My Soul is Searching for AQUA!

Angela at SoScrappy announced last week that the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March is AQUAs/TEALs - and as soon as I saw that I squealed!  Of course you know, AQUA is my favorite, favorite color, right?

So, here is my Soul Searching block in AQUAs - YUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!!

I really love mixing up the fabrics in these blocks, from well-behaved little dots, to color saturated batiks, to wild patterns and designs.... it doesn't matter as long as the color is right :*)  Surprisingly enough, I had quite a bit of trouble finding enough fabrics of the right color for this block!  I thought I had tons of fabrics in this color......

....but it turns out many of them were greeny teals, powder blues, medium blues, too much white in them .... very few were actually just AQUA.  I did add some of the bluey-teals for interest, but I really wanted it to be primarily the blue aquas.  I think it finally turned out perfect, but I had to hunt down those last few fabrics :*)

I've decided to use this monthly RSC to help me work through washing my stash.  Every month, as Angela announces a color, I have been washing all of my fabrics in that color.  It took me 3 days to wash all the fabrics in this color - wow!!!

From the very sweet lights....

to the bright, happy mediums....

and finally the rich, vibrant darks....

And the best part is, I didn't have to buy a single piece of fabric - yay!!!  I did pull a few of my scraps out, but these Soul Searching blocks are primarily made from my stash.  I'm making other blocks each month from my scraps, like sweet little Hootie :*)

I had to laugh when I opened up this fat quarter though.... is it still a fat quarter, or is it a scrap now?  Too funny!

I remember wanting to be very exact in the design on that circle when I made that project LOL!!!

Here is my cabinet with the empty shelves waiting for all the freshly laundered aqua/teal fabrics to be stashed back on them....

This week I'll trace and prepare the fusible pieces for the AQUA Hootie, so look for him to make his debut next Saturday :*)

Check out all the other lovely RSC projects in AQUA HERE at So Scrappy!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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The Beginning of the Story.....

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

I've been a very busy little girl in the quilting studio this past week, but unfortunately I still don't have a finished quilt to show you, but I am working on it!

Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt posted today about Essential Quilting Skills and the importance of continually growing our skills.  If you don't follow Lori, you might want to go over and check her out!  She shares amazing FMQ designs every week, and she is currently doing a fascinating series on the importance of a quilting notebook, how to organize and prioritize our UFO's, etc.  Very good stuff!!!!

My current project is a perfect example of finishing off a UFO and growing my skills in the process!

Scheherazade - without final borders

Meet Scheherazade!  This quilt was started at a Guild workshop way back in 2007.  We learned how to do the Buzzsaw block in the workshop and then went home with instructions for finishing up the rest of the blocks and putting together the center of the quilt, which I did at my very first retreat later that year :)

Since then, this poor top has been sitting on my UFO shelf, just waiting for me to give it some love!!!  All I really needed to do was add a few borders to give it enough size for a lap quilt, so I put this "quick and easy" project on my Guild UFO Challenge list.  And honestly, my only intention when I pulled it off the shelf was to slap on a couple of borders and call 'er done.....

Ah well....the best laid plans of mice and quilters often go awry, right?

I've loved these fabrics since I first laid eyes on them in my first year of quilting and stash acquisition.

Doesn't this just scream "Arabian Nights" to you?
It does me!!!

A local Hancocks Fabrics was going out of business and fabric was $2 a yard - whoohoo!!!!  I bought every last scrap of these fabrics - yep, ALL!!!  I think there were 8 yards of the above print - enough would be left over for the backing!  :)  And then these amazing coordinates - like FIRE!!!!

But I have to say, I was kind of surprised when I pulled this off the shelf to find that I still love these fabrics.  You know how time often has a way of separating us from our first fabric loves?  I've found myself saying, "what was I thinking!" more times than I can count!  But these vibrant fabrics still speak to me - they almost seem to have a life of their own.

So I suppose I shouldn't have been too terribly surprised when I found that ideas for more complicated borders kept popping into my head.  After all, I loved it enough in the beginning to actually MITER the first borders!  And for a timid newbie quilter, that's saying a lot, right?

Just look at that perfect miter :)  Nailed it!!!!

This quilt deserved something more than just slapping on plain borders, didn't it?  

I finally decided that yes, indeed, it did!

But that is just where this story starts..... come back for Design Wall Monday where I'll share the rest of this story about how I decided to polish up a few old skills and create the perfect finish for this lovely quilt - sneaky, huh?  Just like the original story of Scheherazade, you will have to come back to hear the finish...... go HERE to read the fascinating story about this legendary Persian Queen and her story of One Thousand and One Nights!

