Nash Quilt Top

If you are looking for the Traveling Stash Box giveaway, go here.

I "finished" the fifth quilt that I worked on at retreat this morning.

The pattern is called Nash and it is from "Another Bite of Schnibbles" by Carrie Nelson. This is the small version of the pattern. It only finishes at 30" square - a nice size for a wall hanging, but a little small for a charity quilt (in my opinion). So I will be adding more borders to this. I haven't decided exactly what yet, but it will grow bigger.

In other news, Miss Spooky Boo made her first catch and kill this morning!

Look closely at her mouth (you may have to click the image to enlarge it). She caught one of the flying grasshopper type bugs we have around here. I'm not sure what she did with it after I snapped this photo, but she sure was proud of herself.

Leap Year Traveling Stash Box Giveaway

Today I get to giveaway the Leap Year Traveling Stash Box that has been visiting me for the last few weeks.

Here is what this box contains.

Here is another photo of the contents.

This is what I am taking out.

And this is most of what I am putting in.

I also added about thirty-five 4.5" squares. If there is still room in the box, I may add a couple of other things I've set aside.

The rules for winning this box:

(1) You must be an active US blogger. Sorry to my international friends! These boxes are required to stay in the United States.
(2) Leave a comment on this post. I will choose a winner on Thursday morning, November 1st, and announce the winner on Thursday's post.
(3) Being a follower is not a requirement to enter or win. However, if you are a follower of this blog, you may leave a second comment for a second entry.

Be sure that I have a way to contact you! If you are a no-reply blogger and don't leave me a way to contact you, I'll choose another winner. I also need to be able to verify that you are an active blogger. If I can't verify that from the information available to me in your comment, then I'll have to choose another winner.

Finally, I have no idea how many comments to expect with this giveaway. If I get a lot, then I won't be able to respond to everyone personally and for that I apologize. I hope you understand.

If you are looking for my Modern Monday post, go here.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 55:

I opted to make my own heart applique and put them on a four-patch background instead of single piece of fabric.

Stop by Attic Window Quilt Shop to see how Caroll's block turned out. Then visit 42 Quilts to see what block Jenifer has for us to make this week.

If you are looking for the Leap Year Traveling Stash Block Giveaway, go here.

New Iron & Bad Kitten

I got a new iron yesterday.

Someone brought one of these to retreat. Several of us commented on how nice it was to use and asked where she got it. She ordered it from The Vermont Country Store! Click this link to go directly to the iron. About 9 of us decided that we liked it so much we wanted one for ourselves. So we got online, figured out how much it would be to order 9 irons plus shipping, and paid our money to one person so she could place the order.

This iron is heavy compared to some irons, but I don't like a super lightweight iron. I feel like I have to push down so hard with it to get it to do a good job if it is too light. This iron weighs about the same as my 17 year old Black & Decker ProXpress iron which I like very much but is starting to show its age. I bought this one because I know my B & D iron is on it's last leg, so to speak.

It is a dry iron, so no steam. But this also means no holes in the bottom of the iron that may leave marks on your project. I've quit using steam anyway because putting water in irons these days seems to shorten the life of the iron in my experience. I have a spray bottle with water in it for any times I feel the need for steam. No holes in the bottom is also better for fusing and adhering freezer paper to fabric, in my opinion. With my old iron I had to make sure to move it around so that the holes didn't stay in the same place when fusing.

It has no fancy features like auto shut-off and no light that changes color or goes off once it is hot. This is just a basic iron that gets hot, nice and hot, fairly quickly, about a minute after turning it on. Granted, I've only owned this iron one day, but I did use one for the whole weekend at retreat. It stayed on pretty much all day for three days straight and never complained once. I'll try to remember to give you an update in a couple of months on this iron. Hopefully I will still love it as much as I do today.

Full Disclosure: I have no affiliation with The Vermont Country Store other than I get their catalog occasionally. I paid for the iron with my own money plus shipping and am not being reimbursed in any way for this review. Unless they do a search for their company name, The Vermont Country Store doesn't even know I'm reviewing their iron.

While setting up the photo shoot for my iron, Spooky decided to check out my fabric baskets. I heard some clawing noises behind me and turned around to see this.

