Bloggers Quilt Festival

I just love the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side!!!

Of course I have to join in on all the fun, right?  Here is my entry for Scrappy Bed Quilt .....

This is my Scrappy Bear Paws quilt, which my followers have seen many times before :*)  In fact, I just recently blogged about finishing it up with the quilting and binding.  But here are photos for new viewers....

The bear paw blocks were part of a Block of the Month program at one of our local quilt shops.  You paid $3 for the first block & pattern, then if you brought your completed block back each month, you got the fabric for the next block free.  I loved the scrappy look and had such a fun time making them each month, so I decided to make more for a bigger bed-sized quilt.  I ended up making 36 blocks total  for a good-sized queen quilt and added an extra-wide border with the little bear paw for corner stones as an added special touch :*)

I made the reds/neutrals half-square triangles for the sawtooth border as leaders and enders Bonnie Hunter-style, so that by the time I was ready to do the borders I only had to make about 50 hst's - the rest were already done!

.........  I also made a set of quilted shams to go with the quilt .....

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 90″x 96″

Pieced & Quilted by :  Teresa Raleigh

Best Category : Favorite Bed Quilt, Favorite Scrap Quilt

If you like my Scrappy Bear Paws quilt, you can vote for it HERE =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

Finding My Direction

I laughed out load when I read Kathy's post at Kathy's Quilts this morning!  She asks the question, "How do you find your direction and make your choices of what quilts to make?"

Of course that is not a funny question, but what was funny is that I had just been thinking not 30 minutes earlier that I needed to stop, take stock of my projects and decide on my direction going forward!

For the past few weeks, I have been headed in one direction - getting my guest room ready for my mom's visit.  I wanted to have Scrappy Bearpaws and its shams on the bed to welcome her when she got here.

Mission accomplished!!!

And don't Mom & Darryll look happy???

The shams are made from the last of this favorite red paisleys fabric and quilted on my domestic machine with an allover swirly flower design similar to the panto I used on the quilt.  I used a gorgeous variegated pinks-to-red King Tut thread for the quilting - Yummy!!!!

I didn't have enough fabric to do the entire shams in the red paisleys though, so I used muslin for the center of the backs...

My mom left yesterday to go back home, and so today I am pondering.....  Which direction now?

Are you like me?  So many projects in the works that you have a hard time deciding

which one gets your attention today?  

I have friends who only work on one project at a time.  They have no problem deciding what they are going to sew on each day.  They know!  Me?  Not so much!  I LOVE all the projects I have going, and I also have quite a few I want to start...

Today will be a day of reflection and decision.  I want to enjoy what I'm working on, to pick out the project that sets my finger tips tingling in anticipation and makes my inner child feel as free & happy as this little girl as I sew, sew, sew.....

............ what will it be????

Linking up with Connie's Linky Party  and Fabric Tuesday Quilt Story today...

Hugs & Blessings!
Teresa
=^..^=

Stash Enhancement and a Finish!!!

Back in February, I finished piecing this UFO - my Scrappy Bearpaws....

This past week I finally got it quilted.....

...... and last night I put the last stitch in the binding!

Today I plan to work on a set of pillow shams out of the red paisley I used for my binding.  They are already cut out and ready to start sewing.  The true color of this fabric is the pinky-red in the picture of the binding above, not the orangey-red in this picture.

My Mom is coming to visit with us this weekend, and I really wanted a beautiful quilt on the bed in that guest room, but I didn't have any queen size tops quilted except those I have given away to others.  My friend Joanne once again came to my rescue and let me have some time on her Gammill so I could finish this project up for my Mom's visit!  =^..^=

I'm so excited!!!!

Now..... would you like some more eye candy?  Anyone????

I also added some really wonderful new fabrics to The Stash!  Our Divas guild held it's annual Yardage Sale this past Thursday.  For this event, anyone who has fabric in their stash that they no longer want, they can bring it and sell it to someone else who will love it & give it a new home :*)  Michelle once again brought bin after bin of fabrics for sale from $2-$4 a yard!!!  I simply couldn't resist this scrumptious half-yards bundle of bright and eye-popping homespuns at $3 a yard!!!!

Now tell me, could you have resisted???

In addition to some other pieces, I also snatched up these two gorgeous blue and white fabrics..... YUM!!!!

I absolutely LOVE this toile!!!!