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And just so you don't think I've been a slave to the quilting studio this week, I share my progress On the Needles - my red House Targaryen socks!

This is a fun pattern to work!  It tended to twist a little on me, but I'm sure that will straighten up in the blocking process.  I was so excited to finally get to the point of working the heel on these!  I'm trying to work these both at the same time so I can be sure they are the same size when I'm done.  I love using the Two-at-a-time Magic Loop, but I just couldn't get it to work right for me with this pattern, so I went back to the dpn needles.

I don't think it will be long before I can enjoy wearing these wonderful RED socks :*D

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Now before I leave, let me steer you toward a great quilting event going on over at my friend Kevin's blog!  Kevin is hosting a challenge for the Quilts of Valor effort!  You can participate by making some of these really quick, fun blocks -

Photo courtesy of Kevin the Quilter

...........and maybe win a gift certificate!  

Go HERE to learn all about it!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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On the Needles - 2/28/14

I finally got to add some AQUA to my Swing Cowl!

Doesn't that brighten it up nicely?

This is a fun project, even though I do have to keep close track of the rows and how many stitches are on each short row.  I figure I'm close to being halfway on this.  I love the design and the way the colors flow through it!  I've had to manipulate that a little by breaking off occasionally and starting a new color.  Some of the colors ran quite long, while others (like the nice bright orange) ran a little short.  So far, I'm very happy with this project and already thinking another one may be in my future :)

My knitted swatch for Rocio  is very pretty - love that colorplay! - but unfortunately it did not turn out perfectly after blocking -  did I really think it would?  Nah!

Length measurement.....

Width measurement.....

The directions said....
       Gauge:   26 st and 34 rows to 4 inches, on 3.5mm needles, in stockinette
                     stitch, AFTER BLOCKING.

..... which I did.  But the swatch did not turn out square for one thing, and it is not 4" either way.  It is 4.25" long and 3.75" wide!  So too large in length and too small in width - yikes!  And I can't be sure I didn't pull too much here or there while blocking?  Blocking is a new technique to me.  Should I have shaped it to 4" square?

Now I don't quite know what to do!  I'm thinking maybe I need to go down one size in my needles, perhaps to a #3 - 3.25mm?  Too long for the length indicates to me that the needle is a little large, and since I'll probably loosen up as I knit on this, too narrow for the width probably won't be a problem for long.  Any advice from you experts out there???

I'd love to start on this sweater, but I don't want to put in a lot of work that just has to be torn out because it doesn't fit.  I signed up for Amy Herzog's class on Craftsy, "Knit to Flatter" - hopefully I can find some time this weekend to begin working through it.  I think it will help me a lot with this sweater :)

No new yarn added this week, and nothing finished, so no changes to my Yarn Stash report.

So what's on your needles?

Join in this week's party at Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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A New Week.....

Life is beginning to get back to what passes for "normal" around here, 

and I want to say a heartfelt THANKS to all of YOU!!! 

Your outpouring of love and comfort and prayers  

has meant the world to me, and I love you all!!! 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Sorry - it's a little blurry :(
But it makes up for it with COLOR, right????

This is my NewFO Challenge project for February ......

Diamonds are Forever

I had the pleasure of taking part in a class given at our Music City Guild this past week and completed one large block, which looks like this.....



It is actually 4 small 6-inch string blocks put together into a larger 12-inch block.  The string blocks started out like this....

These were so much fun, and I loved the play of these colors together so much, that I came home and put together a few more of these little string blocks so I could get that lovely diamond effect to begin shining through as each block was added to the sides of the first large block - YUM!!!

I can see that I seem to have some of my colors running together, but I don't think that will matter once the entire quilt is assembled.  This quilt is from the below book by Virginia (Ginger) Baker & Barbara (Bobbie) Sanders - and these lovely ladies also taught the class :)

Amazon Link HERE

I'll also link up with Sharon at Vrooman Quilts for her Let's Book It party with this project :*)

I love actually using my quilt books for a change LOL!!!

As you can see from the cover photo, the authors made their quilt with black as the neutral star points in the background, and civil war prints for the colorful strings.  I've seen this quilt made with black and jewel colored fabrics - and let me tell you.... it was just simply FABULOUS!!!!  However, I've done quite a lot of quilt projects lately using that color palette, so I really wanted to do something different.

My first decision had to be what I wanted to use for the background - the star points - and black was not allowed as an option.  And then, what colors would be brought out to play with it?  These are the fabrics I ended up with......