When she realized that there is only fabric in this basket she started looking around for something else to get into.

I should mention that this basket is on the second shelf, about 30" above the ground. She had to climb up the outside of the baskets in order to crawl inside. About 2 minutes after this picture was taken she got kicked out of the sewing room for trying to climb the design wall.

Work In Progress

I'm hoping to have the embroidery part done for my Which Witch's Boot quilt by Halloween. I have 10 candy corns, 18 button flowers and the ribbon candy left to do.

This really is fun to work on! I went a few weeks with only making a little progress because kittens and embroidery do not mix! However, recently I had some time away from home (at guild and retreat) to work on this and have started shutting myself into my sewing room so I can work in a "kitten-free" environment. The kitten isn't too happy with this arrangement, but I am.

If you want to see a beautiful finished version of this quilt, click here to see Stephanie's quilt.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Blocks 53 and 54:

Click over to Attic Window Quilt Shop to see Caroll's block. Then visit Jenifer at 42 Quilts to see what we will be making this week. Only 10 more blocks!

Work In Progress - Mama Said Sew Quilt

I got all of the blocks for my Corn Rows quilt sewn together yesterday.

It still needs the border which will be 4 1/2" strips of the tan solid fabric. Spooky insisted on inspecting the quilt and simply would not move away from the quilt long enough for me to take a picture!

I posted the details about this quilt earlier in the week. This is the lap quilt size. It should finish at 62" by 74". That is one of the things I really like about the book this pattern is from, Graphic Mixx. Every pattern in the book has instructions for five sizes - baby, lap, twin, full, queen and king! I know that is a list of six sizes, but each quilt has instructions for five of the six.

Halloween Fun

I saw this on the Quilted Cupcake today and had to share.


Click here for more Family Halloween Fun
Spooky Scoop Compiled by Kiddie Academy

Leap Year Traveling Stash Box

Recently I was fortunate to win one of the several Traveling Stash Boxes circulating around the US. It arrived last week, but I didn't get a chance to look through it or take pictures until this week. Here is a picture of the goodies inside.

While I was at work last week I went ahead and purchased some things to go into the box.

That little stack of squares tied with a ribbon is 4.5" squares. I plan to add to the stack from my stash of 4.5" squares. I may also pull out a few other things from my stash.

Here are the things I am thinking about taking out of the box.

Notice that fabric at the top right of the photo above. Does it look familiar? It is one of the fabrics from the Connecting Threads line that I used for all the charity quilts I made at my retreat last weekend. I will use it on the back of one of those quilts.

If you would like this traveling stash box to visit your house, then be sure to come back here on October 29th to enter the giveaway. The rules and guidelines for the box can be found here. Due to shipping costs and time constraints, the boxes have to stay in the US. So the giveaway will only be open to US bloggers.

Mama Said Sew Quilt

I managed to get the blocks I showed you yesterday fixed. Here they are with the other blocks that didn't require fixing.

Corn Rows Quilt (blocks)

The name of this pattern is Corn Rows. It is from the book Graphic Mixx by Terry Atkinson. The Bohemian Stripes quilt I showed yesterday is also from this book. Six of the print fabrics are by Sweetwater - five from their current line, Mama Said Sew, and one from a previous line. The others are from my stash.

Retreat Round-Up

No Modern Monday for me this week. I didn't take my Modern Monday fabrics with me on my retreat and I didn't get the block done before leaving. I'll show two blocks next week. But Caroll has her block done. Go to Attic Window Quilt Shop to see her butterfly block.

I got home yesterday afternoon from my retreat weekend. I had a great time! I took 8 projects with me but only worked on 5 of them. I have three finished tops!

Jelly Roll 1600 Variation

Bohemian Stripes

Turning Twenty

All three of these use the same fabric line from Connecting Threads. I purchased the fabric a few years ago, on sale, because I liked it and it was the right price for charity quilts. I'm just now getting around to using it. It feels good to put this fabric to good use and get it out of my stash to make room for new fabric!

The fourth project I worked on also used this same fabric. I only got some of the blocks made at retreat. When I get the top finished, or at least get the blocks up on my design wall, I'll show it to you.

