On the Road Again

I'm excited to be taking a short trip this weekend - my oldest grand-daughter turned 7 this week and Grandma and Grandpa promised her this fall that we would come celebrate with her.  I'm really grateful to be feeling fairly well again so that we can go and enjoy more family time.

Are you tired of hearing me whining about that flu bug?  I am very seldom sick, so I guess it makes me extra miserable when I am.  I'm probably back to 90% of my normal self, still having a bit of a dry cough and having to be careful what I eat because my tummy is still a little off.  At least the feeling of my head being full of fog is gone!  It's good to feel like my brain is working like it should!

There were some awesome quilts for yesterday's Four Seasons blog hop! 

January 10 – Alpine Ice
Freemotion by the River • Slice of Pi Quilts
Seams Like a Dream • KISSed Quilts

I had the opportunity to make a sample quilt for Fall Market out of this line, and I've published a pattern as well - Polar Elegance.

I love the wintery fabrics in this line!  My favorite is the dark blue background with snowflakes, so yummmy!

This pattern will be available through Island Batik as a paper pattern, and as a PDF download in my Etsy Shop.  (Contact me if you are interested in a wholesale price for paper patterns - I am happy to provide these to quilt shops!)

Purchase Polar Elegance on Etsy!

Today's quilts on the hop were lovely as well - Alpine Jingle is a festive holiday line!  Perfect for Christmas quilts, how can you resist these fun fabrics?

January 11 – Alpine Jingle
Purrfect Spots Designs • Bejeweled Quilts

That will finish up our week of winter - next week we'll be hopping into Spring, and I can't wait to see what our Ambassadors have come up with!  Don't forget to enter the giveaways and check out the lovely projects!

Expanding the Crazy Jane quilt

I've started out my last few days of sewing by assembling a finished row of my Dear Jane quilt and adding it to the rest.  It really has set my mind at ease about how it is going to look when it's all together, it's going to be beautiful!

Here is row C

Sunday I added row D

And yesterday I added row E

I love adding the sashing strips to each block and pressing them (and petting them).  They are indeed so tiny and perfect and well worth the effort and time I have spent so far!  Today I will add row F and then all my complete rows will be sewn together.  I only have 4 blocks done in row G, so that should take me through the rest of the month to finish and add to the rest, at that point I will officially have over half the center together.  My goal is to add two rows each month.  If I have extra time I will work on the triangles and cut the solid wedges for the outer border.  Keeping up at this pace should should see the top done by the end of June!  Then comes the quilting.  I'm excited to see a finish in the foreseeable future on this very long term project!

Don't forget about the Four Seasons Blog Hop from Island Batik.  Yesterday I was asked if all the giveaways are through Facebook.  Yes, the main one from Island Batik is, but each blog is also having an individual giveaway on their hop day and most of those are just commenting on the blog post, so you can do that even if you don't have a facebook page.  Make sure you read the instructions, some of the giveaways are US only.  We try to accommodate as many people as we can, but shipping is expensive overseas.

Today's posts feature the Mountain's Majesty line - so pretty!

Fun Threads Designs

Little Bunny Quilts

Quilting Affection

Thanks for visiting my blog - hope you enjoy the bog hop!  Linking up with Connie for Linky Tuesday.

Island Batik Four Seasons Blog Hop Kick Off!

Today the Island Batik Ambassadors are kicking off the Four Seasons blog hop!  We are all eager to show you the new Island Batik fabrics that are going to be showing up in your local quilt shops soon - we have lots of great projects to show off, free patterns, giveaways....you really don't want to miss it!

This week we are starting out with Winter (appropriately so) and the line being featured is Blue Moon:

Monday, January 8 – Blue Moon
Inquiring Quilter • Cheryl Lynch Quilts

Make sure you visit all of the Island Batik Ambassadors on Facebook to enter the main Island Batik giveaway (four different sets of pre-cuts!  Yay!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is the complete schedule for the blog hop - bookmark this page so you can remember to come back each day to enter the giveaways and see the fabulous projects.

WEEK 1: Winter

Monday, January 8 – Blue Moon
Inquiring Quilter • Cheryl Lynch Quilts

Tuesday, January 9 – Mountain's Majesty
Fun Thread Designs • Little Bunny Quilts
•Quilting Affection Designs

Wednesday, January 10 – Alpine Ice
Freemotion by the River  •Slice of Pi Quilts

Thursday, January 11 – Alpine Jungle
Purrfect Spots Designs  •Bejeweled Quilts

WEEK 2: Spring

Monday, January 15 – Elementz
Den Syende Himmel  •Inspired Layers

Tuesday, January 16 –Southern Blooms
Yellow Cat Quilts  •Sally's Quilting Corner

Wednesday, January 17 – Morning Sunshine
Quilt'n Party  •Dessert Bloom Quilting

Thursday, January 18 – Season's Shades
Inch Worm Fabrics •Kauffman Designs

WEEK 3: Summer

Monday, January 22 – Paisley Dot
PamelaQuilts •Seams Like a Dream

Tuesday, January 23 – Sunflower Serenade
Kathy's Kwilts and More  •Whispers of Yore

Wednesday, January 24 – City Culture 2
Mary Mack Made Mine  •heARTs Creations

Thursday, January 25 – City Culture 2
The Quilting Rambler  •Lizard Creek Quilting

WEEK 4: Fall

Monday, January 29 – Autumn's Grace
BeaQuilter  •KISSed Quilts

Tuesday, January 30 – Pumpkin Patch
Ark Angel Creations  •Seams to be Sew

Wednesday, January 31 – Plum Delicious
Masterpiece Quilting  •Adventures in Applique and Quilting

Thursday, February 1 – Northern Woods
Moose Stash Quilting  •Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

This is our final event for the current Island Batik Ambassador year, but I am pleased to let you know that I will be returning to the group in 2018!  We'll have some great new surprises for you as we go along, and lots of new challenges to share.  I am very thankful to be a part of this talented group and get to share my love of their wonderful fabric.  Now, it's time to get busy and work on some more blocks for my quilt - summer fun is happening here, luckily no snow for us so it makes it a bit easier to picture a lovely summer day as I work on my project, but I only have a couple weeks to get it finished!  Enjoy your day!