Planes, Trains and Automobiles Winners!

And the Winners are....

I was excited to see who the winners of my two blog hop giveaways were and I'll bet you are, too!

Winner number one of the Caribbean Splash day giveaway which includes 4 fat quarters and scraps from my Sea Stars quilt of Sea Salt Sandy:

Hanke!

She left the following comment on my blog: "I am working on the top of the New Hexagon Millifiore quilt, pattern made by Katja Marek. Thanks for the chance! Love your fish!"


Winner number two of the Sea Stars mini Quilt is:

Vicki H!

Vicki said this:  "I love the mini quilt. Today I will be working on a disappearing 4 patch quilt."

Thanks to all for entering!  I loved reading all of your comments and hearing about your projects.  If you are one of the winners, check your e-mail and send me your address so I can get your prize to you this week.

All of the Island Batik Ambassadors had a great time on this blog hop and there were some wonderful quilts shared.  Stay tuned for more great projects from Island Batik fabric - all the ambassadors are sew excited about Mini Madnesss!  I have a project picked out and can't wait to share it with you - this time you'll get to see it all the way through since we are having fun with mini quilts for the whole month.  I think I might even make another Sea Stars quilt to have on my own wall!

Happy Quilting and Congratulations once more to Hanke and Vicki!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Today we finish up the Island Batik Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog hop!  It's been a great journey, and I know you will enjoy today's posts as well:

Friday, March 4 – Tinsel, Holiday Happenings
Purrfect Spots Designs
KISSed Quilts
Moose Stash Quilting

If you have missed any of the days you can find the complete list of blogs on the Island Batik Blog!  I will add the link to both of my giveaways as well as the Island Batik one at the end of this post to give you one last chance to enter.

I have lots more fun things coming up on my blog this month, so make sure you check in often!  There are two more blog hops in the works as well as a special celebration of a milestone in my Etsy Shop.  The Quiltsy team is continuing to celebrate Quiltsy Cares - if you would like to know more check out our blog here.

I plan on lots of quilting today, so hopefully will have something fun to post tomorrow - as well as the winners of my drawings!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck in the drawings and thanks for reading my blog!

Island Batik Mini Madness

I am excited to be an Island Batik Ambassador this year!  They have cooked up a years worth of fun activities and challenges for us to work with.  This month is Mini Madness - and I am really excited about it!

I got off to a head start with the mini I am giving away for the Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog hop, but never fear - their will be plenty more mini madness happening on my blog, facebook, and instagram feeds!  

If you love minis too, you can check out my pinterest board.  So much inspiration there - what shall I make?  It will be fun deciding, that's for sure!

I received my first Ambassador box for the year and it was stuffed full of great fabrics and some Aurifil thread!  I usually use the 50 weight, so am excited to try the 40 weight thread for quilting.  Lots of fun fabrics, so expect lots of great projects coming up this year - here is a little sneak peak: 

Makes me want to go start cutting and sewing right now!

Only a couple days left for Planes, Trains and Automobiles!  Here are links for yesterday and today:

Wednesday, March 2 – Lavish
Freemotion by the River
Moose Stash Quilting

Thursday, March 3 – Fire Island
KISSed Quilts

Can't wait to see who wins the drawings!  Thanks for all your lovely comments and entries!  Don't forget to check out the Quiltsy Team blog this month - our Quiltsy Cares promo is featuring a different team member each day and the quilts they make to bring joy and comfort to others! 

March Coming in Like a Lion

March is definitely roaring here today!  I had to go out to the library early this morning and it was pouring rain, and windy.  We are hoping it subsides before we go out for our daily exercise, but at this point I am rather doubting it.  Oh well, that's the way it is here on the Oregon coast!  I was dropping off my Sunbonnet Sue quilt for the display that our quilt guild does every March.  I don't have a picture of the whole quilt that I can find, so here is one row of it.  The picture is from the You Can Quilt! blog hop I participated in last year.   I'll have to see if I can get a picture of it hanging in the library to share later.

This quilt was made with blocks given to me by my secret sister in the quilt guild years ago.  I added the pretty yellow sashing and borders, then hand quilted it.  I love this cheery quilt, and it looks so pretty in my spare room with my colorful pillows on it!  

