Little Pineapples…..

And a Stash Report too…

Here are my new little Rainbow Pineapples ----

 PURPLE!!!

YELLOW!!!

Look at this sweet little happy face saying Hello to you! *smiles*

Aren’t they just the sweetest things?  These are paper-pieced and will finish at only 3-3/4” square!  They go with these red, pink and green ones I have made so far -

- all out of my crumbs! - for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy.  I think the pinks are still my favorites.  I thought I would just love the purples, but the colors are so dark that they don’t show up as much against the black, so even though I love them, pink still reigns supreme :*) 

I’m all caught up now with this challenge.  I didn’t get my yellows made last month, so I had to get those done as well as the purples for this month.  I didn’t do any for the neutral month, so I’m thinking I can choose a color at the end of the year if there is one she doesn’t call that I like.  I love having choices!!!  =^..^=

Before I get down to the business of a Stash Report, Bonnie Hunter has asked all her blog friends to spread the word that her newest book, String Fling, is ready to ship sometime in July!  This is the cover pic she posted on her site...

She is taking pre-orders now, and will ship in the order she received the requests, so go on over HERE to see the new book and order yours!!!  I know I did!  There are at least two quilts there that immediately went on my NewFO list =^..^=  Talkin’ Turkey started talking to me as soon as I laid eyes on it, and you know I am such a sucker for sweet nothings whispered in my ear! :*D

Talkin' Turkey by Bonnie Hunter - picture from her blog

Am I right?  What’s not to love???  And I’ve coveted Jamestown Landing ever since she debuted it in Australian Patchwork magazine.  Gotta make it!!!

Okay, all fun aside now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty….  I took a bloggy break last week and didn’t do a Stash Report, so I’ll just bundle it all up this week.  I had a little come and a little go… and I ended up just about even. =^..^=

Used:  6 yards for the backing and binding of One Block Wonder (HERE), 1 yard for the backing and binding for June Calendar Quilt (HERE), about 1-1/2 yards for a Stitchery Keeper for a friend, and about a quarter yard in scraps for the Rainbow Pineapples.

Added:  I got lucky in the Bingo games and won 3 yards of backing fabric from Marcia at Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting!  

Yoohoo!  This is a gift I can really use!!! And isn’t this just gorgeous?  She had a lot of colors to choose from, but of course I fell in love with this beautiful blue :*)  I am one lucky girl!

Then I learned that Quilt Kit Market was going out of business and had their fabrics on sale, so I hopped right over and purchased these little gems….

2 yards of this gorgeous batik from Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket line (Aqua's!!!!)

Half-yard cuts from Kate Spain's Good Fortune line

I’m really tickled with these new fabrics, and the prices were just too good to pass up.  But I really hate to see another shop go under.  It just breaks my heart!

So my totals for this week stand at:

Used this week:           8.75 yards

Used YTD 2012:           82.75 yards

Added this week:         8.5 yards

Added YTD 2012:        112.5 yards

Net Used for 2012:      -29.75 yards

I ended up a quarter yard better this week than last - so progress of a sort.  At least I didn't go further in the red, right?  =^..^=

That’s it for me this week.  See other Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

Hope everyone has a beautiful and blessed Sunday!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^.. ^=

It Really is a Wonder!!!

I promised to show you pictures today of a UFO from last year that I finally got quilted – thanks once again to my friend Joanne who allowed me to use her wonderful Gammill =^..^=

This is one of my favorite quilts …--- my One Block Wonder!

One of my earliest mentors when I first began quilting, Sue Pulling, taught this as a two-day class when Music City had its retreat in March of last year.  Sue came all the way from Michigan to join the retreat with her old friends and teach the class.  And what a class it was!!!  Sue is really, really good at what she does, and teaching is her specialty.  We had so much fun with this technique!

For those of you who are not familiar with this quilt design, it comes from the this book by Maxine Rosenthal.  

The basic technique is to choose a lively fabric with a fairly large design that contains at least 3 colors, making sure you have enough fabric to cover 6 repeats of the design run.  This was my fabric….

You layer the fabric so that six repeats of the design lay one on top of the other perfectly, cut it in strips, then in 60 degree triangles.  Then you sew the triangles back together to form a hexagon kaleidoscope!  It was a blast seeing each of these lovely hexies come to shape right before my eyes!

It was even more fun doing it as a class because we got to see what the others’ fabrics were producing too.  I wish I had pictures of them to share, but I wasn’t blogging back then and didn’t think to take pics.  One girl did hers in an African animal theme and it produced some amazing hexies!  Others chose orientals which worked out just beautifully!  Joanne (of the-friend-with-the-Gammill fame) chose a really lively and colorful fall fabric that turned out some of the most original and exciting designs of them all!

