Happy Easter, plus Winners!

Sorry for being an absentee blogger this week.  I have been pushing hard to get projects for my customers done and out the door before my husband and I leave on a trip.  I'll show you some of them, but first I have a couple pieces of business to take care of!

First of all, the winner of my Quilt Quazy Queens blog hop prize is:

Billie S!

Billie is actually a real life friend of mine that I met in the local quilt guild years ago!  I am tickled pink that she was chosen to be the winner and have passed her information on to Marian, our Quazy Hop hostess, so I am sure she will be receiving her Timeless Treasure Fat Quarter Bundle soon.

There are still a few more prizes to grab - here are the last of the blogs to check out:

March 25

Just Let Me Quilt

Sew Many Yarns

Quilting Queen Online

Jane’s Quilting

After You leave your comments at the above blogs

Stop In To Enter also Marian's Featured Day

Seams to Be Sew

This week we also wrapped up the Creative New Quilts and Projects blog hop!  The winner of the book I gave away is:  Doris McCarty!  Congratulations, Doris - I have passed your information on to our hop sponsors, so you should be hearing from them soon as well.  This was a fun hop, it was really neat seeing what all the ambassadors did with the quilts in Wendy's book plus Island Batik fabric!  If you didn't see the posts, the list is on the Island Batik Blog - definitely worth checking out!

What's New in the Quilting Studio?

Mostly customer quilts this week!  I was putting the finishing touches on two quilts for a loyal customer in California.  Both of these were made with purchased kits.  She is a big cat fan, so I couldn't resist tempting her with this quilt.  I don't do that often, but I knew she would love it!

It's called Cat's Fancy but the kit is now sold out.  It was fun and pretty simple to make.  I chose this backing and love the way the quilting shows up on it:

I also made this table topper.  I posted a little about it earlier, but here is the finished quilt, along with all 20 in and out corners with binding sewn on - whew!

I finished piecing this top for a local friend who passed it on to me after finding it a bit difficult to deal with:

Lots and lots of y-seams in this one, but in the end it came out beautifully!

I also quilted a fish quilt, am in the process of making a t-shirt quilt and quilting another quilt.  I will get pictures of those next week before I send them off to their homes.  Plus I need to finish up my Mini for Island Batik's Mini Madness....

My little quilt still needs it's borders and to be quilted.  One of the great things about minis is they don't take much time, so I should be able to get to that this weekend.

 After all that, I definitely deserve a vacation!   I'm planning out some fun blog posts for next month.  I have lots of quilts that I have never blogged about, so will do something of a virtual quilt show and see if I can catch up on some of those quilts that have never made it to the spotlight!

Thanks to my new followers for joining in!  I hope you enjoy following along on my quilting adventures.  

Let's Get Hopping!

Blog hopping that is!  Today starts off this great hop with Quilt Quazy Queens!

Here is the line-up to get you started - 

March 18
Life In The Scrapatch
Sew Incredibly Crazy
In The Boon Docks
Quilting Affection
Words In Stitches

March 21
QuiltShop Gal
TeaTime Creations
Ravelly
Meadowbrook
Bumbleberry Cottage

March 22
Feather Your Nest
Grandmama’s Stories
Pamela Quilts
Vroomans Quilts
My Quilty Musings

March 23
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Ridge Top Quilts
Quilt Art
Patchwork Breeze
Kwilt Krazy

March 24
Marjorie’s Busy Corner
Just Because Quilts
Moose Stash
Batts In The Attic
All Things Sewn

March 25
Just Let Me Quilt
Sew Many Yarns
Quilting Queen Online
Jane’s Quilting
Plus the Fat Quarter Shop is giving us a discount coupon for the duration of our hop as well - just enter the coupon code seamstobe316 to get 10% off your order (not to be combined with gift certificates)

Click here to see all the prizes and learn more!

And you definitely want to stop by Bejeweled Quilts and see her version of Birds of a Feather Placemats for the Creative New Quilts and Projects Blog Hop!

Hope you have fun hopping around!

The Creative New Quilts and Projects hop continues!

Today's stop on the hop is Carol, from MooseStash Quilting.  I love her project, so you want to check it out and enter to win a copy of Wendy Sheppards book - Creative New Quilts and Projects for precuts and stash!  Speaking of giveaways, I really apologize for the issue with my rafflecopter gizmo yesterday.  Make sure you complete your entry if you haven't already - I will try to make sure that everyone who commented on my blog yesterday is entered, but it would help if you can do it yourself just in case.  Remember this giveaway is for US addresses only as Lauderdale is doing the shipping!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yesterday I worked some more on a project I took on earlier this month.  Here is the picture of the completed quilt from the website:

It's a pretty quilt - lots of y-seams, but I can deal with those.  The worst part of this quilt was cutting it out!  It is made from a jelly roll, and there were was a color chart and a color illustration of the three different blocks, plus partial blocks, but that was it.  Trying to keep all the strips organized and cut out the pieces was a nightmare.  I tried cutting out a sample block, but it was too crazy trying to pull the strips out of the pile and get them back in order again.  So I got out those design boards I made and used them to cut out all the pieces at once.