So even with a fabulous finish and lots of used fabrics this week, my numbers still grew in the red for the week.  And next week will be another Enhancement week, because we are going to Whittles on Tuesday and I plan to purchase fat-back backing fabrics for some of my quilt tops that are languishing on my To Be Quilted Someday shelf :*)  Yikes - BIG yardage there!  Hopefully that yardage won't stick around long though.  One can always hope, can't one????  =^..^=

Stash Enhancement Report - October 14, 2012 

Used/Destashed this week:  13.5 yards

Used/Destashed YTD 2012: 222.75 yards

Stashed this week: 15.25 yards

Stashed YTD 2012: 232.25 yards

Net Used for 2012: -9.50 yards

Check out the other Stash Reports over at Patchwork Times!

And I want to share a really exciting opportunity coming up the first of November from the oh-so-talented Val Laird....

       

             From Val's website.....  

Seven weeks of Christmas Giving!

Commencing the first week of November and going up to the week before Christmas, I will be sharing a free pattern with you each week.  The patterns will be mostly gifts that you can make, along with a couple of Christmas projects. The gifts will all be very useful - you know my designs: 'pretty and practical'!

The patterns will only be available for one week and then will be removed, so can I encourage you to grab my "Seven weeks" logo and share it on your blog sidebar or a blog post so that your friends can join in the fun of receiving a free pattern each week.

***************************************************************

Doesn't that sound like fun?  Click HERE to go to Val's site and check out some of her work.

She does the most adorable stitcheries & appliques.... trust me, you'll fall in love!

I'll be linking this post up with the following fun Linky Parties:

The Bear Paw blocks were a BOM program through a LQS :*)

And also linking up with What a Hoot's Linky Party for TGIFF OctoberQuest Celebration!
I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!  I'm hoping to do some Slow Stitching this afternoon in addition to working on the pillow shams.  And maybe I'll get some pictures posted about my latest Blue Collection blocks :*)  Yes, just a little teaser....

Hugs & Blessings!
Teresa
=^..^=

Design Wall Monday – Week #9

*** Don't forget to come by for the Leap Day Giveaway on Wednesday! =^..^=

My design wall is bare right now because I finished my Scrappy Bearpaws top!!!

It’s a big quilt and it took some effort to get a good picture of it.  Of course, it still needs to be quilted, but my focus this month was to move it out of the UFO box and onto the To Be Quilted (TBQ)shelf.  So my February UFO is complete for the Patchwork Times UFOChallenge, and before the end of the month too – woohoo!!!

The pattern calls for just a plain neutral outer border, but I wasn't satisfied with that.  I think creamy neutral in big spaces just looks like oatmeal when you stand back from a quilt, even really pretty paisley neutrals like this.  

And I didn't want to just use red cornerstones.  So I decided to carry the bearpaw motif out to the cornerstones.  I really like the effect!

Here it is all lovingly folded up and ready to be moved to the TBQ shelf! 

And here is the empty project box it came out of!   =^..^=

But that’s not all…. I also got a UFO quilted this month! 

Here is Lavender Indulgence.  I made this beauty for my sister several years ago, but it sat on my TBQ shelf until I got to the point where I felt I could do it justice in quilting it.  My friend Joanne told me I could use her longarm to quilt it, so I jumped at the chance.  I knew it would look so much better done with a nice panto than if I tried to FMQ it myself on my home machine.  Not to mention all the time and muscle that would have been involved!  This is also a big quilt, so it took two afternoons, but it is done, and I am very happy with the results.

I sewed on the binding today and will spend several contented evenings hand sewing it down to the quilt.  I'm in no hurry since I our next visit to family in North Carolina will be in April.  If my sister is reading this – This one’s for you Laurie – FINALLY!!!!

So now share what’s on your Design Wall at Patchwork Times.

I’ll also link this post up with BOM’s Away Monday, Can I Geta Whoop Whoop! and Quilting by the River’s Tuesday Linky Party.

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Sunday Stash Report – Week #9

My hard work this past week finally paid off... I've finished up the Scrappy Bearpaws top!!!  I'm hoping to have a sunny day today so I can take a picture to show you.  I'll probably post that during Design Wall Monday tomorrow.

I calculate the quilt top used about 14 yards - hard to tell exactly because it is scrappy and I really did use scraps, even lots of little, bitty scraps :*)  But I added up the fabrics recommended on the pattern the best I could considering it tells you to use scraps too and got 15.25 yards.  Then I added up the square inches in the quilt and multiplied by 2 as recommended by a fellow quilter.  That came to a little over 14 yards.  Since a few of the blocks were BOM's through my LQS, I settled on 14 yards.  How's that for high math?!?

