FREE Pattern from Alex Anderson

FREE Pattern from Alex Anderson

If you like or love applique you might be interested in this free pattern from Alex Anderson. It is called The Grape Life. If you need practice with circles and leaves, this is great. Check it out.

Fabric

This is quick and short since I need to close up shop and meet my brother for dinner.  Every Thursday we meet up and go grocery shopping and out to dinner.

Here is the promised picture of the quilts for kids fabric that I got.  Isn't it cute?!

I have new followers!

After a long day at the office, it was nice to see that I've picked up a few new people.  Thanks for stopping by and following!

How do you like my new picture?  I love changing pictures on my blog.  It breaks up the monotony of seeing the same thing all the time.  I have always loved that picture.  :)

I've decided on which fabric to use with the Dresden Plates.  It is totally different fabric from the three choices that I had posted.  It's a tan background.  When I finish the block I'll post a picture..

Today's mail was pretty exciting.  I received my 12.5" square up tool.  Why does acrylic square always look so much larger than the same size in fabric?  LOL.  I guess this means I now need to put together some new blocks in order to test it out.

Another thing that I received in the mail today was my Quilts for Kids packet.  Talk about cute fabric!  I'll try and take a picture of it at work tomorrow and post it.  It's better lighting there.

Two more days and then I go see Harmony and get my Embroidery machine.  That should be a fun trip.  Must remember to bring a salad with me.

Booo!

This weekend I practiced on my sewing machine.  Managed to learn how to do buttonhole stitch on it and also a small satin stitch (or close enough to it).  The piece I was practicing on is small so I decided to be brave and actually do some FMQ!  Can't believe I did it.  I'm not good at it so it is a good thing this was done with black thread on black fabric.  LOL.

My ghost decided to dress up so no plain sheets for her.  :)

I also managed to get two elf envelopes off in the mail and will send one to Canada when I get paid again.  Elf Envelopes are my own campaign to send people something nice.  I am doing this in a quilting group that I am in.  They have posted information about themselves for things like secret santas/sisters and I use that to figure out what to send.  It's not much.  It might be half a yard of a fabric or two, perhaps a pattern, perhaps candy or even this Boo hanging.  I don't tell them, it just arrives.  The card says "Smile....Somebody thought of you today - Elfkins". 

That's it for now.  About time to close up shop and head home.  First thing to do is practice FMQ for about 20 minutes.  I am using the scraps that I cut off from my other projects so nothing special.  It's to get me to get more used to moving the fabric around on my own without the machine helping me.  I forget to do that.  LOL.  I also can't seem to make designs yet but I've heard of people who print their designs and then put it on (like with freezer paper or something) and then stitch over it. 

Anybody have any suggestions?

Friendship Star almost finished

I have almost finished doing the friendship star wall hanging for Lindyline.  I friend of mine is going to do free motion quilting on the border and then back to me for the binding. 

Here is a close up of the center.  That is also the fabric that I used on the back.

This is a closeup of the quilting in the center of it.

Joy Banner

My friend Shelley Gardner has recently started a business doing long arm quilting.  I had sent her an applique banner that I had done and she has now finished it and quilted it.  You can see close up pictures of it on her blog site at:

http://rockymtquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/too-early-for-christmas.html

Drop by and tell her what you think of her quilting.  Her rates are very reasonable.

Notice that she wrote sayings and words in the white area and did trapunto on the letters.

Well done Shelley.  Thanks!

Youtube UK Festival of Quilts 2011

Here are a couple of Youtube links for the UK Festival of Quilts 2011.  Isn't the internet great for taking us to the shows that we can't get to ourselves?  I can't say I like them all but it IS interesting to see what is out there and especially in other countries.

Part One

http://youtu.be/gZ1BmBheiDM


Part two

http://youtu.be/ErbjYbT_iOg

I also want to say hello to my new follower.  I'm glad that you decided to follow the meanderings of my life here.  Hope you won't get bored.

New Dresden

Ok.  Here is my attempt at a Dresden Kaleidoscope.  I'm not sure which fabric I will use for the backing on it.  What do you think?  Of course don't look at the non ironed fabric.  We have three choices.

a)  Mauve background
b) violet background
c) Waterlilly background (which is actually more yellow if you saw it in person.)

I think I know which one I'm going to use but am interested in your opinion.

Go and answer on the poll off to the right hand side.

A.      

B.        

C.               

 

 

 

 

 

Yahoo Group

Ok.  Another thing I've been meaning to do lately but always forget is to mention one of the best quilting yahoo groups around.  That would be:CyberQuilters and their sister group CyberQuilters4-C-Bees.

These are great groups.  I've learned a lot by joining them and made lots of new friends.  You've heard me mention the Bucket List before and it is the CyberQuilters4-C-Bees that does that.  It's a good way to take the plunge into learning something new.  Both of them offer great support as well as you get to see a bunch of great quilting projects when completed. 

The group has quilters of all levels on it and if you can't find a pattern, don't understand directions, or are just curious about anything, you'll find an answer there.  I will warn you though.....lots of them have their own blogs and you might find yourself becoming a follower of theirs and find yourself on new journeys.  I'm glad that I joined and would encourage everybody else to check it out. 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberQuilters/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberQuilters4-C-Bees/

Civil War Blog

I'm going to try and mention some of the interesting blogs that I have run across periodically.  Today I thought I'd send the link for the Civil War Blog.

Whether or not you are a quilter, this blog offers a bit of history as well.  You might want to check it out.

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/

Quilting in the New Year Swap

Just promoting the Quilting in the New Year Swap that is run through QuiltingBoard.  It's a great swap and even though it is entitled the September swap, the deadline to mail isn't until the end of October.  We do it to give people the max time they can to finish their projects.  If interested, you can read about it at:



http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-152028-1.htm