Because my fabric is so bright and the colors are not your ordinary run-of-the-mill, I had a hard time choosing the inner border.  I had a pink that went okay, and I also had a really nice lettuce green that worked perfectly. 

But both of them disappeared in the corners where they came next to the same colors in the quilt.  And I felt they were kind of blah for such a lively quilt.  Finally, just on a lark I picked this stripe out of my stash just to see how it would look – 

Eureka!!! 

But it needed something to stop the design between the stripe and the fabrics, so I put in a ¼” pink flange on both sides.

I really LOVE that look....

However that love did NOT extend to the quilting!  It was quite frankly a B**** to quilt because of those little flanges!  I wanted to do an allover panto because the quilt itself was so busy the quilting would have disappeared anyway. But in order to do the panto, I had to pin down all the flanges and stop/start at each one, tie threads off, take great care not to sew over onto the flange…. None of this is easy on a longarm!  I am really happy with the result, but I would only ever do it again for a special quilt like this one!

For the binding, I decided I needed to use the stripe again, but not on a bias as I usually do for stripes because that just didn’t work at all.  And once again, it needed that little bit of pink to corral the two different designs between the quilt and the stripe.  I chose to do a small 1/8” flange under the binding which I think works out perfectly!

 

It’s double the work, and a little tricky working the corners out because of all the bulk...

.... but the effect is well worth it, don’t you think?

So that’s my TaDa!!! For the day!!!  

Hope you enjoyed seeing my One Block Wonder come alive!  I’ll be teaching a class on this at The Quilter’s Path in Mt. Juliet this summer, so check at the shop for times if you are local and would like to make this quilt =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

FYI - Check out the cool giveaway going on over HERE at Lily Pad Quilting!

And then go see what others are doing where I'm linking up this post:

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts

June Finishes at Such a Sew & Sew
Tuesday Linky Party at Quilting by the River
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Yard Sale Goodies!

I’ve taken a nice long break from blogging.  Did you miss me?  I hope so, 'cause I sure missed you!!!

What have I been up to all this time, you ask?  Well….. not really a whole lot that would be blog-worthy I must admit.  Don was home all last week so my schedule was a little off all week.  Not that he gets in the way of the things I want to do – in fact, he stays so busy with his list of things to do around the house that I barely know he's here.  But one day he knocked me off my schedule altogether!  He had run out to do some errands and came home with this little antique cutie …

Isn’t it just the cutest thing?  I have to find some rhinestones to replace those lost ones but otherwise it is in beautiful shape.  The finish is still shiny and most of the goldwork is still pretty.  Can you see how the designer used pins for the capital letters in Pin Money?  Too stinkin’ cute!!!  Don was tickled to find something he knew I would love to have in my sewing room :*)  When he told me there were lots of boxes to dig through, I immediately dropped everything and drove over myself.  A girl’s gotta have her priorities, right? 

I had SO MUCH FUN digging through those boxes!!!  It’s been a while since I've been to a bona fide yard sale and this one was really perfect.  They had some really great items for dirt cheap prices.  I wish I had taken a picture.  They were obviously selling off things from someone who had been a collector and seller of antique-type items.  


My favorite find is this copper percolator from the 50’s.  It's only about 6" tall and cute as a bug's ear!  It's not a toy either - it's a real coffee pot!  The tag on the bottom said $67.50 but they gave it to me for $1.00 without ever even looking at the tag!

It’s in wonderful condition – needs polishing of course, but the insides are perfect!  I do miss the taste of real percolated coffee, don’t you?!?  It was part of a set of copper kitchen items ladies could get if they sent in box tops from Land-o-Lakes butter.  

Let's see... what else did I find?  How about this quilt for $3.00!!!!!

Yep, not kidding!!!!  It was wadded up in a black trash bag, half of it spilling out onto the dirt.  I was horrified and grabbed it up so fast I got dizzy!  When she said $3.00 I was just simply stunned.  It's a Hunter's Star - not easy to piece! - and it was obviously custom quilted.  

It was dirty but cleaned up beautifully!  Talk about tickled with a find!!!

Now let me tell you a cute story…..I showed this quilt at  my Guild meeting this Tuesday and told the story of finding it.  Just as I was saying, "Please be sure your kids know the value of your quilts so they don’t end up in trash bags when you die," one girl spoke up and said, “I think I made that quilt!”  Well the whole group broke out into laughter at that!  She got up and came over to get a closer look, and sure enough, she recognized it as a quilt she had made perhaps 10 years earlier!  She could not remember who she made it for and thought perhaps it was a raffle quilt.  But we were all amazed at the coincidence!  I told her of course there was no way she was getting the quilt back :*)

My next favorite find was this adorable Heartwood Country Store by Jim Shore that says “Quilt Sale” on the front for $1.00  *hearts*

It is in perfect condition and now has a very happy home on my shelf where it can be properly valued and loved.