I managed to refrain from buying anything new this week (fabric that is =^..^=), so these are my totals for this week:

Used this week:     14 yards

Used YTD 2012:     36.50 yards

Added this week:   0 yards

Added YTD 2012:    57.00 yards

Net Used for 2012: -20.50 yards

How is your stash coming along?  Head on over to Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with theirs.

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Design Wall Monday – Week #8

The current focus on my Design Wall is the Scrappy Bearpaws quilt that I am trying to finish up for my February UFO Challenge.  You may have seen some of the blocks on the wall from last week’s report.  Well, here they are all put together!

Don't they just sparkle?!?  I worked on this pretty much non-stop during my retreat this past week at St. Mary’s Sewanee and I managed to complete the center of the quilt.  I still need three borders – a scrappy neutral 2” inner border, a scrappy red/neutral 1-1/2” sawtooth middle border, and a neutral 4” outer border.  

But let me tell you what I am so excited about…. At the same time that I was sewing together the quilt center, I was also sewing together the sawtooth HST’s as leaders/enders! 

So instead of having to tackle 224 HST’s today, I only have 50 more to do!  Yippee Skippee!!! Thanks Bonnie at Quiltville for teaching us how to do leaders/enders!!!  I am seeing daylight on this project my friends! =^..^=

Also on my Design Wall is this really wonderful block that I found on Melissa’s Happy Quilting blog.  It is a tutorial by Pat of Color Me Quilty which she shared on Melissa's blog.

Isn’t this a striking block?  I saw it as I was sipping my first cup of tea and getting ready to go on retreat last Thursday.  When I saw that it just took three 2-1/2” strips, I hurriedly ran upstairs and pulled three strips from my 2-1/2” strip bin and stuffed them into my bags to take with me to retreat.  First thing, I quickly – and easily thanks to Pam’s great instructions! – made the block and put it up on my design wall.  Boy-o-Boy, did it ever get immediate attention!!!!  Everyone came over to drool over it and get the link so they could go and make some of their own.  Click HERE for the link if you like it as much as I did!  (and everyone else at my retreat :*})

So now share what’s on your Design Wall at Patchwork Times.

I’m also linking up today with LynCC at What A Hoot for her BOM’s Away Monday link-up. 

Here is my progress on Block #2 of the Promises and Borders stitchery.

This is so relaxing – I am very glad I decided to join along on this one!  I wish I could get a better picture – the colors are all muddy looking.  The lavendar flowers are a variegated blue/purple, and they're just lovely!  I’ll try to get one in the sunshine for my next report.

The Scrappy Bearpaws was also a BOM back when I started it.  I had the first 12 blocks done but decided to make it bigger, put it away, and a couple years later it is now in my UFO crosshairs!!!

Don’t forget to go check out the other BOM’s Away posts HERE!


I'm also linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for a big Whoop Whoop!

Hope everyone has a marvelous Monday and a wonderful Week!!!!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Design Wall Monday – Week #7

My Design Wall is pretty full this week!

I am working on my Scrappy Bearpaws for the 2012 UFO Challenge, and making great headway.  The blocks go together quickly and I just love making them.  As you can see, they are truly scrappy, with lots and lots of different fabrics! 

They will be assembled with neutral sashing and red cornerstones, then a neutral inner border, a red/neutral sawtooth middle border and then another neutral outer border.  I have been making the sawtooth HST’s as leaders and enders, and they are piling up quickly (thank goodness!). 

A friend recently gave me a bag of scraps from her last project and guess what I found inside ….

Yep!  A pile of these just-the-right-size triangles for the HST’s!  I usually use the Easy Angle ruler to make HST’s anyway, so I got busy and cut lots of red triangles to put with the scrap neutrals.  

Before I knew it, Presto! Shazam!!!  I’ve got lots of cute perfect HST’s!!!  Love it when a friend shares her scraps =^..^=  Of course, there will be lots of HST's with other neutrals too, but I just love these with the pretty red flowers.

I’m also getting ready to work on my green pineapples for the Rainbow Challenge – here is my bucket of crumbs with a lot of green scraps added in.  Yum!!!!  These will be so sweet when I’ve got them done.  They will look like Christmas when I put them on the Display Wall beside the red ones I made last month :*D

And just because I like you all, here’s a little Show-n-Tell of my recent finishes…..

Quilts in Progress – just love this little wall-hanging!!!  You saw it on my Design Wall picture above, but I completed it Saturday night, so Hooray!  A finish!!!!

And this is my Iris Tango, with its binding all finished up and now hanging on my quilt rack in the front dining room.  Doesn’t it look all sophisticated hanging there?  I’m so happy to have a new quilt to display!

So what have you been up to in your sewing rooms?  Share with us at Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=