I Believe!

I do Believe I have broken a record - THREE finishes in two weeks!  And these two were finished in the last three days - woohoo!!!

I Believe Sampler and En Provence

Full disclosure, these are only finished to the flimsy stage.  Since I don't have a longarm, it is sometimes a while before I'm able to quilt a finished top.  In my book, these are considered finishes :*)

I put the last of 3 borders on my I Believe sampler on Friday.  This was my One Monthly Goal project, as well as my Christmas UFO for January.  You can read earlier posts about this project here.  This is the first bed-size quilt I've ever made from start to finish in one month and I'm dizzy with happiness!!!  I pulled out the little packages of shop hop blocks a few days after Christmas and made a block every day I was at home.

Last week as time was getting close, I powered through by cutting all the pieces for the last three blocks and made piles of half-square triangles, which quickly turned into finished blocks :*)

Then I had to cut up the panel blocks and decide how I wanted to lay all the blocks together - this was an early layout....

At this point, I realized I didn't have as many of the coordinating fabrics in my stash as I had thought, which was a real problem because I needed a good variety of them for sashing all the blocks.  This is an older line and pretty much obsolete.  My friend Joanne came to my rescue by giving me the scraps left over from when she made her version of the quilt... Whew!!!

All of the pieced blocks from the shop hop use only red, green and gold fabrics, so I really took a chance by sashing all the panel blocks with a pretty aqua print from the line which I did have in my stash.  I wanted to pull out that lovely aqua in the background of all the pictures.  It looks more blue here, but it really is a soft pretty aqua - the first picture above is closer to the actual color :*)

I have to say, I love the light it brings into the overall look of the quilt!

I used a gold from my stash for the first inner border, then pulled that aqua back in with a fun stripe from the I Believe line for the second border.  That gorgeous red used for the outer border was one that I had thankfully purchased in yardage when I bought the blocks - it perfectly frames the quilt and pulls everything together.

My second finish is En Provence - Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery quilt.  I last left you with the quilt waiting for the pieced borders in this post.  I had to make about 50 more neutral 4-patches in order to have enough to finish the borders.

This afternoon I put the last stitch in this beauty!!!

I really love this design, and the neutral 4-patch border is a big part of what I love.  Bonnie's design seems to float majestically over the surface of the quilt.  I found a bright backing fabric in my stash and hope to have it quilted before too much time passes :*)

And last but certainly not least, Soul Searching is quilted!!!  

This was my Music City guild UFO for January, and Joanne was my savior again by allowing me to use her long arm to quilt it :*)  I can't remember the name of the panto, but it was a simple and fun circle design that worked up quickly...

And, believe it or not, I even managed to squeeze in a few hand stitches too...

This adorable little hummingbird is the center of my 11th Folk Art Album block.  I have to say I was delighted with how it turned out!  I'm also pretty happy to be getting near the end of these blocks :*)

So that's it for my week - how about yours?

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Linking up with the following FUN linky parties - check 'em out!

- One Monthly Goal
- Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching
- Main Crush Monday

- Design Wall Monday

- Monday Making

How I said Goodbye to 2016 .....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  

We had a lovely Christmas and, as is our habit, a nice, quiet New Year's.  Although we have no family near us, we are surrounded by good friends and fun things to do during the holidays.  I was especially happy to have a few days filled with nothing but puttering in my studio - it was heaven!!!  I managed to finish out the year by cranking out a few little Christmas projects and even a couple of finishes.

My favorite finish is Hello Mr. Moon - I made two of these!  One was a gift for my sister and the other I am keeping for us. =^..^=

This adorable little quilt is designed by Teri Henderson Tope, and you can find the free pattern at Bernina's We All Sew site.  I loved the freedom of the "messy" outlining she calls for around the cat and moon, and it was great fun learning how to do the swirly quilting design in the background.

I also made these Christmas Tree mug rugs for my Quiltfest group, using my buddy Kevin the Quilter's tutorial but eliminating the bottom row of the tree so they would be small enough to fit.  Thanks Kevin!!! 

The blue one is for Belinda who shares my love for all things BLUE!!!  (Yes, I have a blue one cut out for me too!)  And Joanne is my bird-loving friend, so hers has a beautiful seasonal bird fabric on the back.

This was a really fun project, challenging myself to use only my crumb scraps for the pieces.

I even pulled from my brown crumb jar for the tree trunks... who knew there could be so many colors of brown?????

One more of my Folk Art Album blocks is finished....

This is the 10th Folk Art Album block completed!  I have enjoyed this hand Applique project, especially finding ways to make it a little bit special...