I also found these interesting little doomahickeys, or thingamajigs, or whatever they are....  

I have no idea what they are, but since there was thread involved, I figure they must be sewing related.  Does anyone know what they are?  I've got to figure out whether to keep them or not.

There was also this tiny metal iron (about 1-1/2") that had a sticker that labeled it as Shaker, valued at $6.00 but I got it for 25 cents.  Isn’t it cute!  It's in pretty rough shape, but I couldn't just leave it there, could I?  

Later in the week, I stumbled over another great deal!  We went to the Lebanon Flea Market to get some things for our garden, and I found a lady selling embroidery thread at 2 spools for $5.00.  

I picked out four spools, and then just couldn’t resist going back to pick up 4 more!  I like using this shiny thread on applique to sparkle it up a bit :*)

Other than goofing off at yard sales, I did work on a few quilty projects.  I completed a Stitchery Keeper for my friend Mary, and began work on my Red, White & Blue Bloghop block (see button on sidebar for details!).  The July Calendar Quilt (ants & watermelon) is all quilted, bound and hanging in its place of honor on the wall.  I also quilted a UFO project which I’ll share with you tomorrow.   I promise, you won’t want to miss it!  So stay tuned…..

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

May NewFO Challenge

I didn't realize I had started so much “New” stuff in May until I looked back over my posts – Wow!!!  For someone trying to finish stuff up, I really filled up some new project boxes!!!

But that is almost always the case when I take classes, and remember Edyta Sitar visited our Music City Quilt Guild this month! I started two quilt projects in classes with her, and although I often abandon projects after a class for one reason or another, I've decided that I really like these two and will finish them up into quilts.  They are....

My Eldon block from Edyta Sitar's class

Two of my spool blocks from Spools by Edyta

Then I designed and finished this sweet table topper Sonshine for my Mom for Mother’s Day….

And last but not least, I started my June Calendar Quilt.  It’s one of my favorites from Kim Schaeffer’s Calendar Quilts book!  The top is finished, and all I have left is to sandwich, quilt and bind – yoohoo!!!

You can read all about the process of working on these projects by looking back at my May posts.

How did you do on your NewFO’s?  Start anything new?  Share it with us at Cat Patches!!!  And while you’re there, wish Barbara Bon Voyage… she’s off to Ireland, the lucky girl =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Design Wall Monday – Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!!!

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all our soldiers and veterans and their families!  It is certainly never enough for your sacrifice and service to this wonderful country of ours.  May you be showered with honor, respect and lots of love this day =^..^=

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

As for my design wall, it’s beginning to look like a Quilter lives here!!! 

My sweet husband hung my Quilts in Progress quilt up yesterday, and I am just in LOVE!!!  (Well, yes, I'm in love with HIM too, but I was talking about the quilt :*D)  It is so perfect up there, and I fall in love again every time I step into the room :*)  Thanks sweetie!

He looks like a really nice guy, doesn’t he?  That’s because he IS!  Now the cat on the other hand, that’s a different story LOL!!!!  But she sure does love her daddy =^..^=

I have so many projects in process!!!  Does that ever happen to you?  I've simply GOT to get some of them done and out of my way.  Here are the ones I managed to work on this past week.

Last night I finished the top for my June Calendar Quilt.  Boy-o-boy is it cute!!! 

The big, black ants kind of take over, but even though I'm not fond of insects in any form, I really love this quilt for a whimsical touch of summer!  

Do you see why I am always on the hunt for the perfect greens?
All of these olive colors came from my fat quarter stash!  

This will be even cuter when the applique is stitched down and it is quilted.  Hopefully I’ll get that done this week.  This is one of my NewFO Challenge quilts for May =^..^=

Here are the Churn Dash Star blocks I have done so far for my UFO from Runaway Retreat last September - Girls Just Want to Have Fun (GJWTHF)…. 

I completed these at Red Rooster last week.  This is a piecing intensive quilt, so I’m really happy to have this much of it done.  I only need to finish five more of these blocks and then 24 of the alternate block which is much, much simpler.  I can see a glimmer of hope of finishing this one soon :*)

Here are some of my favorites of these blocks…

  

No progress on Vintage Valentine last week because of retreat, but I will start working on that again in a few days, so stay posted for progress!

That’s it for me – how about you?  Share what’s on your Design Wall at PatchworkTimes!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=



Also linking up with:


Tuesday Linky Party at Quilting by the River
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced 
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict