Giving Thanks

Since my husband has retired, and my girls have grown up and moved away I have found that the holidays look a lot different than they used to.  Some years we go have our Thanksgiving somewhere else, some years we have different selections of family members, and this year it will mostly be just the two of us.  It doesn't make me any less thankful, but sometimes it does make me a little less busy!

I'm looking forward to the smell of roasting turkey, and a day of relaxing.  Plus I can sneak off to the sewing room with no guilt!

Sunday we had a big church Thanksgiving dinner - boy was that a lot of fun (and work...), it was potluck style and very much enjoyed by our church family!  So much food!

It was fun seeing the pictures pop up on facebook!  We are going to miss doing our Christmas Tea for the ladies in December this year, so it was great to do something for our church family.  

That pretty much wiped me out for the day, so I was glad that I got a lot of sewing time in on Saturday!  

 First of all I found my cutting table!  It's nice to have the whole thing clear for cutting borders!  My twin Twinkle Star quilts both got their borders sewn on.

 And I got the backings prepared and got both of these quilt basted.  Then I basted my log cabin challenge for Island Batik.  While I was on a roll I decided to baste my Savannah quilt (made in a class with Karla Alexander a year or so ago!)

 Now my pin cup is empty!  I guess it's time to do some quilting now.  I guess that means I need to get my sewing table cleared off too.  Maybe by the end of 2018 I'll manage to get the horizontal surfaces cleared off in my sewing room?  We'll have to see about that!  I'm just thankful I have a room to mess up.  So many have lost their homes and loved ones in the fires in California.  Hopefully, we'll have some rain soon. 

What are you most thankful for this week?  I am thankful for all of you who encourage me and make me feel like what I do is valued, it means a lot!  Thank you!

Pamela

p.s.  I hear that my Barn Quilt design will be available soon!  Stay tuned!

Linky Tuesday

Organizing my quilting projects!

Busy time in my sewing room right now!  I've been hard at work this week making twin quilts of my Twinkle Star design!  It's pretty fast making two of the same thing at the same time - and you get double the satisfaction at the end of sewing all your blocks:

Those two extra blocks are the beginnings of my Blockheads II quilt.  I am sooo far behind with my blocks, but I swear I am going to catch up...I don't know when, but I will!

I also did some machine quilting this week and got my new sample done for Mountain Dawning!

Just as pretty in bright colors as it was in blues!

I did quilt this one differently.  I stipple quilted the white and did curved and straight line quilting in the rainbow section.

So pretty!  This one will be going to Threads That Bind as a shop sample along with one of the Twinkle Star quilts.  We have kits or fabric available for both quilts.

Progress is stalled on the Brothers and Sisters Quilt while I wait for the border fabric to arrive.  I also will be working on one of the blocks that isn't playing well with the rest.

I finished up the top for my November Island Batik Ambassador challenge!  I also have the back ready so can get that basted and ready for quilting, at least I am good with that deadline.  Are you interested in becoming an Island Batik Ambassador?  The 2019 Application was just published - I highly recommend the experience, and have already applied for another year.

Last, but not least is my "secret sewing"!  I have so many of these projects that I am working on right now that I had to come up with a way to organize everything so I can work effectively and keep things together.  I made a trip to the Dollar Tree to see what I could find to help me.  Though it's not the most gorgeous and photogenic solution I found some great bins in the perfect size.  I have all my printed material for these projects in plastic sleeves so that I can double check fabric requirements, make notes for changes to instructions, and keep track of my progress.  These four bins are to become completed quilts for the Island Batik 2019 Spring Summer Catalog.  I can't show you the fabric yet, but you know it is all beautiful!

Next week I will show you my project for the Fall/Winter catalog - it is so bright and beautiful!  It's a little strange working so far ahead on projects, but also fun.  It's almost like a surprise when the fabrics come out and you remember how gorgeous they were!

Back to the sewing machine, because as you can see, there is lots of stitching to be done here!

Come join the link up on Myra's Blog:

Have a wonderful weekend!

Twinkle Star - Finished at last!

Instead of concentrating on UFO's this year, my goal is to create no new UFO's!  Ordinarily this quilt would have gone in the UFO drawer right away because I didn't really have a good reason to get it quilted up right away. Instead I now have a finished quilt listed in my Etsy shop - which is way better than a top in a drawer, right?

This is Twinkle Star made in Island Batik (Alpine Jingle)  These fabrics were provided to me by Island Batik in my Fall Ambassador box last year.  These fabrics are currently available, so make sure to look for them in your local quilt shop, or online!

I was a little hesitant to choose this color of Aurifil Thread, but I knew from experience that the 50 wt thread is so nice at blending in that I went for it.  It perfectly matches the border fabric and I was delighted at how it looked almost metallic when I used it to machine stitch the binding!  You know what a pain in the rear metallic threads can be - using Aurifil cotton is so much easier, and it has a nice sheen that really looks great.  This color is called Light Cinnamon.  This thread was given to me by Aurifil thread in the latest Island Batik Ambassador box.

 It has been a delight to work with both companies in their Ambassador Programs - Aurifil is currently accepting applications in their Aurifil Artisan program, so make sure you apply if you want to spread the word about their fabulous threads:

Aurifil Artisan Application

Back to the quilt!  

The binding is fabric that I received in the Stash rolls - two 5 inch by width of fabric strips was just enough to cut four strips and I had another little scrap for that extra few inches I needed (phew!)  

I pieced the back using some strips and chunks from my stash of Island Batik fabrics.  I love this one:

It's hard to use these fabrics up, but my boxes and bins are overflowing at this point, so it's time to let go and put them to use, even if it is on a back.

I've been working at taking better photographs of my quilts, and have come to love a nice close-up - you can see how nice that thread looks here, even on the light areas.  Just enough contrast to show off the stitching!  I could probably do this swirl in my sleep, it is one of my favorite quilting designs.

Well, that's my quilt finish for this week - now back to the prom dresses.  I will be glad when the dresses are all done and I can concentrate on my quilting!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday, and with Myra of Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or not Friday - come see what other fabulous finishes have been posted.

Sometimes good things come in BIG packages!

Where has this week gone?  Gosh, it seems like it was just Monday morning and I was looking forward to a relatively quiet week, and now it's Saturday already!  There was indeed some excitement in my week - I was shipped a new box of Island Batik Ambassador goodies.  That was definitely a highlight!  Island Batik is very generous to provide us beautiful fabric to work with and show to our followers on social media!  Aurifil thread and Hobbs also provided us with some wonderful goodies as well, and I am so appreciative of their generosity as well.

First of all, though, I got two quilt tops pieced.  The first  one was a shop sample for an owl quilt featuring Forest Owl from Clothworks fabric.  We only ordered two of the coordinating fabrics, but I found lots of other fabrics that worked with the beautiful colors at Threads That Bind.  I ended up changing my original design slightly to make it easier to put together.  I didn't really want to try to write a pattern with 12 partial seams!

Super cute!  It is going to get small borders in the orange fabric to frame it, then it will be ready for quilting.

Then I also got the top ready for the class I'll be teaching in March.  Still getting the pattern finished up, but that should also be available quite soon.  This is a quilt I designed last year while I was doing my Quilter's Recipe Box block of the month and I think it will be a great beginners class.  We cover regular piecing, strip piecing, half square triangles, block assembly, top assembly and borders!  All this in four weeks.  Should be fun!

I guess that kept me busy so that I wasn't pacing the floor waiting for that lovely Ambassador Box to arrive!  When it arrived on Thursday morning I couldn't wait to show it off, so did a video, complete with exercise clothes and crazy hair!




And now I know how to flip the video so it won't be backwards next time!  I didn't realize that there is a way to do that in the live video settings, so I'll tell you how so I won't forget!  All you have to do is tap the little magic wand at the bottom left side of the screen, tap the little tool icon at the bottom right, and at the left you tap the horizontal flip button!  No more backwards videos!  Yay!

So, the contents of my box were very exciting!  I've been petting my fabric and dreaming about what things I can come up with.

I'm checking out patterns to use that lovely rayon fabric.  I can see a couple new tops in my future!

I was shocked to see how much thread I've used from the cone I was sent this spring in my Aurifil Artisan collection!  I love that neutral, it really works well on just about everything!

These fabrics have been cut to pieces and are becoming a couple of projects.  I'm enjoying working with the pink and red right now - puts me in a happy mood :)

Time to get out into the sun and walk - we've had a nice week of lovely weather, I'll take some pictures of the cherry trees that are blooming right now, you will love them!

Have a wonderful day!


Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for finish it up Friday, and with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Twinkle Star - Quilter's Recipe Box - Alternate for Quarter Square Triangle Unit

Welcome - today I am showing the last alternate block for Quarter Square Triangle Units.  This time I'll be using three colors in the quarter square triangles and adding four-patch units to the corners.  I call this block Twinkle Star:

For this block you will need a 2 x 17 inch strip of your background fabric, plus a 2 x 17 inch strip of another color.  Two 4 1/4 inch squares for your star points, one 4 1/4 square of your background and one 4 1/4 square that matches the center square, which will be one 3 1/2 inch piece.  All of the fabrics I am using from this are Island Batik.  The lovely colors are from the Dotalicious line - so pretty!  The background is an older cloud pattern, which I am loving with these dots.

Sew the two 2 x 17 inch strips together, cut in half and lay right sides together with opposite colors touching.  Cut 4 2 inch strips and sew together to make four 3 1/2 inch four patch units.  These will go in the corners of your blocks.

I made the quarter square triangles the same way I made the variable star block.  Layer the background square with one of the star squares and the center square with the other star square.  Cut in half diagonally and sew four half square triangle units.

  Layer two sets of the two different units and cut in half diagonally - sew together to make four matching units.

Then lay the out with your finished units like this:

And sew together.   I press the seams away from the triangles where possible and press the long seams toward the outside.  Here is the finished block;

I love playing with the blocks and trying to come up with an interesting layout.  This block will look great in an alternate layout with many other nine patch blocks.  Here it is with one of our five patch variations:

This quilt includes all five of the units we have covered in the last 5 months!  Make sure you come back next Monday - I'll have a fun giveaway for you and we'll be taking a look at all the blocks that have been made so far.  Thanks for following along!