Can you tell that I used metallic thread for the red buds?  I also added those french knot clusters in the center of the three-leaf section that looked a little boring to me before.  I have to admit, I'm ready to be done with this project.  Only 2 more - this one is next up for stitching.  Don't you just adore that hummingbird???

I shared my January Christmas UFO project, I Believe, with you in THIS previous post.  Since then I have finished two more blocks ....

I Believe Block #4

I Believe Block #5 - Yikes!!!!

Of course, as soon as I pulled this photo into Blogger, I saw the mistake!!!  That will have to get fixed first thing tomorrow morning :*)

In order to finish this top assembly in January (from start to finish!), I've committed to making a block per day on the days I am at home.  This week has been impossible - I've had activities every day!  Starting this weekend, this project and my En Provence blocks will be getting lots of love :*)  I'll share more about my thoughts on EP in my next post.

En Provence Clue #5 complete

Some friends are coming over to sew tomorrow, so I need to go get things set up.  As I type, it has begun to snow, so hopefully we won't get "snowed" out!  Actually, we're not expecting anything more than perhaps an inch at the most.  I'll be back this weekend to share my January goals with you.

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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It Was Sew Much Fun, But ....

This morning, I dove straight in and churned out my Clue #2 units for Bonnie's En Provence mystery - DONE!!!

However, this was not my first rodeo with Clue #2! .....

🙀🙀🙀

When I went to bed last night, I was so happy because I had finished up half of the units I needed and was excited about finishing them up today.  So you can imagine my dismay when saw friend Kevin's  Instagram (@photokevin74) post first thing this morning showing his beautiful little finished units - which had the colors reversed (I thought!).  I even commented that he was really switching things up this year.  Then I got to thinking - would he really switch it up that much?  Was it possible.....  Headed off to check Bonnie's posted clue again, and sure enough!

I had reversed my fabrics!!!

UGH!!!!

Bonnie saw my "Oh Crap!!!" comment on Kevin's post and reassured me, saying maybe I could use them on the back or for a second border.  She's such a sweetheart - don't you just love her???

Today's units went a little more quickly since I had already answered all the questions - how many strips to cut, what method to use, etc.  I didn't get an order into Bonnie for her amazing new ruler early enough, so I decided to use my Marti Michell Set C tri recs templates since they cut dog ears and everything, leaving virtually no guesswork at all - the large triangle is shown here from yesterday, cutting my incorrect units ....

There are few things that make me happier than some time spent mindlessly chain piecing and either watching a show or listening to a good book!  Right now I am listening to the 3rd in the Gamache series by Louise Penny.  If you love mysteries you have to check her out by the way - but it is important that you listen from the beginning!

See my little Leader/Ender there?  (One of the things I love about using L/Es is that I can always find the beginning of my chain hehehe :*)  I had some leftover pieces from another project this past summer and just couldn't toss them!

That pink is one of my favorite fabrics - and these little leftovers were all I had left of it.  So I cut the largest pieces I could to make some tiny 4-patches.

Heaven knows what I'll do with them, but I have no doubt the perfect use will hit me out of the blue one day, and I'll be glad I saved them :*)

And what did my little Snoopervisor do while I toiled away today?  Well, most of the morning, he did this....

Poor little fellow has not felt well since we came home from our Thanksgiving travels - we think he's reacting to the flea meds we had to give him.  He had us pretty concerned there for a few days, but he's beginning to perk up and eat again without throwing up - a good thing, right?

Last night, he was on duty and not missing a thing sitting in his current favorite spot for Snoopervision .....

While I was stitching this morning, My Guy put up the Christmas tree and got down all the ornaments & decorations, so I will be doing my Mrs. Claus thing the rest of the afternoon.  Then tonight, he and I will waste 3 hours watching the Carolina Panthers do their thing (whatever that is - it's certainly not football) LOL!!!  And I'll be finishing up the stitching on this Folk Art Album block....

I still need to finish the white and then the yellow on the daisies ...

.... and then the special little touch will be stitching this adorable little bee!!!

I completed the stitching on this block last week....

That leaves me with two blocks left in this project, and I'll be ready to make the sawtooth sashing and assemble the center.  Woohoo!!!!!

I still have the last one to prep for applique, but this one is already fused down and ready for stitching next.  It may be my favorite of these blocks :*)

Linking up with Bonnie's En Provence linky Monday and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Finally - a Finish!

I hope all of my US friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We were blessed to once again travel to North Carolina to spend a few days with our loved ones.  It was a lovely visit, even though both of us brought home a nasty sore throat and head cold!

I took my latest finish with us ....

I finally finished our youngest granddaughter's baby quilt.  Jacqueline is now 1-1/2 years old and I had not even started it, so needless to say I had been feeling a lot of pressure to spend any spare time I had on making that darling quilt happen so I could give it to her on our trip to see them at Thanksgiving!

I did the shopping last spring.  Pattern:  Cellophane Flowers by Abbey Lane Quilts.  The quilt I made for Jacqueline's big sister, Genevieve, has her name on it, and I thought J's name would be cute in the center of this design.

Fabrics:  Focus fabric is Canyon by Kate Spain - I just love those adorable birds in the selvedge!!!!

I chose this fabric because my daughter-in-law had shown me some of the items she planned to use to decorate the nursery, and they had these colors in them.  Now I'm just hoping she hasn't already changed the nursery already several times LOL!!!

For the background, I decided to simplify by using only one fabric instead of the scrappy style used in the pattern.  I went with one of my current favorite fabric lines - Grunge!  Can you see below how the fabric carries some of that turquoise?  It really couldn't be a more perfect match!

And I knew I needed to use Lara Buccella's method of Crafted Applique for the flowers and her name in the center.

I wanted nice crisp raw edges, no fraying for this special little girl's quilt!

And just in case you were wondering - Yes, I was under strict Snoopervision during the making of this quilt!

Rocky believes in being a "paws-on" kind of Snoopervisor!!!

By using the Crafted Applique technique, I didn't have to use a blanket stitch to attach the applique shapes.  Simple straight-line stitching was all that was needed - saving tons of time and work!

To give you an idea of how hard I worked to get this done for Thanksgiving, I finished up tying off all the loose ends in the car while on the way to Carolina!  You can see here that I used the same flower shapes for the quilting designs - it worked perfectly, but there were a lot of stops and starts :*)

Unfortunately, events conspired against us and we were not able to see Jacqueline and her family, so I wasn't able to give her the quilt personally.  Yes, we were terribly disappointed!  But we've made plans to make a special trip to visit them in early spring when the girls have their birthdays.  For now, we'll just have to box up the quilt and ship it to her this week.  I've never shipped a quilt, and I have to say I'm a real Nervous Nelly about it, but it just doesn't make sense for me to keep it here when it is so long overdue!

This little guy was pretty unhappy about the 8 hours of traveling (could he look any more pitiful???)  We have to give him meds to keep him from crying all the way down the road.

.... but he didn't waste any time at all convincing his Grandma that he was an abused kitty and in desperate need of love and attention!

Ahhhhh - Nirvana!!!!!

My mom was his first love, and he is always happy when he can see her and hop in her lap for some loving!

He also thoroughly enjoyed taking his Snoopervisor duties to a new level when it came time for the all-important Thanksgiving dinner preparations.

While at Grandma's he found a little vanity chair that sat in our bedroom window where he could look out and watch the squirrels play, and he quickly made that his happy place during our visit.  So mom gifted him with the little chair, and he is now happily napping quite a lot in it here.  He has to sit up to see out our window, but he doesn't seem to mind =^..^=

Later today, I'll join my Slow Sunday Stitching friends over at Kathy's Quilts and finish up the handwork on this Folk Art Album block while watching the Panthers pretend they are playing professional football.

And then I will be busy cutting up strips so I can start on Bonnie Hunter's newest Mystery Quilt, En Provence!  I only have 221 four-patches to make before tomorrow morning - no pressure right?!?  Haha - that won't happen, but I do want to make a few and get started before the next clue comes out tomorrow morning.

Are any of you playing along?  I've decided to use celery greens instead of the yellow, and only two neutrals, but otherwise I'm pretty much keeping to BH's color scheme.

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Thanks again for your patience with me in not blogging for so long!  I had no idea when I popped up that quick post back on September 6 that it would be my last for a couple of months!  To be perfectly honest, I simply lost my blogging mojo for a while.  [Insert whining music here]  It was as though I suddenly hit a brick wall and knocked myself out!  Without warning, I found myself overwhelmed with deadlines, commitments, and a few nagging health issues, a combination which left me feeling exhausted and drained of all mental and creative energy.

Fast forward to today, and I am happy to say that I am finally feeling myself relax and unfurl a bit - getting Jacqueline's quilt finished was a major monkey off my back!  I have to admit that it has been a rather refreshing break, but I'm looking forward to sharing some new things with you soon.  I just want to send my sincerest thanks to all of you who sent messages saying you missed me - I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful friends!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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