My first thought was to use the same fabric for the background star points throughout for continuity.  But I am really short of large chunks of fabrics that would work as a neutral.  See that lime solid in the upper left background?  I had about 5 yards of that, which would have been plenty for the star points as well as a nice outer border.  But lime?  Wow!!!  You all know I love color, but I had to be sure it was "beautiful" colorful, not "circus clowns" colorful LOL!!!  I gave quite a lot of thought to whether I really wanted to use lime, but then I got the bright idea to use the print you see at the very top as a tool for pulling other colors to play with the lime.  Of course, this was easy to do because they turned out to be some of my favorites!  Fuscia! Violet! Blue! Aqua! Purple!

After I had it all together, I was disappointed to realize that the solid lime looked too tame with all that sparkle, kind of flat - which of course led to the choice of using lots of different limes to get variety and sparkle!  Why should the strips be the only ones to shine, right?

Even after I had it all laid out though, I was still not quite sure it was going to work together okay.  How could I be sure before I cut all that fabric and invested so much time and effort?  I decided to tackle my EQ7 to see if I had progressed enough in my lessons to be able to draft this quilt and then try out some color plans before I did any cutting .....

       ..........  I think I did okay - what do you think?????

This is my favorite colorway!

I have to tell you - I am HOOKED!!!  

EQ7 is serious FUN!!!

And all that power can go to a girl's head, you know what I mean?

Here are a few more colorways I played with  ....

Of course, I loved the next few, but the black background was not allowed ...... maybe someday?

So that is what is on my Design Wall today - in addition to my February Dinosaur UFO which is getting some serious work done to it in the next few days!

Amish Beauties - center done and awaiting border treatments

I'll share more about this one when it is finished.  I'm hoping to get it to the flimsy stage by Tuesday :*)  I'm also slowly stitching on the March Bertie's Year BOM, which will probably not get done by March 1....

Most of the pieces are now appliqued down and I'm ready to make the half-square triangles for the border.  Next will be the embroidery embellishments - my favorite part of these little quilts!!!  Well, except for enjoying them once they are finished, of course :*)  

I'm a little late, but linking up with Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching party anyway.

Also linking up with Connie's Tuesday Linky Party and What a Hoot's BOM's Away!

Come join in on the fun - link up your projects too!!!

Hope everyone has a lovely week!  We are expecting gorgeous weather until the weekend, when it is supposed to turn cold again.  But I'm not going to complain about that .... no indeed!  I'm just thrilled that we've been given this current reprieve, and that SPRING is finally on it's way - woohoo!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Catching Up.....

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day!!!!  

Unfortunately, the occasion was a very sad one at our household, which I'll tell you a little more about later in the post.  This morning, I'm just popping in quickly to catch up a little on sharing with you a few stitchy things that are going on around here!

Earlier in the week I found a little time to start on my PINK Hootie for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. All her feathers are now fused to the background and ready to be stitched down!

And here she is with her older brother in BLUE ....

They are both waiting for their third litte sibling in this row, so they can finally have a nice brown branch to rest upon :)  These are such fun little blocks - I can hardly wait until the next color!!!

The March Bertie's Year arrived this week too!

I'm not sure that I really care for the borders on this one.  I may change them to something else - perhaps it may be just a little too stark for me in that bold yellow?  But then again, it may grow on me - it does go along with the "bee" theme very well :)  However, I DO love Bertie with her bee hood and that precious little bee buzzing happily around it's hive, not to mention the subtle, clever addition of shamrocks ♥  I'll be working on this a little today and linking up with Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching party :)

So for some sad sharing .....  the reason I've been absent from the blog the past few days is because we lost a wonderful part of our family on Wednesday.

My father-in-law, George, passed away after a very brave battle with pulmonary fibrosis.  It was a tough time for my sweet husband and his family!  George was a lovely man and a beloved father and grandfather - he will be missed so very, very much!!!

He accepted me into his family from the first moment he met me, and I appreciated that gift more than he could ever know.



Most of all, I appreciate the way he taught my husband how to be a father.  Not every man is a gifted father, but my husband definitely is, and I know that gift was acquired by his father's example ♥  I look forward to seeing George's lovely smile again one day!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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On The Needles - 2/14/14

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Doesn't this look like the most yummy Valentine's Day lunch EVER???

Well, actually, it was my neighbor's lunch last week when a group of us went to The Chocolate Strawberry as a Divas Guild outing :)  But I fell in love with that little heart dipping bowl! ♥♥♥♥♥♥ !!!  Right?  And I just knew you would too :*)  The sandwich was a Monte Cristo, which I've never eaten - no really, never!  But you can bet I will order one of these decadent sandwiches the next time we are at TCS!!! :)

Here is what I did order .....

Chicken salad on a fresh croissant - YUM!!!!!  

It was absolutely delicious!

But I'm still kinda hankering for that Monte Cristo, ya know what I mean LOL!!!

And TCS serves one of THESE on every plate....

I asked for dark chocolate and they had some!

....... sorry, I had to take a little break there and get a little snack :)

Soooooooo, on my needles this week has been repair work on my Wingspan - remember this big hole I showed you last week that suddenly appeared after I had blocked it?

Well, Denise at Justquiltin shared some wonderful advice with me, and it worked!!!

No more hole!!!  Thanks Denise!!!

It's slightly misshapen there, but hey, it looks tons better than that hole, and I'm a happy girl!!!

So now this is officially a finish - yay!!! :)

I started the second House Targaryen sock but forgot to take pictures - bad girl!!!  Of course, there's not really much to show yet anyway, so perhaps you'll forgive me this time?  I hear what you're thinking.... and No!  You can't have my chocolate covered strawberry!!!!

I've added a couple of strata to my Swing Cowl .....

..... if you click on the name it will take you to the page for this project at Ravelry, and you will see Denise's project as the main picture!  Isn't that cool????  Hers is the one I fell in love with and just had to make my own - it's gorgeous :)

And last, but not least, I also got my yarn wound into balls to start Rocio....that new yarn swift I got for Christmas is THE BOMB!!!  Those balls were wound lickety-split, and not one curse word left my lips :*)

I wondered about the name.  A quick check of the name Rocio on the Net said that "Rocio is a small genus of cichlid fishes from Mexico and northern Central America."  I think those little lacy motifs look somewhat like fish, so perhaps that is why the designer gave it that name?  Of course, I think they look more like leaves than fish, so who am I to say :)

So that's what's on my needles.... check out more fun needly projects at Judy's Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Design Wall Monday - 2/10/14

Today, let me show you a few things that are NOT on my Design Wall ....   because they are FINISHED!!!!

The First Noel

29" X 29"

Gotta LOVE classic blue and white!!!  This was a Guild Mystery quilt a few years ago, designed by Melissa Gann of the Doodlehead Stitches blog.  She gave us instructions for both a large and small wall quilt - of course I chose the small :)  This has been a pieced flimsy for several years now, and I'm delighted to have it finished!!!

Our Guild started a new UFO Challenge this year.  We were to make a list of twelve UFO projects we wanted to accomplish this year.  Then the VP calls out a number each month, and we are to complete the item listed on that number.  The thing I really like about this challenge is that you don't have to list an entire quilt project.  We could list, "finish 5 blocks" on a UFO, or "apply borders" to another - which is much easier than "finish my Dear Jane!"  Getting The First Noel quilted was my #5 for February.

I did a lot of stitch-in-the-ditch around the blocks because I liked the design a lot!  Then I used a Lori Kennedy (Inbox Jaunt blog) snowflake motif around the tree in an iridescent metallic thread - I really liked that effect, although the thread gave me fits!!!

Below is a look at the back which gives a good view of the quilting.  It was draped over the back of a chair, so it's not laying flat :)

The next finish is probably one of my oldest Dinosaur UFO's.....

Indian Summer

Trimming it up for the binding :*)

This was one of the first quilts I ever lusted after LOL!!!  

In my first year of quilting - really in the first few months - one of the ladies in my sit-n-sew group who lived near me asked if I wanted to go with her to The Quilters Attic, a quilt shop in Goodlettsville.  Of course I said yes!!!   This quilt shop is located in an old building with a lovely upstairs display room.  Their Indian Summer was hung up really high, overlooking the room, and it simply took my breath away!  I just stood there, mouth agape, and stared at it!  I told myself if I ever made a quilt that beautiful, I would then consider myself a "real quilter"!!!

So, I suppose I am now a "real quilter" LOL!!!  Within the year I had purchased the Judy Niemeyer pattern and some lovely batiks to make it.  But I couldn't start right away because I had not yet learned how to paper-piece.  Soon after, a lady in my Guild offered to teach us how to paper-piece during one of our scheduled sit-n-sews.  Paper-piecing was love at first stitch for me!

This was my first true paper-piecing project, and it is still one of my favorite quilts!  However, the finished quilt top sat again - for years! - waiting for me to grow my FMQ skills.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Joanne let me know that I could have a day on her longarm if I wanted it - did I ever!!!!  I had this quilt and backing already in a bag, ready to go.....

And now it's a finished quilt!!!!

Well, okay..... it's all trimmed up and the binding strips are cut - I'll have it bound and done by the end of the week :*)  GOSH!!!  Isn't it nice to have FINISHES?  This Dinosaur UFO is now extinct and has been marked off my list.

What's on your Design Wall?  

Check out all the great projects at Judy's Patchwork Times!!!

Also linking up with:
Freemotion by the River - Tuesday Linky Party
Confessions of a Fabric Addict - Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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