Today I have on my plate a new project.  I am helping the local American Heritage Girls design a block for the 20th Anniversary Quilt the national group is making.  I have about 45 minutes to work with the girls and they want to learn some sewing as well.  I think today we will focus on design, then I can bring some simple squares and teach them a simple running stitch to start out with.  I like working with children because they often don't come with the idea that sewing is too hard and they don't have enough patience.  They are usually excited to try something new and enjoy the process!  I think I shall have to make sure to thread all the needles before I go, though.  That's usually the hardest part of the lesson, and it's actually getting a little harder for me now - time to whip out the bi-focals.

I got all my teardrops cut out for the HoneyBee blocks, now I can get busy sewing them.  My hands are actually a little achy this morning from all the cutting.

Today's post on the Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog hop is here:

Tuesday, March 1 – Tuscany Sun
Tammy Silvers

Only a few more days and the hop will be over!  I have two giveaways that you can enter if you haven't already:  Sea Salt Sandy Mini Quilt, and Island Batik Fat Quarters

Island Batik is giving away Fat Quarter Bundles as well:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Leap Day!

It's been a busy weekend!  I managed to finish one lap quilt, got a good start on the final baby clothes quilt (miscalculated the fabric I needed so will have to go buy some more to work on that) basted two other quilts and did finish one Dear Jane block!  That one block took me over two hours to complete as it was all applique, so I am pleased that it is finished at last.  

This is block F-9 Autumn Aster.  I appliqued the blue melons to the background fabric, then appliqued those sections to the blue back ground square and trimmed the background away when done.  Happy to have this one behind me now!

Here is my Honeybee block.  One  down, 11 to go on this one!

And this is the state of my sewing table this morning:

So I suppose you can see what needs to be first on my list today!

Don't forget the Planes, Trains and Automobiles Blog Hop is still going on for this week!  We have two wonderful projects for you today - make sure you stop by the blogs and enter for prizes.

Monday, February 29 – Jersey Shore 
Bea Lee 
Lemon Tree Snippets

Have a happy leap day!

Sea Salt Sandy - Planes, Trains and Automobiles Blog Hop

I have another Island Batik project to share with you on our Planes, Trains, and Automobiles blog hop!  Actually I have two versions of my project - one is Super Sized and one is Miniaturized.  When I saw the Sea Salt Sandy fat quarters that I received in my Ambassador Box I was really delighted, and my first thought was that they reminded me of the barrels of Salt Water Taffy you find at Davy Jones Locker (a little shop on the way to the beach in my area).   So my first thought was to make a quilt with that idea - but then I decided we needed to drive our Automobile (since this is the Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog hop, after all)  just a little further down the road and go all the way to beach and visit the tidepools:

AH!  Then the inspiration hit for a circle of Sea Stars!  I placed my stars on a background of
 Egg White.  It's a great creamy color with small dots of pastel color, and was really perfect for my project.  Definitely a good neutral to keep on hand!  So on I went with my Super  Stars - I used nice big 6 inch squares to make this quilt, then finished it off with strips from the rest of the 9 fat quarters I used for the stars.  It ended up being a nice size lap quilt at 64 inches square.

Aren't the colors great?  I just love this line of fabric!  You should definitely tell your local quilt shop you want them to order these!

The pieces were big, so this was a super fast quilt to make!

I had so much fun that I thought it would be a good idea to make another one, but smaller:

This one uses 1 inch squares.  It is only 12 inches square and was even more fun to make than the bigger one!  One of the best things about miniature quilts is that they hardly take any time at all to quilt, so you can really have fun with the quilting.  I finished this off with one of the prints from last Spring's Meadow collection for the border and I couldn't resist a stripy border using a screenprint!  I made this with the intention of using it for a giveaway, but it's hard to let this cutie go.  I might just have to make another one so I can keep it for my wall!