They give this quilt an intermediate rating, but I think it should be advanced.  I finished a couple blocks yesterday after finishing the cutting and they look great so far!  I'm looking forward to filling my design wall as I go, I know it will be beautiful.

Happy St. Patrick's day :)

This is my Floral Irish Chain quilt - one of the few green quilts I've made!  This pattern was one of the first I wrote - it's almost a mini with the pieced blocks that make up this quilt being only 5 inches square - that makes the individual pieces finishing at 1 inch.  The great thing is that it's all strip pieced so you are never handling individual squares.  That makes it a lot easier.  I think strip piecing is really one of my favorite techniques.  

I have several quilts waiting to be quilted today, so I guess I'd better get busy - hope your day is a good one!

Flight of Colors for Creative New Quilts and Projects Blog Hop

Welcome to my day for the Creative New Quilts and Project blog hop!  I was excited to get to make this project from Wendy Sheppard's book - pillows are such a fun decorative touch and these pillows have a lot of negative space to show off some fun quilting.

The pieces in this project are small, but the instructions for putting it together were so easy to follow and Wendy thought of a really clever way to cut and sew those odd shaped pieces!  The illustrations were great, as well and really helped me make sure I got everything sewn together in the right order.  She used leftovers from the crossings quilt for hers, and I used some leftovers from my Caribbean Splash Fish Quilt and Sea Salt Sandy Sea Star quilt for mine!  The background is also Island Batik - Swirl Circles in light grey that I bought last year for a different project.  Isn't it pretty?  I did the quilting with Aurifil 50 wt thread in pale yellow.

This was a really fun project to make, and I am thrilled with the end results.

 As I was looking through the rest of the book I saw several projects that appealed to me.  I really appreciated seeing the possibilities of using precuts, or fabrics from your stash (because you know we all have that stash issue).  And the quilting is eye candy for sure!  I loved the variety of different projects in the book as well, several would make fun gifts.

Take a minute and listen to Wendy's interview with Pat Sloan!  You can also catch up with Wendy on her blog.

Would you like a copy of this Creative New Quilts and Projects?  You can buy a copy right now!  It is available from Lauderdale Publishing as a print copy or a download!

Or you can enter this drawing to win a copy for free!  This drawing is only open for United States addresses and Lauderdale will ship the winner their copy.

***********OOPS!  The rafflecopter giveaway widget won't start until tomorrow, but go ahead and leave a comment and either come back and finish later, or I will add your e-mail manually!  Sorry for the issue!**********

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you check out the rest of the hop, each one of us will be giving away a copy of the book. as well as showcasing a project made out of Island Batik!

Monday, March 14 – Island Batik (You’re here now!)
Tuesday, March 15 – Crossings Quilt, The Fit Quilter
Wednesday, March 16 – Flight of Colors Pillows, Pamela Quilts
Thursday, March 17 – Care for a Cuppa Quilt, MooseStash Quilting
Friday, March 18 – Birds of a Feather Placemats, Bejeweled Quilts

Monday, March 21 – Birds of Feather Runner, One Quilting Circle
Tuesday, March 22 – Childhood Memories Quilt, Beaquilter
Wednesday, March 23 – Winter Blues Quilt, Freemotion by the River ANDKISSed Quilts
Thursday, March 24 – Stars Over Columbia Quilt, Mary Mack Made Mine
Friday, March 25 – Count My Blessings Quilt, Lemon Tree Snippets

Blog Hop - Creative New Quilts and Projects

Today is the start of the hop - and it's all about this book - Creative New Quilts and Projects.

You can see the introduction on the Island Batik blog here.  Make sure to leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a fat quarter bundle!

Here is the schedule of posts:

Monday, March 14 – Island Batik
Tuesday, March 15 – Crossings Quilt, The Fit Quilter
Wednesday, March 16 – Flight of Colors Pillows, Pamela Quilts (Me!)
Thursday, March 17 – Care for a Cuppa Quilt, MooseStash Quilting
Friday, March 18 – Birds of a Feather Placemats, Bejeweled Quilts

Monday, March 21 – Birds of Feather Runner, One Quilting Circle
Tuesday, March 22 – Childhood Memories Quilt, Beaquilter
Wednesday, March 23 – Winter Blues Quilt, Freemotion by the River ANDKISSed Quilts
Thursday, March 24 – Stars Over Columbia Quilt, Mary Mack Made Mine
Friday, March 25 – Count My Blessings Quilt, Lemon Tree Snippets

Each of us will have a copy of Wendy's book to give away, so make sure you enter on each blog to win a copy!  You won't want to miss my project - it's so pretty!  I am excited to share it with you!