Everyday Sacred...

I thought about writing a blog post this morning. Although it seemed like a busy week, I couldn't think of any thing to blog about. As I went about my busy day, I thought about something I had learned from one of my favorite books, Everyday Sacred by Sue Bender. She said that in our busyness of getting things done, we often miss our accomplishments. Instead of finishing one project and moving on to the next, we need to stop and appreciate the completed project. Really take in what we've done.

It probably resonated with me because I am a project person. I'm like my Dad who we laughed about because he would get up from Thanksgiving dinner and go build something in the basement. I'm not quite that busy, but I don't sit still for too long (unless I have some sewing in my hands) and my family does tease me that I always have a project in the works.

So tonight I'm sharing and appreciating what I did do this week.

On Monday, I cut up a bunch of scraps of black and white fabrics and some colored scraps and made a pile of half-square triangles. There are lots of cool designs you can make with them - so I'll get more done and play.
Tuesday I pin basted and quilted my Joseph's Coat quilt. Simple quilting around each petal. It's trimmed and ready to be bound. I'm going to use Kona Snow for the binding which is the background fabric and hope to pick some up tomorrow.
On Thursday some fabric came in the mail as the result of some holiday online shopping. I love this "Long Live Vintage" from Fabric Worm.
In addition to some "Just Dandy" and "Alphabet Soup".
The fabric wasn't in the house more than 30 minutes and I was cutting it up. I played with the cover pattern from Living Large 2.
Today I made some wonky cross blocks to go in our charity quilts for STLMQG.

On to non-sewing activities - in addition to the normal cooking, laundry and cleaning, I painted our guest room, did a talk on quilt photography for my guild, got an eye exam and new glasses, cleaned out 4 kitchen cabinets (I'm getting rid of stuff and organizing what's left), and trimmed 2 big trees in the front yard (at the request of our mail lady).

I'm going to try to live up to the proverbial line "Stop and smell the roses". At least I hope to stop and appreciate the projects!

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A Neutral Quilt

It's rare (like never) for me to make a neutral colored quilt. But I did want to try one and made this the end of last Summer. I just got it back from the quilter, got the binding on and done!The fabrics are mostly neutrals from several Anna Griffin lines with a taupey gray Moda Bella solid for the star points.
Now back to some color! I finished the machine quilting on my Dresden Plate quilt. Next I'm going to try some hand quilting with Perle Cotton in the center circles. I'm hoping that's the perfect final touch!

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Winner!

Random Number generator chose #3 and so the magazine goes to Megan! Thanks for all your great comments. A few commented on how difficult the pattern looked. While it's certainly not a candidate for a first quilt - it's really quite simple. The diamonds are cut from strip sets that are sewn back together to create the large star. I do recommend doing some pinning at each of the intersections when sewing the diamond rows together. They are bias edges and this keeps them in line. I go an email from ibemomof2 because she was having trouble with just that. When I suggested she pin each intersection just as you would in making a Lone Star quilt, she wrote back saying that helped tremendously. So give it a try!

And because a blog post from me wouldn't be complete without pictures, I thought I'd share a couple of red, white and blue quilts. I don't have many - need to remedy that.



To all of you in the US - enjoy your 4th of July holiday and your freedom!!

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Swoon 2 and 3

Swoon Block 2...Swoon block 3...
Boy, these are fun to make!
Stay tuned for the sequels ~ Swoon 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

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Welcome, A Give-away and keeping it real...

My "Welcome" quilt came home from McCall's today. And those nice people at McCall's sent me two issues of America Quilts for the Home where the pattern is published. It's a great issue and since I can't use 2, I'm giving one away. Just leave a comment here and I'll pick a name on Friday. (US only - it'll cost more than the price of the magazine to send out it of the country).I was pretty happy with this new-to-me quilting design that I used for the background. And it was easy! Love that!
I've found two wonderful versions of the quilt on flickr. I wanted to post them here (with owners permission), but can't figure out how to post pictures from flickr. If anyone can tell me - please! fill me in!

The first using the gorgeous Loulouthi by AMH was made by ibmomof2. Click here

The second by modernsewl uses the new DS line at Joann's. Find it here

If you've made one let me know. It's one of my favorite quilts now and I love seeing it made up in different fabrics.

So yesterday I was "Swooning". This large Alexander Henry print is my focus fabric. I've been saving it for something special. All was going well until I completed the block and realized that the black is too overpowering for my lovely fabric. This block is going into the scrap pile!
I redid it today and I'm so much happier. Each block uses 2 fabrics and I've learned that although there should be contrast, not to let one fabric scream over the other. Lesson learned. Hope the remaining 8 go better!
Don't forget - leave a comment for a chance at the magazine!

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The quilt list

Remember my Summer Sewing list? Cross number one off the list! This weekend I pieced this super easy Easy Bricks Quilt from Moda Bake Shop. I used "My Happy Garden" fabric and added lots of additional aqua blues and citron green fabrics.I also changed up the size of the bricks a little. Mine finish at 3" x 6". Since I wasn't using the layer cakes called for in the pattern I was able to cut 6 1/2" strips of my prints and 3 1/2" strips of the white solid. I sewed the strips together and subcut 3 1/2" segments to make the blocks.
It really has a fresh Summery look to it!
Today I started pulling fabrics for the "Swoon" pattern by Thimbleblossoms. It seems lately everything I make has aqua in it, so I was determined to do something different. I pulled pieces in reds, pinks, grays and blacks. It was looking pretty good, but then I decided it might be kinda cool to have one turquoise block. I tried :)

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I love Summer...

There are so many things I love about Summer. For one you can get a nice photo shoot of your quilt outdoors most any day. My Kaleidoscope quilt is done and bound and goes nicely with my Sweet Potato vine. You can find out how I made the block here.The quilting is simple - straight lines diagonally and 1/4" from the seam lines.
More lime green in the garden!
I have a bit of Summer reading thanks to a couple of give-aways I recently won. Thanks to Sinta from Pink Pincushion and Kathy from Pink Chalk Fabrics.
I've also made my Summer sewing list. Looks pretty long! We'll have to see how much gets done in these lazy days of Summer. (Love those lazy days too!)

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