If you would like to have this one for your wall - here's your chance!  Yes, I am giving away this sweet little mini quilt as a prize!  You have several options to enter, so choose one or do all four!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here are more posts on our blog hop showing these lovely fabrics:

Tamarinis

KISSed Quilts

Moose Stash Quilting

Bejeweled Quilts

I can't wait to see what the others have made!  You still have another week to sign up for prizes on the main Island Batik Giveaway for this Blog Hop as well.  If you haven't done this already, make sure you do - the fabrics are fabulous!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cat's Fancy!

This project arrived in the mail yesterday.

I'm excited to start working on it, but have to put off my enthusiasm and finish the other projects that are waiting first.  Have you seen this meme on facebook yet?  I got a good giggle out of it!

In fairness, I do finish a good amount of projects, but there is nothing like the thrill of starting a new one.  I suppose that in this respect I will always be a beginning quilter.  I love the possibilities of starting a new project.  The anticipation of seeing how the fabrics will all blend together and make something that is greater than the sum of the parts, learning something new, or just the comforting pleasure of chain sewing a ton of half square triangles and watching a new show on Amazon Prime while I create.  Total bliss!

Sewing will have to wait till later, for now I am off to Threads That Bind to work.  Another form of bliss, playing with fabric and helping people choose fabrics and projects.  Yay!  Take a few minutes before you get busy to check out today's posts for the Trains, Planes, and Automobiles blog hop:

The Fit Quilter
Maria Michaels Designs

I think I would like to work on one of Adele's improv projects!  And Maria has several fun projects on her post - plus both are featuring giveaways, so don't miss your opportunity to win a prize!

Have a wonderful day whether you are beginning a project or finishing one.  Drop me a comment and tell me what the last project you started was and I'll share it on my blog this weekend - it will be fun to see what everyone is working on!

Island Batik Planes, Trains and Automobiles hop continues

Today the blog hop features two quilts in the Georgia Peach line.  So pretty!  Visit these blogs and make sure to leave a blog post to win a great fabric prize at each one:

One Quilting Circle
KISSed Quilts

Here's a little sneak preview of my project for Friday's hop:

Tuesday Tip:

For today's tip I wanted to show you how I dealt with cutting out the large templates for the circular table runner I am working on.  The first thing I had to do was enlarge the pattern by 200%.  That's a whole other tip for another day - it was quite a process for me but I got it all right in the end.  

Then I taped together my pieces and had my full size template ready to go

This is the pieced section that I will be using to cut out my finished piece and the template.

After aligning the template bottom with the square and making sure my template is lined up straight, I place my ruler on top of the paper template and fabric, lining up the 1/4 inch line with the sewing line on the template.  This way, even if I have accidentally cut off part of the seam allowance my fabric will still have the full 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Cut off excess fabric with your rotary cutter.

Without moving your fabric or template, move ruler to opposite seam allowance and line up the sewing line at the 1/4 inch mark on the ruler.  I then move to the side of the cutting table and cut off the excess fabric.  The small curve at the top I cut without the ruler, just carefully use the cutter to trim.

While I am at it, here is how I trimmed the top of the square at the bottom to get a nice point at the seam:

Using a ruler with a 45 degree line, I lined up one of the seams with that mark and made sure the point was exactly at the 1/4 inch mark of the ruler.  Trim off excess and when you sew your 1/4 inch seam your point will meet the seam perfectly!

Hope these tips are helpful to you!  I am always looking for a faster, more accurate way to do things, and enjoy sharing what I have learned with you.

Where Did the Weekend Go?

I can't believe it's Monday again already!  I'm not sure where the weekend went, but I did get a lot of sewing done because we stayed put.  Poor DH had a bit of a cold, so we just took it easy.  I got my quilt ready for this week's blog hop post, but you can't see it yet - you'll have to check back in on Friday to see it.  I also finished a top for a customer quilt, plus got the back ready.  I would have quilted it, but ran out of batting.  Luckily FedEx brought my new roll today, so I can get quilting on the tops I have that are ready to be made into quilts.  I have at least four lap quilts that are in need of quilting.

Yesterday I spent working on Dear Jane blocks.  I got 5 done and one is halfway there!

Notice I have two pictures of one block.  I realized that I had not added the center square after I had it finished.  I was sneaky and managed to add the center by taking out a few stitches and piecing it in.  I've been a slacker this month, so need to do some catching up.  I think I might owe a few from January as well, so I need to get on the ball and get a lot of blocks done this week!

The Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog hop continues this week - here are today's posts:

Mary Mack Made Mine
Purrfect Spots Designs

Hasn't it been fun seeing all the new lines?  Make sure you stop at each blog - there are great giveaways at each one!  

Stormy Day

Let me tell you, today was a stormy day here on the Oregon Coast!  This was our day for a long walk (over 4 miles) and we got drenched.  My coat must have weighed at least 15 pounds when we got home and the rest of my clothes were soaked through - even my "waterproof" gloves were wet through and through.  I was glad we did it, though, we need the exercise!

Today's Planes, Trains and Automobiles post is by Connie Kresin Campbell of FreeMotion by the River, she used the Crystal Cove Caravan line to make a fun quilt that was perfect for our theme! You can see her post here.  Make sure you leave a comment on her blog, she has a drawing for five 1/4 yard pieces of the line!

Tomorrow's posts:

Friday, February 19 – Florida Oranges
Fun Threads Designs
Kauffman Designs

I've been working on some blog maintenance today, so here's hoping I don't break anything!  I really do enjoy the technical stuff, but most of my method is trial and error.  And a little help from google.  I hope to make it a little more organized and streamlined.   I'm working on a very pink quilt for a customer today.  I got the chain blocks done, now just need to decide how I want to do the alternates!  I'll show you that tomorrow.  For now, I am calling it a night!

Working Wednesday!

I haven't posted for a while about a workday at the quilt shop, so thought I would.  Today was a pretty quiet day.  I worked on cutting some fat quarter bundles, picked out fabrics for a new sample, and got caught up on our contacts for the shop newsletter.  I waited on a few customers, it was pretty quiet as our annual quilt run just ended.  It was nice to have a quiet day and the time to play with some fabric.  The sample I am going to make is for my Daisy Garland quilt.

This version will be brighter with a pretty floral print in pink, green, blue and yellow.

Don't forget about the Planes Trains and Automobiles Blog hop!  Today there are three great posts with the wonderful French Roast line:

KISSed Quilts
Made In Scraps
Happy Cottage Quilter

I hope you are enjoying the hop as much as I am - I really enjoy seeing what all the Ambassadors came up with, so much variety!

PTABloghop Day 2

It was so much fun reading all of your comments yesterday on my Blog Hop post!  I am working on responding, but it will take me a few days to get to everyone.  I can't say how happy it makes me to read all of your kind responses - and one reader was even nice enough to point out a typo in my profile.  I said that I loved quiting.  It's been that way for a while, kind of embarrassing when right before that I say that I love writing.  Apparently I don't love proofreading!

Today is Day 2 of the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles hop and you can't miss checking out Joan's Quilt.  She blogs at MooseStash Quilting and you have to see her adorable take on the theme!  She made the cutest quilt ever.  Definitely not your usual batik quilt!

If you were disappointed because all the entry methods for the Island Batik giveaway involved facebook, they have added an additional method of commenting on one of our blogs.  Make sure you enter, I realized there were actually two prizes on that one, there is also a Sea Salt Sandy Bundle!

I had a relaxing day in the sewing room yesterday after my busy weekend - I got my next Island Batik quilt basted, so I can get it quilted, finished up the last of the quilting for the baby clothes quilt and started a custom order.  It's a Christmas Tree Skirt/Table topper.  It's really pretty, but the directions are a bit on the skimpy side.  Plus one of the cuts is out and out wrong.  Luckily there was enough extra fabric to cut them again, but just barely.  Here is a picture of what it will look like in the end:

It's actually going together really fast, but I'm not looking forward to all that binding!  That's a lot of corners to deal with (20 to be exact).  The Joyeux Noel tree skirt pattern can be downloaded for free here.  Because the four inch squares were too small to use for the templates I decided not to use the templates and simply cut 4 1/4 inch squares, then cut them in half diagonally and sewed them to the end squares.  The extra fabric simply trims away when you cut the fan blade out and it totally eliminates the extra step of cutting the templates out.  I'll write out more details when I finish this project!

Don't forget to keep blog hopping! We have some great quilts to share!