.  Maybe I'll make a pair of hand warmers to match the scarf :*)

As for the Stash Enhancement Report, I finished up my Rainbow Pineapples this week.  WhooHoo!!!  I'm not sure how much yardage to count for it since it all came from crumbs!  But I would guess about 3 yards.  I didn't add anything new this week, but I must confess a few half-yard cuts of Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Dots will soon show up in my mailbox from Canton Village Quiltworks ....=^..^=

Kaffe Fassett prints available at Canton Village Quiltworks

.....today is the last day of their sale on Kaffe prints at 8.25 a yard, so go by and get it while you can :*)  The way prices are going up lately, I'm trying to add stash items that will be good blenders when I find good prices, you know what I mean?

Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday!  

Wishing you all a glorious day!!!

Hugs & Blessings

Teresa

=^..^=

A Cat of a Different Color (but NOT Purple!!!)

Wow!  You all blew me away with your lovely comments about my Rainbow Pineapples!!!  

Thank you SO much :*D  

It feels wonderful to know that you love it as much as I do =^..^=

I also loved all your comments about my first folk art Cool Cat #1 which is my NewFO Challenge project for February =^..^=


I had just about gotten used to him in all his crazy jaggedness...

.... and had decided to keep him as he is, until I read the comment by Quilting Babcia who blogs over at Amity Quilter.  She pointed out that that fabric would also look great on the "arched back" cat in the bottom left of the pattern photo - this cat is the one she meant .....

...... and it clicked - YES!!!  That would be the perfect fabric to make it look like her hair is standing on end!!!  Can't you just see all those spikes on the back of this cat???  I can almost hear her HISS!!!

So of course there was no going back from that epiphany - right?!?  

Back to the drawing board!!!  I chose a new fabric, redrew and cut out new pattern pieces for another #1 cat, fused them to the new fabric, took the spiky fabric off, and fused down the new cat!

I wasn't even sure if I would be able to remove the old fabric and cover it with new.  I was really hoping I wouldn't have to make a whole new background as well!  When I made the new pattern pieces, I drew them just very slightly larger than the original ones in the hopes they would cover any sticky residue, and happily it worked!!!

Here he is all stitched down and adorned with his 1/2-inch border.... it sure would help if I could take a straight picture LOL!!!!  This really is a square - I promise :*D

This kitty may not be quite as hip as the first Cool Cat, but I like him =^..^=  

What do you think?

And since this is the last Scrappy Saturday this month, I spent some time last night playing with the remainder of my PURPLE scraps.  I'm not sure about the name of the the large block - I think maybe it is called a Hatchet Block?

I've seen several quilts lately made with this simple block, and I thought it would perhaps work up well in a rainbow setting and use up a lot of the bigger dark chunks of scraps as well as some of the smaller lights.    Here is one quilt I especially liked....

Made by Susan at The Thread and I blog

As for the half-square triangles (hst), early in my planning for the RSC this year, I had thought about including some hst's using the smaller light & dark scraps to my project list. Here is a quilt I pinned on Pinterest that got me thinking about making some scrappy hst's....

From My Fabric Obsession

And this one too...

From Lyn Brown's Quilting Blog

I eventually decided against making them each month because of the work involved in cutting them all out.  But then I had a happy surprise when I started making the hatchet blocks.... I was delighted when I realized the corners I cut off could be sewn together and trimmed down to make perfect 2-1/2 inch hst's!!!

So each month if I have time and scraps enough, I'm planning to add this block and the resulting hst's to my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  They were mindless sewing which is a nice change after Easy Street LOL!!!  And I really enjoyed playing with matching up the lights and darks.  PLUS, I really made a huge dent in my PURPLE scraps -- Whoohoo!!!  That's what its all about, right?!?  Now I need to go back and make up some out of my pink scraps too :*)

I hope you are all planning to have a FUN and SCRAPPY weekend !!!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Rainbow Pineapples - Finally Fininshed!

Here they are - finally - my Rainbow Pineapples are a quilt top!

I'm so happy with these little sweethearts!  

Each Pineapple is just 3-3/4 inches finished - and the entire quilt top is only 21 inches without binding! 

What do you think of it?  Do you LOVE it as much as I do???

I made this quilt without a pattern after seeing a quilt on Pinterest that I loved.  

It was made by Barbara Polston and is called Birds Fly over the Rainbow.

Mine is entirely paper-pieced.  I even drew up a pattern to paper-piece the flying geese, which I think is MUCH easier than piecing them the normal way :*)  I looked in my stack of quilt magazines and found a paper-pieced pattern for the pineapples and reduced it to the size I wanted.  Then I made two pineapples each month in the color designated by Angela in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  At the end of the year, of course things got very busy, so it has been sitting waiting on me to finish up the flying geese and assemble it all.

Here are some of the block centers that I fussy cut to show off the cute little motifs in the fabrics....

Now I just have to decide how I want to quilt it - I'm thinking some very light stitching in the ditch and a little FMQ in the black border and the corners of the flying geese border.  Any ideas?

So..... since I have now finished up TWO quilt projects so far this year, I decided to play with a new one last night!!!  I started my NewFO Challenge project for February.  It is this pattern...

Folk Art Cats by The Stitchin' Post

I've started with the first cat (the one in the upper left).  All the pieces were prepared....

And the background was pieced.... I was having so much fun playing with this that I forgot to take a picture of the checkerboard bottom, but it was attached to this top with the sky and mountains.

I think this quilt will challenge me a great deal!  I like for things to be "proper" and these cats are anything but "proper"!!!  For instance, this is my first cat fused down....

WOW!!!  Is he wild or WHAT???