The fifth project I worked on required a bit of unsewing before I could proceed!

I sewed the last rectangle to the wrong side! It took me about 30 minutes of playing with the blocks on my design wall last night before I realized why the design was not working. Sheesh! And truth be told, I sewed both rectangles to the wrong side of the half-square triangles, but I only needed to remove the larger rectangle and resew that seam in order to get the design to work. This one is not ready to be photographed yet either. I hope to have the blocks resewn today and then I can take a picture of all the blocks laid out on my design wall.

A New Project

I'm starting a new project soon using these fabrics.

This is as far as I've gotten on it because I am preparing for my guild retreat this weekend. Last week I woke up early one morning and couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about what projects I should pack for the retreat! LOL! Of all the things to worry about, sheesh! That morning I got out my project tub and loaded her up. The fabrics above make 8 projects I'm taking to work on. I'll don't think I'll run out of things to do!

This morning I purchased a new, smaller sewing chair for me to take to the retreat. My regular chair is quite heavy and has arms which makes it very difficult for me to get in and out of my car. The new chair is not as nice, but is height adjustable, much lighter, and has no arms. I'm only planning to use it for retreats. The rest of the time it will just be an extra office chair.

I'm on the crew for Friday night dinner. We planned our menu weeks ago and I have almost all of the ingredients already packed. I'm not sure if I will have any more posts before I leave for the retreat. Most of my sewing time is being spent cutting and making sure I have everything I need for each of my projects laid out or packed. Not very exciting.

I do have something else to show today though.

I made up more earbud pouches over the weekend. I decided that I like the one shown in the bottom of the photo above (with the earbuds inside) better than the first one I made. So I'm keeping it instead. I blogged about these last Friday and the link to the tutorial is in that post.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 52:

If I had it to do over again I would have used a solid fabric for the background, but I'm not changing it.

Visit Attic Window Quilt Shop to see what fabrics Caroll used for her block. Then visit 42 Quilts to see what Jenifer has for us to make this week.

A Gift

... for me!

I will be making these as gifts this year for some of the teens on my list.

I used this excellent tutorial by Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk. I had no problems making it and it only took about 30 minutes of actual sewing. It took me a bit longer than 30 minutes to make it because I had to print out the pattern, trace it onto freezer paper, cut out the pattern, and pick fabric (I used scraps). I estimate that the whole project took about an hour. The next ones will take less time.

The pattern calls for a split ring to go in the tab. I don't have any at the moment, but I will get some. I'll put a split ring on this one later. It works just fine without it though.

Happiness is ...

... lime green striped binding.

This quilt is one of the classes I'm teaching at my LQS, Heartstrings and Heirlooms. The pattern is called Round About and is in the book Another Bite of Schnibbles by Carrie Nelson. This is pattern can be made in two sizes. The large version uses two layer cakes and a background fabric. This is the small version which used two charm packs and about 3/4 yard of background fabric.

Below is the unquilted top.

I had the perfect backing fabric in my stash! It is flannel.

I recently purchased Angela Waters new book Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Waters. I tried one of the all-over quilting motifs from her book, basic swirl.

I practiced it a few times in my sketchbook before quilting it. I think it looks better on the quilt than it does on paper.

The quilt has been "cat tested and approved" by Miss Spooky Boo! It is now ready to hang as a sample at the shop!

Details:

The finished size is approximately 31" by 35".  I added an additional row to the pattern as printed in the book. You could add even more blocks but you would need a third charm pack unless you want to do a different pieced border. Each block requires two charm squares plus a little background fabric. I used Signature 40 wt. thread in white for the quilting, top and bobbin. The quilting motif is a "basic swirl". Quilted by me on my HQ Sweet 16.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 51:

This flower reminds me of the illustrations in a Dick Bruna book. I have three of his books, "Miffy", "The Sailor" and "The Fish". I remember my mom reading them to me when I was little and I read them to my son when he was little. Poor "Miffy" is falling apart. I've thought about trying to get it rebound but I am just keeping it safe for the time being.

Pop over to Attic Window Quilt Shop to see how Caroll's block turned out. Then visit 42 Quilts to see what we will be making this week.