To be honest, I'm not sure I like him very much - he doesn't look very furry and cuddly, does he?  More like I would get splinters if I tried to pet him!!!  LOL!!!  But I'm going to wait to pass judgement until after I do the blanket-stitching.  Since this is a folk-art quilt, all the stitching will be done in black - a new technique for me - and I think that will give this crazy cat more definition.  Hopefully I will like him better after he has been glamorized LOL!!!  If not, then maybe I'll have to go back to the drawing board.

I'm thinking I will name this quilt "Cool Cats" because it reminds me of the stylized drawings of the Cool Daddy Cat 60's!

That's it for me.  What are you working on?  

You can see lots of other fun projects at Judy's Patchwork Times!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with:

Stashing & Playing with Rainbows!

The sun is shining in Music City this fine Sunday my friends, and that makes my heart sing!!!

Yesterday, our family in North Carolina got to play in the snow!  Isn't our world a wonderful creation?  

Days like today make it easy to honor the greatest Creator of all.....  

Thank you Father for the gift of this beautiful world!!!

Yesterday was Scrappy Saturday, but I have already finished up the blocks I originally planned to do each month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in PURPLES which is the color for February.  Instead, I chose to work on last year's RSC project - Rainbow Pineapples.  You can click on the name of the quilt to see the history of how this quilt has come together.

These are the green-aqua-blue-purple sections of the flying geese border.  They will be added to these.....

.... pink-red-orange-yellow flying geese sections.  The good news is that I finished the quilt top yesterday!!!  WooHoo!!!!  It turned out every bit as beautiful as I imagined it!  But you will have to wait until tomorrow for The Great Reveal - sneaky right?!?  LOL!!!  I think it will be worth the wait, so be sure to come back tomorrow to see :*D

As for the Stash Enhancement Report - there's a little eye candy to share....

This is NOT my quilt - it is a picture on the pattern!

This is the Bargello Tree Skirt pattern designed by Martha Eddy of Eddy & Eddy Designs.  

Isn't it amazing?

I've been on the lookout for quite a while now for a pattern to make a quilted tree skirt.  This past Christmas I was really unhappy that I had not made one yet and had to put the old one out.  So making a new one has become one of my focus projects this year.  And I know better than to wait until closer to Christmas to start it LOL!!!

I really didn't want to go with the traditional red and green - actually I could SO see this in blue and white!  But then I found this gorgeous Jason Yenter fabric in cool blues and greens and immediately fell in love...

Then I picked up these to go with it....

That rich royal blue will go where the black is in the pattern picture.  And the best part is that I got all these fabrics at sale prices!!!  You know I love that!!!  I just need one more green to finish up the fabrics for this project, so hopefully I will be able to start it for my NewFO Challenge project next month :*D

I have not done any hand stitchery this week, but I managed to get quite a bit done on my Shore Thing Scarf.  Hopefully I'll have a finish to share later on this week =^..^=

Finally, I want to annouce the WINNER of my fabulous giveaway of Happy Town fabrics by Jacquelynne Steves of The Noble Wife blog .....

Mr. Random Number Generator pulled up a number .... and the WINNER is.....

Denise who blogs over at Count It All Joy!!!

Denise :) said...

Haha! Why stop at the newsletter?!?! I went from doing that to following her on twitter and on facebook, too! LOL!! You're right -- she's very talented ... why am I just learning about her??!!! :)

Congratulations to Denise!  I have to say I was really tickled when I saw her name come up next to the number!  Denise is a wonderful bloggy friend to so many of us, and she has several grandchildren who will definitely benefit from these fabrics in her crafty little hands :*D

Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

***************************************
Linking up with:

Last Day for Happy Town Giveaway!!!!

Just in case you missed it, I have a great GIVEAWAY going on that ends TODAY!!!  

One sweet Multi-Town Quilt Panel and a fat quarter of ALL 14 coordinating fabrics!!!  

Go HERE now to find out how you can win!

(Note:  make sure you leave comments on THAT post, not this one!)

I finally found some time to play with these sweet fabrics - and I do mean sweeeet!  I LOVE Jacquelynne Steves' happy little designs - they remind me so much of my children's childhood toys :*)   And Henry Glass does a great job in the quality of these fabrics, let me tell you.  They are soft and thick, and they cut like butter!!!  Sewing them together is a breeze.  This is the kind of fabric we all love to sew with :*D

This little Preemie Quilt is the first of many little projects I intend to make with the Happy Town fabrics....

Preemie Quilt with binding applied, but not yet sewn down.

I had agreed to do a Demo on how to correctly apply binding at my Divas Guild yesterday, so I decided to make a little Preemie Quilt for one of our charitable projects that we do at my Music City Guild out of the Happy Town fabric.  I was a happy camper to be accomplishing 3 great goals out of one little project!!!

These little quilts are easily made up - this one measures about 17 inches square, but they can be as small as 12 inches square.  I started out by choosing this happy little yellow print with the dogs & cats....

and cutting out a 12-1/2" inch square .....

then adding some fun borders.... love that stripe!!!

No, I didn't miter the stripe!  This was a "quick" project!  LOL!!!

Then I couldn't resist adding this FUN dots print for the backing!

This was the perfect little quilt sandwich for my binding demo!  

As you can see, it turned out super cute!  :*D

I like to think that some mommy whose little baby is in the Preemie ward will be cheered 

by seeing her little one cuddled up in such a soft, happy quilt!

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And in case you were wondering where those beautiful blooms from my header came from....

My Valentine's Day flowers from my Sweetie!!!  

Aren't they gorgeous?  I love how they turned the water the same color as the flowers :*)

And he also gave me this Hyacinth bulb!  

I am SO longing for spring, and this will brighten up my sewing studio until I can plant it outside.  Yep, I'd say he did a great job of showing me his love this year, wouldn't you?  

I couldn't ask for a better Valentine =^..^=

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=